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Diane's Diary2/23 Sat We jerry jugged some more water this morning. We like to keep the tanks as full as possible. I made some turkey enchiladas this morning as well as an artichoke appetizer for our company. We had S/V Ginseng over tonight for drinks. I was tired & my back hurt so I took a little nap in the pm before they came. I am sure my back is hurting due to the bed. Larry worked on the aft head leak. S/V Nirvana stopped by briefly. They had rescued our boat last year in Martinique in the only time we have dragged in our entire time in the Caribbean. It was nice to see them again. Unfortunately, they had company visiting so they couldn't stay long. They promised to visit when their company has left if we are still here. We had so many appetizers when Ginseng came over that we weren't hungry for dinner. 2/24 Sun At 9:30 am I went for a walk with the girls- Ginseng, Concerto, & Lady J. We walked & then went to the Caritan hotel for a quick dip in their pool. It was really nice to go into a fresh water pool & I really enjoyed it. We didn't stay that long though. We stopped for baguettes & by the time I drove everyone home, it was 1:30 & I was starved. We at lunch then I read Larry's logs, wrote emails & read. The remainder of the day was spent very quietly. 2/25 Mon Well, we decided to take the big walk to Saline beach today. Everyone had told us how pretty the walk was but that it was also very long- probably around 4 - 6 miles one way. We wore our good sneakers although Larry only wore his boat sneakers that did not have a good walking sole on them. We enjoyed the walk a lot but it really was very long & we got exhausted from all this walking. Larry fell once because his sneakers did not have good traction. It was a beautiful walk along the beach but the walking was on a trail that you had to constantly watch for roots, crab holes, etc. It started to rain & fortunately we were able to find shelter under an abandoned beachfront house. There were numerous machineel trees along this trail. If it rains, you should NOT seek cover under them as the rainwater dripping off them can burn your skin. The fruit should NEVER be eaten, as they are poisonous. Some people even die from it though this is rare. It is definitely something not to be taken lightly! Along the way, we passed the gay beach & nude beach. I was amazed at how many people let it all hang out in this fierce sun! I hope they don't burn certain parts! Saline Beach was just gorgeous - one of the nicest we have seen in the Caribbean as it was very wide with beautiful white sand. We only stayed around a half hour though I definitely wanted to stay longer. We had a nice picnic lunch on the beach. I enjoyed the beach & hearing the waves crash on the shore. I definitely did not want to swim here as they water looked very rough & there appeared to be an undertow. If you got dragged out, you would just go floating off to sea. We could see the outline of St. Lucia so 20 miles away. I thought it would be better to stay a little longer to rest but Larry wanted to go back so we did. I wanted to walk back along the road as it was definitely shorter but Larry wanted to return the same way we came even though it was longer as the sun was out & he wanted to take some pictures that didn't show all the clouds. I was thoroughly exhausted walking back & my legs were starting to cramp up. We had not done this much walking in a long time. We got back to the Caritan hotel & stopped in for a swim. I was just exhausted & didn't think I could walk any more but I did. We also stopped at the bakery & got an ice cream & rested more. We definitely should have rested more at the beach. We stopped by S/V Trinity on the way back to the boat. They lent us the January & February SSCA bulletin to read. Our recommendation for SSCA Commodore appears in the February issue. So, if all goes well, we will be SSCA commodores, if no member objects, in June. A friend in the US, told us my picture appears in Latitudes & Attitudes magazine! We haven't seen it yet but I can't wait. It's exciting to be in 2 cruising magazines. We have both read these magazines for years & it is thrilling to be actually in them now. Anyway, we finally got back to the boat around 4pm. We were both exhausted & our feet hurt. We just both collapsed in the cockpit reading the SSCA magazines. We stayed there for about an hour - till happy hour of course! & didn't move. I had leftover meat sauce so I just put on a pot of hot water & we had dinner of spaghetti & meat sauce. 2/26 Tues We were both still tired from our long walk yesterday. We had lots of sun today but very little wind & certainly not enough to run the water maker. We went into town for a baguette. We played bocce ball at 3pm. We are definitely getting better at it! We got back to the boat around 5:30, & had a quiet evening. 2/27 Wed I made some more of my famous biscuit mix this morning. I did some emails & we saw Diane & Pete from S/V Pearl come into the anchorage. They are from NY also. Pete was a NYC firefighter so 9/11 was not good for them also. We stopped by to say hi & then went into town. We went to the bakery & got some bread. We have no wind again but lots of sun. Unfortunately, the sun alone is not enough to give us enough power so we will probably have to run the engine to charge the batteries. I made a white chili recipe from my "Of Tide & Thyme" cookbook. This is the ONLY recipe to date that I haven't liked from that book. 2/28 Thurs Well, we had to make several calls to the Yamaha dealer to see if he would be bringing our engine today. We are anxious to get it. We want to give it a good week using it before we leave here to make sure the engine is working fine. We are also waiting for FEDEX package from our accountant. This is only the second time we have every used someone to do our taxes but it was just too difficult to get the papers & do them myself. So, we will have to sign the tax return. She will FedEx to us to sign & we will FEDEX it back to her. So, I doubt we will make our return to Crews Inn as scheduled for 3/22. As we get closer & know when we will arrive, I will email them with our new arrival date. Anyway, I took a long walk by myself this morning doing the "loop"- probably several miles. Well, it looks like the guy will meet us about 5pm today. Another cruiser is getting the new engine also. It was around $1550USD for a Yamaha 15 Enduro engine, which is the commercial model. This price is only lightly lower in St. Martin. We paid over $1000 USD for our 5HP over 8 years ago! Everyone had told us this is THE engine to buy. It's also the one thieves look for the most. We figured we could always sell it in St. Martin at the end of the trip if we want too- they have a very high resale value. The Enduro 15HP is definitely the most common engine out here. I had actually wanted to buy one a year ago when we were in St. Martin but we were talked out of it. I'm glad we bought the new engine. We will see how the dinghy is with this but suspect we will need to buy a new dinghy- the tubes are just not high enough to keep the waves out. Regardless, we won't buy a new dinghy until at least Trinidad but we have heard the prices on dinghies are much better in Venezuela so we will probably get it there. |