Commodore
April 29, 2020

Things are getting serious……only a dribble of Gin left!

Gosh this is really life in the remote slow lane, I can’t remember when I last put shoes on, washed my hair (yikes) and no make up since our leaving party on 1 February (forgot to bring any if I’m honest).

Our days are in a bit of a routine – wake up to messages, then a late cooked breakfast, we’re a little panicked as our bacon runs out tomorrow but eggs should just last us until Saturday when we are allowed to the shops. We are not getting too excited as it is apparently a tiny little village shop here. Then I write my blog with a cup of coffee, we got delicious local roasted Turks & Caicos coffee beans, we will be very sad when those finish. A few chores, then cheese and biscuits for lunch. Then it’s just a count down to an ice cold gin and tonic!

We’ve had a few upsets today, the water maker which we have to run when the engines are on as it chews power, started making a strange noise. Not a lot we can do, Rowan’s been in touch with the manufacturer and nothing obvious. What a bummer that would be if we can no longer make water. Then the freezer fan has started making a terrible noise, and obviously isn’t as cold as it should be. Thank goodness we have been running our stock down so don’t have much left in it. But hate to think of the impact that has on my evening ice cold G&T!

Made bread today which is always steamy work as we have to have the oven on it’s highest setting in these confined quarters. Makes for a good smell though.

The kids had given me a gorgeous Indian silk wrap around for my birthday, which sadly did not cover very well as a wrap around! I stitched it up today as a pull over tunic and now it works much better. So this pic is for the benefit of Hannie.

Today’s highlight was speaking to my nephew Lovat (my brother’s eldest son) who has lived in the British Virgin Islands for the last seven years. To be honest visiting him was the biggest draw on this whole sailing caper! Now all we can do is video call him as the BVI has had a very strict lockdown. PolePole was originally being shipped to the BVI so we were planning to stock and do the handover there, and spend time with him while we learnt our way around Polepole. We had purchased a few things there too, like our dinghy and outboard motor. Rowan had done a test DHL delivery of wine from Nakedwines US to my nephew to see if it worked before getting a few more boxes sent (which in the end got sent to Fort Lauderdale where we picked it up). Last night we had enough reception to have a good catch up call and meet his gorgeous fiancee, Monique. Lovat was in great spirits, toasting us with one of the Naked bottles of wines that they are now happily consuming. We have also given him the dinghy as the company who we bought it through said that it was impossible for him to sell it in these crazy times. Poor Lovat can’t easily visit us here in Martinique even after lockdown, as he is on a S African passport and requires a Schengen visa to visit here, which is really difficult to get out here, and expensive. In June they may be able to travel, but sadly that is his busiest month at work (he is an accountant with KPMG), so we seem doomed to see them. We plan to go to S Africa for their wedding in October, but that too is looking like it could be problematic with Corona Virus. They plan to move to Hong Kong after the wedding, Monique is a Litigation Lawyer and finding Island life very boring work wise. We might persuade them to stay until January when our plan is to be back here with PolePole out of lockdown.

On other news heard from Jaxs that they never set sail in the end, at the last minute they decided to join a flotilla of boats all heading to Chesapeake Bay next Monday, when the weather window is better. Poor thing had already taken her seasickness tabs, that’s how close they were to departure. Rowan had read about this flotilla, called Salty Dawgs, it is a large group of boats, they have someone organising their entry into the States, so a great plan for them. The bonus is that Jax can now join us on our zoom book club meeting Friday evening. Quite bizarre to have 2 out of our 12 person club out here sailing in the Caribbean.