A face lift for La Buena Vida

Back in 1996, when we bought the boat, it came in two colour tones: - a kind of yellow and some white on the deck.

We inteneded to put our mark on our ship,

Although we had absolutely no experience with Awlgrip paint technologies, we, nevertheless,  decided on an ambitious project:  a 3 colour system.  The deck was to be Oyster White, the trimming in Mateo Wheat, and the main part of the hull in Jade Mist (some people may call it English Racing Green).

The outcome was smashing!

There were times we reflected on our decision of having 3 colours to maintain, especially when taping off the hull, the trimlines, the deck etc .... but it was soooo much more pleasing to the eye.

16 years later, the green of the hull needed a facelift.  Over the years we had already done the deck and the cabin sides, but painting the hull is a bit more challenging. 

Preparing the hull is one thing ..... which means sanding, sanding, sanding, and applying fillers to deal with damages, scratches, follwed by more sanding  .... the damages were mainly a result of our cruising life.  Overall, the hull did not look bad after 16 years in service!  But these preparations can be done over days, and when weather permits.

But we had to get the right weather window for the final paint job  - which according to the book should be like that:  a dust free environment, steady temperatures at the mid 20s while painting, low humidity, with temperatures not falling below 13C for the next 7 days .... Yeah, sure!  And then there is reality!!!

Our yard is a working shipyard where boats get sandblasted (including ours last year).  Just imagine the sand and dust on the ground.

It is a working yards, so there is traffic - we are talking about dust!  A lot of it.

Over the last few days, the night temperatures went down to 5C, with the daytime temperatures reaching barely 14C.  No condition for our paint job.

But this is Kingston, Canada!  We switch into summer from one day to the next.  This weekend, daytime temperatures were expected to reach 30C, with night time temperatures still in the mid teens, and almost no wind!

Ok, not ideal, but we can handle that!  We decided to take this weather window.

Posting big signs in the yard about "fresh paint, slow down", and arriving early in the morning, allowed us to control the sun effect (to some degree) on the hull, and having fewer people moving throughout the yard at that time of the day.

Unfortunately, a test run with our 16 year old paint suggested that the paint had been compromised over the years - no more gloss, giving us a dull looking hull surface.

We bought new paint, Awlgrip rollers .... and were ready for our paint job.

We tried to time our job so that we could work in the shade, but this was not always possible and the hull temperatures were quite uneven.  Nevertheless, the first full paint run came out ... ok!    But not as great as we had hoped for.  We had to learn to do better - fast!

Next morning (2. coat), we arrived at about 6 am, sanded down the critical spots from the day before, and prepared the paint - while the sun was rising behind the trees and starting to find the hull through the leaves.  But the hull temperature was still low enough to work under these conditions. This time we had our application system down pat:  rolling paint on for about 2 feet, marking off how far we had painted, then doing another 2 feet section, followed by going back to the initial section and lighty retouching the paint surface with our roller in order to burst the bubbles which had formed during the application run.

It worked!   The paint smoothened out and the gloss emerged.  We were very pleased with the outcome.

When the sun hit the hull in full force, the surface temperatures climbed to 50+C .  But by that time we were off in the shady side!  

Yeah, what did the manual say about the ideal conditions??? ....  We did not even get close! 

Happily, the people in the yard acknowledged our paint signs, and most of them moved past us at a snails pace.  And with no wind in the yard, we had an almost dust free environment!

Tonight:  We feel a big relieve - the job is done, and it is as good as it can be given our conditons.  And it looks better than the first time around when we painted our hull in 1996.

We are now going to celebrate!  Let's hope that this job will last for another 16 years! 

Parts list, costs and other thoughts! - rebuilding our Volvo MD 11D engine!

The engine appears to be running fine, at least for the last 20 minutes or so, and while the boat is still resting on land.  Our “dear” friend Peter (Aquataurus) insisted that the real test will be when we put the engine under load …. Thanks Peter for your vote of confidence!!!!

Which parts did I need:

Here is a listing of all the parts I had ordered and installed during this overhaul.

