Peter Island

It’s my birthday and having drunk just over two glasses of wine last night, I start the day with a hangover headache.  There is no justice!

Heather has already done last night’s washing up when I get up, bless her, sets to making pancakes for my breakfast and then washes up after that meal too.  What a little treasure!

Then the work begins.  Heather and Joe are helping us to clean the hull and outside of the boat - barnacles need to be scraped off the hull and the green slimy gunk removed if we are to have any chance in the race to Anegada next week.  Joe gets straight in the water and gets going with a brush, but Heather sees a large barracuda and sits on the steps taking swipes at him (the barracuda, not Joe) with one of the swimming noodles.

Photo:  Joe scrubs while Heather checks for the barracuda!

Photo:  Friendly (?) barracuda under Jeannius 

Photo:  Mike cleaning under the boat – or taking a sneaky nap?

We notice a motor boat circling the bay and presume that it is a local guy offering trips to the people on the beach, until the boat approaches us and the guy politely asks us to move our boat from the bay.  Apparently there is a private function going on on the island this week, and no one is allowed to anchor in the bay.  I argue with him (as usual) and he flips an official badge at me.  Gulp.  We leave!

I am sure there are details all over the British press about this function and you can read about it there!

We anchor in Great Harbour and Mike scrubs from the dinghy, and Heather and Joe scrub from the water.  After a lot of arm action, Jeannius is pretty barnacle and algae free.  Even I get in and do some scrubbing because it is so hot, and even the dinghy gets a bit of attention.

Photo:  Mike, myself and Joe taking a rest 

The sea is so refreshing that I stay in for two hours – I can’t believe it – and neither will all the people who have laughed at me for not getting in over the last few months.  I even surprise Mike by snorkelling – is there no end to my bravery?

Photo:  Heather giving me a birthday cuddle

The phone rings and it’s The Dove restaurant where we are booked for dinner tonight.  They are phoning to cancel our booking as they have had no power for 36 hours.  They hope to book us in tomorrow if the power is back on.  We try to think of somewhere else to eat, but you know what it’s like.  Once you have your mind set on something, everything else, no matter how good it may be, seems second best, so I opt for eating on board. 

We have grouper on the barbecue and dirty rice, and Heather cleans up again after.  The rest of the evening is spent chatting, and doing the backlog for the blog.