Happy New Year to all my readers. Hope your Christmasses were good. Ours was. I got a mug and Andy got a CD. We're going to the Lambi Queen tonight for New Year's Eve. The steel band will be playing. Aaaaaaaaagh! There's only so much Island In The Sun a person can take. However, it is near, it is loud and there isn't anything else.
We've been invited out for a sail tomorrow with an American guy called Chris. He's going to take us to a little island where we can go snorkelling while he collects shells. Sounds nice.
Yesterday we had fun watching a couple of guys who were supposed to be building, but they were climbing a tree trying to shake out an iguana. The iguana dropped out and ran across the road, where the guy who was supposed to catch it squealed like a girly and ran away. Tee hee. They said I should try it. They said it tastes better than chicken. But I like to watch the iguana swaying in the tree top and eating the flowers.
Must go. Going to have pizza tonight before we go out to celebrate.
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
Monday, 22 December 2008
Christmas preparations
We went to Hillsborough on the bus. Andy went one way and I went the other and we met again twenty minutes later with all our Christmas presents bought. I can't tell you what I got Andy until after I've given it to him. I can tell you, though, that I only went to one shop and picked at random. If there were a bookshop on the Island, I might have gone there, but there isn't one. We pick up used books which yachtsmen leave at the yacht club and at the launderette. We also use the library, of course.
Later I'm going into Hillsborough again to see what treats we can find to eat. I did see some rather expensive gherkins in one of the supermarkets. We have been invited up to Ted's house for Christmas day, with his three children, Tina and her two kids, and Hutch, who is still hobbling on crutches due to his infected foot. I've found out that Ted is coooking turkey and sprouts and wants me to make mince pies! I thought I'd got away from all that. We may make and take some veggie option made of breadfruit, plantain and beans, flavoured with onion, garlic, chilli, nutmeg and ginger. (This, as ever, all depends on what is available at the vegetable stalls.) We can always put hot West Indian sauce on the turkey and dip the mince pies in rum.
Happy Christmas to all my readers, if there still are any.
Later I'm going into Hillsborough again to see what treats we can find to eat. I did see some rather expensive gherkins in one of the supermarkets. We have been invited up to Ted's house for Christmas day, with his three children, Tina and her two kids, and Hutch, who is still hobbling on crutches due to his infected foot. I've found out that Ted is coooking turkey and sprouts and wants me to make mince pies! I thought I'd got away from all that. We may make and take some veggie option made of breadfruit, plantain and beans, flavoured with onion, garlic, chilli, nutmeg and ginger. (This, as ever, all depends on what is available at the vegetable stalls.) We can always put hot West Indian sauce on the turkey and dip the mince pies in rum.
Happy Christmas to all my readers, if there still are any.
Thursday, 18 December 2008
Harvey Vale Government School Christmas Party
"I want a fish skin, a Christmas fish skin." "No. It's fish kit," says Andy into my ear, "I want a fish kit." I'm singing along to the Parang song which is blasting out of the black speaker boxes, the size of a small house. The baseline is pinning me against the perimeter fence and palpating my sternum, forcing my heart to beat in rhythm with the tune. We hang around watching people arrive, drink a beer - yes, beer for sale at the junior school Christmas party. I don't think they bother about licences and that sort of thing. Suddenly the big tamarind tree lights up, with no ceremony or announcement. It looks wonderful. It is strung about with what looks like a hundred fifty different strands of fairy lights, most of which light up. After a lot more milling around and people buying barbecued chicken, the entertainment begins. Each class puts on a show, a song, a dance or a poem. They appear in random order and not as written on the programme. Then some adult women sing some Christmas carols. We can only hear the woman in the middle who is standing in front of the microphone. I think hers may not have been the best voice of the choir. A local man wearing a lampshade on his head and carrying a tall stick proceed with a display of yogic bendiness. He blows a conch then stomps barefoot on broken glass, before rolling his naked torso across the glass. After demonstrating his ability to walk with his legs bent over his shoulders, head between his feet, he exits before anyone has a chance to applaud. The teacher making the announcements does warn the children not to try these things at home. Later, much later, a Parang band comes on and plays some guitars and maracas and sings made up songs about the local people. These may have been hilarious to those who had a clue what they were on about.
