Given that it was a weekend again, we remained onboard to avoid the crowds and entertained ourselves with a variety of activities, from preparation tasks to troubleshooting to maintenance chores, but one person was definitely more active than the other. For some inexplicable reason Elaine had to spend most of her morning on Saturday in bed, suffering from a debilitating wave of fatigue. Roy also enjoyed a relaxing morning while he awaited the high tide. When Elaine surfaced around lunchtime, Roy jumped in the water to clean the waterline and remove the bags from the propellers and saildrives, as well as give them a quick clean, the latter in preparation for the Yanmar mechanic arriving today. Unfortunately, when we started the engines, though, our port engine cut out for no apparent reason, similar to the generator. Being too much of a coincidence, we suspected the fuel polishing system Roy had installed a few months ago.

So, Sunday’s task, besides defrosting the freezer and topping up the battery water, was to troubleshoot the issue with the port engine. After disconnecting the fuel polishing system, the engine purred like a kitten. The generator, however, still cut out, definitely confirming an issue with the temperature sensor. Fortunately that spare part has arrived, which Roy will replace in due course.

As for the fuel polishing system, this has been redesigned to eliminate all the oneway valves, which weren’t functioning as designed, and this too will be reinstalled in due course; just when he thought he was finished with yacht projects!

Elaine spent her days being the usual gofer as needed, baking, catching up with family and friends around the world and preparing the dimensions and shape for an awning we’re hoping to have made. “Meeting” her great-great-grandparents by way of a photograph, secured by Elaine’s nephew during his Family Tree research, was definitely an unexpected event, as well as learning that her great-great-grandfather was a Sgt Major, who received the Queens South African medal for action at the Battle of Tugela Heights on the 14th and 27th of February 1900 and Relief of Ladysmith on the 28th February 1900. Elaine’s brother followed in our great-great-grandfather’s footsteps on a tour a couple of years ago and the medal is with our aunt. Fascinating what comes to live when one delves into the past!

Not quite the distant past, but, nonetheless, a tad surreal too, we ended up with Kristal a single berth away from us after the marina staff had completed the “musical chairs” activity of moving various yachts around. It was definitely a strange sight to have both World ARC yachts as immediate neighbours again after all this time.

Today, having expected the Yanmar mechanic onboard to undertake the work on our engines that we had previously arranged to be done in Thailand last year, we received a message that a health matter has delayed his arrival; one that is not COVID-19 related we understand, but certainly had us jump to that conclusion initially. As a result, we used the time to get the laundry done, a mission in itself these days, as Roy lugs everything up to the laundromat, gets everything washed and dried, then rushes back to Paw Paw so Elaine can fold everything before it wrinkles. We’re hoping this palaver changes in the not too distant future too, but for now it’s the only means of getting a necessary warm water wash done.

After lunch it was time for Elaine’s long overdue optometry appointment, something she could no longer postpone, given the uncertainty around the visa amnesty again, definitely increasing our anxiety levels as the deadline approaches. The freshly baked French pastry with our late morning coffee, however, went a long way to assuage us.