Thursday 12 Feb – provisioning

Rowan had contacted a yacht that is travelling with kids for some tips for my nephew and his family. They arrived in the anchorage yesterday and the wife Julia offered to take us to the market today. We picked her up at 8:30am. We had arranged Finus again, he arrived in a different old bus and this one was full of Muslim ladies with containers of baked goodies. I do not know how they can wear those head dresses in this heat. Sadly we could not communicate but it was a very jolly ride as we squeezed in. We dropped the ladies off, and then drove around looking for a working ATM. We can only draw 1 million at a time, which sounds great but is only about £44! We finally got to the market, which was pretty filthy. Julia went straight to the meat stalls as she likes to get her meat early as there is no refrigeration. She is from East Germany originally and obviously knows how to bargain the price down. She bought 13 kgs of meat. She makes her own bacon, ham, sausages etc. Rowan and I felt a little squeamish as it was all pretty basic and loads of rats scurrying around! We did our big stock up of veg and fruit, always takes a bit of time getting to the best stalls for the various items. We did a final supermarket shop, and then headed home.

Julia had told me she had drawn the last of their money, and this food was to last them the next few months. Her husband Nick in the meantime had asked Rowan if he could tow their tinny (metal tender) to the beach in town, where he was getting his engine returned. They have been fixing the engine waiting for spare parts for nearly 3 months. They have spent these 3 months at one remote beach that sounds amazing, the Komodo’s come down onto the beach, there are monkeys in the trees and lots of birdlife. Rowan was busy with that all afternoon and got a hair cut while I cleaned and got the boat ready for our guests. I have to do the boat cleaning at night it is just too hot during the day.