Island in the Sun

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Mon 24 Jan 2011 02:26
Friday 21st, Saturday 22nd & Sunday 23rd Jan

Spent the day seemingly just pottering about trying to get a few things done. We decided to employ Vision and his girlfriend Meshana to clean and polish Serafina?s hull and they did a fantastic job at a very reasonable price.

We have also decided that we actually need a proper rib (inflatable dinghy with a rigid hull) as getting in from anchorages such as Carlisle Bay is very tedious and very wet in our little dinghy with its tiny outboard. In fact the built in fuel tank is not actually big enough to hold enough fuel to get all the way in and back out from some anchorages! These things are neither cheap nor particularly easy to come by and so the research is slightly tempered by what we can actually get hold of. After the usual long involved gestation period as I mulled over the options we have decided now on what we want and will now have to wait to see how long it might take for the thing to actually arrive on the island. We may go off sailing and come back to pick it up in a week or so.

Friday night we invited Shaun & Gaby, Steve and Jenny and, of course, Chris and Steve off Scott-Free who are actually moored next to us in the marina for drinks and we all had a wonderful evening, mostly with us quizzing them at length about where to go and what to see. What also remarkable was that the rain held off for once!

Saturday seemed to slip by rather quickly although Sarah was fairly productive on deck whilst I was rather chained to a hot computer down below. Cobra Libra with James and Lesley (we met them first in Porto Santo) arrived in the marina and are on a pontoon fairly nearby so we plan to catch up with them shortly. We had early evening drinks on board S-F and retired for a fairly early night.

On Sunday it was time for our now traditional mystery drive around the island tour. However in a complete break with tradition, we employed Vision as our guide and driver which worked very well as he had access to a large Honda 4 X 4 and knows his way around! He certainly open our eyes to the place and had no difficulty in driving us into areas where perhaps a car load of white folks might not usually venture too often. He also took us up into the tropical rain forest and as is fast becoming traditional on our trips, it rained like hell every time we wanted to get out and take photos. What soon became obvious though was the extent of the damage caused by Hurricane Tomas which blitzed this island right at the end of October. Great swathes of damage can be seen everywhere and still there are roads closed and those that are open are frequently reduced to single track as bridges and culverts and verges have been badly damaged and only partly cleared. Vision also very sadly showed us the site where a friend of his and his family used to live, which was swept away by a land slide during the hurricane. The family have never been found. A very sobering sight.

Vision took us up a track through some rain forest heading for some waterfalls, but as we pressed on up the track we came across international aid agencies water treatment plants and stand pipes that were providing basic drinking water from the brown and swollen river. Our progress was halted after a mile or so by a palm tree that had come down across the road and so we got out and walked for a while, but that ended when the rain recommenced. The rainforest was quite stunning: incredibly lush with so many huge green, but varied leaves. We recognised many species which we struggle to coax as houseplants, growing like weeds here. And everywhere there is the most incredible range of trees growing wild bearing all sorts of fruit, grapefruit, cocoa, coffee beans, breadfruit etc. a true taste of paradise.

We had lunch in a nice little restaurant with a view across a bay to the Pitons which are two very distinctive island landmarks (and a World Heritage site) which we hope to revisit by sea later on during our stay. This part of the island has been well used over the years by various blockbuster movies as it has some dramatic settings. After lunch we drove up to the Diamond Waterfalls and tropical gardens and were treated to a rather idiosyncratic tour by Alexander, a local guide who was very energetic and interesting although his patter was not unlike automatic gunfire and was hard to keep up with. But despite professing many birds here we have barely seen any ? one hummingbird, a large bird of prey and a few less interesting LBJs. (Little Black Jobs)

Finally we ended the day driving up the typically rugged east coast before returning across the island to Rodney Bay and sitting down in the Cafe Olé for welcome coffees and cake.