The wind generator mast was waiting and the only flaw was that it was 3m tall instead of 2.7m. We didn't get this altered, and mounted it as is. The really great news was that the cross brace reaches our solar panel mount well above head height. We ended up going into Lagoonies marina inside the lagoon to mount the pole, as trying to do it in the bay was a little testing. We found a helpful guy, Pete, who came and gave me a hand. He advertises on the morning net, and I can recommend him. Between the two of us, we got the base through-bolted in a place I couldn't reach. I drilled, epoxied and re-drilled the deck mount so the core was protected. Then up it went! It's been spinning ever since. We will do some testing to see how much power we are really getting from it over the coming weeks and months. However our night time drop in amp hour-terms seems less over the last few nights. We decided to dispose of our UK gas cylinders, and Gas King were happy to take them. We purchased a fibreglass cylinder and filled it with propane and this is what we're using now as its simpler to get refilled out here.
Jobs done, we cleared out of Sint Maarten and headed to Anguilla. The clock was ticking on our arrival at the BVIs as our first set of friends arrive there on Wednesday! Anguilla was a simple short sail, and we anchored in the main bay as visiting anywhere else is very expensive. We had a meal ashore, but that was it. A very brief visit but we would love to go back. Probably not this season as its a bit far upwind from the BVIs to visit on our way south.
We left Anguilla at 5am. Fortunately the charter cat that anchored right in front of us for the night was a few metres away when the anchor finally came clear so they avoided an early wake up call. We had a cracking downwind sail to Virgin Gorda with the parasailor up most of the way. We caught a large sailfish, but it managed to wiggle off the hook as we tried to gaff it - before we got a photo! We dropped the parasailor as we turned into North Sound, and anchored in the lee of the reef for the night. This morning, we moved on to gun creek and checked in. $10.38 - a bargain!
We are now anchored in Great Harbour, Peter Island. Everywhere seems manically busy with hundreds of charter boats around. Moorings are very expensive - so we choose to anchor but the charter boats scurry towards the mooring balls as if they were the last ones available! We've deployed our foredeck awning as we'll be here a couple of nights. This was made for us in Antigua and gives a decent amount of shade on the trampolines and foredeck. It's great for lounging around on the beanbags in some shade, whilst getting a wonderful cooling breeze.
Tomorrow we catch up on the domestic chores - washing mainly. We will get everything ready for Andrei and Alina, then on Wednesday we pop over to Road Town for some provisions and to meet them from the ferry. Can't wait!