Thursday, December 16, 2010
The past night was as bad as I’d feared. The wind picked up after dark and managed to hold the boats in the anchorage at exactly 90 degrees to the waves, and those were rather irregular so for 10–15 seconds the boat would be motionless and then start rocking heavily and quickly, in my case I was close to the breakwater so I think that got the waves both coming and going. Needless to say I got an early start to the day and am somewhat tired, even after 2 strong coffees. I will do my buying at the chandleries as quickly as possible and see if I can get out of here before dark. I might even have to go to the Dutch side and enter the lagoon (for the first time). Today I got a lot done. I started by getting a plumber’s plunger for the forward shower pump in the hopes that the valves are OK but that the plumbing is plugged. That worked like a charm and I won’t have to remove the pump. The I spoke with Havin’s engineering to get a swivel mount for hoisting the dinghy outboard engine aboard, then went to the cargo agent in Philipsburg (traffic was terrible!) about receiving my shipment in 1-2 week’s time, talked with Barry at Island Waterworld about getting a replacement dinghy and he told me that he was selling his old Caribe dinghy with an 18HP outboard and arranged a cash transaction and I’ll be picking it up tomorrow and finally did a bit of shopping for stores and water. I didn’t move the boat as the swell had seemed to calm down during the day but at 17:15 as I write this it has started rockin’ and rollin’ again and it is a bit late to relocate the boat to Grand Case, which might not be any better than here, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the swells will calm down tonight or that I’ll just sleep through them. It rained much of the day, in squalls, so the only picture that I got today was of Zanshin at anchor during the day. Note that I’ve got the anchor ball up, the French courtesy flag on the starboard spreader, my German flag on the port side (slightly lower than the country courtesy flag) and the British ensign off the back as the country flag of the ship – a real international “flagfest” aboard.
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