Soper's Hole

Arion's West Indian Adventure
Hermione & Douglas Pattison
Sat 16 Apr 2016 16:07
A week was spend exploring the Island in our Hire Car, a rather natty little jeep!! During our week here we met up with a lovely girl and her children. We were put in touch with her through our friends Paul and Sheryl. It made the week for the children and me, as Brittany and I really hit it off and had so much to talk about and share. She lives on a boat with her husband and Isla (4) and 2 year old twins Haven and Mira. Brittany’s blog, Windtraveller was very helpful to me in preparing for this trip. I urge any of you thinking of going away on a boat with children to read her blog. They are based in Nanny Cay and so we spent time there at the swings, beach and also swimming in the pool. She also showed us the best play park and the best ice cream!! We will REALLY miss them, and Alice is still talking about seeing ‘the girls’ again!!

Sopers Hole is a really lovely place to be, with a beautiful quayside. Luckily the water in the Marina is lovely and clear, as Alice (again!!) tripped and fell into the water on the way to the shops………. What are we going to do with Alice!! she is so accident prone!! Thankfully she can now swim, so she was happily treading water, but I did not have time to see this as I leapt in straight away. There were lots of people on hand to help us out. Arthur was very concerned that he should rescue my hat before it went soggy, which he did. Annoyingly I got several sea urchin spines in my foot from one of the piles as I was being hauled out. Golly it was painful. Just incase this happens to you, this is what you should do…… Soak in water as hot as you can bear, then soak in white vinegar which should help dissolve the spines. Do not try picking them out (which of course I did!!). Luckily the 50 foot boat had plenty of worktop for me to sit on with my foot in a pan of hot water…. very health and safety!! see pic!!

Our last night, Nick and Biddy returned Arion, and were really kind, taking us out for a delicious supper in the Italian restaurant overlooking our boat, which meant we could leave the children sleeping on board. It was sad saying goodbye to Nick and Biddy, but we all could not wait to get back on Arion!- Phew!! I had thought we might not want to leave the 50 footer, but it was totally the opposite!!