The number of boats that we have seen lately with broken masts and trailing rigging are testament to the extreme weather that the Caribbean has been experiencing this season. The boatyards will no doubt be rubbing their hands together in glee with the prospect of all that repair work that needs to be done.
Pandora is now sporting a new pushpit, bimini stanchions, and safety rails post our repair marathon, and we even have a generator back on board that kicks out a steady 220v power output. This was finally achieved on Saturday minutes before we left St Davids for Prickly Bay. It was right down to the wire, and as it turned out, the last thing that was required to get the damn thing working was to feed a loop of wire around a shunt (don't ask me what that means, I am only the onlooker who asks questions to find out what is being done).
All along, we had to tread a very thin line between being pushy to get our work done in preference to others waiting for their repairs done, and hacking them off to the extent that they downed tools and walked off the job. We gather from the boat owners that this is true of all boatyards in the Caribbean.
Our time at St Davids was spent on the water, but many others we have met were living aboard their boats on the hard standing in the boatyard, chocked up ten feet of more to accommodate their keels. So when an earthquake struck on Thursday morning, we weren't aware of it, but the people ashore said they felt as though their boats were being toppled and the chocks falling away. A scary thought! Thankfully it passed without anyone getting hurt, but it does add to our catalogue of experiences out here. I should write a book ....
On the subject of which, I am. Over 20,000 words completed to date and plenty more of material waiting in the brain for a time to sit down and type it. I'm hoping that I can rely on everyone to buy 10 copies each for family and friends!