Forgive me, it's been a while since my last confession, but you can blame my quiescence on the Caribbean. It's hard to find time to sit down between repairs and the fun. We're all enjoying ourselves at any a rate and we wish ye all the best back home. To be honest the heat is unmerciful here, 30 + every day. Siestas here are mandatory, well your body won’t let you operate in this heat; we all secretly would love a bit of rain and a turf fire and not to be dodging falling coconuts.

Anyway I digress, lets backtrack to where we left you last which was in the middle of the Atlantic just before our last full moon. The wind was steadily coming from east north east around 15 knots with gusts of maybe 40 knots. Not ideal weather but we made good progress. It must have been the 19th, John would remember anyway because he decided to pierce his ear with a fish hook, this operation was carried out at around the witching hour under the full moon by the three surgeons Brian Donnacha and Cian who all had a go at it. Derry's Hippocratic Oath precluded him from this eejitary, but anyway that was the highlight of our day; well actually now that I think about it Derry caught a marlin, not something you do every day. As it was thrashing on deck and john was trying to do the necessary bad deed, the marlin nearly went into Donnacha’s cabin through the porthole. Where it profusely bled all over poor Donnacha’s sleeping head, normally the worst you can hope for in bed is a bit of salt water. In this case we were left a CSI esque crime scene and a strong smell of iron. The fish was beautiful, a real meaty fish with a delicate flavour. It only really needs to see a pan and it's cooked, it also is perfect for curries because the meat holds together very well.

On the morning of the 20th the wind backed to a more easterly, upon getting up Derry decided it was ideal conditions for putting up the parasail. This is a modification of a spinnaker used for running downwind. It's quite a beautiful beast and a joy to use, the physics are simple. Its 135 square metres, it stops itself from collapsing in light wind by utilising, for all the world what is a paraglider in the centre of the sail. It's been dubbed the flying ninja on the boat, simply because once it's up it looks like a ninja's mask. Were getting the hand of putting it up smoothly now, Cian Brian and Donnacha go up the bow and get the sail out of the locker and lay it out on the deck, attach it to the halyard and port and starboard sheets. Meanwhile Derry and John look after the lines and the raising of the sail from the aft. You have to be quite sure footed going out on deck, nearly every time without fail Brian and Cian stub their feet on cleats and rollers, much to the amusement of the others.

Shark! Big big shark probably about the size of a pilot whale was shadowing the boat for around 2 hours. Then the cheeky beggar backed off and took our fishing tackle with a big chomp. Then by the afternoon watch we sailed in company with two pilot whales, the reason we could compare the shark to the size of a whale. These two affable chappies would pop their heads out of the water every few minutes giving us a beady eye. As usual the lads did what they always do when confronted by cetaceans, pumped up the tunes and danced around the deck trying to keep the attention of our graceful friends. The power and strength of whales is amazing, they have no problems ducking and diving with grace belying their size there is nothing cumbersome about them at all. Were pretty much scraping the barrel with the food situation, and just as we thought we'd have to get used to canned food a Dorado took our second line

By the 22nd our wind was dying and started coming from east north east again, after a while looking at this Derry opted to change to the cruising chute which is another spinnaker variation, it gives you a bit more options because it can sail closer to the wind than the parasail. Also you can tack with the cruising chute, it's not as comfortable sailing as the parasail as the bow starts digging in whereas while parasailing the whole boat is lifted out of the water and it's much more comfortable. We’re seeing quite a few whales, 2 minkie whales and maybe a bigger Wright whale later on quite a bit away from the boat checked us out and motored on easily outpacing us.

The morning of the 23rd the smell of land was on the breeze, this is a phenomenon that’s known to sailors. You can nearly smell the loam of the soil before sighting land. Over breakfast we got a 30 knot gust of wind which to our dismay tore the cruising chute before we could leave the lines loose, but it’s not a total loss it tore at the narrow end of the clew corner, and it’ll see a sail maker soon enough. As we sailed on with three dolphins at the bow, we got a sun shower and a Double rainbow pretty much right at the bow framing St Lucia. Really a sight for sore eyes. We anchored up surrounded by ostentatious mansions, palm trees and the sound of music from the various marina front bars. As the sun dropped behind the hills we all hopped into the tender and headed for the restaurant for a beer and a meal.

