Holiday Cheer

I am a week late on continuing with the weekly blogging, but to be fair, it was Christmas and we have been quite busy lately.

We had a wonderful Christmas on the boat.  Admittedly though, as a Canadian, it is hard to feel the Christmas magic when snow doesn’t blanket the landscape, and you aren’t curled up next to a roaring fireplace with a hot drink and a great book.  Alas, we decorated the boat with festive lights, artwork, stockings, and our miniature Christmas tree taped to the counter.  We even made a modified version of stollen bread whereby we substituted dried apricots for dried fruit and baked them as cupcakes in order to decrease the amount of time the hot oven was on.  They were still a great hit.

We awoke early on Christmas to two very eager boys who had discovered that Santa had found our boat and they were very keen to start opening presents.  They were thrilled to find that Santa was able to source even the airplane models that do not exist in conventional, human airline model sites.  Way to go Santa!

Following some time playing with their new found toys, the boys joined some other kids on the dock to continue playing amongst all the other kid boats.  I was able to peel out for a great bike ride to St Annes.  At times, I even had a dedicated bike lane.  The remainder of the bike ride however was on windy, blind, turning hills with no shoulder at all.  Fortunately, there was not a lot of traffic on the holiday.

Upon my return, we piled a gaggle of kids on to the Tiwal and took them for a spin around the bay.  This is unfortunately where the i360 camera went for a swim of it’s on in the murky, nasty marina water.  Fortunately it was successfully recovered and still works (see below).

We then attended a fantastic potluck Christmas dinner with an incredible amount of delicious food with a large group of other cruisers and kid boats.  We certainly couldn’t ask for more for Christmas.

Sadly, a couple days later, we did have to say goodbye (for now) to SV Kiana.  We were hoping to follow them up North to Guadeloupe for some more diving fun and play, but alas, our furler motors are not working well, so instead we waved goodbye and will spend our time in Martinique while we get this sorted out.  It does however, give me the opportunity to finally tackle the summit of Mt Pelee, which is still very high on the to do list!

We sailed out of the marina, travelling a whopping 3 nm downwind under genoa, to lay anchor in St Anne’s where we now can enjoy the fresh breeze through the boat, and immediate access to swimable water.  Sadly, the visibility lately is atrocious so snorkelling is not high on the list.  We have however, had the Tiwal out daily and the boys are now happily taking it out on their own which is fantastic to see, as this was the main objective of the Tiwal in the first place.

We also met another Canadian kid boat with kids the same age and this has been wonderful.  The kids get along great and have similar interests so we are taking advantage of this for as long as we can before they ultimately continue their journey North.  Thus far, we have played on the local Wibit, hiked the coastal trail to secret beach and back, enjoyed dinner together, played on the Tiwal and the boys have designed their own communal airport together.

Jay and I even got the opportunity to try out their wing on a paddleboard.  We used the small kid sized wing as it was quite gusty and it was a first time for all of us.  I was blown away by how easy it was.  I was expecting a significant upper body workout, but it is truly just board balance and finger tip control.  This is of course rekindling the urge to look at finding some used wings to continue playing with.  We shall see.

We now look forward to ringing in the New Year, with more adventures to come.

Miles Sailed: 3

Projects completed: Chaps templated and started sewing (30% completed), Peplink completed (game changer), steering system serviced, laundry door fixed, Scuzzy mooring lines power washed, boat washed, Waterline cleaned, Tiwal inflated, Teak sanded and oiled, Furler motors and gear boxes removed, Dive tanks filled, New provider for solar confirmed (the original one was no longer able to keep their date commitment), Reviewed med kit and Ditch Bag

Things that broke/Feaver fails: Furler motors for Main and Mizzen not working (hopefully repairable with service and not replacement), i360 camera dropped into nasty marina water on Christmas (Jay subsequently spent 40 minutes diving in said water and successfully recovered it), Salvaged engine charger battery is not holding a charge, so replaced it again.