On the way to Pigeon Island we stopped Marina du Sud to get gas.  We wanted to be sure that we had enough gas that we could motor the entire way from Pigeon Island to Antigua if we needed to.  This was an adventure in itself.  Who knew that getting gas could be so difficult.

We pulled into the little fuel dock in this protected area where the marina was located.  The dock was only 40 feet and our boat is 42 feet long so that was our first challenge.  Two extra feet wasn’t that big of a deal.  However, there was no dock attendant.  A random woman was on the dock and I asked her to tie off our bow rope.  Steve was able to maneuver the boat so that I could jump onto the dock and tie off the stern line.  The woman was having difficulty with the bow line so I ran up there to assist.  The problem was that on both cleats where we were tying off, three of the four pins were missing.  I tied the boat as best as I could and then looked around.  There was a gas station up on the road above the dock.  So, I walked up there and, in French, asked to purchase some diesel for our boat.  The attendant had a good sense of humor, took one look at me, and in French started laughing and asked if I really was filling up the boat’s tank.  I laughed with him and said, in French, that my husband was actually filling up the boat.  He then proceeded to draw a picture for me and told me how to get the diesel.  I knew the French word for diesel was diesel.  However, the gas pump had two different words on them, Gazoile and something else which meant gasoline.  I also knew a word for gasoline, but apparently there are multiple words for diesel and gasoline.  Anyways, back at the pump, I followed the instructions and nothing happened.  We were supposed to put the hose in our tank from the unit on the end of the dock.  Then I was supposed to take the other hose off of the pump closer to land.  Unfortunately, that didn’t work.  Finally, a local boater who happened to pull up to the dock spoke English and helped us out.  The attendant had to reset the pump.  Anyways, after that adventure we made it to Pigeon Island.

The water when we arrived in Pigeon Island was incredibly calm and flat.  We were thrilled by this after the rolly experience we had in Les Saintes.  The sun was shining and it was a beautiful afternoon.  We took the dinghy into a cove in front of where we anchored.  At first we were quite worried that our dinghy would be stolen here.  We usually lock our dinghy up, but this area looked quite disheveled.  This dock was right on the end of a mall complex that contained a launderette, supermarket, and patisserie.  It was Saturday afternoon and the Patisserie was closed, but the supermarket was open.