Blog Archive

Tuesday 4 June 2024

Escaped dinghy and lemon cake

Soon after dawn on our 24th wedding anniversary there was a tap on the hull and a Swedish voice calling, ‘Sally we have your dinghy!’ 

Michael and Annika, our neighbours on board S/V Matilda, had seen our dinghy break free and go on it’s own voyage of discovery. Its bid for freedom was soon thwarted and, after a mere 200 metres, it was picked up and returned to Shimshal and my plans for a shiny new replacement were in tatters.

We had to reward the vigilant Swedes and so Sally resolved to bake a lemon cake using the lemons from the chocolate farm at Ua-Pou. The invitation to tea and cake on board Shimshal was sent out and at 3pm the cockpit was brimming with happy folk tucking into delicious lemon cake with fresh yoghurt and pamplemoose. 

Bizarrely, much of the conversation was about high altitude medicine and a couple of Medex booklets were given out. Tea, cake and good conversation - a lovely way to spend a drizzly afternoon within a South Pacific atoll.