If it ain't broke it will be soon!!!!

Eowyn
Sat 12 May 2007 23:30

 
 
 
 
 
This update is sent from Bequia in position 13:00.51N 61:14.28W
 
We spent last Saturday, Sunday and Monday generally tidying the yacht and attending to regular maintenance. We took a break on Saturday afternoon to travel to Castries at the "Jazz in the Park" event, the precursor to the St Lucia Jazz festival. Travel was courtesy of Mike and Barbara from "Summer Wind" who had hired a car. The Jazz was like the Curate's Egg  but still well worth the journey.
 
We had planned to dive with "Scuba Steve's Dive Shop" in Rodney Bay on Tuesday but they let us down - so we will return to our old dive shop and leave the unreliable businesses to go bust.
 
With this unexpected time on my hands, I called Matthew of Amtech and he came over straight away to look at the engine alternator which had only been showing 13.2 volts.  Matthew did a great job of diagnosing the problems, explaining them to me and putting them right within his promised time frame. Well done!!
 
After eating far too big a steak on Tuesday, we sailed to Marigot Bay on Wednesday to meet Willie and Grace who had flown from Inverness to spend a couple of weeks with us. We could not resist dinner at the "Rainforest Hideaway" our favourite restaurant in all the Caribbean!!
 
After waiting at Customs from the official 0800 opening time until the Officer ambled in at 0850, we set sail for St Vincent. The sail was great SE force 5 saw us averaging 7 knots until BANG, down came the genoa and into the water. The 3 year old wire halyard had sheared at the top splice!!! Willie and I managed to get the sail in but not before it had filled with water and pulled the swivel down hard to jam it immovably. We motorsailed to Buccament Bay, but it was too dark to attempt a repair. The next morning we managed to clear the jam and hoist the genoa on the spare halyard.
Broken Halyard
 
After a good sail to Bequia, we had dinner at Gingerbread and too many ice creams as well.
 
Today, Saturday we spent 3 hours on an island tour, introducing Grace and Willie to our favourite island. We returned to Éowyn to find the carnage where the Duogen shaft had broken in strong winds. Another problem to fix!!
 
Willie & Grace at Fort Hamilton
 
Tomorrow we continue southwards through the Grenadines stopping first at the Tobago Cays.