Well, it's now July and time for a quick update.

We spent the spring working on small projects that could be stowed easily should we have to depart wiki-wiki.
The Marshall Islands is still COVID-19 free as the borders remain closed. And it looks like they will remain
that way for some time. For the moment yachts are allowed to stay. In the meantime, the country is preparing
for the arrival of COVID-19. Sneeze guards up everywhere, hand washing stations on the street, masks in crowded
businesses, temperature checks at the hospital and no large gatherings. There is a large Marshallese population
living in Arkansas. Most work in poultry processing plants, live in crowded housing and now have the virus.
The population is being hit hard and everyone here knows someone affected. We know it's no joke. No one really
minds the quarantine. Our biggest quarantine irk is that quarantine measures delay arrival of all products so
you have to be quick and replace items as soon as they are consumed. You can't ignore your empty propane tank
and think that the tank farm will always have a supply - cause they won't. And when the island is out of propane
everyone has to wait. Half of all produce sitting in the containers rot on the dock during quarantine so you
have to be quick to get to the store and stockpile what you can. We feel lucky. It could be so much worse.

We finally received our new dinghy and it is soooo nice not to have to inflate everyday and worry about leakage
or sinkage. Now we can do some atoll exploring. The first snorkel trip was a great success. A tropical
aquarium. :)

I have done a lot of sewing recently and I am not a seamstress. That is to say, sewing is not one of my
superpowers. Repairs or using a pattern, no problem. Large projects where the vision must get translated to a
workable product are different. I can do it, but it takes a lot of brainpower. The technical side of
construction can never be ignored, especially when errors are costly. And they always are on a boat in the
middle of nowhere - so I go slow. To begin with, the old sailcover was really threadbare and held together in
some spots by gorilla tape. It wasn't going to make it another winter so I made a new one. Try sewing 20ft of
thick fabric together on a table the size of a small bathroom. In fact, my whole sewing work area is probably
smaller than your bathroom. But it worked and it looks great. So after that success I decided to make dinghy
chaps to protect the new dinghy from UV and exposed rebar at the dinghy dock. OMG, constructing the new sail
cover was pretty easy compared to the complex shape of a inflatable boat. And to make it more challenging,
instead of ordering fabric and notions, I took apart a large sunshade that came with the boat. We had been
carrying it around for years and I couldn't find a way to use it since we have solar panels on the deck. So I
took it apart and reused all of the materials to make the chaps. Sunbrella fabric, D-rings, webbing and line all
got re-purposed and, you know, it looks pretty good. I even made removable pockets. I sort of impressed myself
considering my workspace and lack of sewing superpower. Making dinghy chaps requires an ungodly number of
fittings and there is only so much I could do with the dinghy hanging off the side of Lucile. Often we had to
take the dinghy to the beach so that I could pin and tuck. Take it back, make one change and off again for
another fitting. But it's done. There are tons of blogs out there detailing the complexity and frustration of
making dinghy chaps so I won't repeat it, but I concur - they are the most complicated thing I have ever made.
Way more complicated than making new interior cushions. I have just enough fabric left to make a fuel container
covering, but I just can't look at the sewing machine right now. I tried, but no. I pulled out the machine,
threaded the needle and just sat there. I need a break. More snorkeling.

The only other item of note is my trip to the dentist. For those of you who don't know, I hate the dentist.
Nothing ever good comes out of it. I just don't have great teeth and cringe every time a dentist tells me how I
should be able to clean my teeth better. So I try to be really proactive... But, it had been years since my last
cleaning and I had one spot of plaque I wanted checked. Nothing major, but I had put the visit off for a year.
Considering my success at sewing I thought better to deal with it now before COVID-19 arrives. So off I go to
the hospital cause there is only one dentist office in the islands and it's at the hospital. After a two hour
wait in which the dental technicians much be found (they never came back from lunch), I pop into the dentist
chair and open wide. No gum probing, no x-rays, no invasive cleaning like you get in the US. Nope. According
to the dental tech my teeth looked great! Only needed one spot of plaque removed no problem. OMG, I almost
jumped out of the chair when they used the dental tool on me. Then the receptionist/dentist comes in and tells me
not to worry about the plaque cause it's in a spot that would require drilling and we don't want to start
drilling. Since I not in any pain, I shouldn't worry about it. So I don't. I paid my $20 and left for the day
excited to have completed that task. Part of me left elated since my teeth are in great shape compared to what
they usually see. Almost. I definitely see more snorkeling in my future.
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