March 14, 2011
The picture is of a very mature cotton plant we think.

It is hard to believe that by the end of the week, we will have been in the islands for six weeks. We will leave Marsh Harbor next week heading back to the good old USA via several cays. We have sailed in some of the clearest waters on earth, through historic inlets and visited harbors visited by pirates, explorers and many other cruisers. We have met more people on this cruise than I typically met in business in the same time frame, as evidenced by the stack of boat cards in our possession. We have swapped tales of every imaginable subject and gotten to know some very interesting people.
Today is laundry day and that means the bilge coolie (that would be me) heads up to use machines whose cycle time depends on water pressure. That means the wash cycle can be as short as 45 minutes or as long as an hour and a half due to slow fill times. This morning, it took 20 minutes to fill the machine, but hey, everything is on island time here. After doing the laundry, Bear and I will clean out the cage. After cooling beans in the pressure cooker yesterday, we discovered that as the whirley gig thingy on the top of the kettle spews and dances around, it is actually spraying kettle contents around the galley. This happens if there is a wee bit too much liquid in the kettle. In the cold, clear light of dawn, we found a fine layer of dried bean juice around the galley. That means on the cabinets, stuff thereon, the back bulkhead and generally a foot wide zone around the entire compartment. Humh, it was a learning opportunity. We have those fairly regularly.
It’s back to town to day to fetch taters, onions and some other stuff from which Bear will make her famous porridge. Now that is real boat grubb. Did you know that even though unopened, crackers become dumplings just past the “best when consumed by” date? Lots of stuff does. We keep an eye on any canned drink for signs of corrosion. A can of soda can drain itself after a few days in contact with water. Sometimes it can be spectacular and that is why we keep most in a tub with a lid. It is something else to hear one go off. It is another story if said can is on a shelf just above the sleeping berth.
We had a visitor yesterday and we murdered it. It was a fly, the first we have seen here. It kept wanting to swim in my coffee. The excitement was almost too much to bear. We had to nap after the hunt. Burial service was a simply flick off the boat into the sea. We were warned about bugs but so far, they have been rare.
The volunteer fire department in Marsh Harbor actually managed to douse the brush fire after four days fouling the harbor. They only fought it if it threatened buildings. Due to water availability, they waste little. Enough of this, I will drag ole Daubin out of the barn and ride it to town again. That is about 4 miles round trip. It helps keep me in shape. Round is a shape but now I can kick stuff with gusto due to the leg exercise I am getting. The ride to town is rewarded with a nap, so I look forward to having an excuse to do so.