01 -02/06/09 End of Day 3 / 4

Days 3 and 4 were dominated by activity in the main head, YMC on Sunday with solo effort and a joint effort by YMC and myself on Monday. Tom clearly had left more than memories when he said his goodbyes last Friday. YMC will be the first to admit his DIY skills are not up there with Barry Bucknall and in typical YMC fashion the blockage was simply moved further along the waste pipe rather than cleared. Yesterday YMC attempted to add the blockage as his head became stuck in the lavatory bowl, on Monday the roles were reversed and the contents on the lavatory came to join YMC on the shower room floor, at which point YMC called " Craggy Surgeon can you give me a hand please. What set out as 30 minutes twist, plunge, and clear became a four hour marathon as we had to remove all of the suction and water hoses connected to the lavatory bowl, then take out the lavatory bowl, which throughout the remainder of the operation remained invitingly upright in the middle of the salon floor. Fortunately we were all able to resist temptation. Then the fun started , as we removed the back panel to expose the main holding tank and main disposal valve we found more hoses, and like Fred with the Piano, we now considered ourselves experts on the removal of hoses. Picture this if you can, YMC, on his hands and knees, me sitting down in all kinds of nasty stuff surrounded by filthy stinking hoses poking coat hangers, pliers, bungies, and culltery into this pipe to free the blockage, but nothing would work. Until,................. YMC realised that the ideal tool was in fact fingers , at which point i heard Craggy Surgeon can you give me a hand please. To be fair this task was divided equally and we the two village idiots as we have been referred too before removed the blockage with our fingers. All that remained was to re assemble all the bits we had taken to pieces. Surprisingly enough after a few false starts we managed to get everything back together without any leaks, Whilst we had been doing "this guy stuff" Aiisling has done what women all over the world do when the menfolk become consumed with trivial nonsense, she set her mind to practical matters. She completely re sorted the main cabin, prepared the second head and shower room for immediate use, on the safe assumption that the two village idiots would only make a bad situation worse, she then relocated all the provisions to other storage lockers through the boat, making a complete inventory as she went along. In the time remaining, Aisling stood 2 and half watches back to back, changes sails three times, rescued a lost swallow and prepared, cooked and served dinner. ( PS - YMC did the dishes ) Completely unaware of what had been going on around us we emerged after 4 hours, dirty and smelly but triumphant, but minus one lavatory bowl retaining bolt, 2 screw drivers, two washers, jubilee clip, Aisling's sympathy and perhaps our dignity.............................. By the end of day 4 we were all exhausted physically and mentally and no one stayed up late, i was awarded a HOT shower by the YMC for my unselfish actions and after a fabulous supper of Chilli and Rice prepared by Aisling, i stood what was left of my 6.00pm to 9.00pm watch, grabbed a glass whisky and off the bed as i was on the 3.00am to 6.00am watch. I needed no rocking to sleep. YMC, with his enthusiasm restored following the successful redesign of the main head ( toilet ) has begun to take on a host of those DIY projects which have been building up, the cupboard door where the foul weather gear lives has been repaired and the grill section of the cooker, as i write this is in pieces on the galley floor. At this rate there will be nothing to fix when we get to Portimao. In fact YMC suggested we delay our arrival so that he can finish off all the outstanding DIY jobs The winds changed up some today, less consistent and less intensity, we now have the cruising sail up and we managing a creditable 6.5 knts in 10.00knts of apparent wind, thanks to the " Goddess of Wind", Aisling continues her cosy relationship with the other Gods and continues to be able conjure up wind when the YMC and myself fail to do so. Charley Farley tells us less then 50 hours to go and we therefore expect a Thursday night arrival in Portimao, should be exciting crossing those shipping lanes at night. The all night parties and raves are now sadly only a memory, the lack of a 4th crew member, even if only Tom Sargie, has cut short our down time. On the St Lucia, leg the rota was 3 hours on and 9 hours off, which left ample time to party, on this leg we have 3 hours on and 6 hours off, not much of a change i can imagine you all commenting, but believe me those 3 missing hours do make a difference . Where are you Tom Sargie, I hope you are having trouble sleeping through the night for longer than three hours........... Fortunately for me this leg is much shorter. Can you imagine how those solo guys and gals do it, I have no idea what drives those who do these major passages solo, they must be able go without sleep for days on end as well as being completely nuts. Adeus, Sarge, more from Portimao with pictures.........................