Providence

In the morning we met up with David and Marian to head over to another section of this vast marina for the weekly farmers market. There were a number of stalls selling a variety of foods and stuff all looking pretty fresh.

David and Marian are trying to sell their car before they depart for Australia so they left it at the car park with signs fore and aft while we took a pleasant walk back along the edge of the marina.

Back at the boats we parted ways for a couple of hours. We later rejoined the Kilkeas to watch the beginning of leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race – from here to Brazil via the southern ocean. The local forecast is pretty grim but this is nothing compared to what the six boats are going to encounter down south.

The race had the boats sail the harbour three times before heading out and round a marker not too far from us. Once the boats had completed their harbour legs we left the boat to view them from a nearby hill.

We were momentarily distracted by a piece of providence. Marian found a fresh snapper on the dock and another floating in the water. She retrieved them making the decision this would be good for dinner. We could see nothing wrong with them and could only wonder if someone had simply caught too many and dropped a couple.

We found a good vantage point where we could watch the fleet through our binoculars. It was quite exciting but hard to tell who was in the lead. We were all quite glad to be ashore and not out on the water which had been one of our considered options.

By the time we headed back further decisions had been made. Helen and Marian headed off to view some of the nearby show homes while David and I were dispatched to fillet the fish. I learned a couple of things from David who did a far better job than I so that was good.

David and I rewarded ourselves for our hard effort with a couple of beers while we awaited the ladies return. When they did Helen and I took the fish and headed back to Dignity as Helen had offered to cook the fish.

David and Marian joined us for dinner which was excellent. A few bottles of wine helped polish off the dinner and the evening.

Overnight the weather has deteriorated considerably. We have howling wind and rain outside. There are 50 knot winds forecast for today out at sea. We’re quite glad to be in the marina and not out on anchor.