Yesterday morning we were up early to meet our agent in order to complete the application forms required for an upcoming appointment with immigration. However, the passport photographs we had didn’t have the required white background, so, off we trotted to get new ones at a nearby studio. Fortunately it was all rather efficient and we were back onboard in time for a morning coffee.
Elaine then spent sometime collating all the supporting documentation in preparation for the appointment, stripped our beds, removed cushion covers and collected all the towels, following which we dropped off two more bags at the laundry service and collected our ironing. It wasn’t until we got back to Paw Paw that we saw just how beautifully everything had been ironed. At least now we won’t resemble a pair of refugees when we’re out and about.
Roy, on the other hand, spent his time on repairs; fixing our two leaking raw water intakes on both port side heads (aka toilets); something we discovered coming up through the Red Sea, and replacing two of the o-rings on the raw water strainers of the air-conditioning / heating system, which meant we were warm and toasty in the saloon this morning, not just in our cabins.
With all our clothes washed and ironed, Elaine spent some time sorting out her wardrobe, throwing out most of her old t-shirts, normally worn on passage, then, before she could remake the beds, some detail cleaning was needed around and under the mattresses where more sand had accumulated; sand has actually managed to get everywhere, literally! All our detailed cleaning in Thailand was for naught!
Today, after breakfast, while Roy tinkered around with his laptop after it had decided to stop functioning for no apparent reason, Elaine continued her efforts of sorting out our yacht insurance, now that we were in the Mediterranean and had completed our delivery passage from Thailand. She also reconciled our outstanding medical insurance claims and investigated our medical insurance coverage for our time in the US, since the US is specifically excluded as a condition of our international coverage.
By mid-morning, though, she needed a nap, but woke full of beans to find Roy still struggling with his laptop. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a priority, but his entire development environment for the Anchor Basic and Anchor Plus applications are on it and he was in the middle of creating a new release that had fixed an issue which materialised on the latest Apple operating system release.
Elaine’s task for the afternoon was to consolidate and re-stow all our surplus provisions; we had clearly over provisioned, but, then again, we thought we were heading to South Africa. The upside, of course, is that, other than fresh produce, we won’t be buying too many groceries for the rest of the year.
Still full of energy, she decided to give the saloon / galley area and both companion ways a detailed cleaning, all of which had a thick layer of sand on every unused surface, while Roy disappeared to enjoy a 5 Km exercise walk along the promenade before he too was given a good cleaning! On his return he collected our laundry, disposed of all the garbage which Elaine had accumulated during her cleaning exercise and washed all the exhaust carbon stains off the topsides; an eyesore after all the motoring we’d done.
Slowly, but surely, we were getting our lives back in order!
The bad news of the day surfaced when we chatted to Keenan this morning (his night), who had arrived home sick, only to discover he has contracted COVID-19 and is rather ill with it, although he said he was feeling a little better this evening (his morning). Having dodged this bullet for two years, while continuing to fly all through the pandemic and having a house full of COVID-19 patients on two separate occasions, he gets it now! What bad luck! Wishing him a speedy recovery.
