Turned another corner (back again)
DecaDance's Web Diary
Chris White and Jeanna Coleman
Sun 19 Dec 2010 13:27
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Position: 37:06.6N 008:40.5W
- Lagos Marina (still)
I spoke too soon when I said we had turned a corner as the
next day, when we logged onto our emails, we found out that Stewart has changed
his mind about joining us as crew and the lease transfer on Chris's car has
fallen through. Chris was so dejected I treated him to a copy of the Daily
Mail, (which at €2.20 a pop is now a twice, maybe three times, weekly Mail) and
left him wallowing in the puzzles whilst I cleaned the cabin ready for
Rob's arrival.
We met Rob at the train station Friday morning and Chris
greeted him with, "Where are the corks?" in reference to his hat.
Fortunately, Rob has that laid back amiable humour so typical of Australians and
he replied with, "You started already?" Rob unpacked and I cooked steak
and mushroom pasta whilst the boys hoisted the mainsail to
try suss out why we're chafing reefing lines. It looks like I tempted fate
by saying we're fixing things faster than we're breaking them, as we
discovered we've also damaged the sail whilst reefing. It's repairable,
and Chris and Rob have made a temporary repair to last until the
Canaries, but it's so frustrating on a brand-new sail, not to mention yet
more expense.
We decided to treat Rob to one final meal at Adega da Marina
and walked into the town first. It was very quiet, but probably too early
for the locals to be out, so we popped into an Irish Bar which was the only one
with any sign of life. The barman there recommended a different
restaurant, Casinha Do Pestico, which is well off the tourist route
and apparently so good that often there are queues outside. We found the
tiny restaurant, and sat out the twenty minute wait for a table in yet
another Irish bar. The food was fabulous, and you can tell how easy going
Rob is, as less than 12 hours after meeting him I was dunking my saute potatoes
in his prawn sauce.
Yesterday morning, Rob and I went to the supermarket for a
final shop whilst Chris made sure all the bills were paid and downloaded the
latest Gribs. Unfortuately, the low pressure system that we were due to
miss has intensified and moved South so our departure has been
delayed. At the moment it looks as though the earliest we will
be able to depart is Wednesday which means we'll be at sea for Christmas.
Rob's wife, Rozzie, doesn't seem to mind him being away for Christmas, which may
be the case whether or not he sails with us, as at the moment he wouldn't be
able to land in snow-bound Britain. But as we've seen on more than one
occasion, things can change rapidly so we'll have to wait to see whether the
weather will allow us to sail, or Rob to
fly. |