Rodney Bay St Lucia

‘At last another post, what the hell have you been doing?’ Well, not a lot actually! Up to Friday 23rd I was still captive in Rodney Bay marina. I have been extremely busy socializing, sight seeing, drinking Piton beer, yacht racing and spending way too much money.

Highlights have been visiting hanging out with Matt, Pigeon island, the local ‘Jump Up’ (Street Party) and racing a J24 in the local weekend yacht race.

My debut in yacht racing wasn’t exactly successful in that out of the three races that day, we missed the first due to being hung over and late for the start. The second race we managed to make the start line on time but have the mainsail tear along the foot a few metres over the line that required some drastic make shift repairs, needless to say we came last. The third race saw us timing the start to perfection and leading the pack only to get completely lost and then not actually finish! Finally we ran the boat straight into the pontoon at about 4kn while mooring up!

Food is sooo expensive here, I guess because everything is imported. I wouldn’t like to have to victual a boat from here to head back across the pond or anywhere else further than a few days. Not having anything other than a photocopied pilot guide, I decided to invest in the Garmin G2 Vision Caribbean charts ($330US) for my plotter. While expensive, I am sure these will be a good investment especially when I get into shallow reefy areas like Tobago Cays etc. Also thanks to a new friend Christian, a St Lucian local, I managed to photocopy a full set of charts. He also got me discount on my next purchase…

Being in the Caribbean I though it was time to stop rowing and invest in an outboard. I am now the proud owner of a shiny new Mercury 5hp 2 stroke ($1100US). This meant that I have to find somewhere to store it onboard. Every store and chandlery had sold out of outboard rail brackets so it was a case of DIY. However, the parts to make such an item came to three times the cost of just buying one (~$80US). Just as we were about to fully commit and take saw to wood some total stranger (French) comes over and hands me an old wooden bracket for free! After some careful sanding I made it fit and got all the other parts refunded – once again the Gods are smiling on me!

Lastly I managed to get the mainsail all repaired and luckily the bill was only $150US.

Unfortunately, just as I refitted the mainsail and thought Doris was back in a ‘ship shape’ condition, Christian pointed out that the main large salon windows have decided to part company with the boat! I did notice some minor leaks on the Atlantic crossing after being clobbered by waves and closer inspection reveals that they have now completely delaminated from the hull. A phone call to Hanse later (as this is clearly a warranty job) and apparently this is a known problem with their boats in warmer climes due to the adhesives failing in the heat. Hanse are aware of it and are ‘working on it’ – Until a repair can be carried out it’s a job for good old duck tape, so watch this space!

Kat attacked the boat inside making it habitable again as it was a ‘little grubby’ after the crossing.

She also went over the hull with white vinegar to remove the three weeks (a.k.a months) of accumulated salt. Every service is available here if you have cash to spare. For a full boat valet (hull clean & polish, stainless and topsides) I was quoted $180US, a little too extravagant for me! I did however, splash out on the boat laundry service from ‘Mr Sparkles’. You call him on the VHF and he picks up and delivers direct to your boat whether in the marina or out in the bay at anchor!

With the boat at least clean inside and out above the waterline we managed to escape the marina on Friday afternoon (after 9 nights captivity) and it was a nice feeling spending my first night at anchor in over a month in Rodney Bay.

We slept well that night having both dived under to clean her bottom as best we could with snorkels, masks and scrubbing brushes.