Les Saintes
Blue Sky's Voyage
George & Michael
Thu 24 May 2007 00:30
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Hello
Friends
"15:51.98N 61:35.18W"
21 May
... or should I be specific and say Hilary,
Al & Cri, Barbara, John & Christine, Ben, Martyn Gillian and Marjorie.
(And probably Andreas and Karla who join us in July.)
Well we really do wish you could be here too
- but only Ben knows exactly what it's like as we're anchored off the tumbledown
pier at Ile a Cabrit (Goat Island) in Les Saintes and it has been a particularly
lovely afternoon and sunset.
We had the place to ourselves most of the
afternoon, swam ashore at half-five and were greeted by a very pregnant and
friendly nanny goat and lots of hungry chickens hoping for food. Sadly we had
none to give them, but they seemed to appreciate the company anyway - a very
gentle rural scene.
 The island Resident returned late afternoon
to talk to his goats and hens. He has a commuter vehicle that is infinitely
cooler than any SUV on the planet, or any other motorised transport for that
matter. Don't you wish this was your personal transport?
 Anyway, you're not getting off that easily
for this blog. I promised some tech stuff, so here goes....
We have achieved the 'Balance of Power'
Nirvana for yachts. The 2 extra solar panels have just tipped us over so that we
do not need to run the engine any more for battery charging, despite watermaker
use, fridge and freezer, computer charging etc etc. This is very good news as
(i) we hate using the engine to battery charge (noise) and (ii) running the
engine gives you a great hot lump of metal in the middle of the boat when you're
trying to keep cool ! For the real techies we have 320 watts (peak) of solar
panels now, which equates to the best part of 20 amps flat out.
By way of example, we made 100 litres of
water yesterday with no battery drain, as the sun and wind balanced the
watermaker and other loads.
23 May
We're over in the village - Bourg des
Saintes - just back from our promenade and couple of beers on a terrace
overlooking the bay. Good quality WiFi here so we can keep up with the admin.
This afternoon brought the entertainment of
a huge new French helicopter carrier anchoring of Ile a Cabrit. It looked pretty
big in amongst the islands.
We've decided not to reccy Dominica before
Ian & Alan arrive, so we'll just hang around the islands here and catch up
on reading and swimming.
AND
Thank you for the emails from blog readers.
Our inbox had been rather quiet for a while and it's nice to get a bit of
feedback occasionally (no matter how rude!)
We hope you're enjoying Spring in the UK and
wherever else you are in the world.
Best Wishes
George & Michael
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