B.J. Porter

ANTIFA

Yeah, I wouldn't call what's been going on in St. Lucia "piracy" so much as random crime against the transient boats. I will likely never return to Soufriere. I had three difference boats come buy and case us out the first hour we stopped there...never mind the town. Literally casing us...three different boats stopping by asking to "borrow our air pump" for their leaking dinghy to draw us all out and see how many where on the boat. The only place I've ever had someone ask for that sort of help in six years of world travel...and three in an hour. Soufriere could really take some lessons from the PAYS guys in Dominica. We had no problems beyond the usual panhandlers, peddlers, scammers and drug dealers etc. in Rodney Bay. Lock everything, and keep your wallet in your front pocket if you go to the street parties. But it didn't *feel* nice there when there were dodgy people insisting you pay them to "guard" your dinghy and the like. There enough places in the Carib where you don't have to put with that shit though that I don't feel much compulsion to come back. We liked Marigot, however. A couple of years ago some yachties were killed in St. Lucia - the Vieux Fort incident you refer to I believe. St. Lucia seems worse the more southerly you get.

It's hard to imagine pirates cruising past all those islands from Venezuela to get to St. Lucia. St. Lucia has it's own problems and has for a long time. It's the only place I've even spent a night and not felt safe on my own boat. Attacks on cruisers there are not new.

Not a problem. I don't think I've ever watched an entire sailing blog video to the end in my life, except maybe the one where Dylan washes his walls with his toilet brush.

Because they're like cockroaches. For every one of them you see there's a 1,000 hidden in the woodwork, too afraid to show their faces in daylight.

Wait, was I supposed to watch the SV Delos video or something? I usually avoid doing things like that. I don't really know what you're talking about with induction and propane. The major analogue to the BMS/CAN stupidity was to say "fuckitall" and make sure the wind gen were set at a low enough voltage to self regulate itself to shut off before having a problem with over charging. The alternator has been set to a low enough voltage to do the same, and I'm planning to install a spike absorbing dingus when I get back to Oz which should prevent any backlash damage should the BMS disconnect the load bus unexpectedly. Right now everything is disconnected and sitting at 50% for two more months...

Post install it's been working just fine. As well or better than expected.

Sometimes leak = "not quite failed yet" But you know you'd better deal with it soon. When soon is in Tahiti...well, you'd do better to be lucky like me and catch the Navtec rep from NZ in town rebuilding another cruiser. But once the juice starts going, yeah, there's a drop dead timer.

we've refueled close to 1000L with jerry cans. It's a workout.

I should probably grab a set or two of everything for good measure now.

Really looking forward to the next "Quest for Navtec Parts" for our inevitable failure in the next couple of years. The good news is I've learned a lot of the "Navtec" parts and seals can be replaced with industry standard stuff.

Nope. YOUR president is Putin, comrade.

You are really reaching on this one. Again, if they rented a Toyota for campaign use they didn't get campaign aide illegally from the Japanese. You keep doggy-styling it though, it's entertaining.

Actually, it is.