Sines

Wandering Dream
Steve Litson
Tue 5 Aug 2014 21:18
Penny's WD Blog contd.
 
Did I omit to mention that 'The Day Of The Bucket' was also Steve and my 30th wedding anniversary? One to remember, or, may be forget?
 
We gave ourselves Wednesday to relax and recover, and, for me to have the £30 key card which gave us access to the marina toilets and showers, whipped from my hand and into the sea, by the wind, as we walked the gangplank to dry land. Sheryl and I watched in disbelief as it slowly drifted down to the rocks below, then we committed the fatal man overboard error - took our eyes off the card and stopped pointing, and it sunk without trace. A salutary (and costly) lesson! There was, as you can well imagine, no sympathy from the men. Sheryl and I had to laugh, no point crying over a drowned card, just learn to hold on more tightly in future! However, this did follow Sheryl and Peter's unhappiness at 5.00 am, when, having journeyed from boat to marina specifically to avail themselves of the marina facilities they could not get in due to key card issues, which, in turn, had followed no water available for showers at the end of sweaty-toilet-fix-Tuesday, as there had been a "rupture" in the mains water supply! A theme of bathroom complications seemed to be emerging!
 
During the day we got to meet Nick and Jay who Steve has mentioned. In fact Nick was on the pontoon to help us moor when we arrived. Both Sheryl and I thought the same thing at the same moment....Dave (Allan) do you have a long lost brother you have never told us about, of even a cousin?
 
Our original plan had been to sail to Gibraltar during the week, and that's where our return flights were booked from; however, it quickly became apparent that in order to complete the 380 mile journey we would have to be sailing through at least 2 nights and 3 days. Even with toilet facilities on board this would have been pushing it. Sheryl and Peter are very able, willing sea persons  (I am neither and have no desire to be either), but Steve did not feel it was really doable, especially as the wind forecast seemed somewhat unreliable. He had not intended for our first voyage to be in such strong winds, and every afternoon the winds along that coastline come up due to the land heating up and air from the sea rushing into replace the rising hot air.....or something like that! So we changed our flights so we could fly home from Faro, rather than Gibraltar.
 
We had lunch out and supper in, ( I now know how to successfully poach an egg thanks to Sheryl's proficiency in Wandering Dream's galley), so we could have an early night ready for a 5.30am start front Sines to Lagos, on Thursday. Steve was hopeful that this bigger place could provide him with at least a new toilet pump, and, failing that, a whole new toilet. We just had a 13 hour sail, (72 nautical miles) to do to get there....