We were confusing to Immigration. Sea Otter arrived with three people on board. One was flying home in three days (Jonas). One was moving off the boat and flying home in a week (Carol). And one was staying on the boat and not going anywhere. It did get sorted, though, and both Jonas and Carol were removed from the crew list. Hey, does that make me the captain?

We had decided that we were just going to enjoy ourselves for the first few days, after all, I was going to have a week on my own to work on the boat. Jack and Carol had rented a car, so they drove us into Phillipsburg for some duty-free shopping, and up to Marigot to visit a street market, and over to Grand Caisse... you get the idea. I was glad that Jack was doing the driving, though, not me, as the roads in St. Maarten are in poor repair and the traffic was quite heavy. We also had some beach time in Simpson Bay, of course. Jonas flew home on the Sunday, and Jack and Carol and I continued to enjoy ourselves, although I started working on boat projects in the mornings before we got together. One day, I had someone come and take the sofa cushion covers away for cleaning (pretty grimy, they were!) and the next morning, they were brought back, good as new. So my morning project with Jack and Carol was to put my sofa back together.

After Jack and Carol flew home, boat work started in earnest. I got a ton of cleaning done, had a mechanic out to fix the raw water pump on our diesel engine, picked up a bunch of spare parts and supplies at the various chandleries. So now, the engine is running beautifully, the bilges are all nice and clean, the last bits of mouldy lockers have been bleached, and the chandleries in St. Maarten should be able to stay in business for another year.

Jonas got back, and we went straight to Customs to clear out of the country, as tomorrow, we are taking the 11:00 bridge out of the lagoon, and overnighting to the British Virgin Islands.