Monday, February 18, 2008
Tim left in a cab this morning around 6am for his 8am flight from St. Vincent to St. Lucia, and from there to Atlanta and Boston, followed by another couple of hours drive up to Maine. Maine and SVG are very long way apart and flight connections aren’t that great, so it takes almost 24 hours from door to door and sometimes longer.
He left most of the gear with me because I will likely need it while I’m here (I have the extra toolbox he brings from home each time, sailing gloves, snorkel equipment, GPS and related navigation equipment, foul weather gear, radios, etc.). Part of my job while I’m here will be to make a complete inventory and label everything that we decide to leave on the boat so we can keep track of things over time.
Since I’m at the dock again I rounded up a hose this morning and topped our freshwater tanks, and then I hand-washed some laundry in a bucket and dried it on the lifelines. After ensuring that everyone on nearby boats was up and moving about I lifted the panel in the cockpit and started the engine to charge the fridge and house batteries for the day as I do every day. After washing up the dishes in the sink I put on my street clothes (more formal than what I wear on the boat out of respect for local custom), and climbed the hill again to the road and walked into the small nearby village of Calliaqua to run a few errands. On my way back from the hot and dusty walk along the road which is currently under construction, I stopped at the marina bathrooms and took a refreshing "shore shower." I always try to conserve water because I hate to waste such a precious resource, and of course you notice how precious it is when you have to pay for it and wait in line at a dock to get it. Marine showers are much more miserly with water because marine showers use water only for actively washing or rinsing something or to fill something up, but you never just let it run down the drain. Therefore a “shore shower” is a special treat because I can actually stand under it for a few seconds and just enjoy it.
Later in day as the boat started to heat up without the cool breeze of being on a mooring or at anchor, I took my laptop ashore and sat in the breezeway of the office while I worked and re-charged my battery. I got a couple of emails from Tim and that was a nice surprise. His Liat flight from St. Vincent arrived in St. Lucia on schedule and he's working at the airport there now while waiting for his Delta afternoon connection to Atlanta.
I spoke with Dexter from TMM who will be accompanying me across to Bequia. I've decided to head back across tomorrow (Tuesday) so I can attend a planning meeting for the Sunshine School on Wednesday, and I'll remain in Bequia for the duration of my stay here so I'll be closer to the school where I'll be working with some of the students most mornings. We’re scheduled to leave around 8am tomorrow morning. We talked about anchoring in the harbor and he seems to understand my preferences and concerns.
One funny thing that reminds me of what a small world it really is: I mentioned to Dexter that one reason I dislike being at the dock is that I don't enjoy the Mediterranean moor setup (sometimes also called "stern to) because the boat is backed in perpendicular to the dock with the stern facing the dock straight on, and then mooring lines secure the bow out in the water ahead. This means there is often a 2-4 foot gap between the boat and the dock, a gap that gets wider and narrower with each passing second as whatever surge or wave motion passes though the marina. This was the setup of our boat when we were in St. Barths’ a few years back when I coordinated for us to go down there as a surprise for Tim - he loves Jimmy Buffet and Buffet was giving a free concert there to celebrate Le Select's 50th anniversary (the bar which inspired his song "Cheeseburger in Paradise").
The harbor at St. Barth's is notorious for having a strong surge that moves the boats back and forth by several feet while at the dock which makes it rough on equipment and docking lines (we had several that chafed right through and had to be replaced). Once when I was about to step off from the boat to the dock I mis-timed the movement of the boat and the next thing I knew I was shooting straight down into the murky water between the dock and the boat. Not a safe place or especially clean place to be. Tim came quickly up from below and helped me clamber back up onto the boat (our ladder was partially up to keep it from getting chopped off by the surge, but you should have seen me scurry up anyway). Ever since then I'm a little leery of making that step from boat to dock. As it turns out, Dexter was there in St. Barth's for the concert too, so perhaps that will give us something to talk about tomorrow on the 2-hour trip over.
It’s 4pm now, and just a while ago I took the dinghy out for a test drive with the new tiller extension and it seemed to work well. The extension will allow me to sit farther forward in the dinghy since I'll be traveling in it alone, and hopefully this will reduce the changes of the wind picking up the bow and flipping me over when I head into the wind on an especially blustery day, and it seemed to work well.
Marlin dropped by around 7pm and visited a bit and we shared some potatoes and island okra that I was preparing when he arrived. It was good to have company for dinner and he told me some things about having the boat anchored in Bequia that will be very helpful while I'm there. Nice guy.
I didn't sleep that well last night at the dock (there is always more clanging and other nose there), and I felt it today when I almost nodded off a few times while handling some details back in Maine on my laptop near TMM's office where they have wireless access. So I think I’ll have an easy evening and just read or do whatever I feel like doing, then neaten up the boat a bit and have an early night. Before we leave in the morning I want to get up in time to take a shower if I feel like one, have some breakfast, top water tanks, get ice, remove the privacy panels, and in general have the boat ready to go before Dexter arrives. If I can have everything else done before he gets here except for removing the dinghy engine, then hopefully we’ll get away before 8:30 or so.
There are a few squalls coming through the harbor as I get ready to turn in, but I'm so tired I doubt I'll even hear them for long. Good night!
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