Today will be my moving day. I’ll depart France and head over to Holland; or at least to the “Dutch” side, as Sint Maarten voted to split from the Netherlands. Unfortunately, the Fort Louis fuel fiasco made me change my plans.
I woke up this morning with the rising sun after a good sleep in no winds or significant waves. Some clouds, winds and rain came arrived with the sun. Short-lived, it is now almost 10AM and things have settled down.
I’m going to finish up some chores and housekeeping before getting the fenders and docklines prepared. I want to fill up on fuel today and prefer to get everything ready while still comfortably anchored in Grand Case. The fuel dock at Marina Fort Louis is the one best accessible to me. The other options on the Dutch side are either shallow, difficult to access or are too far away in Philipsburg.
The watermaker beeped at me last time I tried to run it, telling me that the filters needed changing. I used to clean the old and dirty filters, but nowadays I just replace them. The old ones look pretty dirty compared to the pristine new ones. The cap colors denote the filtration level – 5μm and 20μm.
Noon
I departed Grand Case at around 11:30 and headed to Marina Fort Louis to fill up my diesel tanks. I’d been there before they were damaged during hurricane Irma and know the layout. The fuel dock is in the back corner and well-protected from wind and waves, making it an ideal place to dock. I’d already set out all my fenders and lines before departing called the on the VHF. No answer.
I arrived at the protected marina at around 12:20. I’d hailed them every 15 minutes but got no response. There was nobody at the fuel dock and I hovered around, not wanting to dock without permission. I waited. 13:00. 13:30. Every 15 minutes I’d call and not get a response. Finally, just before 14:00 I got tired of maintaining position and docked by myself. This was just a prelude to the full Fort Louis Fuel fiasco.
I found that the fence door wasn’t locked and walked around to the marina office. It turns out that despite the website stating continuous operation that still meant that they office closed from 12-14. Which, in turn, meant that the staff returned at 14:30. Then came the next big shock – they told me that they had no fuel. And hadn’t had fuel for a long time and didn’t expect to have any fuel in the future! I had to think of the Blues Brothers gas station scene (with Twiggy, no less).
Needless to say, I wasn’t’ happy. They did loan me one of their carts and I took that back to the boat. I delved into the depths of my garage area and found the 2 20-liter diesel jerry cans. The closet gas station wasn’t too far away and I filled up with 40l just so that my poor engine wouldn’t be running on fumes.
Afternoon
By now it was far too late to finish clearance, so I had to decide how to proceed. I opted for returning towards Grand Case and looking to see if Friar’s Bay had space and looked comfortable. As I approached closer it looked good, so I headed in and anchored close to the beach and shoreline with just a couple of feet underneath the keel. I dove on the anchor and it was well-set in sand.
Soon afterward a big motorized catamaran Christina Too I’d seen at the marina docks came, complete with lots of guests. They anchored behind me, close but not too close for comfort.
Evening
I thawed out a burger for dinner and enjoyed the anchorage. There was loud music ashore, it wasn’t nasty Soca but a typical bass-heavy music beat that wasn’t too onerous. It did change to house later on and continued to 3 in the morning, but at a volume that was easy to ignore without earplug.