Cricket in the West Indies

The Caribbean T20 Final by Travis...

Last week we went to the cricket 20/20 finals! Trinidad and Guyana were playing . Guyana won the toss and chose to bat first. Unfortunately The Trinidadians were too good for Guyana and Guyana ran out of balls . and got an easy beating score of 116 runs. There were only a few sixes hit from Guyana before they were all out.
Trinidad's batting was exceptional as they hit their way to the easy beating score of 116 runs. Unlike Guyana there were many sixes hit from Trinidad including the massive six that finished off Guyana. There were awesome fireworks after the big win of Trinidad and we could here car alarms going off from the loud bang from the fireworks. It was really hard to get into a minibus and we waited about an hour before we finally got on a bus.

Bequia with a quaint harbour town

Here we are at a cafe with free wifi with the inter island ferry leaving in the background.  Today we sailed from Willilabou, St Vincent, where the set for The Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed. More on that later.  We started out with little wind and a jammed Gennaker furler but luckily the lack of wind meant we could rectify the problem without crazy seas.  Well it soon picked up and we pulled in the Gennaker and rolled out the Genoa.  Moana Roa sails well in 20 knots of wind and we had a great sail across the channel and into Admiralty Bay for the night.  We are heading for Carriacou to pick up Clare and Heather by the end of the week.

Adjusting to life onboard...

Just got a local SIM and data bundle, so posting from my iPhone from the yacht until I can figure out how to create a hotspot and connect the laptop (it's not wanting to play ball!). This will be a temporary measure until we get our wifi booster from USA and fit it on the masthead. Then we should get access when out of the 3G network in more remote anchorages.
Well, the wind and seas abated slightly when Beau and I set off from Rodney Bay to Martinique to pick up Sonia, Travis, and Kara. Still, we had gusts of 30 knots and 2.5m swell to contend with.  I sent Beau to the mast to bring down the St Lucia flag but had to call him back as we were pitching at 45 degrees like a rocking horse as we entered the channel and experienced the first of the Atlantic swells.  Beau slept in the cockpit as we approached Martinique and the protection of land.  Our new arrivals had stayed the night in a beachside hotel and were awaiting our landing on cue.  Their flights via KL and Paris were not without drama, Travis feeling sick on the first flight and then missing out on seeing the Eiffel Tower due to a taxi strike and crazy traffic on the roads (but they were very well looked after by some friends of Sonia's cousin Gladys). Suffice to say they were happy to be onboard Moana Roa.
We had the weekend to relax a bit in Sainte Anne, a quaint and very French beachside village before motoring to Le Marin (where we bought the yacht) for the re-rigging off the stainless steel stays. Four days of maintenance jobs while in one of the most well equipped marinas in the Caribbean and we were ready to return to St Lucia for the end of the Caribbean T20 series. Travis will report on this.
Now need to add a pre-filter to each of the engines to separate water and any other impurities. This will give piece of mind when refuelling. The plan is to start sailing south this weekend to The Pitons (volcanic plugs and the biggest features on the St Lucian landscape - also named after a famous yachtsman!! Cap'n Piton, aka Stephen Gallagher), Willilabou (where Pirates of the Caribbean was set), Bequia, and Cariacou. Here we meet Clare (our neice and cousin) and her friend Heather who are currently backpacking though Central America and the Caribbean).
Stay tuned for some updates from the boys...

It's blowing a gale!

Beau and I are still in the Rodney Bay Marina weathering the strong winds as shown on the map below with red arrows representing gales.  We are in the eastern Caribbean in the Windward Islands where the yellow arrows are emerging behind the red.  So, the wind is abating and there will be a window for us to sail to Martinique to pick up Sonia, Travis, and Kara on Friday.  They are flying to the Caribbean via Paris and will stay in La Dunette Hotel (just hoping its better than a dunny or Sonia wont let me live it down).  It's on the water front at a nice anchorage in Sainte Anne and with any luck they will watch us sail in...  In the meantime, Beau is taking himself off to the pool at will while I slave away with boat tasks.

Rodney Bay Marina, Saint Lucia

Beau and I spent 3 nights onboard in the boatyard and launched the boat on New Year's eve.  It's a relief to be on the water but we have a few jobs to do before Sonia, Travis and Kara join us next week. We watched the midnight fireworks from the dinghy and have met a few Aussies in the marina.  We set off for Martinique on the weekend but the weather is looking dodgy with 30kn headwinds!