27th March - 18th April 2008

We flew home from Saint Lucia on 27th March. for two weeks. The boat was lifted out of the water and stored in the boat yard at Rodney bay. Lift out was much cheaper than in England and it was a chance to clean the bottom and replace any anodes that needed doing.

We stayed with William's mum and dad for a week and visited friends and relatives in the Dunstable area. We went to Derbyshire for 2 days to visit my aunt and my cousin Maureen in Whaley Bridge. Then we went to Richard and Hanna in Swanage for a few days. The weather was cold and we saw some snow. There was about a 30 degree difference in temperature between England and Saint Lucia. On returning to Rodney bay, the weather turned very wet (British weather following us) and it poured all day Sunday while we were abrading the boat's copper bottom ready for launch on Monday morning. We stayed on the boat in the yard which was fun, climbing a ladder to get aboard. The boatyard was very noisy at night with dogs barking an a cockerel crowing from 3 am onwards. It was however very friendly and we made a number of new friends. Launching went smoothly, always a bit worrying seeing the boat being moved by the crane. We managed to get one night berth in the marina and had our new sails fitted. It was very windy, 30 knots but Kenny from the sail loft aided by William had no problems. The new sails are a great improvement and we go about 2 knots faster than before and can sail much closer to wind. William is pleased because he can overtake other boats and I am pleased because we arrive much quicker.

Our search for crew resulted in a number of inquiries. However the situation in Panama with long delays transiting the canal has meant that we would not have time to explore the Pacific before the cyclone season begins. We don't want to have to rush through to Australia and not see any of the islands, so we decided to postpone until December/ January. Amongst the possible crew were a couple who were still interested in going with us at the later date, so we sailed to Union Island to meet them.