Our first weeks on Aquarius...

Here’s my first blog entry... It’s funny how I need to readjust how I make things happen, and get used to a VERY limited internet access... And this is not a complain – this is my choice to limit my addictions.
Anyways - life on a boat – that’s what I wanted to write about. It’s absolutely FABULOUS, but (!) there are a lot of things I’m still getting used to.
I’ll try to start with the beginning, which was not fabulous at all.
We landed in St. Lucia, although it’s a nice island and it has a lot to offer we settled down in Castries town as it was right next where we needed to get on a ferry next day. Place wasn’t nice nor I felt particularly safe in it, also slept bad, but unfortunately poor sleep became be my latest pattern.


So next day we took uneventful ferry trip to Martinique, and arrived quite late, around 8 or 9pm and took a taxi ride to marina, where our boat Aquarius was waiting for us. But taxi driver kept driving extremely slow in circles, and to add – he spoke no English, I spoke 5 French words :D After 10 or 15 minutes we asked him to stop and we took out our 4 extremely heavy bags and walked away after argument why we refuse to pay the driver. Long story short – it was a very very long and exhausting evening, trying to find out where is our boat and then trying to get a hotel after finding out that boat is on the other end of the island...
Next morning we took off to La Marin, where was our Aquarius, found the boat... Marina was nice, lots and lots of beautiful boats and friendly sailors.
Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling well, not even sure why – food poisoning or stress, but that put me down to sleep.
Couple next days was not so fun – we were working on the boat – changing standing rigging (all the metal wires that supports the mast), we had to go to another dock where they were working on it and getting in and out of the boat was a real pain, at night it was way too hot and we did not know how to use air-conditioning (LOL) then we were eaten by mosquitos, while next days still trying to arrange lots of other services in French (!). I could describe all this experience same as buying the house for the first time, in country you never lived, trying to figure out the systems and stuff you never dealt in your life, in 33 degrees of heat with 66% humidity... and yes, IN FRENCH! To add just a little more color – local businesses do not like to take care of business via emails or even calls, so there were countless trips in the heat back and forth trying to get them something done. And for me as a first time boat owner – I knew that everything related to the boats were 10 times more expensive, but I could not get over the idea paying 3,000 EUR for set of cushions for cockpit and another 2,500 EUR for bimini, maybe next year... Maybe I’ll get used to the crazy prices and pull the trigger...
That was the first impressions, then after our first week on the boat and many crazy unexplainable things going on the boat came our saviors – people who owned this boat and sailed around the world in it were happy to join us for a first month and me and Ken think they are God sent, otherwise we would be pretty much stuck without knowing were even to start... Thank you Jemp and Loni!!!
Then things were much easier to handle – they spoke French and spent 7 years in Caribbean and knew how the things are done here and helped us while we did other boat servicing and upgrades for Aquarius – we added davit for solar power, wind generator and after last battery servicing by “experienced” electrician we had to change the batteries too. All together, that delayed our sailing a week, but nobody seemed particularly upset – during the weekend we anchored in nearby St. Anne’s Bay and it was a bliss – differently from docking, you can jump in a turquoise blue water and swim, pull out grill and grill some dinner; breakfast, lunch and dinner all in the open air, surrounded by other boats and beautiful views... It’s hard to describe the sense of calm, happiness, laziness and blissfulness all in one. I love it! But then we started sailing. First day we sailed along Martinique and I thought the boat is leaning way too much, and I admit, I was a bit stressed out, although I was the only one worried on the boat. And just to mention – I had no seasickness at all during all this time.

Then following day we sailed to another island – from Martinique to Dominica and I already heard that the passage canal is a bit ruff, and as soon we left Martinique’s mountains behind wind started at 28-30 knots with gusts of 35-40 knots with 1.5 -2 meter waves and that my friends I will admit was scary for me! I was sitting in a tiny most covered corner and even started feeling a bit sick but after all crew made fun of me and ensured me, that this boat can handle much much worse conditions (I still can’t imagine how worse it can be) but then I kind of relaxed a bit and it got better. I guess this time Ken was right again choosing Amel Super Maramu 2000 although that almost ended up in divorce as my choice was Janneau 54...

Anyways, we already 3rd day in beautiful Dominica, where we spent first night in Roseau, but since it was very bumpy sleeping conditions we moved north and already second night in Prince Rupert Bay which has beautiful castle right in front of us and here is also just a bit nicer and cooler (still hot) weather...

For tonight we celebrating Jemp’s birthday and there’s also BBQ night in a local beach bar where lots of other sailors goes, so hope to update on that and our further adventures very soon as tomorrow we are taking off to Guadeloupe.

P.s. Please forgive my English and all the grammar mistakes... It’s not my first nor second language, so please don’t be too harsh judging me ☺️