Friday, Nov 18th

I awoke before dawn and was thrilled to hear the waves knocking on the hull…noise means wind, and wind means I don’t have to jump out of bed in the pre-dawn to begin work on the mainsail…Ahhhh… a few minutes later Jim gets up, and in the process of making his coffee calls below….’the wind’s died’. Darn it, now I need to haul myself out of bed so we can take advantage of the lull and get the mainsail on.

So up we go, and this turns out to be our best year ever putting up the main, perhaps because we learned from last year and actually remembered what worked and what didn’t – and we only lost one nut! It is however a large and fairly complicated process and took us the better part of two hours to complete. Haul the sail out on deck, unroll it, (partially, since it is too big to be completely undone) find the tack and the clew (the front hook and the back hook, on the bottom of the sail) fit the clew and then try to haul it to the end of the boom – did I mention that that sucker is heavy? Easily about 100 lbs, and it doesn’t help when we are trying to maneuver it around on the deck where it catch’s on all the other lines and fittings. But eventually we fit all the battens (stiffening rods to help the sail keep its shape) and attach it all to the mast and pile it on the boom so we can try to fit into the Lazy Bag. And, since this job requires NO WIND we are both absolutely DRIPPING with sweat throughout the process. Finally it is up and on the boom, and we stuff it into the LazyBag and hoist the jack lines that are meant to keep it stable and inside the bag and zip the sucker in. Yahoo! it is good, it fits, the design on the new Lazy Bag is perfect and now fits even the very front of the sail, which was always a little exposed before. I actually intended to make the bag myself at home and ship it down, but had a problem with the sewing machine, so I cut and fit all the pieces, and had our friends at Turbulance sew it up for me. They did a great job with the finishing. All this completed before 8:15, before breakfast (now I know how farmers feel!) and more importantly, before the wind picks up.

We have the mechanic scheduled to come today so Jim is standing by here, while I catch the morning shopping bus to the various stores. This is quite the convenience for cruisers, even though we can get anywhere on the regular route busses, we then have to schleppe all the stuff we buy back, usually in a taxi (ok – it’s only 15US!). The beauty of a shopping bus is they take you around to the shopping spots (the hardware store, the Chandlery, the ATM, the grocery), and stay with you, then you pile all your stuff in the bus and they dump you back at the marina, or anchorage. All for the bargain price of 10EC, or $3.75, and about 3 hours. We found another bonus convenience at the large bulk buy store. Apparently they will delivery your order to the marina, for free. So shop to your heart’s content, checkout and then walk away whistling after they tell you when to expect your delivery - A beautiful thing. This allowed me to stock up on some very large items at bulk prices, like Kitchen roll (paper towels), and my new favorite term, Loo roll (ie. TP) heavy canned goods, etc, and just wait for the guys to stop by with a cart load of stuff.

When I got back to the boat and unloaded all the other supplies the mechanic Kevin was here with Jim and getting all the engine work done. Change out the Starboard fuel filter, full service on the engines, Oil, Fuel and Impellers, x 2, and repair/replace the shifter/throttle assembly. We discovered two issues, one with the fuel filter housing, on the port engine, and another with the impeller covers on both the engines. It took him the better part of the day to complete, then Mike came back to check all the work and found a few other small issues that we are addressing, some with parts and others with a fix. We are very happy with Palm Tree Marine, Mike and his staff do an excellent job at a reasonable price and we highly recommend them for any work you might need done. Plus they are really nice guys!

So, with all that we had done today, it was after 5 before we made it to the pool, and we both really needed the swim when we got there!

Today, we are taking it easy after this busy week, and that works ok since it is raining on and off all day. A nice day to take a break…hopefully, it’ll clear up by pool time!