Admin before departure

Thursday 29 November, Bermuda day 9, St. George’s: Admin jobs on all fronts…or killing time.
The wind abated through the night, a steady 20-25 kts and we are consistently blown off the concrete quay – how we like it to be. So it’s a nice sleep all round for both of us. And after the last few nights we don’t wake till nearly 9am.
It’s a cooler but bright and breezy day with puffy clouds, as you’d expect after a cold front has passed. The wind is the same as last night, 20-25kts. A good wind to depart, except that the seas are still forecast to be 6+ meters out there. It would be interesting, but no thanks! So we defer departure till tomorrow.

During the night we managed to upload the yard maintenance video so that goes on line this morning. It’s shocking just how quickly the views shoot up within minutes of publishing. It’s like we have a fan club out there hungry for the next video. Well, we guess that is the case. Then the comments start coming. This one is long (1 hour viewing!) so we expected some complaints and also some positive comments about that, which we did get. And also lots of good comments too, as usual.

Glen does some admin work, letters and documents that need to be couriered here and there, before we leave. He visits Bermuda Yacht Services to pay for the dock and finds a few others there talking about the yacht with the ripped genoa.
Apparently they were towed in a few days ago with no engine. Yesterday, in the height of the storm they called to be towed into the harbor. Not surprising with no engine right next to a lee shore and just one anchor with a rope, not even chain. They could not get to him but suggested he deployed another anchor. But he didn’t have a second anchor! So they went out, in the 50kt winds, dropped an anchor for him and gave him the line to pull in. Some people just should not be at sea, really!

During the afternoon and early evening Oana is determined to get the next video finished. So for the first time ever, Glen goes to the launderette, unattended, all by himself! And of course, there is a slight hitch 🙂 He decides that he knows better than the washing soap manufacturers. He has noted that these soap balls that we throw in with the laundry, don’t always shed their soap and get left in the cloths. So instead he squeezes them till they burst in the compartment where power soap goes … 2 were OK but on the 3rd load it backfires and squirt all over him! Other than that it’s a successful mission and he returns proudly with (semi) neatly folded laundry.

Then it’s a quick check out with the customs, all very simple and efficient. And a bit of food shopping. Only a bit because that’s all we can afford at these prices. For instance, $9 for a lettuce! Or $8 for a bottle of milk! We’ll just have to eat rice and hope we can catch fish for protein 🙂

Then lots of small jobs getting ready for departure at first light tomorrow. Blow down the big fenders, remove the extra warps, tension the halyards, setup the sheets, set up the pole etc.
Oana indeed manages to finalize the next video – in just one day. She’s getting very fast at this. We will upload during the night, before we cut the umbilical to the WiFi when we depart.

And as we are busy pottering on the boat, we hear music coming from the Kings’ Square, where there is a party at the Town Hall. Earlier in the evening, we saw the interior decorated nicely for Christmas. And now with the Christmas music and the chill outside, it almost feels like winter time… or Christmas time. We decide we will put up our Christmas tree on December 1st!
So much for an early night …. midnight again.