The New Year celebrations in St Lucia were accompanied by fireworks and music all around the boat including a few that seemed very close as they whistled by. A few parachute flares were included – presumably by yachts getting rid of expired flares.

We finally got delivery of our new RIB (inflatable dinghy with a solid hull) and outboard engine that is much bigger, faster and drier than the old one . This has made an enormous difference as it means we can all get to the local beach in about 15 minutes or, with only two of us and Oliver, we can plane (skim across the top of the water at great speed) and get there in 5 minutes.

So on New Year’s Day we went by dinghy for the Sunday buffet lunch at the hotel on the beach that we were at on Christmas Day and it was even better! I’m pretty sure we’ll be back there this Sunday.

We also visited Pigeon Island beach and park/nature reserve, although this was limited to the beach and the bar/cafe and we haven’t had a chance to explore the walks and old fort on the island yet as the focus was on the first opportunity for snorkelling. Oliver got on quite well with his first snorkelling but hasn’t quite grasped the idea yet.

Generally his swimming is really excellent and he amazes everyone who sees it so we are hoping that he will take to snorkelling after a bit more practice as it would be a really good activity for him. One of the restaurants on the marina has a swimming pool and they let anyone use it at any time so he often goes there for a swim in the afternoons when we have exhausted the various activity options on the boat (cars trains, making tents. watching videos, tying knots, playing with winches, etc.).

Wendy’s plaster cast on her broken wrist came off on 5th January, much to her relief and celebration, so we now want to leave Rodney Bay marina fairly soon as getting in and out of the dinghy when we are at anchor will be so much easier. We’ll just check how she gets on with it over the next week and then hopefully leave.

We have now been waiting for three weeks to get work done on the engine, fridge and watermaker. Delays were due to Christmas, then New Year and now the latest reason is that the World ARC (the continuation of the ARC around the world for about 18 months) is due to leave on Sunday so this week those boats have been given priority. However the essential engine work is promised for Monday and at a push we could do it ourselves. The watermaker is unlikely to get fixed as the guy I chased up yesterday seems pretty useless so we will have to live with the leak and hope it holds out for a while.

I think we’ll leave in the next week to 10 days whatever the status of the boat.