Good Expectation shows her new colours...

So its been a full on few weeks since getting back to St Lucia. After a couple of days we hauled Good Expectation and had her placed stern first into one of the covered berths in the IGY Rodney Bay Boat Yard. A very well kept and smoothly run boat yard by the way and one I would certainly recommend to other boat owners.

A great distraction during this time has been the ARC ~ Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, held at the IGY Marina, who also did an excellent job at organising some great parties. By all accounts the visiting yachties and us locals all had a great time, big up to Adam Foster and his team at the marina for a great couple of weeks.

So the main activity recently has been a lot of sanding and painting, which seems to be what we have done a lot of, except that now we seem to be getting somewhere! We hope you agree...

Simultaneously, we have had a local carpenter Jim and his son Darryl, who is learning the trade from his dad, helping us build sections of the interior ~ bunks/storage, engine compartment, vanity unit to house the toilet and sink and the Greenheart hardwood floor boards. Its all coming together down below, they have done a great job, photos of it installed will have to wait until the New Year when we relaunch the boat as we have to replace the lead ballast before it all goes into place ...

Jim and Darryl at work

Over the past week we have also been helped by Pepsi with a lot of the painting of hatch covers, its been great having her with us in the boat yard adding her personal touch to the detail of the painting...

We have also received our first order of Jus' Sail Tshirts that we ordered from a local firm Button Up Ltd. - Lymwell and Julie have been fantastic, working very hard to get us what we needed as soon as possible. We are very happy with the outcome and have handed some out to some of those people who have helped us out with this venture so far... Within 24hrs we sited one of the tshirts in the marina... We think our friends son makes the perfect model for the first public showing of the Jus' Sail  tshirt...!

A nice surprise today was a brief visit into into Rodney Bay by fellow Carriacou built vessel ~ Jambalaya . She is a beautiful schooner with a wonderful layout of staterooms and comfortable berths down below. She is available for charter throughout the Caribbean... Google her for more info!

It hasn't all been hard work the past couple of weeks, we were also lucky enough to be treated to a wonderful night at The Jalousie Plantation, which is nestles below Petit Piton, we stayed in one of the new majestic villas, which had a stunning outside pool and backdrop of the Petit Piton...

 The pool area with villa behind... Highly recommended for those wanting to splash out and spoil themselves in a tropical paradise...

The beach at Jalousie is one of our favourite places in St Lucia, the setting is unsurpassed.

Behind which is also some wonderful relics from the Sugar mill which dates from the 1700's... 

One of the things that I love about these old pieces of industrial history is the name plates, one of these days I will look up this company ~ Mirrlees, Tait and Watson and see where they are from and if by some miracle they are still in operation...

So with Christmas Day approaching its time to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and may 2012 be a bumper year of all good things to all of you who happen to read this blog. We will be starting 2012 with a flurry of activity as we prepare for the launch of the Jus' Sail business on the back of the relaunch of the new look Good Expectation early in the New Year!