It's going to be difficult to reconcile our wish to have a sailing holiday with the work we know needs to be done on the boat. Because she's stayed in the water all winter, poor old Makarma is looking definitely in need of some TLC. Apart from some essential wiring and Chris's new teak toerail, we've done nothing to her for months. The to-do list is endless, and it's hard to work out where to start. Like many other boatowners, we wonder if we wouldn't do better to charter and let someone else do the maintenance.
Despite Leighton coming out a week early to get the boat ready for a month's cruising, there's still loads to do. In January when he did the re-wiring, Leighton had split the bank of batteries into two, which revealed that one battery was failing to hold a charge. Since they're the same batteries from when we bought the boat, we decided it was time to replace them all. The order was coming from Barcelona, but needless to say delivery took longer than the promised 4 days. They eventually showed up the day after I arrived, after one attempt at delivery failed because the marina office was on its three hour lunch break.
On the bright side, it's hot and sunny and we're absorbed back into the liveaboard community on our pontoon. John and Rosemary in Kipenzi; Wilma and Francis next door; Jane and David on Dee-Dee; the Dutch couple who are always cleaning their boat; the retired couple who use their boat as a holiday home. Peter and Lorie and their sailing school students. We make time to stop and socialise between jobs.
Because we haven't hauled her out this winter, the hull has become home to clumps of river oysters, barnacles and the like. Tying a scraper to the end of a telescopic decorater's pole, we reach as far below the waterline as we can to remove them. After several days of hard graft, we realise if we don't have a proper rest now we might never want to go sailing ever again. It's not worth the effort. Over a beer at one of the cafes by the town plaza, we decide to jack it all in for a few days to visit Seville and Cordoba.
