As Erik says - Is GREEN energy

Below, are 2 pictures of my new solar panel and AirX wind generator installation. I am not happy with the solar panel install, but will fine tune it as I figure out what it should look like. It appears that in a decent wind, I will now only have to run my diesel generator every other day, to top the batteries off, and to cool down the refridgerator and freezer, which are still 110V AC and require too much power to use an inverter. The panels are Kyocera 75 Watt each and I can add 3 more of that size to this controller. I also had the starboard side (left in the picture) post changed to add another AirX, if I choose, or another brand, perhaps to compliment this one. The good news is that there are now about 4 boxes in the trash bin, instead of taking up space in the Vberth, forward. Slowly, I am getting things straightened out, and projects are moving forward. However, today, the winds and swell, again, are too much to do any productive work aboard. And you have a good picture of what I see each day from my back porch. Water is beautiful and so is the landscape ashore.

I stopped at Bernard's on the way in, and found that my friend, Jean has returned from France, to find that his boat has been ransacked. Not much stolen, at first glance, but the mess is big, and he said he is glad that Josieanne was not here to feel the violation of the break in. What a shame. My first package has arrived from the US, and I am learning about shipping economics. Will not do that again, I think, with the cost of shipping. But, I needed what it contains, and will have to consider it a lesson learned.

Another day in semi-paradise. Life is good!

Parking Lots

For the cruiser, the dinghy is the car. There are very basic ones and some huge tenders for the yachts, which probably cost nearly what I paid for AF. But we all park in the same parking lots, which also vary from place to place. So, below you will find some pictures of various docks provided for the cruisers, here in St Martin.
When you arrive on the French side, in Marigot, this is the dinghy dock where everyone must tie up to visit Immigration, and also, to pay for your anchorage on the outside. (The French do NOT charge to anchor on the inside, in the Lagoon, just outside. Crazy.)
Here is one at a supply house for boaters. If you want to do business with the cruiser, you must provide a place to dock.

About the worst place I have found yet. This is the French branch of Budget Marine, located just inside the entry to the Lagoon, before the bridge. The current is almost always flowing, and the wakes from the boat traffic will beat your dinghy to death here, making it crash up against the dock and the other boats.My favorite store here, is Island Water World, and they have a very large dock for their patrons.This is a dock shared by the rigging company, a marina, and Lagoonie's Bar and Restaurant, where I first met Davina. The marina operates a 'crew quarters' there, where, for $25 a night, you get a room with a bed - period. But, for the crewman looking for the next job or sailor looking for a boat to depart with, it is a great place to network with other sailors.If you serve liquor and beer and food, you had better provide a way in for the boaters.Just out of the picture to the left is the hulk of an old boat, tied up to that dock, and it is a very popular place for pizza and beer, and attracts a lot of the young tourists and yacht crews and the parties go on late into the night.Perhaps the most pathetic dock I know so far, is at Barnard's boat yard. This one is mostly rotting pallets placed on top of the rotting dock structure. You really have to be careful where you step. Here is where my friend Jean, after a long evening of rose wine, fell into the water trying to navigate the dock, into his dink.And I saved the best for last. This is the Marigot marina, where the fine restaurants and tourist shops line this 3 sided walkway, filled with tourists during the day, and the wealthy dining at night.Today, the anchorage in Marigot, where AF has been now for a month, (I arrived December 24th) has very large swells, high winds with higher gusts, and AF is rolling, and pitching so badly that I cannot work aboard. The parts and tools slide away, and roll onto the floor, and I have just given up working on the steering for the day, and decided to run some errands, instead. I paid my anchorage fee for the last month - Don't ask how much! - and will pick up some good connectors for the wind genny, as the ones I used were very cheap automobile connectors. I also need to buy a slow fuse to put inline with the cable to the batteries. And a cash machine visit as well. And, perhaps a couple cold ones before the dink ride back to the French side and AF, to stand anchor watch. It is predicted to last another day or 2. (I saw, for the first time, a boat dragging anchor, inside by the moorings in Marigot. The captain must have put out only 10 or 15 feet of rode (chain) because it didn't take must breeze to move his boat.)

