Thursday morning we head back bright and early to the boatyard…. full of expectations about the antifoul work starting today on Morphie’s bottom. We have all the paint purchased – and wow it’s very expensive! – everything is ready to go, we just need the workers. So we carry on unpacking and putting things in order….but still no-one shows up. Oh dear – island time again! This drives me bonkers and I’m not allowed to go to the office to make my displeasure known as it will only make things worse – so Richard tracks them down and with his smooth talking, soon a chap turns up to do the primer coat. And we are now working against the clock as they knock off at 5pm and time is ticking! Not confident at all at this point that we are going to meet our ‘splash’ date of Monday. So I carry on down below and Richard supervises the work – and, wow, Morphie has been tangoed with yellow primer. Eventually we head back to the hotel and were sorry to have missed Glen and Pam who popped in earlier for a drink… Had a nice dinner in the restaurant as a treat and then early to bed. It was a stressful day!
Friday we were up bright and early again and headed off to the boat yard in our trusty hire car. Richard continues to hone his racing car skills. He tells me that he isn’t going that fast and that I’m just a very nervous passenger. Yes there is some truth in that but he’s not the one looking directly down into huge drop offs on my side of the road or very large deep water gullies whizzing alongside with what seems like inches to spare! On the way to the marina we picked up some local delicacies from the bakery and I had a very funny encounter with six large rasta men who were getting their breakfast and couldn’t believe that a tourist was up that early! I’m not sure whether they were on their way home from a party or going to work – but I think they remained under the influence of something or other….
Arriving at the boat yard and the guys turn up on time… Hurrah! I make myself busy unpacking, but we are pretty much there now and not a lot more to be done until we get into the water and hoist the sails on, re-inflate the dinghy etc. So I head off to the laundry to make the most of the self-service machines – took ages – and all the time beating off the thousands of midges that live around the boatyard in all the standing water! Finally finished the laundry and head back to Morphie and was delighted to see that they had finished one coat and were about to start the second. I then spotted that they were about to splash another yacht – so followed along to see what happened. Glad I watched it – not sure that it has filled me with confidence as the line handlers were a bit casual! Anyway…. back to Morphie and she is almost finished. Just the areas to be done when the hurricane cradle ‘arms’ are removed. And she is looking absolutely beautiful.
The minute the guys packed up for the weekend so did we! We headed back to our room for a night in front of the telly after some food…. With the villa opened up and the beautiful scents from the lovely grounds it truly is a special spot.
Saturday we took a day off from the boat yard as the guys are not working – so headed off into town to do a big provisioning run while we have the benefit of a car. Massive shop – and more stuff from the chandlery of course – and back to the villa to get all of it put away. Had a leisurely afternoon chilling and then headed off to Little Woburn to meet Jim and Sharon from Sha Sha who were celebrating Jim’s birthday.
Well the taxi didn’t turn up – so we cadged a lift from the security guy – and Richard got to ride in the back of a pickup truck! What fun…. Arrived at the restaurant and were a little put off by the huge crowds of people around in the square below and the loudest music ever. Apparently there had been a naked car wash event earlier and this was the spin-off party, along with a ‘twerking’ competition. Richard was a bit disappointed we had arrived too late for the main event!!! Anyway – had our reunion with Jim and Sharon – and it was lovely to catch up with them and to meet other new faces. Had a good time but, would you believe it, we left at 9pm as we had another busy day ahead of us.
Sunday up really early and we headed off to the boat yard to do what we could – as well as dropping some stuff off that we needed for Monday’s launch. Spent a few hours there and then returned to the villa via a bit of a scenic route – and Richard picked up two hitchhikers again… So spent about 15 minutes chatting to the young man who was all dressed up and was running late for church. Followed by the rather stinky rasta man who got a bit panicky when the child locks wouldn’t let him out LOL.
It rained and rained and rained all day…. so we enjoyed a lazy afternoon in our villa. At about 4ish it cleared up a bit but not enough to get in the pool so we just took up residence in some comfy chairs and enjoyed watching the weather – later we were joined by Jim and Sharon for happy hour sundowners – and then early to bed after a cheese on toast supper! A big day beckons.
Bye for now
Jan