The only 'gas station' in The Saints

Who’s got GAS?
We decided to stay in the Iles Des Saintes, which are small islands off the southern tip of Guadalupe until one of two things would happen. One, we run out of propane, or two we run out of fuel for the dinghy. We have discovered gas is not to be taken lightly here in French islands. As a matter of fact they make it unobtainable for US boat to get propane unless you have a special Frenchy adapter. Wish we knew that before coming with one empty bottle and one that is running on fumes. This problem was not insurmountable. The food here is wonderful. We would be happy eating French pate, olives and fresh French bread for dinner every night. But the real problem was the lack of gasoline for the dinghy. Without the dinghy, how could we get ashore to get the food? One would think I would be used to it by now. Torben loves pushing things to the limit. The red flag was 10 years ago, when he ran my Mustang out of gas on Highway 5!
Not finding a gas station on this island was puzzling, especially since there are 50 million girls riding scooters and trying to take you out. Where did they get gas? On the other side of the island of course! So Torben and I took off with the gas can in hand to hike to the other side of the island. We stopped and toured Napoleons’ fort which was interesting, then once on the other side we discovered that you need a boat to cross the bay to get the gas and the guy won’t be there until 3PM. The conversation went something like this.
Torben: Let’s get back to the dinghy. I think we have enough gas to get around the corner to get the gas.
Judy: What if they don’t have any, do we have enough gas to get back to Tivoli?
Torben: You need to think positive!
Now I don’t think I was being negative, I asked a good question! Besides, if we both go, and we run out of gas, who will know? But I go along because I’m an idiot! We make it to the “gas station” at 3 PM. The guy said, “sorry, no gas. The island has no electricity.” Now if you read my last blog entry about Torben’s eyes popping out when he drank that rum, you should have seen my eyes pop out at this moment! I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The guy said to come back tomorrow before noon. We puttered back to Tivoli (1.5 nautical miles each way) and had cold leftovers for dinner! Plan B. In the morning we will tow the dingy to the mouth of the bay, Torben will get in and get the gas, and I will meet him back in the anchorage. I got, what I thought was, the thumbs up from Torben, and I headed back. An hour and a half goes by, I’m still motoring around the anchorage and Torben is nowhere to be seen. So back out I motored with binoculars in hand, checking the rocks that lined the island for any signs of carnage and Torben. The waves had kicked up at this point and the wind was blowing in the low 20’s. No Torben. I motor all the way back to where I dropped him off. To my relief he was still there waiting for gas! Apparently the pump was being repaired.
We eventually got reunited and laughed over a cold one. It took us two days to get 10 liters of gas! Heck, I can get gas faster than that, especially eating all this pate!
We’re not going to push our luck any further waiting for the propane to run totally out.. As much as we love the Saints, we are going to leave tomorrow for St. Croix. Our first overnighter of the season. Should be fun!