One More Night

I made it to the market where everything worked out as planned. I purchased fruit and vegetables, and some pastry, saying Goodbye as I went along. At the liquor store I told Luciano that I had 300 pesos to get rid of and it might as well be on wine. He suggested a 6-bottle case of the cabernet sauvignon that I like so much for 180 pesos, which would leave enough for a case of malbec. Unfortunately the total amount was higher than he had expected, at 370 pesos. I saw no problem with that and suggested that he take back a couple of bottles of the malbec, but he wouldn't do that. He cleaned me out of the 320 pesos that I had, which was good, but that left him short of 50 pesos which I considered to be very bad. But that's the way he wanted it, so we shook hands and I wished him the best and asked him to say Goodbye to his wife for me.

I'll miss the market and the people in it.

Back at the boat I wasn't too happy the way the tide was behaving. The depth had been hovering around 1.8 meters and I would need 2.4 m. The wind worried me too, with strong gusts blowing from the west. It would have been a great sailing wind but I was worried about getting out into the fairway with a strong following wind, then executing a tight turn to the right to shoot for the narrow gap under the bridge. It would be likely that I would have to wait while the bridge swung open which meant that I would have to try to keep the boat still in a crosswind.

I had a lie-down and at 3 I got up to make my decision. The depth was still at 2.1 m and the wind was still gusting, so I decided to have a hot shower and shave and advise Luis on my way back.

It wasn't going to happen anyway. After I explained to Luis and Salvador why I thought it best to wait until tomorrow morning at 9 AM to make my exit Luis told me that Agape, that huge catamaran that had been berthed opposite Pachuca on the jetty, was using the mooring that he had planned to assign to me. Luis was quite comfortable with my staying another night but he did tease me a bit asking if I hadn't been treated well here at the marina. I told him that I liked being here very much but “hace demasiado frio” in Mar de Plata (It's too cold.) and I needed to get to a warmer climate, patting my chest and complaining of the gripe and coughing. They both nodded in full understanding of my situation.

I stepped out of the office and ran into the captain of Agape. It was like meeting an old friend and we shook hands. He said that the bottom treatment of the catamaran had been completed but with winds gusting up to 30 knots he did not think it safe to attempt an entry into the marina. I asked him if the boat had two screws and he said Yes, but the windage of the boat was so high (phenomenally high freeboard) that there was too much risk of losing control. They might try to come in at 8 PM tonight when the tide would be high and the wind was expected to moderate.

I told him that I remembered the night that they had first come into the marina. I had returned to the boat from a shower to find Brenda, boat hook in hand, who had been valiantly prepared to fend off a gigantic catamaran whose pontoon had been pushed by the wind into Pachuca's slip threatening to flatten her rear end. We then watched Agape bounce from one post to another amid anxious shouts from her crew. When they managed to round the corner and reach the jetty I was there to help take their lines. The skipper of Agape remembered that night and he did not want a repetition.

Although Pachuca is a much lighter boat than Agape, with much less windage, she does have only one screw and subject to similar risks from the crosswind. What I'm trying to say is that I felt that my decision to not take the risks of an exit in the strong winds validated.

At 4 PM I shut down the refrigerator and took out a fillet of chicken for thawing in front of the fan heater because the entire refrigerator compartment had become a freezer. Brenda had given me advice on pressure cooking the pigs' feet (30 minutes) so I was thinking of soaking kidney beans overnight with a plan to begin thawing the pigs' feet after I had set sail and pressure cooking a fine soup in the late afternoon. (Yum!)

For the evening there was nothing to do other than to rip into a couple of Bols Cafe al Conac, think of the evening meal, and wonder what movie to watch tonight. Life for the moment seemed safe, tranquil, and comfortable.