Adventures on Beannacht

The Mullans and Mullingtons out for dinner in Roadtown

Amazingly tomorrow is the last day of Tom and Hazel’s visit, the week flew by, and so far it’s been a fair success. Boats are small places, or at least ours is, so we were both keen to make it feel as spacious as is possible, utilising the cockpit and decks, and our own personal playground the sea. Lots of snorkelling, BBQs in the cockpit and a few walks onshore. The BVIs have proven to be the perfect sailing location for visitors, an abundance of beautiful protected anchorages short sailing distances apart, making each day a simple 1-3 hour passage that ends just in time for lunch or evening drinks depending on our departure time.

Tom and Hazel swimming off the boat

It’s been great to get back to some sailing, and introduce the rents to our life afloat. Old Tomo slotted in on the helm like 40 years had never passed since Granda Bob built him his first wooden dinghy (he wished). Mum settled in to life aboard with a small deposit in a bucket on our first passage, before getting her sea legs and taking to life in the cockpit rather well. Nothing like a pill once a day to toughen their constitution when you’re stuck, they narrowly missed having to resort to our suppositories, their stash ran out today.

Hazel at the helm

It’s a challenge to fit a year’s worth of parental spoiling into one week, but we’ve had a good crack at it with some great meals out and trips to the chandlers and supermarket!

There have of course been some comedy moments in keeping with the Mullan tradition. Tomo did an excellent impression of one much less gifted in entering a dinghy from the water, and Hazel’s legs developed Turrets at the moment her feet were adorned with flippers. Not sure we’ve quite hooked them on snorkelling just yet, but gallant efforts have been made.

Tom on the helm

Anzuelo has definitely been the one who’s gone out of his way to extend a good old Mullington welcome. On day one he shat on dad’s swimming shorts, and he’s managed to piss on mum’s bed three times since their arrival. The common denominator is the colour yellow, so we’re hopeful that a life of magnolia will cure his ails. He’s by no means a permanent member of crew just yet, more like one misplaced function away from inclusion in the next load of laundry.

Tomorrow they head to for Barbados for a week of resort relaxation and we get down to thinking about our next move. At this stage it’s likely to be Luperon, but we’re talking to people here to see if there’s any work around. It would certainly be nice to be free to take breaks in these anchorages with ease during the hurricane season, weather permitting.

Beannacht at anchor in Savannah Bay

Kel and dad winched me up the mast yesterday to take down our radar reflector which had broken loose en route to San Juan. It had been flapping overhead attached by two of its four strings for a while causing considerable anxiety. Kel and I both looked up at it during passages and pondered the likelihood of decapitation should it have come off entirely. We also managed to get the alternator fixed in Roadtown last week and dad gifted us some cabling to finish installing the new battery bank. It’s been quite the luxury to have a working fridge again, we even had ice cream yesterday!

This little sucker just jumped on my hook!Â

Before leaving San Juan we spent over an hour diving on the hull to scrub sea life off the bottom, in particular the rudder and propeller. We estimate having lost over a knot of boat speed on the way to San Juan due to growth while anchored in Luperon. The shear volume of shit in the bay makes for very fertile growing conditions. On Saturday evening we spent another hour diving to finish the job, and our hull is back to her shiny blue self. There was over an inch of growth on the bottom of the keel, and patches of thick barnacles everywhere else. The final instalment is some mild scrubbing to expose a new layer of antifouling paint to delay re-growth.

Mum looks out to sea on the windward side. A little more lumpy than our cruising ground so far.

Torrential rain on Sunday afternoon made for perfect deck cleaning conditions. We threw boat soap over the deck and then spent a while scrubbing some of the rust stains and general grime from the gelcoat. Erno and Freda, a Dutch couple we met in San Juan, tipped us off on the power of muratic acid to remove rust stains on deck so I’m going to mix up a little squirt bottle and work my way round our stanchions, life lines and rigging removing the nasty stuff.

Always endearing. I shit on your shorts, piss on your bed, chew your sandal. Who's your daddy?

The rugby unfortunately wasn’t broadcast anywhere in Roadtown on Saturday and the marina wifi was so slow we couldn’t watch it online. Instead we were reduced to Matt Dawson’s commentary on Five Live, including expansive coverage of all the day’s top performers – Worsley, Shaw, Monye… it was apparently just the English lads who turned up?

Food in the cockpit, doesn't get much better.

So one more afternoon of lounging and one more meal out…it’s a cushy life. Oh and the small matter of the Trellis Bay full moon party tonight…I’m sure the firedancing will resume.