Opua: duffled
Opua: duffled
Last evening I had the recently rare pleasure of dinner--freeze dry lamb, peas, and mashed potatoes--and a drink--gin and tonic sans ice--on deck, listening to music--Christina Branco, a Portuguese fado singer--while watching a 45’ catamaran come in and anchor, apparently by remote control. A man came to just forward of the mast, where I presume there is a foot button to control the windlass, and stood there looking bored. I heard but did not see the anchor go down. After a while he walked aft and disappeared under the superstructure that encloses the steering station on most modern catamarans. And that was it. Not quite the way I do it; but certainly done with a minimum of fuss, as apposed to a Canadian boat that has been around for a couple of weeks and noisily re-anchors almost every day with shouting, alarms and excursions offstage.
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Carol likes to say that I’m ready and sitting on my duffle bag days before I fly. While not literally true, as regular readers may recall, I do not wait until the last minute to make preparations for passages or flights.
My departure from THE HAWKE OF TUONELA is a week away; but this one, possibly my last, is complicated, and so today I started packing.
A prospective buyer, who was on the boat last Saturday, asked, “How are you going to get all your stuff back to the U.S.?” To which I replied, “I’m not. What will fit in two duffle bags goes. What doesn’t, doesn’t.”
I’m taking only a dozen of the books on HAWKE’s shelves; and only a few of the DVDs; as well as most, but not all, of my clothes; and, of course, my foul weather gear.
The process cannot be complete until the last day, but at the moment it seems possible I will fit everything into the big military style duffle bag shown above, although if I do, I’ll pack the second inside in case it is overweight and its contents have to be divided.
The seven day rain forecast is not promising. I have a rental car reserved from Monday, so if necessary I can go ashore early and spend a night or two in a motel.
However I have the advantage of being able to wear my foul weather gear on the final row in; and even to pump up and use the old Avon should conditions be too rough for the ungainly fiberglass dinghy I keep locked in the dinghy rack for the first row out and the last back.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012