Chores and Bits
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Mon 17 Jun 2013 22:37
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A Week of
Chores
The week began with the lounge
ceiling coming down and the captain successfully repairing – reseating the car traveler, bananas ripening in the sunshine. Lounge
ceiling back in place, great, but sikaflex dollops needing acetone removal.
Mmmm. All good but Beez smelt like a nail salon for the rest of the
day.
Bear went for more French sticks and
brought back a three kilo box of chicken bits, not
bad at four pounds fifty. Frozen solid, the skipper got to work separating them.
I wanted a piece of the fun and was soon wielding the hammer. We then scrubbed
the cockpit and then got down to the serious business of playing games, quite a
cold wind and drizzle = conservatory up. When I say I think it’s cold – I know
I’m being a wuss compared to UK temperatures, (it doesn’t drop below twenty four
degrees at night), but Bear did have to get the quilt out to stuff in our normal
‘just the quilt cover’, so even furry boy thinks it’s a bit chippy at
night.
Washing done, tool shed
tidied.
We
had a morning without wind so the poorly genoa was packed away and the spare came out and was hoisted.
Pegase III, our next-door-neighbour came in two days before us from Chile, a
journey of three and a half thousand miles. The French couple on board had spent
the last two years sailing Patagonia and Argentina. Before they left Europe they
spent time in Plymouth, Fowey and Falmouth. Our chats
are in a mix of English, French and Spanish, mostly
Spanish.......
We went to the Town Hall (a tiny
building that looks more like a portacabin – well kept grounds though) to see
Alice - her co-worker spoke good English, thankfully. We paid our ten pound fee
for the week, this is to be able to throw our rubbish in the bins provided
outside the sports hall, where the local group of drummers and dancers practice
every evening. We learned that there are three schools here with about three
hundred pupils in total. The population stands at one thousand, four hundred and
fifty two.
We had a
planning meeting and have penciled twenty stops (as
always totally written in sand) a short spuddle of four thousand, four hundred
and forty one miles, before arriving in New Zealand. On line we booked our place in Opua Marina, NZ for the 16th of
December, a huge thank you to Jane and Marilyn for all their help, looking
forward to meeting you both.
The Frenchman in the boat near us has
fun every day in his dinghy.
Beyond the anchorage is one of the pearl farms (all private, selling to Japan and Tahiti).
The area is famous for black pearls.
The nail from the
third toe came off and was duly presented to me, still think that’s a
bizarre thing to do to a wife. Mmmm. The picture, taken just before the event,
is just too horrific, so best seen as a tiny image. This happening put me in the right frame to wash all the mats, sweep
inside, clean the floor, change the bedding, scrub the bathroom and oil / polish
the walls. Maybe the captain has just gone off cutting nails ??? Martin
suggested that with New Zealand approaching that Bear could be called a Cave
Troll (too big to be a hobbit) - with his feet – I couldn’t agree more and
nothing could be more accurate. That’s it I’m off to
seal the windows. Again. I don’t like the word leak, so prefer to
say that in the big seas we found a little “moistness” around and below some of
the windows. Kitchen roll needed in one or two places........Hopefully that’s
another job success.
A clean
Beez
Well her left side is clean. Bear
worked hard scraping and scrubbing with many friends in attendance - hundreds of
jellyfish gathered for the free meals he was releasing into the water. The
skipper assured me his associates didn’t sting. Did you just touch their bell
end or did you actually touch the skirt end was my big question. Oh just the bell end. Oh well
I’m not convinced and certainly don’t see myself swimming amongst them. Since
the day we got here we have seen them all congregating, coming in on the onshore
wind. They are from small to dinner plate size – the white-ish to
see-through jobs that have four
chambers in the bell end, very pretty but simply put, I hate them. We haven’t
seen a single turtle so the numbers here aren’t at any risk of diminishing. I
also saw a baby tiger shark, beautiful colouring, I guess the lagoon is a safe
breeding ground for all kinds of creatures.
ALL IN ALL A BUSY
WEEK
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