• Cylinder Liner Kit # 875549 (liner and pistons and sealing rings and piston ring)

• Decarbonizing Kit 876376 

• Push Rod 3583802

• Paint for engine

Costs:

 

While I found the detailed listing by http://www.marinepartseurope.com/en/e-volvo-penta-603-MD11D.aspx very helpfull, their listings gave me also a good idea about the costs involved in rebuilding this engine. In the end, I obtained my parts from the “local” Volvo distributor (http://www.frenchcreekmarina.com/).  Apart from getting some valuable advice from the marina staff, their prices were also significantly less than those found at the above mentioned site.

In total, and including the re-grinding of the valves and its seats, we paid about $1,600 for all what we needed so far for our rebuild.

Other thoughts and considerations:

We are (occasionally long-range) cruisers, and because of this we enjoy certain features of this engine.  It has hand-starting capabilities (in case the battery should fail), it does not rely on sophisticated electronic controls, and it offers the possibility to rebuild the engine in situ due to its replaceable wet-type cylinder liners and side access ports.

When our engine showed severe signs of aging, we had the option (A) to replace it with a more modern engine, (B) to purchase an overhauled engine of the same type (or to have the work done on our engine), or (C) try to learn how to rebuild this engine on our own.

Option A and B amounted pretty much to the same dollar amounts re engine, apart for the additional costs involved for Option A concerning shaft couplings, changing engine beds, moving controls and hoses …. friends of ours who followed this route spent about the same amount on all these changes as on the engine itself.

Option C – if it would have failed, we could always go back to option A and B.  We knew the approximate costs of this risk.  And should we be successful, we would have saved a good deal of money – and learned a lot in the process!

 It was worth taking the jump.  Remember, I am not a diesel mechanic.  This is all new to me.

And apart from our cost calculations, I can say that I have now a much better idea about the engine and how to repair it, and would not hesitate to take on this job once again.

If !!! … yeah, always so easy to say after the fact.  Back in Martinique, we contemplated to replace the engine.  We had ongoing problems which we found difficult to trace (especially cooling issues with repeatedly broken impellers, apart from some other issues), causing us a considerable amount of stress.  Enough stress that we were ready to look into purchasing/installing another engine; the infra-structure in Martinique would have allowed us to do that right there.

Fortunately, we met Frank from SV Enola who knew this engine and who explained the likely cause for these symptoms and suggested a “temporary” solution (rinsing the cooling passages with HCL), but made it clear that we would have to take the engine apart to do a proper job.  The rinsing helped and the engine stopped overheating or eating its impellers.

If I would have had access to similar information I provided in my blog, I would have done an overhaul.  Alas, I had much less information available to me at that time and did not see myself taking the engine apart as per workshop manual.  Calder's book on diesel engine repair suggested on-bord solutions, and showed tentalizing images.  But his instructions were not detailed enough for me to follow through with a rebuild past decarbonization. And I did not know at that time about the article written by Manfred (http://www.kavenga-segeln.de/media/2b574205c78c63f8ffff893aac144227.pdf) whose images suggested that a rebuild can indeed be carried out with the engine bed/crankcase remaining on the boat and the piston rods remaining in place. That article got me thinking ...

In the end, to do a job like this in these places, one would have to have access to the parts likely needed for this overhaul (see above our listing).  Unless this guarantee is in place, there is no point of even starting.  There is no room for “exploration”.  We had the de-carbonizing kit on board, which would not have been enough.

Based on my experience, the job could have been completed within 2 weeks, looking at a part-time (e.g. 4 hours a day) effort.  The essential steps are to remove and clean and re-paint the parts (biggest job), to pick-up the new parts, to have the valves/seats lapped or reground (if needed), followed by putting things back together.  The work could have been done while the boat is in the water (although, the (very, very !!!) messy cleaning should be done on land!).

Here are the tools I made for my overhaul:

From left:  the pressing tool for fitting of cylinder liners, the measuring tool for the dimensions A and B, my valve spring decompression tool.

Hope this helps – on to the next job.  Repainting the hull with Awlgrip!

Will it start or not start? That is the question! - rebuilding our Volvo MD 11D engine!


