The winning fish, what a size!

We moved off our permanent berth this week to make room for the boats taking part in the Billfish tournament. About 40 boats arrived, mostly from Trinidad and other neighbouring islands and immediately made themselves at home with dockside BBQ’s and parties. It was a terrific atmosphere especially when they left at 6am the next morning for the start of the competition. Forty boats all lined up across the bay, like a Le Mans start, and once the horn was sounded they were off and within minutes there wasn’t a boat to be seen. They started to return at 4.30pm flying various flags to denote which fish they had caught. The winning fish was a massive blue marlin that weighed in at 657lbs and was over 10ft long! Nothing too significant was caught on the second day and we shall have to see if anything bigger is caught on the last day, Saturday.
Chateau Mygo was the venue for the party last night. All the tables were full and the bar was knee deep in fishermen. We had to wait until they all went home before we could get to bed, as we are berthed on the end of the restaurants jetty.
It wasn’t such a raucous night for me as I have been asked to give Mama Sheila’s husband his Pethidine injections for the last few days. I was called half way through the evening as they thought he might be dying and by the time I got there a few minutes later I was able to confirm their worst fears. He had been very ill with cancer, which had spread to his bones and he had been in such pain for the last few weeks. I am sure his family will be relieved that he is no longer suffering.
On a more positive note, the house is coming on well. We have lots of people on site beavering away. The basement is being painted and once it is tiled and gets its electrical fittings and lockable door, it will be used as a store room for the rest of the tiles and paint. Upstairs is showing signs of moving in the right direction. A lot of drywall is now in place and we are just waiting for the last of the window frames. My next mission is to find door handles and window latches. They are available; the problem is just getting enough of the same sort. It is the same thing with lights and fans, all the shops have them, just not too many in stock and they never know if they will come in again or even be the same. It is something I wish we had thought about whilst I was home. How we long for just one afternoon in B&Q!!
Jeff is having a working weekend, as two of the builders wanted to work to get the rest of the window frames in and also start some tiling. Doreen has asked him to put up towel rails and shower curtains and Maggie has asked him to put together her gas BBQ that came in a box. A man with a tool kit is in short supply on the Island!
Tonight we are off to the prize giving dinner for the fishing competition and tomorrow is roast dinner at Maggie’s. Next week will be quiet and restful; one bean on toast and water to wash it down!

Bedroom Balcony.

First floor balcony showing finished wood.

Painted Ceilings.

Door and windows fitted in the basement.

Terminus hard at work.

A great week for building! Although the photo doesn’t show much external change, nearly all the wood is on the outside walls, just odd holes where scaffolding is placed to facilitate the painting of the ceilings and rafters inside. The plastering is finished in the basement so the windows and doors have been fitted and look good. One window had to be redone as it was put in upside down but if that is the worst that can happen we are doing fine. I have done a bit of wood sealing with the liquid sun filter. I thought it looked great and was a bit disappointed to find it had all been sanded yesterday but I am told that it gets lightly sanded after each coat and is not a reflection of my poor painting skills. Jeff is still plugging holes with dowel as well as doing his contractors job of sourcing materials and equipment. Today he is in search of an internal window to go in the utility room. He has also designed a way that our solar water heater tank can be inside the roof rather than on top as they usually are out here, so that will give a much better look to the roof.

I made another trip to the agricultural depot and bought some more plants, they are all £2 each and seem such a bargain for well-established hibiscus, gardenia and mosseander. I am still not officially landscaping, just filling in some areas that are nowhere near the building site.

On our weekend off we did a few bits of boat maintenance and then we rested by the pool. On Sunday we were invited to the inaugural Sunday roast at a friend’s house. Maggie moved in a few weeks ago after many delays but seems finally settled in a beautiful house with a couple of beach puppies who have just won the doggie lottery in life, having found an owner who feeds and loves them rather than the normal life of strays out here which is to be stoned and kicked, not fed and eventually die young of worms, mange and worse. They are cute skinny little things that are slowly learning to trust humans and realise that the food comes every day and they don’t need to fight for it or gulp it down in one.

It’s been a short week this week as everyone had Tuesday off as a national holiday for the Prime Ministers funeral. On Wednesday evening there was a land holders meeting to discuss the need for a land holders association to address things like water and electricity supplies but it was mainly to challenge someone who was running an access road through his lot to get to some other lots behind him. We had already had a chat with them last week and found nothing to be worried about but others were less convinced and wanted the public meeting. I think most have been reassured that he his not opening up a ten lane highway so a mega estate can be constructed, as was the fear of his nearest neighbour (and as it turns out his enemy for the past two years!) Life can be a bit like taking part in a soap opera out here, sometimes you have the main role and at other times you are just part of the background chatter, great fun though and we wouldn’t change a thing.

This is Jeff is putting the dowel in the holes , I cant bear to watch it, no hard hat, ropes, safety nets or scaffolding!

As I type, guttering is being put up around the roof, two weeks late but happening at last. The wood is going up on the third side of the house and next week should see the final side done. Kenrick is a hard taskmaster and seems to set the team impossible goals, which are mostly achieved by the end of the week. There is lots of plastering of walls going on and next week the ground floor should be almost done ready for windows. The painter has started to do the eaves and rafters upstairs and they are looking very good. Jeff is still on dowelling duties and still not enjoying the task. I have got lots of cuttings on the go and keep my eye open for any plants along the wayside that need a good home!

