Ann, Terry and Alice leave at 5 am for their flight back home. It’s sad to see them go but nice to have the boat back to ourselves again. We wave them goodbye then retreat back to the air conditioning of the boat and attempt to go back to sleep.
We stay there for the rest of the day, sleeping and luxuriating in the cool. No jobs get done. It is bliss.
The next day I get the laundry done at the self service laundry in the marina. The sheets need a bloody good hot wash but everything just has a cold one as the machines don’t function properly. On top of that there are no tumble driers and I have to hang everything up on the sides of the boat and from hangers in the cockpit. It looks like a Chinese laundry.
The next day, before heading back to St George’s, we take the boat round to the marina at Phare Bleu to have a look. It’s lovely and we will probably come here next week to pick up Allison and John.
We move the boat out of the marina and park it by the resort-in-progress at Calivgny Island, moving it again once we realise that the internet coverage doesn’t quite reach there.
The next few days pass in a haze of doing nothing really. We move back round to the anchorage outside of St Georges. It is hot, exceedingly humid with the occasional torrential downpour – business as usual for this time of year really. We call in on Jutta and Jochem on our way to Food Land. Poor Jutta. She still has the boat in a mess as the carpenter moves from room to room making woodwork adjustments as he goes, never quite finishing one job before he goes on to the next but always giving her warnings that he will finish the previous one tomorrow so she is never able to put things away. I arrange to go back the next day to help her to clear up as he should be finished.
The next day, I return as promised. As we wipe and wash away the wood shavings and dust, I don’t think I have ever sweat so much in my life. It is disgusting. After a couple of hours we have both had enough and Mike comes to pick me up.
We see them the next day for dinner at The Beach House, a lovely restaurant set on the beach near the airport.
We share a few bottles of wine then make the mistake of stopping for a caiparinha at the bar back at Port Louis Marina. Already over the top for my tolerance, that last little drink is the straw that breaks the camel’s back, so to speak.
The next day I can barely lift my head off the pillow. I feel so sick and to make matters worse, the anchorage becomes really rolly as a swell comes in with a passing weather system. Mike goes off to help set up Jutta’s new computer and I lie in bed like a pathetic lump. By the end of the day with no let up in my condition, I conclude that the hangover has gone and I am actually seasick – at anchor! That’s a first.
It is in this rolling sea that a boat arrives with its occupants wanting to purchase my beloved washing machine, one of the many things that we have decided to sell rather than keep in storage while we are back in Europe. I am heartbroken to see it go but as I manage to sell it for what I paid for it new, it lessens the blow!
By midday the next day, Mike and I are both sick of the rolling anchorage and decide to move back to Clarkes Court Bay to get out of it. As we leave, we notice that half the other boats have done the same. It’s a bit of a rough ride around the south side of the island but once inside the reef again it all calms down.
And there we stay, doing nothing until Sunday lunchtime when it’s time to move the boat around to Phare Bleu Marina to wait for Allison and John arriving from the UK to join us. We have arranged for Rock, the taxi driver, to pick them up and while we wait for them, we watch yet another beautiful sunset develop, partially hidden by the hills which surround us.
Mike is in the shower and I have just gone outside to wait for them when I see them both walking down the pontoon towards the boat. It’s great to see them, and wonderful to see that they have heeded my pleas to travel light so that they can take some stuff home for me. In fact, they have done really well and brought an empty holdall inside their one piece of check-in luggage so that they can take LOADS home for me – little treasures!
After a beer on board they are ready to go out to eat. We eat at the poolside restaurant at the marina and I eat a piece of the most tender tuna I have ever had – simply delicious.
We don’t make it a late night. By the time we turn in, it’s almost 3 am for them (although only 10 pm for us – way past our bedtime!). There’s another 10 days to catch up!
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