We’ve decided I’ll risk the dinghy ride out of Prickly Bay and over to Clarke’s Court to get our paint and alternator belt while Christy does some shopping. It’s a little nerve wracking but I know it is fairly commonly done (Axel used to do it to go surfing) and with Son of Milu should be OK. Our old dinghy would make for a very wet ride.

I take some rope and wear my lifejacket for the trip. It rained very hard last night and the dinghy has quite a bit of water in her but doesn’t seem to drain under way with the plug out. Not sure why, but after a bit I put the plug in, I’ll bail at Clarke’s.

It’s pretty rough, going right into the waves once you get past Prickly Point but just watch the waves, avoid the big ones and go slow. There’s another dinghy coming the opposite way but we’re both too busy hanging on to wave or anything. I’m pretty happy to get past the second headland and start heading in towards Mt. Hartman Bay and the gap between reefs that leads to Hog Island. No problem after that, been through here many times.

At Clarke’s I say hello to Jose, and run into Fabian and Ashiel at Horizon where they give me my paint and alternator belt. I have a cart and run it back down to the dinghy dock. Steal an old coke bottle, cut the top off and use it to bail out Son of Milu. Then I’m back on my way, only takes about 25 minutes the whole way around going with the wind this time. Quite an easy ride.

Another stroke of luck discovered at the Spice Island dinghy dock. I thought someone stole our brand new motor harness but at the dock I see that it just slipped off the back and is just hanging onto the skeg. Somehow it stayed on, somehow it did not get wrapped in the prop. I take it off as Christy arrives and we thank God for his mercies.

Back at Milu, no sign of the sanding crew but the riggers have come and are on the boat. Both of these teams will be a fiasco over the next few days. The riggers generally keep to their promises but they appear to have promised the wrong things. The sanders I will discuss later.

We load the paint on the boat and start preparing stuff. The next few days I am trying various things to get the motor running. I can still find no evidence of fire/melting – everything looks fine everywhere. On the way back from Clarke’s I bought a new alternator at Budget (about EC$1000) and a headlamp (both of ours don’t work). I’ll install it tomorrow.

I’ve sent the sanders an email that we’re out at Spice Island but no response. I confirmed with them the plan a couple weeks ago and they said all good.

The riggers are saying we need more work than they quoted, and one part they need they don’t have. We’re a bit PO’ed as I specifically asked them to inspect the rig back in August.

The heat is too hot and we head back to the apartment. We’ve got TV, Christy turns it on and somehow ends up on Lord of the Rings. I think it’s episode 3 maybe and we watch it. Every 20 minutes or so there’s 5 minutes of commercials. Then it ends. We’re assuming finale tomorrow night, same time.