It's now Tuesday and we just moved Zephyr again but I'll get to that later.

At the last post, it was early Sunday and what a nice day it was. We went over in the afternoon and visited with Johanna and Timo of IIdress, a couple we met over a year ago when we were in Grenada. It's a small world out here and from time to time we run into friends from many miles ago. Like us, since we last saw them, they have been all over the Caribbean sight seeing and doing work on their boat. They've be in Curacao for a while having passed by Bonaire when we were there. Johanna had ordered in a set of Mexican Train Dominos and they had finally come in so we went over to break them in and spend a nice afternoon talking. A nice way to spend an afternoon.

Yesterday, Monday, we were off for the free trip to the grocery store to replenish the fresh fruits and veggies we've consumed one the last week or so and then back to Zephyr, where i left Tracy and headed for the Chiropractors office. When I'd visited him last week, I'd made an appointment for 1400 and it was going to take me while to get there. I caught the 1130 bus getting me into Willemstad just after 1210 with the next bus I needed leaving at 1215. A few steps and I climbed on and off we went again. Traffic was miserable and it took close to 40 minutes to get over a trip that should have taken about 20. I had time for a quick lunch at Subway, just down the road from the office and made it in plenty of time. I was the second person in the office and it quickly filled with about 6 people waiting to be seen. As expected the others were seen before me as they were all locals(repeat traffic long after I'm gone). I finally got in at 1430 and after some messaging, a really cold compress put on my shoulders and a really big neck cracking, I was on my way just about 1510. I crossed the street and caught the bus back to town at 1520. I had one more stop to make before hoping to catch the 1600 bus back to the docks. I needed to send a letter back to the US. The Post Office is right around the corner from the bus station so no problem. It's a huge post office with a mammoth waiting area. As I entered, I was told by a guard to take a number as waited. I was the only person in the huge waiting area!!! I took my number and watched as the three clerks sat behind their windows and did nothing but chat between themselves. About five minutes later, they stopped and my number was called. Being the only one in the room, it was easy to see that I was the next(and only) person in line(no line). In the end, it coast $6.84 guilders, a bit under $4.00 to get the letter sent out. Did she take the letter? Heck not,I had to take it across the room and stick it in one of the three slots and off I went to catch the 1600 bus which I did and was back on board about 1645. Lots of traveling yesterday.

Today(Tuesday), we've had winds from just about all the points of the compass. Off our port side is a small float(old oil jug)that marks a submerged rock that you really want to stay away from. At six feet deep, it would still hit our keel if we got to close. The winds were pushing us closer and closer so to solve the problem, we took down the tarps we put up earlier to keep the Sun off us and started the engine and motored forward till we got the anchor up and maneuvered into a new position where the rock was away from us. Didn't take long and I put out about 120+feet of chain in water that's just 17 feet deep so we have lots of chain out and are now much farther from the buoy/rock with the anchor buried in the sand/coral/grass bottom and with lots of pulling back, it's set nice and deep below us. Once settled, out came the tarps and we are nice and protected from the heat of the Sun. Will hit in the mid 90s today with Irma sucking most of the winds out of the islands.

It's now Wednesday It's been darn close to flat calm here for the last two days. We could see the full moon reflected in the bay as it came up. Unusual since we normally have 15-20 knots of wind. With the calmness, we've put up our two tarps. One is one of the aluminized tarps that covered about 2/3 of the boat and a second much smaller canvas tarp that covers from the mast to the anchor locker. We hung Puff from the side last night so we could leave some of the deck hatches open to get more air flow. It's been running in the mid 90's with a heat index of well over 100 and is nasty out in the Sun.

We did another free bus run to the grocery store this morning and came back and immediately tarped up all over again. Winds are less than 9 knots so all the protection we can get for Zephyr will keep her cooler. My hats off for all the people up in the British Virgins and US Virgin Islands with Irma just about to hit them as I'm typing this post. Winds in the 180 range and a category 5 storm is going to destroy the islands. We were there just last January through May and had a great time but expect most of what we saw and visited to be devastated by this storm. Our prayers go out to all the people of the islands. Tracy is staying on line constantly checking to see the progress of the storm and to watch out for any that follow that might come our way. We've dodged a few bullets since we arrived in the Caribbean.