We left St. Barts Sunday morning and had a great sail for 25 miles to the bay at Marigot. Monday morning we cleared customs at the Capitannierre in the lagoon near to Marigot. As in all French islands you fill out the forms on a computer pay your $7 u.s. or $5 euros and the attendant prints a copy of your clearance papers so you are legally in the French part of the island. Traveling to the Dutch side can be by car, bus or dingy without need to check in. If you move your boat to the Dutch side you must clear out of the French side and clear into the Dutch side. As St. Martin is a great place to find boat parts and maintenance items we spent the week price shopping and making selected purchases from our ever growing boat list. Budget Marine and Island Waterworld are the stops for boat items. We purchased a new AB lumina dinghy 9.5 which features a deep hull which help keep the Admiral (Hilda) dry. It also has a front opening locker which also doubles as a princess step for easier exiting the dinghy. Further we can keep the gas tank in the enclosure to help discourage theft and fitting corrosion. It weighs about 100 pounds so much easier to put up on the deck. So far we think this is a great boat. We found a new place for discount wine at about 3.14 a bottle u.s. so we bought 24 bottles. We also bought beer at the Chinese grocery store near Marigot for 17.50 a case. Clearly 50 to 80% lower than at home and most other islands except the U.S. virgins. Groceries are easy to find and not too costly. We use Simply's on the French side for basics including baguettes cheeses and the best pate ever. And we use Grande Marche on the Dutch side for cheap hard liquor, vegetables meats etc. We went to Shrimpy's laundry to clean up two and a half weeks clothes. Here we also get great internet so we can skype call home and friends. The week ends with silly Sunday at Shrimpy's where we had Boody Mary's and bbq shrimps and sea food medley salad. What a great way to end the week.