As we are slowly (but steady ) making our way towards St Lucia we start to make plans for the coming month, Christmas and work to be done after we arrive.
Besides the obvious (thoroughly cleaning the interior and washing the deck with fresh water there are several other jobs to be done: Servicing or even replacing the alternator, cleaning the bilge pumps and tightening the shaft gland are of the outmost importance and priority but we still have to polish the stainless steel deck fixtures, washing all ropes and blocks, mending the bimini tent (is slightly ruptured and needs a new batten) and repairing the genoa sun cover (some stitching is required). We also have to replace one main sail car that broke and replace the second batten that decided to fly away during a strong gust of wind. On top of that we need to buy provisions for our next adventure which I describe next.
Peter will leave us soon after arriving at St. Lucia but Lars me and the boat of course will continue south visiting first Marigot Bay in St. Lucia (possibly spending a night there) and then proceed to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. This group of islands form a separate country so we have to visit the port police and immigrations authorities based in Kingstown, St. Vincent before exploring the little paradise on earth, the Grenadines: Bequia, Mustique, Petit Canouan and Canouan, Mayreau, Tobago Cays, Union island, Pte Martinique and finally Carriacou form a small archipelago and two weeks are not even enough to get a taste of its beauty.
Further south we must be careful to avoid the underwater volcano “kick ‘em Jenny” that is active now, and visit Grenada – another country. More about Grenada I will write as we go. Depending on how things go, we will or we won’t visit Tobago. Tobago forms a country together with Trinidad which is further south very close to Venezuela. Trinidad is safe from tropical storm activity and a lot of boats spend the dangerous months (July to October) there.
Last but not least we MUST be back to Martinique by December 23-24th. Martinique is just north of St. Lucia and is part of France – European ground and Eurozone.
Panos, Peter and Lars on Cookelu meu.