Position: 16:27.864N 061:20.987W

Hi everybody, 

We were ready to go to bed last night like good sailors, to sail at first light to Antigua when our friends, Betti and Christian came over and kept Quest lively until gone midnight! We discovered an important male/female sailor's difference that I wanted to share. Something breaks. And you're in the Caribbean so it's not about finding a spare part, it's about fixing it without the spare part. You know, like Communism without the dictatorship regime. Female selects a time to think about it, shrugs, then goes shopping. Milk, bread, vegetables for dinner, that sort of thing. Male doesn't stop thinking about it, thinks about the problem the whole time while shopping, he isn't even looking at vegetables. You're lucky if you're not eating eggs on garbage bags for dinner, peanut butter on red peppers, soaked in hand soap. And then as you're walking back from the supermarket, carrying your heavy bags and wondering if you'd have better luck trying to communicate with a sperm whale then your partner, you meet a useful marine engineer/friend of a friend who gives you the answer to your problem without even bursting into a sweat. 'By-pass it,' they say, 'you don't need that part.' You go home (or in this case back aboard), fix it, stare at each other, start again. Wouldn't it be great to talk to a sperm whale?

So we did manage to leave today, though not exactly at first light. It was like first light plus one. The wind has quietened down a bit though so it was easy enough leaving the lagoon through the narrow entrance and we punched into the lightish wind for five miles or so before we reached the tip of Southern Guadeloupe again, went past the limestone dinosaur teeth with the crucifix on top and this time turned north with the wind on our right side. You'd think we'd remember how to sail, right? It turns out the thing about being able to do all the first manoeuvres was because there wasn't much wind. Oh yeah. Time to put the engine on. 

Anyhow, we put the lucky lure out and caught something. I guess you guessed by the title. Funny, it was different to a Dorado too, it ran for the first five seconds and then came in as quietly as Fin on a lead when she's been told off for rolling in fox poo. The Cap thought he'd lost it until we saw the long silver body and the impressive smile. Nobody on Quest wanted phim/her for dinner so we were about to let it go when Delphine told the Cap to take his shiny watch off, because that's the first rule of barracuda encounters. Captains should really learn to listen as well as giving orders! In the end neither he nor the barracuda came off that encounter very well; we got the first aid kit out for the Captain's punctured arm just by his shiny watch and the last time we saw the barracuda, it was floating under the blue surface, looking a bit shocked. Antigua, here we come. 

Things heard recently on Quest:

Betti: 'No, my name's not Betti Bettina. Bettina is my actual name.'

Jack: 'Oh! We thought you're redoubling up as a Latina pop star.'

Hannah: 'Can we call you Betti Bettina anyway?'

Betti: 'Sure.'

Lulu: 'Let me do your hair.'

Christian: 'You know, I really like Skipper. Can I borrow her to come kite-surfing with?'

No reply.

 

Love from Quest and her crew xx

PS. This is the link to Betti and Christian's website with the boat name that keeps on giving! Even better I think, they didn't realise the English meaning when they named her: www.bigbully.de

PPS. We just sailed over a seamount where the sea floor rises from a thousand metres to eighty and as we crossed it, the fishing rod went ballistic. Most of the line went, screamed and then broke. The fish gave an almighty run and bent up the 100kg swivel like it was chicken wire. The Captain thinks it was his elusive marlin again. The marlin always wins and this time it was the lucky lure. At least the barracuda's laughing!