As early as practicable I call Silvio the welder who is renowned in these parts. He asks where we are, says he knows Milu and shockingly he comes out to see us immediately, perhaps Jim and Amanda’s influence did help. We talk about what is to be done and decide that if we can get a berth at Clarke’s, he and his team can do the work on Thursday and Friday morning.

So over the next little while, I coordinate a berth at Clarke’s, getting Fabien aboard to disconnect/reconnect the solar (the wires go through one of the tubes they have to weld) and Silvio’s team to do the welding. Luckily things are not busy around here and we have no problem getting all three arranged. That is a relief and we are glad to be getting it fixed. Also, Silvio is going to reinforce the cockpit railings and the superstructure so that it will be stronger than it was before. This is good because otherwise it would be just a matter of time before it breaks again.

Later in the day we take the dinghy to Hog Island to clean the BBQ. It’s a little grody. It’s very quiet there and we have the beach pretty much to ourselves. We clean the grills with SOS pads and while they are drying, chat with some fisherman who just came in and are cleaning their catch. The have a couple of large pails full of mostly conch and octopus and they are very efficiently cleaning them. Hard to tell which side of the conch is up, they just look like an ugly blob. Apparently these guys go out every weekday to an island (Glover Island?) and free dive for their catch. Also learned that lobster season is now closed until September. These guys would like to see it closed for 5 years to give the lobsters a chance to recover.

We say goodbye and head back to Milu, behaving quietly yesterday and today.