We’re not even afloat and yet we spend a lot of time just moving things around. We bought a load of stuff out from the UK – of which more in a moment – and then took stuff from Roaring Girl to our little apartment to work on. The load included the sewing machine and canvas to make hatch covers. Plus, of course, one accumulates more stuff, such as window screens, to keep the sun out of the cockpit. (Not very nautical, but at only EU1 each, what’s not to like?)
This is us bringing lots of it to the yard, for hoisting on board. Note our trusty shopping trolleys, our hard-working pack-mules whenever our feet touch the land.
Travelling out to Malta was a comedy of errors, not that we were amused at the time. Our coach from Ipswich was carefully timed to get us to Stansted with 55 minutes in hand before the gate closed. It didn’t, thanks to a broken windscreen wiper and the appalling weather that drought-struck East Anglia is experiencing. We got to the airport with 10 minutes to spare before check-in closed.
No problem, we thought. But no! The demon of cheap flights http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPyl2tOaKxM hit us. If you want to check hold baggage you need to be there 40 minutes before! Gate closed, says the woman on the desk, but if you take that case through security you can pay at the gate for it to go in the hold. Off we run.
Of course, this is a cruisers case, not packed for cabin security, It’s got a trailing log, a vegetable chopper, baking yeast. All sorts of crap to frighten the searchers. And search us they did. That case went through the x-ray three times, while we hopped from foot to foot with impatience. Eventually they let us go and we legged it through the airport, trousers falling down. It’s a long way to gate 49. At the gate, the charming folks sweetly relieved us of another GBP50 (on top of the £30 they’d already had for the case) for the privilege of taking it on to the tarmac where they loaded it on the plane. Phew!
Sarah asked if she had to buy the in-flight magazine. The Ryanair stewardess thought that was funny.
We’re hoping to get that £50 back off the coach company. Wish us luck.