I’d finished my Tai Chi and was well into my abs when Si appeared geared up for a winch up the mast. The morning skies were still dark with heavy rain which decided to deposit a small lake on us. I toyed briefly with the idea of leaving him up the mast and running for cover but I was wearing my friendly head today. Instead I lowered him down and made my drenched sailor hot pancakes with bananas and maple syrup for breakfast: A lightweight option again! The morning was quiet up on deck. The sensible people were still tucked up in bed or slowly coming to life with gentle chores.

   It could only have been dirt holding our spray hood together as after a good scrub last week the stitching fell away from the zip either side of my repair. I sat under the ‘sun’ awning sheltered from the rain and set about mending the spray hood. Well that is until Si set off for a seminar when I immediately abandoned the spray hood to finish the fancy dress costumes for tomorrow night. By the time he returned they were hidden away. Our antennae is now not working after getting a soaking last night so we are now having even more difficulties with accessing the internet. Luke next door kindly went online to check length of costumes and hair dos for me, so I think we are ready for the fancy dress party if not Sunday’s race. There has been lots of reminiscing going on as people decide on their children’s TV characters.

   I’d had very little sleep again last night and by afternoon was extremely weary. Si didn’t know quite how I managed to fall asleep three times during Thomas’ lecture on downwind sailing as it was pretty scary hearing all that can go wrong. Luckily his presentation was similar to his one in March and Simon was taking notes. The rain came down again as we left the conference hall and my trusty Brommy sped me back to the boat while Si stopped at the internet café. Unfortunately I didn’t get back quite soon enough to save the laundry and even more unfortunately forgot to get the boat key from Si. I grabbed my half dry waterproof jacket from the laundry and luckily found Si swearing at his computer in the bar.

   It was all systems go back on Brindabella as we’d invited Deb and Al for drinks and there was nowhere to sit inside the boat. With little time I scooped up piles of paperwork and equipment from the seats depositing them in the fore cabin, cleared the table, then knocked out my bread dough to make a tray of assorted focaccia to have with drinks. Si returned absolutely drenched for the second time today just as the Raymarine guys returned with our speed display unit which they’d taken away this morning. They also gave us another ‘Lifetag’ to replace our one which had a mind of its own.

   It was lovely to unwind with Deb and Al who are such lovely people. Feeling much more chilled I made a quick veggie curry for dinner then unsuccessfully attempted work on the laptop. After falling asleep over the keypad umpteen times I gave up and went to bed hoping for a decent night’s sleep.