Monday, 19 Feb, Secret Harbour in Hartman Bay: We woke up at 4am to the sound of very strong wind. Sure enough, it was gusting 25-30 knots and Cloudy Bay was yawing all over the place. This is not normally a problem, except this time we have anchored quite close to the next boat. So Glen sits in the cockpit to keep an eye on things while the boat is pelted with very heavy cold rain. Good, that should get the last of the salt off.
As we ate a late breakfast, we were beckoned over for a coffee by the catamaran next door. We are very interested to go see Second Chance, a Knysna 500 SE made in South Africa. It somehow looks very up-market compared to the usual charter cats we see. 2 years ago, when we were looking for which boat to buy, we liked the idea of a catamaran but never did see one that looked solidly built, like you see with Hallberg-Rassy, Malo, Oyster, Discovery etc. so we homed-in on mono-hulls only.
As soon as we are welcomed on board Second Chance by her owners, Howard and Ann, we can see this catamaran is different. Definitely a high quality build, very fine details and amazing wood work. The cabin space coming out onto the aft deck was to die-for and the bedrooms and bathrooms like 5-star hotel room. They had taken delivery, new, 2 years ago in South Africa, sailed it to Seychelles and back, then had it delivered across the Atlantic to Grenada. Their plan was only for 2 years so surprisingly the yacht is now for sale. Ooooh Oana is clearly smitten by it. Glen too, if he is honest! Could we?… Should we? But how could we part with Cloudy Bay now that she is so perfectly set up? Certainly Second Chance is the only yacht we’ve spotted that we may actually like better than Cloudy Bay. Shhhh, don’t read this too loud, we don’t want Cloudy to hear!
We stay on board well beyond our welcome; coffee first then to beers as the sun passes the yard-arm. Howard and Ann have lots of life stories and we are happy to soak them up. Such a nice couple. And their boat is immaculate. Glen asks Howard how he keeps it so nice, but apparently it’s Ann that has all the tips on cleaning – she even services the engines! Glen makes a mental note to himself to discuss these findings later with Oana and tell up to up her game 🙂
After lunch we return the invite and they come to see Cloudy Bay. They seem equally impressed as we are with their catamaran.
We’d planned to start heading towards the Grenadines today, but it’s already late afternoon. So we decide to leave after breakfast tomorrow, and instead we head off to have a late lunch in Prickly Bay Marina, across the hill. Prickly Bay is as busy as ever, more the 100 boats anchored there.
Evening sees us back on Cloudy Bay, a bit earlier tonight as we are both lacking energy after our early morning doing anchor watch.