Grenada Day 7

Mike has another of his middle-of-the-night battles with a cockroach, although thankfully this one is less determined to live and I don’t even know the battle is going on until Mike emerges triumphantly from the bathroom to announce its demise.  Where do these not-so-little creatures come out from and exactly what is the point of their existence?

We leave early for the boat today as someone is coming to start fitting the boat short wave radio system – maybe!  When we arrive out little team of strippers are hard at it using the same system as yesterday, one stripping and the other two watching from the shade of the boat although I do notice later on in the morning one of the watchers doing a bit of stripping himself!

Mike starts filling in holes left by the removal of various pieces of rigging gear as the whole system is being re-jigged.  In a couple of days when all the dirty work has finished, we will be painting it all.

We show Sandy and John around our boat and they are amazed at all the storage space we have.  Their boat, Fat Dash, is going back in the water today, just five days late and we promise to go over for a look before this happens.

By late morning it’s evident that the radio man is not coming although his boss arrives to tell us that he will be here tomorrow.  That’s another early morning then.

After having a nice long chat with Heather on Skype, I spend the morning perusing the huge spreadsheet that Peter has prepared for me of all the films and TV series that he can put onto a hard disk.  There are loads that I haven’t heard of as I have been away from that sort of thing for nearly 18 months so I have to keep checking a movie database he recommended to watch trailers to decide if we want them or not.  Eventually Mike appears, stomach rumbling, wanting me to feed him, so I make a garlic, tomato and tuna sauce for some pasta, enough to feed us for lunch and dinner.

In the afternoon we go over to have a look at Fat Dash.  Sandy may have been jealous at all our storage but I am sick as a parrot to see their wonderful combined washing machine and tumble dryer.  What bliss!  What a saddo I am!

On the way back to Jeannius we stop to look at our boom which is lying at the rigger’s.  Mike attempts to explain how it will all work but my blank expression gives the game away.  I’ll understand when I see it in action.  We pop into the sail makers and get the guy to come and give us a quote for new batalyne covers for the windows.  We’ve spent so much money, what’s a bit more?

When we get back to the boat the boom has mysteriously arrived and is lying on props under the hull, ready for Mike to start rubbing her down for her paint job.  When did they do that?

We hear the boat lifter bleeping as it trundles on down the gap between the boats – Fat Dash is on her way to the sea, so I follow to watch her being lowered into the water and to get an idea of what I will have to do when its our turn.  She goes in without mishap, much to Sandy’s evident relief.

Moored just next to the crane is another Privilege 435 with the same rigging arrangement as we will have and Mike arrives to point it all out to me.  Now I can see it, I understand.

I go back to the computer and continue to peruse Peter’s spreadsheet and the movie database.  Peter’s spreadsheet contains 2757 entries so it is a mammoth task!

We don’t get back to the hotel until nearly 5.30, then it’s showers and PC work well into the evening.