Thursday 3 October

Today is hard work day.  Richard did get the sails off last night, but there are tons of things to tidy away.  First priority is the last of the washing.  I manage to get it all in one load, but that was probably a mistake because when I got back to the boat and started to go through all the clothes to see what should go and what should stay I found a lot of things I should have washed to leave here.  But we shall just have to take them home.  At least we have good luggage allowance on our BA flight home.

Sorting clothes and starting to pack them away seems to take me most of the morning.  Then I had to start to sort out the food.  That meant going through the whole of the galley and seeing what was opened, what was in date until next summer, etc.  I thought I had done well eating through most of the stores, but there is an awful lot left.  I do have a bit of luck in getting rid of food.  Two boats down there is an Englishman on a Nauticat.  I see him at the toilet block and ask if he would like my leftovers and he seems keen.  In the end I was able to give him just about everything.  I am just left with food for dinner tonight, and breakfast tomorrow, although I do have some left over butter.

We seem to be getting on quite well to be taken out tomorrow.  Richard speaks to the boatyard again and they seem to think it will be fine.  Then at about 4pm they ring and say we can’t come out tomorrow because there will be too much wind.  The weather forecast really is bad suggesting winds of 8-9 plus strong gusts.  They want to postpone it to Monday.  This is Ok with us.  If necessary we can drive back here to supervise the lifting out then, but we need somewhere to keep the boat in the meantime.  So Richard agrees with them that we can leave the boat on the pontoon where they lift the boats from.  There is a small charge by the town to stay on the pontoon, but that is fine.  They have also said that they do not need us to be there on Monday when it comes out, but we will discuss all the details with them tomorrow when we take the boat over.  We are also told that there is electricity available, so we can keep the batteries charged.  With this information Richard goes to the chandlery to buy a small de-humidifier to put on the boat.  However when he gets here, he can’t make it come on, and finds that it is not suitable, because it drains into a tank which needs to be emptied.  Luckily the shop takes it back.  We shall just have to see how we get out without a de-humidifier – or buy one tomorrow.

We have a drink on board with the Nauticat owner, John.  He seems quite nice.  He keeps his boat in Port Napoleon- it seems every English boat is there!  He even offers to help us crew tomorrow if the conditions seem too bad for us to do it ourselves.  Very kind.

I have now cleaned the whole of the galley and most of the heads except for the awful job of cleaning under the floor.  That is always awful, full with soap scum and hair!  I finally get it done, but it was a horrid task.  Also I had to get down on my hands and knees and my bad knee doesn’t like that at all.  So I am now shattered and give up.  At least we don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow, so we can take it slowly to finish off the packing.  It may even work out better.