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Night Life
Showering at Night
Tonight at 2300 it started raining so up on deck we went to shower in the rain! After a long hot day the rain was really refreshing! Soap and rain is the best way to cool off in the evening. We could hear the sound as the rain was hitting the trees. At first we were not sure what the should was, then we realized it was rain!! Yea! We collected about 40 gallons of water in about 30 minutes when we have to pay 100 Pesos for 5 gallons, about 2 dollars, we use rain water as much as we can. We put out buckets on the edges of our sun shade and then dump them in a 50 gal fold rain barrel. Then we put it in our tanks.
It was a wonderful peaceful evening like we spend together talking in the cockpit nearly every night. Then the rain started! Sam took a few pictures I thought I would share. I said before I wished we could capture what the nights are like here and finally we got good timelapse photos! Sam's S22 takes wonderful pictures! The original pictures were 4000x1240 so we had to reduce them for the web, sorry. But here they are.
It was a lazy week, we didn't work on the boat much this week, I guess we were too busy relaxing to work hard. When it's not windy it's pretty hot and we try to stay out of the sun. The sun covers for the boat keep it pleasant, but it was still 88 in the boat today.
We had beans and rice for dinner but Hannah put a ginger bug in some local peach juice and and so we had peach soda pop! The ginger bug is a form of fermented yeast so it makes bubbles! It was wonderful. Mom did a lot of mending today on pants and tears in our clothing. Her pants got caught on a nail on the dock climbing out of the dinghy so it tore a couple holes that needed to be mended and my work shorts were getting a little thread bare on the bottom seams.
Date:Sat, 18 May 2024 22:03:00 GMT
Quiet Evenings
Glassy water bring bugs
I wish I could capture this harbor for you guys and show you but it's really not possible. In the cool light breezes of the evening we sit out in the cockpit under the sunshade and talk. Sometimes with friends sometimes not, but the harbor is so peaceful. Everything is silent, the water is glassy calm, the lights of Las Velas shine off the water and sometimes a mastlight from one of the boats at anchor. You can hear fish jumping every once in a while and there's a smell of tobacco coming in off the mountains. We don't take enough time to relax anymore. The world just goes by so fast and sports or politics or job and whatever just keep us all so busy. But this is one of the quiet pleasures of the cruising life. It's not all just fixing things in exotic locations. Sometimes it's relaxing with friends around a good game of cards or dominos and swatting at no see ums. When the breeze blows there are almost no bugs on the water but when it's really still they seem to be out in force.
We continue to make new friends as more and more boats arrive for the hurricane season and even some who have been here for years and have bought houses. I can see why people like it so much that they just stay.
Hannah made vegitable soup tonight with all local produce and many rooty vegis that most people have not heard of. We also had home made bread and shortbread cookies. What Hannah can do in this little galley is nothing short of amazing. Mom mended the hem on one of my pants and we spent most of the day at LasVelas today doing laundry and playing dominos.
Date:Fri, 10 May 2024 20:58:00 GMT
FOUND MY HAT!
Poseidon gave me back my hat!
Today I received two wonderful packages! I contacted Harbor Specialities in Beaufort, NC. where I originally purchased my green fisherman's cap. They still had two of them! I had looked all over the net and they were not made any more. There are other similar ones mostly in black wool not green. But Harbor Specialities still had them. So I had them send me two of them. The folks there were so nice. I told them my story about how I had lost my hat and watched it float away. I sent them a picture and they promptly sent them to me. Not free, I didn't expect that. Well after being shipped to Miami, FL. and then to BoxPaq they arrived in Luperon yesterday. Also my green Italian pipe made by Savinelli arrived the same day! My pipe was damaged and I returned it to Smokers Depot in St. Augustine and they sent it back to Italy under warranty. It took months and months because they were also discontinued. But they took my problem in hand and changed the manufacturing process for that pipe and made me a new stronger one. Mike at Smokers Depot was absolutely wonderful and helpful and understanding. He went out of his way to make sure that I got not just another pipe, which he originally offered, but worked with me to get the same model of pipe to match my hat. If you smoke that shop is the best. Cigars, Vape, Pipes, tobacco, you name it they have it.
