Since I arrived in Sint Maarten I am very busy. There are many nice things around here but of course I also have to take care of some other things like repairs of stuff that broke or just worned out on the route, cleaning Guppy, going shopping and doing the laundry!! There were some traces of wear in the halfwinder and the mainsail so patches will simply be sewn on top of them to avoid more wear in the future. Today I was busy clearing Guppy completely from stern to bow. Now I know again what I have in stock, and more importantly I know where everything is stored inside its twelve meters.I found out that it is possible to loose many things within those twelve meters. However, Guppy is now completely clean again. If I want to go somewhere I usually take the bus which is very different from the ones in the Netherlands. There are no bus stops for example, so you simply have to wait along the road until a bus comes by, and then you just ask where it is going. It costs two dollars and the busses are smaller than in the Netherlands. However, it is easy to use to go everywhere – except if you have a dog with you. Most bus drivers are swarthy and very afraid of dogs. In those cases I then hitchhike which works very well, that is because I sometimes take care of some friend’s dogs here. Because of all the things I have to do I fell a little behind with my schoolwork. But since I don’t actually really have a Christmas holiday period and because I want to keep the
spare time for those days when the weather is bad or for some other things, I am a little behind with schoolwork. But now that everything is getting quieter now, I am back into my routine which at times is something difficult to achieve when in a new place. So except for going shopping, schoolwork and keeping Guppy clean, I am not so very busy anymore. Now I can find some time to test the hammock my sister Kim gave to me in Gran Canary.

Laura