Here in St. Thomas we started out on the 2nd of January 2008 for the trip around South America. After 14,446 nautical miles, we finished our journey here in St. Thomas coming straight from Martinique on the 23rd of Oct. 2009. This place is good for fixing things and to lick our wounds. Our 4 deep cycle 12 Volt batteries of our house bank were shot. Initially we purchased them back up in Canada in 2003 while building Diesel Duck. But as we were pounding our way toward Patagonia in Chile, the battery acid had come out of the vent holes while heading into 30 knot head winds and waves. These batteries had their fair share of punishment. A couple of months ago in Grenada half of the bank went dead and then in Porlamar, Venezuela, the other half went on the brink. Now we had to replace the whole housebank here in St. Thomas and amazingly, the marine store had 4 Trojan L16H-AC deep cycle batteries in stock. Sadly, these were not all of our troubles. Suddenly, the pressure water system's automatic pump packed in. Not that it's a good thing, but for once, the timing was right. And then the toilet started to give me a headache, but this I will post separately. We love St. Thomas. It's a good to be home again.
The picture is of Blackbeard Castle here in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas.