So sad to be going back to England.   Yesterday was a perfect day.  Gentle breezes, the sea almost flat calm, the colours everywhere vibrant.  I took a kayak up to Whale Cay and got almost as far as Vigilant before realising the skin on my thumbs was wearing out.  We have roseate terns nesting on the island for the first time this year, I wonder whether the increase in their numbers has anything to do with the Marine Protection Area that’s been established around Whale Cay, I hope so.

This Nighthawk laid her egg between the harbour wall and a road and was extremely lucky not to have been squashed by a passing vehicle.  Fortunately Ben and Anja spotted her and told everyone on the island about her poor choice of nesting site and today, when I ran passed both she and her chick were no longer there.  They returned a little later on, so the chick is flying at last.

And we miss them already!  We’ve had a really wonderful week with our film crew, they’ve worked incredibly hard to capture the spirit of the island.  Jack interviewed Arthur.  Our wonderful chef was filmed preparing food.  They filmed people playing table tennis and real tennis.  They filmed Simon disappearing into the sunset.  Even the tortoises had 15 minutes of fame.  Many many thanks to the Mayles for being our perfect island family.  Thanks also to our beautiful models, Cindy and Brad and the biggest thank you to David, Nicola, Ronaldos and Hayley for being such a professional and hard working team.

Cindy and Brad

We’ve been having a busy few days with a fantastic film crew from London and models from New York and Miami, filming all the different aspects of life on Little Whale Cay.  The resulting movie will be embedded in the island website soon!  Thankfully the weather’s been perfect and there’s been rain, so the grass is green. Dan, from our London media agency’s here to help, with his lovely little son, Ralphy, who’s only three and loves dressing as a pirate, complete with a cutlass that he’s been using to chop pieces off my sweet and beautifully behaved nephews, Aryton and Pele.  My sister Gemma and her husband Simon are with us too and Simon finished his wonderful children’s book yesterday and sent it off to his agent for her comments.  We drank champagne last night to celebrate its completion. I’ll post a link when it’s published.