Hot and sunny.

I’ve arranged to meet Dwayne at 7 am at Clarke’s to give him our old dinghy. I go in alone and the dinghy seems to work perfectly so perhaps our troubles were due to gremlins. I dunno. I like Dwayne – I’m at the security gate by 6:45 am, he arrives with a friend (thankfully, that dinghy is heavy) at 6:55 am. We’ve got it loaded on Bob’s SUV and tied down in about 15 minutes. He says he’ll send me a picture of what he makes of it. He’s going to try to repair it but often what they do is trash the rubber tubes and make a wooden boat out of the bottom which is rock solid. Will be interesting to see the result. We’re happy we were able to give him something of value – we made a little extra work for him but the gift of the dinghy more than makes up for that. He may be an ally in the future.

Today is the arrival of our friends Brenda, Emma, Grail and Netty (in alphabetical order doncha know) so we’re going to pick up a car that Y&R will deliver to Clarke’s. The girls don’t arrive til 4 pm.

Back on Milu, the weather is looking a little sketchy but it looks like we have at least a 10 minute window before the big rain comes to get to Clarke’s to meet Y&R at 9 am.

Yeah, sure.

The dinghy dies about halfway across and won’t restart – just in time for the skies to open and the rain to come down in torrents. Nothing to do but paddle for it, at least it is with the wind and not too far but we are drowned rats. The car rental company is calling me cuz it’s now 10 after 9 and we’re late but my phone and my hands are so wet that I can’t answer the call. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming. We pass a boat and they offer us a tow but it is too late for them to help us, by the time they get to us, tow us in we can row ourselves in. Christy is adamant that we’re trading our old Honda 20 HP for the nearly new Suzuki 9.9 that someone offered us – she’s asking if I can bring up facebook on my phone. I’m not keen – trade a used motor for a used motor? There has to be something simple going on here.

We land and I run for it to catch the car rental – although we’re regulars, they might lose patience and leave. She’s still there, we do the transaction but I’m too wet to even move the car.

I go back to get Christy who is on the dock with the dinghy. By now it is sunny and dry. We’ve planned to do some chandlery, hardware store and grocery shopping but she is soaked through and so am I. We don’t want to sit in the car for the next 3 hours soaking wet. OK, I’ll go back to get dry clothes.

“How will I know if you’re stranded?” asks Christy?
“I’ll be late”, says I.

The dinghy starts, why wouldn’t it?, but shortly it dies. I squeeze the gas ball and – what’s that? – I hear a hissing sound. Sure enough the fuel line tube is cracked right at the tank. No wonder it dies. All I have to do is hold it tight and the dinghy runs great. Will repair it later. Sorry Nils (they guy we bought it from) for all the bad things I said about you. I get dry clothes for the both of us and am soon back on the dinghy dock at Clarkes. No rowing required.

Off we go to Port Louis (cruising permit renewal), couple hardware stores and groceries. We take a tour of the Carnage by car – pretty scary driving on the narrow streets – as we hope to go the market tomorrow.

Eventually we’re back at Milu. I fix the broken gas line while Christy packs things away. We have enough time for a trip to Bob’s to carry the barrel up to his driveway and one more swim. Gotta tell ya, that barrel carry up 78 steps earned me the swim off Bob’s dock afterwards.

Soon enough it is time for me to leave for the airport. Christy gives me a ride in the now-repaired-dinghy as she will meet us at La Phare Bleu later. We’ll leave the car there during their visit.

All hugs and kisses at the airport and after a quick grocery/booze stop at the Ram, we are on our way to LPB. Christy arrives almost exactly coincidentally and it is quite a lovely reunion. The girls love the cottages there (can you hear Netty’s outdoor voice “This is so cute!!!”?) and we go for pizza by the pool and drinks at the restaurant and discuss the itinerary for the next few days.

Seems to me a relatively early night as we all have had a long day and we’re off for adventures early tomorrow.