Happy Christmas
Marita3
Mark & Helen Syrett
Sat 24 Dec 2011 13:49
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Happy Christmas to all our blog readers, family and
friends.
It does not seem very like Christmas here--- a few
decorations and Christmas music but not nearly so much hype and no shops to buy
presents unless you want tee shirts. However we have had strong winds and short torrential rainstorms to remind
us of what it can be like.
Having crossed ''the pond'' we went
to Jolly Harbour which is a resort that is still being built but like all
developments around the world has run out of money and what has been built is
becoming run down. It is essentially a man made development of houses with
water/moorings on one side and cars/garage on the other all dredged out of
a salt pan.
  We got marina fever so left after a few days to go
and anchor----this was in Carlisle Bay where we had an attack of the diesel bug.
We sorted that with Wolfgang's help and then went ashore to what turned out to
be a very exclusive (..and expensive!) beach/hotel of the same
name.
  After two nights at anchor we sailed round to
Nelson's Dockyard
 It is full of super yachts plus a number of
minnows like us. Leander, which we think is Sir Philip Green's boat, was
alongside the dock looking immaculate. It is a very sheltered harbour but that
unfortunately brings mosquitoes which have been, literally, a real
pain.
   Marita is moored stern to the dock with the anchor
about four boat lengths out in the channel---an interesting manoevure! We have
met up with the Norwegians on their boat Camelot (Gunnar and Vibecke, daughter
Julia (13) and son Oscar (12)). Their auto pilot broke after leaving the
Canaries and the two of them had to hand steer 2,000 miles across the Atlantic
with the kids providing coffee and sandwiches!!
The five boats are now moored in a row----Camelot,
Oyster Moon, Marita III, Moin and Karacool.
 Nelson was stationed at the dockyard in 1784, an
ideal hurricane hole, and eventually took over as naval commander. The dockyard
was used by Nelson to careen his ships and for the trading ships to take sugar
back to England. It fell into disrepair but restoration started in about 1947
and it is now in the care of the National Parks Authority.
 Tom, Nadine and Yannick, who were in Florida with
Nadine's parents for a few days, arrived last night and are staying in a
B&B overlooking the harbour and then going back to Paris.
Provisioning here is very difficult with no real
food shops so we are going to sail from here sometime after
Christmas and head south towards Guadeloupe and then Martinique for the New
Year. George is coming with us and then flying home from there, via Antigua, on
the 4 January.
(delayed 2 days posting on internet due to poor
wifi).
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