We have noticed a large number of super-yachts arriving, we assume with Christmas over their owners have flown home and the boats moor up until the next outing. There must be 10 in the next harbour and we have four huge sailing boats in ours plus a big white jobby owned by John Caudwell which is 220 ft long and makes the £2m Oyster boats look tiny.
At the other end of the scale there is a sailing school where children can learn in small dinghies, a race is pictured in the banner above.
Over the past two and a half weeks the atmosphere in Nelson's Dock has been becoming more stressful as the 25 Oyster boat crews try to get their boats ready for the start of the round the world rally. Most have been planning this trip for several years, some crews are laid back and relaxed others quite wound up “everything is broken” was one overheard cry from a women on one of the boats.
Today was start day with the next scheduled stop at the entrance to the Panama Canal 1,300 miles away although some of the boats intend stopping at other islands on the way.
This morning some boats had lots of well wishers seeing them off, others seemed to slip out without any fuss.
The picture shows a couple of locals in their Sunday best who came out to see them off. If all goes to plan the boats will all be back here in May 2023.
After cheering them off and our daily swim we drove up to the fort above the harbour to eat BBQ chicken and ribs whilst listening to a steel orchestra.
There is a huge difference between a steel band which has perhaps 5 musicians and an orchestra, this one only had 12 musicians but the sound is much more rounded with harmonies going on in the background. In Trinidad they often have 50 musicians you can hear them miles away and home in on the sound which will be coming from a “pan yard” where they practice.
I don’t remember hearing a steel orchestra on our last visit to the Caribbean in fact the last we listened to was in Sydney Harbour. It was a primary school band with 30-40 musicians some aged 5 or 6 right up to 11, very uplifting experience and I wrote to the school when we got home thanking them, whoever the teacher was who organised them deserves a medal.
So tonight’s band were very good, the William Tell Overture was particularly entertaining.
Tomorrow we are chartering a boat to go deep sea fishing, stories of the ones that got away will be in our next blog.