Union Island – rolly one day perfect the next

After spending another night on a Sandy Island mooring by ourselves, we checked out from Hillsborough where Karen had to have one more shop before realising there was nothing she needed (however she did find fetta cheese in the deli just south of the customs dock and so was very happy!)

The sail to Union was short and we anchored in Frigate Island as usual and thought we would easily catch a bus into Clifton. We were slightly wrong as no bus appeared for about 25 minutes, but we were saved by a friendly “Taxi to Clifton?” call from a passing Suzuki Jeep and after a quick confirmation of cost we jumped into the back seat (I remember when I use to own a car) and headed on in to Clifton. Our taxi drivers were Seakie and Vanessa who it turned out ran a bar in Chatham. As they dropped us off at customs office, we promised we would be round in Chatham in the next day or two and we would come into the bar (a bit of a break from our usual past-times).

The customs clearance was friendly and efficient and came with a free bible lesson from the officer. He also enquired about our new President, and when I explained I wasn’t American but we did have a new female Prime Minister – Julia Gilliard, he wished us luck and explained that we would need it as the bible clearly explained “women are not meant to lead”. Although Karen did try and argue the point (with what I thought was a plausible argument re whether he obeyed his mother) to save any problems with clearance we remained amiable, retrieved our papers and moved on to get them stamped.

We then wandered down to Immigration and cleared then it was on to do some shopping (do you get the impression that all we do is play dominos and shop?) Well this time it was important – I was almost out of beer. Then after a rum punch at Lambis, which is now almost a tradition when we arrive in Union, it was back to the boat, this time via the mountain road (they all are on Union) which provided us with another view of the island.

Next day the wind was picking up so we decided to stay in Frigate and met some friends from Island Time and Sea Quest who had spent Tomas around in Chatham, but did not have much fun – the mangroves are definitely the way to go.

After a very rolly second night in Frigate (yes rolly on a catamaran), we motored around to Chatham and was greeted by a nice calm and well protected bay. We did have a couple of attempts to anchor – if you don’t get in close enough, the holding is not too good. The Bay itself is quiet with little or no road access so there are just a few beach bars and a new resort being developed slowly (bar and restaurant with a pool so far).



For those interested in finding the treasure, the rainbow seems to end at Shark Attack – the original beach bar in the bay.

The next couple of days were quite relaxing – we swam, snorkelled and regaled the fish of this season’s bareboat charterer’s with our tales of cruising and ocean crossings (never exaggerated of course) and watched them turn green with envy . Of course we always asked them when their holiday was over!
We snorkelled just inside of Rapid Point and although it was not all that clear, we saw some interesting coral formations that we hadn’t seen before.



We also swam ashore to  explore and we walked to the end of the beach to the corner bar which is undergoing renovations to get it back off crown land and as he was about to open our beers, I realised I had lost my watertight wallet from my pocket, so we had to put the beers on hold. Luckily as we were walking along the beach I found it bobbing along in the water about 20m from shore – money all intact. Very lucky so we headed back in to have our beers.

We did visit Vanessa and Seakie’s Bar a couple of evenings. It is the Sun Beach & Eat Local Bar and Restaurant, complete with dog Pepper who loved to be scratched behind the ear, and would keep coming back and finding my hand with her ears.


We enjoyed the rum punches, which were different from most we have had to date with a spice mix we could not identify, nor could we cajole Vanessa to part with her secret recipe, but for $5EC a drink during happy hour, they were a very good way to enjoy the sunsets.



On our first night there we noticed that the décor was incomplete – no Australian flag! So as we have just put our 2010/11 season flag on Vanessa and Seakie are now the proud owners of 1 used (and signed) Aussie Flag!



We caught up with Phil and Mel from Samji (fellow cricket team members) and Tony and Sharon from Hoofbeats and were invited for a roast beef dinner on our last night (Samji cooking, Hoofbeats the venue). It was a fabulous feed and a fun night and we sampled real Yorkshire puddings made by a real Yorkshire woman (or at least Mel’s family was from there I think). It was a good way to end the week.
Next Stop Bequai!