Saturday, December 18, 2010
Today started slowly with some coffee aboard and I had fired up the notebook in order to update the website when I realized that Heinz-Dieter from Pinta were going to drop by the coffee shop “La Sucrière” later on this morning and she’d stated that she wanted to look at the boat, so I’ll have to clean up a bit. Because it has been so uncomfortable with the constant rolling motion of the boat in the anchorage I haven’t done much aboard and the results of all the shopping trips to Island Waterworld and Budget Marine are lying on the floor all over the main cabin. I’ll end up doing the bachelor thing – moving the pile from the floor to a less messy pile in the aft cabins, but at least the pile will have some semblance of order. I met Hafida and Heinz-Dieter at the café and we talked and did e-mails, then while she was uploading some large pictures I headed off to Customs & Immigration and cleared out of St. Martin with destination of the BVI. That process took only a few minutes and then all of us headed to my boat for an inspection tour, subsequently all three of us took my dinghy under the bridge and I dropped them off at their dinghy in the marina, then continued on to Island Waterworld for some final purchases. In the afternoon after a croissant and coffee coupled with some internet usage I decided to climb up the hill to the ruins of the Fort St. Louis that preside over Marigot. The timing was a bit of a mistake, as I had my notebook with the heavy XL-sized battery plus the camera and assorted bits and bobs in the backpack so it felt like a bit of a trek up the hill, but once at the summit the views were well worth the short hike. Apart from a family with a daughter who really wanted me to take pictures of her (she even decided which rock she’d sit on) the fort was empty of people; I’d heard that it can get quite crowded up there at times.
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