That time again – Airline travel

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Getting to the islands is always an adventure.

First, the taxi that I had called never showed up after 45 minutes, normally they come within about 10 mins, always before we are ready. Not so much on Friday, Christine called and they couldn’t tell us when one might arrive, so we drove. Checked in with less than an hour before the flight, just barely enough time for a vacation starting cold beverage.

Wayne picked us up in Dallas as the only way to get to St Lucia is an overnight somewhere, Miami, San Juan, NYC or Dallas. A bite to eat and some cold beverages, an early night as 4am is going to come rather early. We called and scheduled a taxi for 4 AM.

About 10 alarm clocks go off to make sure we get up, so at that was successful. Course that taxi driver gets lost and is trying to pick us up at Jerry Jones’ house, then gets stopped by the closed security gate, which was explained all during the reservation. Finally arrives and takes us the 10 minutes to the airport. That taxi ride costs as much as driving all the way out to the Austin airport. We make our flight, and breeze through security. The TSA agent was Awesome, really. Christine asked, “How are you today” to which she replied, “I’m Awesome”.

That first flight had some mechanical issues so we didn’t get to leave on time, so that cut into our 45 minute connection in Miami. By the time we landed in Miami, we were within 29 mins of our St Lucia segment’s departure. Those folks running in the airport, yup those were us. Getting to the gate and they were still boarding so a quick BIO break and we are off.

Only one more taxi to go, and I had pre-arranged to have some cold Piton Beers in the taxi so we can start the acclimation quickly, and I’m sure we will stop to enjoy another on the way.

Looking forward to seeing the shack, lots has happened since I left her in February.

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Beautification and Maintence

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As sugar shack is a boat, there is always something to do, maintence or repairs or modifications to make her more home. These last few months in St Lucia were no different. The difference between us and full time cruisers is we go back to work and let someone else take care of the chores. And trust that they get done correctly. Rodney Bay marina is run by Edwin, who used to run the yard, and always took great care of us and have definitely earned our trust. The new yard manager is Frederic and he is no different. They are always available to answer emails and questions and to make sure things get done on time/budget/schedule. Thats not to say its always ahead of time, but its is island time after all.

This trip, they hauled the shack out of the water and put a fresh coat of Island 44 bottom paint on her so she should be good to go for a while. This time Christine wanted red so the bottom of the boat changed from blue to red, course most is underwater so you will only see it when swimming at anchor.

While she was out of water they also washed/waxed and polished her, so we should just have to rinse her off a bit and be underway after getting some provisions and gasoline for the dingy.

We also had some wood work rejuvenated, the teak on the sugar scoops should be updated and the few places that were varnished revarnished. We were going to have the cockpit table redone as well, but waited a little too long to start that project and it wouldn’t be done in time for us leave the island. We shall see how that work turned out, we got photos of the polish and bottom job along the way, but never asked for or received the wood work photos.

We also had a cap tube filter installed on the freezer. We had a dickens of time tracking down the right guy to do that work. Finally when I was there in February, I made contact with Prudent, the expert, as I was just about to leave for the airport. We had the boat put back in the water 3 weeks ago, so that the freezer work could be done, Prudent is a super nice guy and eventually got the work done, yesterday morning. So much for leaving it running and testing it out as our original plan was, but hopefully the educated guess of what was up with the keel cooler and capillary tube will go well. The boat has to be in the water to use the freezer and refrigerator as they use the ocean water to cool off the compressed gas that makes the freezer cool.

A little more than an hour till touch down, its along way down, but the water is blue and the bahamas water sure is beautiful.

St Lucia, love this place

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if ya read the stories, watch the news, listen to the random strangers.. Saint Lucia is a rough island. I myself have been reading the island news and the random violence does not sound promising, but every one we meet and talk to know about the incidents but still carry on with the happy island theme.

Good thing we are a party of three. Sugar Shack is floating, can cleaner than a whistle. Stupendous care at the end of the pier. Oh my the teak work is awesome, the sugar scoops on sugar shack have never looked so nice. Time will tell, but first impressions as we have been aboard for several hours, are phenomenal. It happens that the folks ( will add names tomorrow ) were working on the boat next door when we arrived. Had I known, I would have definitely bought them a beer or two. Now we are torn, between letting Grenada refinish the table or just wait and let our good friends in St Lucia complete the work. *sigh*

Its almost midnight here (or I hope the clock is right on the iPad), the wind is calm, we will find some provisions, the nourishment type, and possibly head south tomorrow.