We finally got off the boat to explore. 

We have been working hard on boat jobs and are starting to get some work done but there’s a lot more to do. Sunday I finally got the water maker working. I started it up on Saturday and found a lot of leaks and a defective water filter. Off to the marine store to buy a new filter and start at it again Sunday. With the new filter and redoing a lot of the fittings it worked. We ran it for an hour and made about 20 gallons. I want to do a few more upgrades on it and it should be great. Monday we took the bus into Philipsburg for a day off the boat. We didn’t know what to expect because our cruising guide tells us that beside the casinos and the duty free shopping there’s not much to see. We were dropped off in town and went straight to the beach area witch look very nice.

No one on the beach

 

 Me and the blue and white camel I rode in on!

 

Walking down the board walk to the end we decided to walk back through the main “Front” street. There are lots of jewelry stores almost every other store is a jewelry store. Then out of nowhere came a German fellow named Bijon. He caught us of guard and reeled us in like a couple of dead fish. Time share guy! But wait, he said it’s not time share it’s something else and you also win a prize he said. Laurie was interested in the free prize so it was off to the office and get the sales pitch. We got in and the room and we had a view of the ocean and it was air conditioned. That was ok for me, I could sit and relax and stare out the window at the ocean and the beach. After the presentation the heat was turned on. This guy didn’t know who he was dealing with! I just said “Forget About It”. The free prize was a 3 day and 2 night stay at a hotel. “Forget About It” So now that we were cooled off it was back out to the street for some site seeing. This town can be compared to Playa De Carmen.

 

The street was closed off and people were standing in the street trying to get you into their store to buy jewelry. As I said almost every other store is a jewelry store. This town does well when the cruise ships come in but when there are no cruise ships this time of year we felt we were the only people in town and everyone wanted our money. But I told them “Forget About It”. So we had some lunch by the ocean board walk then went home.

 

Next week we will head over to Maho bay. This is a famous spot to watch planes take off and land. They come so close to you it’s almost possible to touch them when they land.