The winds howled all night and although I woke up a couple of times I did get a good night’s sleep. I woke just after dawn and proceeded to put up the ensign and noticed that there was something wrong with the dinghy; the bottom had a surprising amount of growth on it. Wait a second – why can I see the bottom!? The winds had managed to flip the dinghy upside-down during the night! I put the ladder down and snorkelled the underside, retrieving the anchor and seeing that the fuel tank was still attached but that my trekking sandals had disappeared. I thought about how I was going to right the dinghy and all approaches involved using Shaun’s assistance so I made a coffee and waited for them to wake up.
Once Shaun was up and about we tried flipping the dinghy, but the weight of the outboard made that method inviable so we used a winch to turn the dinghy around and get it to the back of the boat. I opted not to remove the engine but had Shaun use the transom shower head to wash off the engine before I started taking it apart. Both cylinders had filled with water and my nearly full can of WD-40 didn’t work as the gas had vented during storage; but I had a can of PB-Blaster which would also do the job of cleaning out the cylinders. I took the carburetor aboard and spent the next hour taking it apart and cleaning it. After re-assembly and installation it only took 3 pulls on the starter to get the engine running and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that it was running smoother than before.
The three of us went ashore and proceeded to Econocars rental to get a car and drive to the clearance office at Island Waterworld on the French side. It took only a couple of minutes to clear in and after that both Wanita and Shaun were legally on the island – on both sides! After taking care of business we headed to the Regatta offices at the Sint Maarten Yacht Club to find out that the minister of Justice had issued a writ allowing Wanita to enter the country; but we weren’t going to risk another trip to the immigration building and associated wait! I was assigned on Rob’s Committee “B” boat for the next day and after playing tourist for a bit I drove Wanita and Shaun to their one-night hotel booking at Orient Beach that they’d arranged ahead of time.
