Wed, Thurs & Fri – 8^th, 9^th & 10^th Jan

Wednesday was another hiking day it seems, so Sarah, Iain and Fiona set off on a random attempt to reach the top of the hill overlooking Deep Bay on the southern side.  Unfortunately it transpired that to reach it, they had to take a completely circuitous route of some 2 hours arriving above the very grand gated community (housing among others the major shareholder of Porsche and Georgio Armani) but with spectacular views immediately above the bay with absolutely no other possibilities of return other than back the same way.....

Sarah continued the theme of earlier in the year much to Iain’s astonishment, of the ‘road kill’ tally mainly because it confirms what are the local species – seeing this time frogs, rats, but also a dead horse and dog.  They did also see several lively mongooses (mongeese? Who knows the plural?!).

I elected to spare my knees further pain and stress and spent the morning servicing the generator treating it to a new water pump impellor, new alternator belt plus an oil and filter change.  I also changed the filters in the water-maker as they have not enjoyed the sediment that has been kicked up here by the wind and the visiting trip boats that run straight up the beach each day!

Thursday saw no change in the weather and in fact it now seems that we are not going to get much moderation at all until the middle of next week. But the day was made when Beaky and Sue elected to drive up again to visit and we welcomed them aboard after picking them up from the beach along with some chicken pieces for a BBQ…..  So in the mid-afternoon we invited Iain and Fiona to come across to join us for the BBQ and we had a very pleasant time and managed to get Beaky and Sue back to their car in one piece just after dark!

On Friday, Iain had displayed extreme restlessness at still being in Deep Bay and so we all headed off ashore and walked to the main road and caught a local bus into St Johns.  The buses run completely randomly as in most Caribbean islands and generally only set off when they are full  (These are all small mini buses that usually mange to cram in just a few more passengers than there are seats) and so we were not totally surprised when very conveniently one arrived on cue, but from the wrong direction.  The driver stopped and asked if we were heading to St Johns and we confirmed this, he invited us to get on board even though he was clearly heading in the opposite direction.  We confirmed the fare with him ($1) and he explained that he was only heading up to the next village and then would be heading back to St Johns so we were welcome to take the ride.  Of course he was simply ensuring that we became his passengers rather than someone else’s, but these are enterprising people and the ride is always entertaining and interesting.

So in due course we arrived at the bus depot in St John’s and made our way immediately across to the big fruit and veg market where we purchased all we needed and then persuaded the vendors to keep the produce there for us to pick up on our way back to the bus station later in the day.

We took time to go and visit the cathedral (closed for repairs – still on going from several years ago) and the Botanical Gardens (long since abandoned and overgrown and uncared for). But did enjoy a great roti at Roti King which was a roti shack that Iain and Fiona had visited before.  Interestingly on exiting this shack we were greeted by one of the locals trying to sell a tourist trip of some kind, but when we told him that we had sailed there in two small yachts from England he was overcome with admiration and demanded to be allowed to take our photographs after the endless traditional West Indian ‘handshake’!  An unusual twist to the ‘tourist taking photos for the locals’ ritual.

We collected our veg and squeezed ourselves in to a bus heading back our way, making up the full complement so we were soon on our way back to Deep Bay.  Iain was sat closest to the sliding side door and so was immediately pressed into service as the official door opener to let folks out as we went along.  He proved very adept at this once he had mastered the fact that the handle on the inside did not work.  He and I were also moderately concerned by the fact that the bench seat we were sat on was most definitely not fixed in any secure way to the vehicle!  We got dropped off at ‘pensioners corner’ and walked back down the road to the beach and  had a relaxing afternoon back on board.

We were invited onto Ruffian for sun downers and a conversation developed, not for the first time, about taking the opportunity to sail on each other’s boats. What did come out of this was the realisation that each crew had lazily slipped into routines where each of us always did the same job and did not ever swap roles.  Why would we when it all worked so well?  So the plan for tomorrow is that for the sail down to Carlyle Bay that both boats are doing, we should swap roles with our partner.   Sounded like a good idea and great fun and the next log should reveal how this turns out……!