Filled up the water with Alberts help form a buoy with a hose brought out from shore attached to it. 3 hour sail on the beam (side of boat) at 7knts to an island below Guadeloupe called Terre-de-haut. Wifi working here as French islands so immersed ourselves all afternoon in the www! Checked out the town the next day. Different style-a french cottagy feel but still the bright Caribbean colours. Spying at least 2 older gay couples it definitely had the feel of a chilled, artistic, gay retirement village. Walked up to another fort to gander at the views. Saw a ginger cat up a tree, when zooming in on my camera I saw it was horrifically injured around the mouth. Lots of dried blood and teeth showing. Made me feel incredibly sad as I don’t reckon it will last long.

3 hour sail to the north-as we motor in we hear fast paced drumming coming from the shore. Excitedly get the dinghy ready and find a massive carnival with the best dressed people I’ve ever seen. A group of girls and occasional boy dancing in front of a band of mostly males drumming in a African kinda style. At least 15 separate groups with different styles. Amazing to watch and brought water to me eyes thinking back to the fun filled days with Balakulanya (me old drum group) locals and a few tourists lined the roads on deck chairs, standing or dancing. Food and souvenir stalls on the beach side. Woke up to the anchor alarm warning of the stony sea bed. Luckily we were just swinging wildly as very windy, gusting off the hills. Had my first run in ageeees, short but sweet congratulating ourselves with croissants and baguette! Mwahhahah. Spent the rest of the day blogging as we had a leaney sail to Deshaies at the top of Guadaloupe. Checked in and out ashore before talking ben through how the make a vege cottage pie. Came out very good! Attempting to plan the route through pacific to avoid hurricanes and cyclones. Quite a lot to take in but think we’re getting somewhere. Basically got about 4 weeks to get through a few more carribean islands before heading west for a 5-6 day sail to the San Blas islands which look ammmmaaazing. Getting through the Panama Canal before the end of march.

Up at 6am sailing 8 hours to fetch the island in one tack. Few large grey dolphins swam under Babs ..pretty friking mega! Kiters out in the bay as we round Green Island and anchor. Little explore on kite beach, trying to gee meself up to get back out there and attempt ‘The jump’ Feeling pretty nervous the next day but all’s good when I eventually get out there. Choppy but flatter water than a lot of places. Ozone (kite brand) central here as that’s what the local school use. Ben also loves them. Improving slightly but lower back ache brings me in. Talk to a gal who has a seat harness which I’m dying to try and she gives advice to hire one from the kite school. Long, wet dinghy ride but worth is as I set up the loan of a bigger board and seat harness for tomoz morn. Ben getting a free try of a new 12mtr Alpha kite as he’s thinking about buying one of their used kites.

Grannys sleep oils came in handy again as I was too nervous/excited thinking of the rentals and possibly, finally getting me arse in da air. Met the guys on the beach and got into me nappy …perfect non-gusty wind and I only went and fucking DID IT! I CAN JUUUUMPPPPP! Obvs felt AMAAAZING and good to know it was the harness position that’s been holding me back….meeheheheh After lunch we motored across the bay and anchored in our first deserted anchorage amonst the mangroves called Emerald cove. Put Radda on a fishermans dock and caught a lift with a friendly rasta to the bus stop in the next village. Very helpful Lady helped showed us to a supermarket in the in town and we stopped for a fat arsed pizza. Bussed back in the dark paying the driver a a little extra to take us to the end of our lane.

After much indecision from ben (surprise surprise) we went and bought the kite and me new harness! Took Babs round to a small anchorage on the other side of green island. Ben played on his new kite while I snorkelled eyeing up a zebra patterned fish and another sea dweller about 15cm long swimming very close to the surface with sword noses as long as their bodies. In the morning ben went to sort out a leak in the bladder of his new kite with the school. We spoke to a woman snorkelling from Ramsgate who raved about French Polynesia making us as excited as a fruit fly in a sloppy mango.

Left around 11am. Windy with big waves. Couple of tacks then a beamy 6 hour sail at 6-7knts. Caught a Barracuda on the way and saw a Dorado jump high out of the water like a dolphin! Amazing as we pulled up to Barbuda with dark stormy rain clouds combined with a pink sunset over the white sands and turquois waters. Met a local on the beach as we were setting up our kites the next day. Telling us how he hates the system and lives alone in a beach shack. When asked how he got his food and water, he replied –‘mostly from the boat ppl’ Have a lil go on the kites but not really windy enough. I head back to the boat and ben joins me by kite telling me ol’ mateys request of ‘some Barracuda, onions, seasoning, herbs, water…lolz! Ben duely took em back hoping we wont avta see him again as he didn’t have a good energy.

