The day started with my neighbor, another Jeanneau, coming over to ask if I had jumper cables as his starter battery was dead. I loaned him the cables but he later returned them without success as they were too short. He did have a service deal for the boat in St. Martin and they had a local technician in St. Barths so he’d called them to come by and sort out the electrics. After making some coffee for breakfast I got the boat ready and departed for Île Fourchue under sail in very light winds. After taking a mooring ball there I got the dive gear ready and departed for one of my favorite dive sites just off the anchorage on the north side despite the cumulo-stratus clouds that were dropping a bit of rain but making for a lot less ambient light than if the sun were shining brightly. But I had the new wide-angle fish eye lens with a good aperture of 3.5 so off I went and under I went. The site was beautiful and saw a lot of life – an eagle ray and turtle which were both too far away for a photo, several barracuda, some new fish types that I hadn’t seen before, my first real-life swimming shark, a lobster, moray eels and all sorts of reef growths. I did miss the flash, though and will have to see if I can repair it.
I returned to Zanshin and found that what few waves made it into the anchorage were making the boat rock so I set sail for St. Martin. The winds were below 10 knots and occasionally I was doing only 3 knots but I had plenty of time to make it to Grand Case before dark and was in no hurry. It is a welcome change to have such light conditions in the Caribbean and I was milking it for every mile.
I arrived in Grand Case with plenty of daylight to spare and with a sunburn on my back – my first sunburn of the whole trip! I showered and shaved and cleaned up in order to go ashore, then decided to stay aboard after all and go out the following night instead.
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