In other news we have not needed to buy water for several weeks now. It rains every two days or so and we collect 50-100 gallons each time so we have managed to stay full up on water. I'm glad the rain water is pretty clean because our filter is finally used up after over a year. We have another one on order and it will be here soon. What we have still works but it's pretty slow. The hose also collapsed and so it won't suck water out of the dinghy any more. It just comes out in a trickle. So between the collapsed hose and the clogged filter it takes a long time to fill the tanks any more.
Hannah made fresh pumpkin pie with a local pumkin today and used shortbread as a crust! It was amazing. So we sat in the cockpit this evening in the cool breeze and had beans and rice and fresh pumpkin pie till dark! I smoked my new pipe and we talked about our cruising over tha last nearly three years. There is really no way to capture it on video. The quiet harbor, the cool evening, good food and nice conversation. It's so peaceful here. I wish we could share this with y'all, but it's something you just need to experience. There was lightning on the south eastern sky and I think it will rain again tonight.
Tomorrow we're going on a walk on the beach with Sparrow so I'm not staying up late tonight. Hannah is teaching Sam to bake bread so they will be up late baking tonight.
Mom read a poem on the youtube channel for Mother's day the day after tomorrow and I'm not sure what we're planning yet but I think we're going to find dinner somewhere. For now, all is well and we're happy, safe and sound, enjoying ourselves, the peace quiet evenings and Dominos with friends.
Date:Mon, 06 May 2024 06:46:00 GMT
Settled In
Water Water and more Water
It's May! Oh my gosh! Time if flying here but we are settled in and the boat is now our RV. We try and keep things relatively ready to go but I honestly think it would take a couple days to get things put back together again. But we are happy and comfortable and meeting lots of fun people. The food is good, the people are friendly and though not particularly clean the harbor is peaceful and there are relatively few bugs. They say on shore as long as there is a breeze but when it's dead calm then they are out in force. The weather is nice, warm but not too hot, not too humid, and it rains almost every night. We have collected between 50-100 gal of water every night it rains and we use about 12-15 a day. We have our sunshade up and we put the buckets by the tie downs and we can collect 50 gallons in just a couple hours when it's rainy. We also collect another 50 in the dinghy which we typically use for washing. We've been using our little water filter a lot before we put it in the tanks and so it's starting to get a little slow...We put it in vinegar for24 hours and we will try it again her today probably. We have another on order.
Hey, did I mention?! I found my hat!!! It floated all the way from the Bahamas back to Beaufort NC and blew across the street into a nautical shop there on the water front! They are sending me two identical hats. They should be here next week. I also got my pipe back from St. Augustine. So I have my green hat and my green Italian pipe again! We looked all over the internet for my hat and couldn't find it. I thought I found one from a manufacturer in California but they would never return my email. They are out of stock everywhere but the little Nautical shop in Beaufort had it!!! http://harborspecialties.com in Beaufort and Smokers Depot in St. Augustine are run by the most wonderful folks. Both of them have been absolutely amazing and I can't say enough good about them. Mike who runs Smokers Depot bent over backward to repair my pipe after there was a manufactures defect in the pipe. And it took a bit while we waitied for the Italians to make another one but Mike was wonderful. It wasn't that much money but he treated me as if I'd spent thousands at his store. And Harbor Specialties in Beaufort is a really fun shop. They have purses, hats, clocks, knives, boatshoes, and all kinds of fun trinkets and jewelry. They do custom embroidery and we spent days just hanging about their shop a while back.
On a final note for the week our friends on Rum Rations finally made it here without an engine. Theese folks are not quitters! Now they have to begin taking it apart and rebuilding it. But they made it here from days north of Georgetown all the way with no engine and they only have a few months experience. They're real sailors now! I guess it was a trial by fire but now they have the bragging rights. Anyway, we are glad they are here and now we have more friends to spend the summer with. Everyone is well, and we are safe. If you haven't been here yet Luperon is a place to hang out and rest and recover. We are really enjoying it!