Where's the dinghy??

With the change of tide the anchorage was calm again by dawn.
When we got up we were greeted by a grey overcast day. What happened to the Caribbean?
After breakfast we began getting Eureka ready as we had decided to move from the idyllic isolation to somewhere a little more lively.

One of the first jobs is to remove the outboard from the dinghy.....................but guess what??
No outboard....................no dinghy!!

Out came the binoculars but no sign.
That put a damper on the morning and how were we going to get ashore in St. Mary's or anywhere else when it came to it.
Unfortunally before we had the anchor up to go looking for it, a light fog came down which made searching almost impossible so after reporting the stray dinghy via VHF to the coastguard, we motored north around to New Grimsby hoping that the fog would lift and we could carry out a search later.

Again we found all the visitor moorings occupied and so we tried to anchor but had problems and so decided to head for St. Mary's instead as there was a better chance of getting a lift ashore there.

It was not a happy boat as we motored north back out of New Grimsby Sound and then south, down the west side of Bryher.
On the way Maeve thought she had heard a message on the VHF about a dinghy.
I went below and sat by the radio at the chart table and soon heard a conversation between a fishing boat and the coastguard.
Our dinghy had been found caught in some lobster buoys on the south side of Tresco.
I joined in the conversation and found out that the work boat would be heading to St. Mary's later that afternoon so we arranged to have it returned to us at the mooring.

We tied up in St. Marys harbour at 15.00 and the mood was much better helped by the sun that had come out, burnt off the fog and we were now back in t-shirts.

About 2 hours later we were reunited with our dinghy and gave an award to the crew for their trouble.

We later went ashore and called to the 'Bishop & Wolf' for dinner. We were told they had stopped serving at 20.30, it was now 20.34.
Jesus! what was a couple of minutes?
When Maeve asked him if there was any other place serving, he informed us 'The Co Op' (the local supermarket) as all the restaurants stopped at 20.30. The lad definitely lacked training in customer service.
Just as well I hadn't heard the encounter as i might have said something rude!
We tried 'The Atlantic Inn' and discovered that they serve until 21.00 and had no problem fitting us in.

The lovely meal made the perfect ending to what started off as a bad day and we later returned to Eureka and this time made sure the dinghy was not going anywhere.Read more