On the 24^th we brought the avocet into the marina proper, luckily enough just before the first drops of rain came a tumbling from the sky, and we kid you not within the first 5 minutes it probably rained more than it rains at home all year. Wearing foul weather gear was laughable there was no keeping dry in this. Not much got done that day just a tidy up before Margaret’s arrival on Christmas. Derry Brian and Donnacha went shopping for the Christmas dinner. We sat at the marina having local brews with a Cornish skipper looking at the awesome power of the rain which was roaring down. Dimming even the flashes of lightning that were hitting the hills around us which glowed in the dark like brief glows of indigo. Our Cornish friend Justin was looking after a larger yacht for his absent owner so we took pity on him and invited him to the avocet for Christmas.

Christmas day, D day, Margaret would be coming soon so a last minute scrub a dub dub to clean the tub was carried out. Marlin blood etc had to be cleaned off. Once everything was squared away we found another 2 stray lone sailors. Lars a Swedish gent sailing a sister boat to ours a 47 Benetau, basically the same design, he was having issues with his bow thruster and Derry having dealt with this design flaw on the avocet decided to help Lars make his control unit waterproof and operational and beefing up the batteries by the bow thruster as the power supplied by the domestic batteries weren’t worth a puff when you have a powerful motor drawing on them. Brian and Derry had a look drew up a plan of action for the 26^th, not a great hangover cure really dealing with electrical issues. Derry and Margaret were star hosts, all the guests were really grateful to have such a good crowd to celebrate with. The trad music was played over the speakers and the avocet was a little slice of Ireland in the Caribbean. We all ate a good hearty roast in 30+ heat, ten shiny smiling faces around the table, sweat dripping off our noses. They were good guests too bringing plenty of champagne and what nots with them for our daily libations.

26^th and 27^th were recuperating and maintenance days, we fixed the problem on the Benetau much to the delight of Lars. Other people could see Derry working his phase tester and came over right away plaguing him with questions about navigation systems and instrumentation problems. Then Derry and Brian popped on over to Justin’s boat which was a beautiful 57ft Jeannau, a ship in comparison to the Avocet, Derry ascertained that they had an earth leak, which the owner was pretty miffed about as he’d bought it from a boat show and has since had two professionals out trying to isolate the problem. An earth leak can be terminal for an engine if ignored as the current causes a potential difference which cause corrosion by electrolysis, as everything is cooled by seawater you really want to deal with this. Justin had been putting in new zinc sacrificial anodes every 4 weeks when they should last much longer. A zinc anode will protect pipes by corroding first. Derry had one look at his electrical system and called for an empty bottle of coke, the two others looked at him as if he was crazy, he crushed the bottle and snuck inside giving some incrimination about French engineers. He popped out and checked for the earth leak using an ohm meter, looked up and was grinning like a Cheshire cat declared that he’d solved their problem. The designers had packed domestic wires from the inverter onto the bare bus bars (thick copper bars carrying current) and in a humid climate electrical current will flow along the outside of the wires giving you this problem, a bit silly for a million dollar boat. Derry and his apprentice Brian walked back to the boat carrying the spoils of their efforts, which seems to always be a few bottles of wine.

28^th and 29^th were dedicated to the avocet, repairing sails, boats horn and getting our generator out for a rebuild. It was some mission rigging up ropes and pulleys dragging it out with millimetres to spare, but everyone has still has their fingers. Unfortunately the good Karma we’ve accrued didn’t come to fruition, the generator specialist wouldn’t overhaul it but gave us a costing for other generators in Panama. Were pretty sure he’s a cowboy pulling a fast one and just wants the generator to do a rebuild himself and flog it off elsewhere. His name is Egbert Charles but we’re calling him Engelbert Humperdinck, fat lot of good he is. Anyway the refrigerator guy came and was brilliant in fixing our freezer, real professional. If your ever bring a fridge south remember Boyles law and let some gas out as you go, because as the ambient temperature rises so does the volume of gas in the system and the compressor will keep tripping out. Anyway we’ve been cooling water with it now which is brilliant for the hot days. Around mid afternoon here you won’t even see mad dogs and Englishmen out and about, but you will see Cian and John bopping around with the local Rastafarians going swimming. The locals here are boisterous, friendly out and not shy at all. Every Friday the local village opens all its doors and there is a big street party called the ‘jump up’ with grills going, music blaring and everyone dancing tourists and locals alike .They all have that real relaxed Caribbean attitude, which of course means as usual everything is moving on Island time, but Derry is happy out with the way things are progressing. We should be ready for the ARC, not a bother.