Just some thoughts

Salt water has a curative effect on my soul.  I love being away from the dock even though it means power and water management and a lot more planning for everything you do.

A typical day is I wake up at around 4:30 am and try and doze until 6 am.  I start the coffee and sit in the cockpit.  I survey the harbor or anchorage, adjust the solar panels and by then the coffee is done.  Pour myself a cup and read for awhile.  Michael gets up and starts the SSB.  We listen for weather and the Northwest Caribbean NET.  Usually I start cooking breakfast around 8 am while the NET is on.

If we are on a cay then it is time to think about snorkeling.  We had some really great snorkels out at South Long Cocoa Cay and at Wipperi.  Thanks to John on Up Jinks I now have an underwater camera!  My first attempts weren’t too bad and some are quite good. 

At Wipperi we are with Rodney and Katrina on Angelina.  They are from Texas and cruised with Larry and Jean when they owned Dragonheart.  We share our wine and spaghetti and they share their beer and conch (fresh caught and cleaned).   At South Long Cocoa they share their mooring ball and we raft up.

So now we are back in the harbor and we make water and shop, eat gelato, and make Happy Hour.  We get the laundry done and re-provision.  Ah, fresh  veggies.  How I crave them once we run out.

We have 30 more days in Belize and then it is back to the Rio.  I think I will go back out and snorkel some more….the Rio can wait.

Come in Mars Station...Come in Space Station

Come in Mars???
One morning while watching TV in the Cayuco Club Gerry and I saw a piece on Solar Ovens. Gerry stated that they had thought about purchasing one for the boat. When asked why they hadn’t made the purchase she stated that it would take up too much room on the deck and storage would be a problem.
Imagine my amazement when yesterday I was sitting in my cockpit and low and behold on the deck of the vessel anchored next to us they had a SOLAR OVEN! At first I thought that it might be some sort of satellite enhancement equipment. No it was an oven. All day we watched while as the boat was swinging on the anchor she adjusted and adjusted the oven. Things weren’t going well you could tell…look up to the sun adjust the oven, look up to the sun, adjust the oven. Finally it must have been hot enough to be cooking because she would taste the food and then re-adjust.

Eventually her husband came out and I can only imagine that he gave her some advice. I think that it may have been unwanted. Why you ask? Well, the hot pad glove came off and the spoon was laid down with emphasis and she was now sitting on the side of the boat. The husband adjusts the oven and disappears below.
Around 1600 hours the food is removed and the oven is closed up and stored on the deck. I must admit that several times during the day I wanted to offer her my oven. Propane is so much simpler. Yes there is the explosion thing occasionally. However, no matter which way the boat is swinging or if there is sun or not, I can cook.
Gerry I have come to the conclusion that space is not the only reason to NOT have a Solar Oven. I’ll take propane and a pressure cooker any day. Bon Appetite!

Sitting in Belize

Sitting in Placencia is always a different experience.  Never have we seen it so quiet!  The Purple Space Monkey is closed and up for sale.  There are few tourists on the streets and it looks very quiet around here.  Hotels are making special deals just to get some business.

We are having a good time though as Roger & Carole on SV Androsian is anchored next to us.  We have been catching up and having a very good time.  I think that I personally am trying to eat my weight in shrimp dinners.  I could eat it every day of the week.

There is a small pod of dolphins that come by the boat twice a day and we enjoy watching them.  Got into the water yesterday and had a decent snorkel.  Lots of fish and some very nice sea fans.  Most of the coral had grass on it so not quite as nice.

Dennis on Day Breaker went ultra-light flying and took some amazing photos of the harbor and the surrounding area.  He was kind enough to share them.  See if you can find Dragonheart.

One bummer is that Skype will not work here at all and I can’t get the phone forwarded.  So you will have to contact us by email.

How Did I Get So Lucky?

I am blessed!  I have a 13 year old on board our boat.  She puts up with my awful singing and much much more.  She has introduced me to P!NK and Nickleback, Snow Patrol, New Found Glory and so much more.

