Still in Aruba

My dock is paid up till tomorrow, might have to extend it.  Just looked at the weather forecast (well, here that means wind forecast really): it is 20+ knots winds all the way till the weekend, maybe Sunday it will lie down a bit.  According to the locals, June is a windy month here, but if I get further east of here winds should be weaker (I hope so, because it would be really tough to beat into these strong winds all the way to Trinidad).

Have been doing boat projects for the past few days, the roller furling is fixed. But I still need to go up and check the connections between the furling tubes (I have concluded that the problem I had was caused by two tubes being disconnected, which allowed the car to twist itself out of position).  The stay sail sheet is now running through a block that is connected to an eye on deck.  Still need to finish putting back the headliner trim in (had to take a part of the ceiling out to install the eye’s backing plate).  Yesterday and this morning I did repairs on the main sail.  Just fixing loose stitching, the sail cloth itself is thick and strong, but there is wear and tear on the stitching.

Washed the deck a few times, finally got all the salt off.  Nice to have plenty of fresh water available.

I am going to have a look at how to fix the cap rail.  I need to take some of the crashed wood out, and probably will fill it up with epoxy.  There is a crack over the length of about a meter.  It will not become a pretty finish, but hopefully I can at least make it so it is held together again.

Also have started to think a little bit about the long term cruising goals.  The original plan (to make it to Holland this summer) is out the window, it is way too late for that (and I would have to cross the paths of the hurricanes).  I still plan on going as far east as Trinidad, by island hopping and visiting some of the Venezuelan coast.  From there I could keep going further east (well southeast) by going to the South American coast (Guyanas, Suriname, Brazil), but that would be more against the wind.  Or, I could backtrack, finally going downwind (would be nice for a change) and go to Columbia and Panama.  At first I did not want to go through the Panama canal.  But, if I do intend to do some sort of circumnavigation, it would be my best choice.  I don’t think I want to go around Cape Horn, having read too many tough stories about it.  Feel free to comment about which routes I should be taking……