The IBA Office have said that Richard will be able to drive us up to get the mattress. Despina, Richard’s wife who runs the Beach Bar, says that if he can’t, she’ll sort it! On Friday morning, we take the outboard off, but leave the dinghy on the bow and go back onto the pontoon for ‘an hour’ to get the mattress. Richard drives us up there, and, miming heartfelt thanks to the office there, we load it onto the IBA pickup truck, drive back to the quay and unload it.
The package is 2m long, about 80cm wide and 50cm deep and weighs a bit over 30kg. It’s a long walk with it along the pontoon.
We decide that if we unwrap the outer packaging, we’ll then be able to get each half on board separately. When did you last play pass the parcel? With a parcel too big to pick up? On a floating pontoon that moves every time something motors past or someone walks along it? Bear in mind, by this time, we’re feeling incredibly protective of this mattress and are terrified of cutting through too much packaging and damaging it, or exposing it to dirt, dropping it in the sea etc., etc., etc.
Outer plastic layer…. Reinforced woven paper layer….. Cardboard layer….. Finally, with help from neighbouring boats, we’re down to the inner plastic around the mattress – both halves of the mattress in the same plastic layer. In other words, we still have to get it onto the boat as one piece, so as to keep it protected as it rests on the pontoon, then the passarelle, then the deck, as we get it onboard. Hey Ho! (Will it be comfortable? Will it fit? I won’t think about that now.)
Some magnificent help from neighbouring boats, and it’s in the cockpit, where we open and split it. Then down the steps into the saloon, aft through the galley, onto the base – “It Fits!!!!!!!” I’m surprised the whole of Nidri didn’t hear my cry of joy and triumph. Then the 2nd half (I’d already moved the foam mattress into the forecabin, where it waited, still in its covers, just in case “Will it fit?”)
We collect all the packaging and take it up to the bins – nearly every boat we pass asks “Does it fit?” Richard had said the foam would be useful to them for kneeling on while doing winter work on the boats, so we leave that for him at the top of the pontoon.
We collect a parcel that’s arrived for us at IBA (more to come on that) and leave the pontoon to re-anchor in Tranquil Bay. I’d found a jar of Thai Red Curry sauce in one of the mini-markets, so we eat a Vegetable curry with sticky rice and then have a very very very good night’s sleep on our new bed. It’s wonderfully comfortable – if I have to get up at 7am, I happily crawl back into bed again, whereas before, it wasn’t an altogether pleasant proposition. My bones and joints are quieter and calmer. The life of the Raggle Taggle Gipsies, but with the goose-feather bed (or 2000 pocket sprung bed) as well 😉
And yes, to all the doom-mongers out there, only time will tell if the springs really are marine friendly or whether they’ll corrode from the inside in the salt air, but I won’t think about that now. I won’t even think about that tomorrow. I love my bed!