11/02/12 - Tenacious

After arriving a day late due to the presumed strikes at Paris Orly airport, it was straight on to the 'Bracing the yards' lesson for us. When all braces were on the correct marks, it was time to get to know who would be in our watch and all the others as well. Next, we then sat to have dinner, which was delicious and dessert was even better. The temperatures here are fabulous, even at night, and the warm wind smells of sugar cane when it blows over the islands.

Some of us missed the safety breafing, so we got our own private one from Ali. After it was straight to bed for the majority of us, to get a grip on our jetlags.

At eight o'clock we had a delicious cooked breakfast of baked bacon, poached eggs and baked potatoes, though some people missed the porridge.

Evacuation drill was a complete success, then everyone went to harbour stations. We motored off the berth and set sail (lower top, course and upper top and t'gallant) and were off to Dominica in a medium swell, enough to make at least half of the voyage crew feel at least a bit queezy or right down nauseous, our Nurse Ronan appears to be a busy man! We intend to be at Santa Lucia in a day or two.

Some specifics on our watch: we're very international, with English, French and Dutch people in it. Chris, who is easily the youngest, turns out to be a natural at steering the ship. Lucilla is our watch leader and doing a good job keeping everyone informed and making sure we are getting the hang of the sailing routines.

That's all for now!