Dec 18, 2006
We are still busy buying things for the boat. You would think that after 9 months of purchasing stuff for the boat, there would be little left to buy. But two trips to Budget Marine for boat hardware, and two huge shopping expeditions for groceries– one to the Dutch side and to the French side – still leave us a couple of shopping trips short of meeting our perceived needs. It is amazing to unload a couple of hundred pounds of grocery items and then find that there is nothing to eat.
We have also sent our sun awning to the sail maker for alternations and stopped in at least a half-dozen places to look for a drip coffee pot. Our beautiful Chemex pot broke within 15 seconds of our first arrival at the boat when I reached for a light switch and knocked the Chemex into on open galley storage box. We have a stock of 500 Chemex coffee filters, so we do not want to give up on this “technology” too quickly. All we could find in two days of looking is a Melita drip top. We could not even find a coffee press. And this is a French island!
Water entered various storage compartments under the floor board in the forward half of the boat. We did not realize the extent of the problem until yesterday. We lost most of our engine oil filters, three novels, and had mildew on a number of other items, mostly books and equipment manuals. Luckily, we found replacement oil filters here in Simpsons Bay, and we have so many books we probably will not miss those three until August or so.
We have a little Toyota Corolla that has been extraordinarily useful in getting our shopping done. The stores and roads are crowded with Xmas shoppers who come from other islands to take advantage of the duty-free shopping that make this place popular.
Yesterday afternoon, we took a drive to the other side of the island and found ourselves in Grand Case, a cute tourist village set on a beach. We hung out on the beach sipping drinks until restaurant L’Escapade opened at 5 pm. They have the soup de poisson that we fell in love with in La Rochelle, where we bought the boat. Laura loves soup de poisson, and she was not disappointed. We savored our soup as the sun set over the bay.
We attach a picture of us that the woman sharing our table in the internet cafe just took. She is starting a circumnavigation too, along with her husband and 8 and 10 year old childen. I met her husband at the ships chandlery when I went to buy oil filters. I bet we see them again sometime over the next few months.
Time to shop again. Not that much left — bottled water, diesel engine oil, coffee pot, and garlic. What are the chances of finding those items in a single store?
M.