Ok, weather improved, and other things out of the way, time to continue with our engine project.

Finally, the weather was warm enough so that I could spray paint all of the engine parts you saw before on my work table. They are looking great again!

I opened the liner/piston kit, removed the pistons and all seals, and installed the liners into the cylinder block. An easy job.

Next, every piece had to be brought back onto the boat, which required multiple climbs up the ladder. My exercise for the day.

Next step was to grease and to fit the sealing rings (yellow O-ring) for each respective cylinder liner in the groove of the crankcase and to place the 2 shims (0.2mm and 0.3mm, in that order for me) on the crankcase face (this has to be done when new liners were installed, as was our case. If we would have used the old liners, we could have used the same type/number of shims previously found on the engine).

I then heated the pistons with the heat gun and pushed the piston pins into the opening of the piston roads. No problem here, as long as the pistons were heated well enough!

I lifted the cylinder block/liner unit onto the rear piston and had the unit rest on some pieces of aluminum extrusion. Clamping the piston ring device over the rings (mine is of the sidewise removable type), I placed the pistons into the liner and turned the flywheel so that the piston entered the opening. A click by click sound let me know that the rings had placed themselves into the liner. After pulling out the piston ring clamp, I lowered the cylinder/liner unit into crankcase. Done.

Same procedure for the next piston/cylinder. Both procedures took only a few minutes.

In my previous blog I had mentioned that taking the compression chamber measurements were crucial. The final compression chamber was supposed to be 0.8-0.9 mm, (0.0315-0.0354"). I had built a tool to force down the liner into the crankcase from some extrusions, but had, initially, issues with getting reliable measurements of my “A” dimensions. My electronic caliper, although suggesting that it can measure up to 1/100 of a millimeter, it did not. My repeated measures suggested fluctuations in the vicinity of 1/10 of a millimeter mm (0.0315-0.0354"), i.e. not better than the tolerances prescribed by Volvo. Not good enough!

Ok, taking a piece of aluminum extrusion, I fitted a micrometer dial and got now reliable repeat measurements. Based on these calculations for the dimensions of “A” (4.39x mm for both cylinders) and “B” (3.51x mm for the heads), I determined that I had to remove one shim (0.3mm) in order to arrive at an s=0.82x mm. That I did by lifting the cylinder/liner unit by about one inch and snipping and pulling out the corresponding shim.

Being a bit “anal” about it, I retook all the measurements, and they agreed with my calculations. Hey, we are in business!

Here is my set-up for the clamping tool and for the tool I built to take the measurements.

The rest was straight forward. Cylinder head gasket placed, push rods placed, and lifting the cylinder heads into position and hand-tightening the nuts. For the next job I needed 4 hands: mounting the water cooler and the 2 gaskets was a bit tricky, I did not manage that alone and Marleyne had to give me a hand (actually: 2).

Loosely tightening the water cooler to the heads placed those into proper position, and I could proceed with bolting/torque down the heads (11kpm), followed by tightening the water cooler to the heads. Done!

Rocker arm assembly next; I backed off the rocker arm adjustment screws by a few turns to keep them loose on the push rods. In our case, one of the push rods had to be replaced, it was bent. Next, valve clearance adjustment, decompression device adjustments. Done!

While I had prepped the parts, I had the injectors checked. One was found to need a new tip, the other one was fine. I installed the injectors and torqued them to specifications (2 kpm). To make sure everything is properly in place, I turned the engine a few times by hand via the flywheel. Looking good, nothing touching.

Putting the alternator, starter motor and cables back into place, it looks like we are all done now and ready to go!

Doesn’t Marcel look pretty again? (in real life, the old and new colours look the same, but not on the camera - go figure!)

Soooo?

Still on the hard, and no running water available yet, we “schlepped” 50l up into the boat.

Well???

After some stuttering and coughing, and dealing with a very cold engine (still no summer here!), first one cylinder fired up, then the other one, and all of sudden the engine began to settle into a rhythm and moved towards a smooth run. We have LIFT OFF!


Time to celebrate!