So that is a little tour of trivia, and what I see here, in my day to day travels around the area, here at the beginning of my new life.

Updates

Windy, roll-y night ahead, with the rudder swinging into its stops, as the hydraulics are disconnected still. This is going to be a long night I think, and if if makes you feel any better, those back there at home in the cold, it is also raining from time to time, sometimes quite hard. But, on to good news.

The wind generator is installed along with two 75 Watt solar panels, and THEY WORK! Not happy at all with the installation of the solar panels, but this is my first attempt and I was hesitant about what I really wanted. It think they might be better on top of the bimini, but these are on the davits, for now. They are small, and the controller has room for 3 more of this size, I think. I will post a picture or 2 when I can climb the mizzen a bit to get a picture looking down.

The French electrician was playing with my camera and snapped this one so I have posted it as is better than the last of the new necklace! Ha! But I still needed a shave and bath, and I am sure smelled just as bad as in the last.

I also ran into Davina at a beach club tonight, and her friend snapped this pic of us. She has spent 3 days provisioning with her new captain, and they depart St Martin tomorrow. Taking the southern route, to Panama. I will probably beat them there, as they will island hop for quite a while, I think.

Inspired by Davina, and was already cleaning up after the electrical work, today continued and I washed the wood down in the aft cabin. There are parts of it that I have not seen for a couple months, and the mildew was starting to grow! The boat is slowly emptying of its packages. And after the wash, I applied wood polish as well, and it is pretty shiny back there now.

I also stopped at the trawler with the bird, mentioned in the last post, to ask a question, and was invited aboard for a cup of tea as they ate their breakfasts. Very nice Germans, who are Canadians, now. They departed almost immediately, but will return in a day or 2, and I hope to take a couple pictures of the interior for Bart, as well as getting some particulars. The boat was custom built for them in Brazil. He intentionally painted the hull "battleship grey" to keep the bad guys away, and the boat has a fishing trawler and very commercial looking exterior.

So, that is the latest from St. Martin.

For Denise

My niece, Denise, emailed today to ask me to post a picture of me wearing my new necklace, so here it is for you, Denise. I am not so photogenic under normal conditions, but you should know that I had to take about 20 pictures to finally accept this crummy one. Hair a mess, and needing a shave, and phew, if you could smell me!! Might have one taken of me tomorrow, in the sunlight, and after a shower!
Denise and husband, Erik have just moved from Maryland to York, Pa, and I am sure are busy making the new house, a new home. I am very excited for them, and know the kids, whose picture is at the bottom of the blog page, are having fun in their new digs.
Just to update what I am doing: The solar panels and wind generator SHOULD be fully functional tomorrow. I have hired a young French guy to assist me; he claims to be an electrician, among other things, so we shall see if his skills match his mouth. The steering continues to stump me a bit, but I am slowly progressing, I think. Will work on the electrics tomorrow and then back to steering. Mike, the electrician and I travelled today to the different supply houses for connectors and some additional wire and to Ace Hardware, where I bought some fittings and tubing for the hydraulics.
I am excited that I will be making 12 volt soon. Not sure the noise from the generator will be acceptible, though. But the solar is very quiet!
The other morning, when I was trying to get some extra sleep after another late night out, someone was close to my boat and whistling at me. Mostly a wolf whistle, but also one to get your attention. I could not figure where it came from. Later, I dinked over to a beautiful trawler anchored very close - I posted a pic of it a few posts back for friend, Bart - and called for the owner/captain. "Is it posssible that you have a bird on board?" I asked. "Yes, we have a parrot up on the second deck." So that solved the mystery of the wolf whistles. The bird has been on one of their boats for 18 years, and 10 on this one, and seems to have free reign of this 2nd deck, as I see him moving on the roof of his cage and over to a wooden stand they have for him. He is still up tonight and whistling, so is time to cover his cage, I think. They have a cute puppy aboard as well.
For Denise and all - I am so proud of and happy for you. And looking forward to your visit some day, when you can make the time. UD

Some thoughts tonight

I don’t have the chance here in Saint Martin, to sit, and write, undistracted, and with good internet, to post it onto my blog, but surprisingly, tonight my 40 Euro/month wifi from the worst provider company on the island, is working. I am relaxed and happy so want to take a minute to try and write something worth reading, for a change. I hope here, to backtrack a bit, and recall the things that I have been saying lately to others, and writing in brief emails back home.

