Pete and Linda left reluctantly for the airport in Cat Eyes Taxi – a yellow icon and a shrine to Bob Marley, leaving Ryan and me parked up in Prickly Bay, Grenada.  Off the port bow, mothballed, is Excellence, Peter Coxon’s Beneteau normally kept in Dartmouth ,off the port quarter - Namaste.  Both of these very familiar as I sailed across the Atlantic with both of them in 2008.   

 

With the prospect of a week to bring Oboe back up to her sparkling self – something she deserves after looking after us so well over the last couple of months, Ryan and I made a list.  So what’s so tough about that?  Nothing really:

 

·         Drink beer

·         Laundry – 4 bags of smelly washing

·         Diesel refill at £120 requiring weighing anchor and an alongside manoeuvre against a rough old dock with 0.5m of water below the keel.  Nudge away and back to anchorage and re-dig the hook

·         Replace Volvo fuel filters and raw water impellor – requiring double joints and resulting in bleeding knuckles

·         Genset oil change requiring Ryan (Nigel is too big!) to drop down into the abyss of the lazerette

·         Water maker filter change – more double joints needed

·         Sail repair – sorry Oboe didn’t mean to rip your mainsail again!

·         Modify rams horns so that mainsail is not so easily ripped

·         Deep clean bilges and find all 3 bilge pumps blocked with sawdust and GRP dust AGAIN!

·         Climb mast to the top, swing uncontrollably whilst attempting to replace anchor light bulb, which didn’t actually need replacing!

·         Drink more beer

·         Clean log of barnacles

·         Hire scuba gear and an air tank, bring to boat, dive propshaft, clean off and replace sacrificial anodes underwater without dropping anything! (Well done Nigel!)

·         Dust, polish 3 cabins and saloon

·         Deep clean 3 heads – Cillit Bang to the fore! (Yuch!)

·         Balance in dinghy and wash down topsides with warm soapy water then swim round the boat with Scotchbrite pad in hand to remove algae from waterline

·         Degunge the cockpit nooks and crannies

·         Polish 21 hatches and windows inside and out

·         Move on to the rum!

·         Make 4 single beds and one king size bed

·         Lay out bath and hand towels

·         Tidy Bosun’s locker

·         Tidy lazerette and safety locker

·         Check and repack 6 life jackets

·         Clean out and sterilise 2 fridges and a deep freeze

·         Take empty gas bottle and try to get someone to fill it

·         Taxi to supermarket to get half of items on shopping list – no milk, no fruit, no toilet paper – frustration!

·         Service outboard engine, buy petrol and deep clean all sand out of bottom of dinghy

·         Drink lots more beer!  Eat loads’a pasta!

 

 

Collapse in a heap each night.  BUT IT IS ALL FINISHED – YEAH! And just in time for a spot of Tiffin with Jonty, our imaginary friend!

 

Nigel and Ryan