Raconteur, afloat

The yard was right on time yesterday morning, and with only a couple of glitches (bad hose clamp, leaking from the shaft that required the SIMSCO guys to come on board while we were still in the sling to replace and tighten, respectively), we motored off into Prickly Bay just after 1130 and Susan and JP had the hook down in a very good spot at noon.

We had made two trips from the apartment, bringing most of the rest of our stuff on board (we missed Susan's pillow, and I had a load drying in the w/d combo at the apartment), before the start of the crane operation.  We got most of it put away, at least things that would rattle around during the transfer, and then climbed down for a roti snack from the guy who comes to the Budget Marine parking every (work) day, and watched Raconteur lumber across the yard.  It's always scary, but they did a great job.

Once the hook was down, we unpacked everything else (clothes and linens), Susan made the beds, and JP did some additional systems checking.  He may have found the source of the leak in the forward head, and that is a project for another day.

Susan and JP dinghied to Prickly Bay, theoretically to check in and to pick up our propane tank.  All Customs and Immigration are now centralized, to Port Louis, so we will do that today before we give back the apartment and the car.

We all got in a first swim (or three) in the Caribbean, which is my main goal for the whole thing, if I'm honest.

I got ambitious (sort of) and made Callalloo soup to go with the tuna salad we had planned for supper; the tuna salad was tasty but a bit wet, and the soup was a welcome return to the boat.  Rum and LLB (now called something weird, like "Cool"?) for our on deck happy hour.  

So today I am at the apartment while JP and Susan go to Clarkes Court to pick up the serviced life raft, waiting for the clothes to dry and charging various devices (and taking advantage of the internet service). We will then head to Port Louis to clear the boat and crew, make a provisioning top up, do a couple more errands, and then leave the car for Alamo to retrieve at Budget.

I have several photos and videos of yesterday, but I'll have to load them later as there is some kind of synch problem/delay between the phone and the Mac. Here's Pooh, safely tucked for the transfer.