St Helena Wednesday 23rd December 2015
Well today was a shore day once again.
We needed to get on the net and also to buy a few groceries for Christmas Day.
At first we were going to get groceries on Christmas Eve but after finding out a few days ago how quick everything sells out around here we decided that we better get in a bit early.
It's been a bit rough out here this morning, we thought it would do us good to get off the boat, until we got to shore, oh man was it rough at the dock, the ferry brings us in, and just as I grabbed the rope to swing onto the dock a huge wave washed over into the boat, I was soaked from the knees down, just great.
So with wet feet we stumbled on, I have to say here I swear this island rocks, seriously, every time we get to shore the earth sure moves.
We had borrowed the only other cruisers jerry cans to fill up with more water, that made a total of 6, which was great.
We thought it best to fill them up first so at least they were weighted down some and would stay put.
The dock was a hive of activity with the RMS in and there were cranes lifting ship containers everywhere.
They have three huge cranes but the biggest is one called a Terex, man it's one big mother of a crane.
We do our stuff onshore and several shops later we have all the groceries we need and slowly make are way back to the dock.
After dodging Terex several times we make it back to the little wharf, and are struck with horror.
There are our two Jerry cans on steps away from the waters edge, but the others are gone, a huge wave had washed them away.
They were up high and dry and we never dreamed the water would reach them, there were a few locals standing around and they confirmed the sad fact.
We just stood there totally stunned and thinking what are we going to do? If they were ours it would be bad enough but they belonged to Louis and Betty from Ave Del Mar.
They had lent them to us in good faith and we were having drinks on their boat late this afternoon and would return them and it was not like we could buy anymore here as we had bought the last one on the island the other day.
The ferry here has three drivers, the owner Johnny, another driver Roy and a young guy called Alex.
I caught the eye of Alex, who was anchored just off from the wharf and he gave me a smile and pointed into the boat, I was so hoping that was a good sign and he had them.
As he got closer I could see he had two of them, so at least that was better than none, but to our surprise he had all of them, oh man what a relief.
Alex is our new best friend...haha apparently they washed into the water and he went and rescued them, just another of the type of people you have around here.
I can hear you thinking they are just Jerry cans, why stress so much? Well to a cruiser they are way more than that, we have a water maker on board so we can at least get some water, but Ave Del Mar, dont and this is there only means of getting water, so yeah it was a very big deal.
The ride back to our boat was rough and as we got up along side her the swell was crazy, there was a lot of pirate language going on, Alex thought it was so funny, I'm freaking out, waiting for us and the ferry to all land upside down in the water at any minute, but we managed to get ourselves, two bags, a camera, groceries and 6 Jerry cans of water all back on deck without getting too wet, but was I seasick.
This was crazy, I have almost sailed right around the world and a little ferry brings me undone.
I layed down most of the afternoon and we had to radio Louis and Betty to tell them we could not come over for drinks, besides feeling off, there was no way we could get our dingy launched in this kind of ocean.
So we sat here rocking and rolling all afternoon and all night, man it is shocking we might as well be out in the ocean, I even thought of getting a sail out to settle us down some...haha
Well tomorrow is another day.