Una, three years old!

Una is three years old today. Una sails on the "Aurora", a Windoe 50, with mom and dad from Ulefoss, Norway. So I dive into my rope and yarn bag. And tie, crochet and embroider another Rope-doll. The bendable rope, with a wire through it, lets the doll sit and wave. Yellow yarn-hair, blue eyes, red mouth of button-thread, maroon fish-het dress and blue belt and necklace of "boat-string". Pretty funny-looking. Definitely not in the Barbie crowd.

Playa Blanca, the town and beach, is a short jaunt on the long, lava-boulder lined path. So we grab our towels and swimsuits and go. Great to cool down and swim in the surf. Cool is a relative term; water temp is about 25 degrees. The beach has rows of yellow sun-beds, blue umbrellas; for a price you can use them. There s a cafè on the lava-stone board-walk if you get thirsty. They think of everything. But being hardy Norwegians we have our sandy sandwiches and warm bottled water on our towels. Periodically moving back as the surf rolls further and further upwards on the beach.
Postcards, t-shirts, straw-hats shops spill out over the sidewalks. Cafès, chinese restaurants and car-rentals along the stone-paved walk-ways in down-town Playa Blanca. Not the air conditioned airport shops (Burberry, LaCoste) of the new, squeaky-clean Marina movie-set town.

Back at the boat we make a seafood paella and have the "Aurora" crew over, with birthday girl, Una. A lovely evening, the almost full moon rising to starboard as the sun sets, red-eyed, in the sea, to port.