It was an unbearably hot and humid night with uncharacteristic continuous rain. Having to keep the hatches shut made the boat very hot indeed. In the morning my laundry had to stay in the bucket with no hope of pegging it out for a while. We gathered to take the complimentary bus to the duty free shopping centre which turned out to be a hard sell by Columbian Emeralds. We were escorted to the jewellery shop where enthusiastic staff draped numerous sparkling necklaces around me urging Simon to treat me for Christmas. It was all very embarrassing and left us little time to shop for the things we really wanted. We stopped on the way back in the centre of Castries at the craft market which had little appeal; numerous stalls all selling the same trashy stock. We escaped into the continuing rain and over the other side of the road found the Central Bakery, a small simple shop with sweet buns in a counter at the front and huge baskets of bread rolls on the floor behind. We bought yummy coconut cakes and ate them as we wandered amongst the very poor folk selling their wares along the street. The produce market behind the craft market was wonderful though and from typically friendly stall holders we bought fresh ginger, mangoes and limes.

   Back at the marina the rain eventually stopped and out went the washing before I dished up an interesting mixture of odds and ends which wouldn’t survive another day. Between more emailing we cleaned the remaining shreds of fibreglass battens from the pockets on the mainsail and fitted the new top one which Simon was able to make from the second broken one. We will be unable to get a replacement for that one until Martinique. Good news came from the electronics dealer too- he had found the problem with our autohelm and Raymarine had offered to repair it under warrantee. How the main bearing had rusted through is a mystery to all.

  The good news of the day however was the call off of British Airways strike which threatened to ruin the Christmas of many ARC participants with flights booked home. Simon is flying home on Sunday to collect CJ and returns with him Tuesday, the day the strike was due to start. Obviously we are all very relieved.

   Tonight’s entertainment was a fancy dress party on Pigeon Island but we both lacked enthusiasm. In the end we opted for a quite night on the boat which of course was a noisy night on the boat with music blaring from one of the food stalls a stones throw away. Continuous rap/ reggae can become somewhat irritating after six hours! I made a mental note to visit the office tomorrow regarding another berth. As the evening drew to an end and Simon fumed over lost books on his eBook reader, interestingly dressed sailors returned from the party.