TRANSITIONING ............................

What a wonderful summer month in FLORIDA ......... The perfect birth of Lauren's grand-daughter, the peaceful passing of her mother (that's Lauren's mother, not baby "Sophie's" mother), the accommodating weather and the absence of destructive hurricanes and the peacefulness that came with knowing that our yacht "ARITA" was safely anchored in CURACAO under the watchful eye of Timo and Annemieke, notwithstanding that they lost their own yacht "BLUE MARLIN" in Los Aves, VENEZUELA ....... A tragic loss in pride, but their ever-buoyant spirit is alive and well, for there is already a new yacht on the drawing board ............ And surely a new-born baby engenders the same feelings as this beautiful Caribbean frangipani flower (Desert Rose) we saw as soon as we flew back to sunny CURACAO .....



On our drive down to MIAMI from Jacksonville in Northern Florida, we spent a night with Laurie's sister in MICCO, and had a quick visit with Lynette and Richard in VERO BEACH where we had spent a summer tied to their dock two years ago ........... Here's living proof that coconut trees really do come from coconuts ............. Not that you doubted that?



During that stay in VERO we felt sure we had killed their long stemmed single frangipani tree with the construction of their bedroom pergola, but lo-and-behold it is alive and well and flowering ...... Miracles of nature .... On to MIAMI, and another great night with Dudley and Becca and then on to the airport .......... You have to board a driver-less train that whizzes you all over the place and drops you at your terminal ...... All indoor and air-conditioned ......... You don't get to breathe fresh air until you land in CURACAO ............. I guess that's fresh ..... Certainly was 'warm' .... Maybe more than warm .......



We had left "ARITA" with a stainless steel chain wrapped around the backstay and hanging in the water as a sort of 'lightning dissipator' ......... Well take a look at the growth on it, after only one month ....... Like we said, it is warm .......



Less than 100m away from where we are anchored is the CURACAO YACHT CLUB, where we planned to haul out ....... It is a cradle on a set of railway lines ....... This kind of haul-out is always fun to watch ...... And just as scary as a travel-lift ..... A diver pushes and shoves the keel more or less into the centre of the cradle while his assistant slowly winds the cradle out of the water .... In our case ARITA started to lean seriously to port on the way up, so they reversed and did it all again ...... Even asked me if I thought 'she' looked level? ........ Meantime, the "QUEEN of FLORIDA" stayed on deck ........ Ever tried pacifying and kissing a shaking 'stuttterer', who has just been through a 30 degree lean and been yelled at "Don't move lady" .........



But "ARITA" came out perfectly and perfectly filthy ...... Scraping the weed off was like shearing a sheep ......... Slabs of crustacea-laden weed and slime, with very few barnacles and in no time at all she was ready for pressure washing ........ Their unit is industrial size, and shoots you backward like a fire hose ........ Oh, and just a reminder that we are back in the beautiful Caribbean with magnificent flowers like this purple Bougainvillea .....



And this blue Plumbago ........... We even saw that ocean going fishing boat "Baby Love" being hauled away for repairs ..... It seems that she has a bad leak and that the last time we saw her, when she was barely above water, was not due to a full load of fish after all ......



So here we are, barely three days after getting back to Spanish Waters in CURACAO and we are fully into cleaning and repainting the top-sides and the bottom ...... The old girl looks 'Just Grand' ...... And the hull is in perfect shape ...... We should be done in a couple of days and we can start looking for a 'weather window' to sail across the Caribbean Sea back to Puerto Rico ..... You probably noticed that this railway is at somewhat of an angle ..... Sleeping and living on board is somewhat out of the question ......



Interesting things are taking place all around us ........ Take this nice piece of machinery trying to lift an engine out of a powerboat with only inches to spare on the boom ....... Everything is controlled by the man whose hands are playing with a small keyboard near his 'nether region' ...... To get it out they slowly lift then drop the rear hydraulic supports and with it the back tyres springs, and then move the vessel forward, or at least that's the plan .......



Well, to offset our 'sleeping predicament' whilst hauled-out, Timo and Annemieke have put us in touch with a couple who have a wonderful 'little' two bedroom/bathroom/lounge/kitchen 'to-die-for' humongous down-stairs apartment, with A/C, mod-cons and everything, and even its own garden pathway access ..... All we can say is ....... AWESOME ...... Then again, though their canvas over the patio is the 'right' colour, it is still a 'poorly-designed yacht that is permanently anchored ....... Tonight, upstairs they are having a birthday party and we have been invited ........ Cruising and being hauled-out is really, really tough ..... Do I hear any 'AMEN' to that, anywhere?