Our specific plans for the day, however, weren’t affected, as we still ran the watermaker while enjoying a slow motor across the bay and Elaine used the time to get the laundry done. By the time we arrived, we’d managed to get a few extra chores completed too.
By then an afternoon nap was in order, although Elaine enjoyed a meditation session beforehand, followed by sundowners on the foredeck, dinner and a movie. It was over a dinner of barbecued chops, mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli, however, that this exchange took place: “Is it just me or do these potatoes have a peculiar taste?”, at which point Roy burst out laughing and asked: “When you put the potatoes in the shopping basket, did you actually check the label to make sure they were potatoes?”. Completely clueless Elaine replied: “Ah, no, they looked like potatoes, so I just lifted a bag!”. Clearly, given that it had been more than a year since Elaine had accompanied Roy to do any kind of grocery shopping, she was a little rusty and we now have no idea what vegetable we are actually eating. It has a taste combination of a potato, a sweet potato and a yam and is definitely not to our liking, but there’s a whole packet of them to be eaten, so guess we’ll be acquiring the taste, no doubt!
Yesterday saw the start of the bad weather arriving, particularly the rain, as we’re well protected from the wind. The jury is still out on the swell, though. So far we’ve had a slight swell; less than a foot, but the forecast keeps indicating something higher.
The day did brighten up, however, allowing us to get a few small projects completed off the list of “things to do when we have the time or inclination“. Yesterday those included the replacement of the velcro strips on the cockpit cushions to secure them properly and redoing some of our labels around the yacht which were looking decidedly tired and worn. Today we replaced all the bungee chords, again, on the sunscreens and side-skirts. We haven’t been able to find decent bungee anywhere since leaving Australia, but fortunately one of the chandleries at the Boat Lagoon marina had a better quality supply. Roy, however, also had to tackle a persistent gremlin on Paw Paw with the generator. After replacing the lift pump for the second time, we had hoped we’d eventually resolved the issue and it appeared we had until this evening when it started to splutter again, albeit briefly; We’ve done everything possible to troubleshoot this problem, including blowing all the fuel pipes to ensure there were no blockages and polishing the fuel to ensure we weren’t dealing with dirty fuel, but everything came back to the new pump we had installed less than three months ago, or so we thought! Now, the only other explanation could be that the return valve is faulty. If that doesn’t solve it, it can just splutter away!
A nice long chat to Elaine’s sister in Ireland, a chat to Craig, off Il Sogno, in Malaysia and watching the second half of our movie from Wednesday night wrapped up our day.
With more rain overnight, we woke to a lovely cool morning today, albeit overcast, so Elaine enjoyed her stretches on the foredeck before breakfast and then found a nice cool, breezy spot in the cockpit to while away her day, although she did surface to get back to her painting and we enjoyed a nice late afternoon walk on the beach.
Roy spent the remainder of his day continuing his efforts on the next release of the Anchor Plus application, working with his “band of merry sailors” around the globe; Ronnie, off Campechano, in Puerto Rico and Bas, off TiSento, in Spain. Our thanks go out to both of them for their help, perseverance and persistence.
