Commodore
June 26, 2020

Hauling Pole Pole out the water

Amazing to think that we’ve had our last night on board for a while. Last cooked breakfast with fresh croissants from the deli! What a way to leave!

Our haul out was booked for 11am and it was only going to take us an hour to get there. The wind was pushing 30knts and Rowan decided to get the jib out, with just that up we were managing a speed of 6knts. We arrived into Prickly Bay, Rowan hoping that we could top up with fuel there, as it is better to store tanks full to prevent condensation causing problems. Sadly we got there and the fuel dock was closed down, so will just have to risk it.

Leaving Le Phare Bleu

We arrived at our Spice Island marina and they were all waiting, just a tricky manoeuvre into the tight dock in a bit of a breeze, but made it perfectly in the end thanks to a Rasta helper keeping the end of Pole Pole from doing a nasty scrape on the concrete. Judging from the amount of paint on the concrete, it has happened plenty of times before! Within seconds we were going up, Rowan had gone to do paperwork and I was left on. Luckily I managed just at dock hight, to catch the drivers eye and get off with our big bags. I could have stayed on until we were parked, but it was unbearably hot and they do a jet clean of the hull to get the muck off before going to be storage area. It’s a scorcher of a day, I luckily found a bit of shade to read the paper and distracted myself with a sudoku.

Look how tight it is!

On the move with our broken rudder

Once parked we got a step ladder and were able to get up and start the big clean up and storage process. We can’t leave any food whatsoever, and obviously need a big tidy up. I had washing on at the laundromat, it was busy, busy. Our car hire arrived and by 4pm we were exhausted and ready to retire for the day.

Rowan managed to find a resort with cabanas that he could book online through booking.com. Everything I tried to book was closed, so we were a little sceptical, but luckily it was 8 minutes drive away. We arrived and the office was closed, luckily we found a guy who phoned the manager. She turned up in her car after a while, long enough for me to get eaten alive by mozzies. They clearly were not expecting us, and had not received or registered the booking. It turns out tourism is not officially open yet, but she sweetly honoured our booking and upgraded us to an even bigger cabana! It’s quite high up so we have a gorgeous view and can just spot where we were quarantined. Our cabana has a huge kitchen and wonderful balcony with a hot tub and a pool nearby, so we are very pleased. We are the only non long term guests! A huge amount of money, has at some time poured into these cabanas, they have a faded glory about them. The huge expensive fridge, rusted to pieces, the Miele dishwasher is out of order etc, but we are very happy. The staff are so delightfully helpful and charming. She has offered to get our laundry done somewhere as the machines here are not working, she also offered to drive us to the supermarket to get provisions as she thought we had come by taxi. All incredibly kind gestures, I hope they are relieved to see guests coming back.

After cooling ourselves in the pool we had to rush to dinner at 6, all restaurants have to close at 7pm as part of the curfew. It’s a gorgeous restaurant right on the beach and we had a delicious meal of lamb chops for Rowan which made him extremely happy and I had a prawn salad with caramelised pecans which was delicious too. A bottle of rose and we were very happy. Sadly only 3 tables with guests, and definitely more staff than guests.