Escape on CAPE - March 2007

March 2007

Escape on CAPE

David, Sarah and Bryn Smith

Sun 8 Apr 2007 18:38

54:24.5N 004:05.04W

Since moving onto CAPE permanently a couple of weeks ago, things have settled into a sort of routine. David and Lawrence have been working on ‘stuff’ at the pointy end of the boat – this seems to entail emptying ALL of the lockers to look for tools (so that it is impossible to move around inside the boat), leaving all of the hatches open (so that the wind whistles in and it’s freezing), lots of sanding, drilling, sawing, stinky fibreglass, swearing when they drop important bits down the bilges or over the side, and Radio 1 on as loud as possible. I think that this means that they are making progress.

The children and I managed to do ‘school’ for a couple of days under these adverse conditions, but have given up a bit since – we will catch up when we can get to the lockers that contain school again. Bryn is now employed rowing Lawrence and David backwards and forwards across the harbour to the Boat Club shed, and Bethany has been helping me to secrete books, clothes and toiletries (you know of course that they don’t have pharmacies and chemists anywhere else in the world, which is why I always take lots of stuff like that…) in lockers where David doesn’t look. The children and I have also been stocking up the food for the boat. We now have a very impressive collection of corned beef, noodles, rice, chocolate spread, peanut butter, sun dried tomatoes and coconut milk (I will publish the recipe someday), oh and the bilges are full of wine (we are not sure exactly what it is apart from being red or white because we have to take the labels off so that they don’t clog the bilge pump). The children and I have usually had enough by mid-afternoon and we pop to the pub for a pint – well ok, a cappuccino/hot chocolate – and for me to use the free wireless broadband to check e-mail. Sometimes my laptop finds itself an unsecured wireless network in the evening from the boat and sends what I’ve done, otherwise I’m forced to go to the pub every day. Evenings are spent putting everything back into the lockers (ready for David and Lawrence to take them out again the next day), cooking supper, and the odd bit of otter watching before collapsing into bed.

We are off to Ireland from the 4^th to the 11^th April. We hope to be able to do our ‘Sea survival’ course (kids too) while we are out there, learning to right an upturned life-raft while wearing pyjamas and setting off distress flares in a way that doesn’t take out the air-sea rescue helicopter. After we get back, there will only be about 12 days before we are due to leave – we have to go then because our mooring finishes and we have to be in Neyland for a lift out to fit a dynoplate (I guess some sort of flattened extinct animal from the name) on the underside of the hull…. (I hope that it doesn't interfere with the wine storage in the bilges). The list of things-to-do has got to start getting shorter at some point soon, not longer as it seems to be at the moment! We still have to empty the office at The Glen, and move a few final bits to Catherine’s for storage. I can feel a large rubbish skip coming on… So much to do, so many lockers to empty and repack…

Hope all of you out there are getting your pirate and wench costumes ready for the leaving party on 21st April (David promises not to wear his Frankenfurter costume again, but he might just wear his fishnets underneath his wench outfit). Lawrence has got two bands booked for the evening and we've got plenty of gas for the BBQ.