A sad farewell to second able Sealady Phoebs

Up early to get Phoebs to the Broken Gate pick up for the taxi (called Fatty, who more than lived up to his name, probably the fattest man I have ever seen!) taking her to the airport about 15 minutes away. Very sad to say goodbye, it feels like the end of company for a long while and we will miss her.

We then went down to the public dock to go to the shops to stock up with fresh milk, essential for my tea and well being. Thankfully the supply boat had been in and we got plenty of milk and plain yoghurt which we haven’t seen since Nassau. As we were in no rush we decided to go and look for our lost oar, not feeling very hopeful, we went way over to the coral beach where it may have landed in the prevailing wind. Because it was so shallow we couldn’t get close to shore and I suggested we go in and anchor, so that we could walk along the beach. I went right and Rowan left and within 10 seconds I heard his piercing whistle and saw him waving the oar. We were so thrilled as getting a new oar to fit, would take months.

Back at the boat we had usual breakfast, eggs on my home made toasted bread with tomatoes ….. our routine continues even out at sea. We got a message that Phoeb’s flight had been delayed. At least she had a 3 hour layover in Nassau before she flies direct to Canada, to her schoolfriend’s wedding. An hour later we got photos from Phoebs with her in the cockpit, she had managed to find a private pilot to take her to Nassau. Always resourceful our Phoebs. She finally made it all the way through to her destination in Canada where she still had an internal flight and a bus journey to negotiate.

We then headed off in Pole Pole back up north along Long Island. It was a mass exodus of boats, everyone relieved to be on their way again after days of sitting out the storm. We went back to the beautiful Calabash bay as Rowan has ordered a huge amount of Volvo spares (after our little starter scare) which are being flown in tomorrow.

We discovered the very nice resort, Santa Maria that we were parked outside, had a laundry service we could use, so took the opportunity to do all the guest bedding so we are all prepared if we ever get any more guests (although we are thinking unlikely with C Virus!).

We had a lovely walk around a lagoon next to the resort, that had wonderful caves in the coral shoreline. It was full of strange little creatures a bit like jelly fish, and a few birds in the mangroves.

The laundry took ages with a couple of loads, so we had drinks on the beachfront catching up with other Yachties and Canadians on holiday (more Canadians here than Americans by a long way). We did meet an American travelling around by seaplane that sounded rather exciting. Most countries in the Caribbean where he lands he is encircled immediately by the anti drug force. He loves the Bahamas because this is the only country that leave him alone! He reminded Rowan and I of Mark Oostingh (R’s brother in law).

We have bumped into an ageing British man a couple of times at the bar here, and also spotted him at the pub down in Thompson’s bay, who is dating the resort manager. Rowan is convinced he is a famous ancient rock star, after a very strong gin I asked him if he was famous and he just laughed in reply. Rowan asked his lady and she certainly did not deny it and avoided us afterwards in the restaurant. The mystery continues! We stayed for supper as time was getting on, I decided to have Lobster, a local dish, but sadly it was very disappointing (I think it had been frozen, certainly not fresh).

Returning to Pole Pole in the dark was much easier than last night as the water was calm. We had not put the anchor light on before we left, so it took a second to find our boat, amongst the many boats that had arrived while we had been on land. When we arrived there were 4 boats and by bed time we counted 13 anchor lights.