Dawn here...
We left St. Lucia on Friday last week and haven't had any internet since. Today, we'll post this short blog from a little restaurant in the little village of St. Anne, in Martinique.
We are going to stay here for a couple more days and then we'll say goodbye to Lorna and Brian of Peace and Plenty and will head north to Dominica with Steve and Maria (Aspen). Lorna and Brian have tons of friends here and they've had a full season of sailing and just want to stay put for awhile. They will eventually have to head all the way back to Grenada for haul-out this year, so they have lots of sailing ahead of them! We'll spend a week or two up in Dominica with Aspen and then we'll be saying goodbye to them as well. They are hauling out in Puerto Rico this year, so they'll head north and we'll head back south. We may or may not see Lorna and Brian again on the trip south because they haul out about 3 weeks before we do and so they'll be just that much ahead of us as we both sail southbound.
We have so many friends in this bay that it's difficult to see everyone. We organized a hike yesterday on a lovely shaded and flat walk for 14 of us and we enjoyed lunch at the other end (Grande Anse des Salines) and then hiked back. Peter from s/v Charlotte D had suffered Chickungunya virus (mosquito spread) in November and was still suffering big time from joint pains. He started the walk a full hour before us and made it to the beach restaurants just ahead of all the rest of us. We have to spray ourselves with OFF several times a day in order to avoid being bitten by a mosquito. It's a daytime mosquito that's the problem, not the nighttime ones. Apparently, they have little white stripes on their legs, but who can see that in time?! Of course, the new and improved Zeta virus is also making its rounds. Peter was bed ridden for 10 days in November and he says that never again does he want to go through that!
We spent a few hours in the Chandleries here and found many of our boat parts and pieces here for our French made bateau! It's nice to see our swim ladder steps sitting on the shelf. Laurie replaced them today and finally got rid of the wooden one he made last year when we couldn't find the proper replacement!
We, of course, are enjoying French wines, cheeses and pate here on Martinique. Meals out in restaurants are different than on the English islands so it's quite a treat for us!!
We are looking ahead for our trip to Dominica. Tuesday or Wednesday seems to have real nice weather shaping up, so you may hear from us up there next week.
Technical (Laurie)
I've been doing some gelcoat repair on the outside of the boat using gelcoat we purchased in Canada many years ago, and some MEK hardener we borrowed from Brian. 90% of the work has been great, with the other ten percent rained on each time I get it set up. In the place of the wax additive that comes in styrene, I've been placing wax paper over each repair to keep the oxygen out of the gelcoat, and when it does not rain, it works well.
I've ordered new saildrive membranes, and will pick them up on our way back down the islands. Very expensive, but long overdue. I'll attempt their installation in May on the hard. Also in the works, our 1996 Furuno radar was blowing fuses. It stopped blowing fuses, but now the antenna does not spin under its cover. A flat calm with no wind and no rain allowed Brian to crank me up the mast to inspect, then dismantle the antenna; and now it and the head/display is sitting in Diginav to be assessed. If it is no good, I will only have mixed emotions. Part of me says with AIS already displayed on our monitor and with us travelling very few hours in the dark each year, it is not worth replacing. However, another part of me says get a new one that connects with our new Raymarine chartplotter so we have more gadgets to play with.
One gadget that also got replaced this week was the wind transducer at the top of the mast. With Brian on deck doing the hard work of winching me up the mast, I got to the top and replaced it. I was absolutely drained to have to pay 384 Euro dollars for it, but the old one had been acting up and was not repairable in any meaningful way. Luckily, I did not have to rerun any wire or replace the housing. I did have to spend some time up at the top to calibrate it, and to make it waterproof using butyl tape. Brian also said he now had real respect for all the times so far that Dawn has cranked me to the top of the mast. The primary reason she bowed out is because her ribs still hurt from leaning over the stern over a week ago to net the two rainbow runners we caught.
Aside from the two pending projects mentioned above, my repair list is down to about 7 items. That is rather normal - a safe average that means I am keeping up.
