Chilling out in Anguilla.
Oriole
Sun 15 Jan 2006 18:50
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St Maarten being duty free is a great attraction
for anyone with aspirations
for electronics at budget prices. Andrew quickly parted with some of his tip money to buy a laptop, ipod and digital camera. There then followed an agonising 48 hours while he was getting everything to talk to everything else. At one stage we thought the whole lot was going overboard but all is now well and Andrew is smiling again. 
Look Mum, it works!
John managed to track down some ships batteries to
replace our aging bank
(still just surviving after 7 years) and Chris
persuaded the skipper that we really
did need a new laptop if prices were so
competitive, so we now are able to get
on the internet from the boat using a wireless
connection to a shore station
when we are occasionally in range.
The River Yealm Harbour Authority has a
long way to go. Perhaps we will sell online
time from our house so that at high
water the yachts will be lined up outside in the
creek. We resisted all other retail
temptation, but with some difficulty.
No more shopping, she'll sink.
Yesterday we extricated ourselves from the marina in Simpson Bay Lagoon, and for a change the skipper was allowed to get his hands on the controls, and headed out through the raised bridge along with a procession of superyachts and lesser mortals. We had a cracking sail for the 15 miles across to Anguilla and are very comfortably anchored in Road Bay where the sea is turquoise and the bottom is clearly visible 12 feet below us. Andrew is ashore and we have just finished lunch preceded by a swim (to clean off the hull) accompanied by a very friendly turtle. 
Some of our close neighbours in Road Bay.
Sadly although Anguilla has several lovely secluded
anchorages they may
not be visited by cruising yachts unless they are
prepared to fork out around
100US$ per night, but although Road Bay is lovely
it is not exactly secluded.
Elsewhere we can find secluded anchorages for free
so we are tempted but
not seriously. We are debating the weighty problem
of when to leave for the
Virgins, but like many things here the decision
will wait till tomorrow.
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