Les Saints, day 2 – jobs

Sunday 15 April: A lazy day today, because tomorrow we will be sailing all day, heading back to Martinique.
It’s a beautiful sunny day, no rain clouds for once and the gusting wind has gone. So we head ashore to take some photos of the pretty village in this lovely light. But first we head to a shop that sells hammocks. We spotted it yesterday, made our measurements this morning and now we will buy one. We’ve wanted a hammock for some time. Oana picks a colourful one, that shouldn’t show any dirt for a while.
On the way back through the quaint village square, there is a crowd at the Mairie (town hall). Apparently it’s the first day for a new Mayor. The last one was caught stealing and convicted! What is it with corruption and politicians – it seems to be a global issue these days 🙁
We buy more fresh baguette and some lambie crepes (conch rolls) which were sold on the street side. Then best stop last, to our favorite ice cream shop again. We cannot get enough of it!
Back on Cloudy Bay we decide to potter with some jobs and ready ourselves for tomorrow.
First job is to change the mainsheet block on the boom. During last few passages it’s been making a loud squeaking noise. As usual, a simple job becomes not so. The shackle that holds it is jammed tight. Glen tries bigger and bigger wrenches, but move it won’t. Oana suggests heat, so out comes the blow torch. But all that one achieved was to burn Glen’s thumb on the shackle he heated himself…. as only he could!
Last resort is the grinder. We keep a battery operated grinder to cut rigging should we ever be dismasted (heavens above, please no, never!) and it seems to have a lot of other more positive uses. It makes quick work of the 10-ton shackle and the replacement block is quickly in place and secure with a new shackle. The other block will be serviced and put as spare.
Next job is to change one of the Lewmar mainsheet winch drums. The chrome coating has been flaking off this one winch. We told Lewmar and they more than kindly couriered a replacement to St.Lucia for free! It’s quickly put on. Again, the old drum stowed as a spare. Nice to have all the winches perfectly shining again.
A few weeks ago, we broke the gear lever on the outboard when raising the dinghy on the davits. Today it gets glued and screwed and put back in place. We’ll buy another when we find a Suzuki dealer. Oddly there are none in the Caribbean. Most outboards here are Yamaha.
While doing this, a RIB drifts by with 2 girls and a guy desperately trying to start their outboard. We throw them a rope, pull them in and offer help. Simple issue, they hadn’t installed the safety key properly, and soon they are on their way again. Makes you realise just how easy it is to end up drifting out to sea if you don’t know what you are doing.
Meanwhile, Oana is down below preparing lunch for our long passage tomorrow. Always better to have food prepared beforehand rather than enduring sea sickness in the galley while under sail.
Once food is cooked, time to test the hammock! Glen ties it between mast and inner-stay, and Oana is more than happy with how comfy it feels to lay in it. We imagine we’ll be putting this new toy to good use in the coming weeks, as we will have guests.
Then the big job of the day, dive gear out to clean the hull. 1 1/2 dive tanks later it’s finally done. Not too many barnacles but lots of tough black spots and weed. Let’s see how Cloudy Bay slips through the water with her clean bottom tomorrow!
After a late lunch we get the deck ready for an early start at day-break: outboard off, dinghy secured on davits, backstay on, halyards tensioned, runners off. Oh, and a new oil absorbent bandage around the vang hydraulic ram. Got to keep that leaking oil off the teak decks …. until we can get the vang serviced in Antigua next month.
After dark a clean up in the cabins and then a clean of the speed impeller. We can see now why the speed was lagging the GPS SOG on the last couple of trips – it’s covered in miniature barnacles.
Finally we relax ready for an early night. So much for a lazy day huh?!