Today we sail. Been slacking on the updates, too many beers and heated games of dominos.

So we stayed an extra day in Rodney Bay, that gave Christine time to hit the Island Water World, for some boat parts. Our boat brush had sprouted legs and walked off on its own, so she picked me up another to keep the boat clean. This time I marked the boat’s name on on it. That last one only lasted 4 months before it jumped ship.

We went to El Rey for dinner, the place I tried last time, fresh dorado and baked chicken was yummy, and about 1/2 the price of the marina restaurants.

Out of the marina, monday morning without incident, it is almost like we have done this before. Motored down the lee of St Lucia to the Pitons, Christine and Wayne swung into Souferier and I took the dingy to clear custom as they went to grab a mooring ball between the pitons. I prayed the dingy would run that 2 miles. It did without too much trouble. I did die when i was 50 yards from the mother ship, but it started right back up with a quick jerk on the starting rope. No rowing was needed.

Got back from customs, tried to wash my hands to make lunch, but there was no water in the sink. Turns out we had sprung a leak in the fresh water hose on the port side. Filled that bilge with 40 gallons of water. Pulled the stuff out to dry and time to chase down the leak. Turned out to be the same hose that busted last time, cut another 6 inches off and it is as good as new, but we will need to replace the entire hose next trip.

I got up early, 6am island time, and by 7am we were off the ball, Christine and I raised the sails and headed out. Motor sailing and making water to fill the bilge up again. The port tank feeds the sink and the port side of the boat, so we need water over there.

Little to no wind at those early hours, but once we cleared St Lucia, we sailed without the engines, ran the water maker, and still made 8 knots. When we get in the lee of St vincent we will probably have to start the engines . Todays’s trip is 55 miles, 38 more to go as I type this.

We are heading to admiralty bay to clear in to the Grenadines, maybe to have a beer with some Austin folks whom are staying on the island this week as well.

Some days like today you have to remind yourself that it is FUN.

Long day from St Vincent to St Lucia, not really that far, a total of 35 miles or so, but all the fresh water that rinsed off the boat we are now covered in salt again. Christine at the helm getting soaked all day in 30+ knots of head wind. We raised a little gib for a while but ended up just burning diesel to get past the huge waves and high winds that were absolutely no fun today. I slept or tried to as Christine helmed and Wayne hiding I hid from the spray off the bows. Wave periods of 2 seconds and huge we dropped in valleys and sails off peaks.

We made it to St Lucia with about 10 mins to spare to clear customs and immigrations. Oh the boat boys, the boat boys. After so many days it just gets a bit annoying but today I guess it all worked out. They followed us in for at least 60 minutes and we choose a mooring ball that ended up being reserved for bigger boats. No biggie we just wanted to clear customs any way. We took the ball temporarily and it’s a biotch that got wrapped around the dagger boards and then the boat boys wanted squabbled over the “reserving” of balls but I finally accepted a ride in their fast boat to make customs. And to,d them they would have to help us moor in the next bay over after clearing customs for the small fee of 60EC.

Customs and immigration was a breeze as I’ve been here before and and the end of the year every one is friendly.

Quick trip to the grocery for the beer and some bread for dinner and back to move the big boat over between the Piton mountains.

The boat boys held us a spot while I was clearing customs and we got hooked up pretty god and paid our fee to the boat boys and customs for spending the night here then of course the park rangers wanted their conservation fee too.

As we Re getting settled, that means a cold beverage and watching how the 30 knot winds blow us around on this mooring ball. Wayne says “Matt, come check this out on the bow”. So the boat ahead of us a 54 foot supper amel is driving quite close. No one on board. We had noticed a bit earlier that their briddle was a bit snug and the mooring ball was submerged but so was ours an
S the wind pressure on these balls is significant. However the Amel was within 10 feet of us and getting closer so obviously something wasn’t right. Basically the boat was a drift and coming down on us and the other 7 boats on the moorings behind us. Wayne and Christine grabbed some of our large fenders and prepared to fend off and I screamed like a little girl to the boat boy on the dock asking where the owners were. He came over and used his dingy to tow the boat and mooring away from us and the rest of the boats it was floating down on. A Canadian couple saw what was going on and came up from the other side and eventually released the mooring to the 120 Metternich water which allowed the boat boy to re secure the boat ant another mooring. Unfortunately it’s still ahead of us in the wind direction so we’ll still be keeping an eye out for it

Any way all is good, found some free wifi from a beach resort and catching up on old posts. A quick pasta and chicken and garlic bread after a snack of cheese and caper stuffed olives the crew is winding down early after a long beat into the wind.