10th March

10 24.394 N
75 32.692 W

Weather; sunny, wind n/a, waves n/a

I was determined that today was going to be a day free from scrubbing canvas, my fingers are sore and blisters are forming on a couple of knuckles where they have rubbed so much against the canvas even though I've had gloves on all the time, mind you I think that the sweat inside the gloves hasn't helped!
As soon as I had my eyes open Gerry wanted to go up the mast, before we even had coffee! I do understand that he wanted to do it before it got to be hot and before the harbor traffic began to cause some movement of water making the boat rock but really - before coffee even! Anyway we did the usual donning of headsets, Gerry climbed into the bosuns chair and attached himself to the main halyard, made sure he had one of the new inner spreader tips in hand then it was time to help haul him up the mast, thank goodness for the Winchrite -yet again!
It was a quick look and make sure that the new part would fit and then back down to the deck, I think I could almost do this in my sleep it has happened so often just recently!
Back in the salon and time for coffee, a shower and getting dressed and all before 8am! We couldn't have toast this morning as we were out of bread - guess where we were going to be heading at some stage today!
Gerry had a date with the agent at 10 am so he set off to meet him at the gate leaving me to do the housekeeping stuff. By the time he returned I was out in the cockpit (yes I know I said I wasn't going to do this today) and was cleaning and polishing the isinglass inside and out on the starboard side (Gerry had done the port side late yesterday) and spraying the aft canvas around the windows with waterproofing spray. I had done my dash for the day by 11.30 and spent the next half hour in the cool salon. By midday Gerry was ready for lunch and suggested that we go for a burger, I was up for lunch but really didn't want a burger today so suggested that we find somewhere else to eat which got a bit of a snotty comment about me finding somewhere then. I suggested that we try Club Nautica, just along the port road a short distance and where we had eaten quite often on our last trip here. Although we knew it has undergone a huge renovation I was sure that they would still serve food. Anyway we set off, Gerry had a brief stop at the chandlery for some more isinglass polish and then we made our way to Club Nautica where they now have a proper restaurant and bar - not just the open barn that we had known and loved! We went in and asked if they do lunch and were seated with drinks and menus in front of us minutes later. It appears that there is no separate lunch menu - just the regular all day/ evening menu. We were going to order an assortment of small appetizers rather than a meal but were told that there were no appetizers at lunch time (or at least we think that was the gist of the conversation) so we ended up ordering fish and chips, a bigger lunch that we had anticipated but we could always fall back on soup for dinner! We even had dessert, being piggy and ordering 2 portions of chocolate cake which in retrospect should have been just one portion and 2 spoons as I ended up taking 3/4 of mine home. From there, being the mad dogs or Englishmen that we are, we walked to the supermarket to buy some bread. Of course we didn't just buy bread, there were other essentials like beer, coke, chocolate , butter and salami that we had to buy as well, we had thought that we would buy some soup for tonight but surprisingly there was next to no soup for sale - just packets of boring salt heavy instant soup mix and nothing we fancied, we should have bought more of the fancy ones in Curacao. The walk back to the boat was worse than hot and had the added bonus of heavy bags to carry - why do we do these mad things at such stupid times of day? Once back on the boat and after delivering a 6 pack of beer to our neighbor for translating for us, it was decidedly time to do nothing all afternoon apart from snooze and read. I cooked up some parsnip soup as I had a bag full of parsnips that needed using up and this along with some fresh rolls ended up as our dinner, followed by my chocolate cake which I split with Gerry - even though he had eaten all of his portion at lunch time by himself! I can see why these countries embrace siestas, being out in the sun between 12 and 3pm is pure insanity and so very exhausting - we really need to avoid doing it again.
So that was it for today, at least the cleaning wasn't so arduous today, thank goodness. At this point I have to say that the boat next to us (our breakwater boat) has 3 full time, permanent crew members who spend each and every day cleaning, polishing, scrubbing and generally caring for the boat, it looks stunning, has a mirror finish all over and is accredit to them (even if it is a big stink boat) they have scrubbed the hull beneath the water line from bow to stern twice since we have been here, barnacles wouldn't dare to try and attach to it - that's every 2 weeks! It just goes to show you how much time and effort goes into the care and maintenance of a boat - 3 full time staff every day - no wonder we can't keep ours as clean and immaculate! In contrast, on our port side, there is another big stink boat which hasn't had anyone on it in the time we have been here. It looks to be falling apart , in need of a damn good scrub down, and paint job and it has its own eco system attached to the hull - we watch birds making their way along the water line pecking at the crabs, small fish and coral that have made their home on the water line of the boat. The seagulls and pelicans sit on the bowsprit sunning themselves or drying off after a quick dip in the water, I dread to think what sort of state the deck is in as I'm sure they also use it as their toilet and leave the crab shells on deck once they have eaten the meat from inside the shells - in contrast we come up looking good!
That's all for today, I'll be back tomorrow with nothing more exciting to tell you.