Rodney Bay, St Lucia. Yesterday, I changed our plans completely! As I was walking back to the boat I decided to use the dinghy and go around the waterline of Sea Spray to see how bad the fouling of the keel was. It turned out that the worst part was the waterline itself, and given that the waterline in the bilge was the same as when we made the contact on the approach to St Lucia, I cancelled the haul out.

‘Johnny’ turned up as arranged and he spent three hours cleaning the boat and he did a very good job although he wouldn’t divulge what substance was in his magic container marked vinegar, despite being generous with tea and biscuits.

Ian and Louise have gone off to a hotel for a few nights and when they get back on Sunday we will move out to the anchorage, and then head south for a few days to explore St Lucia before returning to Rodney Bay to have the auto-pilot repaired.

After that, we will probably go to Dominica before going to Antigua to meet up with Andy.