Beez Neez now Chy Whella - Crater Week to 13/10/19

Crater Week to 13/10/19

Beez Neez now Chy Whella

Big Bear and Pepe Millard

Sun 13 Oct 2019 23:57

Crater Week to the 13th of October

Saturday 5th of October. Sometimes, I get the best view. Bear set to work cleaning the cockpit to help me out. I continue to load Vince’s external hard drive (as a thank you for him diving on our anode which saved us hauling out in South Africa). Setting files to load I began sweeping the floors and cleaning the fridge. Later, we went for a curry night on Salty Dog (own blog).

Sunday the 6th. Bear woke feeling terribly nauseous and after a small breakfast settled for the day in the cockpit resting and sleeping. Seems like he is suffering from a 24-hour viral thing that many have had over the last few weeks. I carried on hard drive loading and kept myself busy. In the afternoon there was a rainbow and I managed this picture of Petra (Ken and Beatie). At seven Bear laid in bed not fancying any supper - rare, a couple of episodes of Seal and crashed hard into a very deep sleep. So hope he feels better tomorrow, so unlike him.

Monday the 7th. Bear felt bright enough for a light breakfast and a small sandwich for lunch. At three we popped over to Vince and I handed over his three-quarters full 3tb external hard drive YAY. The three of us dropped past Zap to say farewell to Renee, Andre and son Andre (who has joined the crew for their next journey over to East Africa), they asked us to meet them in the bar at four thirty for a leavers beer. Meantime, we bimbled up to the village and headed to the beach to buy Trevor a birthday tee shirt. Windy or what........would not like to anchor here at all.

As we took in the beach, not that many tourists, we were swarmed by sellers offering everything from tours, massages, fridge magnets, vanilla, perfume, necklaces and so much more..............

.........I did take a shine to a model of a local boat. The ones with a red sail looked really nice but the cream sail was more authentic. Price dropped quickly from twenty pounds to eight and I was delighted.

This is now what I must look like as I was chatted up by a none-too-pretty German holidaymaker who had clearly been at many a sherbet. Ah well. I loved this laydee showing her chicks how to scruff about.

At five we settled with five boats as a ‘farewell’ to Zap. We met Olivia’s (bar owner) gorgeous bundle (sounds like Malagasy for Ethan) and above us a big chap. His body was about an inch long, during supper he cast a couple of lines that glistened across the table.

Tuesday the 8th. Kimi and Trevor (Slow Flight) returned from their few days over at Komba and popped over to say ”Hi”. Late morning Bear and I looked as if we were moving aboard Salty Dog as Vince had said I could use his “big space” to finally repair the right hand side dodger that had been badly ripped on the journey to Madagascar. Adding new outside strips was the easy part on the big machine. Then came all the ripped letters of Beez Neez. Heath Robinson job I’m afraid, done on the little machine that needs to be seen at some distance. On my pink list to make a new pair of dodgers........ We were fortified (Bear as usual helped manhandle material for me) as Vince made us an omelette for lunch. Late afternoon Allen (Nauti Nauti) popped over to Salty to report that his parcel may be with him on Thursday – fingers crossed, it has been stuck in the capital for a month now and Customs have taken a thousand dollars so far in import tax (iridium phone and a few boat spares). Home for a quick shower and back ashore as Trevor and Kimi fancied a pizza (I swear I will soon look like a honey pork chop......).

Wednesday the 9th. At ten to eight we picked Vince up to meet Amy (Starry Horizons), Trevor and Kimi for a mini-bus shopping tour to Leader Price for our final Big Shop. On our way back we stopped at the ‘beer and rum shop’ and it was mayhem as a massive pile of beer slabs were absorbed into the bus. This is the pile minus the seven Trevor shot over to China Dream, the two Bear and Vince each took, the rest made a seat for me to wait while Bear dropped Vince off and went to Beez for our jerry cans. The diesel pile (delivered by Jacques) is for Slow Flight and Beez Neez. Bear took me home to sort the shopping as he returned to decant his load. By two I felt myself sinking into the bug Bear suffered on Sunday. Mmmm, dizzy, nauseous and heavy headed I retired injured to bed leaving just a small amount of shopping to stow. Game over for me for the rest of the day.

