Just a few more photos of the holiday girls.

Still no rain, so the build is still cruising along despite experiencing what will no doubt be the first of many hiccups. During the filling of the gap between the double walls of the water tanks with concrete, one of the young labourers was a little over eager with the vibrator causing a rush of concrete to one end of the building and the collapse of the entire outer wall. Fortunately there was nobody either on or under the wall at the time so no injuries were incurred. The situation was rectified by re-boarding the whole wall and casting it in concrete. The incident has put us back by a day but valuable lessons have been learnt by Jeff and the crew about safety and pushing on too fast. The water tanks are now complete and are being plastered on the inside, ready for the final coat of something waterproof. All 18 pillars for the balconies and house have been cast and the form work is now being made to keep the concrete in place when the roof is cast. This will entail a great deal of carpentry and steel rod wiring but we should be ready to pour concrete the week after next.

Fi and Tess have had a great time and have made full use of Discovery Hotel facilities. They use the sun loungers, pool and bar everyday and are getting great tans. This week we arranged a horse-riding trip at the north end of the Island. We were in a small group of seven and rode some very nice horses through shady forested trails that eventually bought us out onto a beautiful beach. The horses were unsaddled and then we got to ride bare back in the sea. The horses were out of their depth and were swimming with us on their backs. It was a fantastic experience and the two hours flew past. We were all expecting to feel pain the next day but there were very few ill effects, just a slight ache on the inner thigh when trying to do breaststroke.

We have had some lovely meals both at Chateau Mygo and on the boat, but last night was extra special when Tess treated us to dinner at The Rainforest, the best restaurant on the Island. It was superb and we were all slightly jolly by the time we got back to the boat. Today we were up early to prepare a BBQ to take with us to Honeymoon beach. We swam and played in the sea for hours and are now feeling sleepy but contented and I should imagine will be in bed by ten.
Poor Jeff has had an ear infection and needed to see a Doctor for the first time since being here. She knew her stuff and prescribed drops but had huge difficulty finding a chemist who stocked what she wanted to prescribe, so eventually had to settle for eye drops, which she hoped would work just as well. It still hasn’t cleared up so he is back to see her on Tuesday; goodness knows what will be prescribed then.

Tomorrow, Fi’s friend Waggy arrives for 2 weeks, so we will have an overlap of guests for 2 days, which will mean a bit of a crush on the boat. We are hoping that our friend Beverly who has some rooms to rent may be able to put them up for the two nights until Tess leaves on Tuesday. It has been great fun though having people to stay and it certainly makes us get out and see more of St Lucia.

I forgot to mention the fishing trip last week. We sailed to Soufriere and on the way back we trawled a line behind the boat. We soon had a strike and caught a reasonably sized tuna, our first fish. Seconds later we got another strike, this time the line whizzed out and in the distance Fi noticed a huge fish leaping out of the water and said she hoped our fish wasn’t as big as that. Well it turned out to be our fish. Despite our reel being fully tensioned the fish took 150 meters of 60lb breaking strain line before the line broke. That fish was so angry, it kept leaping into the air trying to spit out the lure, practically shaking its fist at us, talk about the one that got away!

We are now legal aliens. We have documents signed by every man and his dog and land registry deeds to say we own the land. This has been an eight and a half month process, which many say has been surprisingly short, even though all the information advertised says it takes about eight weeks or so!
Jeff continues coming back to the boat each night caked in cement; he really is looking forward to the wood phase to begin. Last week finished off most of the block work, this week it will be casting pillars and putting up the forming for the big cast of the ground floor, which may happen the week after next.
Fi arrived on Tuesday with our friend Tess from Sutton Benger. They have spent there time so far laying by the pool, swimming and relaxing. They have become honorary members of the sundowners club and have adapted to the laid back way of life very easily. We were up early yesterday to go to market, have breakfast at Rodney Bay and do a big super market shop. After such activity they needed to retire to the pool for the afternoon and sleep again.
Today we are off sailing to the Two Pitons, so there is a flurry of activity down below to get the boat ready for sailing. This takes a lot longer to do when the boat has been used primarily as living quarters, so no doubt as we sail along we will find things that haven’t been stowed away properly, normally it is the fruit bowl and worst of all would be a bottle of oil.
We have not been too active on the photo scene this week but will try harder for next week.

On our day off last week we drove to a place called Honeymoon Beach. It was a quiet, remote beach, quite difficult to find and also difficult to drive to. The last two miles were down a deeply rutted track that only a four-wheel drive truck would manage. We were just setting up our picnic area and rearranging stones for the BBQ pit, when we heard what we thought was thunder. It turned out to be a dozen or so horses galloping along the beach at full pelt having a glorious time. One stopped to roll in the sand right in front of us and then scrambled up and joined the others. It was a magnificent sight but all too quick for a photo. We spent a lot of time in the water, diving through the big Atlantic rollers and floating around, just “liming” as the Lucians would say. We had a magnificent BBQ of fillet steak, chicken, plantain and whole corns, all expertly cooked by Chef Jeff!

