June and July 2012

June

Fri 1^st

Check out Moana Roa with Dominique. She is a beautifully presented Bahia; a metre longer than Manureva but with all the kit for ocean sailing. Radar, AIS, water maker, diesel generator, wind generator huge inverter, washing machine and upgraded sail plan. She would be ideal if we could get a quick sale on our boat. Seems unlikely. The fact that we are considering this suggests we have already made our minds up to carry on sailing further a field.

Sat 2^nd

The students have finished their courses and are celebration. The music is loud and lasts all night until ----

Sun 3^rd

10.am a precession of yachts files out of the bay each one competing for the loudest sound system. Some have loaded extra large generators to provide the decibels.

We plan to come home to get my teeth implants fitted change credit cards and catch up. There are no moorings available but we meet Gerhardt who suggests a quiet place to anchor where he is happy to guard our boat. It seems that all sailors look out for each other.

Mon 4^th

Another bank holiday and we watch the hobie cats and optimists racing round the bay.

Tue 5^th

We meet Emanuel the guy who sold us the boat a year ago. We chat about the boat and he suggests we look at another boat tomorrow. We book tickets back home to arrive 15^th of this month.

Wed 6^th

View a Privilege 465. Loads of kit but far too expensive.

Thur 7^th

Wind up to 30 knots so stay on boat.

Travel to UK and Back

July

UK for the first few days

Thu 5th

Hans picked us up from the airport, he is a German guy who moved to Martinique about 5 years ago and has just relaxed into the Caribbean way of life. He does between 5 and 10 airport pick ups each week depending on the season. Gerhard was in the supermarket car park waiting to dinghy us to Manureva. Back on the boat; she is still exactly where we left her and we have just finished unpacking.

Fri 6th

Shopping day, with torrential rain.

Sat 7th

We take a trip to get our boat keys back from the broker, however the are closed whilst delivering yachts up north. We will need to stay put until their return.

Sun 8th

Whilst in England we had several roast dinners and in memory we try cooking one on board. Vegetables cook well but yorkshires turn into a thick flat pancake, corned beef is rubbish and tinned sprouts taste like tin!

Mon 9th

Gerhard from Blue Lagoon has invited us to join him and Marion for a game of “Mexican Train Dominoes”. They are a German couple in their 60s who have been living on their yacht for 6 years. It has been under repair for that entire time. We have heard of “Mexican Train Dominoes” a lot as in some cruising areas there are regular sessions each week. I assumed this to be just another name for the dominoes we have all played with double blank to double six dots on each domino. However this is a recent fashion in America. The “tiles” have double blank to double 12 “points”, and the game is played in two parts, After the usual selection of the descending double each player created their own “train” starting with the double and trying to get rid of all their “tiles”. You need to check out the rules on line and I expect there will be a few sets bought by next Christmas!....or maybe not..

It took 3 hours to complete one game and reviewing the rules on line I am not sure that we followed them correctly; still it was not difficult to drink Languedoc rose and concentrate on play at the same time!

Tues 10^th

Chucking it down again – off and on all day. We want to go ashore to check out but will wait for good wind and weather. Spent most of the day trying to send photos to you all without repetition. Picasa from Google is being tricky.

Wed 11^th

Whilst shopping we come across a new fruit, Abricot pay. About 130 cms in diameter and light brown in colour. You peel off the outer pith and eat the flesh around 1 to 4 huge stones. We bought one to try that had 4 stones and hardly any flesh, I guess that's the luck of the draw, it tastes a bit like an apricot!

Thur 12th

Meet Dominique and Fred at A&C Yacht Brokers, they have a couple of yachts in the pipeline, but cannot sell our yacht. So we will carry on cruising. We check out early and motor sail to Rodney Bay St Lucia. We arrive after 15:30 so it is too late to check in and we must remain on the yacht. We have an interrupted sleep; This week until next Tuesday it is Carnival so music has been turned up and last until ???? We think it was after 4 am when the dogs start barking to keep us awake longer.

Fri 13^th

Check in to customs and see Ian Cowan for advice on who and how we can fix a rigging problem. It appears we are back to manufacturing our own parts again.

Mon 16^th

Head for Carnival; On the bus on the way to Castries one of the passengers comments that in her day Carnival started late and finished at 2 am. It seems they now start at 9am and try to get the roads open by 6pm. Anyway its the usual mix of dancing, bikinis, feathers and major costumes, one girl comes as a pyramid, about 4 metres square, and there are loads of people on stilts more than 2 metres long, I didn't see anyone getting off them but it must be tricky.

Tue 17^th

What a night, more noise and the dogs wake us up at 5 am. We visit Ian Cowan regarding new sheaves and as he only has one we decide to head south. We do the usual checks and after sailing for about 2 hours decide that we should probably get the rigging sorted in Rodney bay as we trust the guys and the next chance we get will be in Grenada. A lot could happen between now and then. It has been a difficult decision as we really need to head south to avoid any hurricane activity but cannot push it as the rig is not up to scratch; or we could end up stuck in Rodney bay with the boom off, unable to sail, when a hurricane comes through. We decide to turn back and will have to visit “Chinaman” tomorrow as he is the best guy for the job.

Wed 18^th

Chinaman can do the work whenever we get the parts. Ian says they are on their way and may be available by Friday.

Thur 19^th

Parts arrive no duty to pay! Fedex costs will be the only extra. Chinaman booked for tomorrow first thing. On our way home we meet Steve and Laurie who has just bought the boat we wanted and are invited for tea on “Lateral thinking” with Brian and Catherine. Laurie is brining his family out and they will all travel back to Aus together. We discuss Moana Roa. They will probably have to spend US$30k on refit and rigging so we avoided a near disaster by not buying her. The rigging alone is US$10k and is an insurance requirement.

