Carnival

We are back in Rodney Bay (to let our eardrums recover) after sailing down to Castries, the capital of St Lucia for Carnival. Not one of the major Caribbean Carnivals but a spectacle nevertheless. A bit of history...Carnival originates from early Roman Catholic Italy...it was the last bash before Lent when they stopped eating meat and was literally carne vale or "farewell to flesh". So it’s very much a colonial heritage.

Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate - a tropical wave was passing through and brought torrential rain with it which dampened the parade a bit. But what a parade it was - skimpy costumes and some incredibly raunchy dancing - there's no touching with hands but a lot of bumping and grinding! Sadly, apart from some superb traditional bands from Martinique, the music all seems to come straight from the ghettos in New York - relentless and manic. Strange they have adopted that instead of building on their African, Caribbean heritage. There were no steel bands, no reggae, no calypso, no Senegalese music. We are really hoping that the Carnival in Grenada (in August and we’re hoping to visit) hasn’t changed since we were last there 10 years ago, it was brilliant. For more pics go to http://picasaweb.google.com/Ironylondon/StLuciaCarnival

Our other boat is in the background!!!!!!!

Back in St Lucia

We sailed south to Martinique and stocked up on French wines and cheeses in Le Marin. It is still filled with hundreds of boats at anchor. On Bastille Day the local boats came out for a race and made a colourful scene with their huge sails. We're now in St Lucia and anchored off Pigeon Island in Rodney Bay. It's looking tropically lush with all the flame trees in full bloom. Carnival here on Monday and Tuesday so we are going to sail down to Castries to check it out.

Marigot Bay

We FINALLY left the lagoon and went through the French bridge this morning. We are anchored in Marigot Bay. It's a day for scraping the bottom of the boat so we've had the dive compressor and bottles out. There are some very surprised crabs and mussels trying to find a new home! Check out tomorrow and then southwards.

End in sight!

Nic finally got the generator going on Sunday afternoon. We also installed the 2 wind generators on the mizzen mast so Irony has gone green. Now we're putting the boat back together and will head south to St Lucia once the latest tropical wave moves through this weekend.

Still here!

We're still in St Maarten and the generator is still not working. Ready to tear our hair out!

Ailing generator

Still in St Maarten...we have had 2 deliveries of parts for the generator from Florida and are awaiting the third. We hope that, once received, we will be up and running again. All very frustrating.

Barbuda and on to St Maarten

After a visit to Jolly Harbour to refill our water tanks, we returned to Deep bay for Nic's birthday. From there we sailed up to Barbuda - undeveloped with long beautiful beaches. We are now in St Maarten to stock up on paint and parts for our forthcoming haulout. The generator has also broken down so we are conserving energy while we wait for a part to arrive from Florida!