Hi again, today is Weds 11^th of March and we are stuck in Port Royal!!! Did I say stuck? Well what I meant was ‘Still here’! We have been having so much fun and enjoying the hospitality here we haven’t left yet. Roger asked me if I wanted to stay another day or so, it wasn’t a problem he said, it just meant that we would have to miss out some of the places we were going to visit. So I said yes. That was 4 days ago!!!! Last few days the weather was up anyway and the sailing would have been a really hard slog to windward.

But it now means that we have to miss ALL of the places we were intending to visit in order to get to Cartagena in time for Roger to catch his flight to Austria. But we have had some adventures here in the meantime.

First off we (the women of the fleet) together with Delia and Jeremy, headed out to the market for provisions. As we had all stayed longer than expected and in our case, had a longer passage to provision for, we needed to top up on fresh produce. Delia had to go find shrimp for the restaurant, so we tagged along and Jeremy was our captain for the day.

Now the ‘panga’ we went in ( did I mention that there is no road access to Mango Creek Lodge??) was not the most stable and the wind and waves were up, so it was a wet, roller coaster of a ride. But Jeremy did extremely well and got us there and back in one piece.

After having had cookery lessons from Delia, not to mention dining ashore and sampling her food, we were all buying Patastillo and Malanga as well as our usual veggies.

The next day we went ashore only to find Jeremy was unwell. He had been vomiting all night and had a temperature. So I asked Roger to go get some Paracetamol from the boat, Delia went into the garden and pulled up some ‘fever grass’ which we call lemongrass to make him some Ginger and lemongrass tea. So the day went on, with Cindy, Delia and myself all playing mother hen to poor Jeremy, John, Cindy’s husband, did comment saying’ I feel a little unwell, can I have a coffee?’. The silence was deafening!!

Terry’s wife Patrice flew in from the States that afternoon and checked in on Jeremy, whose fever was worsening and thought it would be prudent to get him checked out the next day.

Later that evening we well all in the bar having cocktails, Delia having been sent out in the ‘panga’ to collect Randy, one of the employees.

The evening was in full swing and Terry looked at his watch wondering where Delia was, as she was overdue and it was dark. She didn’t have a radio and mobile (cell) coverage was not good where she was. Anyway, Roger said that if she didn’t turn up in the next 5 mins, he would go and search for her in the dink (my hero). 5 mins passed and still no Delia, so Roger headed out, armed with his torch or flashlight,( this ‘common’ language we all have doesn’t seem to be that ‘common’ at all!!) a hand held radio and his navigation lights (it was a long way around the bay and pitch black).

We all carried on socialising, time slipping by, then we got a call from Roger. He had gone to the place she was supposed to be, she was not there and so had gone further past, but no panga and no Delia. At the same moment Randy walked in!!

Apparently, he had been a little the worse for wear (if you catch my drift!) and had walked to the lodge, leaving Delia waiting for him, totally in the dark (and not just visually).

Shortly after, Delia phoned in, she had finally got some coverage on her mobile (no, I am not translating again). Her engine had broken down and she was drifting. So Terry told her to put on all her lights and her torch (I’m not translating again!) and to watch out for Roger.

The tension was mounting in the bar when Roger called in saying her had found her, but they were having trouble getting the engine started. Now Delia’s panga weighed considerably more than our little dink, so towing over that distance was going to take a long time, especially against the waves, so it was imperative that Roger got the engine started.

Eventually we got the call, engine started and they were on their way back. Everyone breathed a sight of relief and poured themselves another drink.

As the evening wore on Terry became concerned, as they were now both overdue!!! He was about to send Miguel out, when they rounded the head. It transpired that the motor had cut out a couple of times and Roger was towing it. But Delia managed to get it started again and had come full throttle, back to the lodge with Roger bringing up the rear.

Apparently, Delia had slowed down as she approached the rendezvous jetty and the engine had cut out, she had drifted. She had even tried going over board and dragging the panga in (as I said they are very heavy and cumbersome) but to no avail. She had seen Miguel (her cousin who had been out fishing for the day) fly past her and had tried to attract his attention, so when Roger arrived she was a little shaken. It must have been a scary ordeal, I know I would have been scared if it had been me by myself. But she simply came back and started to cook dinner (after changing out of her wet clothes).

The next day, Jeremy was diagnosed as having Malaria!.

Both ourselves and Long White Cloud had decided to check out in Coxen Hole, rather than Guanaja (no longer having the time to visit there) so we hitched a lift in with Terry and headed to the Port Captains office only to find it closed, as was the Immigration office. The cleaner we met when checking in was sitting over the way, so I renewed our acquaintance and found out that they were both on a course. So we high tailed it over to the airport (before that afternoon’s Delta flight arrived from Atlanta) and found the immigration and persuaded him, with help from Patrice, to check us out. Now all that remained was to wait for the port captain.

It was 18.20 by the time we eventually got back to Beaujolais. But that is they way of the world here, everything moves at its own pace and it’s no use stressing about it. Anyway, all’s well that ends well. We are all having a farewell dinner tonight before heading out tomorrow, really!!!!

The next 6-7 days will be interesting as it will be our longest passage together and some of the weather doesn’t sound too promising, but’ Hay lo que hay’.