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IMAGE: out of the water in Trinidad
We finally departed St Marteen on 8.30am bridge on Friday 16th May – without a working autopilot! Andrew, the local B & G guy did his very best for us... but we need to look at another plan for getting this vital bit of kit back up and working. We set the sails for an overnight sail north to St Thomas – USVI. After 4 hours of light winds and a little rain we settled in to a good goosewing sail. Overnight, with 86% moon made for a lovely and easy sail with the Hydrovane doing all the work (thankfully). At 6am on Saturday 17th we tacked and then sailed straight back into Honeymoon Bay, USVI – we were home again! Today was FA Cup day back in the UK and James managed to watch the game in at the beach Bar – AND is beloved Arsenal final won a trophy! I had the afternoon with my good friend Sue chatting and food shopping, so good to catch up on all her news. Joining the Cilliers family - we all had a great evening together – with a late afternoon swim in the pool and watching a sunset green flash from their deck – fantastic! a lovely dinner and late night jacuzzi. On Sunday 18th we met Boel and her family on the beach at Honeymoon Bay for a drink and catch-up chat- again lovely to catch up with these mates. Late Sunday afternoon we spent again with Sue & Abrie up at their house – lovely swim in the pool, another green flash sunset, BBQ dinner, then jacuzzi- a lovely time together with good friends. We spent Monday 19th running around town doing our official check-in with US immigration and customs and bulk food shopping. We also tried locally to get someone to fix autopilot, with no luck. Our English friends Rob & Sarah on Serafina bought their yacht over to Honeymoon Bay on Tuesday 20th- it was great to catch-up and have a good old chat over a few afternoon drinks. On Wednesday 21st we caught up with our other USVI friends Harry & Betsy for an evening meal at Tickles in Crown Bay Marina. By Thursday 22nd we had made our decision to now head south to Trinidad to leave the boat there for hurricane season and from there fly to the UK and then home to Australia – so at least we have a plan and can now make the necessary boatyard bookings, flights etc. Rob & Sarahs yacht was loaded on a transport ship on Saturday 24th for her journey back to the UK – so we were given the final contents of their fridge. We said our final goodbyes – their personal and yacht journey now over. Sue arrived mid-afternoon on the plane from Florida with Rocky, the new family dog – a very handsome boxer. We again enjoyed dinner together up at their house and stayed overnight. Sue & I went out to an evening beach party, whilst the boys caught up on motor racing etc. Sunday 25th was a day of hellos and goodbyes to all the Offshore gang at a Grizz’s 65th Birthday Party. The guys watched Monaco Grand Prix - won by Rosburg. It was time to finally leave – so on Monday 26th we said our final goodbyes to the Cilliers family, and motor-sailed over to Christmas Cove to pick-up a buoy there for the evening. We enjoyed a lovely BBQ meal on-board - this now in our minds being the end to our sailing season.
On Tuesday 27th we checked out of the USVI at 7am in St John. We set the windvane and headed 500 miles south to Trinidad. We had a good passage to Trinidad, with only a few cargo ships for company. On Sunday 1st June we arrived in Trinidad – sailing straight into Scotland Bay, where we dropped anchor for a chill-out day before the round of officialdom and preparations to lay-up the boat which was now ahead of us. Monday 2nd we officially checked-in with Immigration & Customs, and then took up our berth for the next week in Coral Cove Marina. The next week was spent doing lots of cleaning and packing up to get us and the boat ready for the next few months. Thankfully this was our 2nd season here in Trinidad and we knew the Boatyard and general lay of the land and came across many familiar businesses and sailors we had met when we were last here in 2012. We hauled at 9am on Monday 9th– all OK – we now had 2 frantic days to finally pack-up to leave the boat until we return on 24th September.