Sailed back to coco point- me on the bow trying to look for reefs we may crash babsy’s belly into. Tried a lil bit of fish for dins to see if it made us ill-ben shat throughout the night with mine coming about 8 hours later (metabolism issues-lolz) Sailed to Low-bay spotting the wrecked hotel we’d been warned about as a pack of dogs sheltering there had attacked a few people. Bit of kiting with only one other (big, posh kite boat) boat at anchor. Ben attempted to warn a lady near the hotel about the dawwwgs but apparently she looks after them and they get locked up during the day due to the attacks. Ben found some waves and I manged a few more little jumps.

Alarm at 4.30am-leaving by 5.20am. I attempted to look out for coral reefs but without any sun it was pretty impossible so had to trust in the plotter. Quick sail and arrived just before the last bridge opening at 5pm. Sint Maarten is a crazy arsed place-they call it the vegas of the Caribbean! Defo the most built up and busy place we’ve been to in the Carib. Cars queuing and lots of tourists. Nightlife whenever you want it and lots of different restaurants-big fat bonus in manning land! As we came through the bridge with the tanoy man shouting at us to hurry da fuck up our gearbox died. Shitbums!

So instead of spending a couple of days here, ben now has the long task of getting and fitting a new gearbox. The next month is pretty boring intertiwined with a few nights out and lil explorations so I’ll keep in brief-ish.

Ben jobs- Take off gear box, find and order new one, put back on, change couplings, re-align the engine…lots of work to the engine and steering

Both of us take the boat for a motor around the lagoon (a few times) going up and down the same path to test for a rattling sound in the engine…Every time it’s still there so ben investigates something else getting Dr diesel to try and work out the rattle issue-still no luck. Atlantic divers got their scuba gear on and took off the propeller so ben could but on the old 2 blade and check the current one….Still rattling! After much sweat and frustration for da Harm-dawg he decided its gotta be a bent shaft so we were craned out the water and plonked ourselfs in Toby’s yard for a week.

Amy jobs- While Ben was having a grand (mheheheh) time in the lagoon deciphering the problem I researched a way to get weather on-board for the pacific crossing settling on an Iridium Go. Sorted boat and personal insurance …only 1 company out of hundreds would insure us coz Babs was too old and not worth enough…Dick-wads! Researched weather and routes for the next year realising we weren’t gunna make it through to the pacific as the engine took longer than expected. Happily settled on spending the Hurricane season in Ecuador. Cooking, provisioning, washing, occasional cleaning, jet washed the underneath, sanded and cleaned off the white painted line. Obvs made it sound like I’v done more here but ben was defo working more hours. I fitted in some yoga, facebook and book time to keep meself at a decent level ()
So now we are out of the water-the shaft has been straightened, propeller which had a lil’ dink in it went to the welder who had to cut loads off and weld a wedge on as electrolysis had eaten away at it.

HIGHLIGHTS at sint maarten have been:

* meeting up with bens mate Josh and his g/f Tay getting off our tits in the bars…I’v had horrible hangovers so gunna kick the booze-more on that laterz

*Walk up to the highest point we could see-started off easy peasy before going straight up along an old river bed climbing over boulders then hauling our (my) fat bumholes up the ropes handily placed on some dusty, slippy ground. Felt wikid to get me heart pumping although me face said otherwise.

*Saw a huge spotted ray in the lagoon as we were dinghy-ing from the French side to the dutch side

*Went along to 2 talks –one on the pacific islands by a bloke who’s been there 4 times and 101 sailing tips…free beer , snackettes, beer coolers and t’shirts were there to grab and all!

*Me birthday-cake from mummykins, getting bus’s to the beach and eating out for brekki and dinner-not that I remember dinner but josh kindly stowed the uneaten pizza in me bag which was a pleasing treat in the morn!

*guy gave us a great tip to get off the white salt stains off the top sides of babs as were about to polish the whole thing—wash with vinegar…3 washes later it was back to pure blue!

*Yoga on the lil island the cruisers have made into a chillout zone with shade covers and old seats etc.

*Got a whole loada series and films off a Russian couple. As I spent most of the day on their boat with their huuuuge dawgs (a giant snauzer) they fed me, watered and vino’d me…extremely hospitable!
*Managed to get radda on the plane which was necessary as the lagoon is mahoosive so long dinghy rides if ya cant get on z plane…pretty happy with meself.

*Got the bikes out on the very busy roads but felt brilliant to be riding again.

*Met a cool woman in the yard who has fire coloured hair- 67ears old but she don’t look or act like it. Had a fun, interesting convo about mutual interests for about 3 hours…sober! Good to talk n laugh as does get bore o’clock with just me n ben on ere!

So tomorrow we should be going in the water..ben gotta do a couple more things, test it, provision up and get OUTTA here sailing onto the BVI’S …wup a dee wup wup!
Laterz ploppys-love n miss ya’ll looooads!