In which we are descended upon by a miscellaneous selection of people, who by the end of the week are all best friends. And then the following week we have the pleasure of Aneeta and Peter Makena (spiritual singers from US/Germany), a couple that I’ve had contact with at various times over the past 30 years. We’ve also got the pleasure of Nipun and Sukhi who are staying on for an extra week to help out with running things, as one of the team has to head back to the mainland for personal reasons.
4th Aug seamans log - lost the forestay today. it actually snapped off at the top while we were unfurling the jib. we had a couple of halyards that we could tie off at the front to keep things in place and fortunately the sea wasn’t too heavy so we made it back in one piece. Then we had to haul down the broken forestay and detach the jib and furling gear
5th Aug seamans log - we’ve got a jerry rigged forestay today (three heavy duty bits of cord tied down hard) and we’re gingerly creeping out the harbour onto the sea… it’s a hot day and perfect weather with just a slight swell and enough breeze to keep us cool.
6th Aug seamans log - the winds up a bit on yesterday, the waves are slightly higher. Enough so that we’re just tootling out of the lagoon and around to the Bimini Road for a bit of snorkeling and lunch.
7th Aug seamans log - when the forestay broke, atmo had managed to contact a company that he knew in Ft. Lauderdale who could fix rigging and today they are flying out with a new forestay and the necessary tools to fit it. 11th Aug seamans log - bucketed down with rain last night and morning was cool but completely still and without a slight breeze the temperature soon climbed into the “very hot” zone. We set off across a mirror like bay and out into the ocean and it started raining which was beautifully cool and refreshing and cooled us off. Today we’re heading out to the same area that they’d all seen dolphins yesterday but before we get there we come across a small pod of bottlenose dolphins. We jump in to see if they want to play but they seem to be into digging fish out of the sand on the sea bottom so after a bit we all hop out and decide to move on.
One of the more exhausting aspects of crewing on Dolphin Quest is standing lookout on the cabin roof, binoculars in hand, under the burning tropical sun. Having a nice breeze is cooling, but makes it easy to underestimate how much sun you’re getting. And the roof top is damn hot!