Sam & Andy's Travelogue: Catching Up

Ok, catch up time. Christmas passed in a blur. Very busy at the resort and the company sale still hadn't gone through so everyone was burnt out and fed up. New Year was busy but very low-key on island - only a handful of guests actually made it to midnight!

You may remember that the Harris Family recruited us to manage the resort for them but all foreigners have to apply for a "Non-Belonger Land Holding Licence". This took far longer than they had anticipated so we had agreed to act as caretaker managers for the existing owners for "a month or so", back in July 2008. This had now dragged on for six months!

At last, after almost a 2-year wait for both parties, the Company Sale finally went through on Jan 7th!! Of course, being slap in the middle of high season we couldn't implement many changes. So, we decided to limp through the rest of the season as best we could and plan on closing in summer to refurb the property.

In January, I was invited to join the girls from Sail Caribbean Divers on a day out to celebrate Melisande's 40th and Harri's leaving party. We met up at their base in Hodges Creek where Meli and Harri were promptly blindfolded and put in the truck. Mike (Meli's husband) tried driving in circles and through fuel stations to throw them off but they guessed that we were heading towards the airport. There, they were given envelopes that announced that they were being whisked to Peter Island's Spa by helicopter!

We were taken on a tour first, out to Virgin Gorda and Necker and then back towards Ginger and Cooper. Spotting a Sail Caribbean Dive boat below, Harri asked the pilot to dive-bomb it! The pilot banked round hard and did just that! Poor Rob on board had no idea that his boss was even on a helicopter that day so he was totally shocked.

View from Salt Island looking towards Cooper Island with Virgin Gorda beyond