Suliere's Blog

16 May 2013
We arrived  at Ragged Island around 12.30 and settled in, its always so lovely to arrive, set the anchor, get tidy and begin to relax into our new surrounds.

Our Anchorage at Ragged Island

We launched Slurpy and attempted to make it to Duncan’s Town but Slurpy  had a nervous breakdown en route for reasons best know to Paul ((Turned out Paul had closed the valve which caused a lack of air.  This then caused an air lock but at least we could sort that out and we hadn’t drifted to far), Whilst trying to rectify the problem a large wave lashed us soaking us both to the skin so it was back to Suliere  for a shower, cuppa and a Chelsea bun!

Some of you may already know that lesley’s daughter had spinal surgery last  October and three operations to follow in an attempt to close the wound so Lesley had remained in at home while Paul departed in November to get work done on Suliere.  When Lesley eventually left home in March she was comforted by the knowledge that Laura was making a steady recovery, getting back into her working routine slowly but surely and all with the co-operation of her employer.

Over the past couple of weeks we had been receiving news that she was in pain and then worse,  experienced  a serious relapse and was struggling to cope alone.  We had both been getting increasingly unhappy about Laura being alone  especially as in theory we still another 6 weeks  to cruise Cuba ahead of us.  We made the decision to go home, anything else was unthinkable and  this would be the easiest time for us to leave  rather than in another couple of weeks when we would be who know where in Cuba.  At this stage we hadn’t paid medical insurance, cruising permit and entry fees etc and might get the ‘Cuba’ aspect of our insurance back hopefully- which we did.

Of course we arrived at this decision with mixed feelings, suddenly we were nearing the end of our adventure when it had almost been the beginning of a new adventure.  We were relieved knowing that Lesley would be heading back to assist Laura in getting the help she needed and Paul fully supportive and keen to get home himself having been away for 7 months by this time.  Cuba will still be there next year we agreed and most importantly Laura will be getting the love, help and support she so badly needs at this time.   We had always said that we would always be the masters of our cruising year and not the other way around,  situations like this exemplify our whole attitude to cruising.

With this decision made our hearts felt a little lighter knowing it was the right thing to do.  We watched a movie and then input the waypoints for our journey homeward bound.