We had a few things to buy so 6 of us took the locals bus to Castries to do a little browsing and shopping at the local vegetable market and the craft stores. We spent a long time looking for Christmas gifts John and Jo wanted for the arrival of his sister Morag and family this holiday season. We stopped for lunch at our favorite restaurant in the market and again were amazed by the great local food. We also took a a trip to the Mega J, although now bought by Massey, it is pretty much the same big box store and we easily got what we wanted. We walked to a local shop, Massey in Rodney bay for groceries because we had found they do very nice tubs of Ice Cream. We managed to share one tub with John and Jo, a first for Devin.
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| The Castries market |
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| Keith, Linda and Devin looking intently |
Well all that talk of shopping and eating we had to work out a few hikes. We had not been to Fort Rodney on Pigeon Island in the national park. It is a very interesting park with some restoration of the old barracks and lots of ruins. The hike up to the lookout and gun placements was energetic and well worth the views. We stopped for lunch in the park and walked the causeway and beach before returning by dinghy to Moosetracks.
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| A walk around the south of Rodney bay |
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| A cannon at Fort Rodney |
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| The walk across fort Rodney, spectacular views |
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| Kite surf school |
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| Rocket booster remains |
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| The east coast, wild ponies way across the bay |
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| A nice scenic hike |
Each morning started with us getting ARC updates and of course we tracked Emily Morgan (EM) coming to the finish line. They had enough volunteers on finish line boats this year but on the day EM was now due in our friends on s/v Four Season were due on finish line duty. They were very kind and invited us on board to cheer EM and crew over the line, so we were for the second year on the finish line boat for their crossing. They arrived on December 8th after a 17 day crossing. It was mid morning when they crossed so we had plenty of light for photos and they crossed in style to a tumultuous welcome.
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| Aboard Four Seasons waiting for Emily Morgan |
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| Emily Morgan crossing the finish line |
Emily Morgan's crew had a day of post race decompression (known often as drinking), which we left them alone for then the crew started planning their departures and we got some great time with Anna and Bones to catch up on news. It turns out they are now grandparents!
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| All smiles coming in to the dock |
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| A great achievement to celebrate |
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| Pluto and Moosie |
We have been researching chain replacement prices and it appears here is the best price in the Caribbean so we order 80m (250') of 10mm (3/8") chain and carry it in the dinghy to fit on Moosetracks. It was quite a bit of effort to load that much weight but it went very smoothly. We had emptied the primary chain locker so it was easy to had pull out of the dinghy on to Moosetracks. Unfortunate though we managed to break a lifeline, the corrosion finally took its toll, so we also ordered and replaced port and starboard lifelines, thankfully again they have great prices on rigging services here. After these two projects it was time to climb the mast to replace the broken headsail halyard. Russ and Lisa (S/V Uproar) happily volunteered to help and so Devin was raised up the mast by Russ and we had everything up and furled in no time.
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| Our new chain being loaded |
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| Devin running the new halyard |
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| Russ catching the bitter end |
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| New lifelines too! |
With our jobs complete, It's time to sail out to the St Anne anchorage to meet up with Euan Mara, Emily Morgan and Uproar who we were sharing Christmas with this year.
Our Christmas Eve hike, took us to the highest point, with fantastic views back to Le Marin, across to the east coast and down onto our anchorage in St Anne. We had a pot luck BBQ on the beach on Christmas Eve with Out of Africa and Karma who called it.Lots of boats attended and we met lots of new and old friends. On Christmas Day we gather on Emily Morgan for an absolutely wonderful day with fabulous company and deliciously wonderful food. It was finished of with great music from EM and uproar iPods and dancing on the rear deck! Unfortunately Anna and Bones had w**k to get to so the following morning they were up and underway early to prep for their next charter in St Martin.
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| EM dressed for Christmas |
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| Devin dressed too |
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| Liz looking after the crew |
Well our friends John and Jo also left us to cruise the Martinique coast and give their family a glimpse of the cruising lifestyle. We stayed on in St Anne and enjoyed another pot luck BBQ by Karma again very well attended. We had New Year's Eve celebrations with s/v Just Imagine with Robin and Cheryl who had invited Keith & Linda, Graham & Joan and us to a party on their Catamaran. The Club Med resort laid on the fireworks in front of us and we had a wonderful evening celebrating the arrival of 2017.
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| St Anne is colorful |
s/v Moosetracks
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