Day 361: Cape Town, SA – 02/01/11

We wake up to pouring rain again, and it’s cold and damp on the boat.  With little incentive to get up, we hang around in bed, just slipping out occasionally for tea and breakfast to have wrapped up in the warm.

It stops raining around lunchtime but remains grey and dismal.  There’s so much cloud on Table Mountain that I can’t even see it.  Jutta had organised for us to go to a concert in the Botanical Gardens but the thought of sitting around after all that rain is not appealing and none of us want to go.

Mike removes a worn piece from the top of the downhaul, chopping it off with the hot knife (one of his favourite tools) and reattaches it to the mainsail then replaces some worn lines holding the trampolines to the boat.  He then replaces some of the bungee cords holding the mainsail to the cars on the mast (he’s dictating this bit – I haven’t got a clue what he’s talking about except that there were bits of old rope everywhere when he had finished).

Finally after lunch, I start the huge cleaning project that I have been putting off but which Ann’s impending arrival is now forcing me to begin.

Firstly I attack the nasty pooh smell which emanates from my wardrobe, a job tackled with rubber gloves, bleach, holding tank conditioner (don’t ask – bright blue and smells nice but probably not good for hair) and lots of open windows.  Mike removes the seal and I remove the foam which grows strange slimy stuff.  I actually don’t want to think about what this is but it really is peculiar.  The pipe that feeds into this is just an air vent from the holding tank.  Why stuff should grow I can’t imagine.  It’s like the day of the Triffids.

Then, still armed with rubber gloves and bleach, I completely wipe down the whole of the port hull, rinsing and drying as I go.  The smell of bleach is overwhelming but it sure deals with the black mould that wants to grow on every surface since we’ve been in cold waters with no air conditioning.

Then it’s sweeping and washing the floors and wiping down all the wood.  God, I hate housework.

At some time the rain stops and the sun comes out, although it’s quite a while after lunch when this happens.  Then late in the afternoon, the wind starts to come up again and by early evening it is blowing over 30 knots and gusting around 40, giving our hurricane lines a good workout and making the boat wobble from side to side along with all the other cats.  I hope the pontoon can hold us all.

I don’t actually finish cleaning until after 9 pm.  I can’t believe the time.  Doesn’t it fly when you’re having fun?!  And I haven’t even finished.  There’s more to do before the Roses arrive tomorrow.  I feed Mike lentil curry (there’s still bugger all in the fridge until it’s fixed) and he feeds me chocolate, a fair exchange I think.