Road Town

I wake up in a complete panic because I know how long the list of chores is that I have to complete before our guests arrive.  This doesn’t, however, stop me from procrastinating in bed waiting for my first, then second, cup of tea.  I do make a concession to diligence though, by getting up and getting my breakfast!  Big deal, but an impressive first step.  That’s chore number one accomplished!

We move the boat into the marina at Inner Harbour, park her safely, hook up to mains power, switch the air-conditioning on full blast and I am ready to go.  Mike thinks that he has a slight reprieve as the water is off and he can’t scrub the decks (and boy, do they need scrubbing!).  Unfortunately for him, he then remembers that he fixed the deck pump on Jeannius (ie hit it with a stick – I kid you not) and the can get the worst off with salt water and just rinse the salt off when the water comes back on.

In the middle of all this industry, Ocho, from Bobby’s supermarket arrives with the provisioning.  Everything is bought out of the boxes in the cockpit, and we start the tedious task of ticking everything off.  I find this really difficult.  Nothing seems to match.  There are things missing and lots of things that the guests didn’t order according to the list.  After much head scratching, Ocho realises that he has given us the wrong list.  What an unbelievable coincidence – the other charter has also ordered four bottles of Veuve Clicquot.

Checking it all off is actually the easy part; getting it all into the fridge is the hard bit, but with a lot of reorganising, it all goes in (well, nearly all).

We don’t have time for lunch so when Mike goes in search of some cake for one of the guests who has a birthday tomorrow, he also buys crisps and peanut treats to give us energy – a great excuse in my book.

By 4pm we have finished the boat and start our own wash and brush up.

The guests arrive later than expected, at nearly 6pm (see, I could have waiting for breakfast in bed!), having had to wait for quite some time for a ferry to Road Town.  After settling in, we all go out for a meal to Spaghetti Junction, literally just behind the boat, and I allow myself two glasses of Coopers Creek as a reward for a hard day’s work.