But first, let me address this. There has been some email from home seeking clarification on what is up with Davina. There is no romance here, nor any hope for it. She is just a free-spirit, hitchhiking aboard boats, and has free time, skills more than I, and willing to come to AF and work with, and for me. She is surely ‘easy on the eyes’ but we are becoming buddies, and now that I know her better, I regret that she will not come with me to Panama, but she is in a greater hurry to depart than I am capable, and will probably depart with a nice, handsome, young Frenchman - another world traveler - on his beautiful boat. Should the plan fall through, then she is welcome here. She has brightened my days a lot, and made me work at my repairs and preparations, and even cajoled me into throwing some things away! Something very hard for this ’hoarder’ to do.

So, that said, on to my original thoughts. I am happy. Very happy.

Having come through an ordeal at sea, in my first leg, and almost first week, I think, at sea, relatively unscathed, I have been asked if I regret moving onto a boat and leaving. And, did it scare me to sell everything and just leave? I have replied, repeatedly that I don‘t regret one single moment of all of this. (If there is one regret, it is that I am alone.) Sure, I hesitated, or procrastinated that last morning in Baltimore, when time came to untie and depart, and the same happened in Norfolk, the day I set out into the great grey Atlantic Ocean, and, the rest of my life. I have said that the Plan to depart had a momentum of its own, and when I might have paused to wonder, re-consider, or question my sanity, the Plan pushed on, without me, moving forward to that morning in Norfolk. With steering troubles, bad weather, torn sail, broken generator pump, lost lifelines - all of the issues that have - can I use the word plague here? - slowed me, shall I say? - well, they are part of this life, and tackling each problem, finding a solution, and making the repairs are part of living on a boat - part of my new life, and I am certain will continue to return, in one form or another, for the rest of my life. Each success has boosted my confidence a bit more. (Remember, I am scared to actually ‘sail’ the boat, and even scared of the critters that live below me all the time, every day and hour I am aboard, but work to conquer these fears all the time. )

In Bermuda, I remember thinking sometime after my first week of mental and physical recovery, that I was NOT ready to live on anchor yet, and it had been thrust on me, un-welcome, and very inconvenient. I had transitioned from marina resident, to sailor, to live aboard at anchor, and was not mentally prepared for even learning something else new. It was all so new to me, so many experiences coming at me rapidly, and my life changed from one day to the next so quickly. Learning to live on anchor was supposed to happen in St Martin, not Bermuda, I argued in my mind. I did my best at the time, but here, in the heat and sunshine, is where the Plan had placed me for this bit of education.

I have been lazy here, sitting for hours in the cockpit, in the shade and on nice soft cushions, coffee in one hand and smoke in another, watching this new world pass me by. The cruise ship tourists zipping by on their pre-packaged dinghy rides or wave runner tours (You must follow the leader, and not stray away from the pack.) The throaty roar of the Donzi’s, Cigarette’s, and other macho machines, that leave behind them a series of big wake waves to bounce Annah Foster, and make the roll that much worse. The taxi boats, ferrying rich people to the rich beaches, and locals to work at those beaches or home to another island. The ebb and flow of other sailors, whether aboard their ‘rent for a week’ bareboat charters, or the international travelers, cruisers, live aboards, motor yachts, mega yachts. The dive boats flying by with a load of tourists heading out, with tanks shining in their racks on the boat. All of this is new to me. And I love to watch. I wave to the tourists as they pass, to the cruisers as they come in, and as they head back out, headed for their next destination. I am dumb and happy, and perhaps lonely enough that a simple wave back, and smile, is such a nice reward.

Departing Bermuda was very much ‘getting back on the horse that threw me” and I recall, again, the Plan moving me to weigh anchor and depart, when perhaps I might have, in a previous life, preferring to stop and think, and think, and worry, and find a new excuse NOT to depart. It would have been easy to wait one more night, as the sun had set when I had made all the preparation for departure, but I left in the dark.

