Happy New Year everyone.
We do hope you feel great today, and will only feel better for the rest
of the year.
Laurie here. We're
having a slow day today. I have awaken
with a hangover that one should not take to sea, myself. Dawn has cooked a great plate of french
toast, and with a banana and coffee we have started the day. Not that it will be much for us. I am contemplating significant time in the hammock,
until the sun comes around to the stern of the boat and drives me out of it.
For New Years celebrations, we could choose between an
expensive, but not notably good quality meal, a dinghy drift in a dangerous
harbour, or what we actually did. We
went into the marina boardwalk at 5 pm, took up residence at the bar, and sat
with the crews of Stopp Knot, Aspen, Tarantella, Peace & Plenty, Tiger Lily
II, and Bay Pelican. We intended to
stay for just a special drink or two, but everyone bought a pail of beer or two
(5 bottles and ice), and we had to stay until they were completed. It was quite good fun, if a little loud. Still, we broke up early, around 7 pm, then
Lorna and Brian hosted Dawn and me aboard P &P for a lovely steak
dinner. Dawn and I were still back
aboard Cat Tales before all the resorts lit up the sky, primarily to protect
our little boats from idiots with emergency flares. None came too close, but we couldn't have
risked it.
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| Happy Hour on the Boardwalk of Rodney Bay Marina, St. Lucia |
Since last weblog, we've hiked Pigeon Island with Lorna and
Brian, hiked to Cas-en-Bas on the east coast with a big crowd, and worked on
the boat. We have our bathroom door being re-coated by a
local friend, replaced the windlass solenoid (6 trips into that little cubby
hole called the anchor locker - I better never put on any weight or lose any more flexibility),
purchased and installed new anchor chain, did a bit of gelcoating over some
blemishes, and cleaned both primary fuel filter housings (Racor 500s). Of course, we've socialized with John of
Stopp Knot, Steve and Maria of Aspen, Al and Michele of Tarantella, and of
course more time with Brian and Lorna.
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| Lorna and Maria on hike to and from Cas en Bas on the windy side of the island |
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| Michele hiking with horses for rent in the background |
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| Well earned lunch and beers after the hike. BBQ was on that day and it was outstanding! Dinner was canceled. |
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| Laurie worked the better half of yesterday to clean 2 diesel filter housings. He was pleased with the results. |
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| Ahh...nice and clean again! |
It has been fun, but now we'd like a weather window to get
out of here and sail to Martinique. The foolishness with
tourists on jet skis, water skis, and polypropylene Hobies, and the locals
whizzing around us like we were traffic cones does tend to wear on us. We also watch dim tourists take these paddle-boards
(you stand up and paddle a stable surfboard) straight past us downwind, and
then watch the surprise as they try to paddle the silly things back
upwind. Every day the resorts have to
fetch some back to shore.
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| Rasta John was paddling to the other side of the bay and was very happy to be offered a tow. He sells hats and other 'goodies' to the tourists! |
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| Rasta John bailing...a constant occupation in his little boat! |
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| We watched people play with this toy all day off the Landings Resort beach. If you recall, Rick Mercer had a segment on his tv show with him trying it out! |
Denis of the FOD weather net says it is going to blow at
least until Tuesday, so it looks like more hiking locally, and more opportunity
to work on the boat...but not today!
