Both balconies now have their purpleheart railings and the top floor is tiled, also spot the bathroom windows!
It is back to steel and concrete, hard work for all involved.

This week has flown by because we have been burning the candle at both ends. We sailed up to Rodney Bay on Saturday, to be there on time to meet up with Jane Bowden from 32 Sqn and her husband Chris on Sunday. As we sailed in we spotted Endeavour, the boat Jeff had sailed the Atlantic with in 2004. He knew the skipper so we spent time with the crew going over people and places that we had in common over a cup of tea on Sunday morning. We had a good sail later that day to Marigot with Jane & Chris, followed by a pleasant lunch and then a trip up the hill to the house. Jeff then drove them back to their hotel. The next day we received an e-mail to say that Gordon Paton was the Captain on the Tuesday Virgin flight so we picked him up in Rodney Bay by car, spent a night on the boat and then sailed all day on Wednesday. It was great fun and it felt a little like playing truant, not being involved with the house on a working day. We sailed back to Marigot at 6am on Thursday so Jeff could get back to the house.

Whilst we were off gallivanting the team has been working hard. Kenrick has made a truly wonderful job of the staircase and is pushing to get the upstairs finished. We were no sooner up there when we were dispatched to buy a sink for the guest bathroom as he was making the cabinets. The tiler also needed some direction and we discovered that we might not have enough of one sort of tile to finish the balconies as so many of them arrived damaged. The next shipment is in December so it may be just a case of doing the balconies last.

In the meantime the small digger in the garden has been excavating a hole for the pool and even though he is having a fight with the clay like soil he is making good progress. The upstairs is being prepared for floorboards so now it is even more hazardous to look around, as there are many more gaps in the makeshift flooring. The painter is managing fine though and his bits apart from final touch ups is almost finished on that floor and he will begin on the first floor or the outside.

Tonight we have been invited to a Thanksgiving dinner, which might be a week early but who cares, turkey is turkey! Tomorrow, Tim, the guy who bought our house will be here, carrying with him a few things we ordered in UK. We plan to have a day sail with him as well, so you see, now that the boat is up and running we are filling our boots with sailing. What a life!

Wine Down under The Pitons.


It feels like we are “Billy No Mates” on the dock at the moment as all our friends have sailed off and the rest of the dock is being upgraded for the new season. We went off last weekend to the Pitons and picked up a buoy by Malgretoute beach. There was a colourful reef close by so the snorkelling was great. At sundown a guy came out on a boat and asked if we wanted to eat at the restaurant, showed us the menu and we picked the fish of the day, Dorado. He then arranged to come back and get us half an hour before dinner and also offered a boat watch service, all inclusive of the meal price. It was a smashing little place, family run. Benny, the owner welcomed us, his son was the boat boy, his daughter, Genolene, the waitress and his wife was the cook. There was only one other couple, off a charter boat, at the end of their holiday. We had a lovely evening and at the end of the meal we were given gifts of fruit and miniature local terra cotta pots. The next day we sailed up to Anse Cochon for a lunch stop and then back to Marigot.

The building has moved on this week. No excavating as the soil is too wet, so that may happen next week. More railings have been made and the staircase is beginning to take shape. The electrician has been putting up some of the outside wall lights. The tiler will arrive next week. The plasterer has been making manhole covers for the internal water tanks and also finishing of the showers, ready for tiling. The window maker brought one door and one window!

A cat and her two kittens have been hanging around the site for several weeks. They are often found inside the house first thing in the morning but soon run off when people approach. We have decided that they can stay as this week Jeff found a half eaten rat by the front door, so they are obviously making themselves indispensable. Most people tolerate the odd wild cat, as they believe they keep rats and the larger cockroaches at bay. It is unlikely that they will ever become friendly as they are truly feral but it would be good to catch them eventually and get them neutered and spayed.

Some friends from 32 Sqn are in St Lucia at the moment so we are meeting up with them on Sunday in Rodney Bay, where we shall sail them to Marigot, show them the house, have dinner and talk about old times.

The view into our bedroom.

Last night we were at a Sushi dinner in Chateau Mygo. Shaid had been on a course last year and wanted to try out his skills, so Doreen arranged for a few of the local crowd to be tasters. It was absolutely fantastic! We even had warm sake wine to wash it down. We all drank too much wine after that so we are both feeling a little hung over toady and have punished ourselves by getting up to the house and sweeping the whole place out. We shall sail up to Rodney this afternoon and rest there for the evening.

