No see-ems, gnats, whatever you want to call 'em - these flying little buggers are eating me up creating small itchy welts. Scratch. Scratch. Yesterday at the Farmers Market I bought a spray made by a local herbalist with frankincense and myrrh. Works pretty well. Note to self - buy a gallon.
And it seems that I'm always bumping my knees or my head, which, especially around the knees, produces comely bruises. The other day I needed to get into the aft cabin but did not want to bother Walt while he was working on the generator so decided it would be a good idea to just hop down through the hatch onto the bed. Made a slight miscalculation on the speed at which my body would drop and managed to whack my forehead on the way down. Instant knot. Slight headache. And two days later, a lovely shiner on the inside of my left eye. Oy.
Said good-bye to Sarah and Alex last week. We just are not ready to go, and they were. They headed back to New England to begin their summer vacation. We wish them well. Several others have contacted us through Find a Crew, so we will continue to look. We're confident that we will find the right crew.
Walt was finally able to finish the generator installation - ten days, start to finish. Bless his heart, he worked very hard - just a lot of kinks as it was a different brand of generator than what was removed. The last glitch was the computer, or so he thought. Turns out a fuse was blown. Anyway, it's a beaut. Now he's installing the new alternator and a few other small things.
We haven't been able to sail for two weeks now because of the work being done. The weather has been beautiful in the 70s and 80s, so we've been chomping at the bit...a bit. We've used the time to research and order spare parts and charts as well as provisioning. We drove to Jacksonville and bought a 9.9 Yamaha outboard for our future dinghy, which comes next. I've been researching chartplotters - integrated with the GPS to display on a screen your current location on an electronic chart. The cost for a new system is $3000 plus installation. After much bewildered consideration and asking every sailor we see (and each has a different answer from "don't use/trust 'em" to "wouldn't leave the dock with out one"), we've come up with a program called MaxSea that is installed on your computer. Means you can't take it up into the cockpit, but you can set it up in the navigation station right below. Should be under $1000 which includes maps of US Coasts and Bahamas. Each new area, such as the Caribbean chain, costs $200, so there will be continuing costs, but I think it will be worth it. Dave insists we still use paper charts, and I heartily agree.
A friend asked us a while back, "What are you doing with your free time?" I laughed. There is none. We're always doing boat stuff. Now, having said that, we take time in the evening to relax and we don't have a set schedule, nor do we need to get up early, though I always do, but our "to do list" is long. And we have a lot on our minds. Will we be ready to go soon? Will we learn all the necessary systems? Will we find the right crew member who will fill in the areas where Dave is rusty? Will Linda learn enough by that time? Will she get seasick? Will we be able to get to Trinidad before hurricane season? Will the rental issues be easily resolved (one tenant is moving out, one apartment has mold, and rainwater is gushing past the house on the hill)? Will the money hemorrhaging stop soon? Have we covered all of our bases in leaving our land lives behind? Will we really have time to relax in Trinidad? These are some of the questions that are on our minds. A sign outside a church that we pass on our way into town reads something like, "Joy must feel pain to give it birth." It took me several trips to understand. Now I do.
We're not complaining, and we are humbled by the trials that others are facing, especially in Japan. We're happy. We have each other. The moonrise is stunning here. We love Wayward Wind. Life is full.
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