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 The beginning of 2011 was very quiet in St. Maarten. The law states that most businesses must be closed on 1 January and they were. The Chinese markets are normally opened but not this day. Fortunately, the Yacht Club was opened and one of our favorite people, Michele, was working that day. Turns out that she is assistant director for the St. Maarten Heiniken Race, and will be working it full time until after March. Nice person!
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 Our anchoring partner, SV Foro
comes and goes. At first we did not get along too well, as we thought he anchored too close and he thought we were jerks. Slowly we accepted each other. He liked more anchor rode than we are accustomed to but we never banged into each other so that is good. It is taking us some time to understand the customs and attitudes of our fellow cruisers.
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 Our difficulties with our dinghy engine continue. Apparently, we have a 'spun hup' propeller so that wre can not go very fast before the prop starts to slip. Our dinghy is our 'car' and we can not get a new prop for over two weeks. So Ann gets her wish and we buy a bigger dinghy engine. Winston of Budget Marine delivers it to us and we are happy to have it. Now we have two dinghy motors and one dinghy. Hmmm.
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 Time to do some traveling.
We picked up our new canvas as the old dodger extension had pretty much rotted away. We left today at 0930 and we noticed that poor Jule was not moving very well. We struggled at very slow speeds till we reached Phillipsburg, a mere 10 nm away. Our first anchorage was nixed by the ferry operators as they said that we were in their channel. Our second anchorage was not very good as we were too close to a big boat, This anchorage will work or so we thought.
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 Ann was fixing our meal before Brave Bob was to dive and clean the hull and prop of Jule. The boat experienced a serious roll and Ann received severe burns from boiling water and Bob's vodka spilled. We discovered that MV Yellow Bird (from the Yellow Water Taxi Corporation) chose not to follow the channel but rather go full throttle through the anchorage. Of course, the coward would not respond to our VHF calls and there is no marine law enforcement presence in Phillipsburg.
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 Brave Bob had to clean the bottom
and so he did. Everything was fouled so maybe it is time for a new type of bottom paint. The hull was a mini ecosystem and the prop has grown a beard. Armed with minimal stuff, he spent 4 hours cleaning the prop and the hull. He tore off some flesh as the barnacles were quite sharp. Are we having fun yet?
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