Today we wrapped up the cleaning, organizing, and prepping process.  There is a pretty good hardware store across the street from the marina which I frequented often.  I wanted to see if we could get some of the replacement items locally so we did not have to ship them (towels, pillows, plate ware, etc…) so I took a cab into town to find some recommended stores and I was hugely unsuccessful after visiting 4 stores.  I did manage to inventory the items under the main seating area which took me awhile and started packing our suitcase – ugh what a sad time. I really wanted to stay through Christmas as it is warm and pretty here – but we have already missed a lot of work.

Matt finished cleaning up the bilges, the exterior of the boat and is satisfied with the state of everything.  We left some things outside knowing that we would put them away in the morning, but to our dismay the night brought about a lot of heavy rains.  We spent most of the night closing and re-opening the hatches trying to get some air in the boat. By the time we got up we had to dry off the interior of the boat and get the items left outside in area that would not promote mold.  We closed Sugar Shack up with a touch of gratitude for delivering us safely across the Atlantic Ocean.  Off we go to the airport and to the States.

Ron left early this morning, without a good bye. L I tried to catch him at the cab area around 6am but he was long gone.  Matt and I started working on the boat early to try to beat the heat.  He worked on pickling the water marker, cleaning out the exterior pockets, cabinets, and hatch storage areas while I worked on the galley, office, and interior of the boat.  The first thing I attacked was the food storage areas under the settee.  Matt and I don’t like having the food stored under the seats so I had to rearrange the cupboards on the port side to accommodate the new food storage area.  All the food had to be taken out, evaluated for edibility, checked for expiration, cleaned and moved.  Then the storage areas had to be scrubbed down as they were all dirty, grimy, and/or something. It took me hours to go through the food, galley, linens, Tupperware and other port side cabinets.  The office was next.  We disassembled the bed and cleared everything for a good wipe down. The drawers were re-arranged, the books were removed (hopefully we will replace them with kindles), the bookcases and shelves cleaned.  Now the office looks like an office and is super clean.  Then I moved on to the port head – this was a dreaded area as it was used by 2 men for 2 ½ months and never cleaned.  It stunk, really, really bad, everything was stained and overall it was determined to be the worst job on the boat.  It took me another couple of hours to get the head to a reasonable state of cleanliness.   There is still a smell, but that could be due to the head and use of sea water as opposed to fresh water – at least it is clean enough for me to use now J

Matt heard about a “jump up” tonight which we have always wanted to attend.  We arrived a bit too early as they were still setting up (it was around 830p), but we were able to get a first look everything and walk around before the crowds arrived.  They had a speaker that was over 12’ tall and 10’ wide – huge thumping noise with great local music.  There were dozens of vendors selling their food all over the place.  We sallied up to the bar to get a beverage (local’s pay 2 EC for a beer, but us gringos like us paid 5 EC).  We tried some pork kabob from a small vendor and it was amazing.  Matt told me to get a platter of mixed foods from one of the larger vendors and they offered rabbit, goat, horse meat and a mystery meat – no way, José!  I went to a different vendor and got chicken, macaroni and cheese and some other local flavor – not so bad, not nearly as good as the first kabob.

Up at dawn, watched the sunrise over the St. Lucia for the first time on an Anchor. The amount of boats in the bay was 10x that had anchor lights on last night when we chose our anchor spot. Probably a hundred or so boats anchored out side of Rodney Bay, right in front of a Sandals resort.

Fired up the engines and rolled toward the marina, tried to hail the marina on the VHF but no luck, till we almost got all the way in. They put us next to a 70 foot ketch, with a slight cross wind, but we stuck the landing and with help from the dock hands tied up with out a scratch or loud words.

Clearing customs only took 1.5 hours, and boy that building must be built out of noodles cause it sure was moving all over the place, had to lean up against the wall to stand still. The sea legs kept wanting to twitch and catch my balance. Of course a trip to the market after customs is my MO to get a beer, sure it was 9am, but was necessary after that.

Next task was to organize the air fare and make sure eveyone could get out on time, and Christine worked her magic and found a flight out that afternoon for Marvin so that he could be home for is birthday on Friday.

The rest of the day was spent lounging and drinking in the sun and talking to other boaters and absolutely no talking about our trip. Lots of beers and drinks, with a cheeseburger in paradise at the local cafe.

We don’t have the correct plugs to plug in the electricity so that might be on the agenda today to get an adapter or shore cable for the USA type plugs everything we have is for 220/50 hz.

We are safely near land, Ron leaves on Friday, we are currently scheduled to leave on Monday. Since we were late getting here, the haul out date was missed and now they can’t get us out till some later date. So that might put a wrench in the plans.

Its beautiful here!