Adventures on Beannacht

Trellis Bay full moon party

A typical Sunday morning today, if we were living in Belfast. Well not quite, but it had a few of the ‘typical’ things about it… woke up to a screaming cat telling me it was time to feed him at 5, 6 and 7am. Got into the kitchen and put the kettle on for some Suki tea (courtesy of Tom and Hazel). Opened up the Observer (courtesy of Willow) and spent the morning reading the review and sport sections cover to cover. Lovely.

We motor sailed up to Virgin Gorda Sound yesterday lunchtime to enjoy a few days of holiday before we up anchor and make the thankfully downwind passage back to Luperon. Last week we got an email from our friend Luc in Luperon with not one but two job offers for the pair of us. Amazing, we feel very blessed by Luc’s vision and trust in us, he’s a champ. I’m going spend some time working with him in his catamaran business and Kel is hopefully going to deliver a boat from Panama to New York for a friend of Luc. We’re both over the moon, both to have some income possibilities in the next few months, but also to be back with our friends on Ellida, Sarabande and Gaia. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of mischief to be had while we sit out the hurricane season and top up the kitty.

Aren't we hot? Maybe it's just the fire.

Our last few days with mum and dad were fun. Dad got a touch of sailing close to the wind with a beat from Sopers Hole up to Great Cane Bay. Reminded him of dinghy sailing, it was fun to heel Beannacht over and stretch the sails a little. Our last night was the monthly full moon party in Trellis Bay. A local artist’s studio lights huge fireballs in the water, and people dance, drink and shop by the beachfront. Trellis Bay seems to be nothing but a tourist trap, a Granville Island or Portstewart kind of place, but the party was a fun night out. Mullans senior didn’t get naked, at least not to my knowledge, but team Mullington managed a couple of skinny missions off the boat.

Came out of a can, but still tasted pretty fine! My first Guinness in quite a while.

The BVIs continue to be very relaxing, and very expensive. We had a plate of wings, a Guinness and a Caribe (local beer) for $26 last night in a marina bar on shore. Wowsa, way to kill the cruising budget. So we’ve enjoyed time on the boat, and swimming off it, and getting through the mountain of magazines that T&H left with us. In one week I’ve read two copies of Bike and a copy of Motorcycle News – heaven! We like guests. Especially those who arrive bearing wonderful gifts, as well as stories of how things are at home. Our good friend Andrew Iverson is also coming out this month, he’s flying to DR to meet us for a week or two which we’re very excited about.

Anzuelo had such a good time with Tom he wanted to fly home in his luggage!

I logged onto the web last night to get a catch-up on things in Belfast, given that today is the 12^th July, but it sounds like all was calm. Still owning a house in the Village does cause partial anxiety during the 12^th fortnight, not helped by the racist incidents that were happening in Belfast a couple of weeks ago. Sounds like Esther Ranson made some very helpful and insightful comments about the whole thing on TV though, those teeth alone should give us all cause to consider selective (compulsory) euthanasia.

Snorkelling in the BVIs has been incredible. It’s hatching season and schools of fish are everywhere. This morning our paper reading was interrupted by a feeding frenzy right underneath our boat. A school of juvenile jacks were dashing and darting through a cloud of literally thousands of young scamps that can’t have been a few weeks old. The prey became airbourne swarms for a moment before crashing back into the turbulent water. Gulls flocked to the scene swooping to gobble up unwitting fish that were too distracted by the threat below to notice the aerial assault.

This Friday is our 5^th wedding anniversary. It’s hard to take in actually; we’ve both been laughing about how time moves quickly, and how lucky we feel to be out here already after such a short time of ‘working’ life together. We might be in the middle of our crossing to DR on Friday, but we’re going to take ourselves out for some grub to celebrate at some stage during the week.

It’s time to get back in the water…tough life. We’ve been concentrating on scrubbing our bottom this week – just one bottom belonging to Beannacht, not three – in preparation for our departure, getting rid of all the nasty cling-ons that slow our progress.