We are back! 24-28 Feb 2019
s/v Safena's blog
Simon Ashley
Fri 1 Mar 2019 12:07
Position 14, 25.8 N, 60, 53.4 W Safena was in fine form. While we were home Steve kindly helped to get Safena lifted and antifouled - there was a good inch or so of growth on the bottom which sadly will have slowed our Atlantic crossing. Anyway, she now has a shiny bum and the RIB has been serviced to boot! We spent the first couple of days cleaning, fixing, provisioning and getting her back together. We also had a couple of really great dinners out with Steve, Helen and Ian including a spectacular curry at Spice of India! Allegrini departed as they only have 3 weeks to get to Nassau. We spent an extra day in Rodney Bay to get more provisions and also hoping to hear from the Jeanneau agent in Marin as to the plans for warranty work. As they have failed to respond to our emails or phone calls we decided to make our first stop St. Anne, Martinique and plan to go to the agent in Marin in order to meet them face to face. Unfortunately, our Plymouth agent (Atlantic Yachts, formerly Trafford Yachts) does not want to support us anymore because the yacht was supplied to us by the previous owner of the company and not by them - how unhelpful is that?! We are supposedly covered by the Jeanneau World wide warranty but getting action out here in the Caribbean is proving difficult so far without support from our home base! This morning (28th) we prepared Safena for sea and cleared out of Rodney Bay Marina. It is remarkable just how long all this takes! We have nothing but praise for the marina staff and our stay in the marina has been excellent. It has been a beautiful day and the wind was 11-15 kts, just south of east. This made the sail to St. Anne superb. Safena is like a different yacht! We were doing 7-8kts close-hauled with very reefed main and full staysail. We sailed right into the anchorage at St Anne. We then launched the RIB and went ashore to clear in. On the way back we stopped for a Pina Colada at Dunette, then returned to Safena for sundowners (rum punch) followed by a Mexican themed dinner (Chicken Taquitos). The sunset was amazing and our efforts over the past few days have definitely been rewarded! Simon |