I am so happy I got back on the horse. So proud that the sails went up, fairly early that night, as I departed St George’s Bay, instead of safely motoring for hours at 1500 rpm. I am proud that I successfully navigated the miles here. Was so happy, after the 9 or 10 days at sea, with no one to talk to but those Canadian friends I radio'ed as we passed en route, to see land rising up in front of me that morning through the mist. Proud that, using only the autopilot to steer, I found my way to this anchorage, and got the anchor down and set. And I am proud that I am slowly learning HOW to live on anchor. I am glad that I am slowing down. Less stressed. More tolerant.

Sometimes, I am just happy to be immersed in a room where no one knows me, but I hear conversations all around me in different languages. Someone will often speak to me or invite me to their conversation, we talk and laugh a bit, and slowly I am accumulating a list of new friends in my new life. Bob from the US. Eli from Italy. George from Cleveland. Christine from Calif. Christina from Brazil. Cordelia from - jeeze - where? Jocko from Belgium. Bernard from Marseilles. Graham from Australia. We all share that common bond of fellow travelers - strangers, in a strange place, and sometimes they are also alone. Some, I might pass again some day, but most are just today, friendly, my friends, acquantances. No more. No less.

Instead of just living, I am growing. At my age, I am surprising myself, and I love it all. (I recently read that the Italians have a saying - is better to be a lion for one day than a life time as a mouse. And have now found that the saying goes back to Roman times "Is better to live one day as a lion, than a thousand years as a lamb." Could be a good motto, perhaps, for me.)

When my first wife and I were building our house in Charlotte years and years ago, one Saturday night we sat on the pad that would become our screened porch, sipping beers, and looking at the stars in the ‘country’ sky, and I started to laugh. She asked me what was funny, and I told her this,” I cannot believe we fooled all these people into thinking that we could actually do this!” Because we had borrowed a lot of money, and I was not qualified to build a house from scratch. Several nights ago, as I putt-ed along in the dark in the dink, under those same stars, navigating my way home from Simpson Bay to the French side, and out to AF at anchor in Marigot Bay, I had the same laugh. Only this time, I think it was because I couldn’t believe that I had fooled ME into believing that I could do it.

I am blessed. Life is great!

Welcome Davina!

Below is the latest addition to Annah Foster - temporary, I am afraid - but one that has already done me great benefit. Meet Davina.

She is enthusiastic, hard working, fun, and positive, and brings a LOT of woman's touch to Annah Foster - even made me throw some stuff away - or at least agree to selling it. She has owned her own boat for 10 years, built a house for herself and her then husband, and comes with tool skills, sailing skills, and her current captain gives her 100% Grade A recomendation. If her schedule allows, she will be working along with me as helper, 3rd and 4th hand, and she is turning out to be a great companion and help. She is hitchhiking around the world on sailboats, and is actively looking for a ride out of here, and I am afraid I will be departing here too late to suit her.

She has asked me to include the direction to her blog so if you would like to read about her - go to: www.dreamyourlife.wordpress.com

After a nice afternoon, we both wanted to go to the same happy hour so I took her there and we both went our separate ways.

My separate way ended up being invited to join a bartender I know - Christina - who asked me to join her and 2 young men for a tour of ladies' nights at several high end night clubs. Places that I would never go to otherwise. I pretended that I was 25 again, drank, danced, and today I am paying for it.

Christina:She is the most knowledgable cruiser about where the cheap stuff is and the freebies around. Knows all the angles. She promised the 3 of us that she would get us a free ride back to our dinks, and sure enough, with her cute looks, and charm, and a nice tanned leg stuck out a bit, a car stopped and she talked us into the ride.

My head is preventing me from a lot of writing, and there are a lot of diversions around right now, so I must sign off for another.

Comment Moderation

In reference to the comment submitted at the bottom of the previous post - It should be said that there are wholesome, good people who check in and read this blog from time to time. Wholesome folks, who disdain coarse and vulgar things. And, in our culture of 'anything goes,' would turn away and reject the language of the gutter. Having said that, I will say that someone on an Amel thinks he is funny. Clever as I am, I immediately saw that he disguised his true identity, hiding, as it were behind the skirts of a female. Has to be a 'him' because the 'her' is the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, and would never use such course language. A hoe is a garden implement. Not sure where the slang came from either. But since he is a grumpy old prick, and he let's me say that, I will provide his vulgar comment space here - just this once.

