World’s largest Frigate colony

Solomon came to pick us up from Polepole, with threatening skies and rain forecast we were prepared for a wet trip. The rain arrived and the wind was whipping up the water into the boat, drenching us, I was so pleased I took my rain poncho. We crossed the reef at a narrow entrance into the lagoon which is very shallow and enormous. Loads of coral stuck out everywhere, not somewhere you’d want to be in charge of an inflatable dingy. We roared along for about 10 minutes and thankfully the rain cleared and we were among the 20 thousand roosting frigates!

The largest colony in the world, bigger than the Galapagos. They were a real spectacle. We saw loads sitting on eggs, they only lay one egg a year. There was quite a ripe smell from the concentration of them. Phoebe was blessed with a poop! The male frigates huge red pouches were rather remarkable, all for the benefit of flirting we gather. It made life very tricky for them flying with a big ballooning pouch creating a lot of resistance. Please excuse the many photos!

On our return we popped into Codrington a real one horse town, with loads of hurricane damage greeting us at the dock. We had to go to the harbour mistress and pay our dues for visiting the park. I think Christmas had started early judging by the amount of booze bottles and not an official document to be seen on her desk. But they were very jolly and helped us find the pharmacy, atm and supermarket. All amongst ruined buildings from the 2017 hurricane. A lot of islanders left after it hit and have never returned. It all felt a little depressed. We were amazed that we managed to get everything on our shopping list, so much better than some of the shops on the remoter Bahamas islands. By the time we got back to Polepole the sun was out again.

Late afternoon Rowan and I decided we needed a long beach walk, the kids were on their own exercise regime. The beach was steep with breaking waves and we hauled JeldiJeldi as far up the bank as possible. We did a long walk around the point. I noticed some paw prints and remembered the enormous 3 dogs we had seen barking at some yachties on the beach yesterday near the derelict resort. We were on our way back when suddenly we heard barking behind us. They must be feral dogs and look very intimidating. Rowan says I’ve never walked so fast in my life but we were still far from the boat. They followed us for a good 5 minutes just slowly catching up to us barking all the way. Finally Rowan did a stand off with them and it seemed to do the trick as they turned into the bush. We then were horrified to see that the waves had caught up with JeldiJeldi and was dragging the anchor and her into the sea. By the time we got to her the waves were breaking into her and she was full of water. We got the bung out but as soon as we got some water out another wave broke into her. Which made her so heavy to move. Not what I needed after my adrenalin was still pumping from the dogs. We finally managed to get enough water out. I was very relieved to find my bailer that I’d made from an old milk container after our sub aqua planing debacle with Clint and family when we visited the swimming pigs in the Bahamas. We finally made it back ok, but an unhappy end to our lovely walk!

Pink sand from the coral

We had a very gentle peaceful Christmas Eve, with lots of reminiscing.

I’m always writing my blog a day late, so this comes with lots of good wishes to all you readers for a very happy Christmas wherever you are. Hoping that the Brexit deal brings a little cheer for the Brits after hearing most of the U.K. goes into tier 4. We will raise a glass to all you faithful readers!