Parang is an annual music competition in which songs are performed which take the mick out of local people and events. It will be happening in Hillsborough this weekend. As we wouldn’t have any idea of what they were singing about, even if we could understand the words the performers are singing, and as all the tunes sound exactly the same, in a calypso style with more rhythm, we probably won’t go.
Off to Hillsborough on the bus later to do our Christmas shopping. That’s if we can get any money from the ATM, as it wasn’t working yesterday.
Parang is an annual music competition in which songs are performed which take the mick out of local people and events. It will be happening in Hillsborough this weekend. As we wouldn’t have any idea of what they were singing about, even if we could understand the words the performers are singing, and as all the tunes sound exactly the same, in a calypso style with more rhythm, we probably won’t go.
Off to Hillsborough on the bus later to do our Christmas shopping. That’s if we can get any money from the ATM, as it wasn’t working yesterday.
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Rescue Boat Rescue
Well, we had a bit of excitement at the weekend. Kevin, a young sailing coach, came up from Grenada to give extra teaching to the kids in the Tyrrel Bay Junior Sailing Club (all donations desperately needed and gratefully received). Hutch, an American who lives on a boat in the bay, had said he’d organise a motor boat to use for the weekend. As Hutch has an infected foot and has been on crutches for 6 weeks, he got permission for Andy to drive the “Rescue Boat”, thus leaving Ted to supervise on the beach. The boat we borrowed belongs to Dan, an American who also lives on a boat in the bay. He gave Andy careful instructions about how to start the motor and not revving it too much. On the Sunday I decided I’d go out with Andy and Kevin on the boat, as you get a good view of the yachts at anchor from out there. Everything was going wonderfully. There was a nice breeze and the kids were doing well, until the engine mounting bracket broke off and Andy found himself hanging onto a heavy outboard motor by the twist grip. As it tried to fall to the bottom of the sea, the grip twisted in Andy’s hand and revved even more. He was desperately hanging onto it while trying to reach the stop button with his left hand, as the motor jumped around in the water. Luckily, and through sheer tenacity, he managed to get the thing turned off and lifted it into the boat. The Optimists sailed away and we were left drifting. It wasn’t that bad, we had oars. Hutch had accompanied the Optimists in his little sailing dinghy, which he uses as a tender to his yacht, so he sailed up to us, dropped his mast and assessed the situation. He had a cellphone (that’s American for mobile) so started phoning people he knew with boats who could come and get us back to the shore. He managed to raise Tim, an English guy who lives on a boat in the bay, who manages the boatyard. That’s Tim towing us in in his rib. Dan, the owner of the boat, had also been accompanying the young sailors in his little sailing dinghy, which he uses as a tender to his yacht. He sailed onto the beach and Andy had to tell him he’d broken his engine. It turned out (to Andy’s relief) that it had already been broken by getting jammed under the dock at Bequia . He’d had it temporarily fixed. It’s very difficult to weld cast aluminium, he admitted. I suggested he bought a new bracket for the thing. I also suggested that he needed a little piece of rope to tie the engine onto the boat. We always tie our outboard onto our inflatable, just in case of mishap. It’s not always possible to retrieve things once they’re on the bottom of the sea.
This little event is very typical of the sort of thing that goes on here every day. Things work sporadically, if at all. Things get half fixed up, then left to fall apart again. Everything takes much longer than you can possibly imagine to get done, then it only gets done in a half-arsed way. We kind of like it, though.
We were pleased to see that after Kevin had gone back to Grenada, some of the kids spent the rest of the daylight on Sunday out in the Optimists practising what they’d been taught. We later learned that they had been going round to the yachts asking for food!
And, yes, there do seem to be a lot of single blokes living on boats here.
This morning Andy has gone down to the bay to continue working on the GP14s. He’s having some small success getting the resin and fibreglass matting to stick. I’m left here to battle with the ants. I made another batch of lemonade yesterday and must have got the outside of the bag of sugar sticky, because when I looked in the cupboard later there was an army of ants marching through and swarming inside the bag of sugar. They had actually eaten through the plastic bag to get in there. I threw that lot out, then found they’d eaten into a bag of flour. A blast of Baygon put paid to that offensive. We’re now keeping everything in the fridge, even the rice. I don’t think even they can eat their way through metal.
This evening we’re going up to the junior school (Harvey Vale Government School) to see the Christmas lights switched on. I think they will have decorated the huge tree which grows in their yard. They children have also been practising songs and dances for the occasion. It’s supposed to start at 6.30, which means that people will start turning up at about 8, Caribbean time.
Oh yes, and the electrician eventually made it to fix our shower, only two weeks after he’d said he’d come, and several phone calls from our landlord telling us he was on his way. He explained to me why he’d taken so long, but I couldn’t understand much of what he said, except for his last sentence which was, “A man needs to rest.”
This little event is very typical of the sort of thing that goes on here every day. Things work sporadically, if at all. Things get half fixed up, then left to fall apart again. Everything takes much longer than you can possibly imagine to get done, then it only gets done in a half-arsed way. We kind of like it, though.
We were pleased to see that after Kevin had gone back to Grenada, some of the kids spent the rest of the daylight on Sunday out in the Optimists practising what they’d been taught. We later learned that they had been going round to the yachts asking for food!
And, yes, there do seem to be a lot of single blokes living on boats here.
This morning Andy has gone down to the bay to continue working on the GP14s. He’s having some small success getting the resin and fibreglass matting to stick. I’m left here to battle with the ants. I made another batch of lemonade yesterday and must have got the outside of the bag of sugar sticky, because when I looked in the cupboard later there was an army of ants marching through and swarming inside the bag of sugar. They had actually eaten through the plastic bag to get in there. I threw that lot out, then found they’d eaten into a bag of flour. A blast of Baygon put paid to that offensive. We’re now keeping everything in the fridge, even the rice. I don’t think even they can eat their way through metal.
This evening we’re going up to the junior school (Harvey Vale Government School) to see the Christmas lights switched on. I think they will have decorated the huge tree which grows in their yard. They children have also been practising songs and dances for the occasion. It’s supposed to start at 6.30, which means that people will start turning up at about 8, Caribbean time.
Oh yes, and the electrician eventually made it to fix our shower, only two weeks after he’d said he’d come, and several phone calls from our landlord telling us he was on his way. He explained to me why he’d taken so long, but I couldn’t understand much of what he said, except for his last sentence which was, “A man needs to rest.”
Friday, 12 December 2008
Tropical Torpor
I’m finding it increasingly difficult to sit down and write. It’s not because I have nothing to say, but because I can’t be arsed. That’s what the Caribbean does to you. We spend hours sitting on the balcony either reading or just staring. I just spent about half an hour watching a little lizard stalking its prey. I understand the expression “leaping lizards” now, because they do little leaps from the floor to the wall, say. They catch flies so quickly that you can’t see how they’ve done it. One moment they’re staring intently, keeping low and moving in ultra slo-mo, then there they are munching away on a big juicy fly. It takes quite a bit of chewing and manoeuvring around the mouth until they can be swallowed. Fascinating.
So we read, stare at the horizon, “Look, there’s a big catamaran coming in.” “Oh yes. Looks like British/French/Dutch/Canadian (delete which inapplicable) ensign.” “Is that Selassie going out?” Selassie is the name of the boat of a local fisherman. I think it’s also his name. “See that blue boat over there?” “Where?” “Next to the entrance to the mangroves.” “Yes.” “That’s the one that takes charters to the Antarctic.” “Why would anyone want to go down there?” “Don’t know.” “Oh, it’s lunch time.” “Jolly good.” Etc.
