We’re working towards a 26^th April departure from St. Lucia. See http://picasaweb.google.com/neroli.of.fowey for a few pictures. Click on the picture to open the whole album.

Neroli and all her systems are in excellent shape; and we’ll be fully provisioned except for fresh fruit and vegetables that we’ll buy in Antigua. We’ll meet up with Allan and expect to leave for the Azores early in the first week of May.

The last ten days have been very busy, occasionally mildly stressful and tremendously enjoyable. The setting is wonderful (see picture).

Our activities have made easier and more fun by the regular presence of our housekeeper/cleaner Mary, an energetic, cheerful, and completely unflappable presence every morning. We suspect that her regular clients aren’t cooking multiple meals, using every available implement and working surface, and requiring heroic clean-up efforts.

Charlie has been working if not from dawn, then certainly to and well beyond dusk. As well as figuring out what has to be done, how and by whom, he’s been lead mechanic. He’s serviced the engine, generator, water-maker and associated gear. He’s also been preoccupied with a couple of other very important pieces of equipment: the freezer and the fridge. Both are running now and ready to receive their quota of supplies. The freezer will be mainly committed to pre-cooked meals – see below.

Richard, with Francoise as sous chef and seasoning adviser, has been cooking steadily. We have now frozen 15 meals. To conserve space, most don’t have carbs included – we’ll add potatoes, pasta, rice or other grains as needed. These 15 will cover about half of our expected needs. The rest of the meals will be from a combination of fresh and packaged ingredients, with the proportion of packaged ingredients increasing as fresh supplies run out. We’re also carrying an emergency supply of all-packaged and non-refrigerated food in case we lose the freezer and/or fridge. And we also hope to catch fish.

Paddy continues to demonstrate an ability to deal with almost any issue, task or problem that Charlie sends his way. Any item that doesn’t seem to be working properly, needs repair, reassembly or refurbishing, or presents a puzzle or question tends to end up on Paddy’s list. In the last 48 hours he’s repaired locker door hinges, bent on sails, re-stowed the forepeak, checked lifelines, reorganized and completed the grab, checked batteries for multiple devices, fitted jackstays, fixed the galley sliding doors and troubleshot numerous other items. The grab-bag, by the way, is the bag (the watertight bag taken in the life-raft if we have to abandon ship – satellite phone, EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicator Rescue Beacon), food and water, emergency medical supplies and other essentials.

Paddy also treated his first patient (himself) for a winch-induced finger injury (no lasting damage).

Our next blog post will probably be 2 or 3 days from now, en route to Antigua.