Yesterday was Pippa’s last day aboard Slow Flight, she must have secretly spotted the weather for the next week (the wind barely forecast to fall below 20 knots on the nose), and has bid a hasty retreat to New York for some retail therapy and food! For her last day we wandered through Puerto Rico’s mangroves, taking our last cheesy crew shots and feeding the plovers Special K Red Berries, befriending one appropriately christened ‘Stumpy’, making sure he got lots of sugary sustenance.
As dusk settled we set out on a manatee hunt...these shy creatures have not been spotted since a brief encounter in Florida when our girlie cries of excitement sent them immediately diving for the bottom out of sight, this time we went lips sealed and armed with cornflakes. After a less than fruitful hour of manatee hunting we became the prey for a menagerie of large and hungry swap bugs...we attempted to outrun them with a speedy trip to the bio luminescent bay...as darkness descended and Pippa sat ensconced in her rubber ring on the side of the tender (safety is no accident) we frolicked in the phosphorescence. Our prop aglow in the moonlight. We celebrated Pippa’s last evening with Champers and silly games...
As the sun rose it was time to bid farewell to our favourite bobbing blonde and her monsterous sized bag. We will dearly miss this sleeping beauty...
After dropping Pippa at the dock the remaining crew set out to sea in an attempt to get a few more miles under the keel towards Tortola...after two very wet and windy hours in mounting seas all eyes turned to the coastline and a hunt for a sheltered spot to get the coffee brewing, the sea salt out of our eyes and some dry knickers....it’s time to attempt to come up with a plan B.
Alas, upon arrival in our little rolly anchorage (5 miles from where we started!) Abe is not happy as there is free radical rice running around in the fridge...Disaster was averted with the discovery of the last Green & Blacks buried under the cheese box....The wind is still howling and so for the remaining three of Slow Flight’s crew there is little to do but read the bird book and ponder the 150 miles straight to weather that we still have to go. It’s going to be a wet one!
2 comments:
....glad you found the missing green and blacks, got to keep the capt happy hehe
Love the post and missing youuuuuu xxxxxc
Glad you guys made it to the Virgins (almost) safely.
Ron, Mercedes and Pepper aboard Samana
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