Dinner for Four

Current Location: Marigot Bay, St Lucia.

This is a really cool place. You enter into a small bay, hidden from sight (in our case just as the only squall of the day hit). You creep past a sand bar to port and it opens up into a perfectly formed even smaller bay protected from just about everything. There are twenty mooring balls in here at 30US dollars a night which is pretty expensive. But you can share them with another boat effectively halving the cost. The balls are rated up to 60 tons and it is so well protected we have no qualms about doing this with Dave and Melinda on Sassoon.

Mooring field at Marigot Bay

Sharing a mooring ball with Sassoon.

Chilling out at Capella Resort

Along with the mooring you get free access to the 5 star hotel. All day long they bring food and drink to sample. So after changing the fuel hoses on P we spent the afternoon chilling out by the pool. All very sophisticated.

I dont think I've ever written a 'foodie' blog entry before but food is very important in our lifestyle. It's how we cement friendships, try out the local ingredients and put some structure into our daily lives.

Last might was no exception. We (Petronella) prepared the starter and Dave and Melinda (Sassoon) the main course. Starter was freshly caught red snapper goujons caught by me the night before off the boat. As usual we had to improvise a bit. The only 'bread' we had for breadcrumbs was crumbled pittas and the tartare sauce was minus mustard. But the fish was super fresh and very tasty.

Raw ingredients. Fresh red snapper.

Ready to cook. Snapper goujons.

Finished dish with lemons and tartare sauce.

Main course. Sicilian chicken. Melinda used to be married to a Sicilian and maybe this is why it's one of her favourite dishes. Again the required ingredients weren't all available. The frozen peas turned out not to be peas but small beans so the store cupboard was raided for tinned ones instead. It tasted just as good.

Yummy Sicilian Chicken.

Yet again I ate too much and the hot still night made for a restless night.

Meanwhile the sale of Petronella seems to have stalled and we are starting to get twitchy. John A is still fighting the insurance people and meanwhile our window of opportunity is closing. We really need to be back in the UK for early May. Once the insurance is sorted we still have to ship off our possessions back to the UK, sail to Martinique, complete the sale, John has to register P in his name and get the bill of sale notarised. And then we still have over 1,000 miles to sail. Then we need to book flights back to the UK and say goodbye to P. It's starting to look very tight indeed especially as the weather might well play a part in our passage planning too. Come on John, sort this insurance business out. It's not helped by the fact that he is dealing with Lloyd's in London who of course finish work at lunchtime our time.

But for the time being there's nothing we can do but wait. And it's not a bad place to wait.

Stop Press: John A now has insurance and it's go, go, go. Back to Martinique over the weekend and J and H will arrive next weekend for the sail up to the Bahamas. We hope!

UK, Lively Passage and Sale Progress

Current Location: At anchor of Pigeon Island, St Lucia.

It's almost a month since the last blog. So much has happened I'm not sure where to start.

Firstly there was a success. The water pump imported from St Martin was eventually installed but not before further modifications were required. It ended up being a very tight fit but it's in, and it appears, working fine. In fact we seem to be getting more water from it than the old one.

The new water pump installed at last

With the pump fixed I (John) decided on a quick trip back to the UK to mark the first anniversary of my dad's death and also my birthday. I went via Paris and London City Airport. All very pricey but smooth enough. It was good to be back to support Mum and also to see Phil and Jane and of course daughter Emma. Em was over for my birthday and we cooked tapas for all. The day went as well as possible. I managed to see Saints in the League Cup Final at Wembley too with Phil. A great day out even though it resulted in a close defeat.

At last a Wembley Final for The Saints. We was robbed!

I spent my last night with Emma and Chris in London before flying back via Guadeloupe where I missed my connection as did two attractive French girls. It was a scheduled connection so for once we were put up in a hotel - the Club Med - very swish. The girls got smart rooms in the main block. The 63 year old single man on his own was stuck out in Block 6 miles away from the action!

Meanwhile Gill had spent a very windy fortnight in Le Marin. It barely dropped below 20 knots and a trip to anywhere resulted in a wet dinghy and a wet backside. It was hard especially as we had had a few small cockroaches on board for the first time. She 'fogged' them with a special bomb but it was a full on time for her. I have never known her so pleased to see me back! During my absence she had made new friends and only eaten on Petronella once. They certainly came in handy when the day before I was due to arrive the snotty gendarmes came round and told her to move - 22 knots. She called in friends though and she was soon reanchored.

By Saturday the winds were even stronger and the waves in the Martinique Channel were 3m+, occasionally 5m. Not pleasant but we needed to be down in St Lucia for Petronella's survey. Friday we spent sorting things out. Then we emailed John to say we would venture out into the channel. As it turned out we had a boisterous sail across the channel. Big waves but only 20 knots of wind and basically on the beam. We scooted across. Later we heard that John and Helena in Florida had tracked our passage via our AIS transmissions! 

J and H flew out and we spent the next three days with their surveyor Chris. The survey included a test sail, full internal inspection, a trip up the masts and finally a haul out to test the hull thickness. John hasn't had the survey report yet but we expect it to say we need to address two thin areas on the hull which means welding on two doubler plates near the bow. We expected this and if there is not much else we will all, sellers and purchasers, be very happy.

Late night welding on the thinning keel plates.

We've started the welding in advance of the report so that John can report it back to his insurers as completed. Then he needs to get that insurance finalised, pay his money and register P in his name. After that the four if us will sail the 1,200 miles up to the Bahanas. It will be a fitting way to say goodbye to my second wife! J and H will take good care of her which I am surprisingly pleased about.

In the middle of the survey days we were visited by Brian and Thai Kitty on Scraatch who are anchored off Pigeon Island. Then after we had been ashore less than 5 minutes Robin from Grenada accosted us followed by Dave from La Contenta. On Tuesday we watched Sassoon come across on their final Atlantic leg from Barbados. It was GREAT to see Dave and Melinda again and catch up on all their stories.

Next, we hope the sale will continue to progress. Meanwhile we will probably buddy up with Sassoon and La Contenta down to Marigot Bay for a few days. M-C will be back on La Contenta so it should be a fun time.

Dinner on Petronella

.....And so now we are back in the water. The sale is still slowly moving to completion and we are at anchor with great friends. Dave and Melinda on Sassoon who arrived from the Cape Verdes via Barbados last week, M-C and Dave on La Contenta who crossed with the ARC earlier this year, Brian and Kitty on Scraatch, round the world sailors. Last night 6 of us were on P and tonight there will be 10 of us eating at the little restaurant where at Pigeon Island. Hold on while I go and photo the view from the restaurant where I am sending this from.

P with friends from across the world. What could be better?

Ah yes, here's a good story. We spent a few days in the inner harbour here at Rodney Bay. You may have heard of flying fish landing on the deck of boats on passage. Last week we were sitting quietly on deck when Gilly shrieked and was splashed with water. There was a big flapping noise on deck. There thrashing around was a 6 pound (yes it's pounds here not kilos) mullet. Somehow it had launched itself through the guard rails. Lots of smelly scales, blood and fish bits had to be controlled and thrown back. The amazing thing here is that it got between the guard rails at all . When you try to throw even an olive pip through the rails you can guarantee that it will hit the rails and drop back on the deck. I just don't know how a fish that size got through without even touching the sides! Unfortunately we have no photo so it has to go down as just one more fishy story.