We have managed to get our library cards filled out, with the names of two references. We got Ted and the girl in Alexis Supermarket. We took them into the library in Hillsborough yesterday and handed them to the librarian. She told us to go and take out a book. We spent quite a long time trying to find something that we wanted to read. I was looking for something on the flora and fauna of the West Indies. The non-fiction section has about 9 feet of books in random order. There were quite a few very old ‘O’ level chemistry texts and some children’s books. I did find quite a good work on the trees and plants of the West Indies, but it was in the reference section. This section was also in random order. The adult fiction was largely in alphabetical order of author and eventually we managed to find a couple of novels to take away. There was no computerised system, or even Brown’s pockets. The librarian wrote down on a sheet of paper the name of the book next to our names. We’re allowed two books for two weeks. I don’t know what the fines are. After I’d gone a little way up the road, I turned and went back in. “Excuse me”, I said, “do you need anyone to help out in the library? I used to work in one. I noticed there are a lot of books waiting to be shelved.” (There were almost as many books on the reshelving shelves as on the proper shelves – random order, adult and junior mixed, fiction and non-fiction mixed.) She told me that she does have an assistant, but she was on vacation. She gave me a phone no. to ring though, to volunteer myself. I’ve decided not to, though. Can’t be arsed. I could go in and sort that place out in two half days, but I think I’ll leave it as it is.
As far as our house goes, we now have three curtains up and some holes drilled in the walls of the other bedroom, ready for the wires and curtains, should they appear. We also have a (small) mirror over the bathroom sink. A few days ago we came home to find a table had arrived unannounced. We are still waiting for the electrician to turn up with a new element for our shower heater. Whenever we see Joy, we tell him, he makes a phone call and says the electrician is coming today. He doesn’t. Haven’t seen much of Joy lately. He’s moved his sheep and goats out of our garden now.
We sowed some seeds a week ago, and they are mainly now bursting out of their little pots. We bought some packets of seed with us: tomatoes, courgettes, cucumber, aubergines, peppers, lettuce, basil, parsley and coriander. With the exception of the parsley, they all germinated really quickly. The courgettes have now got their proper leaves on and are about 4” tall. We also sowed some seeds we saved from stuff we’d eaten: melon, papaya, avocado, passion fruit and orange. Only the melon have germinated, so far. The avocado stones we put in, because when we took them out of the fruits, they already had roots growing. The avocado here are big and round – not pear-shaped at all. They have a yellower flesh and are more flavourful than the ones we buy in England, being soft and creamy and almost sweet. We keep saying, we must think about where we are going to plant these things. I’m now saying we have to move beyond the thinking and prepare some soil. It’s too hot now. Maybe tomorrow.
Being a veggie here is just as difficult as it is in France or Spain – so we don’t eat out. There is actually an excellent pizzeria just down our hill and we have eaten there. We do have to watch the budget, though, and food is more expensive here than in Europe. You can buy a pineapple for less in Waitrose, than you can here. The beer, however, is cheaper and the rum is much much cheaper. We just buy whatever vegetables we come across and try different ways of cooking them. Not that different, actually, as we only have two gas rings, a big saucepan, and little one and a frying pan. We can always get onions, garlic and potatoes and dried goods, like rice, lentils, kidney beans. When available in the local shops or from Dennise’s stall, we buy plantain, yam, dasheen, breadfruit, sweet potato, callaloo, christophene, funny long, thin green beans, peppers, very hot scotch bonnet peppers and succulent fresh ginger. Fresh tomatoes are expensive and the tinned ones are about £1.50 a can! We also sometimes get avocados, ridge cucumbers and lettuce. Pigeon peas are a staple here, but seem not to be in season at the mo. They grow on little trees which smell fragrant on the breeze. They are sold fresh in pods or dried in bags.
