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...
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