After a season in St Maarten working on and off and doing odd jobs onboard Spirit we finally managed to head out to sea and make our way slowly back to Australia. First stop was in St Barth's where we headed ashore and had a nice big burger and piña colada to celebrate out departure. Johnny a great friend from back home and Ez also a close friend were to join us for the trip home. Johnny first at the start of May in St Maarten then Ez on the 14th of May in Antigua. So it was Johnny and I that left to start sailing Spirit on her first passage after arriving in St Maarten in December. We had just spent the last few days fitting the Katadyn 160E water maker the Weaco 80lt fridge/freezer and the new gas stove, along with many other smaller items and jobs on the to do list. We also lifted Spirits mast by using the spinnaker boom on the yacht I was running for the season. It was the relief captains idea and worked a treat saving some much needed cash and allowing us to sleep well knowing that all was ok at the mast rotation joint. On the day before our departure we did a massive provisioning outing with $1,500 worth of food being stuffed into every little nook and cranny within Spirits tiny main hull. Somehow we managed to hide it all away but in the meantime we reduced our waterline to zero and probably added about 500kgs to the boats displacement. We have to keep this in mind when sailing now as it adds to the stresses on the boats structure along with sails and rigging. She was built as a super light weight racer and she's now in full cruise mode ready for the delivery back to Australia and onto Thailand should things all pan out.
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