There won’t be another Log entry for a few days as we are staying ashore at the Consulate Hotel…

Toured St Helena Island with local guide Tony Brookes. Met Tony in Solomons store, got chatting, next minute we’ve arranged a tour. Finished with drinks at the Consulate Hotel. Booked two nights, stayed 3. Large swells arriving in the anchorage for next few days so will be more pleasant for girls and I to be ashore. Met crazy Dante, a Finnish guy, and Nisha – an Australian author/gynecologist researching Napolean for her next novel. Sent email newsletter to family and friends. Received email from Andrew re: potentially excellent contact in Grenada.

It’s “Ship Day” – the locals term for any day the RMS St Helena arrives.

Luckyfish is like a beautiful girlfriend, with some bad habits. The crossing to St Helena had been her maiden ocean voyage and it had exposed some issues.  You can’t love a girl who burps farts and whinges. These habits would have to be addressed and fixed at St Helena before we continue. Luckyfish had performed incredibly on the passages from Cape Town to St Helena. Safe, seaworthy, self-steered all the way, strong cross-winds at times but no sense of capsize risk, or broaching/pitch-poling. If only the Beam 4 slippage can be fixed and the noise from the gaffs, then she will be the Miss World of cruisers.

We will be remaining on the island much longer than planned. From a cruising perspective, if a place takes 8 days to get there then you should stay one month!. Plan to spend at least 3 times the voyage length, at your destination. Each one of us is assessing this lifestyle, in our own ways, to see if it is “for us”.

Rose at 8:00. Egg, marmite, bread and butter for breakfast. Waved farewell to Michael and crew on Crystal.

Warm, calm day, swam, cleaned hull and rust stains from gudgeons. Assessed practicality of installing retaining blocks on Beam 4 to prevent the sideslip when lashings work loose. Seems doable. Found 3 more cracks in fillet joints, two on the port and starboard gunwhale rubbing strips and one new area – the inside starboard bow chine. Inspected rudders, trim-tabs, lashings. All fine.

Next big challenge: Learning to chill. Still clinging to the old schedule, rush rush way of life and getting ready to move on.

However, found cracks in hull, my heart sank. Not only because it will mean a delay, but more because of that sickening feeling that comes when your confidence in the structure of your ship has been tarnished. But then learned from our Canadian neighbours Betty &  Luis on Ave del Mar (Spanish – Bird of the Sea), that the whale sharks are coming. Maybe we should wait for them to arrive. Yin and Yang.

Burned Tuya’s shirt today. Crazy Korean messaging with no understanding. Girls had a hair day after the boat cleaning. Did not go to shore today.