we got back to palapa and got under way for st martin. it took me several beers to get over my caviar depression and for a while i told aimee i was going on a hunger strike until i could eat 2 euro caviar and bagget. this lasted until about noon when she made me a delicious wrap. so much for principal.
we got into simpson bay at around noon and this time i had decided we would check in to “practice” for our eventual charter. aimee is doing all the checkins so while she did this i worked on reinforcing our dingy davits for our impending 9.8 hp outboard. the checkin was painless but expensive. $40 for a week plus extra if we went through the bridge, vs 6 euro for indefinite stay on the French side. i think we will go back to the french going fwd!
after checkin we headed straight over to budget marine to pick up the new outboard ($1850). i love it when they ask do you want the engine taken to a car or a dingy. i said dingy but had them unpack in front of the store it and i wasted no time getting it hooked up to palapa.
with the old engine on the floor i took it out for a test spin while i waited on aimee. the dingy is only rated for 8hp and with the 9.8 on it it is a rocket ship. i could feel the back start to come out in a high speed turn. i am going to make sure aimee (and perhaps me) uses the kill switch. very cool!!
aimee eventually returned and we headed over to the yacht club for onion rings and grouper fingers (our new favorite) alas jimbos and pretty much everything else is closed here!
cheers
roger
