Once again the day began with the morning 07:30 St. Martin cruisers network on VHF channel 10. The network starts off with the weather report read (and interpreted) from the WindGuru web page, but those with internet access who look at the day’s weather and forecast for St. Martin see rather different values than what Mike reads – so the weather on the net is to be taken with a grain of salt. Then net then checks for items lost and found (or stolen) and other items relevant to security. Thereupon a couple of local vendors announce their service and there is a general call for items for sale or being sought and then general announcements. On some days this takes only 10-15 minutes, on others it can las an hour. Today was short and went ashore for some breakfast at La Sucrière and then back to the boat to drop off the notebook and pick up my passport and papers in order to clear out of France. After clearing out of France (with destination St. Barths, also France) I took a quick spin with the new fins to say “Hi” to Mau before returning to the boat. I got caught in a shower so stopped off at Shrimpy’s for a drink and to peruse their wares – although nominally a laundry it is more of a second-hand store for boat parts than anything else. It is Saturday after now and I am going ashore for dinner, but think I will relocate to Grand Case for the night and then stay at Tintamarre again tomorrow night.
I did relocate to Grand Case in the early afternoon, and found the anchorage there a bit less congenial than I’d remembered and despite having been far outside in Marigot it was still calmer than here. But I know those gusts of wind from the hills will die down at sunset. It was time to do the simple electrical project of hooking up the voltage sensor with the new cable and attachments I’d purchased and everything seemed to be going surprisingly quickly until I had threaded the cable to the batteries and found out that my connectors were just a little bit too small, so I made a temporary compression join and have added the bigger connectors to my shopping list next time that I’m in that part of the island.
I went ashore for dinner and perused the interesting menus of the establishments on the main drag in Grand Case; they make very good reading and the menus are truly creative. Most of the translations to English lack the sophistication of the French descriptions but are still good enough to know what one will be getting. I’d decided that I was going to try lamb and had narrowed down the selection to two possibilities when a whiff of BBQ from the LoLos prompted me to change my mind and I had some salad and ribs and a Johnny Cake instead. So I had a filling (and inexpensive) meal rather than a tasty one. The taste of salt and garlic is still in my mouth as I write this.
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