It's hard to believe we are actually, right now,, on our way back to the Lagoon in Simpson Bay, St. Maarten. That reality is almost more than we can bear. OK, that's an exaggeration but only a slight one. As I mentioned in the last blog, we did go into Gustavia, St. Barts hoping to anchor snug as a bug in a rug and wait out the nasty weather that's approaching later today and forecast to stick around for several days. Lots of rain, increased wind and gusts, squalls and a wave action. When we arrived in Gustavia yesterday morning there was no place to anchor without discomfort. That was disappointing but our alternative was to motor around the bend to Anse du Colombier which is a favorite hang out of ours. Like our previous anchorage it's a marine nature preserve with an abundance of turtles and good snorkeling. There are plenty of mooring balls, trails to walk, a nice beach and although there are no dogs allowed officially, no one seems to pay any attention to that particular rule. We kept Luna on a leash regardless, especially after she discovered the numerous goats along the trail and walking up and down the rocky cliffs. She was almost beyond happy when she realized they were there. Poor Luna, all she really wants in life is to make friends with a goat. Is that too much to ask? Just one friend called Nanny or Billy with no horns?

Anyway, I digress. We spent a lovely night in Colombier and invited our friend Bruce over for nacho's. This morning Ed donned his scuba gear and scraped the thousands of small barnacles that became squatters on the bottom of Skylark. Uninvited, unwanted and very bad. He made good progress removing them but was pretty upset to have them there ruining our bottom paint, not to mention slowing us down while underway. After listening to the weather this morning, we made the decision to return to St. Maarten where we can more comfortably wait out this nasty system. We want to get some Internet and look at the weather more extensively for a window to head further south. If we can't anchor in Gustavia, we are without wifi until sometime next week and that's a long time when we're trying to gather useful and necessary information for passage planning. We have an accumulation of trash that needs dumping and while it's not impossible to get Luna ashore on a beach when it's rainy, squally and the waves are increased due to a swell, it's not much fun. While we're in SXM we'll try to find Luna some dog bones for her teeth and gums. The the ones we bought before we left Simpson Bay on Tuesday are useless--they're soft and there's no point at all having them other than as a treat which she has plenty of. Running out of dog bones is a mistake we never should have made. We thought we had ample supplies, enough to last a very long time. But time flies and so do our supplies. Next thing we know, we're out of something vital with nowhere to purchase replacements. So off we go back to the Lagoon, sigh...

We are debating going to Marigot instead which is a nicer anchorage though less convenient for walking Luna and if it's too rough to swim, I suppose we'll probably trade ambience for convenience. It's beginning to feel like it's all about Luna, isn't it? And wifi?