The night was a bit rough, with strong gusts of wind whipping the boat around and the bit of swell that made it around the headland also contributing to a night with light sleep. Nonetheless we headed ashore before 10am; expecting either a day of learning at the dive shop for the ladies or a day of renting a car and playing tourist if that didn’t work out. We ended up renting a car and postponing our learning to the late afternoon and took off in our graceful steed (a small Hyundai Getz) and proceeded to play tourist. We had a fine lunch up on the hills on the east side and the continued on with our circumnavigation of the island including such highlights as Philipsburg (luckily I didn’t go down Front Street with all the potential shopping traps) and the steep road shortcut across the hills into the Simpson Bay area. We then hit the highlight of the day at Le Grand Marché for our boat provisions and picked up steaks, seasoned ribs and other necessities and were on the boat by 15:00 when the earnest work of studying the PADI manuals began and lasted until after dark. After learning we made the ribs on the BBQ, a first for me. Despite being a novice rib-cooker the end result was quite palatable and went well with the healthy green salad that Desi mixed together and the bottle of fine Rioja that we had to accompany the food.
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |