ARRRGGGGHHHH, I hate my WiFi "service"

<rant>Our wifi service in St Croix, while never very good, has again been really crappy for the past week. There was a bit of OK time on Monday though which goes to show that THEY are having problems (nothing has changed with us or our equipment and land-based users are having issues, too). Of course, if I called to let them know that something might be amiss, they would just say that everything is hunky-dory on their end... Right...

Sort of reminds me many years ago (1997-ish) when Dave was showing us how fast you could receive internet service from Cobex on St Thomas, while actually everything he was showing us was residing on his hard drive... Duh! I pointed this out to him and he admitted that was the case :)

Anyway, our Intermittent Service Provider is doing a good job of living up to that moniker today.  We are on for 2 minutes then off... on for 30 seconds and off... on... off... off... off... off... on WOW... Nope off again... VERY FRUSTRATING and "I only have this one little thing and then I'll shut down and get started on a boat project". Then you realize that ANOTHER hour has gone by... sigh

This is another reason we want to leave St Croix.

A few months ago I called Choice and asked them if I could do a trial day on their service (they have one hotspot in this area) and if I like it to then put that day as credit towards a month (it is something like $10/day & $60/month). But they just didn't seem to understand. And, since we (and many other people we know) had such a bad experience with Choice in Charlotte Amalie two years ago, I just don't want to waste another ten bucks for nothing but more frustration... but maybe it will be good... maybe...

But, what if I hit Choice on one of their good days (because Broadband_VI does admittedly have the occasional good day) and I sign up for a month and get typical lousy service?

The last time I called Broadband VI about their lack of service the technician suggested I use AT&T or Sprint! What does that tell you???

So, I guess we'll stay with the one whose "reliability" we can count on until we can blow this pop shop and get out of Dodge.</rant>

So it goes...

Favorite things: I can see clearly now...

One of my favorite things is a fresh pair of contact lenses. I opened my contact case and my right lens wasn't there. Oh well, it has been more than 5 weeks so it's a good excuse to start a new pair.  Ahhhhhh, nice!

I was going to write more but, once again, our internet "service" is very slow and keeps dropping out. Thank you Broadband_VI. And, it is not just us (as they seem to always blame the user) but I've spoken to land-based users who also experience extreme slowness and lack of connectivity to the internet.

I have more important things to do than just press Refresh and rebooting my router in hopes for an improvement...

Let's see if this will post... It didn't post.... It's now Thursday... More rant soon come :)

So It Goes :)

Tropical Storm Maria... Bye!

Well, TS Maria was certainly a challenge for those weather folks and quite frustrating for those of us in her projected path.

At various times they had her going below us, just to the west, over to the east by St Martin, even more so to the east missing all of the islands... and, of course, right on top of us passing over St Croix.  Prediction of windspeeds up to 70MPH with it becoming a hurricane on the other side of Puerto Rico and, my favorite, the forecast where she was to fizzle out and possibly be downgraded to a lowly tropical WAVE... not even a TD :)

This didn't happen.  She stayed a tropical storm but we were pretty much unaffected. We've had a few non-TS days like this over the summer where you have some swell and a bit of wind. My type of storm... a non-event! We appreciate it, Maria.

From Wunderground.com
Sunday, 11 September 2011, 09:14am AST

We made our storm preparations and don't mind that it was "for nothing".  Not so... We got provisions, water, fuel, charged up the 48V battery bank, straightened up the boat, threw things away, etc... Not a bad thing at all.

The bad part about preparing for a storm is seeing that your neighboring boats are once again doing nothing. One guy, who we'll call "Homer" called us at 5pm the evening before the storm is to hit to say he'll be out at about 6pm to sort out his mooring and can we give him a ride to his boat. Leaving it a bit late, aren't you? He said he didn't come out the day before because he didn't feel like it. We told him that we were busy laying out another anchor for OUR boat but we'd help him tomorrow after we finished our preparations. He laughed and implied that that was too late (is that MY fault or PROBLEM???). I just said we're busy, bye, and hung up.

I could rant on about this but I will refrain.  Bob has a bit about it in yesterday's Boat Bits. I will add that the second anchor that was deployed for his boat (Homer stood on deck while Bob did the work) was a lightweight Bruce that Homer only paid out a total of about 35 feet of chain (15 foot depth + 4 feet to bow roller = how much chain on the bottom?). Chain does no good on the boat, as we thought everyone knows, but...

Fortunately the storm gave us a pass.  Bob has definitely earned some good Karma points helping this guy, even though his real motive was that it was helping us.

No more ranting...

Bob has made some lovely Sunday morning blueberry waffles. It is a nice day. Life is good :)

So It Goes !

Disappointed in St Croix, but Junk Food Day!

Well, I could really go on a rant about this but I'm not going to... My brand of contact lenses has been discontinued so I needed a new prescription for a new brand. OK, seems sort of silly but it's been a few years since my last exam so I went to Sterling Optical in Golden Rock shopping center near Pueblo for a new Rx. Let's just say that I am EXTREMELY disappointed in their "service" and skill set. I would NOT recommend.

Today, July 21st, is Junk Food Day! You can find some interesting recipes at Serious Eats.

ENJOY!

Books with a nautical slant

I'm currently reading a book (Precious Cargo by Clyde Ford) which seems like a good read so far. The author lives in Bellingham, Washington and enjoys cruising the Inland Passage aboard his single-engine biodiesel trawler.

Clyde seems to know his "boaty" stuff.

On the other hand...

Awhile back, one of our charter boat friends sent us her copy of a book recently published by a charter yacht broker. I'm not sure if she was able to get through it, but I read the whole thing as I couldn't believe that it could be so bad.

I'm not going to give the book title or author because it does not deserve any publicity except "Danger, Danger, Will Robinson"... Don't waste your money on this drivel.

It is a fictional book about a Caribbean charter yacht captain in the Virgin Islands. It seems like half of it is about the November charter yacht show (which just happens to have a wonderful & fun charter broker couple who wear matching tropical shirts).

Besides the inane picture it paints of the charter industry, it is full of weirdness like "I heard her feet walking along the freeboard" and "I started walking along the freeboard to the bow"... Does this charter broker not know what freeboard is???

[Freeboard: the distance between the waterline and the main deck or gunwale of a ship]

Another bit that got up my nose is that he doesn't appear to know about furling a mainsail. The author is supposed to know something about boats... "I let the main down into its in-mast stack pack"... "brought the the main sail down into its in-mast cradle"... He does this several times throughout the book. A stack pack, as you know, is on the boom and not part of an in-mast roller furling system.

This captain always seems to have a drink in his hand which is NOT a good thing. We have removed boats from our charter program because of what appears to be a crew drinking problem.  It seems like the author thinks this is cool and an attractive trait for his readers... Living, Sailing & Drinking in the Sunny Caribbean... No, the captain & crew are responsible for their guests aboard. Be professional, please!!!

There are so many things in this book that irks me besides the lack of plot, such as using a windless rather than windLASS, and how he always uses the same terms "on-charter" and "off-charter" repeatedly instead of other descriptive phrases for variety, but I will spare you :)

Just had to get this rant out...

I do feel a bit guilty that we are going to throw this book in the trash and not give it to the Animal Shelter for their flea market, but trash is definitely where it belongs.

'nuff said... just my humble opinion, and

So It Goes :)

Come on, I just like Casio watches...

I love Casio watches. The ones I buy are inexpensive and do the job. I currently wear a LW-201 but my normal watch for the last 30 years is more like this one... the Casio F-91W.

 Casio F-91W - Buy yours now from Amazon!

I like this watch. It's small enough to not be clunky and catch on everything. It has features I like such as a backlight, beeps on the hour if asked to, and shows date & time. A countdown timer would be useful, but, for less than $12, I won't complain.

Plus, I always love this bit... "water resistance to 50 meters (165 feet) -- suitable for swimming but not for diving." I guess you can use it at a depth of 50m but not in a water environment :)

It has been in the news lately that this is a preferred watch of Al Queda and Taliban members. Read the Boing Boing post: Gitmo interrogators: Casio F-91W digital watch is back pocket hanky code for "I'm a terrorist"

I think everyone should buy one of these nifty, sturdy watches to protest against government profiling... Come on, it's just a watch... What percentage of consumers who bought this model of watch are terrorists? This really makes me angry, but I'll spare you any more ranting :)

You can buy your watch (less than $12) here on Amazon. Get one for your ferret, too.  It would go great with this outfit...

Remember the bit from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles where they try to barter a Casio for a hotel room?  Great movie!

So It Goes...

---

---

Saturday... time flies

I can tell it's Saturday with the way the boat has been rocking with all of the powerboats zipping by.  It seems like they try to see just how close they can get to us sometimes. We will we will rock you... Just as long as they stay on the other side of the mooring ball and not the part between the ball and the boat... Oh no, what if they want to play "limbo"???

Another thing these motorheads do is their victory loop around the moorings while waiting for a spot on the slipway.  Some boats do slow down but this generally makes things worse. Now their nose is way up in the air and they have a HUGE wake. They need to stop momentarily so they will drop back down and then continue on as they should in a no-wake zone.

Should I mention the sportfishing boats? Nah, you catch my drift :)

I'm not against power boats in general, but some of the operators give a bad name to the whole class.

Here comes another rant... Watch out!

It appears that lots of people don't know that there's a difference between dingy and dinghy (and another pet peeve: lose and loose).

Yes, there are many dingy dinghies (plural is -IES and not dinghys), but:

• Dingy means drab, gloomy, dirty, shabby, squalid; while
• Dinghy is a small boat

You would be surprised how many misspellings of this we see from charter yachts. Is it laziness or lack of education?

This is a book that I think I need...

Correct Your French Blunders: How to Avoid 99% of the Common Mistakes Made by Learners of French.

I'm so paranoid about making mistakes when I speak French that either I don't speak at all, or I put a question mark at the end of my sentences (so as to say "Am I saying this correctly?" or "Do you understand what I'm trying to say?").

You think I'm "Ms Picky" about spelling errors, but the French can be quite frightening about foreigners abusing their language. I had a traumatic experience the first time I ordered a hamburger in Paris and that episode sticks with me to this day.

I'm looking forward to improving my French and hope to set up some French language lessons on my iPod.  There are just so many good and FREE courses available that it is difficult to choose which one to start with.



It's a beautiful day and a good time for a quick swim! Hope your weekend is off to a good start.

I hope I didn't make any spelling errors in this post... that would serve me right :)

Good things

We recently received a few good things... besides the fact (hopefully) that Tropical Storm Colin is supposed to steer clear of us :)

Tropical Storm Colin - August 2, 2010 8am forecast

We ordered a new mattress from Cabelas. Shipping was via US Postal Service so no problem there.  They did have an $8 additional surcharge for being a large item but that's OK as shipping was still under $20. I procrastinated buying the mattress and when we got around to it, they had a special offer (expires today) of $5 shipping if your purchase was over $100. Cool !!! The shipping was so cheap that I phoned Cabelas to verify the shipping charge to the Virgin Islands as I didn't want to be surprised.

Cabela's Ultimate Self-Inflating Sleeping Pads

They shipped it USPS Priority Mail and shipping was $13. Thank you, Cabelas.

We've had a for a week now and we love this mattress. We bought the 54"x78" model and it fits very well in the space we have. It is so much better than both of the the leaky "temporary" air mattresses we've had in the last 6 months. The air bed was too bouncy. I found it uncomfortable and if I tossed and turned, it would cause Bob to bounce up and down and wake him up.  It was also difficult for the cats to play on unless it was just about totally deflated. Read the product comments for the Cabela's mattress. Other people love it too, with most of the bad reviews saying that it is difficult to roll the big double mattress back up but that's not a problem for us or most other folks.

<rant>Just a short rant... I almost placed an order with Harbour Freight for a few items but they were going to charge $60 for shipping via USPS Parcel Post with a 20 day estimated delivery time. No way!</rant>

Yesterday we received our new Coleman French Press coffee maker, along with a pair of Teva sandals each. This unit is made of stainless steel and you can use it to boil the water as there are no plastic parts. When the water is heated, turn off the stove, add your coffee, stir it up, put the lid & plunger unit on it, and wait a few minutes. Press down the plunger and voilà... c'est tout.

Coleman Stainless Steel French Press

Easy to clean as the filter unit unscrews so you can easily dismantle it for cleaning. The handle is also removable.  Very cool unit. You can buy this through Amazon.com for $17.97. Mr & Ms Cheapseats think this is a good deal.

Another thing is that the cats love the boxes... Hours of entertainment :)

Bareboats... Don't anchor near me, please

Bareboats and anchoring... Boy, can I rant about that, but I'll try and spare you... a bit :)

Yesterday, while dinghying back to the boat, we passed by two bareboats in the crowded mooring field in Christiansted Harbor, St Croix USVI.

(Click image to enlarge)

The monohull and catamaran are rafted together and they have tied up to two moorings off the starboard side of the monohull so they are tethered fore and aft.  Bob says they had an anchor off the bow, and I don't know about the port side... But, this makes them unmoveable and there are many boats moored around them which WILL move.  I know WE were pointing every which way last night!

It is always a bit nervous making when we don't have much wind and the boats swing around willy nilly and not necessarily in concert with those about them, due to different scope, hull characteristics, windage, currents...  Hopefully these Sunsail boats played well with others, but I'm glad they were not in our neighborhood.

BLOCKBUSTER closing St Thomas US Virgin Islands store

Shame on you, Blockbuster!

I was VERY disappointed today when we went to Blockbuster. We have $7+ credit and we wanted to use it up before leaving. They have $.99 DVDs Monday to Wednesday. We had already selected 3 movies and a clerk came up to us and asked if we were renting.  Yes, of course... that's the normal activity at Blockbuster :)

Well, she said they are no longer renting DVDs, but we can buy them if we wished.... WHAT?!

Turns out that Blockbuster is closing down the store in St Thomas, US Virgin Islands and also some in Puerto Rico. Bummer!

Big Bad Bummer for the employees who I think just found out about this as they would have mentioned this to us when we were just in the store a couple of days ago.

I felt so bad for them (and that we couldn't rent movies & use up our credit). To lose their jobs especially during the holiday season... How awful.

Thumbs down for Blockbuster. Boo Hiss.

Heads up on new credit card fees

Thank you to the charter yacht Hanalei Bay for giving me this heads up, which I'm now passing on to you...

Diane told us that they knew of someone who received a hefty foreign transaction fee for paying their BVI marina bill with their credit card. This was for a charge in US Dollars in the British Virgin Islands (the BVIs don't have their own currency and use US$). She said that some cards started instituting this new policy on June 1st of this year.

I thought (and hoped) that maybe it was just a misunderstanding of his tale of woe at cocktail hour, but decided to check my MasterCard statement. Wow! MasterCard charged a 3% fee for my Cost-U-Less purchase in St Maarten which is also in US Dollars. They never charged anything before for the Dutch side.

We've always been charged something for using credit cards on the French side of St Martin which is understandable since their currency is Euros.

My Visa statement seemed normal at that time, but I just checked it this morning and note that we are now being charged a foreign transaction fee for US Dollar purchases on the Dutch side as well, albeit it at a lower rate of 1%.

Guess which card I'm going to be using when necessary...

So It Goes...

Frustrating day

It's been a frustrating day. This morning we went to the BluePoint computer store (St. Maarten) to get replacement RAM for Bob's MacBook. Last Monday when we were there trying to sort out the issue with our WiFi Engenius Bridge that they've had since the beginning of December, they said to bring in the MacBook and they'd swap out the RAM. So we did.

It only took 45 minutes in the store (which is an amazingly short period of time for a BluePoint session) just to find out that they do not have the RAM in stock, but they should have it in a day or two. We've heard that before :) Well, that was a waste of $6 bus ride and a few hours of our time.

I could go on about BluePoint but should I? Probably not. I'll probably go ballistic and rant on this blog next time we go there to get the RAM and see (maybe) what they propose to do about the 3-month old Engenius Bridge we took back to them for warranty way back in December, nine months ago...

Then, this afternoon we declined a charter booking through a travel agent who really just doesn't get it. We want happy clients and for them to have a good yacht charter experience. We care about our clients which obviously too many companies just don't.

But, we did go to Radio Shack and they had what we wanted. Yippee!!! Happy Dance time.

Blondie, a twitterer I follow, fellow blogger (My View from 30,000 feet), and cat person, will be arriving by cruiseship tomorrow in St. Maarten. Welcome, Blondie! Hope you are enjoying your cruise.

So, the sun is definitely over the yardarm, it is after 5pm HERE, nevermind the "somewhere", and I'm going to make some popcorn to go with our sundowner.

Whale watching more profitable than whale hunting

Saw an article this morning on BBC that Whale Watching is much more profitable than Whale HUNTING! In fact, the title of the piece is "Whale-Watching 'worth billions'".

Read the BBC Article (by Richard Black)

Here's a bit from the article:

"The group commissioning the report, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw), says whaling countries would gain from a switch to whale watching.
"However, Iceland's delegate here said the two industries were compatible and could grow together.
"Iceland recently announced a major expansion of its fin whale hunt and plans to take 150 of the animals this year, along with up to 100 minke whales."

What is Iceland thinking?! Compatible???? OMG, I hope they are not thinking of doing a TV show which combines hunting and watching... I know that's a disgusting thought even to use in jest, but ya know, I wouldn't put it past the "entertainment" industry or those viewers who thrive on "reality" shows.

Some small countries vote in favor of whaling because they get big payoffs from the whaling countries. Not cool.

So, cut it out guys! Whales are necessary for the well-being of the oceans which in turn affects the entire planet.

And, while I'm at it, knock off the killing of sharks, too!

Have you pushed the purple button at The Animal Rescue Site, today? Check out their "sign a petition" page.

Gourmet Marche - St Maarten NEVER AGAIN!

I'm a bit calmer now, so I can rant about my experience yesterday at Gourmet Marche, Portofino Marina (where Shrimpy's used to be) on the Simpson Bay Lagoon, near the Shell station.

We've been 2-3 times/week customers of this store since it opened over a year ago. And, to tell you the truth, I've been getting a bit upset on how many items are not priced so you have to use their scanner (when it is working) to see how much it has gone up since the last time you were shopping. There are NO bargains here, just convenience.

Well... anyway... Yesterday I went shopping using my red daypack as my purse. It has my wallet, passport, sunglasses, camera, cell phone etc. loose in the bag just as it would be in a proper, pursy-looking purse.

So, we are popping into Gourmet Marche to buy some meat for dinner and a 12-pack of Coke Zero when I hear a "hello" behind me. I keep going and again... "hello". I think this is directed at me so I turn around and the security guard tells me I must leave my bag. I tell him no, it has all of my stuff in it. He points to someone else's daypack which is sitting on top of a shopping cart in the space between the open entrance and exit doors. I'm not leaving my bag with my valuables sitting there where anyone can grab it! And I'm not going to remove all my stuff and juggle it in my hands while shopping.

I go to the manager's office to ask him if it's OK to take my bag in the store as you know me and know I'm not a thief, etc :). For sure, he'll say yes because he's been friendly to us forever... Nope! He stays sitting at his desk and tells me it is policy, nothing to do with me, & waves his hand in a go away gesture, then he turns back to his computer screen. OK, I understand his point, but he is blowing me off... He doesn't care about a "valued customer" especially when his number of shoppers are rapidly dwindling.

Also, for at least 6 months, I've been using a shopping/tote bag to carry my stuff. This is a large bag about 16"x20" with an open top. Very easy to stuff things in if I was prone to shoplifting. Much easier than yesterday's daypack with zippers. We have also walked around with shopping from other stores without question. In fact, it would have been nice to have a place to check a bag instead of lugging stuff around the shop.

Don't these guys get it? Just because one has a daypack doesn't make it easier to shoplift. You should restrict ALL bags and have a proper system for storage and identification of bag with owner (tag number).

When we lived in France, if you didn't check your bag (consigne) they would look in your bags/pack when you left the store. That's fine with me!

So, back to yesterday... After leaving the manager I stood by the cashier and muttered "I'm not shopping here" and waited for Bob to bring whatever shopping we had to be purchased... I was still seriously miffed and went back into the office and said "I just want you to know that I am really ANGRY. I AM NOT A THIEF". No response... What does he care? Go away crazy lady...

Bob came back and asked why I was screaming (I didn't realize I was) and we left without buying anything. We have decided not to ever go back to Gourmet Marche again.

You might be thinking "what's the big deal" & "why should she get special treatment"...

• I don't like getting singled out because I have a daypack while other large bags are OK
• I didn't like the way the manager handled it. I was a bother to him and he doesn't care that I'm a long-time customer that needed her feathers smoothed.

We spend a few thousand dollars a year at that store, which might not be as much as some of his customers but in "these difficult economic times" you have to take what you can get. We have other choices which means crossing the street. Airport Road is well known for car-pedestrian accidents. Motorists just not paying attention to others... Come on people, get your act together! Think about your fellow man and how you affect (I was going to say "impact") their lives.

There's a Chinese store directly across the street, plus there is a new Chinese store near the bookshop also on the other side of the street but inbetween (and across from) the Shell station and The Mailbox. It is new, clean, well lighted. $3.75 for one liter of Cortez Rum :) They haven't had Coke Zero, but they have had Sprite Zero. Plus there is the Seven-Alive store right across the street from Palapa Marina (they have the best price on the poppyseed crackers I like).

Enough ranting... I think you get my drift :)

Now having third cup of coffee and then it's off to the French supermarche, US Imports.

The word is YACHTING... not YATCHING

Bob showed me this posting on the blog, litoralis. The title is "Just because you can use PhotoShop, doesn't mean you are smart enough to use a dictionary". I love it!

Another common misspelling I see all the time is "dingy" for "dinghy".

Quite often we have clients who ask us about chartering one of our "ships" for a yacht charter. To me, a ship is a BFB... a Big Boat... a commercial ship or a cruiseship.

Brits tend to call all personal sailboats "yachts". I guess this is a cultural thing. My boat is definitely not a yacht :)

Unlocking cell phones RANT

WARNING: This is a customer service rant.

My St. Maarten UTS Chippie cell phone is not in the best shape, and since I have 3 other cell phones from AT&T/Cingular, I decided to look into getting one of them unlocked so I can use them here in the Caribbean.

Saturday, I did a search and found a company that would sell me the unlock code for my Sony Ericsson z300a for about $15. But, there was a Google Ad that gave a price at £4.99 or about $7. I went to look at them. In their dropdown menu for Sony Ericsson phones they listed my model. You fill out their order form and click on the "agree to terms & conditions". I quickly read the terms and conditions which stated that if you couldn't unlock this phone you'd get a credit to do another. No problem, I thought, because it was listed in their dropdown menu... I paid via PayPal and didn't log into our account. I just used the PayPal pay by credit card option. The order was accepted and it said I'd have the code in 4 hours.

Well, I received an email saying they couldn't unlock this phone and to check their terms & conditions and I'd see that the phone was not listed on this page but I could get a credit to unlock another phone. I was a bit miffed... why was it listed in their dropdown menu then?

But not to worry as I have another phone... a Nokia 2610 that I got in St. Thomas in November. In the form I filled out it asked for the PayPal receipt number, order number, the phone's IMEI serial number (which I assumed was for the 1st phone so they could check my account record). Then in the message area below I put the new phone information with its IMEI serial number.

I received a reply with the unlock code but by the way the email was written, I was worried that they didn't use the correct serial number to generate the code, so I send another message and ask them to verify that they used the correct one and gave it to them again.

I received another reply with a different unlock code. It starts with PW+ and I can't get my phone to enter "P" it just displays 7, so I ask how to do that. In the meantime I find the answer on a different web site. I then understand how to enter the unlock code and do so. It doesn't work. I try it again and it doesn't work. I read on the internet that you can only do this 5 times.

I write to the unlock data company again saying that it doesn't work. They said they were sorry and that they have modified my account giving me credit to unlock yet another phone. How many phones do they think I have? I told them I was unhappy and I would contact PayPal or they could give me a refund.

