Thursday 29 March

I leapt out of bed and with eager anticipation, flung the curtains open. As predicted, there was a beautiful white world outside. Our hotel room and the breakfast room overlooks a small wood, which looked very pretty with its snow coat. There was about 3 - 4 cms of snow, well settled and, as we walked to the boat big fluffy flakes were coming down. Cautiously, we stepped on board, then were delighted to find the boat still lovely and dry inside. As we pottered about down below, it was a little disconcerting intermittently hearing and feeling the thud of snow falling down from the rigging onto the deck.

Christian was due to come mid morning to help us put the main sail on but we cancelled him, and the delivery of the repaired jib. The deck was sufficiently slippery to make any of this dangerous. We have rescheduled these jobs and reconciled ourselves to having to stay put and be land tourists on this holiday island for the weekend. At least we are in a thoroughly nice part of the world.

Having had the diesel heater on for two hours we decided to switch to the electric heating. It struck me as ironic that the heating in our apartment at home is set to come on if the temperature drops below 15 degrees, while we are not there. We struggled to get up to 15 degrees with both lots of heating today so I was very happy to get back to our warm hotel room for a couple of hours in the afternoon. The fluffy snow became sleety rain, and the temperature rose enough for a lot of the ice to melt. Despite this foul weather there were still boats being lifted into the water.

I learnt German in school but have rarely had the opportunity to speak it since, but, with hearing it spoken, it is coming back to me. When the harbour master came to collect the harbour fees today, I suspect my few words gave him the impression that I understand more than I do and he rattled on at great speed. He’s a nice friendly chap and we must keep him onside, as we are needing to stay much longer than we hoped.

Distance covered today - 0 nautical miles

Total distance covered - 0 nautical miles

Tricia (and Steve)