Ann, Terry and Alice are arriving tonight so I spend some time cleaning the boat and organising things while Mike gets on with ‘boat stuff’. In the afternoon we motor round to True Blue Marina to await their arrival.
There is a southerly swell as we enter and as we go through the slalom course that is the mooring field in front of the floating pontoons, I can see that it is going to be fun and games getting ourselves secured. The fact that there are three members of dock crew ready to help is instantly worrying. Even more of a worry is watching the floating dock move around the marina in the swell! It’s an ‘L’ shaped dock with a bridge and the three parts are all moving independently and seemingly trying to smash the adjoining parts to pieces.
Tying up is a work of art, and not a very pretty one at that. Mike backs towards the pontoon so that we can go stern-to and a member of the shore staff leaps aboard to pick up the mud and gunk covered lines that are lying on the sea bed ready to be attached to the bow. As he follows the lines along the side of the boat, all manor of marine gunk is strewn all along the sides. Lovely. At the stern, a complex system of warps and big, black rubber tyres has been set up to hold Jeannius in place. Now when I say ‘in place’, I mean they allow her to move in and out with the swell bringing her in about 2 feet from the pontoon then out again to 4 feet away, the tyres acting as springs. If those babies break we will be catapulted out to sea – or into one of the unsuspecting yachts in the mooring field. This could be interesting!
We get the air conditioning running and I go and dump a big bag of washing at the marina office – they assure me it will be back tomorrow morning.
The Roses arrive at 7 pm and Ann looks with horror at Jeannius moving in and out from the pontoon. She stands there, a Johanne-like expression on her face and for a while it looks like I will be making her a bed up on the pontoon, but after equal amounts of encouragement and threats have been thrown at her, she manages to jump on. Getting their bags on is harder than getting Ann on though as handing 5 big bags over the ever changing gap threatens to land both Mike and Terry in the murky waters. (They have been away for two weeks already – hence all the luggage.) However, nothing and no one gets wet and after a quick freshen-up we head over to the Dodgy Dock for a meal.
Getting Ann off the boat is harder than getting her on as she now needs to leap up as well as over, but we manage to get her across again without mishap. Walking along the pontoon requires walking with your legs in a wide stance – very ladylike – but necessary
We have a great meal at The Dodgy Dock even though it gets incredibly full of students from the nearby university – obviously celebrating something given the volume and excitement – I have a spicy coconut conch curry – always a favourite of mine.
Unfortunately Ann discovers that she has been a victim of theft when she starts to unpack her case. They had checked in early at JFK airport and this had obviously given the baggage handlers time to rifle through her stuff and remove cigarettes, perfume and jewellery from her case. Not a nice start for her holiday.
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