Yikes we’re on our own!

A busy start to the day as Tom and Rowan undertake doing the oil service on the two big Volvo engines themselves! Tracking down a suction pump to extract the old oil took them all over Georgetown in our friendly taxi from last night. The most difficult part appeared to be Rowan having to squeeze down into the pretty tiny engine compartment. They succeeded in the end and Captain R was thrilled with his new service skills! That was Tom’s last valuable guidance and we were sad to see him go with all his knowledge (he ran Catamaran charters in the BVI’s for many years). He has given us plenty of tips and help for a more harmonious time on board!

We filled up with fuel and crossed the channel to anchor among the many, many yachts. Very odd as it is not obvious that there are so many people about, but apparently 300+ boats are anchored out here at the moment. We finally found our spot, and feeling very chuffed with ourselves we put on our headphones so we could communicate without shouting at each other (we had never managed to get them to work until Tom worked his magic on them!) only to find that when I dropped our anchor, the repair that had been done yesterday had threaded our stabilising ropes the wrong way and we were in a real muddle. We had to sort it out from the top of the boat without dropping anything. All a little fraught trying to find the right tools to undo the shackle and not drop everything into the sea, while we hung precariously over the edge. Miraculously we only dropped two washers and sorted it out after about an hour.

Our pink grapefruit tequila, ginger cocktail that Rowan concocted was most welcome in the setting sun. We christened the stove tonight by making my first loaf of bread, which is looking a little saggy but may taste alright. Clearly it needs to cook at its highest temp.

Off to bed bracing myself for tomorrow’s storm coming in the evening.

Anchor lights from all the boats around us.