Still Here - and its Still Hot!

Well the saga of the engine goes on! Everything else is good to go we just have to get this sorted. The engine is our source of power for everything that we will need for crossing the Pacific ie water, navigation and communication, so it is important that we get it fixed now rather than further down the line when we won’t have access to mechanics let alone spare parts.

Have I mentioned how hot it is recently? Thankfully we have shore power which is a God send so we have fans running constantly, we won’t have the luxury of this as we cross the equator, not unless the wind generator and solar panels can generate enough power for them to run. We are hoping to sail by the wind vane which will save on the power, once we get under way we are going to have a trial run.

I am eyeing up with envy the Americans here on their large catamarans, they’ve all got air conditioning, flat screen tv’s and all sit around in the evenings in their lounges with their chilled drinks on the coffee table! Most evenings we wander down to Sails Bar for supper and listen to the music, tonight I have stayed home and watched a DVD and sent the boys off by themselves. Work here is performed at a leisurely pace, during the day we do as little as possible with the major work late in the afternoon and early evening. Most mornings we are woken up by the birds who insist on sitting on our mosquito net – luckily none has pooped on us yet! We sleep with the hatch wide open looking up to the stars, the past few nights we have had Orion’s belt directly overhead, my old friend on watch The Plough is off to the left and no doubt will keep me company on my solo night watches.

I guess you must all be well into the swing of Christmas by now, it seems a million miles away here, we have Christmas decorations up at the marina and some of the boats are decorated with Christmas lights but with this heat it doesn’t feel like it some how.

I’ve been scrubbing the boat out from top to bottom, there’s been 4 guys onbard for the past year and it desperately needs a scrub. It gives me a chance to look in all the nooks and crannies, making space for food and any ‘souvenirs’ I buy along the way. Also if we get boarded by the DEA when we sail along the Colombian coast I know what is in all of the spaces. This is a real likelihood listening to our neighbours, one who had the Bejesus scared out of them when they were buzzed by the DEA helicopter in the middle of the night. Apparently they appear from nowhere and light you up like a Christmas tree, I’d rather that than the bad guys any day!

Well I’m off to study some charts, hopefully we will set sail fro Grenada by the end of the week and then on to Curacao. Last time I sailed in to Grenada it was cooking up a storm, thundering and lightening, it was the only time I have seen St Elmo’s Fire at the top of a mast. Let hope that this time it will be uneventful!

PS. Hope to put some photo’s on soon but the internet is so slow here that it would be nigh impossible to upload them.