Commodore
October 20, 2023

Saturday 21 October – picnic the other side of the island

We were woken up shortly after 5am by lots of laughter and noise. Around 7am I looked out the bedroom window and tents were on the beach with loads of locals dressed in traditional outfits. The obscenely loud music started at about 7:30 which seemed very anti social. We remembered that Patti from the restaurant last night told us that a cruise ship was coming in, the second time in 17. She was right, when we looked out to sea there was a cruise ship, ferrying people to the reef to snorkel and then to the beach.

Rowan came up with a good plan to escape the bad music and the crowds, we packed a picnic and snorkels and headed out in JeldiJeldi to the other side of the island, to the other side of Patti’s resort. Like she said it is an even better beach that side. We had a snorkel around, the coral looks like it has taken a hammering in the past, but there was plenty of good new coral growing, quite a few fish but not an abundance.

We headed to the beach and spent a few enjoyable hours lying under a shady tree. Rowan had one more snorkel, he found some good coral but the tide was roaring so he had to swim like crazy. I was very pleased to miss that. We headed back with a lovely blue sky, we came around the corner to our beach to find the cruise liner and all the people and tents on the beach had gone! We had a cup of tea and then headed to the beach for sunset drinks to join the other yachties. Two new boats have arrived, one is a French boat, they came by and chatted on their way to eat at Patti’s resort. The English Canadians have taken the two young kids of the French Canadians on a sleep over, giving them a night off. They have been travelling together since Mexico. Loads of good stories and interesting people.

We returned to PolePole for slow cooked bean stew and pasta, which was a lot better than it sounds!