We sailed from Blackpoint to Georgetown – on Saturday 28 Jan and got called up by an English Broad Blue Catamaran, “Amazing Grace” (built at Endeavour Yard, Gosport), and had quite a few chats going down, they were inside until about halfway, then joined us in the Atlantic as we sailed and then motor sailed. We hooked a big Dorade or some type of Billfish (a generic term used by Americans for Marlin, Sailfish etc) but Suzanne was on the aft deck, I was down below and we were too late turning up into the wind to fight him and bring it on board – Suzanne was very disappointed – especially as other boats around were having reasonable success and Amazing Grace pulled in a beautiful green and yellow Dorade about 3ft long.

 

We made Conch Anchorage before dark , a bit rolly , but in the morning at 0800 we listened to the Cruisers Net and moved the boat on high water with about 0.3m under the keel down nearer Georgetown. Unfortunately we were too late for Suzanne to attend the Sunday Church Service on the Beach, but we hooked up with folks later.

 

We went ashore in Georgetown but as it was Sunday everything was closed. We got our swim bags sorted and went to Volleyball Beach to the “Chat n Chill Bar n Grill” – where we had raw conch salad - have you ever seen a conch out of his beautiful shell – looks like the organism inside a Dalek – not appetising – they live for 15 years then seal the shell over to commit suicide, how weird - if you believe in reincarnation don’t put your name down to come back as one of those.

 

We need to learn how to blow a conch shell as the established cruising boats all sound them the second the sun disappears – and it is polite to reply by blowing your own – or getting someone to blow yours for you - so that’s rather nice.

 

As we stood eating in the water this Whip Ray came up and one of the lads gave me some of the dangly, very slimy inedible bits of conch to hand feed it with. Later we sat in the shade with John, Julie & their friend Rachael chatting, watching the cruisers play Volleyball – a Super Sunday

 

BTW – spoke again with Christian on Spindrift, who is a Marine Biologist, and the sharks with no teeth are the Nurse Sharks, but in Brazil they were a light beige colour, whereas here they are a very dark brown (sorry about the confusion). The Lemon Sharks, don’t eat lemons and are not vegetarians and rank right up there in the aggressive behaviour stakes – think I might try and find a mini marine biology course so we know when it’s safe to go in the water.