1st February

12 03.520 N
68 51.216 W

Weather; sunny, wind blowing a gale up to 25 knots, waves chop on the water

OMG its February already, I only blinked and January was over and done with!
As I mentioned yesterday we had been invited to join Gavin and Shona for a whirl wind tour of the local area by car as they were having to check out today. We were up, showered, dressed, fed and watered and ready to go by 8.50 this morning - not my usual preferred easing in to the day! Anyway we had a thought about this morning - if Gavin and Shona were checking out they were going to have to go to the immigration office which is next door to the harbour master office from where we are supposed to acquire our anchoring permit, we could kill 2 birds with one stone! So the 2 dinghies tied up at the dock and we all climbed into the hire car, once Gavin had removed his bike from the boot and left it with the security guy at the dock (he would need the bike to get back from the car hire place to the dock when he returned the car) and off we set. The road was a little familiar - we had travelled this way Saturday, with a small deviation. Arriving in Willemstad we noticed that it wasn't nearly as busy as it had been on Saturday, the majority of places seemed to have a 10 am opening time, but having said that the parking was at a premium - they were few and far between. We did a double circuit of the area around the customs office before finally pulling into a space which was designated as Customs only parking (that was not for customers as it turned out but the office staff!) Gavin went to jump out of the car and go into customs when he had an "Oh shit" moment and asked Shona if she had bought their boat papers with her - no, she thought he had them! Good job it was early we had to do a dash back to the dock, Gavin shot out to their boat to fetch the boat documentation returning shortly to do a repeat drive to the center of Willemstad where the parking issue hadn't improved and we found the Customs office car space still empty so decided to park there and move if necessary. Only Gavin needed to go into the customs office so the three of us waited in the car, after about 10 minutes a customs officer turned up to drive off in a car parked in a space 2 bays away, he thought about it for a moment and then came to tell us that we couldn't park there and would have to move even though we were waiting for someone in the customs office. Shona had never driven on the left before so Gerry jumped in the driver's seat and drove us around the circuit of the town center again. As we came around the corner to where the customs office is located Gavin was just out on the side walk so the drivers swapped seats and we were good to go. The customs officer that had moved us out of the still empty parking space had put a locked chain across the empty space so we would have been going into another circuit if Gavin hadn't appeared at that moment!
Part one of clearing out done, they now had to go across the water to the immigration office to get their passports stamped and where Gerry was going to get our anchoring permit. With the help of Google maps we got to immigration with just one slight wrong turn, arriving to find that, to our dismay, there was a coach load of people waiting in line at the immigration office. Nothing to do but wait their turn, the good thing was that the line seemed to be moving fairly quickly. Gerry jumped out of the car and made his way into the harbour master office but returned much too quickly to have done anything. He had got all our clearing in papers and boat papers but they also wanted to see the captain's passport - we have no idea why as its all documented on the customs and immigration papers, anyway it was the only thing that Gerry had thought he wouldn't need - when in doubt pack and take the kitchen sink! We wouldn't be getting our anchoring permit today! Gavin and Shona got through the checking out formalities really quickly and we were soon back in the car ready to go, they told us that they hadn't ever gotten an anchoring permit for the entire time they had been here so we are now reconsidering - why is this stuff so bloody difficult if it is just a formality? Back in the car we were now under a time restraint as the car had to be back by 11.45 or there were penalties, it was 11.20 so we had to hustle. Gerry got the map directions up on his phone and off we went, the roads were at least looking more and more familiar as they do when you keep going over the same places! Gavin had to drop 3 of us back to the dock and collect his bike before returning the car to the hire place. We piled out of the car at the dock, loaded the bike and off he took; we took Shona back out in our dinghy and dropped her off at their boat to prepare for their departure. Gavin arrived back safely and we assume, without any issues in regard to the car hire - he should have made it there by the skin of his teeth.
After having lunch Gerry began fidgeting for something to do, we had noticed the occasional offensive smell coming from the area of the holding tank when we were in Grenada but the access to the tank is under the bolted down salon table - he thought now was the time to investigate as the anchorage isn't rolly, I think he just loves being in the shit! Anyway the table was unbolted and moved to be able to see the tank and sure enough he thought he could spot a hole on the top of the tank (I hope to god that it isn't an essential hole) true to form he had to get out the epoxy and fill the hole. Once the hole was filled everything was returned to its usual place and the table bolted back down. Only time will tell if this was the right thing to do - we really don't need anymore issues with toilet related equipment!
Its currently 4pm and Gavin and Shona haven't left yet, leaving us wondering if they are now waiting until tomorrow when the weather is supposed to calm down a fraction. Gerry is now back playing with his phone and I am trying to keep you entertained with the musing of a reluctant sailor!
I think I'll leave it here for today, I'm not expecting anything else to happen worthy of note today but if it does I'll tell you about it tomorrow.