Log 6th January 2019

s/v Safena's blog
Simon Ashley
Sun 6 Jan 2019 12:20
Pos: 14 4.24 N, 60 56.58 W

From the Pitons we sailed back to Rodney Bay to prepare for our return to UK. The sea was flat and with 15-18kts on the beam we were doing 8.5-9kts.

On the way we passed the Moors family on Silhouette. We touched base but such a shame we missed the opportunity to spend some time with them.

We anchored in Rodney Bay for lunch and I took the RIB into the marina to secure a decent berth. I met Nigel, one of the marinaras and we were allocated a really nice berth with room to lower the RIB.

Back in the marina iOS was great to see Steve and Helen Houssart from Allegrini. Helen’s knee is bad and I am arranging for her to see an Orthopod in Plymouth!

Mike and Ben did a wash down and we arranged for a local guy, Benjamin, to clean the topsides with water/white vinegar to remove the salt.

We spent time packing things up ready to leave Safena here for the next 6 weeks or so. We had to arrange a temporary import permit. We will also be arranging a lift out as the antifouling has completely failed and the bottom is covered in growth - it is unfortunate that we couldn’t remove this before the ARC as we had arranged for divers to scrub the bottom but they cancelled 3 days before the start!

Ben got the ferry the Martinique as his flight is from there to JFK, then London.

Seems weird leaving after such an amazing adventure but we are already excited about returning here towards the end of February ready for the next stage of sailing north!

Simon