Has it only been 3 days?!

Boy we’ve done a lot in the last few days but have really only scratched the surface of this island. After our lunch with John and Sharron on day 1 (Jan. 2nd), we crashed back on the boat – truly exhausted after only a few hours of sleep. Our anchorage in Marigot Bay is very busy (lots of boats coming and going) but because it’s so large, you don’t really notice. Our first full night in the bay was quiet and we slept well!

We decided to do a bit of shopping on the French side (in Marigot) in the morning of Jan. 3rd. We took the dinghy into the Simpson Bay Lagoon and tied up to a nice dinghy dock in the east corner (recommended to us by John). It was great fun walking through the little shopping area and narrow streets. We quickly found the big grocery store – Super U, after about a 20 minute walk. The store was very well stocked with all kinds of French foods. We saw French wines for under $10 CAD and Mark bought a bottle of gin for about $8 CAD. The best part of our shopping experience was buying different types of food. We also found a nice bakery and bought some yummy fresh bread.

Back on the boat that afternoon, we decided to get a few jobs out of the way (minor jobs). We put up our shade cover, ran the generator to charge our house batteries, put the Starlink back in its position in the cockpit and lastly we pulled the dinghy out of the water and put it back in the davits. This is probably the biggest change now that we are travelling farther south in the Caribbean. We used to leave our dinghy in the water, tied behind us when we were in an anchorage for a length of time. It just made it so much easier to use. But dinghy theft is a huge problem down here so you definitely don’t want to leave your dinghy unlocked in the water. So we put the dinghy in the davits at the end of each day to keep it safe. We are also locking it with a strong metal cable when we leave it at a dock.

Today we met Sharron and John for lunch – taking the dinghy through the lagoons to the Dutch side. We had a wonderful afternoon and made our way back to their boat (and our dinghy) around 2 pm. That’s when our troubles began (well actually they started the day before)!! Our dinghy motor started acting up in the am of Jan. 3rd. It would start but then shut down very quickly. Today when we tried to leave the dinghy dock, the motor just said “nope”. Good thing the dinghy dock was in the marina where John and Sharron are docked. John helped us with tools and extra hands as Mark took the motor apart!! Sharron came over to help too. It took 2 hours to disassemble and reassemble the motor but it finally started and we were able to get back to our boat. The motor is still not running well so tomorrow we’ll take it in to be looked at. This island is known for its excellent boat work and good prices.