Regardless, in between the two trips to the hospital, we enjoyed another Sunday morning breakfast at Dean and Deluca in Boat Lagoon marina. We’d barely made it into the restaurant, though, when the heavens opened, at which point we spotted Colin, off Endorphin, utterly soaked to the bone and clearly very intent on getting to wherever he was walking without seeing us.
We also decided to combine our outing with getting our monthly provisioning done, it too completed in between lashing downpours. Unfortunately we weren’t as lucky at avoiding the rain when we got back to the marina and thus unfolded a typical cruising event; transferring groceries from a car to a yacht at anchor in torrential rain: Find a dock cart, in the rain. Unpack the groceries into the dock cart, in the rain. Push the stacked dock cart to the nearest overhang to shelter one person, in this case Elaine, from the weather and to keep an eye on the groceries, while the other, poor Roy, returned the car and walked back to the marina, in the rain, at this point resembling a drowned rat. Push the stacked dock cart to the dinghy dock, in the rain, except it’s the bottom of a rising tide and we can’t get the cart down the ramp without all our groceries ending up in the water. So, transfer a grocery bag at a time, down the ramp, without slipping, to the dinghy dock, in the rain. While one person returns the cart, Roy, the other, Elaine, starts to bail out all the rain water from the dinghy, hopefully faster than it is filling back up, in the rain. Transfer grocery bags to the dinghy, in the rain. Speed back to the yacht with the rain lashing in your face, to the point you can hardly see where you are going. Transfer the grocery bags, one at a time, onto the yacht. Put the dinghy on the davits, in the rain and, finally, soaked to the bone, we strip off, dry off, get into some dry cloths and enjoy a nice hot cuppa before getting stuck into sanitising the soggy mess that resembled the groceries we’d purchased.
It was close to 2000 by the time we ran out of steam and inclination, leaving the rest of the stowing and tidying up until Monday morning.
Not surprising then, it was an off day for Elaine on Monday, so while she rested onboard, Roy met Richard and Yim, off Charon, onshore for a late morning coffee. By the afternoon, although Elaine was watching a movie, she could hardly keep her eyes open and opted for a nap instead. Sundowners, a lovely sunset, a barbecue and a movie night (restarted it) wrapped up our day.
By yesterday we were back to our passage planning in earnest, having completed all our research on the various options and having made a few decisions. Although we could get yacht insurance, including coverage for piracy, for a Red Sea passage, we concluded that, being the “sh-1-t magnets” that we are and, with our luck, we’d end up as hostages in some God forsaken “sh-1t hole” somewhere, our lives were worth more than a jaunt around the Mediterranean. That lead us back to the shipping option, but the astronomical increase in cost was something we weren’t prepared to entertain, especially since we now had two other options open back up to us in being able to obtain Elaine’s medication in either La ReUnion or Mayotte.
The one option we have not entertained, is selling Paw Paw, primarily because we don’t want to give up on our circumnavigation, which would make all this hanging around for years, for naught. It would be akin to throwing in the towel on the final lap.
So, fortunately and by a stroke of luck, it was back to our original circumnavigation route around South Africa. However, watch this space long enough and you could find us driving back to Europe!
A lovely, very long chat to Elaine’s folks in Ireland wrapped up a busy, but productive day.
Today we got stuck into our chores, given that we had another sunny, albeit windy day. It was, however, a perfect laundry day; free rain water, free electricity and free wind! Roy ran the watermaker, though, to be sure, to be sure!
With our busy morning, another afternoon nap seemed in ordered, although neither of us could actually sleep, so we settled for a cold refreshment ashore instead. Back onboard we entered the next batch of waypoints, this time for the Maldives and then settled down to another barbecue, accompanied by another pretty sunset, followed by a movie.
