As always here in St Martin the money is flowing out and Irony has been given a late Christmas! Apart from innumerable small items, yesterday we took delivery of 70 metres of new anchor chain. It was gusting 28/30 knots as we hung on our stern anchor while we took off the anchor, dropped the old chain to the bottom of the bay and attached the new chain. I am looking forward to rust free decks and free-running anchoring, our old chain had lost all its galvinising and become a nightmare to use.
The major win has been a dinghy and engine. Our friends, Robin and Miranda, who are crew on Spiip, an 86' yacht, were changing their dinghy here. They kindly offered us an amazing deal on a 1 ½ year old Conrad Perschel custom-made dinghy and a 40hp engine. The whole lot cost us less than we were going to have to spend on a new Walker without an engine and the quality is astounding. Robin has never put any air in it. The high-powered engine means that Nic can water ski which he is very excited about. It's still hard to believe we are driving around in such a gorgeous tender!
We are planning to go through the midday French bridge opening today and sail up to Virgin Gorda overnight. I am then going to join Spiip to work on a week's charter they have starting on Saturday.