Much to my disgust, I wake up early. This is not on. My bed is not moving and everything is quiet. Maybe it’s having to share the bed again and listen to Mike’s melodic snoring.
I lie there and wriggle for a while but Mike makes no move towards the galley and the process of tea making so in the end I get up and make it. For once, he gets two cups of tea and breakfast in bed.
After wandering around a little and having chats with our neighbours, the crews of Crazy Horse and Ocean Jasper, I get around to cleaning the top layer of salt off the boat. Our new hose pipe makes its appearance and with a decent pressure coming out of the tap on the dock, the boat soon feels a lot better. It will still need a good scrub to get some stubborn marks off but at least nothing feels slimy any more.
Photos: Jeannius looking less salty berthed at Caudan Marina
Mike pumps up the dinghy which is looking very sorry for itself then looks around the to see if there is any damage or anything else that needs fixing that he doesn’t know about. Big mistake. He finds that the exhaust pipe to the starboard engine is leaking and salt water is dribbling in.
I leave him muttering and go for a wander in the marina complex. It’s absolutely huge and with really good facilities, loads of shops (two large malls as well) and loads of restaurants. I deliberately go without taking any money so that I cant be tempted to buy anything.
Photo: The mall at Caudan Marina – shops! Heaven!
When I get back to the boat and do a bit of tidying I suddenly realise that it’s nearly 3 pm and we haven’t eaten. Because I haven’t done any food shopping we decide to go out for lunch, and wandering back through the marina complex we choose one of the local fast food places and order fried noodles – very cheap and quite good. Mike goes for a sleep afterwards and I potter off for a chatter with people from the other boats. It’s so good to be able to socialise again!
In the evening we go over to Tucanon for a drink. They have invited lots of the other crews along as well and as everyone piles on, the boat sinks a few inches in the water. I end up in a girlie gaggle with Jutta, Bev, Eline, Anna and Sylvie who are all sitting on the dock. A couple of guys pass by and stop to talk to us about the rally. They are pilots with a private airline and invite some of us to join them on a day trip to South Africa. Jutta and I are all for doing it (obviously we have knocked back a fair bit of wine by now) but Jutta’s daughter, Eline, is a calming influence and we back down.
We all leave Tucanon around 8 pm and I decide to go out with the younger members of the rally but I only stay with them a while as I have already had quite enough to drink and they look as though they are going to be stuck in for a while. When I get back to the boat, I get a mild telling off from Mike - when I disappeared I had told him I was going to the marina loos (which I was) but I had failed to add that then I was going out. Oops!
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