Near death experience on the dinghy, or almost

Yesterday we decided to visit Anse de Colombiers which is the other viable anchorage on the island. We are in Anse de Corossol which is considered part of Gustavia, and they charge you to anchor here, not a lot but still, just to anchor. And it's a really rolly anchorage. We are about a mile out from Gustavia and two from Colombiers in the opposite direction so we decided to dinghy over there. The seas here are always rough, and yesterday was a mild day. To get there you have to cross a passage between large rocks that looked tricky on the way in but we saw a dinghy coming out and we went in. Large waves but we somehow managed it. The anchorage is lovely as well as the beach and there is a path to go up the cliff where the views are stunning. We stayed a while but both worried because we knew now we went against the waves. Even landing the dinghy was rough. So we carefully chose the moment in a lull between waves to climb onto it and that went well. I threw myself inside the dinghy, we put the engine in the water, I turned it on and juan jumped in. Then we carefully edged toward the passage. It looked bad, but the alternative of going around was also bad because the waves were high and it would be much, much longer. So we both put on our life jackets, I sat on the dinghy floor and off we went. It was rough but of course we made it through. It gave us such a fright though, that Juan didn't let me take off my life jacket until we got to the boat.
In the evening we decided to have dinner in town. Gustavia is in fact very lovely, but obviously Sunday night it's not its best day. We only found two restaurants open and they did not look too inviting. With dozens of mega, mega yachts around it you have to wonder where are all those people? I guess dining on their boats in the rolly anchorage which is what we ended up doing.

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