Wednesday, December 15, 2010
I spent ages at my morning hangout, La Sucrière having their breakfast and using their Wi-Fi to catch up on things. After the protracted time and when my notebook’s batteries started running down, I drove off to Philipsburg to visit Boolchand’s and get a tripod plus polarizing filters for the lenses that I have. I was shown the new 200mm zoom but at $750 decided that I would wait a bit to see if I really needed it. As the Dutch side was mostly closed for the holiday I headed back to the boat, but after a couple of minutes aboard I realized it would be better ashore as the boat was really rolling around in the heavy swell coming into the anchorage (I’m writing on the boat right now and it hasn’t gotten any better, I have to hold my drink and type with one hand so that it doesn’t fall down with the rolling action. I hope that it will settle down a bit later tonight, otherwise I might not get a solid night’s sleep.
Once ashore again I bought a car stereo in Marigot (one where I could plug my iPod into directly) and then ended up driving to pick up the air conditioning controller board for the forward cabin that I’d ordered at Frostline and then found myself back in Philipsburg in front of Boolchand’s store – minutes later I had the new lens… I can resist anything but temptation. Despite spending money on the camera I didn’t take any pictures, mainly because it rained on and off in the areas where I wanted to photograph.
I’m off to dinner ashore now and hope that either the swell will subside or that the equilibrium problems concomitant with drinking alcohol will cancel out the rolling of the boat. If the two conditions conspire and add to each other then I’ll really be in trouble tonight. If the wind stays the same then I’ll most likely weigh anchor tomorrow after doing my shopping at the chandleries and set down in Grand Case.
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