Commodore
January 20, 2023

Friday 20 January – We meet our fellow World Arc boats at Eben’s island

A catamaran appeared, and we discovered it was one of the World Arc boats, they had just arrived from Santa Marta. A couple with their young kids, we think they were from Argentina. It was rather exciting to meet our first lot of fellow Pacific crossers! Rowan was straight onto the vhf, greeting them and giving them a few tips for San Blas.

We set off for our short hop to Banedup (Eben’s island), the wind had picked up over night and there was quite a chop passing the opening in the reef to the open sea. A lot of bouncing that Isobel and Chris dealt with admirably. We were horrified to find well over 30 boats in the anchorage, as we got closer we realised that it was the main fleet of the World Arc boats. We struggled for a while trying to get a decent spot in the wind and found our spot next to a British Oyster. We made contact with the Dutch couple Michael and Petra who we had met in St Lucia last year. Shortly after defrosting a huge steak, a local boat came up with a huge crab and lobster that Rowan couldn’t resist buying.

We went and snorkelled in our favourite spot, the visibility was not that great, the water seemed pretty stirred up, but it does have a lot of lovely coral. We had a good swim around the coral near the ‘Swimming Pool’, we had hoped to see the rays in both spots but no luck.

We returned to PolePole and tried to fix the dagger board that has got something stuck down it, and has gouged out a huge channel. We cant budge it and it is difficult to see what it is, but assume it must be a screw of sorts. We spent a good hour trying to get it out and the next minute Petra and Michael turned up. The boat was in chaos and we were suddenly producing drinks and snacks. Rowan invited them for dinner and they accepted even though he is allergic to shell fish, good thing I had defrosted the steak. I had made a sort of dauphinois potato dish in the slow cooker, which we had to divvy up amongst 6, it was just enough. Michael was interesting as he spent many years as a leather trader and spent years in Africa, mainly Kenya, he had recognised the word PolePole a long time ago. A very nice couple that I am sure we will enjoy crossing the Pacific with.