The swell just keeps on coming!

Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Wed 20 Mar 2013 11:35
After a few days of work and getting 'stuff' together, we decided a full day off was in order and we went over the French side for a good lunch and some well earned chill out time!  The day started well with a stop for coffee and sticky breakfast buns being the first port of call.  We spent the day browsing the shops, and had crepes and cider for lunch.  Poor John got a bit of shock when he went to buy some new t-shirts - despite his 5:2 diet, he needed an XL!  To be fair, they would never in a million years fit an XL person, but he was a little put out to say the least, the tags have been cut out!  On the way home, we stopped off for a some provisions, the important stuff like smelly cheese, pate, a baguette and some good red wine for dinner.  This is one of our favourite meals, a real treat, simple but so good after some of the food you get out here!  The problem with being on the Dutch side is that you have to go all the way across the lagoon just to get your daily baguette, this certainly makes an 85 cent loaf of bread an expensive, but necessary treat.  Despite the inconvenience we managed the daily trip - we did try a 'French style' bakery on the Dutch side, but it really didn't cut the moutarde!
One of our biggest jobs was to store the vast quantity of engine and generator spares that we had amassed.  Last time we left the boat we had another clear out - every time we go home we try to make sure that nothing that is not useful or pretty, ideally both, is left on the boat, and if it hasn't been used in 6 months, then it has to go - there are some exceptions, notably John's so far unused guitar, but not many others!  A trip to ACE hardware, to get some storage boxes was needed, we also managed to pick up some rather obscure non-list items as well, as it had a good kitchen and home shop as well.
Over the weekend, we spent some time with our new buddies, Ruth and Iain.  They have sailed over from Turkey, he is originally Scottish and she American, but they have both spent a long time working in Turkey.  We met them by selling Iain all our charts, book and all the other bits and pieces we collected in our months in the USA as they are heading there to base themselves in a new home in Chesapeake Bay.  We went to their boat for drinks on Saturday, which ended in a curry restaurant.  This had been recommended by our friend Glenn for its superb home made naan breads - we ordered garlic naans and I can tell you it was a good job we all had it - they certainly had not skimped on the garlic!  Sunday night, we reciprocated with drinks, but ate on board as the weather was due to worsen again overnight and we didn't want to be coming back to the boat in bad weather.  Ruth and Iain left on Tuesday afternoon to head up to St. Johns in the USVI.
The weather - well!  Despite the forecast becoming a bit less scary as the week passed, the swell and winds which had died down, (a bit  - nothing like as much as I would have liked), was due to get worse over Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and then start to settle down again. So far as we could tell, it never settled, we struggled to get the dinghy up and down in huge swells, and regularly got a soaking going ashore.  We had to stick it out though as we had a guy coming to fix the fridge on Monday.
Monday arrived and John went to pick up Keith Frost the fridge man, (I kid you not).  He brought so much equipment, the dinghy was full to bursting, as was the boat once he had unloaded it all.  After a thorough check through, he was still struggling to find our intermittent fault, and he thought it was fixed until, thankfully for us, the fridge cut out.  That was a result, as it at least proved the point that the fridge was unreliable.  Anyway, a short while later, and a crimped in spade connector - a loose connector seemed to be the culprit, such a small seemingly insignificant thing, and we were up and running again - almost.  The fans on the compressors are broken and need replacing - these will arrive either Friday or Monday, after which he will fit them and we are on our way again!
As you can see it has been a busy week here.  We have had little sleep each night due to the swell and have more than once both ended up sleeping in the saloon - not fun!  Today, Wednesday, we decided enough was enough - we needed to get out of here - we can come back on Monday to get the fridge done if needed.  We are now safely tucked away in the beautifully calm anchorage in Marigot on the French side.  Not a swell in sight, we can leave things on the surfaces and they stay there - we had a close call yesterday, when we got back to the boat the bottle of red wine that had been on the unit in the kitchen was rolling around the floor - amazingly and thankfully, still in one piece - God knows how!

 This is the view just behind where we are anchored in Simpson Bay.  Saba, the island in the background is about 25 miles away, but on most days it was so clear you could see the houses on it.  Also, this is possibly the biggest gin palace we have seen so far - way too big to go into the lagoon.

 Yet another downside to anchoring in Simpson Bay or even the lagoon on the Dutch side - the airport.  There is a constant flow of huge jumbo jets taking off and landing, day and night.  There is a long beach running alongside the runway, named locally "Kerosene Beach" and billed as a great place for planes and sunsets.  Surprisingly, there are a lot of hotels and holiday homes along the beach, not surprisingly, the guide states that it is one of the less popular beaches on the island!