In The Bight again
Irie
Sun 16 Dec 2007 16:34
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Position 18 19.30N 64 37.5W Norman
Island
Sunday 16th Dec
We left Trellis Bay on Friday, aiming to rendezvous
with Teka Nova on Norman Island. It was still blowing 6/7, but once round The
Bluff on Beef Island, we were able to bear away and sail down Drake Channel
at 7 knots with just the genoa set. In the distance a large navy ketch was
outbound from Roadtown. We steadily hauled here in and made an early rendezvous
with Teka Nova off Pelican Island, then mooring up on
adjacent bouys and meeting with Terry and Christine for a sundowner on
their boat. They'd also invited Larry, Elizabeth and son Eric - on
another blue, 40' boat and recently arrived from Rhode Island via
Bermuda.
Saturday was occuped with some much needed boat
jobs, including the never ending battle with the heads. This sunny
Caribben idyll is never as leisurely as people seem to imagine. In our
micro environment, we're generating power for lighting and heating, cooking on
gas, making water, managing sewerage systems, organising an
extensive comunications network and maintaining wind and motorised
propulsion systems - none of this equipment likes salt water in the
least. Still, when it gets to much, there's always the reward of a cooling
swim and the therapy of a shared moan with other boat sufferers over a
little something at sundown. This came to pass when yesterday's team
came to Irie for more counselling and refreshment. The night was much
quieter, with clearer skies and a growing moon.
Today's Sunday, heralded by an early walk in the
cool before the sun's too high. The island is networked with tracks, a
legacy of a planned develpment that has fortunately been stalled. It's very
green after the wet season, and the island is covered in scrub, cactus and the
occasional larger tree with papery bark. There are doves, magpie like birds with
a whistling call, small dark finches and today we saw a hawk that had
the markings of a red kite. White, yellow and vivid orange butterflies
flutter through the shafts of sunlight, and large striped caterpillars traverse
the tracks in an uncertain manner. Most bizarre are the hermit crabs. They seem
to be land based, appearing all over the island, though they must return to the
sea to breed and maybe to swap shells as they grow. There are steep sides where
the track has been cut through the slope, and as heavy feet approach,
any crab climbing these immediately panics, curls up, loses it's grip and rolls
onto the pathway, lying for all to see with a large red claw defensively tightly
clasped across the mouth of its shell.
Pictures: Teka Nova off Pelican Island, the Blue
Boat Convention, large and stripey (the caterpillar), bleached coral on the
beach
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