IN A BAY ON EBAY...............................

Someone commented on the yacht in front of us the other day, by calling it " JUST A SLOOP WITH TRAINING WHEELS " .................... So glad the owner wasn't within hearing distance ................. And there certainly are plenty of multihulls around, in fact, we are pretty much surrounded by them ....... ............. Is there a message here? ................ You can certainly slide them much further into the shallow mangroves than a deep-keeled sloop...........But dry storage must be minimal, then again at the speed they travel you only need to carry breakfast, while the rest of us have to carry lunch and dinner .......................



Friends of ours, Harry and Linda, on the catamaran "KUHELA", that fancy one with the red hibiscus flower on the side, have the best of both worlds................ A huge cockpit, twin engines, a salon or saloon (if you're the gunslinger type) that's more like a giant ballroom, and with a foredeck the size of a tennis court, except that the net is horizontal and not vertical........... And you definitely need those 'marriage-saver' headsets to communicate with each other................... "I was wondering where you were, Harry?" ................."Oh, I was in the port side aft-locker wrestling with a battery cable" .........."Why, where were you?"...."Oh, I was reading on the starboard bow seat!".................... The after-deck can certainly support a palm tree or two, more like an entire vegetable plot, with corn on the cob..................In buckets, of course,



Having come up for air, I go below again to wrestle with the stove............. At some point soon, it is going to be attacked with the winch handle................ On the right, are the two extracted "thermocouples"...... (I know a couple is two, so why do they call each one a couple? ...................Never mind)........... After thorough cleaning and re-installation, the stove works once again...........And on the chart table hangs the portable VHF radios, the portable depth sounder, the portable GPS, the portable compass, some flathead and star screw drivers and right there in the top left hand corner is the electric razor...............(no reason for that).......But best of all is the power gauge, showing the batteries being charged by the solar panels and running at 16.66 volts...........Life's not bad at all when four solar panels give you 20 amps.................



Getting back to that EBAY thing................ What a wonderful way of getting bits and pieces when you are miles from anywhere.............Look at this little package all the way from Seattle, Washington......... It's our new self-steering MONITOR gear........ We tracked it with UPS online, all the way across the States till it got to Puerto Rico, and then the trail stopped................ The local UPS agent had quit............ We went to the airport at CULEBRA and there it sat.................Nobody could sign for it, and nobody could give it to us, until UPS could appoint another agent............. Don't ever say that to a sailor.................... Drinks at sunset anyone ?

Oh, and those signs on the point are not " MODERN ART "...............Truth is,.... The Red/white/red one is a line of sight marker (transit) with its mate way back on the other side,(do a double click on the photo to see it).......... And the two crosses are in remembrance of two people in an unlit dinghy that were run over in the night................. Now that's a clear message 'in passing' .................