11 June 1995 Rodney Bay Lagoon, St Lucia
School work in the morning. The boys played with Ben. Glenys pottered about repairing the aft wind scoop and I played the clarinet. “Mistral” came for a beer.
12 June 1995 Rodney Bay Lagoon, St Lucia
School work in the morning. Glenys went to the shopping mall with Marion, I wrote some faxes to Paul Preston (our accountant) about our tax position and to Airtech about the missing filters. We put 25 litres of fuel in the tank from a container, so that we can run the engine for a couple of days more. I’ve lasted 7 days without drinking and it was no problem.
13 June 1995 Rodney Bay Lagoon, St Lucia
Glenys and I dropped the boys off at “Moby Dick” at quarter past eight, so that we could go on a First Aid Course. We arrived at the Red Cross Building to be told that they had rearranged the course to the afternoon. We went back and asked Marion if she would babysit in the afternoon for us!
I cleaned up the fibreglass around the chain plates which looks very strong! We went for the afternoon course, both got 100% on the exam and paid out $50 EC each. They gave us our certification cards so I don’t think that we’ll bother to go to the bandaging session tomorrow! We ended up having a glass or three of wine on “Moby Dick”. We met John from “Culnor” (UK).
14 June 1995 Rodney Bay Lagoon, St Lucia
School work in the morning. I went back to the doctor about my bursa. She said that the surgeon didn’t want to drain it just yet and had suggested a course of an anti-inflammatory drug. She gave me some tablets called “Cataflam”. I tidied up the starboard pilot berth and put the wall linings and boxes back. We then had a major tidy up.
15 June 1995 Rodney Bay Lagoon, St Lucia
Glenys did school work and I re-tensioned the rigging. I didn’t know if I was doing it right, so I went and got John from “Culnor” to have a look. He told me that I had the forestay tight enough but that I should start again with the shrouds. I slackened off the shrouds and checked that the mast was central to the boat. I then tensioned the upper shrouds and then the lowers. I’ve since found out that the sequence should be back and forestay, lowers and baby stay and then uppers. Anyway, it looks OK to me. We’ll check it on the sail down to Marigot. I suspect that I’ve always had the upper shrouds too tight which could account for the chain plates pulling away.
I went up the mast and checked the rest of the rigging. We went to “Culnor” for dinner. “Moby Dick” and Barbara from “Kelly’s Eye” were there too.
16 June 1995 Rodney Bay Lagoon, St Lucia
Hangovers this morning. Glenys hung around all day feeling sorry for herself. I went into town and got some new reeds for the clarinet. We had a quiet night.
17 June 1995 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
We put the genoa onto the forestay and went to the fuel dock. We filled up with fuel and water. We then went out of the Lagoon to anchor off the beach again. I filled 3 tanks. We received a fax from Ceris, telling us that Fiona has had a baby girl.
The bloody customs are still on strike, so we’ve asked Barbara to pick up the mail for us. She’s going to be here until end of July and should meet us in Trinidad. We can call them on 4407 KHz at half past seven or leave a message at 777A if our plans change. It’s great to be back out in the open sea. I started to feel ill and had the runs, so we had a quiet afternoon, punctuated by my frequent, desperate runs to the heads.
18 June 1995 Rodney Bay to Marigot Bay, St Lucia
I felt a lot better this morning. I’ve still got a dodgy feeling in my stomach, but I think that the runs have gone. We did school work in the morning and then sailed to Anse Cochon.
It was a broad reach all the way which was wonderful. Just outside Marigot we sailed close hauled so that I could check the tension in the rigging – the leeward shrouds were both very loose so I tightened them when we got to Marigot. As we were approaching Anse Cochon, the bolt which holds the kicking strap bracket on the boom sheared. It went with a bang which didn’t do my nerves any good at all. I bodged it when I got to Marigot and I’ll re-tap it in Bequia. Glenys and I did a dive which was OK. We returned to Marigot for the night – “Moby Dick” came for a sundowner, while I was doing my repairs.
19 June 1995 Marigot Bay, St Lucia
It was raining when we woke up, raining at lunch time, raining at dinner and raining when we went to bed – horrible day. We did schoolwork in the morning and sulked for the rest of the day. Craig’s front, top, right tooth is coming through. Unfortunately, it’s pushing behind his dead first tooth and pushing it forwards. We had a discussion about it but have decided to leave it for a few days to see what happens. The boys went out to play on a tree swing with Ben from “Mistral”. Brett pushed Ben when he didn’t want to and Ben hit Brett. Some of the other kids had to stop the ensuing fight. Brett came back, burst into tears and said that he’s “going to F***ing kill Ben tomorrow”! We told him that Ben is just a bully and the best thing to do is to not play with him – a difficult situation!
20 June 1995 Marigot Bay to Soufriere, St Lucia
We did school work in the morning. I cleared out of customs and we motored around to the Hummingbird Beach. We were going to stop at Anse Chastenet for a dive, but they’ve put out “No Anchoring/Marine Park” buoys. I think that there are some yacht moorings near to the shore, but we didn’t investigate.
We had the chance to do a couple of tacks as we approached Soufriere and I reckon the shrouds are still too loose – I put another turn on each shroud and the baby stay. We anchored off the Hummingbird Hotel. Glenys and I went for a dive which was good, but I’m getting bored because it’s all the same. We decided that we’ve had enough of St Lucia, so we plan to go to St Vincent tomorrow.
“Moby Dick” have anchored at the other side of the bay and we thought we ought to tell them about our change in plans. Fortunately, Jimmy dinghied over to check out our anchorage – theirs is a bit rolly! Glenys and I have had enough of cruising in company – it’s too restricting! We’ve told them that we’ll keep with them until we get to Bequia.