Thursday the 10th. Trevor’s birthday, he had decided he wanted to be in Russian Bay, so early this morning I held myself upright just long enough for the anchor to come up then I returned to my sick bed to sleep. As I left the cockpit I took a quick picture of the lovely blue, calm water and one of the always cheerful skipper.

Once anchored, Bear helped me by peeling the spuds to make a potato salad and by four I had rallied enough to cut a salad. Aboard Slow Flight at five, I settled in the corner with Amy (Starry Horizons) and Sophia (China Dream). It never ceases to amaze us how yachties can throw an amazing spread together.

A whirlwind in the shape of Clare (Spill the Wine – what a great boat name) and crew Logan appeared with a prosciutto, complete with stand and knife. Jackie (China Dream) took a turn at slicing.

Great food, birthday cake and happy faces.

Time for Trevor to hit the slippery nipples – down in one of course. I managed to last out until eleven when I hit the wall – one coke and one weak vodka and coke so bug not booze. Spill the Wine and our hosts kept going for some time after. Yet another great evening and another birthday celebrated suitably.

Friday the 11th. Trevor popped over looking not to much the worse for wear and said he didn’t need a recovery day so it was back to Crater Bay. This local shot past us doing about six knots as Bear held our model up for comparison (currently in quarantine in the cockpit in case of unwanted visitors.....). Another local, equally as fast coming the other way.

Serafina enjoyed a nice sail and Slow Flight saw a whale shark.

Back to Crater it was nice to see a dinghy under full sail.......

.......as a local chugged out.

Saturday the 12th. At three this morning it rained hard for a short time, nursing the leak pot in the office electrickery cupboard, nothing happened – hurrah. However, all the nooks and crannies must have been dry and eventually there was a little drip, drip. I took in the sunrise at five thirty, my turn to watch the drip..... After breakfast and with much muttering, Bear went about sealing everything he could find further forward – granny bar stands, screws under where the jerry cans stand strapped into place and anything that remotely looked suspect. We wait for the next rain to judge success. I settled to doing some film copying for Kimi and Trevor. After lunch it was lovely to look up and see Canace coming in to anchor behind us. Trevor popped over to tell that his batteries are iffy and he has an electrician visiting at nine on Monday. Kevin popped over to borrow some tools to attack his water maker – always ‘something’ with yachts.........

Sunday the 13th. The very best way to start a Sunday, two perfectly boiled eggs. Bear pottered by putting the generator to bed, tidying the cockpit, put all his tools away,filled the fuel tank and stowed the jerry cans. I was generally a very good boy. Indeed Sir, indeed. Then he sat and together we produced a Sand Plan, really to check timings for getting to Cape Town on the 16th of December, from which we worked our way back from.

I sent Kimi our sand plan. She printed them (saved me digging out my clothing drawer where ours is resting), put them in a plastic cover with a Slow Flight Pen and sent me this picture. Wow, is she setting the standards bar high...... Bear cheekily commented I hope she adds some note paper (which was duly approved and done). At five we went in with Kevin and Irma to a relaxed but formal planning meeting – well people having a chat over a beer and stubby index fingers pointing at maps on IPads.......

The moon was huge but with it came such still air so out came mosquito spray.

Maria took a picture of me taking moon shots and had a local take this one of our meeting. Beez Neez, Canace, Seraphina and Slow Flight hope to be a gang on the way to Richards Bay, we were joined by another boat but doing their own thing. We were due to nip over to Hellville to check out on the morrow but we will wait to see what the engineer tells Trevor at nine in the morning re his poorly batteries (under warranty).