Our last blog left you with us meandering through the narrow maze of streets that is the Village of Codrington, and somehow we found the streets had led us right back at the waterfront dock area where George was waiting. We clambered aboard his big pink wooden boat, and he gently pushed us off the dock.



(I really think Dave needs some more one on one camera time, his photo-taking skills are catching us a little off-guard, don't you think?)

George slowly maneouvred his boat toward the nearby shoreline and we glided towards the beautiful, but shallow, green coloured waters of The Lagoon. And as is the case with many-a-tour we've been on, George suddenly took on his official persona:

"Ladies and Gentlemen," he said, "welcome. What you see before you..."

And this is how and where we learned about AM52 and its Mysterious Journey.

Once upon a long time ago, in a very faraway and quite Northern place (called Canada), there was a rather Large, Red, Bell Buoy. It's had been given a bold white name, "AM52".

AM52 lived just off Betty Island, on the Southern Shore of Nova Scotia. Coincidentally we called Nova Scotia our home for a very long time and, believe it or not, Banyan has even sailed past Betty Island.



AM52 lived a lonely and solitary type of life. Big and Red, it fought the elements on a daily basis. Sometimes the seas were calm. And sometimes they pounded the poor little buoy with its vicious waters. Sometimes it was sunny and sometimes it rained. If we remember Nova Scotia well enough it was probably mostly wet and foggy and damp and cold.

AM52 was a Navigational Buoy, its bell constantly clanging a sing-song each and every time the waves moved the buoy, from side to side it rocked, non-stop, day in and day out.



I wonder if it ever longed to be free? To explore the world? To see something more than the wind and the waves of the big blue sea.

One day something happened and AM52 was suddenly loose and free. It found itself drifting and must have watched the cold Canadian coastline disappear from view, probably caught in the Gulf Stream Currents and making its way across the Atlantic Ocean.

There have been reported sightings of AM52 as far away as Spain and Portugal and even the Canary Islands.

Somehow it made it's way back again into the warmer Caribbean waters.

It wasn't a completely safe journey for poor little AM52. It must have collided with something as there is quite a dent on the poor little guy.

And so with time AM52 drifted and surfed well over 6000 miles. Imagine the sights it would have seen? Imagine the stories it could tell, if only it could talk?

One day AM52 was spotted off the coast of Barbuda, and brought inland by the fishermen. Perhaps quite tired from his long and strenuous journeys? Perhaps glad to be resting?

Today it sits here calling this 6 mile long and 2 mile wide lagoon home.



And with that said, George picked up his long bamboo stick, and gently pushed us off the sandy bottom. We found ourselves gliding by AM52 in a quiet salute, as it stood majestically proud in front of us. We too are fellow travellers on the big blue sea,

And so it was time to continue our adventuring on George's big pink wooden boat, towards...

(to be continued)