As far as supermarkets go, forget everything you know about shops in Europe. The one we use mostly in Tyrrel Bay is a sort of dark shed with rickety shelves. There are often big gaps on the shelves, or a lot of one thing arranged in more than one place. Most dry goods are still bought in bulk here and weighed up into plastic bags. There is nothing to tell you what’s in the bag, or how much it weighs. Just a price written on in felt-tip pen. Certainly there is no list of ingredients, recommended daily dose or warnings about nut allergies.
We did, actually eat out last night, though. It was a spur of the moment thing. We’d been for our swim. We extended the length of that again. I’m finding it easier and easier as my muscles remember what to do and I tend to get ahead of Andy. So I’ve been giving him the benefit of my professional swimming teacher’s knowledge and giving him pointers to improve his breast-stroke. (No smutty jokes, please.) This has had the effect of slowing him down quite a lot and, instead of waiting for him to catch up, I just carry on to see how far ahead of him I can finish. He regained his manly dignity though, by beating me afterwards when we took two of the Optimists for a spin round the Bay. After that I smelled the barbecue chicken going on in the Old Rum Shop, and I decided it was time I had a meaty treat. It was delicious. It had some sticky kind of sauce stuck to it by the time it came to me on a plate, with rice and vegetables and coleslaw. Andy said that’ll be the creole sauce. He had just the rice and veg, along with two eighths of Jack Iron rum and two bottles of coke to dilute it. (It’s 90% alcohol.) I had to lead him home after that. He seems fine this morning.
I’ll save the story of how I stole a bath mat and got caught for another time........
So we read, stare at the horizon, “Look, there’s a big catamaran coming in.” “Oh yes. Looks like British/French/Dutch/Canadian (delete which inapplicable) ensign.” “Is that Selassie going out?” Selassie is the name of the boat of a local fisherman. I think it’s also his name. “See that blue boat over there?” “Where?” “Next to the entrance to the mangroves.” “Yes.” “That’s the one that takes charters to the Antarctic.” “Why would anyone want to go down there?” “Don’t know.” “Oh, it’s lunch time.” “Jolly good.” Etc.
We have managed to get our library cards filled out, with the names of two references. We got Ted and the girl in Alexis Supermarket. We took them into the library in Hillsborough yesterday and handed them to the librarian. She told us to go and take out a book. We spent quite a long time trying to find something that we wanted to read. I was looking for something on the flora and fauna of the West Indies. The non-fiction section has about 9 feet of books in random order. There were quite a few very old ‘O’ level chemistry texts and some children’s books. I did find quite a good work on the trees and plants of the West Indies, but it was in the reference section. This section was also in random order. The adult fiction was largely in alphabetical order of author and eventually we managed to find a couple of novels to take away. There was no computerised system, or even Brown’s pockets. The librarian wrote down on a sheet of paper the name of the book next to our names. We’re allowed two books for two weeks. I don’t know what the fines are. After I’d gone a little way up the road, I turned and went back in. “Excuse me”, I said, “do you need anyone to help out in the library? I used to work in one. I noticed there are a lot of books waiting to be shelved.” (There were almost as many books on the reshelving shelves as on the proper shelves – random order, adult and junior mixed, fiction and non-fiction mixed.) She told me that she does have an assistant, but she was on vacation. She gave me a phone no. to ring though, to volunteer myself. I’ve decided not to, though. Can’t be arsed. I could go in and sort that place out in two half days, but I think I’ll leave it as it is.
As far as our house goes, we now have three curtains up and some holes drilled in the walls of the other bedroom, ready for the wires and curtains, should they appear. We also have a (small) mirror over the bathroom sink. A few days ago we came home to find a table had arrived unannounced. We are still waiting for the electrician to turn up with a new element for our shower heater. Whenever we see Joy, we tell him, he makes a phone call and says the electrician is coming today. He doesn’t. Haven’t seen much of Joy lately. He’s moved his sheep and goats out of our garden now.
