Waking to the sound of crashing waves is wonderful. Waking to the sight of my husband without a cup of tea in his hand for me is not. We need to do something about this, or rather, I do.
By 9.30 we are ready for our lift to the boatyard. Before we go I ask at reception for an electric kettle so that Mike can perform his husbandly duties. They promise it will be in my room at the end of the day.
At the boatyard we are amazed to see progress. There is masking tape all along each hull. Obviously something is about to happen! Sure enough, a man arrives shortly after, clad head to toe in protective gear and starts painting the hull with noxious chemicals then lots of intermittent scraping noises start. Then, a little while later, another five men clamber up the ladder and start to remove the boom. We are having all the reefing lines, outhaul, main halyard and topping lift taken back to the cockpit so we can do everything with the sails from there. So this is two jobs in progress. Amazing!
Mike strips out the old fridge and freezer seals and I clean out the grooves for the replacements Amazingly the new ones that I bought out from the UK fit, and they fit easily!
I start to organise my eighteen months’ worth of cosmetics, body wash, shampoo and hair dye into a system that I will recognise in the middle of the Pacific! Bugger the water and the food – I am a girlie! We have decided that one cabin will be kept for our, sorry, MY storage, and I make lots of headway.
Every time I walk through the salon I shudder at the mess. The table is strewn with all sorts of things that are “in progress” according to Mike. The dining table looks like every other table we have ever owned. As far as Mike is concerned, tables are for putting things down on as you walk past them, not for eating off. I have never managed to house train him out of doing this, even in the confined space of a boat. Ah well, he is pretty well trained otherwise.
A local family arrive with a truck load of fresh produce. I buy a ton of okra and tomatoes and a huge papaya (I didn’t know they were that big!) and head back to the boat. Mike tells me he doesn’t like okra but I find a recipe on the internet that makes him change his mind. By the time I have finished cooking (in 32 degrees of heat) it is quite late, and we enjoy a sit down in the cockpit to eat our okra curry. It is wonderful especially as the wind has now picked up and there is a cooling breeze.
All through the day the scraping noises from under the boat continue. The anti fouling is coming off but due to the mess and the noxious chemicals, we don’t venture down to see what is actually happening until it is obvious that the guy doing the work has gone for the day.
This is the first time I have been under Jeannius since she was being built in the factory in 2002. Looking at her lines from underneath, I am reminded how beautiful she actually is with all her curves. Most catamarans have straight lines underneath as it makes them cheaper to manufacture but not as strong as our beautiful Privilege 435. At least she will be beautiful when we have finished touching up the paintwork and cleaning off the rust marks from the anchor chain.
I get onto Skype and manage to talk to Ann, Johanne and Victoria which makes a lovely end to the day. I can’t believe that it has gone so fast. Tempus fugit when you are involved in mindless and menial tasks!! I even manage to send some e-mails, something I have been rather tardy with since the advent of the blog.
Mike starts of take apart one of the water pumps that he replaced a couple of months ago. After covering yet another table with bits, and hitting the pump with a hammer, he realises that the new part that was purchased in the BVIs is actually the wrong one. Bugger!
Armed with all our tea making paraphernalia, we call for our transport and soon, Sam, our lovely driver is waiting to take us back to La Sagesse. I decide to make some inroads into the rather lovely bottle of Sauvignon Blanc that we bought at great expense. I discover that it is well worth the £20 we paid, and quickly I am three quarters of the way down the bottle. Ah well, it’s never as good the next day (like I need an excuse!) The evening is spent watching Gavin and Stacy and Strictly Come Dancing. Bliss!!
It's only when you see her our of water that you realise how much of you would technically be underwater when walking between fore and aft cabins!
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