LinoCat

After a good night sleep in Prickly Bay at anchor we took a local bus for 2.5 EC Dollar and went for shopping in a nice shopping mall. They even have NUTELLA, my favorite chocolate spread but since we just visited Martinique we had enough Nutella on board. But they had all we need. Well just no bananas. At 12.00 we lifted the anchor to relocate another 6 miles west to St. Davids harbour where LinoCat will get out of the water on Monday. Be aware of the rocky coast when you sail along here. There are underwater rocks just 0.6m below the water. When the waves break there you can even see the rocks. So have a good look on the map and be alert. Many of the bouys which are in the map do not exist in real, so expect the unexpected :-) When we approached St Davids we also could see the waves breaking on shallo rocks just near the entrance. An appointment for Monday morning was confirmed and together with Ralf from La Medianoche we had a coffee on LinoCat and then went to the southern police s...

It was an uneventful crossing just the wind was always coming a bit from the front and o were the waves. When we were on the lee side of the islands sometimes we had to motor. We even passes and underwater volcano called "Kick em Jenny" and had to pass around since the entry was not permitted. Customs officials were very friendly and we had a nice nap after the voyage. Once there was a cargo ship coming very close and even though we were under sail and had the right of way i changed the course to let him pass at full speed. On the radar at night there were even some rainclouds but we did not get a boatwash for free :-). On the VHF radio we have talked with Ralf from La Medianoche and we will see him tomorrow. That will be nice!

Last night LinoCat dropped anchor after having an unpleasant ride from Martinique. The wind was still to southerly and so we had to motor for 2 hours against wind and waves. Since we owed the Sparkle Laundry in Rodney bay some money we decided to stop there, pay them and then sleep there. So here we are the next morning and continue to drive south towards Grenada. Another 130 miles to go. Maybe we stop in Bequia or maybe we directly sail to Grenada. The wind is currently only 8 knots and so we sail a lousy 3-4 knots with sometimes the wind slowing down and then we have to use the engine. Let´s see how it goes. As we are crusing along St Lucia coast there is often an open WifI spot which we can use. In the picture you can see the UNICORN, a boat based in Rodney bay. It could be seen in the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean" and also "Roots".

LinoCat is on the way to Grenada to get a new bottom paint. No clue how the WiFi and Telephone situation is there. We will report back in 2days or so :-)

You know that you are back in Europe when Cappucino costs 5EUR in a normal restaurant. Yes, we are in Martinique to do some shopping, check out if we can get some parts for the boat and Chris wants a new haircut. Lani is putting together all her toys and is talking to them like to an audience on the bed :-) Yesterday we tried out Accras in St Anne. These are fried fish things which taste very good. We then went into the first restaurant but the waitress was SOOOOOOOOO unfriendly that we just left again. In the other restaurant they were friendly and we had dinner. This morning i picked up Tina and Chicco from Vanora and we went ashore to get Baguette. Then both boats moved to Le Marin marina and there we are..... This afternoon we will have a rental car and drive to Fort de France.

After a nice sail together with Vanora we reached St Anne after approx 4 hours. We took some snaps of Vanora flying "Wulle", their Gennaker. of course they were more than 1 knot faster with that sail compared to us. In the anchorage we just had a nice sunset and i will open a Piton beer as sundowner and then we will check out St Anne together with Peter, Tina and Chicco. You know that you are "back in Europe", when it is hard to find a free WiFi.

Many people asked me about our solar panels and controller and how much power we get out of them. The max A we see here in the Caribbean is around 46A during midday. The total of power added to the housebank is around 180 to 200Ah per day. That covers producing 125Liters of water, run 2 PC and the radio and the lights like cabin, saloon and mooring light (all LED). And this is without tilting the solar panels. If you tilt them towards the sun you might get almost 70% more but it is not easily possible in our installation. In Rodney bay we did some shopping and met with our friends from Vanora for coffee and then we went out for dinner to a Thai restaurant called KuDeTa and the food was very good. The water in the aby was very clear like we had not seen it before. Today we will clear out and sail to martinique together with the Vanora. We will nachor in St. Anne since we have never been there so far and then proceed to Le Marin for washing the boat and renting a car to go to Fort de Fra...