For you eagle-eyed followers of this tome, yes...we've back-tracked. We had a delightful sail from Petite Anse D'Arlet direct to Rodney Bay Marina, St. Lucia to sort out our batteries. In a nutshell, they're toast. We had hoped to nurse them along until we reached Saint Maarten, but waking up this last week to a house voltage of 10.3-10.5V just didn't allow that; and that with the freezer & refrigerator turned off! These present batteries were purchased only four years ago (almost to the day) in Opua, New Zealand, and are Toyama Hybrid AGM-Gel batteries, size 8D. We had certainly hoped to get a longer lifespan, so are quite disappointed in the reality. Caveat emptor. Obtaining high quality 8D AGM batteries in Martinique proved an insurmountable problem; easier to arrange everything here in St. Lucia and sail the short hop to get them. In addition, in the last week, the pump housing of our 7 year old Raritan PHII Compact toilet developed several tiny cracks along its base. Never any good to have a leaky toilet; the housing will have to be ordered and replaced here as well. Along with a few other minor annoyances that need attention, we'll stay around here until everything is top notch again.
Pic: Approaching St. Lucia; Rodney Bay is just around Pigeon Point off the port bow.
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