Sweat

We’re getting good at sweating. We get lots of practice. By 10am it’s running off us in streams.

We are gradually getting things done but we’re not rushing. We have discovered a little section that requires some repair work done and that will take a while. The painting won’t start for a few days so here we are. Sweating. Any work we do tends to be before 10 or after 3:30. The rest of the day we sit in front of the fans. The showers/toilets are about 5 mins away so we have to manage ourselves well. It’s a bit like camping in that respect. The upside is we have showers that we can stand under and drench ourselves which we’re doing twice daily.

When the sun goes down it cools off. That would be great except then it’s time for the mosquitos to come out. We have a little river next to us. Go anywhere near it and you’re eaten alive. We have to cover ourselves in repellent and burn candles on the boat. We sleep with most of the hatches closed. We have a net in the hatch over our berth which allows us some breeze.

We haven’t been able to hook up to electricity from the ground due to our specific needs. Faffing around with this took most of the first day. Not a problem really as we’re making much more than enough with solar. We’re back down to just using the fridge so our consumption has halved. If we have a cloudy day we almost make enough and we have more than enough in the batteries to cover any shortfall.

Yesterday we gave the dinghy and the deck a good clean and took the lazy bag off so we can check it for any stitching that needs fixing. I also removed the zincs so we can order new ones.  We also removed the headsail and tied down all loose lines.  Finally we tied the dinghy down to the deck.  The broader reason for removing all the sails and tying things down is to prepare for any possible hurricanes while we’re away from Grenada on our planned trip to the UK and South Africa.

Our new internet order for parts is running into delays for a different reason than before. At least we’re in contact with the vendor, unlike the first one. Looks as though we’ll be here for a bit.  Well, we know the boat will be hear for six weeks – we won’t. We’ve had an offer to escape ashore with friends for a bit. We may take them up on that some time just to escape the sweat.