Back on board, looking north

Well, we're actually looking south in this picture, taken from about 15 feet off the ground, just before we headed into the water on Thursday the 10th.  We had arrived back in Chaguaramas, Trinidad on Monday the 7th, but there was the usual rather long THINGS TO DO list - ours and the yard's - so we stayed at the hotel at Crews Inn and worked on the boat on Tuesday and Wednesday before splashing in the early afternoon on Thursday.  We've been provisioning and working most days since; the sails are on, the dinghy engine works, we have refrigeration again (needed a new controller), and the boat is generally livable again.  We've gotten to do a little socializing, and we've heard a couple of steel bands in practice for the upcoming Carnival, so it hasn't been all work.  Our water heater is (still) leaking, so it's out for one more attempted repair, but really it's time to replace it.  I will probably make a trip back to Florida, and try to bring one back.  Despite the allure of Carnival, we are planning to unstick ourselves from the all-too-comfortable docks of Crews Inn and head for Grenada on the weekend.  We still don't have a season plan - we had tentatively said we would point ourselves toward the Chesapeake, to be there in early June before Rus and Aude's 22 June wedding, but we are really not 100% sure we are ready to leave the Caribbean, so - to be seen.

This is a photo of the sky behind Crews Inn taken a couple of days ago; we have been having lovely sunsets here.  It's been incredibly windy - but from the north, so not exactly the desired direction - and there was a terrible north swell that sent several boats crashing onto shore in Tobago.  All that is supposed to end in the next couple of days, and we should see a more easterly wind and nice seas (three or four feet), at least long enough for us to make the 85 mile passage to Grenada.  The only problem with this plan is how incredibly easy it is to get Velcro'd to the Spice Island (we went for a week or two in December of 2011, and stayed until late February).  We are anxious to make it to a couple of new places this season, and are tentatively planning to make our March trip to Europe from Guadeloupe, so perhaps we will be motivated to keep moving.