8
December - Rodney Bay Marina, St. Lucia
Aaron - What a great
sleep! 10 hours without any rocking, rolling, or teeth
gritting during the KER WHAM! Of the Genoa collapsing and then
snapping full again as we ran down the back of a wave.
We
spent the morning cleaning the outside of the boat, lines,
harnesses, cockpit cushions, etc. One of the free lance
workers, Gibson, cleaned off the black tar explosion on the
front of the bow. Goal is to get the basics under
control and then take the day off from boat work tomorrow.
In
the late morning, Dad went off on the "Rhythm of Rum"
tour of the island's distillery and various tourist
traps. Seems like he had a fun time and came back with
some rum and rags (dresses).
Bit
of an inside job on the boat and hey, we are back to
civilization! Fridge is running, laundry is cleaned...
time to kick back... "plumbing problem reported from the
forward head"!
computer training Oudenbosch
Seems
like the new hose alone was not enough to rescue Dad's head
and there must be a seal blown somewhere. Sure enough
the main flapper valve was completely deformed and gummed
up. Amazing. I replaced all the bits like this in
that head in Barcelona. Luckily, we had all the parts
aboard and had it swhooshing again by dinner which was a nice
home cooked risotto number by Colleen. We ate lunch and
dinner off the boat yesterday, but so far, have found the food
here cheap and below average in terms of yummieness.
Ran
into Runaway. They finished this morning about 24 hrs
after us. They sailed much further South than us to pick
up the trade winds, but it seems that on a relative basis,
they did not benefit that much. They had a great sail
though and we plan to go touring with them on the island
tomorrow.
Eternity
also made it in this morning - 13 hours after us. So
they should have beat us by about three hours on corrected
time! Oh well. Interesting to see how the final
results will come out. We did pretty well coming in 76th
over the line out of 215 considering we were rated slower than
70% of the boats. Overall pretty fast also considering
there was only three of us.
9
December - Rodney Bay Marina, St. Lucia
Notes
- Hung out in am with Runway, Christine from Far
Niente dropped by, back to the boat to get organized for a
trip to town, guy from Blue Water Cruising or some such rag
dropped by and interviewed us, into town to the market, bought
food and dad and colleen bought some trinkets, news came in
last night that we may not be going back to Thailand so lots
of quick thinking about what our future holds and what to do
going forward. May look for jobs in Boston when we get
back, but hopefully can cruise for while first.
10
December - Rodney Bay Marina, St. Lucia
11
December - Rodney Bay Marina, St. Lucia
Jim
- Our evening dinner with the Curry's and their crew
at a very nice restaurant was outstanding from my point of
view. The food and conversation was excellent. The
evening dinghy ride over, then back to their catamaran later
added to the atmosphere. I think that long-term exposure
to "yachtie-talk" might drive me nuts, but this was
an exception.
12
December - Rodney Bay Marina, St. Lucia
Jim
- Aaron and I, along with Tim and Angie from Runaway,
did the "Jungle Tour." It covered some of the
same territory as the Rum Tour and the Redwings/Runaway tour,
but was interesting nonetheless. We went through a
banana plantation, stopped in an intermittent rain to sample a
variety of local fruits, and watched a local kid snake-charmer
offer a boa constrictor photo op (snake around your neck only
$1 local)!
Later,
after some rough travel in theback of our tour's Land
Rover truck, we stopped at a defunct sugar mill for a brief
museum-like lecture. The grounds were nicely landscaped
and pleasant. Obviously many other tour groups stopped
there.
After
a less than spectacular waterfall stop, and a few other
tourists entrapments, we arrived back to find Colleen doing
scut work. What a trooper!
St.
Lucia itself has been a mixed experience. Prices in St.
Lucia are virtually at U.S. rates - for labor, food, souvenirs,
etc. Not a bargain basement! Souvenirs are
plentiful but limited in variety.
The
Rodney Bay Marina is friendly and sheltered, but has some
limitations: intermittent water supply to docked boats, OK
showers but water supply problems, a bit of security laxity
with a show of security officers but little real
regulation. It does have a great little bakery and some
nice shops.
13
December - Rodney Bay Marina, St. Lucia
14
December - Rodney Bay Marina, St. Lucia
Ok
burnt out on writing. Some general comments on St. Lucia
and final days of the ARC are coming!
Back to
Previous Log
Copyright
©2000 All Rights Reserved by Aaron Henderson and
Colleen Duggan
|
