December 17 Rodney Bay

First things first. Just for grins, we fired up the satellite radio receiver, and whadyaknow, it works!! We have previously been too far south to receive the signal. We learned important news of the world, such as the fact that Jimmy has printed a new record and we were unawares....

I simply can not get enough of St Lucia sunsets. Here are a few shots from my last night here:

The rest of the photos are dedicated to Skip.

That 300 person "cruise ship" came back in yesterday and left in the afternoon. I went up on deck (from all the WORK I was doing) to find this on the horizon. I was wishing for a telephoto lens but made do with what I have so that you could see it "under sail". No doubt the jillion horsepower iron jib is at work as well....

Dig this. Today, this anchored beside us. Neither French or German, so it was a respectable and safe distance from us. Look closely. This is a Morgan 41 Classic. WITH A CUSTOM SUGAR SCOOP STERN!! Not to mention the ultra-sexy paint job. I can say with a reasonable degree of certainty that this is the only time the thought of " look at the butt on that girl" will ever cross my mind, much less deserve utterance....ain't she something????

Baby, I want that real bad. Add that to the 40K and rising post-cruising upgrade list.

Yesterday afternoon, we went over to S/V Aleana for sundowners. We were joined by S/V Opus and S/V Bold Endeavor. We are all traveling in the next day or two to Martinique and plan to spend Christmas together. Today, we were hailed on the VHF radio by S/V Como No, anchored 100 yards to our starboard beam, and then were joined in conversation by S/V Half Moon, anchored 50 yards to our starboard bow. The couples on both these boats are all from the Dallas/Ft Worth area and are traveling to Martinique tomorrow as well. Further, they are both ultimately on their way back to Kemah, Texas as are we. What a very small world. Como No has been out 12 years. We look forward to their stories. We hope to meet them in person in Martinique and may well have traveling companions the whole way home.

Everything is tidy and tucked away. Passage tomorrow. Only 26 miles.