Thorshavn 1

Sand from the Bahamas

When you arrive and are politely asked twice - we were already in our pajamas - to receive a friendly stamp in your passport, you sleep in. Secondly, you have to tidy up, repair, and CLEAN.

Just expand the analogy of sailing to cleaning here.

There is sand wallpaper on two walls in the forward bathroom and saltwater sloshing in the bilge. We had noticed this during the passage, but as long as it doesn't get out of hand and it's clear where the saltwater is coming from, it's not a concern.

But afterwards, it becomes a concern: like Sherlock, we try to deduce the cause.

Windows, rail supports, mast, water drain, dorade vent. Everything is flooded and of course, no water or sand comes in.

We explain the sand by the fact that our Starlight has already been to the Caribbean and has been carrying it from here to there. Better than the idea of self-cultivated sand: thirty years of dirt ground into smaller and smaller particles, yuck!

Then we pump out the water and clean as much as possible because saltwater in the boat is not good. In the meantime, and after removing panels, we suspect the vent, with its automatic closing system!

Oh, and Thorshavn, how sweet it is when we have time between cleaning cycles.