Dave and I had one of THOSE types of days that had us looking a little like these faces carved into this fig tree by The Fig Tree restaurant.
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Ever have one of those days? When you wake up and you just KNOW, somehow deep down in the depths of your bones, you just KNOW it's going to be one of those types of days. Days where you kind of wished you had kind of stayed in bed?
Despite a good night's sleep, we were waking up tired from the boisterous sail of the day before. Coffee's were a little slow in the making, as the Capt'N was having a wee bit of a moment or three. Can't find the cream, had to fill the coffee beans. Oops, add more water and next message indicated empty the grinds. You know... each step required an additional step or three?
Halfway through our delicious mugs of hot coffee, Dalynn and Glenn popped by, did we want to go ashore for some stretching and some Yoga? I'm game, but the Capt'N opted to stay behind, finish his coffee.
When I got back, I had been stretched into peacefulness, but it was no time for lollygagging, we had to get dinghy off deck and rigged so we could go ashore and clear with C&I.
In the continuation of the way the day was unfolding, our usual perfectly choreographed routine kind of disappeared... The Capt'N almost dropped his hat into the water, we had to go below one too many times to get the forgotten Stazo lock keys, then the dinghy keys. Got that done, boat locked, into the dinghy, and then, oops, forgot a wallet, so back into the boat, get said wallet, back into the dinghy, when...
...Rattle, rattle, squeak, grind, rattle, rattle....
{insert highly squeaking and loud noises emanating from the engine}
turn around and head back to the boat, and thankfully just in time for Dalynn and Glen to pick us up on their way into town.
Once ashore, we dropped off our garbage, went into the C&I offices, completed the paperwork, paid our fees, and were happy to be legal,
{but in the back of our minds we were worried about the}
...Rattle, rattle, squeak, grind, rattle, rattle....
Next stepping stop, thanks to Dalynn and Glenn who knew the engine repair guy, who said, sure bring the outboard, I can look at it today.
So the boys went back to the boat. Dalynn and I scheduled our watches to meet them at the fisherman's wharf to watch the dinghy while they dropped the engine off. Fishermen's wharf is closest to the engine repair shop, so less of a walk with the heavy outboard, but you can't leave your dinghy there...
Thanks to Dalynn, I got the whirlwind tour of town and we got back to the wharf where the boys were waiting, they went to drop the engine off, while Dalynn and I drove dinghy over to the town dock and walked back to the engine shop to meet the boys. Who weren't there.
They'd been sent back to the boat to get the gas for the engine. We chased after them through the streets of town as we had the dinghy keys... Keys exchanged, timings re-established and we continued our walk about through town, and well.. repeat above procedure.
Finally all is well, the outboard is with Kerry and by then it's lunchtime, and we're sweating for a beer and a sit down to enjoy a cold one along with a delicious roti.
An afternoon walk along the boardwalk,
another refreshing beer stop at The Fig Tree, and it was time to go back and check on engine's progress,
where Kerry said, that she was immaculate, needed a bit of tweaking but otherwise should work fine, and $250 EC please.
But they don't take CC. So Dalynn and I went back to town dock to get the dinghy and bring it to the fishermen's wharf while the boys brought the dinghy down to the fishermen's wharf. The bank wouldn't give Dave any money, "out of service" the screen said. Glen brought Dave and engine back to the boat, while Dalynn and I waited. Glen came back with the money we had onboard, and I ran back to pay Kerry. Pant, pant...
As we got back to our boat, Dave's lack of smile as he's zooming around in dinghy, a wee bit of a frown... and as we got closer we heard,
...Rattle, rattle, squeak, grind, rattle, rattle....
{insert highly squeaking and loud noises emanating from the engine, along with a few curse words from the Capt'N}
Here we go again. I got dropped off. Glen followed Dave back to town, where they once again hauled outboard to the shop. Dalynn came over and we went for an exercise swim. Couple hours later, Glen came back with Dave towing our dinghy (minus the outboard) and Dave clambered back onboard, hot, tired and sweaty.
Sometimes you wonder where the days go.
...Rattle, rattle, squeak, grind, rattle, rattle....
{insert most grateful acknowledgement of great friends who gave up any plans they had for their day and spent the day taxiing around with us, showing us around town, and laughing at our antics}
Now you know how our day went.