Cynthia is an enigma and the younger version of myself.  She is shy, loud, proud, timid, sure of her self and the total loss of confidence!  She is womanhood and girlhood all wrapped up into one.  She is the moon and the sun simultaneously.  She blows my mind!!  We can share a book, a movie, a song and nothing at all at the same time.

She has insight into me and my generation.  She is a child.  She is brilliant!  Right now she is putting up with me and playing her ipod at the pain level while washing dishes and when I burst into song she smiles with a smile that says it all and yet accepts me for me.  I always know that I am COOL.  The trouble is convincing her that I am as cool as I think that I am.

I am a lucky grandma.... sometime she thinks that I am as cool as I think that I am.  And when she evaluates me with her magnifying glass I may come up short, but in the end we can still stand in front of the Karaoke mic and sing,  "Build Me up Buttercup" with perfect harmony.

What more could you want?

Can We Leave Now? Please

I  am ready to slip the bonds of the dock, pull the plug on the power, and jump over the side and swim with some fish!
  The awnings came down yesterday, just in time for a gully washer of a storm.  Lightening included.  Yes, the boat leaked!  We tracked them down this morning.  Lines are soaking in buckets of  OxyClean, the deck has been washed.  The bimini needs to be washed.  Batteries are being checked.  Sails have been checked and raised.  The furler seems to be working.  The new frig system is installed and working well.  Heck I can make ice for the first time since we moved on the boat.

I have been filling the lockers with paper products, food, toiletries, etc.  There is an unending list of "should we get more of....?"

There are thousand of reasons/excuses to stay here at the dock, but my heart is always happiest on the open water.  I love my little cocoon and the time to contemplate my belly button.  I love looking out the hatch over my bed and seeing stars instead of the awning.  I love looking at charts and waypoints, listening to the weather on the SSB.  I love that fact that I can change neighborhoods by picking up my anchor and moving the boat.  I love it that when the boat is rocked by a wake at anchor we don't have to worry about hitting the dock.  I love having a glass of wine in my cockpit and watching the sun set over the ocean, while the water laps against the hull.

Most of all I love being on the boat with just us.  To Michael and Cynthia who make "Just Us" so special.

Tourists for the Day

We had a great offer fall in our laps yesterday morning.  Lucy is here from the UK visiting her parents.  They had booked a river tour and asked us if we wanted to come along.  At first I will admit that we had several things that we thought we had to do...you know play one more game of Zuma or Solitaire or read another book.  You get the picture.  So we got our stuff together in less than a half hour and had the time of our lives!

I will admit that sometimes when I see the tourist launchas going down river I feel a little smug.  After all we live here on our boat.  They are only visiting.  So here we are in a tourist launcha waving at our fellow boaters and they can't figure out who the hell we are.

First we went up by the Casitllo San Felipe.  The sun was shining and it was just....perfect.  Back we headed down river for the big part, going down the river to Livingston at the mouth of the river.  We roared through the Golfete and slowed down at Texan Bay where we went through the flower lagoon and up little tributaries to a quiet lagoon where the lilly pads were plentiful and we got a little bit of a shower.  Back out into the Golfete and a storm was brewing on our starboard.  Fortunately it missed us and we continued down river.

We had a stop at the hot water springs and Kim and Lucy toured the cave while Michael  Geoffrey and I sat and enjoyed the river as it went by

We had lunch in Livingston at the Blue Bay.  Kim and I decided to be adventurous and had the local specialty, Taponado Garifuna.  It has an entire fish in it, octopus, squid, mussels, shrimp, plantains, green peppers, and onion all in a coconut cream sauce.  Once I got past the idea of my lunch looking at me it was wonderful.

We got some sun, good food, beautiful scenery, and of course good company.  Moral of the story?  Don't  forget to be a tourist in your own home.  There's a lot to see out there.

Mario's Marina Make-Over

Well you sure can tell it is "Cruising Season". Boats are leaving in record numbers and the docks are looking empty. That is not a bad thing.

This morning started with the old metal electrical boxes being removed along with the electrical meters. Now Carlos is here with his new toy a hydralic pile driver. It sure beats four men pounding them into the ground with a 125 pound weight!

The back canal is being dredged! Hopefully to the depth of seven feet. This could mean more dock space.

Overall things are looking good.