St Lucia Day 6

Mike and Jim are both up early, Mike making drinks and Jim ready and waiting to be given tasks.  He tackles the sliding doors first and makes them glide better again.  Getting up, I look into the mirror with a measure of trepidation to see what damage I did to my hair yesterday with the scissors.  Actually, it’s OK.

Jim manages to get hold of the LIAT representative on the phone and they confirm that his luggage is now in St Lucia so off he goes to the airport to pick it up.  When he returns, it’s like Christmas.  When he opens his bag, half of it is for us, including a new winch for Mike and all the girlie shopping I asked him to get for me.

Charlie turns up to clean the boat.  His fee of $175 is not exactly cheap but in the heat, scrubbing and rubbing outside is not something any of us are desperate to do.

We have our official crew photo taken by one of the WCC staff.

Photo:  The crew

Jim is joining just as far as the end of the Galapagos trip then it’s Mike and I alone!

I go up to see Susan and David to talk about provisioning.  I am getting a bit worried about what to buy where and how much.  They assure me that we can get fresh stuff all the way round (except for a few places) and that as long as I am willing to eat local produce, I won’t have a problem.  I feel happier after talking to them.  They should know as they did the Blue Water Rally so have already done a complete circumnavigation.  They are doing it again with the WCC as the route is slightly different after Bali.

We go back to H2O and have a nice lunch, then I wander around taking photos of the greatly improved marina.

Photo:  Jim waiting for his lunch

Photos:  Views of Rodney Bay Marina

I leave Mike and Jim snoozing on the boat and go back to the restaurant in the hope of getting a better internet signal that the one I am getting on the boat so that I can use Skype, and succeed.  While I am talking to Johanne and her family, a nasty squall passes over bringing copious amounts of rain with it.  At least it will help Charlie clean the boat!

I go over to see Judith and Joe on their boat and meet their other crew members before heading back to Jeannius for my nap.  Mike and Jim are now awake.  Mike goes off to a briefing on using a sextant.  He knows how to do this but figures a quick revision will do him no harm.  He is pleased to note that he gets the same readings as everyone else.

In the evening, the marina hosts a party for the ARC fleet crews.  This time the drinks are not watered down and are quite lethal as Mike and Jim quickly find out.

Photo:  Mike and Jim – men behaving badly

Photo:  The ladies have more decorum!

We had fully intended going out for a meal but quite a bit of finger food (good stuff too) keeps arriving and a full meal ends up being out of the question.  I realise how drunk Mike is a bit too late, and knowing how much he has to do tomorrow, I lead him away from the party, stopping at H2O for take-away spicy chips on the way.  Jim, however, has other ideas and orders two beers for himself (yeah, right, does he think I’m stupid?), then tries to slide one across the bar to Mike when I am not looking.  Boys!  It takes a lot of effort to make sure that Mike doesn’t fall off the pontoon into the water as he isn’t exactly capable of walking in a straight line.  The gangplank is a potential problem but he manages it OK.

Back on the boat, Mike manages to eat some chips before falling onto the bed, and is asleep almost immediately, snoring like a train.  Jim stays outside for a while longer, presumably finishing off both beers.