Christmas in the sun

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Mon 26 Dec 2011 13:34

23rd,24th and 25th Dec

 

Not really sure where all these days are going as time spent in a marina flies by with little of apparent consequence occurring it seems.

 

We invited ‘Elvis’ who is a local fix-it man to have a go at sorting out our declining outboard and he returned after an hour or so with it restored to full original power. I had quite forgotten how surprisingly effective such a small (2.5hp) outboard engine can be for pottering around.

 

We continued our battle to mouse some cables into the gantry with ever more desperate approaches and it seems that we were closer than we realise on Christmas Eve, but the end of the day overtook us and we certainly were not planning on trying on Christmas Day.

 

Those of you reading this blog last April may recall that we were the victims of a very effective April Fool played by Shaun and Gaby involving the bats at Spice Island marine in Grenada. Well Sarah is not one to take things lying down so to speak, and she purchased some Halloween rubber bats in the UK and her original plan had been for us to sail into Rodney Bay and go ashore and festoon Shaun’s boat ‘Tabasco Jazz’ in them on evening before they knew we were back. Sadly Shaun was delayed arriving this year and as I reported a few days ago, he arrived after us and anchored next to us so the element of surprise was removed. But ever patient, Sarah waited until they went out on Christmas Eve and then went round and decorated the boat with the bats! And by all accounts this was well received!!

 

A surprise arrival on Christmas eve was Frank Hatfull who runs the Najad owners website in the UK. He had joined a boat crossing the Atlantic in the ARC but had jumped ship in the Cape Verde islands for various reasons. He then had eventually managed to hitch a ride on an Italian yacht for the crossing and his arrival on the 23rd Dec made him the last ARC arrival.

 

Christmas Day was very different for us this year as we joined Shaun and Gaby for a day at The Body Hotel – Le Sport   http://www.thebodyholiday.com/the-resort

 

This was something close to paradise and we had a fully inclusive Christmas day package which meant a wonderful day on their beach enjoying endless exotic drinks and far too much fantastic food. Father Christmas joined us, arriving on his motorbike (last year he came down a zip wire from one of the rooms high above the beach). Gaby and Sarah were photographed sitting on Santa’s knee getting their presents. Pictures at http://www.rhbell.com

 

Actually we were very lucky with the weather as we have been getting quite a lot of unseasonable rain. It rains every night as standard, but there have been a lot of heavy daytime showers as well. But Christmas Day stayed clear blue all day which was a bonus.