Picture for Easter

From Pigeon Island, St. Lucia, looking at Sandals Resort.  You can see our dingy tied up to the pier, lower center.

Martinique, St Pierre

I really just wanted a shot of the guy up on the third story balcony behind me but thought it might be impolite to shoot the camera at him.


We are now in St. Lucia in Rodney Bay as we are returning to Texas for Bruce's sons' Air Force graduation in San Antonio.  From there we'll be going back to Colorado to have some surgical reconstruction.....returning to St Lucia when all is good, probably early May, to take the Chicken boat back to Trinidad for the hurricane season.


Maybe next year we'll have better luck and nothing physical to deal with.

Martinique, St Pierre

In the 1902 volcanic eruption, the only person to survive was in this prison cell.  He later joined Barnums circus showing off his wounds.







PS.  The mechanic never showed up.

While waiting, we took a little tour of the island

To a Rhum distillery!  Got a mini 2 hour tour of the SW portion of Martinique, did the tour of the distillery and went to a beach to collect a sand sample for Carlos.  Tomorrow is our big day to see if the mechanic actually shows up at 8am or not.

Sitting and waiting in Martinique

Having trouble with black smoke out of the engine so we'll be holed up here until Tuesday so the mechanic can check out the timing.   Bruce doesn't want to turn a $200 repair into a $2K repair.   There are so many boats here; we had no idea Marin was home to so many permanent local boats and this picture shows only maybe a 12th of the volume.  All is well except we lost an oar and can't find a replacement in any of the 12 boat part shops here.  Go figure.  Anyone coming down to join us, be a  prepared to be hauling a dingy oar.

Finally..got into to post a pic

Gorgie and Simba
Still having posting problems but finally got a new computer today.
We'll try to get it up and running tomorrow but we'll be underway most of the day. 
Our new crew member from Oklahoma arrived at  4:00 and discovered he got the wrong bag and had to go back 1 1/2 hours to Vieux Fort one way and back again.  Everything is good to go.
All's okay from Rodney Bay,

Spotty internet, get what you can

Our Wahoo!!
About 30+ pounds of fish meat in the freezer.   

Tobago Cays, St. Vincent

Many of you will recognize this spot.

More fix-it pics

Having fun now! 
On my belly again,
Fixing the shower drain.

Fix-It Day in Bequia, St. Vincent

Dink wasn't working and we were not happy with the connection to the mooring so Simba got in the dink to hand over hand himself to the bow to re-run the lines to the mooring, lost his hand hold and started floating away; no oars and the engine wasn't working.  This nice lady in the yellow dink rescued him and brought him home to the Chicken.
We also fixed the bilge pump and the shower drain...then all 4 of us went to shore for a rum drink and bought a pineapple and, of course, beer.

Immigration on Grenada

Finally we got checked in and out in one day.  Never got cross examined like we did today.  Bruce and I were telling the story of how our dink wasn't working because of receiving mixed fuel in Trinidad...they excused us and Simba had to go in and get cross examined alone. Have long have you worked on the boat; you have any drugs:, what "tour" did you take (Simba was saying tool), etc. Talk about discrimination just because he's a Rasta!
Off towards Tobago Cays tomorrow.
Weather is excellent. 

Sunset in Grenada

Well, I was intending to post a photo but my personal computer from which I usually post from died a couple days ago and the master boat computer has been on the fritz.  I have a new personal back up computer coming from NYC on the 19th.  We don't like to let our master computer get too hot so I'll try again later.
All is well.  Here's the photo....

New Main!!

We finally have the new main and Bruce is happy, happy, happy.  Rolled up beautifully.
Customs - done
Immigration - done
duty free - done

Trouble with the refrigerator

Bruce and our Canadian crew, Taylor,  trying to repair the refrigeration relay.  Didn't work.
Have to call in a professional tomorrow.  Refer doesn't get colder than 60.
Looks like we pulling out of here early Wednesday after customs and duty free.  We can make Grenada in 10 hours.
Still waiting for the main sail....so still we wait.  Oh boy!  Another trip to the Hi-Lo supermarket.  As long as we are in town, the more things I think we need to provision.

Camera found! Here we go.

Looking good!  Head sails on, decks all scrubbed, stainless polished, one new wheel cover (the other missing), major provisioning done with some fill in tomorrow and we're out of here Tuesday after the main sail is delivered and installed on Monday.  Everyone please keep your fingers crossed that Bruce is happy with it so that we're not stuck here for another week.   

lost my camera, bummer

Hence, no photos.  If I don't re-find it by tomorrow, I'm getting a new one at Price Smart, the Trinidad equivalent to CostCo.  Boat is morphing into good shape.  Just waiting on the main sail whose transportation vehicle had an accident en route to us so it will arrive on Monday.  Keep fingers crossed that Bruce is happy with its cut and design so we can get out of here on Tuesday and head north.