Wednesday morning Helen, John and I went ashore in Nagana to find some fresh food. On the morning SSB net we had heard some folks say they couldn’t find much in Nagana but we felt it worth a try. The wind was up and we got soaked getting to the island.<\/p>\n

Having been there before we knew our way around. We headed for the largest store only to find it closed. We checked out one we didn’t go to before but found that closed too. Finally we found a little store where they had some chili peppers, some bananas and lemons, some bread and a couple of potatoes (we took both of them). We then headed back to the ‘big’ store just in case it had opened. It had. They had a lot more on fruit, veg & bread on offer and we loaded up. John and I also took cameras so we could get some pics of the island.<\/p>\n

The previous day we’d given the kids time to think about how they wanted to spend the balance of the trip. When we returned to the boat, Sam let us know that he and Annie wanted a bit more city time than the four full days we’d planned. I called and emailed our agent to arrange our transit two days earlier. It is now scheduled for January 8th\/9th. I can understand. While idyllic, these islands begin to look much the same after a while. I’m feeling the need to move on too.<\/p>\n

After stowing our fresh produce away and tidying the boat we set sail for Green Island which was noted to be quite nice. We had winds in the 15-20 knot range so we were able to sail there albeit briefly as the total distance was under 5 miles.<\/p>\n

We arrived in time for lunch. After lunch both John and Sam went snorkeling from the boat. Sam came back with spikes in his feet. Annie picked most of these out. I managed to dig one more out.<\/p>\n

While Annie was performing her surgery Helen and I took the dinghy out and took a walk around Green Island. It’s days of grandeur are diminishing as there was quite a lot of trash on it’s north, windward side. On the south side it felt quite hot as we were sheltered from the wind and the sun was reflecting off the sea baking us twice. At least there were hardly any plastic bottles along this side. Back on the dinghy we took it out to the reef where we found a lip of deep water. We jumped into the water to snorkel drifting along with the dinghy. The bottom was either grassy or sandy and not overly interesting although we did sea two rays together right at the beginning – one being rather large.<\/p>\n

We relaxed the afternoon away before dining on the quite significant remainders of the mahi mahi caught on our passage to Panama. It was delicious despite being in the freezer for a couple of weeks. Another movie completed the evening.<\/p>\n

On the SSB & VHF over the last couple of days they’ve been inviting folks to a New Years Eve party back at BBQ island in the Eastern Holandes. This will be as good as it gets round here. We had tried to find out if there was a bar or something to go to but not, it seems, round here. So we’re heading back to the pool today to join in with the evenings festivities. I’ll need to put in some serious siesta time today if I’m going to make it to midnight. Still, it should be a pretty cool way to see in the new decade. Certainly memorable.<\/p>\n

We end the year\/decade thinking of our family and friends scattered around the globe. Happy New Year to all of you.<\/p>\n

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