I know those of you dealing with lots of snow and cold won't feel a bit sorry for us, but oh it just rains and rains and rains. The glow of our arrival has worn off and now we are doing the "fix it, wait, fix something else, wait" routine.

Madcap was on the hard over at Ram while our caretaker put in a new through hull to accommodate the plumbng for our new toilet and pump out system. He checked and touched up the bottom paint and polished the prop. We planned to launch on Sunday. Well, some of ithe work was done to our satisfaction but the plumbing bit wasn't so it had to be rectified before we launched. Done. Then yesterday the ground was too wet for the travel launch to safely move Madcap from her place up a gravel road down to the river's edge. Today, we figured it would still be too wet, but maybe tomorrow? Nope. The crew is off Tuesday and Wednesday. The hotel at Tortugal is full so we couldn't extend our stay there and we moved onboard Madcap yesterday. That means climbing up a ladder to get on board - and walking clear across the yard to the bathrooms. And this morning we discovered that our propane tank was empty - so no coffee or any hot meals. Not quite sure how that happened. The fridge isn't working either and is still on the fix it list.

With luck, we will get launched in a couple of days, although it is still raining some every day so we aren't holding our breaths. And I have caught some sort of cold - it is making its way through the cruisers here - so that doesn't help. Headache, cough, fatigue.

I'm not usually prone to such a negative posting, but we are so disappointed in a number of boat related things, and it just keeps on raining. It's simply the other side of our wonderful southern life. Things will change and we'll go back to happy. Mañana. Mañana. Manaña.

Don't be deceived by the blue sky in the pic. We have had a few hours of it though, and we aren't shovelling, just mopping!