Another Busy Week - Crater Bay
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Sat 14 Sep 2019 23:57
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Another Busy Week - Crater Bay
to the 14th of September
 Sunday the 8th.
Midday and a big group descended on the Crater Bay Yacht Club Restaurant for pig
roast, salad, potatoes, and a couple of glasses of wine. Nations represented by
the yachties – Brazil, Canada, England, France,
Philippines, South Africa, Switzerland and the USA. A merry time and lots of
chatting.
  Lady
Yachties with and without a local photobomber.
   During the afternoon, a hard fought game of boules. Third,
Second and Winners.
 The Pan Saga.
During the afternoon Rob and Tracy (Fob)
explained the problem. A couple of days ago Rob had been cooking a starter and
didn’t want splashes so he slipped a pan lid on the frying pan – a non-married
set. The lid stuck fast. Rob spent four hours trying to unseat the stubborn
union and loving a challenge, we went to pick it up on our way home. Our promise
to Beattie and Glen – if we failed after an hour we would drop it over to them .
We stared at the thing for two minutes, no suction trouble as Rob had taken a
tool to each side of the lid, so out came the mini-blowtorch and a hefty
crowbar. I heated each side of the handle and Bear pressed down. Off if popped.
Returned to Fob. Solved in four minutes. Much grunting and groaning and our
prize due in the morning.....
  Monday the 9th. As
promised, although we did say it was so much fun, Rob popped over with
the Pan Saga Prize – a bottle of rum. Chatting we both realised we needed to
rummage in each others hard drives for films and TV stuff. Back Rob came with
his. We wished them a good trip out to see see
whales. Meanwhile back on the
chores front. Bear serviced the little outboard and then had to re-seal
the fuel tank as there was a tiny leak. A pleased boy when all was well.
While that was on the go I had one of my own mucky jobs......
  ......that time again. The only good
thing about taking the stones out of dates, cutting the
mango slices and mixing the skippers muesli,
is, I get to steal a Smartie or two, small payment for sticking to the scissors
and my fillings doing backstroke across my mouth. After doing the laundry I
spent the rest of the day happily adding rummaged films and TV series too and
fro. A great collection of audiobooks too.
  Tuesday the 10th.
Up with the crack of sparrows. Bear delivered Rob and
Tracy’s hard drive, popped our petrol cans over to Allen on Nauti
Nauti, (some of the yachts are having a diesel /petrol run here and offered
to fill for us) packed and ashore waiting for a trusty tuktuk to Hellville. We
had told Vince to expect us late morning and by the time we had stopped for a
puncture, a swapped tuktuk, a pit-stop for a few things at the supermarket and
the rest of the journey, it was indeed half eleven. Vince came to the jetty for
us, once aboard he hoisted the dinghy and we were
soon cracking a cold one over lunch on Salty
Dog.
 Again I was in my
hard drive rummaging element, this time juggling between ours, Vince’s and the
ones I had borrowed from Allen. The day nipped by in a minute, before we knew it
sunset was upon us.
  A slack Bear. Vince did the boys prawn
and pasta (and very good it was too),
I had tuna salad.
 Vince and Bear. Plenty of stories until the late
hours.
Wednesday the 11th.
An easy-going morning then Vince took Bear ashore to go and collect our
chartplotter chip (YAY, fingers crossed it works and we have a map with details,
as opposed to the seven-year-olds attempt at cartography we currently have).
Bear picked a few bits up from the supermarket in town (cheaper red wine boxes
than the other big store) and once I was ashore we went in search of a tuktuk.
We ended up in a taxi for the same price but had to have fingers crossed that we
would make it. So worried was I when we got to the bumpy bit down to the marina
that we offered to walk. Our driver was delighted and kept thanking us. After
lunch Bear went to pick up and pay for our petrol and Allen told him that sadly
a dinghy had been stolen from the back of one of the yachts in the night. So
sad. Actually, our painter (the little rope that ties Baby Beez) was
slashed but we have a chunky chain, not obvious as it dangles below the water
and sits against the hydrovane. Painter – another boaty term from the French
‘penteur’.
  Thursday the 12th.
We still like sitting and watching the fisherman.
Twenty-odd small boats row out and form groups, one puts out an enormous net,
others fish inside. Very often a chap flails in the water to scare the fish into
the nets, there is usually lots of laughter and great banter. This lady is
having her sail hoisted for the journey after the mast goes up. Bear put the newly
refurbished chip in the chartplotter an hey presto all was well. He spent the
rest of the morning taking the salt water pump out (the one we use to rinse the
dishes before washing them) as it has failed and leaks a bit. The rest of the
day he read off the film titles from the TV screen and I checked against our
master list.
  Friday the 13th.
Vince dinghied over this morning and was soon flying his drone taking some great pictures that have their
own blog. Then it was time to don his snorkel and
sort out our adenoid (Rob’s name for it). For a while now we have heard a bit of
a clonking and throbbing as our anode on the stern drive leg had corroded around
the bolts attaching it so it was freely spinning with the propeller. A couple of
hours later all was well. Bear never fancied doing the job as he was worried
about dropping a nut and the weight of the prop etc.
  Vince (hero of the day) did a
good job and after lunch returned to his own chores
back in Hellville. I spent the rest of the day printing out our new DVD list,
replacing the store of printed boat papers and copied our Madagascan Visa pages
in our Passports in readiness to get our extension on Monday. Bear took me out
to supper and once again I had honey cooked pork chop and chips to his seafood
pizza. The band was equally entertaining as last week and sang ‘Happy Birthday’
to Larry.
 Saturday the 14th. This morning I caught up with
banking, blogging and a few little jobs whilst Bear walked up to the town here
in Crater Bay. Chuffed to nuts on his return, he had managed to buy a new pump
for the saltwater tap, some fruit and two French sticks. After lunch I managed
to lose at backgammon but took a sneaky win at Mex Train. Back to chores. Makes
us laugh that many folk think all we do is sit on palm-fronded beaches. Since
arriving in the country on the 22nd of July we have had six days off. Hoping to have some more in the next fortnight before wending our
way down the coast to Baly Bay before crossing over to South Africa.
A pink dusk. Another busy week that has simply flown
by.
ALL IN ALL FINALLY MOVING
FORWARD – AT LAST
GETTING THERE ON THE JOB FRONT WITH SOME
PROGRESS
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