We arrive in Rodney Bay, St Lucia, on Friday, November 30, having made better time than I had at first calculated. I had originally calculated an arrival on Sunday December 2 but, due to good winds on the crossing, we managed to cut two days off the estimate.

We had one major incident during the crossing in that a block at the top of the mast, used to control the spinnaker halyard, exploded whilst we were doing around 7 knots. This happened on the 28th. Jason was on watch at the time and I was sitting in the saloon. I heard the bang and out the corner of my eye saw the top of the spinnaker shoot forward (the halyard had also snapped) and curl into the sea forward of the bows. The boat then proceeded to sail over the spinnaker, with it appearing, now ripped to shreds, behind us. What a mess!

We tried to retrieve the shredded sail, but gave up when it was apparent that the engine shafts and rudders had done so much damage that it was folly to try and retrieve it. We had to cut sections of it away, out of the rudders. It is a great pity we lost this sail as it had carried us many thousands of miles and still could of helped on some of the final leg to Florida. On the flip-side of the coin, we are fortunate that we were already close to Sint Lucia and had enough fuel to motor-sail to Rodney Bay. The wind was ideal spinnaker weather but not strong enough to just sail this beast of a boat - it needed some "iron donkey" assistance to keep it moving.

I have been to St Lucia a few times but never to Rodney Bay. I must say it is a pleasant port with very friendly customs and immigration official, something not always found in other places in the Caribbean. There are a number of restaurants and bars in the marina area and a small supermarket not too far from the marina. Today is Saturday and we will be spending most of the day working on the boat. I also need to go up the mast and photograph the remains of the block at the top and check that no other damage to the rig occurred. We also need to try and recruit at least one person to finish the trip to Florida as Jason and Mark are flying back to the UK on Tuesday - we need to leave on Monday.

Above is a photo of the block at the top of the mast - looks like the weld failed. Cheers for now - Dylan and John.