A lazy morning after 2 late nights, cooked breakfast/brunch and then the kids disappeared to Vesna and I prepared curry in my Mr D's thermal cooker before heading to the meeting room (and free internet) for a while to catch up with the blog. It was a lazy day with the wind steadily building which was getting more and more frustrating by the hour, so after dinner we decided on a walk to the town for ice cream. The wind was so strong it was pretty hard going on the way there, but once in the town square we were much more sheltered and enjoyed our gelato with the locals.
That evening the wind built further and the boat was rocking and rolling about like she was at sea, however it was slightly better than other windy nights in that the wind was pushing us off the pontoon so our rubber snubbers dampened the movement unlike when the wind pushes us towards the pontoon and I hear the bow lines snatching at the cleats all night!
Monday 9th April
After a stressful morning of school, followed by a quick lunch I, along with 3 other mums, escaped the marina without kids for a little shopping trip. None of us really cared where but ended up at Decathlon, followed by coffee and then H&M which is in the same retail park. It was lovely to get out for the afternoon and have a break from the kids and I certainly came back more refreshed and ready to break the mood that had been hanging over the boat for the last couple of days.
Tuesday 10th April
Quick school then up to the market with Zoe and Cam. We then left the kids with Patrick at the playground while Zoe and I went to Eurospar. For once I shunned the lovely roast chickens in favour of calamari for tea, and got Arancini (fried breaded rice balls with various fillings) and ribs for a picnic lunch. Typically Esmé who doesn't normally eat chicken was mortified at the lack of a bird in my bag, refused her usual favourite of Arancini and just ate bread!
The kids had a great afternoon out playing with their friends while I tidied the boat a little and made holders for some of our various electronic devices in an attempt to tidy up our "charging locker".
Last time we ate Calamari, to our great surprise, Esmé loved it and AJ really didn't, so this time I bought less calamari and cooked some left over curry for AJ. Surprise surprise the curry got left and we were all fighting over the calamari!
We trialled letting the kids stay out a bit later and eating later in the evening in an attempt to ease our bedtime routine. For a while, AJ has been doing some school in the evening after Esmé is in bed but he is less enthusiastic at the moment so I decided they can go to their cabin at the same time and I'll go back to reading bedtime stories to both of them. If he wants to do he can stay up later but I'm not going to force him, it's kind of nice to have my evening back too!
Wednesday 11th April
It was a windy morning so we decided to book the meeting room for a while to get off the boat and try a science experiment we have been meaning to do for a while. Esmé got a rubber band powered car for Christmas and I wanted to video it going along a measured track so that we could use the data to draw distance time graphs. We also experimented to see how different numbers of turns of the elastic band affected the distance travelled. We collected lots of data before running out of concentration so will analyse the data later in the week. The kids then practiced a three legged race back to the boat.In the afternoon I went to a presentation on celestial navigation given by Allan from Artemis, hoping to remind myself of how to navigate by the sun, moon and stars. I think I'll need to study a little more in depth so have arranged to go see Allan on Friday afternoon for a little more in depth tuition!
The boys played Pirates of Catan whilst I cooked a Thai Curry, which we then took to Vesna to christen their lovely new table. It was a lovely evening and we agreed that Julia and the kids would come out for a sail with us the next day to help us try out our cruising chute. Zoe, Guy, Cam and Max also dropped by to say goodbye as they were heading off towards Syracuse early in the morning. We were sad to say goodbye but understood that they need to get moving.
Thursday 12th April
School was a quick affair in the morning as we needed to concentrate on last minute tidying making Laurin "Ship Shape" again and ready to go for a sail. We had an early lunch and then were joined by Julia, Declan, Reuben and Ivy to go for a sail. The marina guys insisted in escorting us out of the marina, so we hung around for a while and then AJ took us out of our berth and followed the little rib out of the marina, meanwhile Jack followed us with his drone. There really wasn't much wind but we managed to have a nice play, putting the cruising chute up and then the mizzen staysail. The cruising chute was a little disappointing as we had to put the spinnaker pole on it to get it flying reasonably... perhaps if the sheet was lead further aft it might have worked better so we have something to work on for next time.
After a while we had all had enough so motored back into the marina where the kids swiftly jumped ship and headed to the beach while Patrick tidied up and I headed for the Stella Marina Bar where there was a meeting on sailing in Malta and the Ionian. A couple of hours or so later and we were all back on board eating a very welcome dinner of fajitas... the first in a long while as tortilla wraps are really hard to find here. All in all a lovely end to a lovely day.
Drone photo's courtesy of Jack Andrys:
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