The purpleheart railings in place with Jan and Kenrick admiring the good work.

We have a window in place, one down, fiftysix to go!

Last Sunday we sailed out of Marigot Bay for a day trip, the first time in many months. We sailed a few miles along the coast to Anse Cochon, where we picked up a buoy and got down to some serious relaxing. A little swim, snorkel, boat bottom inspection, lunch and a sleep. What could be more perfect? Our friends on Lucky Dog joined us in the small bay and also the crew on INXS came on their tender and we all met up in the waterside bar where they served the best fruit punches ever. It was a lovely day, calm seas and a cool breeze. It was great to be sailing again and doing what we ought to be doing here, having fun!

The week of building has been a good one. As you can see from the photos, the purple railings are in place and we have a window in place. The guys have been marking out the excavation site for the pool and decking area, hopefully we will have a digger next week to start shifting earth. A tiler has also been employed to start on the balconies and bathrooms.
Our water tanks are half full of rain water but the guys are reluctant to drink it even though it is perfectly safe, so I was sent on a journey to find out what the water board does and they sold me some large chlorine tablets to dissolve in the water and said that should do the trick. I haven’t tasted it since but Jeff says its OK. Eventually, I guess we will use a water filter for the drinking water if only to be rid of any chlorine taste.

Tonight we are off to Maggie’s who is hosting a farewell BBQ for Lucky Dog and INXS. I am sure we did that farewell last week but it sounds like a good idea so we are all for it

Lastly- Happy Birthday Fiona!! Sorry we are not there but we shall toast your good health on Saturday.

Davidson and Helen at the bar.

Last Sunday Jeff spent the day at Rodney Bay doing the final repair work on Wine Down. I spent the day travelling the Island with friends looking for the Jounen Kweyol events. Our first stop was just outside a small fishing village called Dennery. Here we tasted great fish cakes and had a local juice and listened to very loud music thumping out of ten foot high speakers. We moved on quickly and headed south. There were a few more roadside happenings but we drove past them in the hope of finding the big event with crafts and demonstrations. After a few more stops, more local juice, more fish cakes and a slice of cassava cake we hit Fond St Jacques. We had to park the cars and walk up the last few hills to get to it, so it really felt positive. Alas, this festival is similar to The Bath and West Show without the organization and vision. We watched guy’s plant dasheen and coconut plants; they dug a hole and popped them in, et voila, planted! Then we watched some Rasta’s dancing around with large coconut fronds on their heads, holding a banana in the other hand. Neither rhyme nor reason to this, even the locals looked a bit bemused. After that we tried traditional dishes, the good ones were squid stew, more fish cakes and coconut sweets. The bad ones were cows head soup, cows heel soup and, wait for it, cows skin soup. All a bit raw tasting and gloopy, umm yum, yum, cant wait for next year!

Trying out the local dishes

The house building programme is going well apart from the window maker who appears to have slowed down to a snails pace, we reckon we shall be living in the place before he finishes all the windows, at least it will be dry season by then. I had to do a big paint buying session this week, so I took my book with me and settled down to several chapters and actually finished the book, whilst they made up the paints. After I got it all back on site I realised the light pistachio was actually grey and they had mixed up a whole five gallons wrongly. This resulted in the inevitable argument about whose fault it was but as they had written down the numbers from a piece of paper I had given them they could see that they had made a mistake.
Jeff has managed to find yet more dowelling to do now that the architraves are being put on the window frames. He has also been sanding and sealing the balcony wood. The whole place is covered in sawdust, which is carefully collected at the end of each day, as Kenrick says it is great for the garden landscaping. I love the way that so little is wasted here.

Tonight we are off out to The Rainforest restaurant for a farewell meal with the crews from the big yachts. This has coincided with a gourmet evening in the restaurant to celebrate St Lucia’s food and rum week, where celebrity chefs have been cooking all over the Island. We were planning to go to Discovery, as they had Oprah Winfrys chef, but it appears he only does diet meals; it was three courses of bland lightweight stuff, whereas everywhere else is putting on six courses for the same price. Bring on the cream and chocolate!!