Good Friday I thought I go for a spin. Eventually a mini bus arrived and took us to Castries. A deserted ghost town. Even the Cathedral was shut. No buses to Surfriere, only drivers asking to take you there for a quick buck. I walked around took some photoss and managed to find an eatery open, in the market. One front room affair, they all run by females, ordered a take away and took the bus back to the Marina. I was really disappointed and disheartened...no trades people turned up, now everything was shut...The take away food was of colossal portions, lamb stew with everything you can imagine. Beans, rice, pasta, pastichio, plantain, yum, salad of grated cabbage, carrots, onions...etc.

I managed half of it. The rest for supper.

I went over to Stuart to borrow his ladder and climb the mast myself up to the spreaders and fix my lower. On the way there I met Sam a young lad from an Oyster 62 that was moored opposite Stuart's Bowman 36. All three of us came back to JABA with the ladder and Sam climbed up and tightened the nut that somehow got a bit loose.

Sam's brother Ben is an electronics graduate and he could fix my steaming light.  Very lovely surprise.

Later Lloyd, skipper of St James's Club, Morgan Bay, catamaran started deep cleaning his boat and I watched his approach and what he was using, he tried himself something of a rust mark on JABA and within minutes after washing it away  the patch was good as new. The rest of the gel coat looked yellowy. So I undertook the brushing on and washing off, eventually doing the whole white deck parts on the startboard side. Looked brilliant. He insisted I did the port side but I thought it would be stretching it too far. I asked for some ice as I could not buy any and his mate obliged. Later Lloyd came around with some beer to drink to his health. There was a lot of politicts going on and he could not trust his crew that would do a job so he resolved doing it himself. He spent many hours.

Saturday off again this time Castries was buzing. Took the minicab to Surfriere, fare 8 dollars local money. So the journey was going to be long, an hour. What a journey, up and down mountains hairpins etc. Passed couple of villages  crossed bridges...eventually arrived. A small little place, Surfriere, pronounced by the locals "Sufre" , all the french name places are unrecognisable from their writen form. Had a beer and a fish pie went again for a walk bought a sprite and caught the bus back to CASTRIES.

This time instead of having a take away I had fish and chips plus the obligatory Piton lager. The fish turned out to be dolphin!!!

Sunday, yesterday went for a walk to do some shopping from the supermarket. Took my camera with me and took some pictures of wading birds. The holes in the Marina I thought were made by rats, as back at home. Here they are made by crabs. They are very shy, I managed to get a picture of one early in the morning.

Late in the evening Sam and Ben came back from their kite surfing expedition and called for a chat. Apparently Ben is to tackle my steaming light today.