Everybody was exhausted this morning, kids rebelling at the thought of school on a weekend, and even more so about the fact that UK schools are on holiday and they think they should have a week off. Reminding them that we only do an hour or two sit down work a day, and that we often have days off when we are in new places or on passage had no impact on their mood whatsoever so we had a chat, declared a no school day, and instigated a new system where I would write down the week's work and if the kids finished it early they could have the rest of the week off. We'll see how it goes tomorrow!
A lazy morning ensued, Patrick and I getting some boat jobs done before AJ hard boiled some eggs for lunch which we ate in the cockpit. Patrick had put our cockpit tent up with the sides rolled up for a bit of shade, (we don't have a bimini as it would be extremely difficult to fit on our ketch). I'm not sure if it was successful or not. We were out of the sun but the tent blocked out a lot of air movement so it was still quite hot. We have a sun shade to put over the boom which we may try but then we would need to get creative with where we put the solar panel as we need this to provide our electricity when at anchor. After our usual 1/2 hour after lunch down time with electronics I decided to go for a paddle. Once I had forced myself to do a lap standing up AJ chose to hitch a ride with me (no standing up with him on board!). It struck me that I must be making some improvement as at the beginning of the trip I wouldn't let any kid within 10m of me when I was on the paddleboard as I was so unsteady, even kneeling as I was now.
We paddled over towards the ski boats and then came back via a rock that AJ was interested in and spotted some sea urchins, cue a lesson on how much they hurt if you stand on them and that they are part of the same family as the starfish we saw earlier in the week. There were kids on the beach so I offered to sit for a while so that AJ could use the paddleboard to play with them. He plucked up the courage to ask a Greek boy to play and they had lots of fun together. Esmé clearly saw this from Laurin and got Dad to come with her while she rowed the dinghy to the beach to join in. When the Greek boy had to go home we all went back to Laurin, either rowing, paddling or swimming!
So far Esmé has chosen to wear her buoyancy aid when swimming off the back of the boat. She could swim 25m in the pool when we left home last year and often swims in the shallows but until now hasn't been confident to swim where she is out of her depth in the sea. I was in the water already so asked if she would like to try as I am sure she would prefer to be swimming without her buoyancy aid by the time her cousins come to visit. She was a little nervous but by the time we finished she was happily swimming between our two shore lines, treading water and flipping to float on her back if she was getting tired. Good effort Esmé!
We had an afternoon snack and watched another kid boat anchor next to us. Esmé was really impressed that the girl was operating the anchor windless and dancing on the foredeck when she was waiting for new instructions from her dad. Once Esmé saw the girl row to the beach with her family she was keen to follow so off we went on the paddleboard, and again I sat on the beach while she used the paddleboard as an invitation to play. The girl was quite shy so it took a little while of Esmé paddling and playing alone for her to pluck up courage to join in but eventually the girls were wobbling, laughing and giggling together.
Eventually back to the boat for a dinner of very "interesting" sausages, tabbouleh and veggies and then a final row to the beach as we heard young English voices, the first of the hotel's guests to make it to the beach. The kids played and swam until nearly 9 O'clock before heading back to the boat for bed.
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