The engine is now in and has been run - we've taken Stargazer out to the bay so Adam could get his dive kit on and clean off the prop and props haft, then we took her out with the mechanic to do a sea trial which went fine.  The new engine is much quieter than the old one and also more powerful at low revs which makes some of the low speed handling easier. 

We did, however, notice a little too much movement in the prop shaft so yesterday and today the engineer is visiting to do the final alignment.  The Engineer who does this is called Tony and is in his early sixties, he's good at what he does but is not the most mobile any more so it has been 'interesting' trying to align a heavy engine - Adam has been helping a lot.

We all nearly had a falling out in the 'early days' of engine fitting when Tony failed to notice he had managed to snap a fuel line and diesel was happily leaking everywhere, I think he focuses on one thing so although he could see the leaking diesel, he was busy doing something so it didn't occur to him to stop it.  However - we all made up and I discover that Tony goes to the same ENT doctor as me as his ears all got damaged in a power station explosion years ago - so now we have discussions on ears and how wonderful Dr Surage is, it has been our bonding point.  Ear now appears to be on the mend, it was perforated by the pressure from the infection in the inner ear, but has started to look healthier now after multitudes of antibiotics, anti bacterial ear drops, anti fungal ear drops etc etc.  Even though there is still a hole in the eardrum so no going in the water for me for at least a month, however - at least it now looks like it will heal, last week it wasn't looking so good.

We escaped on our dingy out of the lagoon and over to Pigeon island on Sunday, we needed to get off the boat and get out and away from the boat yard, the heat and the lack of any breeze in here.  We did the walk that we did last year when we first arrived in the Caribbean up to the top of Pigeon island fort - it was actually easier this year, perhaps we're more used to the heat even though we both feel very unfit after 3 weeks in the dock and no swimming or diving etc.

We went to the nice rustic cafe called 'Jambe de Bois' (wooden leg) - after Francois Le Clerc , he was the original wooden legged pirate who made his lair at Pigeon island.   We went there for Roti's - these I think I have said before are like giant samosa's filled with curried meat or veg and are made on most of the caribbean islands.   They're very filling and very nice - and at £2.50 you can't complain at the price.   

It has been very dry here (even though we have seen a fair bit of rain) - Pigeon island is covered in long grasses at the top - these are all brown and a lot of the leaves have gone from the trees, a lot of rain falls on the mountains in the middle of St Lucia but not so much at the lower north end.

We now have some New Zealanders parked next to us as they are fixing their rigging, had a chat with them the other night, they're a nice couple with a cat on board that they adopted in Turkey, the cat is not allowed off the boat but escaped yesterday with lead and harness on so we had some entertainment with locating the cat.

I have bought a big bag of Sorrel in the supermarket - then looked for recipe's - it is not the same Sorrel as you get in UK, it is actually hibiscus so looks like a bag of red flower buds - apparently you can make a drink out of it by steeping it in water with Ginger so when everyone clears off the boat and stops messing with engines I am going to try. . . . .  unless it has gone off by the time everyone is off the boat. 

Some pictures!

Me demonstrating Roti-eating

Local artwork on display in Jambe de Bois, I liked the paintings this artist did

Adam climbing down from the top of the fort

Me - same picture as we took last year a year on