Rainy Day in Paradise

Good morning. Last night was a...I hope...once in a lifetime experience. We took our dinghy across the very large Simpson Bay Lagoon from the French side, where we are at Port Royale, to the Dutch side. It was about a 25 minute ride. When we returned in the dark at about 7 PM the rains came. And I don't mean the rains...I mean THE RAINS! It was torrential! The wet was bad enough, but driving through the rain creates a very real sensation of being stung by tiny pellets anywhere you are not covered. And, in this heat we had very little skin covered. What a relief to finally reach ILENE. The irony is, of course, as soon as we got back to the boat the rain ceased. Another adventure on the high seas.
This morning we decided to do a bit of cleaning. Everyone gets assigned their chores. Whitty and AG's job is obviously to look cute.
Roger just left to take a walk to visit the local museum in town. I chose to be up in the marina office in air conditioning and work on the computer. Our strenuous plan today is to enjoy an early dinner at a restaurant a few feet away from the marina office which others have raved about called Tropicana. On their website, when it shows the white railing leading up to the right, the marina office where I'm typing this is across the water -- the octagon shaped building, and our boat is just to the right of the right side of the picture.
If our plans tomorrow come off we will be having a "game afternoon" on ILENE with two other cruising couples. One we met yesterday because they dinked to our boat after hearing Roger talk on the VHF radio. Every morning on channel 14 at 07:30 there is a broadcast of cruisers who are in St. Martin (French side) or Sint Maarten (Dutch Side). There is a sharing of information like weather and special events... a buy and sell and swap period where people can offer merchandise they want to be rid of, or one can ask if anyone listening has an extra widget for their boat. They also ask for people new to the island to introduce themselves and we did, and because this couple, Bob & Lorraine Morecraft, are familiar with the Saga sailing craft (which is what ILENE is) and had seen us, they came over to introduce themselves. They are sailing (and living for the past 3+ years) on their 58' Tayana. The other couple is Bill and Sandy Donaldson on LUCILLE, another Saga 43 who we met in Maine in 2008. Both Roger & I really enjoyed meeting them and we hung out with them on several occasions in Maine. They are fun! Bill is the one person who sold me on doing this trip with his infectious enthusiasm. So tomorrow should be a fun day. I am fairly new to this cruising life and it is interesting to realize what a small and friendly community it really is. Dick & Elle on Summer Wind...you are right!