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.