Tuesday, 13th April 2010 Mahini
06.00hrs Another beautiful day in Paradise, mind you, we here from home in Ireland that the weather is great there also, but much cooler than here. As we said before, its great to get emails, even short ones from friends and readers of the blogs. It gives us the feeling that someone out there is reading our daily news letter (Mailasail cant or wont give us any idea of how many hits we get on the system! imagine that).
11.00hrs We all went ashore and Donal got a lift to the Village from the Hotels water taxi. A & S just relaxed and watched "Voyageur" and "Ronja" arrive into the lagoon and drop anchor close to "A Lady".
We had a salad lunch in the Hotel and later all three yachts lifted anchor and motored over to the eastern side of the Island. The distance was about 10 miles, and we had to keep an eye out for the Pearl farm baskets, which were scattered liberally around the bottom, plus the coral outcrops... However, the channels are well marked with all the modern nav. perches and flashing lights etc. etc.
Ohhhhhhhhh the color of the water is so wonderful. Picture post card stuff...
16.00hrs We dropped anchor and we had a few welcome beers with Jan from "Ronja" on board "A Lady". Later we all went ashore for more beers to the local Family owned Hotel (these are called Pensions). The owner Philip could not feed us, as he already had 12 people for dinner and was fully booked up. However we had our beers and 7 of us, S & A, Donal, David & Susan, plus Jan & Vibeke Ruud had dinner on "A Lady".
Starters :- King prawns with chopped up bacon bits, tomatoes, apple and Mariee rose sauce, and some cheese.
Dinner :- Lamb chops, carrots and mash potatoes, plus mint sauce, all scrambled up with plenty of wine.
Desert :- Pineapple (by Susan) ice cream and cant remember what else, but it was good...
Dinner was served in the "Starlit Cockpit Restaurant" and everyone enjoyed the evening, with some soft background music. Later we looked at the boats photos on the computer, with particular attention to Bob's photos (Bob from Ocean Jasper).
All this was washed down with some lovely Scotch Whiskey while Donal took Susan back to Voyageur, as she had only 3 hours sleep the previous night and was wrecked tired (what was Dave doing? did he have 9 hours sleep, as there are only 2 of them on the "Amel". If thats the case, then he is well organized or is just spoilt rotten)
The end of a great day, on paper anyway.
Stephen Hyde (Skipper)