We spent a couple more days in St Pierre, mostly collecting sea glass, it is just too easy here and it is our last chance this season. Monday, the 25th, we pulled anchor and moved on. We had planned to stop at Fort du France but with the winds from the east we would have had a hard motor into the wind just to make a grocery stop. We decided to continue sailing on to Petite Anse, also known as Anse de Arlette. The appeal of this bay is a small town with a very pretty church and it is a smaller less crowded bay and beach. It also has an office where we can check out of the country. As we motored into the bay we spotted Ron and Penny on Arctic Vixen. We had not seen them since they left Trinidad. On Tuesday we walked over to Grand Anse beach with them and Jennifer and David from Triple Cream for lunch. In the afternoon Cori went to a beach for more sea glass and I worked on the windlass, it was acting up again. Wednesday, Cori went back to the beach and I continued working on the windlass. The motor is completely falling apart but I got it to work again. Later I made a trip to shore to buy our last baguettes and check out of Martinique. In the evening we went to Arctic Vixen for drinks with them and Jennifer and David. We had a favorable forecast for travel on Thursday so in the morning we pulled anchor and headed to Rodney Bay in St Lucia. Again we set a reefed headsail and the mizzen with winds 15-20 knots doing 5-7 knots of speed. We had a variety of wave conditions with the roughest about midway between the islands when we had waves breaking over the bow as we would drop into the trough between them and plow into the next. Without the cockpit enclosure we would have been soaked. We arrived at Rodney Bay about 1:30 having made good time, dropped the anchor and headed in to check in with Immigration and Customs. Our friends, Dean and Kim from Dream Catcher are here in the marina so we were able meet up with them. The next morning we took care of a couple of projects, ran the generator to run the water maker and later joined Dean and Kim at the pool and for drinks later. It pays to have friends in a marina. The next day was a copy of the previous including the pool and drinks. Sunday was a quiet day with a short trip in to pick up some groceries and join up with Dean and Kim, they will be leaving in the morning. Monday and Tuesday it was windy with rain showers so we had quiet days on the boat getting a few things accomplished. We had found one of the stanchions leaking so that got re-bedded. We have almost eliminated the leaks that have been plaguing us for years.
We were planning to leave on Thursday, the 7th, so we made a final trip in to get rid of garbage, have lunch, pick up some duty-free liquor and check out. In the morning we were up with first light to pull the anchor and move on. We have plans to sail overnight to Granada. The winds had died down and we were in the wind shadow of the island so we spent the first few hours motoring. About the time we reached the bottom of the island we were greeted by a pod of dolphins that stayed with us for a while. The wind was building and we were able to sail with the headsail and the mizzen, I don't know if i ever explained our sails. We have the headsail, which is at the front of the boat that we roll up to take in or to make smaller, the mainsail on the main mast and a shorter mast in the cockpit called the mizzen that we use almost all of the time. We have two mast so therefore we are classified as a ketch. The winds had not built much only blowing 12-15 knots so we put up our main with two reefs making it smaller than normal and we were off. We sailed through the night, completely by-passing St Vincent and the Grenadines and in the morning we were at the top end of Granada. We had seen a couple of ships during the night but otherwise we were out there by ourselves. We continued down to St George, the capital city, and since it was still early we decided to continue on to Clark's Court Bay where we would prep for the trip to Trinidad. The seas had been from behind us giving a comfortable ride until we turned East at the bottom of the island. Then we were hit with 20+ knot winds on the nose and were motoring into 6 foot waves and a current. Finally we pulled into the bay and dropped anchor about 10:00 AM. It had been a 28 hour trip, traveling 144 miles. We launched the dinghy and rode in to check in with Immigration and Customs again.
We spent the next couple of days sorting out what we were going to store for the summer with our friends in Granada and what we were taking with us, doing a few projects and Cori spending time with her fishing friends on Hog Island. One of my projects was to change the oil. After getting everything out I found that I did not have an oil filter. I had bought a lot of them back when we left the US but did not realize that I had used the last one. I made a trip to shore but the boat shop did not have what I needed. The next day I took the shuttle to town to another boat shop, again so luck. Since it is supposed to be a common filter I took another bus into the city to check the NAPA store. Again, no luck, I will just have to bring more back next season. The weather forecast for was good conditions Tuesday and Wednesday so we made our last drop off for items being stored, bought some necessary provisions (diet coke), said our good-byes and took care of checking out of the country.
About 5:30 PM we pulled the anchor and with the headsail and the mizzen we were off to Trinidad. It is about 80 miles and with the speed we travel we need to decide when to leave. If we leave in the morning we will arrive at night, something we avoid doing. If we leave in the evening we will arrive in the daylight but need to sail overnight. The winds started out at 15-20 knots but after a couple of hours it dropped into the lower teens and we made good progress at 5-7 knots, at times the wind dropped off until we were only doing 3 knots but it always came back up after a while. The seas were a moderate 4-6 foot on our side so at times it got to be a bit rolling. There was just the smallest sliver of a moon that cast a light to see by but eventually that set and it clouded over making for a dark night. We saw the lights of a number of ships but nothing close to us. We have a waypoint at a well lighted oil rig which makes navigation easy. In the morning we approached Trinidad and were again met by a pod of dolphins. We motored through the pass and into the harbor and were able to get the last mooring ball, arriving about 10:30. We dinghied over to Immigration and Customs to check in then went to Powerboats to let them know we had arrived and to start the paperwork and then treated ourselves to lunch from our favorite lunch lady, with a big "welcome back" from her.
We had planned to be back here the beginning of April but were a month early. They were able to accommodate us and put us on the list as the second boat to be hauled out in the morning. Thursday, the 14th, we first made a trip to the fuel dock to top off the tanks, it took two tries to get tied up. This was our first time tying to a dock this season. Then we had to maneuver to the lift which involved backing the boat between two concrete piers, again it took two tries, we don't back up very well and there was a side wind fighting us. We were then hauled out.
Our season was over, We have a list of what needs to be done before we fly out. We met with a rigger to see about having the masts pulled. In the discussion we decided to only pull the mizzen mast and scheduled that for the next week. We have decided to replace the chain-plates, the hardware that secures the mast rigging to the boat, since it is all original and may be suspect. I removed one and brought it to the machine shop that made our wind generator mount and got a delivery date, we will see, but it should be done before we leave. There is a lot of cleaning and miscellaneous jobs to do so we started attacking them. The big decision was to replace the windlass. We can't rely on it another season and parts for it are no longer available. We bit the bullet and made the purchase. I spent a day removing the old one which should have been an easy job but of course wasn't. Now I need to rewire it, modify the anchor locker to mount it, and hire someone to repair the fiberglass where the old one was. Fortunately we know that Ricky does a good job with fiberglass and anything else we hire him for. Yesterday we pulled the mast. It either has never been removed or it had been a long time, since it was corroded to the mast shoe and gave us a fight before letting go. Another reason to remove them on a regular basis. Ricky is going to give us a bid on what it will cost to paint it and we need to do something to quiet the wires inside of it. The windlass project is moving along with our friend Sterling making a mount to fit it into place and we met with an electrician to put the ends on the cables and to decide if we need to replace the existing wiring. We have about a week and a half before we fly back so we are on a deadline.
