" A LADY " Trip around the world ( presently in St Lucia, the Caribbean )

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Wed 6 Jan 2010 23:19
2nd JANUARY  2010
 
08.00  Marigot Bay .St Lucia
All up out of bed, greeted by pissing rain, however we wont complain as we dont see too much of this.
 
09.00  we all went ashore to stretch the legs and get some fresh milk
10.00 We sailed out of Marigot Bay  heading for Rodney Bay.
11.30  we tied up to E 3 on the marina in Rodney Bay and plugged into the marina services.
14.00 we collected the rent a car.
16.00  we , as in Stefan , Sarah, Paul& the Skipper went to the local pizzeria and some super pizza's
19.00  The skipper took Aileen to Mass in the car,
 
2o.oo  we had dinner ashore, as this was the kids last night, and we met Siun and family while in the restaurant.and had a night cap with them..
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
 
3rd January 2010
All out of bed and the winter visitor's got busy packing their bags for the homeward trip later in the day
 
10.00  we had a call from kevin Dwyer to say that his flight was going to be 4 hours late.
14.00  we all piled into the car and headed off to the airport, about a 1.5 hour journey
15.30 arrieved at the airport and after lots of hugs , goodbye's and all that stuff , we suddenly bumped into Donal Mc Clement , who had arrieved early..
So a little more chat before more goodbye's again and off we went in the car heading for rodney bay.
Back at base, Donal settled into his cabin  and at 19.30 we went up to the Marina village and joined the party which was being thrown by  I.Y.G.
We met lots of people from all the different boats taking part in the round the world rally,
including Chris Tibb's , the weather expert for the organision.
 
Later we had dinner in the " Bosun" restaurant and were joined by our final crew member " KEVIN"  about 23'00hrs
 
 Sooooo   the base crew for the next few month's are :-     Stephen Hyde,    Skipper
                                                                                    Aileem Hyde  ,      Family ambassador
                                                                                    Donal McClement, Communications & contacts dept. plus, plus.
                                                                                    Kevin Dwyer ,        Photography and Media Correspondent.
 
We had a late night , needless to mention the *********
 
Bunks..................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
 
 
 
4th JANUARY 2010  MONDAY
 
08.00  up, up suffering from major hangover's
and got ourselves together as we had " Alwyin "  comming to service the engine, the Generator and look at some other things as well.
We also had " Philip Brown "  an electrician to service the WINLASS and also repair the port navigation light and Tricolour,
 
Thes items all took many, many hours to fix, in fact they had to come back again the following day.
So , Donal and Kevin went to the " trip " briefing ( that's round the world trip ) in the local " palm Haven Hotel "
The breefing took 3 hours and the lads were blery eyed by the time it was finished,
 
Aileen met by chance in a supermarket a woman we met 10 years ago in Rodney Bay, since then she married a local called Martin Devaux,
The woman called Ann was originally from Dublin, so Ann and her whole family were invited to the boat for afternoon tea by Aileen,
 
20.00 We all went to ther " Spinniker for our dinner and another late night was had by all......
 
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
 
TUESDAY  5th JANUARY  2010......
 
08.00 we jumped out of bed as " Alwin " and  " Philip " were comming early to finish off their work. ALWIN  ( who was 38 today ) and dose not drink or smoke was having a bad day, While replacing the top to the water filters on the " SEA FRESH " ( water maker or desalination plant)
he accidently cut a hole in water supply pipe  and had to replace the whole lot, just as well , as he located another leak from the Jacobs filter to
the tap in the galley sink..and fixed that too..
Its unusual to find locals in this neck of the world who dont drink, smoke, or do drugs, and be punctual as well.
He was excellent at what he did,  Well done Alwin.  (  by the way, Alwin and Philip are as black as the ace of spades )
 
09'00  We had a Photo Shoot at the boat by the World Cruising Club.
10.00  Kevin went to a " Saefty Seminar " at the   Palm Haven Hotel  
10.00   Donal went off in the car to get the provisions for the trip.
Skipper remained with   Alwin  helping, or really trying to learn how to service the engine & generator,
Meanwhile   Philip   is strugling with the port nav. light.  it seems the wires in the anchor locker were all corroded and broken, so they had to be replaced all the way back to the junction box under the WINDLASS , they had to take all the chain out of the chain locker to get at the box
and then seal it all up again , once they got the light working again, using a new product called " liquid tape" to seal the wire joints.
ONLY TIME will tell wether this magic stuff works or not..................
 
17.00  The skipper, Aileen, and Donal, went to the   " Palm Haven Hotel " for another Photo shoot , followed by a Skippers Briefing,
 19.00 The skipper's meeting was followed at the hotel by a FINAL farewell PARTY....
Kevin joined us for the party and it was an excellent affair, lots of  entertainment and a super steel band.
 
22'00 hrs   We wandered back to the boat via the marina bar where we bumped into Ann Marie O'Sullivan , remember we mention Anny before
Her Father was from CORK,,  and now she sails a yacht called "  GIRLS FOR SAIL "" and lives in London 
Anyway we said our final fairwells , and off to an earley night.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz