There are two things on my mind. One lovely and to be cherished, the second incredibly irritating.
1. Friends
2. Flies

Once again, paths have crossed, friendships have grown, good times have been had then it’s time to say goodbye. This phenomenon appears to be one of the inevitable downsides of being sailing transients. Boating lives run parallel for a while then plans no longer align and divergence is inevitable.

It’s happened to us on several occasions in our two and a half years afloat. Paul, Barbara and Julian, Brian and Steph, Phil and Linda, Hugh and Miranda, Danny and Emily and more recently Ali, Karl and the boys.

We first met Betty Ann and Rob in Halifax, Nova Scotia back in July. Grace and Beyond, their boat, departed south on the same day in October and we’ve hopscotched our way to the Bahamas. This week we’ve headed south to Eleuthera, a cracking sail, while they will stay in the Abacos, awaiting visits from family and friends.

In 6 months, they have become good friends and they come with a bundle of fine positive qualities. Rob and Dave both have a penchant for real ale and so that relationship was established in no time!
There will hopefully be other ‘fresh friend collisions’ and new beginnings as we move on but there’s always a bit of sadness as a particular friendship chapter comes to an end.

So that’s the friends bit, now onto number two, flies.

I don’t believe we have any rotting carcasses on board. So where do the blighters come from? We’re anchored maybe 150m from the beach. There’s 20 knots of wind so it’s reasonably breezy. There are no slaughter houses, butchers shops, municipal tips or piles of unpleasantness within site. Or any buildings or people for that matter. We’re anchored off the west of Little Egg Island. All alone.

Yet for the last 30 minutes I’ve been on fly killing patrol in the cabin with a rolled up newspaper and a spirit of vengefulness. Dave says what we need is a good hard frost to kill them off. Not too sure about that one as I am currently enjoying sun and warmth. Although I do like a hearty walk on a cold frosty day in the UK.

I have dispatched close to 30. I know, that’s hideous. It’s good training to keep your reactions swift. That’s me trying to see a positive in the situation. But I’d rather be chilling out post lunch, reading my book travelling down the Volga river in Russia. Before a trip ashore for a walk and explore.

I still have no answer as to where these flies come from and why they are here. We will sail round to Spanish Wells tomorrow and hopefully any remaining irritants will self-destruct before then.

As a quick footnote. The Bahamas are lovely. Much much nicer than the Caribbean. IMHO.