The multiple postings (now deleted) are the direct result of this publisher clicking on "Publish Post" many, many times, in frustration; angry at the French internet, which moves it's electrons with steam power, I think. Fired by a coal boiler. I STILL have not been able to upload the pictures, or perhaps, had I waited one more second, the upload would have been complete, but I stopped it, after only 20 minutes. Quite frustrating.

I have met the lady who seeks passage to Panama, and she is real delight - a free spirit - full of cheer and smiles - and from her current captain, I learned she brings much skill and enthusiasm to the boat, and he gives her the highest recommendation. We talked a long time last night, consuming many glasses of wine. We think we will try one day of working together here on AF, and see how it goes.

So, I am off to buy my new pump, and pay for the riggers' visit, and perhaps a stop at a decent wifi location to upload some pictures. It is another beautiful day and I am sorry that I must work. Would love to play a bit.

An Update on Things

Things are moving forward for me, slowly. The other day I had a successful meeting with the buyer for Island Water World, who had spoken to the parent company of Hynautic. The fellow on the phone said that the H-35S was “a custom built pump - Could it possibly be for a Morgan sailboat?" The buyer said he then knew that he had the right guy on the phone. And it progressed from there that the pump and new relief valve will be delivered to me tomorrow, Tuesday.

Today, the riggers came to put new pad or wedges in the “partners”, which is where the main mast enters the roof of the cabin (It goes down thru the sole (floor) and rests on the keel.) They also brought new water proofing and wrapped it when they were done. Will dink over to pay that bill when I pick up the pump in the morning.

Have been enjoying too much alcohol the last few days. Got a bit of a blow the other day, although was not un-expected, it still hurt me, and will take some time to accept.

I had another solo sailor stop by yesterday - from Cleveland, Ohio - and he told me about a cruiser’s bar at a marina where they have crew quarters for out of work crew to use. Says there is a woman there who is looking to crew to Panama, so I dinked over and left my name and email for her. Have never considered bringing a stranger aboard, but will explore what this woman is looking for and what she wants and expects. From this point, westward, there should not be the weather I risked in my trip south, so I don’t really expect to put any one else at risk.

Started taking the davits off today, and immediately ran into troubles. The cable for the Furuno GPS antenna does not come un-plugged but is hard wired into the antenna and run as one piece to the GPS. Will have to cut and splice it if there is no break close by. Otherwise, after the Windbugger is removed, it should be straightforward removal. I want to look at solar panel mount kit at Island Water World, before I take it to the SS fab guy.

A French boat had their dinghy stolen the other night. It was tied up at a very public place, with lots of boats coming by all of the time, but it was locked with old SS life lines, like I do, and the thieves cut right through it. So, I will have to start using my chain, and perhaps but a length of SS chain - is harder to cut - with 2 good SS padlocks of some sort. These French folks were about to depart St Martin, and now must figure out how to buy a new dink and engine.

Had pizza last night with Bernard, just the 2 of us, and it was a good evening talking with him. We are going to share some music - he loves Hoegy Carmichael - the writer of Stardust, amongst many others. But too many glasses of wine. Marc, the French fellow from dinghy troubles last week, stopped by and we split a bottle of rose, with some cheese and baguette, and I had already had 3 beers at the marina. And finished drinking more with Bernard with the pizza.

The weather here has been beautiful, and the water has cleared considerably, so that I can see the bottom - 15 ft below, when the sun is right. Still not the crystal clear that you dream of, though. Caught another glimpse of a sea turtle about 40 yards away, when he came up for air a couple times. And, throwing old bread into the water, to try to feed the little fish - they dart for it but don’t seem to eat it - I can see it sinking for a long long way down.

