All alone

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Sun 18 May 2014 16:30

Tues, Wed, Thurs & Fri – 13th, 14th, 15th & 16th May

 

The days drift by slowly and with the delays in the arrival of the ship to carry Serafina back to the UK we are in the strange situation of having a gradually reducing list of jobs to do to fit into an ever extending time frame! At the last count, the ship was transiting the Panama Canal, so still a full 1000 miles to go.

 

The weather has improved a bit now, but it is very unsettled and is causing all manner of difficulties for the yachts heading north to the USA and is also pretty unhelpful to those like Balvenie who are heading south to Grenada and Trinidad. We at least are now enjoying more sunshine and have got the headsails down and stored away dry (with invaluable help from Mark).

 

On Wednesday evening we went out for a farewell dinner with Mark and Amanda and then on Thursday morning they came over to say their goodbyes and headed off in the general direction of the BVI from where they plan to head south to Antigua if possible. They kindly left us with a very fitting present of a presentation bottle of Balvenie 12 year old single malt whisky and Mark treated us to another display of the Hakka as they sailed past on their way out of the anchorage. (Photos on the website!)

 

It seems that another ship that was due here a few days ago is also a week behind schedule and so the anchorage is beginning to fill again with boats of all sizes waiting to be loaded. To add to the fun there were 5 cruise ships in here the other day. That means some 20,000 visitors to the island. It really must be the most miserable experience being herded like cattle and made to queue here there and everywhere.

 

As is the nature of these things, last night the aft toilet pump stopped working properly – just when I thought I had done my last ever toilet pump overhaul. Once it was apart however we solved two problems in one go. There had also been a bit of a ‘fishy’ smell to the incoming water and the reason was that there was a dead small fish (we are talking whitebait here) which was now stuck in one of the flaps stopping the unit from working properly.   Happy days…… except for the poor little chap who had probably been minding his own business when he was sucked up into the pump.