Here we are back in the Windward isles after a very good experience at Power Boats in Trinidad – it has quite restored our faith in the Caribbean trades/technical people, albeit probably temporarily. The oil got cleaned off and we sailed straight through to here. Two easy nights and one day. We still managed to pick up some of that weird tape stuff in our port engine! Pete has now installed inline filtres to both sides so he can catch it earlier. One day we will have to cut a bigger hole in the fuel tank and give it a really good clean. What happens now when we have had the fuel cleaned the bits of tape just stick to the sides and come free later. We had planned to go to Martinique but sailed up the western side of St Lucia so it was easy to stop in at Rodney Bay. We got the dinghy in the water to go to immigration and found the outboard wouldn’t keep running so in the end we brought the big boat in and are at one of their berths. Not unhappy about that as the marina is good and has a swimming pool. I’ve got myself up to 16 lengths a day sometimes twice a day. Luckily the 2 for 1 bar is closed at the moment! That sort of makes up for not being in a lovely bay and swimming in the sea. The outboard is now fixed and we’re getting a part from Martinique for the auto pilot, so good timing really as we know the mechanic here as he was the one who got us our new generator. We’ve met an Australian couple (Jonine and Vic on Pearline) who were leading us astray but thankfully now for our livers they have left to go and buy wine and cheese in Martinique. Marie and Gary are here too - who we have been seeing on and off for the past two years. They are heading back to live in Australia for the next while. They sold the boat in record time for a very good price thanks to the short supply after the hurricanes. Pity we don’t want to sell!
