-­­­­It’s been an interesting few weeks since the last blog with Susan in Trinidad visiting Debbie and Andrew remaining on Andromeda in Lagos – however the days have been filled and some of the endless list of jobs have been completed, but there are plenty to occupy us over the winter.

Now that the winter season is upon us activities have started to take off with Mexican Train doing very well – 5 new players to the game last week. The Strollers started this week and Susan got the Line Dancing under way after a long sleep(she had arrived back at 10pm the previous night - Wednesday -having got up at 5.30am Tuesday morning in Trinidad). The Music Group (a.k.a. The Split Pins) also starts very soon – it will be interesting to see what mix of folks join in this season. The “Lagos Dawn Patrol”, as we have become known as, has continued its 7:30am walks and some new variations on established routes have been found. Generally the walks are around 3 (ish) miles on Mondays and Friday’s as Andrew has the VHF Net to do, with walks of between 3.5 and 5 miles during the remainder of the week – all rewarded with an excellent cup of tea in Oasis afterwards – a good way to start the day. Some new faces have joined us this season which makes the conversations even more interesting. Yes, we are still measuring the distance in miles – an English habit!!

Magic left recently for their trip south to the ARC, though they hope to visit Madeira and Lanzarote (we did insist they see the “magic” of Manrique!!) on the way to Las Palmas – after all their trials and tribulations we wish them well – said goodbye to them twice as they turned back after the first departure due to bad weather forecast between Lagos and Madeira. Andrew has been asked to provide weather updates for the crossing, ho hum. He spent some time with them going through weather downloads and stuff via Mailasail and Iridium Satellite phones, which we used extensively, so hopefully they will get a really good picture of what’s going on during the voyage. Their trip wasn’t entirely uneventful as the genoa came down by itself, Mark had to climb the mast at sea to free the main halyard – never a good idea, the water maker doesn’t work, there is a leak from the rear “garage” door on Starboard tack, the Iridium refused to connect and the engine coolant is leaking – ho hum.

In the meantime Andrew has restarted the VHF Net twice a week and, with a couple of others, revamped the Navigators Web site, so at least it’s up to date and easier to navigate. We also had a very well attended “Meet & Greet” where all the new arrivals and returnees could meet one another and we will also drum up (yes, a pun) interest in the Music Group and the Fun Sailing, which we would also like to get going once again.

Folks from last season have started to return for the winter season but there are also some new arrivals which will make a difference on the social side of things – each has a story and each has a fluid plan! The marina does seem to be a little busier this year, but whether that’s just perception or the reality of folks over-wintering here remains to be seen. Both Andrew and Alan have already hoisted Kenny (Infinity) to the top of his mast and Richard (Jonathan Livingstone) twice to the top of his – madness.

The dinghy went into the water last week and the engine fired up – the first time for both for over a year – however they are both functioning. A bunch of cruisers planned a fishing trip to the bay now they have fishing licences, heavy fines if caught fishing without one, so maybe we will start a fishing section of the Navigators! However Andrew’s record of fishing is not something to brag about at the moment given the amount of lures we have lost over the past few years when compared to the number of fish actually landed. So four of them went out and even using “proven” bait, nothing was caught by Andrew, though Kenny claimed he caught something large that got away! Alan caught a variety of stonefish that promptly stung him and Trevor also caught nothing – still it was a couple of hours on a nice calm sea. Andrew still knows nothing about fishing! And the fish have nothing to fear!

Susan thoroughly enjoyed her trip to Trinidad, staying with Debbie and her family and being well looked after. She had a fantastic time going through the fabric that Debbie has in stock, choosing patterns for a variety of items that were made for her and others. A lovely time was had at Maracas beach and she made the most of the bath temperature water. Susan went down to Chaguaramas to catch up with folk there and take a look at the revamped hotel reception at Crews Inn where she had a great welcome from the hotel staff and was even invited to the monthly manager's cocktail party. The new reception uses all the space really well and brings the hotel right up to date. Elsewhere in Chagauaramas there were a few people to catch up with and say hello to.....Jesse and Stanley, Sharon and Lee from Allegro, Willie from Leahona, Sarah from Cape and Sharon and Chris from Quicksilver. And she even got to go out for a jig about a couple of times.....plus of course enjoying the local foods.....doubles...saheenas......yum yum.

So now the season is getting into full swing with the weeks filling up with things to do. The weather has been mixed with a lot of rain for a few days but has now reverted to the lovely blue skies we like so we can still go walking without coats etc. and the sea is still feeling very ok to paddle in when the morning walk takes us that way.

Quite a lot of entertaining has been going on aboard Andromeda with increasing numbers of folk having been ‘tangoed’. Whether they will ever be the same again remains to be seen.

More in due course

Susan and Andrew

Andromeda of Plymouth

Lagos

Portugal