26 Jan: We wake up at 6.30 and enjoy coffee in the cockpit in the cool breeze. After breakfast we dig out the car key from the rice pot, fingers crossed it will work. Hm, that would have been too lucky! Of course it doesn’t, so out comes the tools box, with spare battery and electrical contacts cleaner. Glen did his best; car alarm is no longer switching on, but the car won’t start. So all we can do is carry on with admin tasks on the deck while waiting for a replacement key.
Few clouds bring a short but refreshing shower as we closely watch a huge motorboat coming into the marina. Deck tasks include fitting the sun cover on the dinghy, inflating it and launching, soaking the ropes in fresh water then topping up gear oil in outboard – which unfortunately caused slight spillage into the sea. Oops! As Ellie cleans up with detergent, a greenback turtle came by to say quick hello.
A replacement car finally arrives and we go exploring south to Oistins. There was horrible traffic on the way, reminding us one of the downside of a land-lubbers life. Oistins is where the fish are landed. There’s a huge fish market and next to it probably a hundred small kiosks cooking seafood. We walk on the pier, where people were feeding sea turtles and fishermen were wheeling rusty shopping trollies with huge fish. A very funny man, with Rastafarian hair up in a headscarf, stops to chat. He used to live near Portobello Road in London. And he even knows the best Romanian football players! “What do you do here?” we ask. “Oh I jus sell abitu weed, a dis an dat”! He was hilarious.
On the pure white sand beach we watch the most incredible colors in the sky and reflected in the sea as the sun sets. By 7pm the market and kiosks are buzzing with life and the reggae music starts. We eat yummy BBQd kingfish, mahi-mahi and flying fish while the “pier man” rejoined us for a beer and some more stories. He swears Glen is “posh” and could be James Bond! Glen likes him even more 🙂
Late evening finds us at the Yacht Club, desperate to connect to the internet but not very successful. So starts our pain of connectivity on the boat. On the other hand Glen is moaning at emails he now has to deal with. He wonders how he ever coped with a hundred emails a day in Schlumberger. Another day – have we really only been here 48 hours?