Odds and Ends

Okay, time for a few more bits and bites, little things that I’ve noticed these past few weeks:

The trees here are very, very beautiful. The Live Oaks have such long branches that create a leafy canopy with lots of shade underneath. The roots must be very strong to be able to carry this overhanging cover. The other tree I always notice is the Banyan Tree. Its roots grow from the branches to the bottom and into the soil. It almost looks like the tree is “possessed” by some alien creature. Again, these trees are huge and very wide in diameter. Very special. 

Florida Live Oak in T.Y. Park

Banyan Tree in T.Y. Park

Today, I saw a foot-long snake eat a gecko. The head of the gecko was still sticking out of the snake’s jaws. Poor little guy.

When I walked Chester in the shipyard’s neighborhood the other day, we were surprised by a very friendly and cuddly cat. Never having seen us before, it walked up to Chester and brushed along his legs and under his belly. Chester was quite surprised, too, I could tell. And on another day, when I was hoping to meet that cat again, we saw some peacocks in the same area, and then some more, and then a white peacock, and some peacocks on the roofs of the houses. Again, something you don’t expect to see.

Just a few of my observations. That’s what I love about going new places, you see neat, unusual and very interesting things.

Back to the boat now: 

We’ve been in the shipyard for over a week. Finally, the catamaran company started working on all the warranty stuff today. I don’t dare to hope that we might actually be able to get away before Christmas. It’s too early to get my hopes up. It all hangs on the warranty work now, as Rolf and Gonzalo have been very busy and very successful the last few days. The solar panels are up (just not connected yet), the new lithium batteries are installed (replacing the lead-acid batteries the boat came with), I was able to use my new washing machine today, work on the bimini has started. Whatever Rolf can do in the Bahamas, he will do in the Bahamas, so we could leave here once the warranty work is done and the watermaker is installed. For the watermaker, we have to move to a different place. This shipyard here requires Workers’ Compensation Insurance for any contractors and our one-man watermaker shop cannot get WCI for a one-man shop…

And what have I been doing the whole time? I cleaned all bathrooms, cleaned all stainless steel parts on the boat (and there are many!), cleaned the bikes that got rusty because of accidental saltwater exposure, cleaned, cleaned, cleaned… and cooked a bit…

Washing machine too wide for the door -
let's take off the doorframe...

Still too wide, let's take off the other side, too...

Bigger solar panels this time, Gonzalo is jealous...

Working on the lithium batteries, no kidding...

Bending and unbending bimini tubes

Before we leave here, we still want to invite Tom, Jammie and Drifter from “Command Post”, Norayma, Glenn and Storm from T.Y. Park as well as J.T. and wife from Spectra Watermakers for dinner on the boat. The other night we were invited to a pre-Christmas dock party and Gonzalo has met some people he already knew so we went out for dinner and a drink. Rolf was able to sell his “old” lead-acid batteries in the process, perfect! Can’t say that our social life is boring. Everybody is real friendly and open. Our talks always bring us back to the mishaps of sailing life. We are known like a “colorful dog” (German saying), having lost our boat in the Bahamas, thanks to cruisersforum.com and word-of-mouth. The different guys we’ve talked to have 1. lost all their electronics due to a lightning strike, or 2. lost their dagger boards in the Bahamas due to incorrect Navionics charts (sounds familiar?!!!), or 3. have lost their mast after a squall in a choppy gulfstream, or 4. ran aground in Britanny, or 5. had some sort of collision. Makes you feel less alone… ;-)