When we wake up, we find that the fridge and freezer are still working and not long after I hear the happy sound of riggers trundling overhead to fix the new stays. Great. Not so wonderful is that they are trundling all over the boat in shoes and making a merry mess of my newly cleaned boat. If the deck had been dry it would have been OK but it was a cold night in comparison to the very hot day yesterday and there is a thick layer of condensation all over the deck which causes dirty shoeprints. I am well and truly pissed off!
I’m having a moan to Ana on the boat next door, but don’t intend having a go at them as they have already apologised to Mike for the mess. However, Ana gets annoyed with them on my behalf and has a go at them to the extent that they promise to come back with a hose and clean up afterwards – if they come back that is!
Mike and I go to Hout Bay again and deal with the immigration process and I get the first stamp in my new passport but as the customs people fail to turn up we are told that if we can’t hang around for them to arrive (and who knows when that will be) we will have to go into Cape Town. We make the decision to do that as we have such a lot to do today.
While we are there we pick up our meat, fillet steak and chicken thighs, all cut up and vacuum packed into two meal portions.
Mike misses the turning for the marina and heads into Cape Town by mistake so he decides to complete the customs work while we are there. There’s a long queue when we arrive but luckily the guy that came out to our boat yesterday is there and calls us forward, completing the formalities quickly. On the way we pass the junction where the motorway flyover just stops. Suddenly. End of build. I presume the authorities ran out of money or something. Apparently it gets used as a set for disaster moves.
When we get back to the boat, the riggers have finished and it looks like they have hosed down the boat. OK, it’s not as good as it was yesterday but better than it was this morning.
Mike drags the gas bottle out of the locker, I get the washing together and we go down to the Royal Cape Yacht Club to do the laundry and get the gas bottle filled. Leaving the bottle at the chandlers, Mike leaves me in the laundry and goes back to make a cover for the generator out of an old shower curtain. A tiny amount of salt water has apparently been coming in which the engineer that re-wired it up on Monday said had probably caused the damage to the first one. Mike and I are not convinced as we hadn’t been through any rough weather at sea (which would cause the engine compartment to leak slightly) by the time the generator failed, although we have been through lots since. Whatever!
While I am down at the laundry (a bit of a euphemism for a hovel with no windows and just two washers and driers) I meet Richie from Grand Filou wandering around outside. Grand Filou is not joining the leg of the World Arc from South Africa to Brazil but is instead competing in the Cape to Rio race which starts next week. Good luck!
I give Mike a missed call when I am ready to be picked up and decide to start the walk back to Elliot Basin. Wrong move. It is really hot today (37 degrees) and I am over 90% of the way back before I see the car heading down the road towards me. It turns out that he has to come back to Royal Cape anyway and while he goes to retrieve the gas bottle, I am left sitting in an oven with no air conditioning. If I was a dog I would have died. At least being partially human I kick the door open and lie back grumpy and tired until he returns.
They have been unable to fill the bottle (wrong connectors for them or something) so Mike has to go off and get it down elsewhere after dropping me off at the boat. I drink about a litre of water and am starting to cool down in the air conditioning when Ziggy turns up to check that the fridge and freezer are still working (well to get his money really).
I hang up laundry up, glaring at my dirty cockpit and deck. I can’t blame the rigging guys for that – it was probably Mike and I trundling in and out this morning on our regular trips up to the loo (the holding tanks are full and we can’t empty the toilets in the marina).
When Mike returns, thankfully with a full gas bottle, we go to do the food shopping at the smaller of the local malls. It may be smaller but it has everything I want – a Superspar and a Woolworths Food Hall. We manage to get everything that we want but it takes an absolute age to unpack it all, repack some of it for the freezer and get rid of as much of the packaging as we can.
Then it’s a quick and absolutely freezing shower (Mike forgets to put the engine on for hot water for me as he goes to the marina showers) then our last meal at Panama Jacks.
Returning to Jeannius, we reluctantly turn down two offers of boarding other boats for drinks (Isis – scene of the tequila and Nesquick cocktail, and with Ana and Brent next door). We just have too much to do now and can’t afford the hangovers in the morning, just in case.
I’m just getting ready for bed when I remember that I haven’t put teak oil on the back steps and tonight is my last chance if I want to get it to sink in before it gets wet with condensation overnight. Quickly pulling on a tee-shirt I sneak out and treat my newly cleaned wood, then while Mike snores beside me, I catch up on some blog and e-mails. It’s gone midnight when I finish. So much for an early night.
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