Well, that took longer than expected. When we arrived mid-day Thursday17, rigger Tom was ill. It took until Monday21 for him to feel well enough to start our rigging work, and then he was stacked up schedule-wise so we needed to make way for others in the afternoons to get their work done. Usually it wouldn’t have been an issue but I’d provisioned only enough food to get us to Placencia BZ where the selection is better.

As a result, we were running short on essentials. I’d estimated 7 days after leaving Fronteras to the first shopping day in Placencia; it’s now been those 7 days and we’re still in Cayo Quemado. We were out of fresh produce, using the last of the meat, eggs, milk, rice, tortillas, crackers, & other supplies, and making use of our canned & jar goods, when the produce boat arrived yesterday afternoon. They didn’t have rice or milk or tortillas or crackers however they did have one nice head of broccoli, zucchinis, green peppers, potatoes, eggs, tomatoes, limes, cantaloupe, watermelons, and other produce. Good enough!

In weather news, a strong cold front transited the NW Caribbean during this time, bringing strong winds and thunderstorms. In Cayo Quemado we stayed safely tucked in. As long as other cruisers were polite anchor-ers, which all were except one. A Canadian, which was a surprise. Usually Canadians are good neighbors. Thankfully after a short yet pointed verbal exchange and time for the captain and his wife & friend to reconsider their position, they re-anchored to gave us the minimum amount of safe swing space. No one had to get naked. Yet even with that reluctant adjustment, we practically kissed their stern pulling up our anchor the following morning when we moved to Tom’s dock. New boat to the Rio Dulce crowd; we’ll be keeping an eye out for them this season….

Anyway, back to the rigging work. Today Tom finished up. Vida Dulce is now sporting new shining strong standing rigging and genoa rolling furler. All should be good for 10 years.

Photo: Like most landowners here, Tom has dogs. One of which made himself quickly at home. Well mannered though; he didn’t walk on the outside cushions or make a mess of the place, and obeyed our instructions to stay out of the salon. He found sunny spots to take naps in the mornings, and in the afternoons found strategically placed locations to bark at passing birds and lanchas.