… and I’m typing this in a saloon that looks a little trashed right now.  Living on the boat with repairs going on around us is the very thing we tried so hard to avoid. Anyway, that’s the way it has to be, so grumble not, Karenski gal, and just bloody get on with it.

So – what’s happening? Well …

• The guys have carted off the galley fridge – yes it was a gas leak. Steven says they’ve repaired it now and it will be returned for re-installing tomorrow. Hope so – the chest freezer we’re using should be able to switch to fridge mode, but it still freezes things somewhat even on the lowest setting.  No worries, frozen yoghurt and mushrooms aren’t a hardship. But it’s played havoc with Dick’s beer supply which now comes with ice rocks inside the bottle -those that haven’t blown their tops.

• All the saloon padded seats are piled up in the starboard cabin, as access is needed to the electrics in the cupboards below those seats.  The problem being some recent rewiring work has actually taken us backwards – resulting in crazy or intermittent battery readings.  Some talk today of the solar panels being wired in wrongly, too.  A new one on us.  Have to see wait and see what Ken and Charles make of things when they arrive tomorrow.

• The windgenny blades are stowed beneath the table at my feet. The genny, to put it mildly, appears to be right royally buggered.  Charles and Kyle have tested it according to the manual and it didn’t so much throw a hissy fit as just ignore them. Thumbed a snook and insisted on just doing its own crazy thing. More head-scratching for Ken and Charles.

• The saloon table modification appears to be a success. It was catching on the hinges of the freezer-cum-seat when lowered to make a bed with the surrounding seats (other FastCat buyers will know what I mean; apologies for baffling other readers)  – and now it doesn’t, thanks to David and Matt’s attentions. They’ve carefully chiselled little grooves out of the table surround to fix the problem and managed the impossible by making these look attractive! Oh well done, chaps!

• The paddle holders on the rubber ducky have been added. There were some already fitted but if used,  the paddles would have faced the wrong way! (Somebody around here has obviously never discovered the joys of rowing).  Mind you, that’s probably truer than it seems – when we were first shown the duck, we found the oarlocks had been put on the wrong way.  Now titter ye not – rowing facing forwards could be fun – hopelessly inefficient, yes, of course … but you can’t have everything.

• Doug has fixed the missing seal in the port blackwater pump.  Now it’s up and running with the best of ‘em. Sadly we’ve just discovered – like an hour ago – that the starboard head is now weeping seawater into the head itself. So one snag off the list and a new one added. But good news of sorts – at least it appears there’s a valve there in the first place, even if it’s a crap one (boom boom).  Sorry.

• The leaking watertank lids – the ones with UV light fitments (to kill the bugs) – have been seakered in (I have no idea of how to spell that word – SEEKA, perhaps? But as a friend of ours quipped, without it, the entire SA boat building production would probably go bust). Anyway, here’s hoping that it does the trick and we can cross those leaks off the list. But we’ve learned our lessons well, these past months – so Dick and I will do another full test programme on all the water tank lids later this week. We couldn’t earlier, because there was no water supply over the recent weekend.

• The dishwasher is still here while answers from Smeg are awaited – but not for long we hope. If nothing heard by the end of this week, then Plan B must come into operation. (That or I don the Marigolds and demand a refund. That dishwasher was a scandalous price for what it is.)

• There was a final point I added here  – a rather impassioned and scathing rant about the benefits of transparency and honesty and the foolishness and shortsightedness of treating your customers like mushrooms (feed them on sh*t and keep them in the dark) – but I’ve changed my mind. For now I’ll save it.

So dear reader,  that is the state of play tonight.

From humid, thundery Durban, amidst the wastelands of an unravelling, shambolic Butterfly,  shall bid y’all a peaceful, tidy, orderly goodnight – right now, I envy yers!