A Virgin Islands Quicky (video)!

Yes, it is good to be reminded that there are days like this.  Thanks Uwe.

Dinghy Cover (Girl)!

Because my previous project (“Rebuilding our Volvo MD 11D engine”) was put on hold due to weather (it is still cold here in Kingston, Ontario, Canada!), I decided to get going on another job: our dinghy cover.

For our previous dinghy we had created a dinghy cover made out of Sunbrella it. And it did a great job. Not only did it protect our dinghy skin from sunlight (important, because we had a PVC skin), but almost as importantly: it protected the dinghy topside while climbing in and out, or sliding all kinds of things into the dinghy, or attaching it to run-down docksides, pilings, concrete walls – any cruiser will know what I am talking about. In all of these cases, the cover took the brunt of abuse, while the PVC skin underneath looked like new.

We missed this protection on our recently purchased Zodiac while sailing last year and promised our “Zoom” that it will get one soon!

Since only the very topsides will see damage from sun and traffic, that is were the the sunbrella cover will be located.

In a first step, I glued 1” of Velcro (I glued the loop side) along the tube shell. I used 1 part Flexible Plastic contact cement (LePage) and applied the glue with a small stiff brush (2 coats recommended).

Next, and this is the tedious part, I placed templates across and along the tubing, and create sections where the tubing follows a bend or is rounded off and made cutouts where needed. And there is no guarantee that the template from one side will match the other side – most of the time, it does not.

I then removed the largest sections and transferred the template outline to the sunbrella material with a pencil. For cutting, I use a soldering pistol with a bladed tip which I had sharpened a bit to minimize cutting width and burning. After cutting, I sew on the Velcro stripes and mount the sunbrella for confirmation, before I continue with the next section. This way, I work myself forward to the bow.

The bow sections consists of three parts which I attach to each other with Velcro. In the past, I did sew all of these pieces together – so there was only one piece of material - but found when I had to re-mount the cover, I was struggling to get it in the right place all around the dinghy. This time I decided to have the long tubes as one section each, and the 3 bow sections attached with Velcro. Much easier to assemble and disassemble, especially if one wants to make a small repair. The picture shows two of the sections mounted on the dinghy.

Within 2 days I had the cover completed. I still have to attach the grab lines, but that’s it!

Now, if we could have spring, please!!! So that I can continue with the engine. I am getting restless!

Ready to paint and to install  - rebuilding our Volvo MD 11D engine

I have all parts in place and the valves seats and valves have been reground.  And I have a pretty good understanding about the measurements I have to take when reassembling the engine. 

But before I procced with the installation I want to paint the parts .... and for that I have to wait for warmer weather.

So, if anyone wants to know the outcome of my engine overhaul, well, you have to wait a while and come back and check the entries.

Let's hope for an early spring!

In the meantime I will start on another project:  a dinghy cover!

I am making progress - rebuilding our Volvo MD 11D engine (and doing it in the boat!)

The cold spell is over and I am back to work.  I was successful in removing the cylinder without any problems, except that I do not manage to push out the liner from the cylinder.  It is stuck!  The manual is saying something along the lines:  "tap lightly and push down with your hands ...".  A NO go!  And I tried quite a bit more than that!  I will have to have it pressed out in the shop.

I then tried to remove the piston pins.  I really did not want to go into the scenario where I had to remove the connecting rods and the big end bearing cups - and then reinstalling all of that.  Manfred's article suggested that I can remove the pistons without that.

The only problem was that the piston pins did not want to be removed!!!

A day later, and equipped with a heat gun, some aluminum piping and a large clamp, I tried again.  If you have three (!!!!) hands, YES,  this system will work great.  If you have only two .... ?  But with some contortions, I managed, eventually, and the pistons are home.

But the pistons show that they have been in service for a while.  The major issue - I think -  is that the top ring has a ring clearance exceeding Volvo's specifications (we have 0.25mm, compared to 0.10mm as per handbook).  In contrast, all the other rings appear to meet specifications.

I called French Creek Marine and asked Wilburt to put aside 2 pistons and liners for me.  It looks like we are going to have a brand new Volvo MD 11D in our boat, coming spring!

