Johanna
N 11° 59.971', W 61° 45.864'
Here is a story of one of our day in cruising life. This is not the best nor the worst, just average...
My plan was to catch the shopping bus from Prickly Bay Marina in the morning. It's a weekly ritual for me. The bus is cheap and easy. It takes me to the best supermarket on the island, to a veggie shop, to a box store and if someone needs to go, to the best hardware store on the island.
While we had our breakfast it was pouring rain. I packed my waterproof backpack with some extra waterproof bags. Usually normal shopping bags are enough, but we are out of kitchen towels and such... those things don't like rain. Fruits and veggies don't really care...
I was just about to put my rain poncho on, but it stopped raining when I was climbing down into our dinghy. I pulled the cord to start the outboard and of I was... wait... I wasn't. The outboard engine did not go into gear, I tried everything, but nothing helped.
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| Our dinghy is the most important thing after the boat that we live on. |
I climbed back on board. Here goes our New Year eve's dinner, we'll survive on canned food...
More than a year ago we varnished most of the woodwork that is to be seen on the boat. But, we did not have time to varnish all the cupboard doors. Now we have been taking care of those. I'm over sensitive to all chemicals and smells. Paints, varnishes, aftershave, perfume, scented everything. Today I was supposed to be shopping while Timo was doing all the varnishing. Well, I stayed home and tried to stay alive.
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It's worth all the suffering, they look good :) |
Later in the day, it was not raining anymore, and Timo fixed the outboard. Before this. he watched about two hours of Youtube videos. Now he knows everything about our small outboard engine.
Life was good again. it's very windy here and we are so far away from the dinghy docks that it's almost impossible to row there. In theory it's possible, but anyone who has tried to row an inflatable dinghy knows that it's only possible in real emergency to row it for almost a mile. So, it was a big relief to be able to motor around again,
Now that the outboard was working again, I was able to pick up our laundry, two huge sacks of them.
Later in the day I was chatting online with a dear friend of mine. I'm so glad of the modern world when you can actually be in contact with the loved ones from the other side of the world. It was only 20 years ago, when this was still impossible.
In the evening we did what we have done almost every Friday, while we have in Prickly Bay. We went out for dinner, because there is a steel pan band playing. We love what they can do with their pans.
Now we are back home and the best thing that can be done is to go to our bunk and fall asleep in each others arms.
Sometimes cruising life is hard work, but at the end of the day it pays off. We are still living our the dream in paradise.