We sowed some seeds a week ago, and they are mainly now bursting out of their little pots. We bought some packets of seed with us: tomatoes, courgettes, cucumber, aubergines, peppers, lettuce, basil, parsley and coriander. With the exception of the parsley, they all germinated really quickly. The courgettes have now got their proper leaves on and are about 4” tall. We also sowed some seeds we saved from stuff we’d eaten: melon, papaya, avocado, passion fruit and orange. Only the melon have germinated, so far. The avocado stones we put in, because when we took them out of the fruits, they already had roots growing. The avocado here are big and round – not pear-shaped at all. They have a yellower flesh and are more flavourful than the ones we buy in England, being soft and creamy and almost sweet. We keep saying, we must think about where we are going to plant these things. I’m now saying we have to move beyond the thinking and prepare some soil. It’s too hot now. Maybe tomorrow.
Being a veggie here is just as difficult as it is in France or Spain – so we don’t eat out. There is actually an excellent pizzeria just down our hill and we have eaten there. We do have to watch the budget, though, and food is more expensive here than in Europe. You can buy a pineapple for less in Waitrose, than you can here. The beer, however, is cheaper and the rum is much much cheaper. We just buy whatever vegetables we come across and try different ways of cooking them. Not that different, actually, as we only have two gas rings, a big saucepan, and little one and a frying pan. We can always get onions, garlic and potatoes and dried goods, like rice, lentils, kidney beans. When available in the local shops or from Dennise’s stall, we buy plantain, yam, dasheen, breadfruit, sweet potato, callaloo, christophene, funny long, thin green beans, peppers, very hot scotch bonnet peppers and succulent fresh ginger. Fresh tomatoes are expensive and the tinned ones are about £1.50 a can! We also sometimes get avocados, ridge cucumbers and lettuce. Pigeon peas are a staple here, but seem not to be in season at the mo. They grow on little trees which smell fragrant on the breeze. They are sold fresh in pods or dried in bags.
As far as supermarkets go, forget everything you know about shops in Europe. The one we use mostly in Tyrrel Bay is a sort of dark shed with rickety shelves. There are often big gaps on the shelves, or a lot of one thing arranged in more than one place. Most dry goods are still bought in bulk here and weighed up into plastic bags. There is nothing to tell you what’s in the bag, or how much it weighs. Just a price written on in felt-tip pen. Certainly there is no list of ingredients, recommended daily dose or warnings about nut allergies.
We did, actually eat out last night, though. It was a spur of the moment thing. We’d been for our swim. We extended the length of that again. I’m finding it easier and easier as my muscles remember what to do and I tend to get ahead of Andy. So I’ve been giving him the benefit of my professional swimming teacher’s knowledge and giving him pointers to improve his breast-stroke. (No smutty jokes, please.) This has had the effect of slowing him down quite a lot and, instead of waiting for him to catch up, I just carry on to see how far ahead of him I can finish. He regained his manly dignity though, by beating me afterwards when we took two of the Optimists for a spin round the Bay. After that I smelled the barbecue chicken going on in the Old Rum Shop, and I decided it was time I had a meaty treat. It was delicious. It had some sticky kind of sauce stuck to it by the time it came to me on a plate, with rice and vegetables and coleslaw. Andy said that’ll be the creole sauce. He had just the rice and veg, along with two eighths of Jack Iron rum and two bottles of coke to dilute it. (It’s 90% alcohol.) I had to lead him home after that. He seems fine this morning.
I’ll save the story of how I stole a bath mat and got caught for another time........
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
18 days now.
I can't believe it's a week since I last blogged. I haven't got time now: got to go and meet Andy for a swim. He's been doing a fibre glass repair on one of the Optimists. Something or other breaks every Saturday. I've been making my nth batch of lemonade and trying to speak to daughter no. 3 over a very wobbly internet connection. We have extended the length of our swim a couple of times and I think we may make it a little bit longer again today. I'll write and tell you more later on. The sea is calling.
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Day 11.
