Exercise time
Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Sun 18 Oct 2009 09:19
Not much to report now on a daily basis as we are about ready for the lift on Monday and are just hanging around for the odd visit made by the people working on the boat.
I have joined the morning walking group which does an energetic route march up the nearest hill for an hour every morning at 7.30am. Might miss Sunday's walk as they are planning a three hour hike into the forest, over the next set of hills using a GPS for navigation. (No maps or paths)
The walkers are a very mixed bunch and you just fall in with whoever seems to be going at a pace you can manage. I was a little concerned on my first morning as I found myself walking with Jo who is a 67 year old Kiwi lady who was telling me tales of her most recent international marathons and triathlons. Seems she is carrying an injury so I was able to keep up with her!
Sarah is nursing her broken little toe and so has an excuse not to be joining us yet.
Had dinner with Trevor and Lesley last night on their Westerly Konsort (36ft) which they call their 'cupboard'. A lovely boat on which they have done a lot of very inventive work (and she is up for sale, - any takers?). Lesley treated us to a delicious curry - yes, we are beginning to miss all those home comforts like a takeaway! Near their boat they, like us, have quite an energetic pool with lit multiple fountains. In Trevor and Lesley's pool there have now appeared some pretty large (particularly for the size of pond) and exotic fish - how they survive in this very barren environment we have no idea. So we peered in 'ours' on the way back to the boat - all we had was a large, but dead cockroach - really not quite as impressive.
Also on the way home we were surprised to see that the marina staff were still working both boat hoists at midnight. They have been working later and later into the nights and I am pretty sure the UK Health & Safety people would have plenty to say about the working practices out here. But when you add darkness to the equation it is all quite alarming at times. We are being lifted on Monday but you do not get given a time in advance so we just have to hope it is early rather than in the middle of the night.
It has been very impressive seeing the yard fill with boats as the travel hoist crews are now lifting 20 or more boats a day and placing them in tightly packed lines in the huge yard. You have to give them the exact re-launch date as you come out so they can put you where they can get at you on the right date next year. If you change your mind and want to launch earlier, they charge you €250 to move you and €250 for every boat they have to move to get to you! Most impressive are the huge super yachts that they are lifting at the same time and on Friday they had an enormous catamaran that was too big even for the 300 ton hoist, so they brought in two cranes to deal with it on a different quay which took all day.