I had to return the rental car today, but got going too early for the rental agency as they were still closed when I drove by. So I took the vehicle for a tough uphill journey to Pic Paradis, the tallest hill on St. Martin. There’s a short but steep walk/climb from the parking area to the top, which is festooned with transmission towers and I probably got seriously microwaved while up there. One can view both sides of the island and I thought that my new filter could capture some of the images, but was disappointed with the results. The filter is a neutral gray density one, but for shots like that I will revert to using my circular polarizing filter in the future.
Upon descending the hill and returning to the car rental lot I found that they had opened and I returned the car, walking back to Zanshin on the beach. There were some waves and gusty winds coming through so I decided to leave Grand Case and anchor in Friar’s Bay for the day (and night). There was a lot going on ashore and I only paddle boarded around a little, spending most of the day getting the package contents sorted out. I’ve now got enough electronics components to start a small store and hope that I’ve not forgotten any important parts since there’s nowhere to get them here in the islands.
I thawed out 2 Merguez sausages and served them up on the BBQ with some baked potatoes and then kept on nudging my music louder so that I could hear it above the sounds from the beach. By 21:00 the music ashore was muted and I did the same to the stereo aboard and I watched the stars a bit until both cloud cover and my closing eyes made further viewing impracticable and I went to sleep.
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