I decide I should strike while the iron is hot, so to speak, and ask Mike to come with me for another dinghy lesson. He says I don’t need a lesson and I should just go off by myself. Has he just increased my life insurance or something? Go in the dinghy by myself! Is he mad? Well apparently, even if he’s not, I must be because I clamber in, get it started, and with a steely stare of triumph in his direction (which belies how much I hate the dammed thing) I potter off, admittedly, it’s initially in the wrong direction (bloody stick thing – why can’t I have a wheel to sit behind?) but then in the direction I actually want to go.
I look for someone to visit where my arrival won’t be witnessed by all the other boats. You see, driving in open water is OK. My crazy, inadvertent changes of direction can go unnoticed. But when you actually want to get to a boat you do have to be a bit more accurate. At least aiming for a catamaran is easier – you sort of aim between the hulls – so in full knowledge of this, I aim for Crazy Horse, a monohull.
Rosemary is doing her washing on the back of the boat and looks a little startled as I hurtle towards her. I only hurtle because I always forget which way is slow and which way is fast and my 50/50 chance of getting it right first time is always 100% wrong. Sigh! Anyway I pull the kill switch and glide to a perfect halt just in front of her. She shows me around their boat, a Sundeer 60, a long sleek sailing boat with an amazing amount of storage space, but no washing machine, and arrange to visit Isla Mogo Mogo (where they filmed ‘Survivor’) with her and Maggie later on.
Next I visit Eowyn, where Graham tries to entice me to have coffee and bread pudding (probably because it is the last portion and John has his eye on it). I dislike both and decline before puttering off to Brown Eyed Girl.
I am getting a bit more confident now so naturally make a complete hash of my arrival. As my dinghy nose dives into the side of their boat, along with a shriek of “bugger!”, I announce my arrival. Chatting to Judith, I try to get her to come exploring with us but she decides to go diving with the boys instead. I then see their spear guns coming out. Eek!
When I get back to Jeannius, arriving sedately I might add, Mike is just getting out of the water having been trying out his new Hookah. This is an air compressor attached to 100 foot of pipe with a diving regulator on the end and a BCD. This enables him effectively to dive as deep as the pipe will allow him to go for purposes of checking out the underneath of the boat, rather than using a snorkel and having to keep re-surfacing, or a full dive kit with tank. It works well and he checks that the propellers are both still in place, as they seem to have a habit of dropping off. At the moment, both are still with us.
At noon there’s still no sign of Rosemary and Maggie so we have lunch then Mike decides to go on to Isla del Rey so it’s no exploring (or female company) for me today.
There’s practically no wind when we leave the anchorage so I go for a sleep. Apparently the wind does pick up later in the afternoon but by the time I get back up the sails are down and we are approaching our next anchorage. Looking around, it looks like an Amel convention. Stephen from Skylark, waves us away towards the edge of the anchorage. Yeah, we know, cats not welcome, although we are of the opinion that we are increasing the general tone!!! Only joking – not!!
We anchor then David comes to invite us to Voyageur for drinks at sundown. In preparation, I go below, cut my hair then shower. I think the cut might be a little too aggressive but no one says anything. The crews from Lady Lisa, Asolare and Skylark also join us. As usual, Susan and David are generous hosts and my glass gets refilled each time I empty it. By the time I get back Jeannius, I am more than a little squiffy and as dinner requires the addition of wine, opening another bottle and finishing it with Jim seems like a good idea. It won’t feel like that in the morning!
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