The main reason I removed the cylinders (and liners) was to access the water cooling passages of the cylinder behind the liner wall.  Manfred's symptoms regarding engine overheating issues were very similar to ours, and I suspected that, despite our acid treatment in Martinique, the procedure was not enough to clean thouroughly these passages.  Indeed, when you look at these small holes around the liner (you may not see the built up of stuff around the hole, but some of them are significantly smaller) you wonder why anyone did not have cooling problems earlier.  And I recall a diesel mechanic mentioning that these holes were a problem with these engines.  Now I understand!

If we had NOT removed the cylinder, and had just worked on decarbonizing the engine (i.e. valves), we would not have found out about the aging piston rings etc.  I am happy (?) we did!

Now everything is stripped down enough so that I can consider getting things back together.

More about this in the future.

MD11D rebuild (progress report) ....

Well, we are moving forward.  I built my valve spring compression tool (it worked great) and I was able to remove the springs and the valves easily.

Next, I got the caustic soda (sodium hydroxide - AKA Draino in powder form, 1 pound per can) mixed it up (1:10 to water and some detergent) and cleaned the heads.

Nice and clean and ready for inspection.  But - oh boy, I found some serious damages to the outlet side (exhaust side) of the valve seats; they are severely pitted.  No wonder we had starting problems, the compression could not come up under these conditions.

This appears to be past "regrinding the seats by hand" and I will contact a machine shop to help me here.

In the meantime, weather is supposed to improve next week, so I might be able to get back to the cylinders and liners and get them home.

It is time for TLC for Marcel!      (AKA: Volvo MD 11D rebuild)

If you wonder who "Marcel" is ... well, we tend to give (or should I say, M. does that ???) important components names on our boat!  It seems to keep "bad spirits" at bay!  Or the "Klabautermann"!

It seems to work!

For example, we have:  Felix (wind generator), Steinhaeger (wind vane, and don't ask me why this particular name!), and "Marcel", our diesel engine.

Before Marcel knew its/his identity, it/he was installed on our boat in 1981 and did perform very well for all the years to come!  With our guidance, we had him down to Cuba, Bahamas, the Caribbean, and a couple of times back again.  What can we say?  No complaints on our part (most of the time!).

However, Marcel started to raise some issues.  Some we did not hear very well, others were pretty loud and clear!  Like giving us issues when we tried to negotiate the entrance to Bermuda in bad weather, or passing through Riviere Salee in Guadeloupe (at night, of course) to meet the bridge openings, and at some other times.

But Marcel (definition:  reliably, trustworthy, hard working, follows order (?) ...) made it clear on our  home bound journey that we had to give him some TLC.  And we promised!  And just to remind us on the last start-up in the season of 2011 of our promise, he waited a good 30 seconds before he agreed to fire up.

Ok, we got - definitely - the message.

I am (H. that is) not a diesel mechanic  .. just in case anyone wonders!

But!  I prepared  myself.  In addition to the Vovlo workshop manual (which assumes you can read a lot between the lines and instructions given), I also had a copy of Nigel Calder's "Marine Diesel Engines" book (2. Edition, 1992 - it uses the Volvo MD 11/17 series in a lot of images and descriptions; the newer one does not!).  In addition, and I was very happy to come across an excellent website by a German sailor who offered information on a lot of the gaps I found in the other books, and who was also very helpful with his emails when I had questions.  Thanks Manfred! 

His Homepage:  http://www.kavenga-segeln.de/

His engine repair details:
http://www.kavenga-segeln.de/media/2b574205c78c63f8ffff893aac144227.pdf

There are also many other boat related projects for studying.  The pages are worth an extended visit.

I also found detailed drawings at this website (and some ideas about costs involved; however, pricewise I was doing better at French Creek; see below).  All parts, from bolt to washers are listed here, together with part numbers.  This helps!
http://www.marinepartseurope.com/en/e-volvo-penta-603-MD11D.aspx

Having said all this ... time to get "Marcel" his TLC.

