Wednesday 31 October Trick or treat?

Probably our first mistake was to fail to take the oars to the bakery. If we had it could all have turned out so differently.
How more French than to go to the bakery for freshly baked baguettes on this beautiful morning? We launched the dinghy with wheels ready to deploy to make pulling up beyond the surf line easier. The north end of the beach is half a mile closer to the bakery than the jetty at the southern end.
Kuto has one of the finest beach I've seen – a long stretch of fine white sand backed by pine trees, a shallow bay which shelves quickly to the beach. We were on high water as we went in and there was a surf breaking. No problem getting in. No problem buying our baguettes. Relaunching into the surf? Not so good.
First we wheeled the dinghy into the waters edge. While I held us straight to the small breaking surf David lifted and folded away the wheels. The call came 'jump in now!'. I stepped into the dinghy, slightly hampered by the 5 baguettes in the bag on my back, while David held the stern ready to leap in and start the motor. Before he could leap the first wave broke over the bow. The second wave broke over the bow and still David is not in the boat. I'm wet but the bread is still dry. Next I try to start the motor while David holds us steady and the pull cord comes snaps off in my hand! If only we'd thought to bring the oars we could have rowed ourselves through the swell and back to the boat.
Without a second means of propulsion we have to fix the outboard so we put down the wheels, attempt to keep the bread bag above the water level and come back to the beach with a boat half full with water.
I'm soaked but the bread in their plastic bin liner inside the back pack are dry, even the tops projecting from the top of the bag. In trying to fold the tops inside I drop one in the sand. A quick brush off and no one will know the difference. Our options are limited to a) one of us swimming back to the boat to collect tools. I could swim the distance but I can't get on the boat when the swim ladder isn't down. It was up. b) another dinghy could give us a tow but no one else is about, c) fix the outboard we have. It's option c) which is easy if you have a spanner - undo the top of the motor and feed more cord from the reserve through the hole. Without a spanner it's time for lateral thinking about what we do have. The solution was the long, slim padlock key with which we managed to fiddle the cord into the inner hole and tease out the other side. Outboard fixed.
The second launch was more cautiously, waiting for a lull in the incoming surf (it wasn't big surf) and starting the motor before it was in the water and me on the throttle ready to go as soon as David could jump in.
We should have been aware it's Halloween. A nasty trick of the swell catching us unawares. The treat of fresh bread hard won through grit and determination. Only one piece was gritty with the sand. Nothing else to do except sit back and laugh at our adventure.