Two days ago part three of our journey began! The crew from now on will be Bengt, Ove, Malin and Elina and all of us will sail together up to Florida! We reckon that it will take us about 30 days to reach our final goal, Fort Myers.

The last week that we have spent in Saint Lucia has been amazing in many ways. We have met a lot of new friends that were hard to leave. However, we know that we will keep in touch and see them soon again. Even though leaving friends behind is hard we all look forward to sail again and it felt very good to leave the marina Saturday morning.

Here in the Caribbean everything is on “island time”. This basically means that ten minutes might as well take one hour. Our experience therefore is that it is too late to go and eat on a restaurant when you are already hungry, it is better to go there one and a half hour before you expect the hunger to strike you.  In the beginning this was a bit frustrating but all you can do is to follow their advice: “Ya man, chillax! You are on island time now baby!”

So, let us tell you all about our week in Saint Lucia! One day we rented a car, all six of us, it was before Per and Bernard had flown home. Driving on the left side of the road in Saint Lucia is not very easy, since the locals drive like fools, the roads are extremely narrow and the hills are really steep.  But thanks to Bernard who drove the car all day, we managed without any problems. Our first stop was a small town called Soufriere there we had some lunch and took a quick look at the city. From there we went to see some waterfalls which unfortunately were a disappointment, just lots of tourists and one waterfall which wasn’t very scenic. We finished up our day by going to a beautiful beach and everyone enjoyed a swim in the ocean after a whole day spent in the car.  In addition to our car adventure we have been busy working on the boat, visting ARC parties and snorkeling at Pigeon Islands, a national park that you could reach with your dinghy. As well as spending time at the nearest beach listening steel drums and eating barbeque.

The last night before we had decided to leave Saint Lucia Malin and Elina went to a local street party. These street parties are called “Jump ups” and they happen every Friday. This means that every Friday there is a massive street party in every town. Malin and Elina went to a town close to the marina called Gros Islet.  Local food, lots of Rum punch, loud music and people in party mood. We had a great time!

Us leaving Saint Lucia also meant that our ARC event is finished. Everything has been fantastically organized; the parties have been amazing, the seminars useful and informative and the ARC staff really friendly. Crossing the Atlantic as participants of the ARC is something we can truly recommend. It is a wonderful way of meeting new people, making your crossing safer and learns a lot from others.

So, we left Saint Lucia for Martinique and we spent the night anchored up in a lonely bay. Elina and Malin did some snorkeling and then we had dinner in the sunset. In the morning Bengt and Ove heaved up anchor and set course for Dominica where we are now. Our sailing today was perfect, sunny and good winds! Now we are in a bay called Prince Rupert’s Bay tied to a mooring buoy and we might stay here for two nights!

We know that we haven’t updated the blog so frequently but we will get better! Sometimes it’s hard to both have dinner in the sunset, snorkeling AND update the blog ;)

Sorry for not uploading any pictures, but we are having some problem with the Wi-Fi. We will give you photos as soon as possible.