Year 10 Day 30 Waiting On Weather
26 February 2017
We are having some kind of connection problem when we try to post our blog using the Iridium Go and Airmail. The header posts but the text of the blog does not. We are now in SInt Maarten and have Internet access. I will repost those blogs that did not post correctly. I apologize for the inconvenience.
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I see that I am getting the blog's day numbers messed up. Sigh. It will be something that I will fix once we get to Sint Maarten and I have Internet again. Until then, please bear with me. This blog day number appears to be correct.
Based on the weather that is brewing in the North Atlantic, we have decided to sit here next to the Cousteau Marine Reserve for the next few days. A real nasty storm is blowing out there and the tail end of this long trough is going to swipe over the northern leeward islands early tomorrow and give us a lot of rain. That usually means lots of nasty squalls and it something we wish to avoid sailing through. Different weather models give different arrival times of these squalls. One model showed the first squall arriving this afternoon while the other three models show that they will arrive early tomorrow morning. The funny thing is the winds between the squalls are shown to be very light: in the 0 to five knot range. Thus, if we were even able to dodge the squalls, we would have had to motor the entire 132 nm to Sint Maarten. That just is not fun.
Thus, since we are not yet on a tight schedule, we decided to just sit here in Guadeloupe and wait the weather out. We called Bobby's Marina in Phillipsburg to tell them that we would be a few days late. They later informed us by email that we will now have to wait until Monday or Tuesday to get a slip as they have given our reservation away and will not have a space available for us until then. Sigh.
As this week moves forward toward the weekend the weather improves so we are now looking at leaving here this coming Friday and arriving in Phillipsburg on Saturday. We will just anchor out in the bay and wait until Monday or Tuesday to get a slip.
We need to have a slip so we can get our new washer on board Leu Cat. Plus, I wish to have our outboard impellor housing replaced since it is cracked and leaks gear oil. That means the outboard must be in the shop for a while and we will not be able to run around in our dinghy. This is another reason we need a slip.
It is all just a day (or two or three or more) in the life of a cruiser...
I chased away my disappoint in a bunch or croissants that I went and got today. Nothing like good French yummies in the tummy to cheer one up! Later on, while Mary Margaret whipped up a lunch of bacon, lettuce and tomatoes nestled between two halves of a croissant, I jumped in the water and snorkeled along the rocky shore that we are anchored in front of. The sea bottom was filled with great corals, sea fans, sponges and lot of fish. I even got a bit too close to a Lionfish who felt threatened and fluffed up his many feathery fins to tell me to get away and leave him and his territory alone. Since Lionfish have a deadly poison in their spines, I slowly backed away and left him to lord over his bommie.
It was another great day in paradise...