Due to inclement weather, we postponed the haul out until this coming week so look for that adventure in next week’s blog. This week, we transferred our living quarters from Galt to our Airbnb. Generally, the only difference between living on Galt and being in an Airbnb is the luxury of air conditioning and unlimited water. When we arrived at the Airbnb, the air conditioning did not work. The owner said his HVAC guy was “off island on vacation so he’ll fix it when he gets back….but I bought you this fan” which translates to “Good luck, this air conditioning is never going to work.” Since we are used to life without air conditioning, it was not a deal breaker but I am missing the breezes from Galt. We do have a pool at the complex and a refrigerator that works so all bonuses! Besides the rooster outside our window that crows incessantly through the night, we should enjoy our stay. If Bill had his gun, that rooster would have already been served up for dinner.
In preparation for our Europe/Africa trip, I splurged this week and went to get my haircut. At the marina, there is a French salon. When I arrived, a woman washed my hair for about 10 minutes which was a little slice of heaven. Then a man who spoke very little English cut my hair perfectly. When he pulled out the blow dryer, I told him he did not need to dry my hair because it was used to just air drying on the boat. He leaned in and whispered in my ear, “Civilization” and proceeded to dry and style my hair. In celebration of being in civilization again, Bill and I and my hair went out to dinner that night to one of the many Italian restaurants. I apologize that I forgot to take any food pictures this week….both of us tend to remember the picture once we have eaten at least half of the plate! So, you’ll have to trust me when I tell you that the antipasto platter was amazing! During dinner, we were seated next to the woman who owned the Adult Toy Box stores on the island. She told us quite the funny story of how she had her business declared an “essential service” during Covid lockdown. She told the mayor, “Do you want bored and frustrated people out committing crimes or home having lots of sex?” Evidently her argument won because she said the store had its’ best year in 14 years during the pandemic! As we have been driving around the island this week, Bill began counting the number of Chinese grocery stores on St. Maarten. I think he stopped counting after a dozen within a mile stretch. We have Long Hing, Ling Ho, Red Fox, Blue Fox, Golden City and our personal favorite, Well Luck….I just don’t have the heart to tell them the translation would be Good Luck in English. Bill also found a new job he wants to do. The job title is Inspectorate of TEATT. I am pretty sure TEATT has something to do with transportation of goods but Bill says his interpretation of what the inspector must do would be much more entertaining! Bill just informed me that today, 7/31/2022 was the date of birth of George Jetson. Elon Musk better get busy because George will be expecting flying cars on Mars in less than three decades! So, wish George a Happy Birthday and have a wonderful week!
0 Comments
Six flights in ten days! My trip back to the US was certainly a good training ground for the upcoming European festivities. Besides the usual overwhelming lights and noise of the States, my trip was a smooth one. If you have never been to Idaho, I strongly recommend a trip! Beautiful mountains, lakes, farms. The sunset in Boise was at 10:45pm so we had lots of daytime hours for exploring and the people were really nice! The main purpose of the trip was to spend some time with my two sisters and my 20 month old great niece. My great niece, Charlotte, is the cutest, smartest, most amazing child ever put on this Earth (at least according to my sister). We stole Charlotte away from her parents for a day and by the time we returned her home, she was spoiled rotten, only wanted cookies and had at least half of the toy store unloaded into the living room. While Charlotte was sad to see us go, I am sure her parents did a happy dance as we left for the airport. From Idaho, I left my sisters and flew to New Orleans to visit my daughter for a couple of nights. We had a great day at the New Orleans Zoo which was spectacular! At least the animals at the zoo were in cages instead of running free on Bourbon Street drinking too much!
