Camilla Ransom
When we woke up this morning the first thing we started discussing were strategies for how to release the anchor from its perfectly anchor-shaped rocky hole. Who said romance is dead? After a cup of tea we donned swimming gear and went to try to locate the anchor. After about half an hour I finally found it and called over to Tom. By the time he arrived I must have drifted and when I looked down it was gone! We decided to get back on the boat and bring up all but 12m of chain in order to give ourselves some hope of finding it. With the anchor in sight the questions now were 1) How not to lose it again, and 2) How to free the bloody thing. To make sure we didn’t lose it we took a long line, attached one end the anchor ball (a floating ballon thing) then I dived down the 8m to the seabed, threaded the line through the end of the scoop then reattached it to the ball. Now we had a floating loop. I dived down about 5 more times but try as I might, pulling as hard as I physically could, as leveraging myself on the nearby rocks I couldn’t free it. We switched places, and Tom gave it a try. From the boat, being perfectly honest, he looked like he was just looking at it and I wondered what he was up to. After about 10 minutes he shouted, “It’s free, pull it up!”. Bewildered I clambered to the bow and pulled up the chain. He’d managed somehow to hook one side of the line around a rock which acted as some sort of pulley and it came lose – genius!
With the anchor up (which took us a good 2 hours) we went into the marina and hoped to find the free spot on the town quay still available. We’d heard from a few fiends that there’s this one very specific berth which is completely free, it’s a well kept secret and luckily for us it was available. What we’d also heard is that one of the locals, Christopher, acts as a kind as it’s kind of unofficial owner and in return for mooring up, you spend a few hours chatting to him in the cockpit. He’s a nice guy so we didn’t mind.
Tom had been doing a little research to see if we could find replacement batteries whilst we were here. Usually they need to be ordered and have a 2 week deliver timescale, which is a pain (and expensive!) when you want to keep moving. It was a long shot but he was surprised to find a car garage about 3km from the marina who seemed to have exactly what we needed in stock. At around 14:00, the hottest time of the day we walked over to pay them a visit. The walk was absolutely roasting but was totally worth it as the guy there spoke perfect English, and had exactly the 2 batteries we needed. He also arranged them to be delivered to the boat at 17:00 (handy as they weigh 35kg each!) and would even take our old ones in return. Otherwise we’d have just dropped them over the side. Just kidding.
The batteries arrived, but (and isn’t there always but?) we instantly realised the connector where the cables attach were different from what we had, and were actually missing. Big problem! The guy who delivered them said they didn’t stock them so gave us the name of a nearby shop, whose name we instantly forgot 🙁 We walked into the town and in the 4th shop we visited the guy and his son were awesome and so extremely helpful. He didn’t have what we needed so he sent his son off on his scooter to fetch the items from the nearby hardware store. What service!!
Back on the boat, and excited about being able to connect the new batteries (without them we literally have no electricity) we realised the bolts were too freakin’ big. So, back to the hardware store we went to source the right size. Back on the boat we dismantled the back cabin and set about installing them. It’s a painful job as the space is tiny. Now for the moment of truth – Tom turned on the big switch and…..nothing. Dead as a dodo. What could possibly be the problem? Almost by accident and out of pure desperation we jiggled a cable, and everything came on. Now we’d uncovered the culprit we decided to call it a night and make good a proper connection tomorrow.
We sat in the cockpit for the rest of the evening and watched the world go by. It’s a blessing to finally be out of the annoying swell which has had the boat swaying violently from side to side (it was a leftover from the strong winds of the past few days). It’s an awesome spot for a couple of nights, literally 50cm from one of the main walkways of the old town, which thankfully is civilised and filled with couples and young families so the atmosphere is amazing. Sitting here you’re definitely part of the scenery, and something to be stared at. We got some particularly funny looks as I washed my hair in a bucket, Tom took a shower off the back (with shorts on, thankfully!) and this evening as we ate Pot Noodle and drank red wind. I think we’ve dismissed people’s perception that sailing is only for rich people. Tomorrow one of my best friends Cass is coming to stay with us for a week, and I reckon she’ll love it here 🙂
