Close Encounters

George Town   

Today's project was changing the oil in the outboard. We raised the dinghy to the upper deck and Barry started in on the first and most important step of the process, reading the instructions. Even as we rolled in the wakes of passing water taxis, the process went remarkably smooth. The job was done and everything was cleaned up in time for lunch. I spent a few hours on Fiberglass Beach, finishing up my latest book. It was a page-turner about a man seeking revenge on a super tanker than ran over his sailboat in a storm. (The story was set before widespread availability of modern radar, GPS, and AIS so the situation is less likely to occur today.) We had some weird encounters this afternoon here in Elizabeth Harbour. A small sea plane made several runs to and from Chat N Chill beach ferrying passengers. On its first approach, it passed along our starboard side and touched down in the channel. On two subsequent runs, it landed much further away. The freakier event was a sailboat that came zipping through the anchorage under sail. It approached our swim platform much too close for comfort before peeling off down our port side. 

We very well could have shared a Grey Poupon with the kids on the rail. He was that close. After the excitement waned, we lowered the dinghy back down and took it for a test drive. We a final trip into Lake Victoria to top off the dinghy gas tank, dispose of some trash, and pick up five items ($38). By the time we left town, the wind had calmed to near nothing and it was a smooth ride under the bridge and across the anchorage to Crossroads. A few high wispy clouds settled in the west and provided some added interest as the sun set.