Wednesday 8th January 2025
After a really good night’s sleep we were ready for action. We have Lee and Sarah arriving Saturday for a few days and they have a bucket list that needs attending to, bookings have to be made and of course, we want a swim in the sea.
After breakfast we headed out to Jolly Harbour where we will try and find the boat charter captain we had 4-years ago; a long shot but we had a great day with him last time and apart from his company name, we had his picture.
Last time we were here the roads were bad but now, 4-years later they are even worse, we’ve never seen “pot holes” like these, darn great craters in places making the overcrowded roads even slower, not helped by all the buses stopping at will whenever a passenger wants to embark or diss-embark; no signals naturally!!!! There also seems to be much more traffic on the road these days too.
Eventually we arrived in Jolly Harbour, parked and headed in. Our first impression, how dead the place was, Hardly anyone about, empty shops, closed bars and we are in their busy season!!! We couldn’t even get a cup of coffee!!! Anyway we walked into the tourist office to be recognised by the girl behind the desk, well she said she recognised me but not Christine!! Anyway I showed her the photo of our skipper from our last visit only to be told he had retired and returned to U.K. but not to fear, the boat is still here with a new owner/skipper and still offering charters, so we booked the four of us for a day. Whilst in this office we organised the other “bucket list” activity; off-roading. We did this last year and had a great laugh, I just hope we are not disappointed.🤞🤞.
All booked and as everywhere was as “dead as a do-do”, unlike previous years, we headed back to base for good old scrambled eggs on toast.
The main reason to come to this part of Falmouth harbour was that I needed a new pair of flip-flops and I knew I could get them at the sailing shop here, however, on the other side of the dingy dock; yes this has also changed. It used to be a small pool to accommodate about 25 dinghies and access was under a unique walk bridge; all gone, what a shame😩😩 Anyway we made our way to the “other” shop we spotted but unfortunately they didn’t sell flip-flops. We did however get chatting to the guy in there saying the place has lost it character and charm and is now just like any other waterfront marina. It turns out we got the wrong end of the stick, nothing like this was planned it was a fire that destroyed everything. About a year ago when a storm was raging, lightning struck one of the metal masts standing on the roof and that started the fire (see.Photo); it was total devastation and being an “Act of God” all the small business here lost everything and are no longer!!! It turns out the structures that are in place now are “supposedly” temporary until “they” can decide what the new place should look like; I just hope these “temporary” structures don’t become permanent. Anyway I couldn’t get any flip-flops so headed onto Pigeon Beach, parked up and straight into the sea,; wonderful – 4-years we’ve been waiting to come back!!!
After a long “laze” in the beautiful Caribbean water it was time to head back to base. This journey was horrendous as we caught all the working population heading home as well as buses and taxis returning the cruise passengers back to their various ships.
Back home and Christine cooked as we are “trying” to lose some Christmas weight, probably a tall order being out here!!!! Sundowners followed by dinner on the porch where poor Christine got bitten by mosquitoes; oh well can’t have everything!!!!
So endith our first day, and apart from my flip-flops, we achieved everything we set out to do.