OH Nooooo, some time over night one of the oars from Pascal tender has come off. after some detective work we worked out that the 3 tenders all tied up behind Chiquita had rubbed the little plastic nut undone and then the oar has just dropped in the water and floated away.
Bummer.....
Tania aka Doris and i spent about an hour doing a grid search of the area but no luck, then pascal and i did a little experiment with the other one and set it adrift tied to the soft-bait rod.
the oar floated for a while and then the handle sunk and the little grey paddle sticks out of the water. fat chance of ever seeing that again.
Pascal got up the mast and i steered for another hour around inside the reef looking for the elusive oar, but no luck.
we had invited the other boats over for dinner and thought we had better catch something to feed them.
We sailed out of the reef and were trolling backwards and forwards across the entrance for a couple of hours, 3 hook-ups and nothing landed, they spat one lure out and destroyed 2.
then i looked a bit further out to sea and there floating in the water was the other oar. this was about 500 meters off the reef, so the fishing trip was not a total loss.
Dinner ended up Spag-bol but there was enough wine and laughter to make it a great night, 8 people on E'eva is just right for a night of relaxation.