9th October - last day in Coron

Thursday 9^th October

am

Today is packing day.  Yesterday I went down into my least favourite part of the boat – the forward hatch.  It has sharp metal rungs – impossible to negotiate with bare feet.  And inside it is hot and airless.  I spend as little time as as possible in these horrible places.  But there were two suitcases down there, cosily nested together.  Pete was busy removing the headsail from its mast, so down I went… I couldn’t get my head out at the same time as the suitcases – they were surprisingly fat and unyielding, one inside the other.  So I had to push from below…and the wretched thing got stuck…

Imagine this STUCK with me underneath...sobbing...

I did not behave with dignity and decorum…I shrieked a bit, sobbed a bit, and called for Pete to drop everything and come AT ONCE to pull the cases out.  And when I came out I sat and sobbed and shuddered a bit more.  NOT fun!  But…we have two perfectly good suitcases, which I have squirted with mould remover and now they are ready for action!

Pete, in the meantime, released the headsail and we did a nifty folding thing to it – I think Pete called this layering, or pleating.   (Or another word...FEATHERING, he has now informed me.)

We then folded into a nice square and shoved it…down the hatch!  It won’t be quite as easy to get out as it was to shove in…But that is an issue we will have to face three months hence.

Pete spent all day on deck securing sails, while I cleaned out cupboards and spaces in the two cabins our crew are going to use.  By the end of the day we were…knackered… So we went out to dinner, to the beautiful restaurant where I had fish and chips, and the other end of town.  We were the only customers, apart from a large group in the offshoot restaurant across the street.  Oh and a party of VERY hefty people from Manila, who arrived with their own…pizzas!  We bot wanted to order fish but…No have, sir.  So I had chicken scallopini with ratatouille and Pete had some sort of pork thing and they were both SO delicious we nearly cried.  It was the standard of cooking you would expect in a 5 star restaurant in Australia.  (And yes…the sordid topic of coin…it was VERY cheap.  About $5 each…)

As we walked back, Pete wanted to go and find the source of our nightly music.  It always sounds like a loud and cheery party on the waterfront – where was the music coming from??  Well…it comes from a fairly large hotel, with a restaurant and terrace bar.  Complete empty…apart from a lovely singer, with her synthesizer.  She was later joined by her partner, who sang most beautifully.  We sat through the entire oeuvre of The Carpenters, and then some 80s ballads, and then…back to 2XS.

Pete is totally addicted to our new boxed set…I had bought the first series of Breaking Bad in Thailand, but had avoided ever trying to watch it with him.  It sounded like the sort of program he would LOATHE.

But…it is a brilliant program and Pete wants to watch at least two episodes a night – any more and our power conks out.  (It is very hard to watch anything with the generator roaring away, so two episodes is the limit.)  When we were out at sea with Toby and the Team, I asked him if he had watched it – he comes from Albuquerque.  Well yet – not only had he watched it, but his best friend is one of the regular actors (Hank’s sidekick…)  And better than this – he has the whole set and has lent it to a very ecstatic Pete!

A bit later…

Ahh packing… I was a bit startled to have so much in my suitcase.  It is just a bit over half full…

And then Pete came back from his missions in Coron and I sent him downstairs to start packing his (much bigger…) case.

This is just the beginning.  There is a whole lot of STUFF he also wants to take home.  He has filled both cases to capacity and I am not sure we are going to be under the 20kg limit…

After my nifty packing session I decided to wipe down every single white surface inside 2XS with a bleachy-mould removing mixture.  I have only ever wiped down the surfaces on an ad hoc basis; I was astonished how much whitestuff there was…  But not an unpleasant job, and very satisfying.

Evening

We are now settled in to Seadive restaurant, where we  are going to have dinner with the redoubtable Crew.  (And where I hope the internet is working…it wasn’t working on 2XS.  I kept trying, in between bouts of de-moulding and scrubbing.)

Chilli lobster!