Windjammer's Holiday

Innocent looking cumulus clouds just looking for some very warm Caribbean water to grow into something nasty!!

Here we sit, in an often bouncy lagoon (even though WJ3 is still very securely tied to our berth, D21), daily watching towering cumulus clouds drift overhead.  This means yet another tropical wave is gliding over us; some offering more kick than others.  The end of August approaches, and this season’s outlook is expected to heat up until November-ish.  Fortunately for us in the Windwards, Atlantic conditions have changed a wee bit and these waves, with little to feed off (to develop into tropical storms or worse, hurricanes), are mostly drifting north-west of us – a bit of a reprieve, for now! 

So, tucked up in our little berth, we are pretending we’re on holiday.  A white sandy beach on a green tropical island somewhere...  Oh, wait – we are!

Looking oh so innocent, but we all know that means trouble ahead!!

Now that our second month here in St Lucia draws to a close, we tell ourselves we really have put time to good use.  The Cap’n continues to update his Hunter 460 Blog.  Exciting reading if you’re into mechanical & electrical mayhem and the many other wild and wacky delights of ongoing sailboat maintenance!  He’s also spending time doing heaps of research to help solve all those incidents that might just crop up one day – as they often do.  At present, we are still at a loss to explain why the main sail continues to get stuck in our mast.  Is it a bid for freedom?  Or why the cabin roof continues to leak every time it rains.  It is the tropics and rain it often does.  All this angst despite a fortunes-worth of sealants squeezed into every possible nook & cranny.    

An early evening gathering of our quietest neighbours, roosting egrets?

Meanwhile, the Galley Slave has prepped-up a handy to-do list of boat chores for herself and will one day get round to thinking about doing them.  Her current area of domestic expertise is fishing out little squidgies that find themselves sucked up in through the bathroom salt water inlet pump.  Meanwhile, last year’s troublesome laptop has become this year’s troublesome laptop, so uploading photos for WJ3 and the H460 blogs may have to wait until the nearest Walmart.  Meanwhile, there’s always a basket of stitching or a book to read…

So stressed out we are not; the aircon is working beautifully!  We check the weather daily, have an escape plan in mind and intend to stay in St Lucia rather than back-track south.  Anyhoo, it’s been lovely chatting but it’s almost beer time.  And a chilly, blue can of Piton definitely has our name on it. 

Looking right (south) from our comfy seats in the cockpit. Can you find the egrets?

And looking left (north)...it's a big marina for sure and a long walk to the bathrooms.
We are at the top end of the island and its flattest part.