The house build has been tough this week. It has been unusually hot, still no rain and not much wind. It has been all block work by the look of it and Jeff has arrived back at the boat each evening looking like a concrete statue. Bob the builder here. The 2 water tanks that form half the basement area will eventually hold 20,000 gallons of water. Therefore the walls have to be reinforced and comprise double walls of 6’’ blocks filled with concrete and steel rods. As you can see from this week’s photo, we are at the stage of nearly completing the double skin and hope to finish by Tuesday of next week. It’s then preparation time – probably 2 weeks – for the big cast of the basement ceiling. Overall, progress has been good so far, but we are trying not to be overconfident as no other build that we know of has escaped the ‘Lucian Factor’, which can bite when you are least expecting it!!

Wildlife update: The sardines have arrived in the bay. The water in the early evening is bubbling with sardines and the local fishermen are out each night casting there circular throwing nets and pulling up masses of wriggling, flapping silver fish. These are then dried and used as food later. Some are used as bait for bigger fish. The sardines also attract seagulls, which are rarely seen in the bay. The small birds that visit us daily are becoming a bit of a menace. They are now hopping down below and peck at anything edible. They particularly like the bananas and fruit in the hanging nets and make a big mess as they peck and discard the skins. At the moment we have a bit of respite as there is a large super yacht moored next to us and the birds obviously prefer their fare of fresh fruit, croissants, champagne and fillet steak rather than our Kellogg’s cornflakes and peanut butter sandwiches. We shall cold-shoulder them when they return to us.

Phew! The basement floor slab has been cast. It was a flurry of activity on Wednesday when builders, plumbers and electricians fought to protect their work as concrete was poured and spread quickly by a team of ten men. It sounded chaotic but by 2pm the job was done. The ice-cold beers, which are a tradition on casting days, were well deserved. It was fun to walk over it once the crew had gone and to try and imagine where everything would fit. Sometimes the floor plan looks very small and at other time it looks huge. Now the block work has started and walls are rising up, it is all very exciting even though we have a long way to go.

Last Sunday we had a day off and spent the time on a friend’s boat sailing a little south of here. Seven of us had a picnic, anchored off a beach, relaxing in the warm sunny breeze. Three of us swam ashore and sat and gave ourselves a body scrub with the dark volcanic sand. Lucians believe it is good for all ailments as well as giving you silky soft skin.

Wildlife update: Bees! We have hives behind our lot, which have never been a problem, but since we have been spraying the concrete with water to prevent it drying too quickly they have been arriving in swarms to have a drink. This isn’t a real problem as the builders say they don’t attack you unless you try to kill them. I didn’t think they attacked at all unless they are African bees, then they tend to be a bit more pro-active on the stinging front. I shall have to speak to the beekeeper and see just what sort of bees we are dealing with, as this may not bode well for our plans to be languishing in our plunge pool by the end of the year.

Another unwelcome guest this week was a scorpion; which we didn’t know hung out in these parts. It was about an inch and a half long and black and, during the entrapment proceedings had inadvertently had it’s leg amputated, so proceeded to sting itself to death. It appears that sightings are extremely rare as 3 of the team had never seen one before, and the most recent sighting for the other three was 28 years ago!!! Meanwhile, we are fortunate to have some furry friends. At the bottom of the lot, where all the tree trunks are stacked up, a family of Mongoose have moved in. This is probably good news for us but bad news for scorpions and snakes. Another bit of notable wild life is an Antillean finch, named black Robin. He visits several times a day, mostly at mealtimes, where he joins us for bits of food. He will sit on cereal bowls, peck at sandwiches and most weird of all will sit in the rim of a cup of hot coffee and help himself. Whilst we are having an afternoon zizz he will try to wake us by chirping and then squawking to get our attention. Our berth on the marina is right next to the mangrove and as a consequence the water is teeming with fish of all shapes and sizes. We have a resident barracuda that lives under the boat, called Barry. He hangs around, even looks up, or appears to, when we greet him in the morning. I fear his days are numbered though as the boat boy’s fish along the dock at lunchtime and are usually successful in catching one or two each time. In the early days we did have a bash at trying to catch him but now he has a name it is not so easy to fish for him.

This week’s home craft has been to make passion fruit squash. They are in abundance at the moment and cheap as chips. All I did was scrape the seeds into a bowl and then poured boiling water over them, added a little sugar and left them for a few hours. Afterwards I drained the seeds, making sure I got a lot of the pulp out and added water. Absolutely delicious! I can’t wait to unpack our juice extractor to tackle some of the more interesting fruits as they come into season, but it will be a long time before we call for our container.

And finally for this week, our evening sorties to Chateau Mygo for sundowners has developed into a bit of a club as we are now joined each evening by a group of friends who have christened it the Sundown Club. Along with the cold beers, as we move toward the summer solstice, the sun has now moved northwards and sets in the mouth of the bay. Each evening there is a spectacular display, but as yet we have not witnessed the elusive ‘green flash’, which occurs just as the final bit of the sun, drops below the horizon. We have seen it before in Bequia and will endeavour to get you photographic evidence in the near future.