It has
been (another) quiet week in Rodney Bay.
A
correspondent has written to complain that there was not much evidence of
derring-do in our arrival blog which suggests to him that perhaps there was not
much derring to do. He is quite
right. I have always
believed that the most successful cruises are those where absolutely nothing
happens and the crossing was close to ideal in that respect. After eighteen days we were probably more tired
than we realized at the time and feeling a little
anti-climactic.
One hour before arrival here we opened an e-mail from daughter Sarah to
say that she would be with us in 48 hours. We were gob-smacked and thought
it a wonderful gesture. Half an hour after we tied up there was tap
on the cabin top and a chap handed over a magnificent bunch of exotic flowers
and bottle of bubbly from son Glyn and family. We were already tired; we
became somewhat emotional.
We had a great time with Sarah for a week and
she took us round the island in her hire car to visit the sulphur springs,
the botanical gardens and the rain forest, even luring us
on to the beach for swims. It was a
real holiday after the crossing.
Then we started to find quite a few maintenance items
that needed doing just as the adrenaline rush was wearing off and we were
settling into our comfort zone. Among other things we have re-fixed
the oil reservoir for the bow thruster - it must have been knocked off in heavy
seas - and cleared up the escaped oil from the locker. The main engine
heat exchanger has had a crack welded up and its internal pipes cleared.
The inner forestay has been replaced. The gas system has had to be changed
because the regulator failed after a few days here and they do not do
Camping Gaz in St
Lucia. (If the failure had been a
few days out of La Gomera the crossing would have had a very different
feel to it). I have replaced a broken bilge pump but before I could
see what to do I had to bail out gallons of water because the guy who took the
heat exchanger off left the sea-cock partly open. Mags has replaced the
lifebuoy which caused her grief on day 2 and I have installed a new microwave
which we bought on the very day we left La Gomera. We are very pleased
about this because the old one was good for nothing but use as a bread bin and
Faraday cage in the case of thunder storms. We have been searching Comet,
Currys, the internet and caravan shops for over two years to find one small
enough to fit.
We had been concentrating on the Atlantic crossing so
much in recent months that we rather lost the medium term plot. Since we
have been here we have had a good deal of advice including plenty from fellow
sailors who think we should stay at least another season in the
Caribbean. We have decided, on balance,
to carry on as intended and make for
Panama in
May. We aim to leave here shortly and head for
Antigua then cruise slowly down the Leeward and
Windward Islands arriving, perhaps, in
Trinidad by the end of March. From there we go west
along the Venezuelan coast to the Dutch "A, B, C," islands with the intention of
arriving at the canal at the end of April. Apparently the trade winds are
very strong in the SW Caribbean until they start to die
down at the end of the winter season in April. Mags is investigating the
possibility of visiting her nephew in
Cali via the Columbian
port of
Cartegena.
We had intended to be away from here before now but there
is plenty to delay us and not much incentive to make adventurous efforts.
On Friday morning we entertained a young engineer with whom I used to do some
business and his family who are holidaying on the island. Then a member of
our radio course of a year ago turned up and we had a beer with him followed by
a few more with our
neighbour, a Swiss-German engineer/psycho-therapist. Yes,
really! It was a heavy day.
Since
we have access to wi-fi hot spots I have been reading some other MailASail
blogs. It is a humbling experience
for us dilettante amateurs. These
other sailors educate their children in mid-ocean, crack on more sail, climb
masts to disentangle wrap-arounds, blow out spinnakers, penetrate deeply into
tropical rain forests and altogether behave like real cruising folk. Impressive
stuff.
