2nd January

12 00 N
61 46 W

Weather; sunny, wind 15 knots and gusting to 20 knots, waves n/a

Well the sun has remained with us, thank goodness but today we have been greeted with a howling wind which luckily, hasn't whipped up the water. We have been moving around and swinging on the anchor but at least we aren't dragging anywhere, touch wood! Gerry and Dale did a quick trip into Budget Marine this morning as Dale needed a fuel filter for his gen set and Gerry wanted to see about getting the computer chart chips (that would be our maps) for our onward journey. On his return he told me that they were having to check out the prices for the chips and also availability - guess nothing is straight forward and easy where boats are concerned!
Next thing on Gerry's list was to check out the sealing of the water tank rims which had sprung a minor leak which he had epoxied and silicone to death, everything was looking good, no obvious leaks for the time being but as the tank isn't quite full to the brim we won't be sure until it is as the leak only happened when the tank was full to the brim and sloshing around. As the sun was shining for the moment Gerry decided to put more teak oil on the cap rail, I'm sure it's his version of a rain dance as every time he does this job it rains shortly afterwards making the job a complete and utter waste of time and oil.
I sat at the computer and did a jig saw puzzle, nothing too strenuous going to happen today! We had been planning on a visit to the deli/butcher that Dale and Gerry had discovered a few days ago but the rain had stopped us from going until today. We had an early lunch and decided to see if the deli was open, not really expecting it to be but you never know your luck. We let Dale and Lorie know we intended to go and they wanted to come along as well so just before 1pm we set out in the dinghies for the Prickly Bay Marina where the deli is located, tied up to the very wobbly dock and walked the short distance to the deli. The doors were closed with a closed sign showing in the window - not totally unexpected but disappointing. Outside there was a picnic table where 2 men were enjoying the sun and drinking a bottle of wine, one of them asked Gerry, who was out in front, what he was after and on learning that we were chasing some pate, cheese, baguette etc. this man waved us into the shop, he was happy to find the stuff and serve us even though he was closed - Bonus! Inside the deli all of the display cabinets were empty so we really had to know what we were after, we started off with mentioning the stuff we knew he sold, then progressed to asking if he had other stuff that we thought he might stock and we managed to score a couple of extra things. Meanwhile I asked the other man what wine they were drinking and he poured me a glass to taste, it wasn't anything that I knew of but was a very drinkable French red and as the deli is also a wine outlet we bought a bottle for later to go with our pate, cheese and baguette. Whilst Dale and Lorie were deciding what they wanted I noticed a meat hanging to dry, like salami does, but it wasn't anything I instantly recognized so I asked the owner what it was and he explained that it was home -made Coppa which was curing and wouldn't be ready for a few more weeks but he had some in the fridge which he proceeded to slice thinly and presented to us to try along with a slice of baguette. Gerry and I loved the spicy taste of it but it wasn't to Lorie's liking at all, it's something we might have to buy a few slices of on our next visit here. As he does his own butchering, Lorie noticed a sign for pork chops and bought some of those -they looked good and she suggested that we all have them for dinner, unfortunately we already had our dinner prepared so we took a rain check - if the chops last that long! We made it back to our boats just before the rain started, not a lot but enough to close the hatches down and we spent the rest of the afternoon doing nothing worth telling you about. At around 4 pm we were alerted to a boat that was looking at anchoring near to us by Dale. Gerry popped his head out of the companionway and saw that the boat was ridiculously close and about to drop anchor just off our port side and just astern of us. Despite his best efforts the hard stare didn't make the slightest difference and they dropped their anchor. We wondered why they needed to anchor so close, there is plenty of space all around the harbor but they had chosen to be so close to us that there is barely a boat length between the stern of our boat and the bow of theirs - if they stand on their bow they can see all the way down inside our boat, much too close for comfort. The other thing to consider is that depending on how much chain they have out they are poking out into the fairway and if the wind changes direction, like it has over the last few days, they could well end up hitting us. Gerry said that he wasn't too bothered, we have insurance after all. There is, what appears to be, a family of 10 adults on the boat, I just hope that they aren't into loud, heavy music. As they are directly behind us they have blocked our view of the sunset so there won't be any sunset photos for a few days, they are also over the patch of water where we spot the turtle most evenings so I doubt that we will be seeing the turtle any time soon. We had our cocktail hour accompanied by the sounds of our new neighours jumping in the water and swimming around their boat. Not much else was going on today, I have no photo to share today - maybe tomorrow! This is a very slow start to the new year for sure.