Sint Maarten: Day 4

While my father was at school to give his second lecture, I was busy doing our laundry.

I quickly learned why they charged $4.00 a load for laundry, which is because they only have commercial washers, each of which is able to hold two or more normal loads. These washers seem to be able to take about twice the load that a typical washer is capable of handling. Fortunately, the driers are also commercial size and therefore able to handle in a single load the same quantity of laundry that can be washed by the washers.

One thing that I noticed while I was transferring the laundry from the washer to the drier was that I managed to forget a number of my own clothing items. Most notably, I forgot to wash my swimming costume and the shirt that I have been wearing to the beach (likely the two dirtiest items of clothing in my possession). I was able to remember all of the other key pieces of laundry.

The only problem, that I have noticed so far, is that one pair of my fathers pants came out completely covered in lint. Though I tried to shake them off I wasn’t really able to make much progress and they are still pretty bad looking. Hopefully he knows how the stuff without an additional washing, or he doesn’t need them until they can be washed again.

After my father’s school related activities, and then a quick lunch, we went on the hunt for diving fins. After checking at a diving shop we ended up making a purchase at the same place where we had previously purchased a mask and snorkel. The main deciding factor was that the fins at the latter shop were adjustable, making them usable by a wider number of people.

With fins in hand we went back to Baie Rouge, the location we scouted the previous day. The waves, which had been sizeable yesterday, were quite reasonable today. Without much trouble we made our way around the rocky out cropping and towards the intended destination. The only problem that we had was that we couldn’t really tell when we were at the spot as the water was loaded with so much sand that visibility was significantly reduced. After a fair test and a bit of drift and watching we returned to the beach having seen a few fish, though many less than we expected.

After another Carib from Gus’s Beach Bar we made our way back to Mullet Beach where we again strapped on our flipped and masks and entered the water. Immediately we noticed an appreciable difference between the visibilities at the two sites, with the latter being much better. We soon were both able to see all kinds of fish, both larger and more colourful than during previous outings. Furthermore, the water was of a more uniform temperature, meaning fewer cold spots to contend with while drifting along.

As Mullet Beach is within walking distance, and as it is pretty good snorkeling, it is likely that we will be back here at least a few more times before we head off.

The major problem posed by visits to the beaches seem to be the resulting sand problem. Unlike when visiting sandy beaches at lakes, this sand seems to go everywhere and then want to stay. Even after a shower and a shampooing of my hair my head is still quite covered in sand. The most effective removal method I have yet come across is to brush my hair with the narrowly spaced tines of my comb. With each stroke I am able to remove some number of grains of sand, though never all of them.

Another problem, though much less troublesome, is that while swimming in the ocean one tends to have salt water in their mouth. While this is not the end of the world it is certainly less than pleasant. Fortunately, this problem can be easily rectified by the drinking of a beer or two.

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While I am able to get some internet access each day it seems that we might still be some time away from having full internet access at our apartment.

The sudden departure of the IT guy and the appearance of a new class have likely slowed down movement on this front. The only good news, from our perspective, is that just when we arrived a few days ago so too did an IT consultant. Hopefully her presence will mean the smooth transition from one regime to another.

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We were both quite hungry by the time we made it back to our apartment after our trip to two beaches and a number of commercial outlets. Fortunately, we were able to relatively quickly prepare a meal from groceries that we purchased a day or so ago.

While the meal that we did end up preparing was nothing fancy, it was satisfying. Each of us had a pork chop along with white rice, boiled and buttered carrots, and brocoflower (some kind of broccoli/cauliflower vegetable). For desert my father had a tangerine while had another helping of rice along with two brocoflower sprigs.

It is likely that we will kill off most of our remaining vegetables tomorrow, necessitating another trip to the grocery store. The positive aspect of this is that we will have a very satisfactory lunch and the chance to select a new range of groceries from the store (and maybe even visit a new grocery store).

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As we just finished a relatively satisfactory meal and are now completing various computorological errands it is likely that we will keep things quiet for the rest of the evening. Ideally, this might mean that we play a game or two of rummy and sit on the balcony drinking Caribs straight from the bottle.