Yesterday morning we were up early and finished the last chores before leaving, quite a busy hour or so. We then untied the lines, (a lot of lines as the marina was a a bit rolly) and set about stowing fenders and dock ropes and shore power cables and hosepipe and other things already forgotten. None of which apart from the odd fender to welcome visiting boats will be needed again where we are heading.
We sailed off with a gentle breeze and enjoyed an hour of beautiful progress until the wind died. On with the motor and in with the sails, ironic realy as we have had 20 knot winds every day since arriving. Plans changed and by 1pm we were anchored of a small island just 25 miles from our starting point. Lunch on deck and a lazy afternoon of swimming off the boat, (whilst scrubbing round the waterline), we were surprised to find our skin buzzing due to some small marine critter but it soon went away, and generally relaxing. The sun dropped by 6 and dinner in the cooler air of the cockpit before starting one last job for the day. Replacing Shimshals chart plotters has been on Simons list for a while as the old ones are no longer supported by electronic charts or spare parts. Yesterday the cockpit screen died, no problem, Simon has all the replacement parts and a new plotter, guaranteed to be interchangeable by the supplier. Well he lied, the new casing does not fit the old support frame, move on a couple of hours of improvising with a piece of teak which just happened to be on board and everything is mounted and working. Another 10 minutes job completed.
This morning we woke with the sun and sat in the cockpit, the boat surrounded by shoals of tiny fish and drank tea. No wind again but now it seems less important, we are now on boat time ........