Engine fixing and lost shoes
Stargazer of Southampton
Susie and Adam (both think they are skipper)
Sat 9 Apr 2011 23:28
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I can't say that we've seen as much of St Martin as
we should have, we've been to the main towns etc - but the last week has been
put aside to boat fixing (boat fixing as we have found out is never really done
entirely - it's not just us, same for everyone). However - tomorrow we're
looking forward to getting out of the lagoon here and clearing off to St Barts
which is only about 15 miles away to the south.
It's been good to be in a marina for a bit to sort
things out though, we had a bloke called bob spend 2 days messing with the
engine - I have never actually seen our engine in so many bits, the engine lives
under our kitchen sink and to properly get to it the whole sink unit had to come
out, it's the first time we have done that and meant no running water on the
boat for 2 days. Then more and more bits of engine came off on Monday . .
. and put back together on tuesday complete with some new seals which we
hope will stop the engine from dripping oil. I don't think old engines
ever really don't leak a bit - but hoping it will be reduced.
We've had the excitement (yawn) of stocking up
again at the huge supermarkets here where you can buy everything - best place to
get food in all of the islands. They have lots of strange veggie stuff
from America which included an entire 'mock chicken' - chicken sized and shaped
(including legs and bottom) - we didn't go for that one although I think Adam
thought I was being miserable not just buying it for entertainment value
alone.
We met up with Laura and Jon again, they're
preparing for their voyage back home again, we were well fed on their boat and
it was good to catch up. The people on St Martin are really friendly and
it is quite a nice place and quite lively, although we were told on both the
french and the Dutch sides to lock everything up because nicking stuff is a
national sport - so far we've been fine, the only major loss has been 2 of
Adam's shoes - he lost half of a pair of deck shoes that had been sat on the
pontoon next to the boat, one just vanished. Then when we were at Laura
and Jon's one of Adam's flip-flops decided to fly away in a sudden gust.
Although St Martin sells everything - this does not include a wide range of
shoes.
Hopefully we'll catch the 1100 bridge opening in
the morning and so we can reach St Barts in a couple of hours, St Barts is one
of the French islands and allegedly very beautiful so really looking forward to
getting out of a marina and back into a nice anchorage
somewhere.
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