I wrote to PayPal. Gave them my receipt number, the name of the company, and the amount charged. I told them I'd like a refund for services not rendered. Gave them a very short account of how they claimed they could unlock my cell phone but failed twice. I mentioned that I had felt safe to puchase this via PayPal.

I'm sure this scammy company (UK) makes most of their money by not delivering product in the full knowledge that their customers will just go "oh well, it was only $7 and I should have known better". I felt this way, too, but I didn't want them to get away with this yet again.

The next time I checked my email I had a nice message from PayPal saying that the company had given me a refund! Hooray! Thank you PayPal for your help.

I don't know how many hours I've wasted with this. At least 6 over the past couple of days.

Oh, by the way... I called AT&T yesterday and they'll give out the unlock code for their phones (FREE) but you need to have had it for at least 6 months. That was a nice surprise. Thanks!

I think I'll just look into buying a new phone in the meantime :)

XANTREX disappointments

I've put this off for a bit, but now I'm going to do my Xantrex rant as we are currently charging our batteries and once again I'm a bit disappointed in their products.

Mid-June of this year we bought a new Xantrex XPower 700 Plus Inverter from the St. Maarten Budget Marine. We didn't install it until the end of July. I'd like to mention that nowhere on its external packaging was it mentioned that this unit was only rated for 560W continuous power. [On the outside of the package it advertised 1000W of surge, so one assumes (why do I assume the best?) that its real rating was 700W. In the manual inside of the store-inaccessible plastic bubble packaging, it says that the 700W is for a maximum of 5 minutes usage.] This unit worked fine for us for about 10 days. Then, one morning we turned it on and after about a second, it gave a squeal and the red "fault" light came on. We disconnected our computers and plugged in a fan to test it... same thing. Next we tried a lamp... no luck. At no time have we ever had anywhere near 500W connected to this unit, so we didn't fry it. There's nothing wrong with our installation as our new inverter (mentioned below) works just peachy-keen.

We disconnected the inverter and took it back to Budget Marine. There, they hooked it up to a 12-volt power source and plugged a radio into the inverter. It worked. The radio played music and then I noticed the volume decreasing and some static. So I asked him to turn it on again. Same thing. The inverter was cutting out after about a second and thus the fade and static on the transistor radio as its power drained. He thought it was a problem with the unit's fan.

He kept it and Budget wrote to Xantrex. He said they should have an answer the next day. We didn't expect an answer the next day so didn't want to make a trip all the way from Marigot for nothing. The following week, he was off island and nobody knew what was up. Next time when we went in, we were told that they put the inverter onto a 12V battery and ran something with a decent load and the unit worked fine and we could take it home.

I'm sorry, but it does not sound "fine" to me. We had a problem, the store had a problem, and then it worked. This sounds like an intermittent problem to me and they obviously don't want to deal with it.

During this same time but before we had the inverter problem, we bought a Xantrex XPower Charger 40 at the St. Maarten Budget Marine. When it is charging at 40amps, it cuts out and the error message pertains to overheating. It cuts in and out, in and out, thus extending our charging time because it is not charging for about one-third of the time. When the amperage drops to about 30-some amps it works fine and does not overheat anymore. It has good air circulation, the air intake is clean and I also open up the compartment where you store the wire in hopes that will help cool things down.

Anyway, I know better than to even mention this to the store because I'm pretty sure there's nothing they can do about it :)

Oh, while we were waiting for a solution to our inverter problem, we bought a Sinergex PureWatts Elite 500 from Island Water World in St. Maarten. We've been using it for 9 weeks without a problem. It was also one of the items for their Monthly Special. Such a deal!

So, what to do with inverter #1, the Xantrex??? Budget Marine says it works. When I asked the employee if he would buy it from us he said no (of course... it's dodgy, duh!). We can't really keep it as a backup because it is not dependable as it OBVIOUSLY has an intermittent fault. We can't sell it with a good conscious because we know it has a problem. Toss it in the locker or in the dumpster?

We'll probably take it to the Time Out Sandy Ground St. Martin flea market but "let the buyer beware" and tell the customer its history.

