18.4939° N, 64.4023° W

Ha – so there I was thinking that updating the blog would be easy and something I would always find time to do! Hopefully this gives you an idea then of all the hard work that we have been up to – WE HAVE BEEN SO BUSY – I can’t believe it – seriously pretty much nonstop for 2 months!! So I will bombard the blog with updates right now that I have a couple of hours and some internet and then I will endeavor to update and blog more.
So we bought the boat – you may have guessed that by now!

Pretty must the first step once we got the boat was finalizing all the paper work and then having a really good go through the whole boat – great to have Mum and Dads help with this. Amazing the things we found on the boat like a waffle maker and an underwater metal detector….

We had booked in to get a WHOLE LOAD of work done in a yard in Virgin Gorda so we had our first sail and our first overnight in a beautiful place. So nice to have a great night in a nice bay (Cooper Island) with my amazing Mum and Dad.

Then next day Nick arrived (Co-owner and long term friend) – so great to see him and awesome to be able to pick him up from the airport in the dinghy and out to the boat! He was straight into it with no hesitation. We had a few drinks all together that night which was great – until we found ourselves locked out of the boat – which was hilarious when we had finally figured out a way to get back in.

We then headed over to Virgin Gorda and a stressful haul out into ‘de yard’ which was to become our home for the next 5 weeks….. (A fact that we had no idea about at the time – I was hoping for about 2 weeks or so …. Ever the optimist).

So here is a quick rundown of life in de yard…..
7am wake up and start on jobs (nice to do it in the cool of the early morning)
9.30am Breakfast and smoothies
11 Coffee break (mandatory when Mum and Dad were with us)
1pm Lunch followed by swim
2-4pm siesta
Then back to work again till dinner time!

So this was pretty much our life for the full 5 weeks. We had some highlights and lowlights. Mum and Dad leaving us was pretty sad – I think we all had tears in our eyes as they left. Ann and Dean arrived shortly before Mum and Dad left and that was great to have all of us working hard together for a time. We also got up to a decent amount of mischief with those 2 cheeky Geordies…..

One highlight was my birthday which involved copious amounts of rum, a small Caribbean bar, lots of locals, Nick and I going digger driving exploring and some late night swimming.

Another big night for us happened totally by accident. We were working hard on the boat in the morning and had a break to go and watch the carnival at lunch time (with every intention to head back to the boat to carry on with the work). We were then viciously blindsided by the free margaritas and beers that were being handed out – which resulted in us all becoming heavily involved. We all got interviewed on the radio, I ended up on TV, Ann was singing along with one of the floats and I ended up dancing salsa on another. While the boys were getting drinks Ann ended up getting bitten by a dog – which was all really surreal by the sounds of it. I was happily dancing away on this truck and was oblivious to what had happened until (after a quick swim) found the guys at the boat and saw Ann’s bleeding foot! We rushed off to the medical center – where we spent the night with Nick sitting outside enjoying all the free beers and chatting to the security guard.

Poor Ann then had to deal with her foot for the duration of life in the yard. That coupled with getting a nasty bug in her stomach and toilets a ladder climb down from the boat and a decent walk away – it wasn’t much fun I’m sure.

We managed to get through the jobs eventually – finally booking ourselves in for a follow up survey and our lift back into the water. This helped to motivate the guys that we had booked to do work on the boat so that we could finally get on our way.

For anyone interested in the kind of work we did here is a quick list>
– Mast step totally replaced
– Rigging replaced
– New keel bolts in
– Windows taken out and re set
– Insulation in the engine re done
– Chain plates cleaned up and replaced
– New loo parts all fitted and replaced
– Holding tanks repaired etc etc – the list goes on!!

We were also lucky enough to meet some great people while we were in the yard.

Bill
Legend – he had put his boat up for sale and was helping us out with everything! A super interesting lovely guy who we were lucky to meet. In his 60’s maybe and full of interesting Chemistry stories. We are super grateful for all his kind help.

Geoff
This is the guy who we got a lot of the work done through. Total legend, originally from Zimbabwe he had decided in his early 20’s to build a boat and sail this boat across the Atlantic – having never even sailed before! Now 72 he was up and down our mast like a gibbon and taught us everything! I’m not sure where we would be without him! Definitely the best ‘Yard Father’ we have ever met.

The two rascals
These two little boys!! Previously mentioned in the last blog (the one with the dead lizard…)). They are identical twins who get up to more mischief then we do! 5 years old and hilarious – they were definitely our entertainment for the duration of life in the yard. A highlight was watching then steal some bins and climb inside and roll down the hill!

Nick is also putting together an album of all the amazing people that we meet on the way – so we may try and get that together when we finish the trip.