Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Starting the (external) Chores

[Kyle]Once we got situated in a slip at Salve Marine in Crosshaven, we went in with our list to see what they could help us with. The owner, a Dutch man with a hint of an Irish accent mingling with his Dutch, told us his name but we never got it. It was something Dutch starting in W that sounded as if it had no consonants. For the sake of discussion, we’ll call him William, which he most certainly isn’t. Maryanne: Actually Kyle never got it, the guy's name is Wietse.

His only employee was a South African man of few words whose name really was Ronnie. The place looked completely ramshackle, but the two could not have been more patient or helpful. We asked where we could get propane filled (our first in Europe). William said to just leave it outside and he would take care of it. American fittings were no problem. The place he took it had adapters for pretty much every kind of fitting. As for the broken rail, he came and looked at it and said if we got it off, Ronnie could do it on the premises. It was pretty much the same with the rest of the list.

Tired from our early start to get the tide, Maryanne and I snuck in an hour nap before tackling all of the work we had to do. Once we got done, we were surprised to see our two propane bottles had already been filled! We got the rail off and Ronnie had it done in less than an hour – sort of. He said he wasn’t done and went home for the night.

Later that evening, Maryanne’s parents arrived from England to congratulate us on our passage and came over for dinner and a catch-up before the evening was over.

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