We’re beginning to settle into our new house. We gave Joy, our landlord, a list of all the things the house needed for us to be able to stay here. He is slowly providing them and, in desperation, we have provided a few for ourselves – a saucepan, a sieve and some glasses. When he says he’s coming to do something we wait and he doesn’t show up, so we go out and when we return we find something left for us. The first time it was a curtain. Two days later he came and put up some of that stretchy curtain wire and put up the curtain. Several days later, two more curtains appeared. He still hasn’t put them up, although he said he’d come today. When we were out buying veg from the lady who has a stall in Tyrrel Bay, he came and left us a mirror. Up to now Andy has been guessing to shave and I think it’s just as well that I can’t see my hair, as it’s growing apace and is often thick with salt and sweat. Nice! I’m going to have to get Andy to cut it – gulp! – or maybe I’ll just let it grow long again.
Joy also told us that the electrician was coming today because the hot water for the shower has stopped working. The other taps are only cold anyway. We can just as easily shower in cold water because, once the top of your head has gone a bit numb, it isn’t very cold. Also, when the electric heater for the shower was working, it didn’t actually get very hot. When I was in there the other day it suddenly smelled of burning plastic and stopped working. It’s nothing to be alarmed about, as everything here works sporadically, if at all. We have had a couple of power cuts since we’ve been here. The whole of Tyrrel Bay was out last night, but had come on again by the time I’d found the candle and matches. One advantage is that you can see the fireflies in the trees below our balcony better when the lights are off. We also see humming birds down there. They are tiny and black and hover in a most delightful way. The other day there was a big bright green iguana down in the garden with our landlord’s sheep. We also see frigate birds soaring over the bay and pelicans diving for fish.
When we’re not looking at wildlife, we’re looking at yachts, fishing boats and freight-carriers coming in and out of the bay. Although we’ve been swimming every day, we haven’t been for a snorkel as yet. When we’ve come here for two weeks' holiday, we have to go all out to make the most of our time here. Because we’re here for five months, we’re taking it a little more easily. At least now we are. At first we had to push ourselves a little in order to find a house to rent, then move our stuff in. We’ve also had to trawl through Hillsborough for saucepans and other useful items. It’s incredibly hard to get hold of stuff here. There just isn’t very much to be had, even if you had a bottomless purse. We managed to find one small saucepan which, by European standards you’d think very cheap and nasty. It wasn’t particularly cheap, but it is shoddy, like most things here.
So we’re beginning to slow ourselves down to Caribbean time and wait patiently for things to happen. Maybe we’ll get our curtains up this week.
As far as getting involved with local life, though, we went along and helped Ted with the Tyrrel Bay Junior Yacht Club. [There is a short film of this in action on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekf3T-hde8Y ] Ted has about six or seven Optimist dinghies in varying states of repair, in which he teaches local kids to sail. It meant, with Andy and I on the beach supervising the slightly bigger ones in a race round various boats at anchor, Ted was able to take out a couple of the little ones. Our main aim, at the moment, is to get the two GP14s, which Ted acquired, repaired and seaworthy, for two reasons: 1) So we get the use of one of them when we want – hopefully we might even learn to sail properly ourselves. 2) So Ted can use a bigger dinghy to teach the little ones in. We can also become more useful in teaching once we’ve got more of the hang of these dinghies. It’s very different from sailing a 30’ cruiser.
You wouldn’t believe how difficult it is just to get anything of this kind done. For a start we have no tools or anything much with us. We’ve spent about five days now just looking at stuff lying around at the roadsides because we need something to prop the boat up so that we can work on it. Nothing of any use gets thrown away here. We can’t even find a beer crate – they are all in use for propping up fishing boats on the beach. We think we may have located some lengths of wood that I’m trying to convince Andy don’t belong to anyone. We may have to ‘borrow’ them under cover of darkness. However, we don’t want to get Ted accused of stealing someone’s bits of wood. He has enough on his plate with his wife living with another man.....
....Don’t get me started on the scandal and gossip we’ve started to collect......think of any small village in England (particularly one on a small island*), then multiply it by ten. Maybe the climate has something to do with it.
*[My Isle of Wight friends know what I mean.]
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