The big tidy up

We had so much cleaning and tidying up to do on Pole Pole. Everything gets so covered in sea salt which requires some effort to get it all off. We had to get all the cupboards cleaned so that we don’t get cockroaches and rats. Nothing in boxes, as apparently cockroaches love the glue that joins the sides together. We gave away loads of boxed soup that Rowan had wanted for emergency rations. Just not soup weather, I think we used one box for a stew. Also loads of beans, the poor local we gave them to must have wondered what sort of diet we lived on!

Pole Pole parked and strapped down.

Rowan cleaning the engine bilges with extra thick night time sanitary towels, I couldn’t believe he could fit down there! The language and air was pretty blue because every time he straightened up he hit his head.

It was extremely hot work, we are surrounded by other boats in a very protected corner which is why it is such a good hurricane hole! We worked flat out all day without anything for lunch and then got a message from our cabana saying the restaurant was closed for the evening. Absolutely famished we found a place on the water nearby who were serving food which was very welcome, even if we were eaten alive by mozzies.

We collapsed into bed knowing we had quite a bit more work to do. Rowan met a couple briefly while we were in the Bahamas, she is South African and we have kept in touch as we were doing the same sort of journey aiming for Grenada. They did most of their lock down in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin islands as they have American passports. Her hubby is American. We then discovered we were booked into the quarantine slot before them and we resigned ourselves to the unlikelihood of us meeting up. But I got a message from Karen today saying they had been called up early for their Covid test and would be free tomorrow to meet up. The thought of spending another day cleaning and working on the boat was not very appealing so we arranged to meet them for lunch tomorrow, knowing that a 1pm deadline would put a rocket under us!