T minus 1 day 26th May - Very Busy Day = Shopping and Leaving Party

Catmojo
Matt
Wed 27 May 2020 05:09

T-1 day


No Bread Fairy today because Oh VERY Busy Day.  


Bread Fairy? During the Lockdown No Visiting other boats was allowed.  No, no, NO!  Unless you're delivering food to them of course.  Aha!  Off I went to the boulangerie, bought a bag of croissants, and take them to several friend on boats.  The Gendarmes circle BUT I’m delivering essential supplies, see?  Eventually the Gendarmes stopped me one morning in the dinghy with several bags of croissants, Wot are you doing? (in French) I explained I was delivering Vital Food to several boats in Dire Need.  Not sure if many if any boats were ever in Dire Need of a croissant but it was a nice excuse to visit.  AND not a Banned Commerical Venture because i’m giving away the croissants, see?  I offered the chief Gendarme a croissant, he took it and no problems since then.  Sometimes I waved a croissant at him as he sped around, and he waved me away, haha.  

The croissant run got a bit out of hand and eventually I'm getting up to twenty croissants a time, but quite cheap entertainment to meet everyone at 7am Oh Heck it’s flippin Matt on Mojo Again Jeez but he's got Croissants -  Will you go? No you go, But I haven't got any clothes on for crissakes!  Well one of us better go take the croissants else the dog will eat them, or the birds, or maybe the Bread Fairy won't think we care?  

The Bread Fairy was kinda silly, but maybe kinda important for lots of people to have a Nice Day (including me of course) when things were otherwise a Bit Grim.  And also shows that a French boulangerie will open every day including Sundays and public holidays Whatever Happens.  


Other boats found their own reasons and excuses to visit other boats, the net result being that I have never met quite as many people and/or had as many visitors to a boat (or house) as during Lockdown. Several other boat crews have said exactly the same. Anyway, it was Ritchard on another catamaran Sayonara who called me the Bread Fairy, not me.  


The Busy Day is because today was the day we had to 

1) Buy all the food for 3 weeks or more and 

2) Get ready for the Leaving Party on Mojo in the evening. 


Sam got a cheap rental car, and a bunch of bottles of 5litre bottles of water, and then I returned with the water in the dinghy to deliver the water in bottles to the boat, all stashed by Anna and Ampi.   We're taking 40 bottles, about 200litres of bottled water.  This in case all the water tank pumping gear (that actually works fine) and/or the watermaker (that also works fine) suddenly stops working in the middle of the ocean.   We’ll still have enough drinking water in the 40x 5 litre bottles. 


By 11am we all had to wander around the supermarket and collect food, each with a trolley.  I said No Breakfast Allowed on this special shopping day, so 4 hungry people made sure they have Lots of food for the trip.  Ampi had a plan, and the rest of us made sure that we Ooh Look, Rosé!  Or Ooh Look, Twixes!  A pic shows Ampi and Anna jammed in the back of a very small car with $900 food shop for 3 weeks of food and Stuff.  Another shows Anna trying (and failing) to weigh down the front end of a very heavy dinghy full of all the food.  


At 3pm I made Fairly Healthy Punch for the Party.  4 litres citrus, 1 litre passion fruit,1 litre vodka, massive splosh of rum, bag of ice all swirled into in a specially-bought New Bucket all supervised by slightly bewildered but medically approving Anna, and yes, that tastes fine! Bosh it in the freezer,  I had a snooze, and later someone practised waking me (SHOUT!) and the party started at 5:15.  


What a Fab Party!   Lots of lovely people turned up from other cruising boats, and lots brought Party Food or Party Drinks.  Many of them only knew others (or me) as voices from VHF radio for over a month or more but had never actually met.   Razzle Dazzle, Twenty-Twenty, Jamesby, Quinn, Zulu, Glittra, Sinbad, Jace, Octavia, Sayonara, Cadenza, Nathaniel, Tangaroa2, Stet, Gypsy Blues are all the names of OTHER cruising boats in Marigot Bay (as well as Mojo) all with their own stories and adventures, and I hope we’ll meet them all again. And the crew of Sam, Ampi and Anna all helped make it a fab evening too.   


Another pic is Anna and Ampi at the party.  All the crew (but not me, or any of the other party goers) went Late Swimming.  So only three of them, the flippin lunatics.  


Midnight now so I better get some zeds. 


We’ll do final checks in the morning, possibly play more pranks on VHF and say final goodbyes to other boats as The Very Last Lockdown Bread Fairy disappears after one final round, and Mojo heads off around 9-10am local time which might be 2-3 pm in Europe or UK. 


Great friend and maestro Atlantic ever-circuiting solo sailor Mike on Quinn (about 30 Atlantic crossings in a 28ft boat) is expert weather forecaster, and took me aside during the party "You do realise you're all gonna to die?"   Arg!  But of course he is technically very correct (again) -  all of us (including sadly even you reading this) are ALL gonna die, some day, but hopefully some day quite a long way in the future, of course   So we're making sure we do some fun things well before that, starting with sailing the Atlantic. Hurrah! 


More seriously, Mike says a useful strategy will be to run a line towards Lisbon and turn right at about the latitude of Madeira, so we'll try go with that.


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