03/15/2010, Oyster Pond, SXM
This morning we hauled anchor and headed out of Simpson's Lagoon. I was afraid that our anchor was going to be buried after 3 weeks, but it came up very easily, and there wasn't even much stuff growing on the anchor chain At Bruce and June's suggestion, we let a little more chain out yesterday so the chain could get a scouring on the bottom - it seemed to help!
We joined the outbound parade of boats heading out of the lagoon through the bridge and headed for the east side of the island. It was actually a pretty boring trip, but it was nice to get moving again!
The entrance to Oyster Pond has many dire warnings about the entrance when you read the cruising books. Yes, it isn't straight forward, but we have been through tougher stuff in the Bahamas, and without the benefit of buoys!
Oyster Pond is well protected, but small, and every available spot is filled with mooring balls. Most of the mooring balls are owned by the charter companies, but we picked one up, anyway. We have offered to pay them for the use of the ball for a week, and we will see what they say. The one lady seemed quite unconcerned, but she's not the manager. We prefer balls to docks as the boat has a more comfortable motion, and it is less noisy. Security is also better on a ball, in our opinion, as a potential thief has to at least use a boat to get out to us. Happily, there is lots of free WiFi here!
We will be here for the week as my brother and his family fly in to St. Martin tomorrow. This should be a lot of fun, and it is a very short dinghy ride in to where their beach front villa is located.
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03/14/2010, Simpson's Lagoon, SXM
As with most other areas where there is a large "Cruiser's Community", Simpson's Lagoon and the surrounding anchorages has a "Cruiser's Net" every morning on the marine VHF (radio). As is typical, Mike, our net controller, gives a weather report and then various announcements can be made. These announcements can be businesses letting us know what they can do for us, or lost and found. There is also a time to allow cruisers to offer up items for sale, or items they may be trying to find - it is a great way to get rid of things and find things inexpensively. The net also allows people to ask questions such as where the Laundromat is (good luck!) and when the bridge opening times are.
During yesterday's net, a boat announced that it was giving away a 5hp Yamaha outboard. "Clementine" was anchored right in front of us. I looked at Ken, he looked at me, and I sent him over to their boat immediately, with a good bottle of rum to seal the deal. I had to chuckle when I was listening to the net, as someone was asking for the boat name again. Sorry, too late! Okay, I wasn't sorry.
Ken came home with our newest addition to the mechanical family. It works, sort of, but with our experience with these things, we are sure that we can fix it with a relatively small amount of grief. We bought the replacement diaphragms for the reed valves already (a very common problem with Yamahas after a while because of the ethanol additive to gasoline). Worse case, a new carburetor is about $200, and we will have a back up outboard. The previous owner paid about $100 to get it fixed, and to no avail. We have a strong feeling that the "mechanic" doesn't really know about the reed valve problem...
Yesterday there was also a flea market over on the French side of the lagoon. We putt-putted over there in Frankie (the 4hp we are borrowing) and tied up with the multitudes. We bought some hangars for drying our "scanties", and a washing machine. This washing machine, which we had seen for the first time last year, is a drum with a sealable lid. You dump in some clothes, a little detergent, and a couple of cups of boiling water. Then you spin it a few times and the pressure from the steam is supposed to clean the clothes. For $5.00 I am game to give it a try - I'm wearing the callouses of my hand scrubbing laundry! New, these things go for $140... I love buying stuff used!
Back to the boat with our bootie and a quick lunch. I then went in to shore again while Ken stayed home an did a few projects. I checked out the cash and carry I had heard about, then went to the big grocery store to see what they had. It was nice to see some of the Dutch stuff that I had grown up with for sale - I picked up some rice mix as part of my grocery shop.
While I was gone, Ken tinkered with the washing machine, did the dishes, and was just starting on the outboard when a couple approached the boat in their dinghy. It was Bruce and June from "Ainia" - we had corresponded with them a bit when they still owned a Niagara 35. We also found out that friend of ours from back home had crewed for them when they came south (Marc, they are having a great time!). They stayed for dinner and we had a wonderful evening Tonight is their chance to retaliate, or reciprocate.
This morning the phone I use for an alarm clock went off at its' usual time, but it didn't seem light enough for the time. It ends up the phone went automatically into Daylight Savings Time - something that isn't observed down here. However, it means I will still have to get up "earlier" as our weather guy is somewhere that DST is observed. Wait, he has a later time as well....
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