Dcember 28, 2011

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Happy Birthday Dad!  I love you so much!  Wish we could talk today but this weather has us confined to Casa Mare’.  Hope you are having a fun day!  We were planning to go to Mac Duffs today and I would have called you but...they are closed, due to the weather.

Last night was a rough one.  When we came back to the boat from that special little island, Fred discovered that the sump shorted out.  He wasn’t really concerned, after all, everyone has a spare sump pump, right?  Right!  Fred had a couple of them.  In spite of, we actually had hot showers and Fred dipped the water out by hand.  Bless his sweet heart.  The weather was getting rather rough by dinnertime and then the wind really picked up.  I went topside to take the clothes in but they were still damp.  It was then I was actually hoping for rain to rinse the clothes out since I soaked them in sea water with ammonia to get all the salt out of our stiff clothes.  I left them hanging in hopes of fresh water from above.  We weren’t going to be near a laundry mat for a few weeks so I thought it would be a good time to try this method out.  I actually made my own laundry soap which consists of Fells Naptha, Borax washing soda and  something else that has completely slipped my mind.  This is some strong stuff but I never gave it a thought it would take hot water to dissolve the soap in order to wash with it.  There will be a next time to boil water to dissolve the soap.  The night was rough.  The boat danced all night.  I woke Fred up because I thought I heard the anchor chain slipping.  He went topside and came back saying it was the snubber loose again.  All is well.  It did rain some but the clothes were neither wet or dry by sunrise.   The day is gloomy, no one seems to be leaving their boat and going to shore.  Listening to the radio channel 16, everyone seemed to be hunkered in for the day.  Some were even coming in from their anchorage outside and from what I understood on the radio, Mac Duffs is closed because no one could get in because the tiny airport is closed.  I think they just cancelled the day.  I took advantage of the down time and sorted out the pictures I downloaded from my camera, put a pot roast in the pressure cooker  while Fred is working on the sump pump.  I don’t think he is a very happy camper right now, but he is certainly driven to get this problem fixed.  The only help I can give him is to stay clear of his work area which, I might add, is about the entire boat.  I just try to ignore the pops, cracks and smoke coming from his project and happy this boat isn’t mine or I would be calling an electrician by now.  I asked him if we could stay another day since the weather is ugly because I really wanted to explore this area.  He agreed.  I put a pot roast in the pressure cooker for dinner, later added some potatoes and dinner became one of those comfort foods we all crave once in awhile.  Today was just that day, a good day to snuggle and stay low.  Fred found that both of his sump pumps were bad and we need to pick up another one the next opportunity we get.  All that means is that anything coming from the sink and shower don’t have a way out of the boat unless we hand dip it.  That’s okay, we are surrounded by water and who needs a shower when out at sea?  This is where one of the items I talked Fred into bringing of mine finally comes in handy.  It’s a big 3 gallon roundup sprayer used to spray weeds in the yard.  Since it was brand new I thought it would be a good thing to bring so that when we bathed over the back of Casa Mare’, we could use this to rinse the salt water off since it is filled with fresh water.  Provisional alterations!  Now I have graduated from a 2 foot square luxury sit down shower to an open sea.  Who could ask for anything more?  I even have my own personal fresh water spray operator.  Life is good!  I was deep into a book I am reading when Fred asked me which game I wanted him to beat me at.  I immediately said Scrabble.  Beat me he did.  He said he really dislikes that game because it makes him think too much.  Since this trip was not about forcing our minds to think, I thanked him for beating me at Scrabble and promised it would be the last time we played.  He smiled.  We brought several games and love to play.  Scrabble will be tucked away in the bowels of the aft cabin, out of the way.  I read myself to sleep, rocking to the rhythm of the sea.