Found out the other day that the rocky hill top where I saw the goats is called Witch’s Tit, and is a commonly used landmark. Below, I came across this construction site, with 2 long armed track hoes. The barge in the forward picture is a dredger with a long hose floating out to suck up sand from the bottom. But what really got my attention was the Bell Jet Ranger sitting over in the front left corner. You never know what you might see here. At first, it looked to me to burned out, but looking more carefully, I think the back seats are removed and the black is just the old paint job. So, for Bart, some stuff you like:
So, thinking about dinking over to that marina again, to see if I can find that woman looking to crew. Also, the owner of this place is Italian and I would like to try spaghetti, if they have it tonight. Oh - just posted a comment question by friend back in Pgh about the 15hp. No, have not even taken it off the stern rail yet. Hopefully, it will run perfectly. But, I think that it has a hinky power pack. My anchorage is really open to what is almost the ocean (the straits between Anguilla and St Martin, and so I have been afraid to try it just yet. It would be a long drift out to sea, if it failed me, or I would have to keep the 4hp on the floor, as a back up.

Life Around Me

The water in this bay seems to me, dead. I see tiny fishes below the boat, and where there are little ones, there are surely bigger ones, but I rarely see any life below. This morning, though, I caught a brief glance at a foot-long sea turtle, who poked his head up to take a breath, and that was fulfilling to see.

Around me, changing daily, are a breadth of boats - big ones, sailboats, yachts, catamarans. (Yesterday there was a very large cat next to me with a 2nd floor - a flying bridge with a large sitting area.) And the yachts come and go and are sort of a dime a dozen really. It is difficult to judge size from a distance, as these boats are so perfect proportionately, that until you see a human walking about, you cannot appreciate the size of some. As you see below, the marina on the Dutch side is filled with big and small yachts.

This one, below,is for Bart. It anchored late this morning behind me. Bart would be impressed with the crane the captain used to unload the TWO tenders. Was very 'industrial' looking.
So, with so many around, I don't even bother to look anymore ( Someday, I figure Britney Speers will come by, and find ME!) but every now and then one catches my eye. Below is the Princess Marianna, and is the 33rd largest in the world - built for a Mexican billionaire. When I see the resident helicopter, I know she must be a big one. The garage door on the port held about 8 jet skis that I could count, and the starboard side has the same door, but it opens up to a wonderful deck with beautiful patio furniture, and looks larger than my whole boat. From the internet, I learned that the spot to house the tender will flood to become a swimming pool. She is 258 ft long, and will serve 12 with a crew of 26, I think. There have been a LOT of private jets taking off here lately - maybe 2 or 3 dozen - Gulfstreams, Citations, I think Falcons, and I even saw a Lear, I think. I guess the 'season' has begun for the wealthy. It is 84 degrees in the salon as I write this, and we have had 3 or 4 days of beautiful weather, although there has been a line of storms pass each night for the last two evenings, and each had the tornados that I pictured in last post. The wind has picked up and the swell as well, so the boat can be a bit 'roll-ey'. Still, better than what I read about back home. Today, I decided to give a try at laundry in the bathtub, and since the water was dirty afterwards, I presume it was a success, although I suspect that I will smell a bit like Clorox a few times, as the rinse cycle was a bit short. Below is my first attempt to hang and dry clothes outside. I wonder, in this wind, if they will be dry before or after they get blown into the bay. I have used 3 pins per piece but it looks like the whole thing could blow away before dry.Two days ago, I had no propane, and when I looked, the wire on the safety solenoid had parted from corrosion and the solenoid itself is a pile of rust. So a nice ride to the Dutch side to Island Marine - a store I love for some reason - to find a new solenoid. Also looked at new spreader lights, and a regulator for SCUBA.

I picked up the stainless steel fabricator on the return, and we agreed to a plan for improving my davits and adding the post for the AirX wind generator. It means that I must remove the davits and take them in to him for modification, but will save me a bunch of $$. Today, I will dink in to get the news from the hydraulic mechanic, and hope to take Bernard with me as a translator. Yesterday, the Marigot Bay Fee Police found me and now I must go ashore and pay them their fee for anchorage here.

My keyboard has returned to the boat with Bernard's return home, and last night I enjoyed several hours of playing, trying to learn some new, 'old' songs. Ingie's husband, Tom, loaned me some CD's to burn, and 2 were Linda Ronstadt singing very old standards - almost 'torch songs' and I have really enjoyed listening to the set. There are several that I would like to learn on the piano, but my skills are very rusty, and the boat has been rolling, so I must play, and sit still, and make sure the keyboard doesn't end in my lap, or worse, the floor.

