St. Lucia

Lisa and Jay on the boat steps, showering before heading off to the airport and New Zealand.

Jay is back to North Sails and Lisa is starting her first job, assisting with external film projects for Unitec in Auckland.

The boat feels so empty with them gone now, but I think they enjoyed the experience of sailing across the Atlantic with us, and hope they will come and sail with us again.

Approaching St Lucia is the spectacular sight of the famous Pitons. The island is fertile and very green, not surprising considering the amount of squally rain showers we have experienced since we arrived.

No more lugging heavy bags of fruit and veggies back to the boat. Gregory visits each day to the boats!

The girls in the bar again!

Great to catch up with Gaby and Shaun on Tabasco Jazz in Rodney Bay Marina and enjoy some good food and wine together.

The crossing

Christmas Day was calm enough to cook some roast ducks and have a few glasses of wine too!

Another one of those dreaded squalls, creeping up on us from behind, time to shorten sail and close the hatches. Easier said than done when flying a spinnaker though, we decided to snuff it during the night and choose a lighter sail that was easier to reef.

En route we were visited by a whale, can't tell you what type though. It stayed with us for over an hour and rolled over several time to take a good look at us.

Snorkeling around one of the wrecks in the Bay near the boat was great fun.

Diving with the turtles in Carlisle Bay, they home in on the people boats, where the crew feed them pieces of fish, almost by hand.

Caribbean

5th Jan

Sitting on the deck of the Barbados Yacht Club, sipping a Mountgay and Orange and trying to upload photos of the crossing, without luck.

So sorry, no photos this post.

Had a great crossing with lots of wind. About 2150 miles which we covered in 12 days. Hit a scary top speed of 18 knots, surfing down a wave, but averaged about 7.5 knots Flew the symmetrical spinnaker most of the time, which was great day and night, although we did have to watch for squalls!

Enjoying the turquoise blue water, diving wrecks and swimming with turtles, and the rim is good too!

5th Jan

Canary Islands to the Cape Verdes.

The intrepid crew on the point of departure, hoping for fair winds and calm seas.

We flew the spinnaker all night and in the morning when we wanted to take it down, the snuffer would not come down. In the end we had to drop the whole thing on deck.

Here's the crew taking a break before fixing the problem.

The girls on the foredeck getting a head start on the Caribbean tan!

Very little wind out there and we have been doing a lot of motoring, so we shall have to stop in the Cape Verde islands to take on fuel.

On the way in, we had three fishing lines out and we caught three lovely Mahi Mahi. So the first night in the anchorage of Mindelo, we had wonderful fresh fish on the b'que.

We're only here for the beer! Relaxing in one of the local bars in the high street.

The wind should be kicking in on about Tuesday and so we shall spend a few days here waiting for the Trade winds.

It is now the 21st of December and we've just checked out and are ready to leave for Barbados. It looks at though we may have Christmas and New Years at sea, so season's greetings to everyone, have a glass of bubbles for me.

Waiting for the wind.

On the wall of the marina, all the yachts passing through paint the name of their boat and the date. Here is Jay doing a bit of artwork to record our visit. It's fun to read all the names and recognizing some of the boats we know.

Lisa and I at the top of one of the mountains, feeling a bit chilly at the high altitude.

The interior of the island was full of impressive views and the

rainy day made it even more dramatic.

The stocking up is done and we are ready to go.

Daryl is checking out the weather information hourly and consulting with friends who also want to leave.

I think they are all suffering from 'too much weather information syndrome'!

We do look as though we are leaving today.

Still in The Canary Islands!

At last Lisa and Jay have arrived! So good to see them again after six months. They both look well and were glad to be in the sun, after a week with their Dad in England, where the temperature got as low as -5C.

We have have seen 30C here this week, lovely!!

We are still here in Las Palmas, waiting for a weather window to leave. At the moment there seems to be a constant stream of lows heading towards us across the Atlantic.

It is looking as though Saturday maybe good.

Meanwhile the only thing left to do is party!!

And the music only got better!