Fri 20^th

We get up early to prepare the boat and head into the fuel dock. 9.30 Chinaman called to sort an emergency yacht collision will be with us later. 12:30 we get a visit to say he will be with us shortly. He arrives and we find the parts do not fit. He needs to machine them down. No surprise there then. We notice 4 rivets missing (out of seven) on the boom and get them replaced. (pop rivets aircraft grade $10 each) He finally finishes and we head out to the bay; Have just enough time to shower and change ready for “Tea”. This turns out to be sirloin steak and jackets. A real treat as Brian has definitely got the knack for barbecuing steak. Catherine is a nurse, Brian has retired and they are heading south as we are, but will travel back to Aus through the Panama Canal next season. When they get home they intend to live on the yacht in the north of Australia and Catherine will go back to work. She misses her dog and is looking forward to getting home.

Sat 21^st

We put back the rig following the fixes yesterday and prepare the boat to go.

Sun 22^nd

Liming again.

Mon 23^rd

Wind a bit high so decide to stay in Rodney Bay for another day.

Tues 24^th

Set off to Soufriere Bay, we motor and sail alternately due to lack of wind and arrive about 3.pm. We stay on board as there is so much hassle in this bay. Mooring is compulsory at $25 for two nights. The boat boys offer to clean the hulls for XCD 100 or about £22 so we um and ahh and get persuaded into this. 3 hours later our hulls are clean again. This was a job we had planned to do on Wednesday before setting off early on Thursday morning. We go to the Humming bird for happy hour and meet Joyce Stowe from the Hummingbird who received an OBE for services to tourism in St Lucia.

Wed 25^th

Trudy checks out Hotel Chocolate restaurant and rooms, then checks out for customs and immigration. No telling off this time.

Thurs 26^th

5 am. And we are up preparing the boat, we get off the mooring at 5:30 and it is still dark. Past sunrise but we are sheltered by the Pitons. It is flat calm so we motor for a couple of hours with full main up. The wind starts to rise and we have a fantastic sail for about 80 miles with winds from 6 up to 27 knots, reefs in and out but not too busy, no rain but a little haze to keep the sun off. We arrive in Bequia at 15:30 and decide to stay aboard and check in tomorrow.

Fri 27^th

We get a bollocking for not checking in yesterday. “The rules say you have 24 hours to find a port of entry, and once arrived should check in immediately (if customs are open)” “When were you last here?” “Then you should know what time customs is open” We did know because it is in the pilot, however it also says we get charged overtime if we check in after 4pm. I have a sneaking suspicion that he charged us overtime anyway. Back on the boat it has dragged a metre or so, so we re-drop the anchor in about 2.2 metres of water.

We meet the usual suspects and arrange for an engine service. We watch a bit of the Olympics opening ceremony and head off to the New York bar. Maria's restaurant for Merlot and steak and chips then back to the boat.

Sat 28^th

Invited for sundowners on Tjeldøy so its off to the shops to buy rum, coke, beer, (and a few other bits). An old lady sells Trudy her mangoes that are delicious, very strong flavour. Sugar apples and avocados are also in season again we have been waiting ages for these.

2 hours turns to 4 and we are late home again...I get another laptop to fix, an Acer with a black screen.

A couple of hours on the net before bed and I haven't a clue.

Sun 29^th

Next appointment is De reef at 4pm sundowners again. I spend another hour on the net and get a fix for the Acer. Pull out ram, clean and replace. It works. So drop it off at Robin's.

Robin and the girls have been preparing “No Fear” for the racing next Friday. This is the boat that broke its mooring, ran aground and sank over Christmas when we were last here. Hull and rudder are repaired, but engine, keel, rudder, mast and hull are still in separate places! If this is ready to race in a week I will be very surprised.

We look at weather and “Wind Guru” is predicting 42 knots by next Saturday, race day. This has a 20% chance of becoming a tropical cyclone or worse. We need a plan to avoid this by heading north or south to avoid the worst. At the moment it looks like north is the best bet. 4Pm and we set of to De Reef. A dinghy ride, bus up and walk down very steep hills. We meet Sean and Ali again and discuss fontaine pajot yachts. They are a couple in their early 40s who charter their yacht for most of the year. He teaches diving and drives the speedboat for skiing etc.,she prepares 3 gourmet meals per day for guests. The last charter (5 guests) got through 18 cases of beer and 15 (5 kilo) bags of ice in six days. Plus spirits and mixers! They work very hard.

Mon 30^th

Weather changes and south now looks the better option but still over 40 knots forecast for Bequia. Sean from “Imagination” is looking at doubling up on his anchor; we could also do this as we have the parts. We are waiting to get our Stb engine serviced by Robin but it looks like he will be busy. The other reliable engineer in Bequia “Kerry” is on holiday in Carriacou so we must decide to wait for Robin or move south and postpone the service. Source and buy oil and filters for service. On our way back we stop at “Gingerbread” for home made ice cream.

Tue 31st

We move the boat into deeper water after a brief tour of the bay. We were in 2.2 metres and if we get a large swell, as forecast, we will be bashed on the bottom. We drop anchor in 3.6m and end up in 4.4m so we will be Ok in up to 3m swell. We are also experimenting with deploying a second anchor which has 15m of chain and 25m rope (rode). This requires an hour of snorkelling to adjust chain and rode to prevent chafe.