Living a LIfe Less Ordinary in Lagos

andromeda of plymouth
Susan and Andrew Wilson
Thu 8 Oct 2009 20:28
Living a Life Less Ordinary in Lagos?!

Can’t believe that we have been here a week, the time seems t o have flown
by, must be all that getting on and off Andromeda to do stuff rather than
swinging around the anchor and watching the world go by.

Where to start.....Well I am so glad that Andrew did his research, of all
the marinas we have been to this is definitely the best one for the winter
time. There are many things going on and a strong community of live
aboard sailors here as well as a fair few just stopping over like
ourselves.
We are actually getting a social calendar...and are looking forward to a
barbeque this evening put on by the marina boatyard. We will enjoy this
after a good look around the workshops etc and will get to see what
services they can offer that we would like to take advantage of. We have
listened to the radio net, got our membership cards, I went to the
computer help group (yes wouldn’t you know it)(windows 7 is nearly here
yipee) , we have swapped books and this morning it is craft group – just
how long we can keep this up – shall we have a book on it? And of course
will anyone want to dance?

Our berth – F33- is great, we are in the middle of the pontoon but facing
away from the bars etc so don’t get the disco music(well not at the
moment) and there is space behind us to manoeuvre so we won’t get so many
grey hairs going in or out but we do need to spin ourselves around so we
face north – that will be fun getting Andromeda to go backwards...watch
this space.

Most of the boats down this pontoon seem to be unoccupied at the moment
which makes it lovely and quiet and we are not overlooked at all so I can
wash my smalls and hang them out with impunity (I know some of you
are thinking -don’t you mean your bigs).

The very nice Pingu Doce supermarket is about 5 to 10 mins walk away and
well stocked and reasonably priced and I really enjoyed the profiteroles
.......yummy...forturnately they do little individual portions so I didn’t
have to eat Andrew’s.

Last Friday we went out for a lovely meal, courtesy of Liz and Chris who
arranged it for when we arrived as a birthday present. It was a great
evening, the atmosphere and location superb. Andrew ordered a tiger prawn
main course but the prawn was so huge we thought it looked more like a
lobster. I had the prawn cup (they were also fairly big )and then the
fillet mignon that was so tender and scrumptious but I still had room for
a bit of apple crumble and icecream

Saturday was a lovely day, I went along to say hello to our friends on
September Song – Sabina, Alain, Matis (4) and Alexia (7months), and found
out that the day after we left Sagres they discovered that their engine
wouldn’t work and had to pull up their anchor by hand and sail to Lagos
with no power. They have been stuck here ever since waiting for parts to
arrive – something that may happen to us in the future. However they were
really pleased that at least they were stuck in a reasonable marina and
have been enjoying the location while they wait.

After lunch we decided to try out the pool and couldn’t believe that the
water was colder than the sea and we missed the waves. However we did
brave the cold waters so that we could report back to you our readers.....
the kidney shaped pool was beautifully tiled and the blue water looked so
inviting, but we did wonder why it was so empty....now we know.

Sunday was a lovely day, after lunch we decided to try out the sea and
couldn’t believe that the water was warmer than the pool and we had the
waves. We did brave the hot yellow sand, the scallop shells, the seaweed
and the warmer waters so that we could report back to you our beloved
reader(s) (well we think there is at least one)..... the Atlantic was blue
and the water looked so inviting, but it was only marginally warmer than
the pool....however Susan no longer has blue feet.

Yesterday we had you will be pleased to know that we had some British
weather, it poured and poured and poured and the lightning flashed and
the thunder crashed all day long and most of the night but today we woke
up to blue sunny skies with a brisk southerly breeze.

Henrietta the Heron is the latest addition to our wildlife collection, she
first startled me one morning and now regularly appears between 7.30 and
8.00 to catch fish off the pontoon. She (well we say she but we don’t
really know – how can you tell?) regards us and Andromeda with her beady
and wary eye but seems to be getting used to us. We will post some
pictures so you can see how beautiful she is.

We caught up with our friends on Makathea (Susie – it was the Bill) who
crossed Biscay last weekend (they encountered Pilot Whales and Dolphins)
and arrived in lovely La Caruna a couple of days ago. They are on their
way to the Canaries for this years’ ARC but have had a whole series of
setbacks. If the weather is kind they may get to Lagos before they have
to head down to Las Palmas and we are wishing them fair winds and good
luck for their journey.

For those sailors out there we have been having fun listening to channel
72 that is used by most people as a working channel and some very bizarre
things can be heard. ‘How many are in the lounge?’ was repeatedly asked
by the various members of the Rotterdam crew. Dizzy, Tornado and Wild
Thing are constantly looking for dolphins, sharks etc and always swapping
co-ordinates and the local fishermen sound like they Russian gangsters.

We have set up a skype account and go under the name of spidermum so if
anyone out there has a skype number let us know and we can have a chat.
For those that don’t you only need a microphone/headset , you then set up
an account online and then we can chat for FREE.

We are currently planning our return to the UK for mid November and will
catch up with as many of you as we can.

More as and when it happens,
Andrew and Susan
s/v Andromeda
ps Andrew really surprised me by knowing which song and artist had these
lines in......

Oh, yeah, it was like lightning, everybody was frightening