DUH.... A little common sense, please!

What is this? Why did this happen? Maltese Falcon is easy to spot and I'm sure that MF has all sorts of detection devices aboard to alert them to the whereabouts of this 40-some foot sailboat.



Look at the photos on LYON's IMAGING MARITIME PHOTOGRAPHY's web site... CLICK HERE

Notice all the people on deck of MF? With all of their high-techniness couldn't they get out of the way? If nothing else, shout to the little boat using their Kareoke machine?

And how could the little fellah not see MF? Even from a great distance those sails look like grain silos. One thing we quickly learned while cruising the French canals was "Steel always has right of way".

Looks to me, that they both should have used a little common sense. Not the old "I have right of way", "no, I do"... sort of thing which just doesn't make it with me...

I wasn't there, and I do not know the facts but Hey, come on!

Hope everybody is OK and no damage done.

Simpson Bay Bridge Night Openings St. Maarten

We heard on the news this morning that beginning in December 2008 that there will be night-time bridge openings for the bridge on the Dutch side of St Maarten for entry into the Simpson Bay Lagoon. There was no mention of special fees or anything.

Unfortunately, the newsreader didn't read the whole article and it is not a featured story on the Daily Herald's website ... although they have posted the article about an increase in the number of reported, laboratory-verified cases of Dengue Fever :)

Speaking of bridge & harbor fees, we have noticed a dramatic decrease in the number of yachts staying on the Dutch side of the Lagoon since the fees have gone up. Fees for our size of boat (34 feet) went from US$10/week to US$20/week. I'm sure that St. Maarten might feel the effects of these fees for the next season.

We'll let you know more when we hear more :)

As I'm speaking about jump in prices.... Yesterday we went to Budget Marine in Simpson Bay St Maarten to buy a couple of folding padeyes, which of course they had zero in stock (should be coming at the end of the month, right!). Bob selected two U-bolts instead as we want to finish this project. He gave me the 2 U-bolts plus a 2-pack of West Marine yellow plastic squeegees and I went to the cashier. I was surprised that the total came to over $15 so I checked the receipt before leaving the store. We had been charged US$7.20 for each U-bolt rather than the priced marked on the rack which was US$3.20. That's a difference of US$4.00 x 2!!!

I showed this to one of the guys behind the counter and he had the cashier give us a refund. He told us that if we wanted to buy more that now was the time as they are changing the rack label.

Once again.... ALWAYS check your receipt at Budget Marine as they no longer put the price on the individual item, just a bar code. The price displayed on the rack where you find your item may be different than that in the computer. ALSO, quite often the item does not correspond to the closest tag, so double and triple check so you do not have an unpleasant surprise.

Thanks for letting me vent!

Coke Zero pricing at Gourmet Marche SXM

A couple of posts below this one I have written about some of the prices in St. Maarten.

Yesterday we went to the Gourmet Marche supermarket on Airport Road at the Portofino Marina and bought a few things. When we were walking back to the dinghy Bob said that he was surprised that the Coke cost more than Fresca. I wasn't paying attention to the prices, darn!

We have been buying Coke Zero in a plastic shrink wrap packaging with the cans arranged 3x4 and that will set you back $4.75. We were charged $7.20 for the same 12 cans of Coke Zero but this time packaged in their 12-pack long narrow (2x12) cardboard box. What gives here???

We will be passing by the store today so I will be armed with my old receipts along with yesterday's to ask about this.

LATER THAT DAY....

OK! The nice manager was in the store this morning so I asked him if the price was correct... What's the difference? Isn't 12 cans of Coke 12 cans of Coke?

No, it's not. The cans in the plastic packaging come from Dominica and the cans in the cool-pack cardboard box are imported from England which they are no longer purchasing... Thus, the British Coke costs more than the Coke distributed out of the Caribbean island of Dominica. Makes sense. But, I wonder why they got it from England and not Florida?

If I remember correctly, this 12-can cool pack box sold for $9 in Antigua. Can't check a receipt because I could not bring myself to spend that much money for Coke. We had plenty of Crystal Lite to drink :)

Hope this explains a bit about shopping in the Caribbean!