The return trip to St. Maarten was uneventful with the exception of the boat parts that I was carrying in my bag. Even the TSA agent had trouble hoisting the bag and gave me a not so pleasant stare as I made my way through security. Luckily, Bill met me in the airport once I landed to take over being the mule! While I was gone, Bill had been busy working on the dinghy flip and Big Boy was coming along nicely. I was in charge of the overall cleaning of Big Boy. As you recall, we had used a Magic Eraser to plug the leaks so he would not sink. We had the holes repaired so now I could use the Magic Eraser to clean him! What a versatile invention that little square of wonder is! As I finished cleaning Big Boy, I prepared to get back on Galt. I grabbed onto the dock line that was holding Galt in place. I had one foot on Galt and one on Big Boy when the wind suddenly kicked up and Big Boy decided to float away from Galt. I found myself swinging from the boat lines, both feet in the water and missing one shoe. I called out to Bill that I had fallen in the water. He stuck his head out of the hatch and said, “What about the water?” to which I responded, “I am in it!” He said, “Well, that’s not a good place to be!” By this time, my nonexistent upper body strength had completely given way and I was treading water by the boat. Usually, we have a swim ladder attached to the boat but we had the ladder off in preparation for the haul out. So, no ladder. No upper body strength. Bill tried setting up several ladder options for my rescue but my stellar coordination was not cooperating. I finally swam across the marina to the hotel area and found some really disgusting, slimy steps so I could climb out of the water. Needless to say, between hauling the boat parts through three airports and falling in the water while cleaning, the sales price of Big Boy has been raised! This next week we will be doing the final preparations for Galt’s haul out. It will be the first time we have hauled Galt out of the water so I am sure the nerves will be high but the yard does a dozen haul outs a day so we should be in good hands! Haul outs are impressive to watch so I’ll be sure to take some good pictures for you! Preparations for travel continued this week with a visit to the clinic to get our second round of shots. We are now ready to take on Typhoid, Yellow Fever and Hepatitis! When we arrived at the clinic, I was hoping the nurse/receptionist who had given us our last round was going to be working. Alas, she was not and the nurse working was a new hire in training. So, she called for the doctor to give us the shots. When the doctor walked in I immediately pegged him for sleeping through the How to Give a Shot class. He was wearing jeans and cowboy boots. All he was missing was a ten gallon hat to complete his ensemble. By the time he finished with our shots, Bill had nicknamed him Dr. Harpoon. Luckily, he knew how to use a pen so he wrote a prescription I needed and we headed back to the pharmacy. While we were at the pharmacy, I asked about whether we would need a prescription for malaria pills and a pre-rabies shot. The pharmacist tilted her head and responded, “Well, I’ve never known anyone to get a kick out of a rabies shot and I doubt you could overdose on malaria pills. So, no. I’ll just give them to you when you are ready.” Can you imagine that logic taking place at your local Walgreens in the States? I think not!
We took a gamble this week and it wasn’t in a casino. Our buddy down the dock that just bought the new boat had a dinghy he wanted to throw away. We don’t need another dinghy but this dinghy was a 14 foot, center console, luxury dinghy with a 50 Hp engine! It definitely needs some love but we made a ridiculously low offer to buy it and he said, “If you take it away, you can have it!” So, now we are in the process of flipping a dinghy. Our first task was to remove the tons of water that had accumulated in the dinghy. The electric pump would not work because the battery was completely under water. So, Bill began to pump water out with our shop vac and a bucket. For every bucket he dumped, another gallon of water flooded into the dinghy. I put on my bathing suit and climbed into the dinghy to find the issue. Dinghies tend to work better if they don’t have holes pouring water in from the side! From my brief inspection, I think someone had attempted to attach the pontoons in a very poor manner. I quickly reached for my Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. It is probably not common knowledge that a Magic Eraser will cure just about anything that ails a boat….including leaks! I tore small pieces of the Eraser and shoved them into the holes that were in the fiberglass. The leaks immediately stopped and we were able to get the rest of the water out of the dinghy. Next steps involve using Harry to tow Big Boy over to the repair shop to get an estimate on repairs. After we gather that information, we will hopefully be able to do the repairs and sell it for a nice profit. However, I am going to have a time getting Bill to sell it once he gets to scoot around Sint Maarten with a 50 Hp engine! We had another first time event this week. Bill’s computer screen went to the great computer store in the sky so we took his computer to the repair shop to see if anything could be done. The shop was small but had just about everything one would need (unless one needed a phone cover for a Motorola phone instead of a Samsung or Iphone!). The repair guy looked at the computer and said he could replace the screen for $190.00. In less than 3 hours, Bill received notice that his computer was ready for pick up. Evidently this shop did not run on Caribbean Maybe Time! The computer works beautifully! The end of our week was spent waiting for weather. Our usual weather reports that we receive via daily email always tell us if storms are coming, chances for hurricane development, wind speeds, wave size and which days would be better for sailing. The reports usually say things such as “salty sailing North bound” if waves are going to be a little higher, “brisk sailing” if the winds are up or “conditions are favorable” if the meteorologists deem the weather window to be a good one. We have never seen the report worded quite like it was this week. The report stated, “Horrendous sailing for the weekend.” Horrendous? We weren’t going to argue with that report! We kept our happy little selves tucked in snugly on the dock and were very glad we did not have a “horrendous” weekend! I hope you have an incredible and non-horrendous Fourth of July weekend! As usual, eat some barbeque and homemade ice cream for me! PS: there will be no blog next week (possibly two weeks) due to my travels back to the States for an outing with my sisters! Have a wonderful few weeks! |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
|