When santa got stuck up the ????loooooo 29th Dec

28.12.2010

Prickly Bay 29th  December

Ho ho ho ! What did Santa leave us for Christmas?

Well John described it as a yuletide log. For sure it didn’t want to shift out of the toilet tubes!!!! Yup as we awoke to yet another moist morning, with the promise of more than a few sprinkles, a visit to the heads revealed that we had a problem.

The planned day involved a skype call with Gareth and Jo which was just lovely. The fact that the connection was good and we actually got to see them was just great.
With the goose in the oven they had a few minutes for the oldies as they sipped their cranberry clementinis!

We were booked to do a pot luck Christmas dinner at one of the other marinas. A bus picked ourselves and another dozen folk up and we headed to Clark’s Court. The ladies there had done a power of work and one of the skippers had cooked a huge turkey and a ham. We had a lovely few hours chewing the fat with fellow cruisers. The beauty of the day was we only had 2 plates to wash.

On the way back to the boat we stopped to wish Ornella and Umberto merry xmas. We toasted the birth of their grandson Tomaso, who had been born on 22nd with some lovely fizzy Italian wine and genuine panecotta cake from Genoa (delicious).
Well and truly stuffed we headed back to J J.

Back on board we had to consider how to tackle the ‘yule log’. Meanwhile having to resort to ‘bucket and chuck it’ arrangements. Ah the refinements of life on board!.

The whole job has taken 3 days. The build up a calcification inside the piping made them really difficult to manoeuvre out of the tiny little holes they were in. We know these boats are well made but dear God they don’t make it easy for people who have to get into the guts of them. We borrowed a thing called a ‘snake’ from another Packet and sent it into burrows its way through the pipes. It wasn’t strong enough to deal with the deposit (so to speak). Ultimately we got the pipes out and hit them with a hammer to break up the gunk.

Just when you think you are getting on top of things – naw!!!
The water supply stopped working. It was easily fixed fortunately by Johnny fix it. Poor man has sweated buckets doing all these chores. Then the generator decided it needed oil so that involved a full filter change. On top of that the guy next door needed a tow – that got incorporated with a couple of loads of laundry.

Now we know what retired folk mean when they say they didn’t have time to work!

However yesterday we took some time out from the plumbing and went to De Big Fish for yet another pot luck session. It was a great success and the choice of food was amazing. You bought a cooked chicken for £3 and helped yourself. Actually there was so much food the chicken was unnecessary. Having had our fill of great food and a little something to wash it down we settled back to listen to a terrific afternoon of music. Doc Adams (a local music guru) had encouraged a lot of the local musicians to come on down and just ‘jam’. A few of the cruisers turned out to be talented as well – with a mean trombone, banjo and clarinet player. Just terrific to be sitting in the shade with a gentle breeze blowing through the bar singing along to the bands. Made up for Santa’s pressie I can tell you.

Today however it has been ‘ auld claes and porridge’ as we finally got the plumbing back in action.

So relieved as the visitors might have had some serious issues if it hadn’t been fixed!

One of these days I will get my walk along ‘Grande Anse’ beach.

Course everyone has problems but there is always another that puts your into perspective. A boat that travelled up from Trinidad on 21st didn’t get here. It was travelling with a fellow boat overnight. They met hellish weather and severe lightening. The other boat got in and notified people of their concerns regarding the other boat. The cruising community is an amazing network/fraternity. People don’t impose but if you say you need help they all pull for you. Anyway day after day there was no news of the boat ‘September Song’. Coastguards in Trinidad, Grenada and even Venezuela were searching for them. People were subdued over the holidays as no-one wanted to consider the worst. Yesterday a local radio ham with not much to do caught a ‘pan pan’ call. He picked it up and relayed it to a cruiser who runs the net here. From there on it was action stations. It was the missing boat. They were much further North than anyone had figured and they were in need of assistance.
Talk about the ‘Dunkirk’ spirit. So many folks galvanised into action some helping by heading out with the coastguard to help bring the boat back in, others just lending fuel and most of us just crossing our fingers. Such a joy that they are both okay if somewhat bashed, bruised and slightly injured. The boat will take a while to get sorted but after 6 days they are safe. Pats on the back to the cruising community.

Anyway that’s all the news from this neck of the woods. Hope everyone reading this has had a fabby Christmas and not suffered from too much indigestion.
Take care.