Porky & Beluga cook at sea

Post 24   Moving on ... A narrow passage leading through the mangroves to Victoria Bay where Beluga has been on anchor The End of an Era an illustration from my last post that highlighted the position of some of my our friend's boats... Slug Hunter and Brise will be mid-Atlantic by the time this post hits the net. Isabella was lifted onto a yacht freighter last week and she too will be mid-Atlantic. Alex and Lourdes, who had been based on Isabella, have now moved on to Solovan which is also in Victoria bay with me and Marco. There are other boats in the bay that are more permanent fixtures, Carlito and Phil have been here on their boats for years and they too have been great friends. I really feel it's time to move on before I get stuck in a rut. Five go Camping  It felt just like an Enid Blyton classic adventure. With Beata driving after we'd piled camping gear, food and drink (lashings of ginger beer) into her car and set off north to San Pierre on the northwest coast of

Post 23  Volcanic Eruptions The volcano is showing no signs of quietening down so far... On Friday afternoon, some three weeks ago, on the 9th April 2021, La Soufriere volcano on the nearby island of St. Vincent erupted with an enormous blast of hot ash shooting 8km into the sky. I was in the middle of publishing my last blog post and was completely unaware of the eruption. When I was told, I was torn between waiting to include mention of this massive event or posting without it. It soon became clear from the expert's analysis, the eruption was going to rumble on over the coming days and weeks, so I published without a mention. Le Marin is about 130km from the volcano with St Lucia sandwiched in between. A friend based near Vieux Fort on the southern point of St Lucia has had several centimeters of ash on her patio and has been shut inside with all windows tightly closed. Here in le Marin, I'm about 130km from the volcano This 4,000+ meter high volcano last erupted back in 1981

 Post 22  Just close your eyes and think of England This iconic picture captures the sadness, as the nose of Victoria's figurehead is almost submerged. Does she look familiar? (picture courtesy of Lorenzo) You may remember, I wrote a passionate piece on this blog about the beautiful ship Victoria Golden Hind, back on the 20th February 2021. Below is an exert from that post - take note of the highlighted date... excerpt from a previous post You may also recall my piece on Vojtech, my local hero, who I described in that same post. Vojtech left Victoria after it was moved from 7 meters of water, where it was constantly pumped out, to rest on the bottom at the edge of the mangrove lagoon. He tried in vain to get more funds from the owners to replace the failed pumps. He was left with no choice, he had to move on with his life and so he moved into a flat in St Anne about 3 weeks ago. He left Victoria in the hands of Alex. Alex was a regular overnight visitor and helper on Victoria and h

Post 21 - Party Time! I handed out about 75 invitations - I reckon about 65 people came or popped in for a drink... I wanted to have a private party here in le Marin to celebrate my boat purchase with the many friends and associates that I've met since arriving here last December. So many people offered me help and friendship that I'm able to drop-in to pretty much any bar and chat with a familiar face or two. That's been so cool... Former model and entrepreneur Maggie sometimes runs 140km, non-stop with her partner Rudy!!! The party happened a bit last minute, largely due to the fact that the bars and restaurants are under increasing pressure to pay more than just lip service to the restrictions. However, as it turned out, I couldn't have chosen a better venue than the Double V restaurant bar owned and run by Eric. Eric and his staff did a fantastic job. They also managed to serve just my invited guests with drinks and the superb tapas. I gave a little speech to thank