I've extended the stay a week for the trading on the ship. We've been at anchor for almost three weeks. Tankers and freighters come and go, little sampan-like craft scoot about. The big tide flushes all sorts of flotsam around. Our crew responded with bracing up the yards quickly and getting fenders over.
Thunderstorms come and go, sometimes drenching downpours.
And it's hot, very hot. No one sleeps in their bunks anymore, some can't anyway. Jean's bunk is so full of carvings and exotic things she has bought or traded for. Quite good natured, he is finding out the ways of the ocean-going community one blooper at a time. The work going on aboard consists of lots of painting, deck oiling, chipping rust and priming, varnishing of pin and fife rails and overhauling rigging for the long Indian Ocean passage ahead.