In case, you may not have noticed, I live in Canada, and yes, we have winter.  You know? Winter as in Europe right now?

Dressed like a Michelin person (you know, the heavy set guy will all these tires  around him, that's me when I go to the boat), I try to squeeze myself into the engine compartment and around the engine.  There are times I get cold feet - in every sense.  But the results show, piece by piece the engine comes apart and is being moved into my workshop.

Taking things apart is the easy part ... I have been told.  I hope they are (definitely!!!!) wrong!

The forecast if for nasty weather.   That means, I can drop my Michelin outfit and work on cleaning the parts I removed.  The valves are leaking and need to be grinded (or replaced, I don't know yet).

Fortunately, we have - "close by" in Clayton, NY (http://www.frenchcreekmarina.com/) - a major Volvo distribution and repair centre, and Wilburt  (the owner) has always been very helpful to get parts to us and give us great advice while we were cruising in exotic places.  My guess is, I will see him again shortly!

Stay tuned!

Virtual travels ....

Sienna, Italy

Panama City, Casco Viejo

Colon, Panama

A nice thing about having been away for a few years is .... that we have a lot of catching up to do on the movie front.

Yeah!

A few nights ago, amidst a snow storm raging outside, we watched a James Bond movie: Quantum of Solace.

Well, we revisited a number of places we had been to over the past 12 months or so. It was fun to see some of the places again, pointing out details to each other (and to re-run some scenes) and experiencing again - in virtual format - these places once more.  With all the action, images and memories we forgot all about the weather outside!

We are already past mid-January...but the weather is weird! We were to Toronto the last 2 days...and today, it is 8+ with fog all over...

Nevertheless, we had a great time in TO. One of the reason for us going there was to visit the boat show; Heiner spoke with various people about diesel engines: Nanni, Beta and Volvo.

It was also nice to speak with the various representative of the Canadian-Caribbean who were trying to lure sailors to their islands...Virgin Islands, Grenada, St-Vincent and Antigua and Barbuda...Because of the very few people visiting (it was Monday afternoon!), we had time to chat with everybody! But the only thing that we bought was...a bottle of marinade/sauce made with Ontario beer which tasted delicious!!! http://www.beershmeer.com/.

As we were staying in China town, we had our evening meal in a Vietnamese restaurant Pho Hung).  A nice hot soup for Heiner and a vermicelli dish with beef rolled in mint leaves for me! Both were delicious.

Today, despite the rain, we strolled along Spadina avenue and bought food!!! Shitake mushrooms, dried shrimps, pu-ehr tea, wasabi and ginger for our sushis, spices and Japanese candies!! Lots of fun.

On the way to the highway, we also went to a Middleeastern foodstore for other supplies: balck tea,fresh pita, feta cheese and an assortment of olives, stuffed eggplant and marinated lemons. Guess what supper tonight will be??????????????????

We have not updated the blog since last year??? Wow...time flies when you are having a good time. After our Christmas in Montreal, we visited our good friends Carole and Daniel and family in Saint-Denis de Brompton. We enjoyed their hospitality in their new home on the lake...it was a stormy kind of weather but we had a great time, sitting around the fire, chatting, playing with our electronic gadgets!!! and eating and drinking of course! Plus, Daniel and Heiner started to build Daniel's ICE boat...

Ah! oui, avant de commencer à raconter nos aventures de 2012, il faut absolument remercier nos amis Carole et Daniel et leurs jeunes du bel accueil qu'ils nous ont réservé dans leur nouveau home de l'Estrie!!! En plus de relaxer tout le monde ensemble au coin du feu, Daniel et Heiner ont commencé la construction du bolide qui devrait aller sur la glace ...à suivre!!!

A Christmas walk on Mount Royal, Montreal ... to burn some of the calories added over the last few days.

Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noel! Frohe Weihnachten! Feliz Navidad!

This year Christmas takes place at Marleyne's sisters'place in Laval, Quebec. It is a white Christmas...and the food more or less traditional ! Yesterday we had a Caribbean pork roast, we drink Rhum agricole de la Martinique, and tonight Heiner is preparing his Koenigsberger Klopsen...and as a dessert, it will be the traditional Buche de Noel....
So, we hope you all have a very nice Christmas!

