Update from the Frenchie Side

Saturday Dec 13th 7:15 AST. Last Saturday we had planned to leave the Dutch side and sail over to the Frenchie side so Dennis and Joyce could experince the wonders of French living, ie 6 hr work days and their addiction to smoking (Dennis did not mind that). We were going to catch the 11 AM bridge opening. While Dennis and I worked on pulling out the SSB, Joyce wanted to run some postcards in before we left. Stinky, our 8 hp Mercury outboard has been a pain in the ass the last week or so. He would start up fine but after about 100 yds he would stop..till then I had always been in the boat and could get it started, which included Denny and I drifting ashore on Saturday before I got it started. Well we figured Joyce would be able to get Stinky started, and went back to the SSB, 20 min later Joyce appeared...she had gotten a tow back to the boat. She was a little pissed to say the least. Was an interesting sail over to Marigot.

Since customs only works from 9-12 on Saturday, closed on Sunday we had to checkin at the new Marina. Dennis insisted on taking us out for dinner and we had a delightful Itialian dinner on the French side. Sunday morning we all went into the Internet Pastry shop to get an Internet fix and some French pastry. After lunch, we sailed back to Simpson Bay so we could get Stinky into the outboard MD. Dennis was moving ashore to his condo on the moutian. We had pulled Herbie our 15 hp electric start 4 cycle Yamaha (about 2x the weight of Stinky) out of the garage and replaced Stinky. Now this is over twice the recomemdedHP for Little Bit. The throttle is very sensitive and even a moderate twist of the throttle gave one the sence that we were about to flip over backwards...which we almost did several times. Monday Joyce and I took Stinky in...they promissed something by Tue. Joyce and I then motored the 2 miles around the point to Phillipsburg, capital of the Dutch side. We were walking the stores when we hear a familiar voice to see Dennis enter the shop. We had a few beers...2 Hienekin for 5 bucks...this place is dying on the vine...everything is on sale. Seems Obama economics has effected the islands. With all the new projected taxes, people are not boarding these cruise ships and spending all their $$$ in the duty free shops. Joyce was able to get 3 towels for 16 USD. Hell we were paying 15 bucks a towel last year. At least we are insulated down here, we do not get much of the day to day news...we did see that Oboma's governor was arrested for selling his Senate seat...sure...he new nothing...yea right.
We sailed back to Simpson Bay so we could pick up Stinky. Well it seems Stinky was really sick. He needed a new power pack...total...$ 340 USD....damn...guess I will have to ask Oboma to bail me out.
Joyce left Wed AM not without some fanfare. She had been packing for 2 days making sure she did not forget anything. This included the SSB radio which was going back to ICOM in Bellevue, just ouside of Seattle. Of course the night before an early departure is never counted as a good night sleep, for either Joyce or me. I was up by 4:AM...Joyce just after that. The plan was to dink in at 6:45 and catch as cab to the airport. By 7 AM I was back at the boat getting ready to have a nice restful day after the hectic week of getting the major boat chores; those where Dennis's strong back would be a life saver of mine. About 5 min to 8, I hear Joyce pounding on the hull. Seems she was going to try to use my passport to get back into the country. Joyce had taken mine by mistake. Somehow she hac conned some guy to bring her out to the boat...was she going to make her 9 AM flight????? When she was no back by 10 AM it was safe to assume that Americane Airlines had waited for the Admiral. Dennis was leaving on Thursday and he had invited me up to his condo to sit by the pool and to relax and down a few beers. The youngest chippie at the pools was about 75. Dennis hads mentioned that this was a hike. This turned out to be a major hike...up and then down.... We sat by the pool while it rained for 2 hrs then went back to the boat for Dennis's farewell dinner. Both Joyce and I thank Denny for all his help. It had been an interesting adventure as Denny calls it. Thanks for all your help.
All week we had been expericing what they call the Christmas winds. The trade winds come from the NE to the SE at around 15 knots. These Christmas winds blow for sometimes 2 weeks at a time at 20+ knots. We were seeing 30+ with gusts to 38. Around noon I pried our super Rocna anchor off the bottom (now half way to China after 2 days of up 38 knots, the harder you pull on the anchor, the deeper it buries itself) and headed for the French side. Since the Dutch have decided to price themselves out of the cruiser destinations and had over 180 USD of my precious cruising, I sailed over tho Marigot where the checkin was 5 euros for 3 months. I made the turn at the N end of the Island into 30 knots from the east...you got it right on the nose. I was feeling the "pain" from the hike up to Denny's and did not check in till yesterday AM. I went to the Internet Pastry shop, got caught up and was heading back to the boat. Met this guy Ron...he had my dink, an alumiumn AB 11...started talking...he had been here a few weeks sailing down via Brumuda . His wife and 2 young children had been here for 2 weeks. Ron was new to cruising but not to sailing. We swapped a few storied and promissed to meet up later in the week. I was really sore..the old back wanted a week off. So I fired up the computer and watched a few Modern Marvals on Graboid. About 4 pm I hear Ron knocking on the hull....seems LittleBit was pissed about us having him pushed around by Herbie. He decided to leak the air out or the starboard tube and turn upside down. My cane is now on the bottom, but we were able to save a screwdriver. Screwdriver $1.25, cane $20 bucks...Oboma math for sure. Of course that put Stinky into the saltwater for a bath. It took Ron and I about an hour to get the dink up on the deck so I could work on Stinky. Ron refused the beer but did off dinner later this week. I got out the needed tools and proceeded to give Stinky first a fresh water flush then again with WD-40. After flushing all the fuel lines and 20-30 pulls Stinky almost started....put the boat back in the water..after 10 min and another 30+ pulls and Stinky is running fine..well I hope... My already pissed back and hips are now in an uproar. I had a few G&T's . It's now 6:30 PM...well next I remember its 900PM... Crawl back into the aft bunk...and good night. Well not really. Since the Admiral had left on Wed, there has no one to supervise the Capt's H2o intake. At 12:30 I awake to this dull, throbbing ache on my right back. This is one pain that anyone who has ever had a kidney stone never forgets... I started forcing fluids, took 1/2 a percocet and tried to get back to sleep. Then remembered my sucess form the 1 st stone event...one must chase the percocet with a beer..yeah, I know..don't mix the 2. Well I didn't have any morphine like the 1st kidney stone(the beer gets the kidneys going and kicks in the percocet) I took the other half and chased it with a beer.. By 3:30 I was able to get back to sleep. Now on the 2nd pot of tea as I write this. Will continue the fluids and go in later on for my internet fix and a pastry. So relaxing is this life of a cruiser.