It's now July 26 and we were still in Nevis repairing "Blue Star". Charlie and the male member of our crew removed the bracket containing the broken bolt and took it into town to be drilled out. The generator seemed to be working also so we've made progress today. To reward ourselves we took a longer tour of the island with a local named Almond who had extensive knowledge of every plant on the island. While touring we saw a house on fire and a long time later we saw the fire engine slowly making its way to the fire. Life is definitely in the slow lane here!

Our progress slowed the next day as the generator only ran for 1 1/2 hours and there was a major power drain somewhere on the boat. Charlie spent all day finding a piece of 1" radiator hose for the port engine. It never ceased to amaze me how even the simplest errands could take so much time in some places. We also took delivery of a new outboard, Yamaha Enduro 15 hp, for the the dinghy which actually cost less than it would have in the States. We took another break and went to Culturama, a local event consisting of many speeches and no music.

Port engine was finally fixed the next day. The generator still had a problem which Charlie believed was due to an air flow problem. It ran fine as long as the locker it was in was open, but stopped when the locker was closed. We got more fuel and thought about leaving but big seas in the weather forecast would keep us in the area for a few more days. We decided to make the short hop to St. Kitts the next day for a change of scenery.

That night was one of several "Hell Nights" we've experienced. As a bad thunderstorm was approaching, I went forward to close the hatch to the cabin where the cats were (yes, they were still in the fifth cabin which can only be accessed from the forward deck) and hit my nose hard on the compass as I returned to the cockpit. Amazingly the nose looked OK, it just hurt a lot.

In the early morning during another storm, our mooring line broke, so we moved to the next bay and set out 2 anchors. As soon as there was a break in the weather we moved over to St. Kitts and anchored. We kept an anchor watch initially due to the stormy conditions, but the storm finally subsided and we were able to get some sleep.

To be continued.