Sunday, 18 Feb, Clarke’s Court Bay: Another great sleep apart from 2 heavy showers in the night. As usual, we are woken up when we feel our feet getting wet and need to shut the hatch. After breakfast Oana winches Glen up the mast where he attempts to fix the AIS antenna. It’s been working OK but we keep getting warning messages on the system. While Glen is up the mast we communicate to each other via Sena SPH-10 headsets that are actually meant for 2 people on a motorcycle. Glen always wonders what the ransom will be set at by Oana, for him to be lowered from the mast once he has finished his duties up there!
After attending the antenna, which actually looked OK, he discovers that the electrical cleaner is actually brilliant at cleaning the mast itself, so ends up cleaning some of the mast while Oana rushes inside the boat to close hatches during a rain shower leaving him up there!
Then we set off in the dinghy to explore the bay. First stop, Le Phare Bleu marina complex. It’s very nicely setup with pool and gardens and best of all… they have a Nespresso coffee, which melts Oana’s heart! As we sit admiring the view we get talking to 4 guys on the table next to us. 3 are from PYD (professional yacht delivery) and the Barry, the owner of a brand new Fountaine Pajot Luci 40 catamaran. They have just delivered this cat from the factory in La Rochelle. 54 days from France in January to Caribbean in February. Quite a trip. Afterwards we wander on the pontoon and get an invite onto Knot Normal, Barry’s new catamaran. Very nice and new, Oana has some serious fridge-envy with his 3 vertical fridges. It transpires that he is a very good fisherman, and he proceeds to give us lots of good tips on best ways to fish from the yacht. We shall put into action!
From Le Phare Bleu we motor back to our own bay and into the local village to see what Taffies Restaurant has to offer. But the Welsh owner says the kitchen is closed so we head back towards the boat rather hungry. But instead of the planned lunch on board we suddenly decide to head across the bay and under a bridge to the west side of Hog island, to Roger’s Barefoot Beach Bar. It’s just a shanty shack on a white sand beach but it’s very popular on Sundays and quite funky. And the whole bay is filled with… well let’s just say lower standard yachts! Some look like they have not moved for years and others are literally sinking where they are tied into the mangroves. It a really weird place!
We have lunch from the BBQ set up next to the bar and eat while watching jazz musicians, one on keyboard the other on sax. It’s quite a surreal scene as the sun is going down. We even meet a few people that we have seen before in St.David’s bay. It’s either a small island or we’ve been here too long!
Even though it’s only 2 hours till sundown, we decide to take Cloudy Bay to the next bay, Hartman Bay. Same story: up-anchor, motor out to sea, around several reefs then back into the next bay. We arrive just as the sun sets over the hill and anchor next to a large catamaran that is also Gibraltar registered.
Once settled we take the dinghy over to them to say hi. The cat was built in South Africa and is actually for sale. We manage to get ourselves an invite for the morning, as Oana has a new interest in catamarans.
Ashore we find the marina setup to be very agreeable. The bar and restaurant are very nicely done, with a lovely atmosphere. Quite a contrast to the bare foot beach bar we experienced in the afternoon. Oana prefers this one to the hippy scene on the beach! We chat to a couple at the bar who have lived here for 30 years, and we get some good insight to the local scene here.
In the afternoon, we had a glimpse at a wonderful white beach and what looked like a very posh resort on Calivigny island, but which looked weirdly deserted. Now, in the marina bar, the staff suddenly get a little nervous as a large French guy and his entourage arrive. Apparently he is a French billionaire (“he is the Bill Gates of France” they tell us) and he owns that island we saw today. But he only uses it for himself plus occasionally rents it out to special guests like Justin Beiber… whoever he is!
We suddenly feel a little under-dressed in our shorts and t-shirts at the bar! Several good cocktails later, we head back to Cloudy Bay and write the blog for the day while Oana caresses Glen muttering “catamaran for sale…”