At the weekend we met up with Jeff’s godson and girlfriend and we did a bit of an Island tour including a swim in the waterfall.

The new Prime Minister( the last one died a week ago at aged 82 yrs) came to Chateau Mygo on Tuesday night, so Doreen was putting on a good spread for them and they all seemed very happy with the service. Other than that it has been a quiet time. I still haven’t been put to work but I have bought 15 litres of the coating that goes on the outside of the house so I don’t think it will be too long before my lazy days come to an end.

We are still threatened almost weekly by tropical storms. Most of them fizzle out luckily or go north but it does keep us looking at satellite pictures and following various web sites for information. September is the peak month for hurricanes and after that things should settle down. The weather is lovely in between times, just a little rain and breezy hot days.

Great for sailing if the rudder was fixed but that has been delayed even more. We had been waiting for the part, which had been ordered. I had e mailed the company several times and got e mails returned so I rang this morning only to find out that Peters Opal was in receivership and that no part would be forth coming. Thank goodness we hadn’t paid for it but we feel so sorry for the people who must have put deposits down for new boats and have now lost them. The boat yard in Belgium is now on our case so it will be a few more months yet before we can sail again.

This weekend has definitely been designated as rest and recuperation but I will let you know how that turns out next week!

A view through the trees.

The seaward view.

The roof covering should have been a joyous time but alas it would appear that Caribbean Metal is all talk and no trousers! The start date was continually put back, materials were missing, the workers were late on parade and the work was shoddy. It was a constant battle between Jeff and the salesman to get things moving and to be of a good standard, so they inevitably fell out big time. The job should have been completed by now but two days ago they realised that they had sent the wrong guttering so now we will have to wait until next week to have them off site and we will learn to live with the defects that we are aware of.

In the meantime our own building team continue to impress us with their attention to detail as they strive for perfection with every piece of wood they cut. We have greenheart on the weather side of the house with windows and doorframes in place. The electricians are also on site placing conduit in the ceiling spaces and consulting with us at every turn as to where exactly lights and fans should be. Every piece of greenheart wood is screwed onto place with stainless steel screws and then filled with a disc of doweling. Jeff is doing the hole filling and says it is tedious sticking, cutting and sanding these little holes; there’s only another 3000 or so to go!

We nearly had our own quad bike this week. Our friend Davidson had imported some second hand ones from Canada and we had reserved one but it turned out not to be up to the job. It was too small and not in very good condition. We tried it for a few days going up and down to the lot and it proved to be quite an exciting ride as we had to try and avoid three poodles that liked chasing vehicles. Actually that is not quite accurate, I tried hard to avoid them but Jeff has never been fond of the yapping, snarling trio and would have happily taken them out.

It’s a working Saturday for Jeff and the team but they finish at 2pm and then it’s a quick wash and brush up before we head off to the Jalousie Hilton to meet up with Jeff’s godson, Guy, and his girl friend, who are on holiday here for a week or so. The weather is glorious, a little cooler during the day and a lot cooler at night and the August invasion of flies has disappeared.

The beginnings of a green roof.

Inspecting the new stairs

A Marigot Bay sunset.

It’s been a steady week on the house build. Not too much rain, although that isn’t too much of a problem now as the guys can carry on working under cover. The metal roof should have been started a few days ago but Caribbean Metal have been held up on their previous job so are now threatening to work over the weekend. Stud walls and ceilings are beginning to appear internally, and the odd door and window frames are in place. The electrician is positioning wiring for sockets and wall lights and the plasterer has been busy on internal walls and balconies. You can also see from the photo that the wooden stairs between the second and third floors is beginning to take shape.

I spent my first morning on site yesterday supervising the planting of twelve fruit trees in the lower part of the garden. We are keen to get these started now to provide soil retention and shore up the bank of earth that moves with each downpour, and also to take advantage of the rainy season that makes everything grow in leaps and bounds. The trees were bought from the Ministry of Forestry and Agriculture and are all grafted, between 4ft and 6ft high, with the citrus already bearing fruits. We bought three different types of mango - Julie, Graham and Austin - an orange, a pink and a white grapefruit, a tangerine, a green-apple, a cherry, a star fruit, a guava and a seedless lime. The green–apple isn’t an apple or the cherry a cherry; it’s just what they call them here and you make juice from them. The avocado trees will be coming in a few weeks time. All the trees are £10 each, and across the road from the tree depot is the garden area where all plants are £2. Here there are hibiscus, bougainvillea, helliconia, bromeliads, lilies and all sorts of flowering shrubs. It will be a while before we can start on the flower gardens, but great to get an idea of what is available. We have also bought lots of potting bags that are now filled with compost ready for cuttings. We will have to fence in the land with a chain link when the house is complete, and it would look quite ugly unless we cover it with vines and bougainvillea - hence the preparation of cuttings now.

This weekend should have been another drive to a new area of the island, but the roof may take precedence. We had a restless night last night as Tropical Storm Felix went to the south of us, just bringing a few squalls and heavy rain, but we had to prepare the boat for bigger things just in case it veered towards us. So, it is time to put the awning back up and take off the extra lines, but having looked at the satellite picture of the Atlantic we can see another wave coming off the coast of Africa. The whole process is beginning to become tedious and we can’t wait to get into the house when we will be able to prep the boat once at the beginning of the season and then just let her sit until the end of October.