From the Caribbean
Lady Corinne
iain and gaynor macalister
Fri 22 Jan 2010 20:57
mast as I struggle to come to terms with the sad news that my Dear Mother
passed away on Wednesday afternoon. The waves that pushed us across the
Atlantic with endless undulations, have been replaced with huge waves of
sadness that wash over me with all the associated pain that the loss of a
loved one brings. In my pensive moments of grief I can't help but think
of the poor people of Haiti who, unlike me, having to deal with the loss
of a loved one who had enjoyed a long and healthy life and survived to the
ripe old age of 93, are having to deal with the loss of so much more and
the depths of their sorrow must sometimes seem as deep as the very Ocean
itself.
I have decided that, instead of sitting around moping , I will get my
guitar and do some strumming to raise a bit of cash to help the poor
orphaned children of the latest disaster. I did a similar thing after the
Boxing day Tsunami and I'm hoping that St Lucia will be warmer than a
subway in Chichester in January. Two Companies in the UK have agreed to
match everything I collect so I hope the people here will give freely in
the knowledge that every Dollar will be worth a contribution of three to
the fund. We have managed to repair the problem with the Rotostay
shearing above the drum. We dismantled it and dropped the bottom section
of the foil off. with this removed we took it and the drum upstand to see
"The Chinaman" who knew exactly what we needed and cut down the foil to
remove the rope luff guide to make, what will be the new end, the correct
profile, inserted it into the drum end and then welded it all the way
around the place where the foil failed. He did the work straight away and
20 minutes later we were on our way back to the boat. I hope the Tig
welding process hasn't done anything to affect the strength of the foil
material (aluminum) Provided it hasn't the end result should be even
stronger than the original. It means that we have lost about 1.5" which
is not any sort of problem as we have a bit spare at the top end. The
Kiwi prop is the other thing I have to attend to as when we arrived here I
discovered to my horror that I had no drive going astern, not what you
want as you enter an un-familiar marina at night. I have emailed the
manufacturers and if I can get hooked up to Wi-fi I hope they will have
responded with possible solutions. Max is flying home tomorrow and
Gaynor and I will probably fly back to the UK on Sunday if there are
flights available. We should be back towards the end of next week ready to
start out again toward Grenada. As the Indian Restaurant was closed when
we arrived, and as it was Max's last night yesterday we went to Razmataz
and enjoyed a much waited for curry which was excellent but the Karioke
bar up the road, which was also recommended, was emitting a cry akin to
that made by a feline being gripped tightly around the neck so we gave it
a wide berth. Communications are difficult here and the Islands DNS
server has issues so getting connected is very difficult but we will let
you know when we move on.
LadyC and her dwindling crew
Hasta estamos Dos