Cette annee, les Fetes se passent chez ma soeur a Laval...nos traditions culinaires ont change...avec un roti de porc a la caribeenne, du rhum agricole de la Martinique, des Koenigsberger Klopsen allemands ce soir et la traditionelle buche de Noel comme dessert...Alors nos meilleurs voeux de Noel a vous tous!

Alles gute zu unseren deutschsprechenden Freunden!

Back in Kingston, Canada from Martinique ...

It is about a week ago that we were sitting in Castries, St. Lucia (due to an airline strike) on a terasse overlooking the harbour.

Today, we walked through one of our parks in our neighbourhood (Collins Bay) and enjoyed the deep frost and the surroundings.  What a change!

This is a "stitched" photo thanks to our Android application (in this case: 2 images).

When it became clear that we would not catch our American Airlines flight from St-Lucia to Canada, we had to find an accomodation near the airport.  While I waited for the Liat employee to give us some news about our flights, Heiner went to the Tourism office located in the Vigie airport and chatted with a couple - also stranded - and with the office employee. He found us a really neat guesthouse, at 5 minutes from the Vigie airport with a view of the ocean! for $59.00 US! The lady, Merlin, picked us up at the airport! What a neat place...http://www.casadelvega.com/index.htmlwe had brought food along (we now know that you get nothing on AA flights...) and we just relaxed on the terrasse chatting with Lud and Cathy and enjoying Pitons beers and rum. Life was good after all this stress...

And so ends another Caribbean sojourn...

Now that we are back in our cozy home, we can enjoy our "memories"...We had 5 days in Martinique, most of them in Ste-Anne. The weather was rather rainy and when we hiked to the beaches of the Salines, we walked in the mud for hours before reaching the beaches. What else did we do???? Oh, it was easy to spend time "liming" on Aquataurus or on land...Heiner got a fresh baguette every morning: this time I went with him and as I was about to take a picture, somebody else wished to be in the limelights...

Antoher day, we walked on the beach of Ste-Anne and found ourselves in the resort of Club Med Les Boucaniers...Très chic, merci bien. The resort is built amindst a 23 hectares park and surrounded by this magnificent coconut plantation!

On other days, we went to the little market of Ste-Anne to get fresh products or fish (announced by a fisherman blowing in a conch shell)...And on Saturday afternoon, there was this romantic creole styled wedding in the small church of Ste-Anne...

After a long and tedious wait at StLucia AA tickets office,we got onto our plane 2minutes before take off, rushing through. the airport and all security checks with Mr. Delisle from American Airlines leading us by the hand! This man has worked on our "case" for 3 hours half nonstop and while exhausted, we were very thankful for his help. LIAT airlines owes us money!
And so we are back in Canada, sitting in the hotel breakfast room and enjoying our 4th cup coffee...Just yesterday at that time we were on a street corner in Castries drinking fresh coconut water!

Pilot strike at Liat airlines delayed our flight to Toronto....we are stranded in Castries at an hotel with ocean view...will try to get flight to Toronto tomorrow.

After a quiet night in StLucia ' Anse la raie, we motored along the west coast of the island and had almost settled for anchoring in Rodney Bay due to a total lack of wind when a south westerly breeze came up and made us decide to sail the 20 some miles to Martinique! The lure of French delicious food and wine was strong and the weather great: we had a great sail up to 10 miles from Martinique when the wind stopped. It seems that the trade winds were disturbed by a strong cold front pushing far south and creating a troph with its squalls, t-storms, heavy rains and abnormal wind patterns. Whatever...we anchored in Le Marin at the end of the afternoon and Marlyne went right after the apero to Leader Price in order to buy saucisson, rillettes and cheese! We had a delicious supper!

We went back for more delicacies on the next day and sailed to Sainte-Anne in order to be in a prettier anchorage where swimming is possible.

Here in Ste-Anne, one feels like in a French village...with its backeries, cafes and rotisseries...Heiner is getting us French pain every morning from this little backery shop.