Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

We’re both feeling a little overwhelmed with all the setup ahead of us.  Our shipment has yet to arrive and communications are frustrating.  We’ve already decided we need to slow down our plans.  We intend to stay longer in individual locations and move on less than originally planned.  Blogs are likely to become less frequent until we settle in.

Today we pickup our dinghy and outboard.  On the way back we’ll pick up the watermaker.  Once back to the boat we’ll move out of Fort Louis marina and into the local bay where anchoring is free but close to town.

Yesterday we met with a recommended boat worker who we liked a lot.  He will be helping me with a number of the required installations we need to perform.  He is local and has already provided good information about the island.

That’s all for now.  If we don’t blog for a few days, don’t worry.  We’re not giong anywhere just yet.

With some help from a contact we have in St Martin we have decided that we will sail to the French side.  We had been worrying that we’d run into difficulties if we checked into the French side and when my parents arrive mid-Nov on the Dutch side we’d subsequently run into difficulties when leaving the island on the boat.  Turns out this is not an issue.  We have also heard from other cruisers who live in the BVIs half the year that it’s best to go to the French side.  We won’t have a dinghy when we arrive so we’ll have to head to a marina and walk to the port authorities.  This defines our first stop which will be Marina Fort Louis in Marigot.

View Larger Map

Once there we’ll figure out our next steps which will be essentially picking up our dinghy/motor, collecting our belongings from the shipping company and deciding where to stay for the following couple of weeks. We only intend to stay in marinas when it is essential so it’s important to understand what options we have. I do know we have anchorages nearby. There is a drawbridge that opens three times a day which lets into Simpson Bay where we can sail the boat over to the Dutch side for the marine stores there. Simpson Bay as an anchorage is not supposed to be so hot so I can imagine we’ll be in and out of there.