Yep, Mark and my 9th wedding anniversary! And our present to each other? A couple of nights in a marina. I can't explain the excitement I've had of being able to use a hose to wash the boat, instead of sea water by the bucket. Or Mark's excitement at being able to fully charge the batteries using shore power. It's the little things! The kids were over the moon to be able to have a water fight (on the condition they scrubbed the decks at the same time) and to be able to ride their bikes up and down the pontoon. Mark and I weren't intimidated by parking between two super-yachts at all, honest, as it has only been, oooh, 9 months since we have been in a marina. Actually Mark is super cool when it comes to parking the boat, so we had no problems. I haven't actually had one on shore yet, but I'm also excited about having a proper shower, although I expect I will still rinse all over, turn the water off quickly, lather up before a quick rinse off, purely out of habit!
We had a lovely BBQ on Luna in the evening, which was supposed to be a welcome back to Joop (dad from Goody) It made me giggle to see Jacolette pour her beer on the BBQ to calm it down with the declaration “just leave it to the South African woman to control a BBQ” and the look on Lars' face as she put out the flames on his lovely gas BBQ. “Oh, is it gas? I'm used to the real thing!” Luckily Lars had everything under control and could light it again. But I made a mental note not to leave Jacolette near my cooker!
The downside of the day was that Joop couldn't join us for his welcome back to Tahiti BBQ as when he arrived in Tahiti, he didn't realise that the visa they issued him when he first arrived in the Marquesas was a single entry one, so the moment he landed, he was deported on the next plane out. He did however manage to hand Jacolette the spare parts he had bought with him, so the mechanic can get on with fixing the engine. And the last news of Joop? He had managed to get tickets for the South African rugby match, as the first plane out of Tahiti was to NZ. Mark is now wondering how he can get deported in time for the Scotland game!