A working autopilot

Finally, after nearly 4 months and 700 miles later, we were going to have an autopilot that worked.  Or so we thought.  When we arrived in St. Lucia on March 1st, we made arrangements with a well respected and highly recommended marine electronics company to rebuild our autopilot.  We contemplated scrapping the old one and buying a new one all together.  But the new autopilots were just a wee bit bigger and wouldn't fit in our space without modifications and a bit of fabricating.  We went back and forth and finally decided to have our old one rebuilt.  No problem.  The parts would take about a week to come in and then just a couple days to rebuild it.  Again, no problem, we'd be in St. Lucia for 3 weeks with visiting friends.

We kept in contact with the electronics company and Craig signed the customs paperwork when the rebuild kit arrived.  Yeah, we were almost there.  That's when we decided to go to Martinique and wait for it to be rebuilt.  Sounds like a good plan, right?  But then Easter came upon us and low and behold, the islands take that holiday very seriously.  Not only do they take Friday off, but they take Monday as well.  We returned to Rodney Bay after our hike up Petit Piton only to find out that the guy working on our autopilot took Tuesday off too!  What?!  So we waited another day.  Finally on Wednesday, Craig got the maddening news that he had not worked on it AT ALL and that he thought about calling us, but didn't get around to it.  To add insult to injury, they discovered that they didn't order all the parts they needed to fix it and that would take another week to get them in.  We were furious, to say the least.  Craig made some phone calls (using Skype) and found a brand new autopilot, in stock, in St. Martin.  We said "we'll take it and we'll be there on Monday!!".  He snatched up our old autopilot and all it's parts and after almost five weeks, we stormed out of Rodney Bay for the very last time.  We sailed to Martinique for the night and then began our passage to St. Kitts the following day.  Good ridden St. Lucia.

Leaving Martinique, sailing north to St. Kitts and then eventually St. Martin

We were met by a large pod of dolphins near Fort de France

Passing Fort de France with the wind at our backs, we made really good time.  In the middle of the night, we had to contact a cruise ship on the radio as we were on a collision course.  We changed course which involved a gybe to get out of the way.  The cruise ship captain assured us they saw us on their radar and we would be fine.  Phew.

Passing Nevis Island, just before we head into St. Kitts

Kate drives for a while

Reeling in a fish.  Everyone has a job when we catch a fish.  I am in charge of slowing the boat down and helping Craig get the fish in the boat.  Kate is in charge of pouring the rum down the throat or in the gills.  Liv is in charge of tying the line to the boat and then on the fish tail, so we don't lose it.  Maggie takes pictures and videos for prosperity.

Maggie chillin' in the morning sunshine

Kate and Liv play barbies to pass the time.

Heading into St. Kitts

We were greeted by a morning rainbow as we made our approach to St. Kitts

We stopped in St. Kitts for several reasons.  The first being we had no autopilot and multiple night passages are unpleasant and exhausting.  Secondly, we wanted to see St. Kitts.  Thirdly and maybe most importantly, we were picking up a very special childhood object for one of the kids on Patronus.  It had gotten left behind at the house where they had laundry done.  Erica sent me a pleading e-mail asking me to pick it up if we decided to stop.  It was a win win for everyone.

This mega yacht pulled in after we were snug in our spot at the marina.  Can you see our boat to the right?  We look like a toy!  Except our mast is taller than their boat.  hee hee.  The marina manager was nice and only charged us half price for the dock space because we were there literally 12 hours.  We pulled in at noon and left for St. Marten that night at midnight.  We didn't need water or electricity, so it was very simple and straight forward. 

The town square, modeled after Picadilly Square in London.  St. Kitts is a British Territory after all.

View from our lunch table at xxxx restaurant

Does it look like we are in London?  Not really...

The really funny story about St. Kitts was that we all bought some kind of souvenir from an island that we spent the least amount of time on.  We spent weeks on other islands and never bought a single item. What is the irony in that??

Moving on

Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.  

-Henry David Thoreau

We spent two glorious weeks in Dominica exploring all that was humanly possible and soaking up the local hospitality.  We knew it was time to move on when Chris informed us that we had a good weather window to Grenada.  There was no time for lingering and no time for long, sad goodbyes.  Thank goodness, cuz I don't like those kind anyway.  

As cruisers, we make friends instantly with a common bond.  Leaving friends behind in one port is merely a sign of hope that we'll meet again in another.  Saying goodbye to Dominica was only second to the farewells we said when we left home.  It was especially difficult because not only did we make friends with the local adults and kids alike, we felt at home.  Even though we were not locals, we certainly felt welcomed like locals.  When we thought about the potential experiences we would have on this trip, fostering relationships with the locals and becoming intimately familiar was at the top of the list.  What we experienced in Dominica was exactly what we had hoped for and so much more.  Moving on was going to be very difficult.  It was forever.  We knew that we wouldn't see them in the next port and it would be a very long time before we were back for a visit.  It was surreal to actually be leaving such a special island.  As we raised the sails early in the morning with Portsmouth fading into the distance, we felt a sense of loss.  There was an empty feeling in our hearts and a kind of melancholy fog around our boat.  We could only hope that we would encounter such a special island again.  And if we didn't, we would forever be filled with amazing memories that will last a lifetime.

 Erica and I left this message to the PAYS guys the night before we left