It’s been a good week. Excavation has continued, as has the pool. We no longer have to balance on planks of wood to get to the front door. We ran out of wood for the flooring on the ground floor, which was disappointing as it is hard to get hold of and it looks like we have been delivered less than we had paid for. Jeff is now on an Island search for seventy planks to complete the task. The painter has started to do some of the final coats of paint in the bedroom and it is looking very good.

The dining room has doors and a floor but alas no windows, the man says maybe next week!

Fiona arrived on Tuesday and immediately renewed friendships with the people in Marigot. We spent her first night at Chateau Mygo and had a good meal whilst listening to the local band. She has fallen totally in love with Foxy and they spend a lot of time cuddled up together. We have walked up to the house each day and as a result of Foxy playing in the cement heap she needs a bath before she can get back onto the boat.

The weather is hot and sunny mostly with the odd shower, normally first thing in the morning. Yesterday Fi and I went on Richards boat with his daughter and her friends. We headed off down the coast. The first place we picked to anchor had too much swell so we ended up at the Pitons and had lunch in a beach side restaurant, fresh Dorado with local vegetables- delicious. Jeff and I went out with the same guy last Sunday. He has a very sleek 45foot Sea Ray, motorboat. Its great for a day out like and as much fun as sailing, just different. We took them all out sailing on Saturday, just three miles down the coast to Anse Cochon, picked up a buoy and then dinghyed in for lunch. It was a perfect Caribbean day, sunny with a warm breeze. We had pre-lunch Pimm’s and afternoon tea with brownies and lunched on freshly grilled mahi mahi. Fi is nipping over to Barbados on Tuesday to visit her boyfriend Steve, who comes from there; it is only a twenty minute flight. He will probably accompany her when she returns on Thursday.

I have been meaning to get my hair cut for ages. I think I have been putting it off because the hairdressers here are really bad. This morning I got to the end of my tether with my shaggy looks so Fi and I set about doing a home haircut, she did the back and I did the front The results are not bad at all, a great improvement on the mop I had been sporting and certainly as good as anything I have had done here. I was starting to look like Foxy!

It can be quite hard for a skipper to concentrate when the foredeck is full of sweet young things.

Jeff and Fi relaxing at Ti Kaye restaurant, Anse Cochon.

Ploughing on this week with excavation around the foundations to lay drainage pipes to redirect the natural water course that runs of the hill has been a challenge. The thick clay has been difficult to work with but we are just about there. The pool and decking is taking shape and should be ready for casting next week. Inside the painter is getting on with the wardrobes, the tiling is complete in the bathrooms and floorboards are being laid on the ground floor. We have been hampered by rain once again which has slowed things down. We have a plumber to do the pool and he has already laid his first pipes.

Our time at Maggi’s has been quite enjoyable but for the first three nights Foxy didn’t like the idea of being kept in the utility room and we were kept awake for hours whilst she howled and yapped. She was very persistent, only stopping for ten minutes or so to lull us into thinking she had stopped and just as we were falling asleep she would start again. We didn’t give in, although we moved her to the downstairs loo where she would not hear the dogs on the balcony. Since then we have had three bark free nights and a well rested puppy. Maggi’s house has several on -going building issues due to very poor workmanship so it was not really surprising that we should awaken to the sound of pouring water in the downstairs bedroom. A small pipe from the en suite loo had come adrift and the ground floor was now awash so I have spent the morning moving wet furniture and rugs and mopping up. This pipe wasn’t the standard fitting ,it was just a piece of plastic piping pushed over the water inlet and when the water pressure rose it slipped off. We have checked all the other toilets to make sure they have the correct fittings and they do. In the meantime her solar panel pipe work is groaning and two nights ago a large picture fell from her wall .I think the whole house is spooked because whilst I have been typing this I heard a large crash and found that one of her potted plants has just fallen from the veranda onto the decking. I’ll just go a sweep up the pottery pot and brush away the mud..aaaaarrrrghhh! Her dogs are loonies, very timid and still chew things, mainly the dining room chair legs. I smeared Pataks curry paste onto the area affected but they both appear to love the taste and have licked it all off. It was medium hot curry. The next line of defence will be Mama Sheila’s hot pepper sauce that she made for Jeff, it makes your eyes water just taking off the lid.

These are the lights that are positioned over the cooker island /breakfast bar.

The pool is almost ready for casting.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             We are having a day off tomorrow and going out with a friend on his new (to him) 48ft stinky. We are just going to the Pitons, which would be a two hour sail for us but I guess we will get there in about 15 minutes. We are really looking forward to it to see how the other half live. Next week it is our turn to sail them on Wine Down to show them how to really relax and instead of engines we shall use the sails and all powered by the wind for free!

Another cat has taken up residence but this one has good manners and will let you stroke it after she has eaten.

Tilly and Foxy playing tug-of -war.

The New Year has started at quite a sedate pace as the guys didn’t start back at work until 3rd January. This was probably just as well because the party season here is long and hard and it is difficult to avoid. The marina is full of expensive boats and also some very small boats, some of which have just completed their Atlantic crossing. There was a welcoming party for a guy who sailed in last night in a Contessa 32, having just completed his crossing, single-handed in 24 days. Also another guy down the dock came in a few days before, also single-handed (literally as he only has one arm) and he did it in 21 days. There is a great mood on the dock and lots of tales to be told.

Flossie become Bella and is now Foxy! She didn’t look or behave like the first two names and as so many people were asking what type of dog was she and the explanation was always “ a fluffy white dog” which became abbreviated to FWD and subsequently Foxtrot, Whisky, Delta, hence Foxy. There have been times when Jeff has forgotten what the “F” stands for and has used another word beginning with “F”- quite unkindly! She is absolutely charming and a real time waster. She is very friendly and playful and seems unusually intelligent, or perhaps we are just comparing her with our previous dog Bracken, who took over a year to house train. Foxy has cracked toilet training in a few days and now sleeps through the night and just gives a bark at about sunrise to be put on the dockside to do the necessary. She is 12 weeks old, doesn’t eat too much, plays hard for about an hour or so then sleeps for the same amount of time. We are dog sitting her family up the road, which should have meant just feeding twice a day and keeping an eye on them. This hasn’t been as easy as that as they are all escape artists. Jeff went up there first thing this morning to discover four puppies missing, presumed stolen as the three adults were still there. He eventually found them in a ditch at the bottom of the hill, wet and very smelly. Their escape route has now been boarded up.

We were hoping for a continuation of the dry weather but it has started to rain again just as we need to do some excavation, so once again the building site is like a quagmire.

We have just sailed to Martinique and back to get the boat stay and our stay lengthened for another six months. We are required to do this until or residency is accepted, which is being processed at the moment. We had a good sail, not as rough as it normally is crossing the passage. We even managed a bit of hypermarket shopping so have topped up on wine and cheese.

Foxy spent the two nights with a friend who has a Yorkshire Terrier and seems to have had a lot of fun and enjoyed the freedom of a garden. Lets hope it wont be too long before she has her own garden.

Robin and Carol tied the knot on 29th December , followed by a BBQ for all their friends in the bay.