Sad goodbyes

It was a very sad day for all of us on Sunday, when the Edinburgh finally set sail for Cape Town taking with her, Joerg, Lucy and family.  Joerg has been the resident doctor on the island and after 2 years here, it was heart breaking to see the goodbyes, especially between the kids and their friends.  How very sad to have spent so much time here, building up friendships and sharing lives, only to have to leave at the end of a contract and move on to other things and places.

For us that stay behind, it is hard too – Joerg and Lucy were a fixture on our daily calendars and they will be sorely, sorely missed.  However, they are facing new challenges and adventures and we wish them only the best that life has to offer and look forward to seeing them fairly soon too (which helps somewhat). 

The goodbyes made Erik and I think about what it will be like when we have to say our final goodbyes – although, we stopped thinking about it after about 2 seconds as it was just too foreign and uncomfortable a concept to think about.  Living here is unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced and the lack of stress is, in itself, a good reason for loving it here – not to mention that kindness of the Tristanians – the gifts of fresh cabbage or potatoes, the open hearted way in which they have welcomed us (and more importantly, Caitlin) into the community, and the humour with which everything is tackled.

Wishing you all a wonderful week!

Cheers

Claire

Day off for Kelso/De Hong crews

 With a view like this, it’s hard to concentrate on the little things like a soccer ball…..

The crew of the Kelso and de Hong joined us on the island on Tuesday for a soccer game against the island team.  The de Hong is a tug from Singapore which is part of the salvage operation to remove the rig from Tripot Bay where is got ’shipwrecked’ in May/June 2006.

The islanders played a great game and won the match convincingly with a score of 10:5.

We had great fun cheering our team on, and admiring the view from the soccer pitch – where else in the world can you play soccer on a pitch with a sea view?  Caitlin enjoyed her first ‘footie’ match too, although she did sleep through most of the proceedings!

And, as with some of the bigger clubs in the UK, the visitor’s team was made up of a truly international group of people with visitors from the UK, South Africa and United States to mention just a few!

Below is a picture of all the players:

Have a super weekend all!