I am surrounded by chaos and cockroaches. The chaos is all too visible. The cockroaches not. I have seen three since I came aboard yesterday noon and one may have run across my hand last night. I killed one and sent bug spray in the direction of the fleeing others.
It is now 6 a.m. Friday morning. My second cup of not bad instant coffee is at hand. Bach’s ‘Well tempered Clavier’ is playing on the Megabooms. So the world is not a total loss, though one of my duffle bags may be.
The flights back were worse even than usual, due to a fidgeting child beside me, a medical emergency necessitating a landing at Ankara, Turkey to offload a middle-aged man who apparently had a heart attack, unnecessarily complicated procedures at Dubai, pure duration, and that Emirates Air, which generously allows two free checked bags, ungenerously put one of mine on the wrong airplane. I am told it will show up today. I hope so for it contains boat supplies that I cannot replace easily, or at all, in South Africa. It also contains my razor and I haven’t shaved for three days and my face itches.
GANNET is in reasonable condition for having been neglected for three months. Insignificant mold. Only a few drops of water in the bilge. Batteries charged. But she looks forlorn, dirty, and needs cleaning and painting and organizing.
Almost all zippers on storage bags are frozen. So far with the aid of WD40 I’ve freed them.
After dark last night I found that two battery operated cabin lights have died and I had not thought to put the one remaining LuminAid out to charge, so I was reduced to a head lamp and a solar flashlight that can also be charged with a hand crank. Three or four new LuminAids are also in the lost bag.
Light rain forced hatches to be closed last night, but after a hot afternoon, the night was not uncomfortable. I slept from about 6 p.m. to midnight, then intermittently until 3 a.m. when I read and waited for dawn.
My immediate goal is to impose order on the cabin chaos and hope my lost bag arrives.
My immediate goal is to impose order on the cabin chaos and hope my lost bag arrives.
