These days are spent trying to fix the boat:

-       The broken front hatch is neatly fixed by loosening the hatch proper.  This is taken to shore in the dinghy and fixed over night.  A new, perfectly translucent plexiplass sheet is inserted and the hatch is as good as new, at €250. Perfect.

-       The generator is examined by Mon. Thierry Apelat and the diagnosis is water influx in some critical parts.  He cannot fix it on board and it is decided to take the entire unit ashore.  A catamaran dinghy approaches and the generator, including casing and all, 60 kg, is lifted over-board using a halyard.  Simple thing.  I will recuperate this on my return in about a month time.

-       Charging.  Caraibes Marin is enormously well equipped and they sell solar panels.  They short of it is that 2 panels of 150 W each are installed between the davits, where they sit perfectly exposed to the sun, no shadowing and completely out of the way.  The guys make a fine job of wiring it to the batteries and additionally a amp-meter is installed.  Now one can see how much energy that flows in, or out, of the batteries.  I measure up to 13 Amps.

Thursday morning skipper prepares for Fort de France and at 10 o’clock the anchor is hoisted.  It is a dead run to the west-north-west around the corner, up north and into the Cul-de-sac-de-Fort de France.  At 1500 hours I again enter the Marina Plaisance d’Etang z’Abricots.  I am told to moor stern-to with a thick permanent rope up at the bow.  The dinghy is easily lowered to the pontoon.  The outboarder is taken up on the boat and the dinghy is covered and attached to the davits.

On Friday morning the covers are bought up from the hold and, starting up front, the boat is put under cover.  These are cotton covers that are perfectly sewed to measure. They cover the entire boat, over the side wires and down to deck level.  Very  good protection from the sun.

At 5 o’clock skipper leaves for the airport.

 The ladies are leaving tomorrow from Martinique so we had better get up there.  We plan for Marin, a deep bay on the south-eastern tip of the island.  This is pretty close to the airport and it also the base for a huge number of charter boats.   A lot of infrastructure to fix boats !!

So, usual morning routine and them we go into the marina to get diesel (tax free OK but this makes a very small difference.  Nevertheless, is cost us about 40% of what the price would have been in Sweden !)

We leave at about 1100 and the sail up to Martinique is uneventful.  The “cul-de-sac-de Marin” is very shallow in places but well buoyed.  No place in the marina pontoons so we anchor up close by.  Exploration, late lunch ashore …and later dinner on board.

Usual morning preparations.  A dip in the sea, breakfast, hoisting the dinghy and off we go.  We plan to make it all the way up to Rodney Bay, St.Lucia and before that we must check out of St.Vincent and the Grenadines.  We go a short way up to Kingstown and moor to a quai.  The water is seemingly calm but swells find their way in and we bounce off the concrete with a lot of strain on the fenders.   We need to go to the airport pretty close by and officials there relieve us of some “easydollars”.  In addition to the taxi drive it all adds up to quite a sum of money…..

We go up inside, leeward to St.Vincent with erratic winds.  Pass Vallilabou, most inconspicuous in the daytime (and even more so, of course, at night as last time).  We tumble out in the gap up to St.Lucia where the wind stabilizes to the usual 25 knots and a wee bit too northerly, so we slide westwards.  The extremely conspicuous Pitons hide in the haze and we don’t see them until very late. The trip ends with a couple of hours motoring up close to the coast in the dark and we do not reach Rodney Bay until 2030.  We cast anchor in the southern par of the bay: Dinner and bed.