24 March 2011
We heard the news today that Basia and her little band of helpers are due in at noon tomorrow. As with us the currents have pushed them along nicely and so their ordeal is almost at an end. They are real heroes.
The leg from Brazil was harder than we had anticipated. We expected more of a beam or broad reach instead of the close reaching. There was none of the 'lazing around reading books in the sunshine stuff', we actually had to 'sail' the boat. We are both very tired indeed but elated to be back in the Caribbean and looking forward to island hopping up to St. Lucia, our penultimate destination, for the remaining three weeks of the rally. Voyageur has done a remarkable job, she has travelled the world with dogged determination and never let us down. These boats are so wonderfully reliable. Yesterday Aileen and Stephen left to return to Ireland. We were invited aboard A Lady for pre dinner drinks and then we all went to the marina restaurant. I don't even know what time it was when we went to bed but I fell into an unconscious sleep, not even aware of David jumping around several times with leg cramps, until the alarm went off at 8.15am. I had arranged to go into St George's with Aileen and Jenny for a much need haircut. We hopped on a local bus for the ten minute trip around the bay. The town was disappointingly scruffy but the people are warm and friendly and even more they speak English! You certainly know that we are back in the world of civilisation where they expect to cater for tourists. The toilets flush, just wave a hand across the automated paper towel dispensers and the taps don't come off in your hand! HUGE cruise liners dock here on a daily basis. There are some very upmarket restaurants including one run by Gary Rhodes, Calabash. Our first attempt to have our hair done failed miserably. "We don't have a brush" we were told! The salon was smart appeared to be well equipped and the three girls sitting there had no other business. It seemed they either didn't want our custom or just plain couldn't be bothered. Our helpful guide from the tourist board led us through the streets to a second, which was closed. Our third attempt met with success. Yes, they had brushes and could 'do' our hair. But having washed it we were told that the lady who did the cutting was not in the salon but was on her way. We sat for another good half hour before she turned up only to have a further delay while she had something to eat. Patience is a virtue..... Anyway she did a good job and made me laugh when she opened a drawer to reveal a range of about forty brushes of all shapes and sizes! Two and a half hours later we stepped from the salon onto the street. Island time..... I will have to get used to it.
Hanging by a thread....
I refer to my second and spare laptop computer. The other, now defunct, was perfect for I could sit in the cockpit with it on my lap and blog away to my heart's content while still able to keep a good watch. It had a nine hour battery time. Since day one of the last leg, I have had to sit below at the saloon table, feeling a little sick in the bumpy seas, and getting hot. The cable that connects it to a plug bank is decidedly dodgy. One tiny twitch and the screen goes blank. The battery is no longer. The cable for the satellite phone is also on its last legs and we could no longer make a connection to post the blog onto the WARC and the Sailblogs website. David spent an eternity having to do it via our SSB radio. So it is all 'hanging by a thread' and it is nothing short of miraculous that the blog got written and indeed got posted....
Susan Mackay