OH, HOW TIME FLIES ....................

March madness and another ST. PATRICK'S DAY weekend is to be celebrated ....... We have about as much in common with a four-leaf clover as my son's Range Rover ....... Still there's no need not to participate on board the Irish Flagship "KUHELA" in Culebra, where Harry and Linda do it in style ....... Delightful couple .....Great hosts too ..... Always have been, always will be ......



Days are spent somewhere near the bilge on "SOUTHERN COMFORT" replacing bits and pieces, like the pump room floor ...... And getting ready for the arrival of our washer/dryer, which will radically change our lives ....... Finding a laundry on shore and getting the washing done has always been a 'challenge' because the Caribbean islands have normally a very limited water supply ..... We have suddenly realized that exactly a year ago we were in ANTIGUA and Barbuda, and life was very different .............



The "Queen of Florida" is now a grandmother, and I'm officially a senior citizen ......... We need to pass over these facts real quick ........



ANTIGUA was beautiful and the anchorages all round the island were perfect ..... We will never forget that 11 miles of pink sandy beach on BARBUDA with barely a footprint on it, nor the majestic remains of the colonial era in English Harbour ....



Memories abound in that realm of " The beauty of it all " .........



We stayed on to see the Classic Yacht Regatta and were joined by many of our friends like Mark and Willie from the Yacht "LIAHONA" ..... That Regatta was a World-class event with spectacular entries ....... Elegance of a past era 'On Parade' ......



We met Bev and John on the schooner "AMOEBA" who had lost an engine and spent worrying days importing a new one from the States ....... And therein lies the challenge that we all face .... We may be in Paradise, but when it goes wrong, it normally goes drastically wrong ...... Anything that we can fix ourselves would not be called 'wrong' ...... That would be called 'normal' .... And like champions, John and Bev overcame those difficulties and sailed away eventually to Nova Scotia, CANADA ........ That night shot of English Harbour is sort of "borrowed" .......



Now this is at the other end of what might be called ...."challenges" ........ The yacht hit a well marked reef in Virgin Gorda where we worked on "SOUTHERN COMFORT", and sank instantly ...... Rescue salvage arrived within hours and had her re-floated and lifted out of the water .....



The forty-something ketch was dried out right alongside our new yacht in the boatyard, and we watched in sheer amazement when sometime later a couple of guys slapped on fibreglass and filler despite the lead keel hanging out of the bottom, and in four days flat she was re-launched, sold and towed away ...... The new owners bought her for $US 20.00, being equal to the stamp duty on the contract ..... The 'meter is running' when you have a boat on-the-hard in a boat yard, and letting it go for 'ziltch' is a much better option than to procrastinate over an action plan....... Challenges alright ......



Which brings us full circle to our buddy TIMO, back in Curacao for whom the 'challenge' is all in a day's work ...... The hull is now completed and coated in epoxy resin ...... She is now towed back to his floating workshop by hand ...... After all, the water there is only about four feet deep ...... Now that's what's called "cost-effective" transport ....... Check out TIMO's tow-line ......



He really is incredible if you look back to the days of that simple flotation platform, or even further back when he told us of his plan to replace the lost yacht "Blue Marlin" ..... For most of us this would be an extreme 'challenge' and for TIMO it's just 'a piece of cake' .........



So sticking with this "CHALLENGE" thing, here's a wooden sloop on the left that needs absolutely nothing ....... While on the right, we saw the schooner "ASTOR" in Antigua which had split its mizzen mast ........ That's the same as splitting a sizable bank roll ....... Hurts real bad ....... "ASTOR" was built in 1923 in Scotland, and is 86 feet long ......



So you see, our own 'challenges' back in CULEBRA, are really nothing to speak of ..... We have arranged for SEARS to deliver the newly purchased washer/dryer to the ferry terminal in FAJARDO on the mainland of PUERTO RICO between 10.30 and 12.00 ....... Well anyway it arrives at 1.30 .. No big deal ...... We wheel it onto the ferry and off at the other end in CULEBRA and then to the dinghy dock .........



Hoist it up with the mizzen boom and the mizzen sheet on "SOUTHERN COMFORT"....... A couple of friends stop by to give a helping hand, and in no time at all we are all several sheets to the wind ...... You see what we mean by the "challenges" .......




The plan is simple ...... Cut a hole in the cockpit floor ..... Cut the side of the bunk beneath it, and hinge it ........ Cut the wall of the middle cabin's head out, together with its door ....... Those spots in the photo are pieces of flying sawdust ..... Then go on deck and separate the washer from the dryer ....... Drop each unit down separately, put them back together again, and "Bob's your Uncle" ...........



"O.K. ...... So far so good!" ........




Now having re-assembled both pieces in no space at all, I need to get out from behind it and that becomes the 'challenge' ....... Even after taking the top off the washer there is just not enough space ...... Like a dying rat behind a wall, I will eventually get thin, I guess ..... As you can see I did get out ..... My heart was racing so fast it clear burst out of my T-shirt .......



And " VOILA " ...... We have a washer/dryer in place and the wall with the door will go back into place .... When the door is open the dryer door will open easily ...... Now here is something that our beautiful "ARITA" never had ..... A LAUNDRY CENTRE ..... Though she does have a very warm lounge ...... That means 'saloon' for you nautical types .......



Hard to part with, our awesome Classic ketch, but hopefully a new owner will love her as much as we do ...... That's ARITA's galley and head ......



That's the passage on ARITA from the front cabin, past the head, the hanging closet, the middle cabin and the galley, to the lounge ...... And so we've come full circle back to KUHELA, where young Harry prepares 'Mimosas and eggs Benedict' in honour of young Linda's birthday ........ In all of that Harry was not 'challenged' at all ....He's a natural in the galley .......



O.K. ....... That's enough about "challenges" ...... Here are some mango flowers trying to become baby mangoes ........ These are about the size of golf balls .....



Not hard to tell who the birthday girl is, is it now? ........ On an entirely different note,..... Does it not seem strange to you the length some people go to in order to cut the slightest bit of mold off a piece of cheese, only to then go out and buy a pound of 'blue' cheese ...... Or this handle I picked up going round and round on the luggage carousel at the airport ...... Just the handle by itself ....... Really does make you laugh at life on the planet .......