April 13, 2012 Georgetown

Friday April 13, 2012

It was a good day for complete relaxation for me.  I got up and thought wow, the “Big Blow” is here and this is a perfect opportunity to get things done on the boat I have been putting off.  I read, took a nap and read more.  I sure did get caught up on that part of my list anyway.  I am running out of books to read.  I have been reading Karen Kingsbury’s books, my new favorite author, a Jimmy Buffett Tales from Margaritaville book, Left Behind, Bruce Van Sant’s Margatita Cat, a few history of the islands books and some how to fix things on a boat books. We waited all day for the loaner outboard a neighbor boat said he would be happy to loan us until we got ours on Wednesday but through numerous hailings and watching him dart back and forth in his dink I just came to the conclusion he changed his mind or just plumb forgot.  He Introduced himself as the owner of the hippie boat so that may speak volumes and one to put on the shelf with all my other cherished dusty memories of the past.  Even though it was just the beginning of the 3-4 day blow we could have run into town to do a few errands but as the saying goes, never make plans when on a boat.  What happens, happens.  We did get about a millimeter of rain.  Fred hooked up one of the small propane jugs we use for the grill, to the stove so we had a way to cook inside instead of in the wind.  To my surprise, he did the entire dinner, steak with onions and capers, mashed potatoes, French cut green beans drenched in shelf stable margarine.  We topped it off with a movie and popcorn.  It was a relaxing day, especially for me.  I did do the dishes though and he dried.  We always do that together.  Actually, when I think about it we do almost everything together.  When on an Irwin 35’ x 11’ 4” boat, and a project is going on, you either get in the way or jump in and help.  Either way you look at it, you are doing it together.  As most of you know, I am rather OCD on a neat nick and organization, most of the time.  There are times when things get out of hand and that usually is a true reflection of where I am in my life at that specific time.  When my house is messy, my head is messy.  When I start tripping over things and have to clear a path to get through my home, that’s when the red flag goes up and I realize it is time to stop and put my life back together again.  If I wait much longer I have to remind my friends not to forget to wipe their feet before they leave.  I try not to let it get that far, although it has on more occasions than I care to tell. I have learned a lot about that on Casa Mare’.  Some of you will be relieved to know the spices are not in alphabetical order but jammed into a plastic Rubbermaid storage box about the size of a laptop and just deep enough to line them up like little soldiers, not in alphabetical order though.  I am getting better at that!  It’s like an Easter egg hunt looking for something in there though.  Fred is the opposite.  He is not a neat nick, but through his chaos of disorganization he seems to know exactly where everything is...unless I have attacked it and tried to organize it myself.  It is then the grumbles start because he can’t find anything.  He did break down and let me (supervised of course) organize his chart table after our first long sail because everything seemed to be on the floor by the time we arrived at our destination.  I did manage to come up with a huge pile of things I had never seen before but looked like they should be filed under some category of tools.  We finally found room for his charts to fit into the chart table.  Actually I think we are doing pretty good for the small space we have confined ourselves into for 4 months.  He’s a pretty great guy.