Sines
Wandering Dream
Steve Litson
Tue 5 Aug 2014 21:18
Penny's WD Blog
contd.
Did I omit to mention that
'The Day Of The Bucket' was also Steve and my 30th wedding anniversary? One to
remember, or, may be forget?
We gave ourselves
Wednesday to relax and recover, and, for me to have the £30 key card which gave
us access to the marina toilets and showers, whipped from my hand and into the
sea, by the wind, as we walked the gangplank to dry land. Sheryl and I watched
in disbelief as it slowly drifted down to the rocks below, then we committed the
fatal man overboard error - took our eyes off the card and stopped pointing, and
it sunk without trace. A salutary (and costly) lesson! There was, as you can
well imagine, no sympathy from the men. Sheryl and I had to laugh, no point
crying over a drowned card, just learn to hold on more tightly in future!
However, this did follow Sheryl and Peter's unhappiness at 5.00 am, when, having
journeyed from boat to marina specifically to avail themselves of the marina
facilities they could not get in due to key card issues, which, in turn, had
followed no water available for showers at the end of sweaty-toilet-fix-Tuesday,
as there had been a "rupture" in the mains water supply! A theme of bathroom
complications seemed to be emerging!
During the day we got to
meet Nick and Jay who Steve has mentioned. In fact Nick was on the pontoon to
help us moor when we arrived. Both Sheryl and I thought the same thing at the
same moment....Dave (Allan) do you have a long lost brother you have never told
us about, of even a cousin?
Our original plan had been
to sail to Gibraltar during the week, and that's where our return flights were
booked from; however, it quickly became apparent that in order to complete the
380 mile journey we would have to be sailing through at least 2 nights and 3
days. Even with toilet facilities on board this would have been pushing it.
Sheryl and Peter are very able, willing sea persons (I am neither and have no
desire to be either), but Steve did not feel it was really doable, especially as
the wind forecast seemed somewhat unreliable. He had not intended for our first
voyage to be in such strong winds, and every afternoon the winds along that
coastline come up due to the land heating up and air from the sea rushing into
replace the rising hot air.....or something like that! So we changed our flights
so we could fly home from Faro, rather than Gibraltar.
We had lunch out and
supper in, ( I now know how to successfully poach an egg thanks to Sheryl's
proficiency in Wandering Dream's galley), so we could have an early night ready
for a 5.30am start front Sines to Lagos, on Thursday. Steve was hopeful that
this bigger place could provide him with at least a new toilet pump, and,
failing that, a whole new toilet. We just had a 13 hour sail, (72 nautical
miles) to do to get there....