People coming and going

Me with Jill & Chris Mounsey on Pale Moon

A couple of days ago, a boat came into the marina bearing the OCC Flying Fish burgee. Naturally we had to make contact. After all, I'm Rear Commodore of OCC and Alex is Rear Commodore for Ireland. We were the welcoming committee.



Alex went over by dinghy and introduced himself and then I shouted over as I was walking back to the boat, 'Ahoy Flying Fish!' We told them we'd wander over to introduce ourselves properly a bit later and they invited us for drinks. What I didn't know is that I had already met Jill at the laundromat, as we were both doing laundry yesterday, but I didn't realize it was her, if you know what I mean. I put on clean clothes and my RC pin.

What a lovely couple. They had circumnavigated 20 years ago and were now heading for Lagos where they were planning to leave their Moody 46 as a cruising base. They had been the organizers of the Blue Water Rallies, the last of which I followed with great interest when one of the boats veered away from the rally and was taken by pirates. It was interesting to learn the story behind the story. That experience caused them to discontinue the Rally, which is totally understandable.

Alex, Chris and Scott

They were staying for a couple of days and then heading on. We'd probably see them in Lagos next. But as we had scored some very nice shrimp at the Jumbo that day, we invited them over to Aleria for cocktails. We also invited Scott and Nadim and his wife but the Nadims had other plans. Scott's friend Susan joined us later and we had another nice evening.

Scott and Jill

Pale Moon headed off early this morning. I spent the day scrubbing the decks with two part teak cleaner and brightener. Alex did various chores including fixing chipped and delaminating veneer, cleaning out the dry bag, and sanding and painting the forward cabin. I still have to wash and wax the coach roof, paint the hand rail and trim on the hatch, and clean the aft deck and cockpit, but she is coming along nicely. Finally. I only have two coats of varnish on the coaming but I can add more along the way.

We have a firm commitment from Jorge that he will be here 9 am Monday morning to start putting our standing rigging back together. Just a few more days and we will be on our way again. Finally.