Roasts, germs and boats

It was Sunday and we’d had a very active day so were relaxing on Puffin reading, what I was actually doing was rereading one word over and over as all I could think of was roast dinner, rib of beef, pork with crackling, chicken and stuffing, Yorkshire puddings, cauliflower cheese, roast potatoes, gravy…… it went on. I dropped Clive Cussler and the adventures of Dirk Pitt and stuck my head in the fridge followed quickly by the cupboard hoping that somehow a delicious roast would present itself, ideally already cooked and plated, as always with our shoe string budget the cupboard and fridge held what we’ve lived on for the past six weeks, some rice, pasta, milk, eggs and one onion, awesome, at the moment I would have happily given up paradise and gone home just for a roast! Egg fried rice it would be then, I jumped in the dinghy to retrieve the children from their antics and bobbed by Quest on my way back, this was a mistake as at that very moment, that very moment there was Jack showing off the most enormous, homemade Yorkshire pudding. He then proceeded to proudly explain how he cooks a roast every Sunday and that this monster Yorkshire pudding was just the accompaniment to roast pork with crackling, roast potatoes, vege…… I could go on but I start drooling just reminiscing of this moment which I have done probably at least 4-5 times a day, everyday this past week. As I stared open mouthed, drooling saliva in such vast amounts it was filling the dinghy and had we stayed much longer would have sunk us. I could have bitten his arm off, I wanted that Yorkshire so badly, instead I used every ounce of restraint I posses, smiled politely, swore at him (A LOT, which he enjoyed) and shot off back to Puffin where I began dicing one onion ! 

Now don’t feel sorry for us because we could be more extravagant in the food department if it wasn’t for the fact that no one wants the adventures to end and so we need to find a boat and that means we need every penny to buy a boat. This week as with every week the search has continued, Jim spends every empty second staring online at boats in the under $20,000 section we’ve toured boat yards, had an awesome morning out on a lovely locals catamaran sailing down the island to look at one of his boats for sale, been repeatedly to a yacht in the west end which is lovely but lacks an engine and needs a lot of love and a lot of money to get it up and running and back in the water. Jim even spent precious dollars on a return ferry to Virgin Gorda to look at a boat for sale only to receive an email whilst he was standing looking at said boat that it had sold!!! So with our visa here quickly running out, the stress levels and what are we going to do questions have returned. What are we going to do? This question is asked by myself and Jim every day, more than once.

Man flu also arrived on Puffin this week, it started with Robin who was laid up for a couple of days, quickly spread to Jim who died but fortunately made so much noise huffing/puffing, moans, grunts and groans that we knew he was still with us. He steadily filled Puffin with snotty tissues in the day and amazingly loud snores throughout the night, poor man. He’s fortunate that his wife is so understanding and full of sympathy! Instead of gently nurturing him we abandoned him to his suffering and ventured out alone, hitchhiking to the beach for our daily surf, Isla has become so skilled at this that we are never stuck for a ride and on this day she made me laugh. We were on our way back from Josihas and had hitched a ride to East end, with still a fair trek to go to Trellis I told them that as we were close to the supermarket we would NOT hitch and instead walk to the market, grab some groceries and then hitch a lift the rest of the way, “all agreed?” their sweaty little faces, filled with huge blue eyes looked up at me and nodded in agreement, right of we go. I took the lead and had walked maybe 5 steps when a truck pulls up beside me????? I turned around to see my angelic daughter quickly pull her hand back out of the road, smile sweetly at me and the driver and jump in the back of the truck, “where to?” I was asked “Trellis bay please! ” 

We popped over to Canada who are moored next door for rum punches midweek and had a lovely evening chatting away, the day Dove II went public Tim took the afternoon off work to search the ocean through satellites to try and find it, they are a lovely couple and have been incredibly supportive about our dire situation. Well Christmas came for the kids as Robin and Tim pulled out the coolest, most retro fishing rod we’ve ever seen, this was followed by a box of lures and THEN two paddle boards which they’d found in a skip!! Wow they couldn’t wait till morning and the moment that sun was up the hook was in the water, quickly followed by the realisation that they could combine the two and so set off on the paddle board, one paddling, the other fishing off the back. Huge thanks to Tim and Robin who have now flown home to Canada. 

At the end of the week it rained for two whole days, I have literally become a prune, Jim took advantage of having Welsh John here and quickly whipped him off to show him the yacht that needs love in the engine department and I was left with two kids and a rainy day, we started with paddle board yoga, this led to paddle board gymnastics and finally just paddle boarding around the bay. Fortunately at that moment Quest returned from their diving trip and were quickly boarded by the two smalls who were handed towels to dry off and then spent a rainy afternoon in front of Harry Potter (the first film). I got to dry off and have a little, well earned lie down. The rain continued into and through Saturday so james took charge of the water sports, how many kids can you whizz around the bay? and me? Well I made a roast. Yes!