11th August

17 32.383 S
149 34.232 W

Weather; sunny then late showers, wind n/a, waves n/a

MANY HAPPY RETURNS OF THE DAY TO ZAC, WE HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT YEAR AHEAD .

As I mentioned yesterday we had arranged to have a hire car today. It was a bit of a walk to the hire place and we had to be there at 9am so we got moving as soon as the sun was up and we had finished breakfast. Gerry had a list as long as his arm to try and get through and I had a few items that I really wanted to pick up from the supermarket - all exciting stuff! When we got to the car hire place there was a bit of a queue and it took us until 9.30 to get the paperwork done and into a car. As is always the case we checked the dents and scratches to make sure they were recorded before we took charge of the car, a 4 door MG with 31000Kms on the clock and only a couple of years old, it was canary yellow - you wouldn't miss us in a crowd!. I'm certain that it has had more than its fair share of accidents as there were scrapes and dents on almost every panel, the driving expectations around here are obviously on the low side! Anyway we took off for the port as Gerry had a few places that he needed to go, it is unlike most ports in that there isn't one or two dedicated marine type of stores, there are a few shops that sell some bits and pieces and you have to do the rounds of them all to exhaust the possibilities of getting what you need. Unfortunately we were asking for bars of gold covered in unicorn coloured fairy dust and no one seemed to have them in stock. There is an Ace hardware store which we tried to get some of the boat cleaning materials from and guess what - they didn't have any but Gerry did find some electrical contact cleaner which he took out a mortgage to purchase - US$40 for a regular sized can of the stuff, he's not going to be spraying that around freely I'm sure and after the shock of the laundry cost he really shouldn't have been surprised but he was. We found a place that can machine a groove into our anchor roller so that it doesn't rock backwards and forwards and clang as it had during our last passage, we left the roller w
ith them and it will be ready on Friday apparently. At the very last minute we found a marine supply store which had a couple of the things that Gerry was chasing including a replacement toilet seat for our aft toilet - if I haven't told you about the need to replace it due to me falling and breaking the lid off and leaving sharp edges you will now appreciate why we need a new seat! We had found it almost impossible to this point in finding a replacement but at last we had success! Unfortunately we arrived at this store at 11.28 and like so many local shops it closes between 11.30 and 1.30 so it was a very brief visit and whereas we could probably have found most things that were on our list we had to cut our shopping short so that they could shut up shop for the lunch break/siesta. As nothing else was open we made our way to the customs office to get a tax exemption form so that we can buy fuel without paying the excise, the form is free as long as you have boat papers and identification to show that you are a foreign vessel that will be leaving the country. Gerry was gone for ages and I waited in the car watching a group of would be boat operators being put through their paces in a small stink boat with an examiner and one other crew member. From what I saw everyone passed as they were all given a certificate once they had completed the course. When Gerry reappeared it was time for us to go in search of some lunch, I had seen a cafŽe/patisserie that looked promising and we found a parking spot near the marina and walked across to the cafeŽ where we had a very pleasant lunch. With not much else on his list Gerry agreed that it was time to do the bit of grocery shopping that I needed to get done and we headed off to a different store than we had already walked to. It was in a much larger complex and had a lot more stock but I was out of luck with 2 items that I really needed, they just don't stock them so I'm going to have to improvise, something I have got very good at doing on the boat! It was now time to return to the boat as we were both flagging badly. Back on board Gerry fitted the new toilet seat whilst I stashed the rest of the shopping. We then relaxed for a while until it was time to watch the sun set and follow that with some of the soup I had made yesterday as our dinner. Our water maker guru phoned with bad news, there are no brushes to be had and the only other option is a new motor - that's not going to happen so we are going to have to carefully manage our water use on the rest of the trip and put in an order with the manufacturer for new brushes ( if you recall there is an 8 week lead time for them so they won't get done until we are back in Australia).
So with the rushing around done today we have the whole of tomorrow to go sight-seeing in the car and to do a better grocery shop stock up - oh joy! Fingers crossed for a nice sunny day and some good photos.