It’s nearly a wrap on winter 2022-23.

Well, here we are, in Rodney Bay St Lucia where we will meet our friends Peter and Jane for a ten day visit as we make our way back to Antigua.   In the next slip over is Kalunamoo, our good friends Bill and Maureen, who we have been buddy boating for over a decade now, having met them during our very first run down the ICW back in 2012.

Never in my wildest dreams that year, new to the whole cruising thing, that I’d be writing from St Lucia today.  Another thing that I would never have imagined would be Starlink giving us broadband internet at speeds that are sometimes faster than cable at home.  Back in 2012 we did have cell phones but coverage has been a perpetual problem for us both in the US and in the islands.

Here’s the semi-permanent install up on the aft portion of the solar panel.  As you may recall, that installation exercise nearly cost me a few fingers when I forgot to turn off the wind generator and it clipped my hand.  Nasty and really bl0ody.  I still have ‘t been able to get the blood out of the bimini canvas or the chaps on the dink that were spattered.

Well, three weeks later my hand is mostly healed and I can go swimming again.  However, I will carry some impressive scars to remind myself of how lucky I am.  On the bright side, if anyone ever calls Brenda and asks “does your husband have any scars or unique identifying features?”  Never, mind…Perhaps I need to get a tattoo.

It’s hard to believe that we are less than two weeks away from returning to the US.  I will admit that I am excited about getting things going again at home with the gardens and summer projects.

We have our friends Peter and Jane meeting us here in St Lucia tomorrow which sort of signals the end of the season.  We plan to tour the island on Wednesday and then begin to make our way back to Antigua where we will fly home with them on April 1st.

Mid May I’ll head back to Antigua to get Pandora ready to make the run home to CT with a week long stop in Bermuda.  It’s hard to believe that it’s been about 3o years since I was last in Bermuda when I helped a fellow Norwalk Yacht Club member bring his boat back to Norwalk after running in the Bermuda race.    I’ll admit that it all seems like a thousand years ago.

Our run with Peter and Jane will probably end up feeling a bit like a club cruise, or forced march, as we have a hard date to be back in Antigua.  The primary problem is that it continues to be quite windy with a few mild days tossed in for good measure.

We are flexible to an extent on where we will be stopping  but do need to be in Antigua in time for our flight on the 1st so keeping a close eye on the weather will be important.  Sporty isn’t all that much fun and this season has mostly been all about sporty, with one notable exception when we made our way here last week.

All and all, it’s been a fairly easy season, setting aside nearly cutting off a few fingers, as we haven’t covered very much distance at all, handing out in most places we have visited until the anchor chain was beginning to get a bit slimy.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been more than a decade since that first run down the ICW and here we are.

It’s worth noting that we were here in this marina, and with Kalunamoo, when the pandemic hit and locked everything down.

The good news is that things are generally back to normal.  But one way or the other, we will be heading home soon and putting a wrap on this season.

I guess it’s time to begin making plans for the summer before the “honey-do” list gets too long.

 

 

 

 

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