So, now I dink into the mechanic's and then will go in pay my tax to Marigot.

It is a great day.

Such a beautiful day

Awoke to calm, glassy bay. Really enjoyed sitting on the back porch with my coffee and morning smoke. So beautiful and peaceful. But the water was being churned by a rush of boats to enter the lagoon, when the bridge is raised - only 3 times a day. So, each morning, particularly calm mornings, there is a parade of boats jogging and jockeying at the entrance, in wait for the bridge to rise and the green light to come on - it is only a one way bridge, so just because it is open, does not mean it is your turn. With the swell crashing against the rocks, it is scary to me to think about going in, or even trying to stand down there, keeping AF under control, and pointed towards the entrance, and then fight the tidal flow coming out merging with the waves going in, and threading the needle, as it were, getting my 13 ft wide boat through the tiny - tiny bridge opening - I think it is 13 ft .25 inches wide - at least in my mind.
At the junk store the other day, I bought some cheap wooden 5x7 picture frames for some family pics I have, so drilled them, and screwed them to the 'art' that was left on AF when I bought her. I have never cared for the pineapple motif, but could not do better and it is very tasteful, just not to my liking, so after removing one pineapple picture to make room for the plate holder and spice rack, the second, over the table in the salon is now covered with some pictures of mine. This way, I did not have to make any new holes in the teak walls.

I then opened the binnacle again, and put the digital camera inside and shot different pictures to try to get the model number of my Hynautic steering pump. Got good numbers, but cannot find any reference to them being correct. Huh! So, I don't understand. But it looks like the pump was manufactured in 1979, so is probably original, unlike the piston/ram which seems to be circa 1986. So, I have all the info for Wes, and Jean-Marc, at least all that I can gather.

Took a nice swim off the dink later, and it was refreshing for me - seemed a bit cooler today but saved me from a shower - HA! I heard on the Cruiser net, or the end of it, perhaps, a fellow saying that he and wife wanted to find a beach they could go to in their dinks. Gonna look into that, because it sounded great to me.

I dinked into town for a croissant with ham and cheese, cafe au lait, and then some kind of French fruit juice in a can, and did the internet stuff. Stopped at the grocery on the way home, returning at dusk for a glass of wine in the cockpit, with baguette and cheese. A very nice day.

Had a nice email from a fellow from Inner Harbor East Marina who is in Thailand right now - follows the blog when he can. Now, HE lives a great life! Here one week, and off to another exotic place the next.

Decided that I will take more pictures of just 'stuff' for you to see. Like dinghy docks, which are the parking lots for us cruisers. And the bridge, and the waves crashing at its entrance. Yesterday, coming back in the dink from the Dutch side, I took a wrong turn and got close to a bit of a hilltop where, in the fading light I could just make out a group of goats, just standing there, looking down. Not sure why they went up as there is certainly nothing more to eat at the rocky top than down below. Can you find the goats in this pic?

Unfortunately, bouncing in the dink is not a good tripod for a camera and the pics show no goats (well, I know where they are, or were). But I did mention that the French side had pretty sparse fireworks for New Year's Eve, relative to the Dutch side, and across the way in Anguilla. Well, last night about 8 they shot the rest of them off, scaring the heck out of me. Flash! BOOM! Thought I was under attack! But got a decent pic or two, even from a rolling deck.

Should add this little story: You know how lucky the US is, that our products are not only labelled in English, but also Espanol (touch #2 por Espanol). Well, the French do not feel so disposed. So, shopping is a bit of a challenge for me. (What could be the French for sour cream, and not soured cream? Do they even EAT sour creme?) So, tonight I saw what I believed was kinda like deviled ham, in small, peel back top cans, which should be a good thing to have aboard the boat. So, when I got home, after enjoying the sunset, I found I have a propane problem, and decided on a cold supper. So, I pulled out a can of Pate de Jambon, made by Belle France. I THINK jambon is ham, and pate is pate, right? Well, I sliced some baguette, and forked some of this onto a few slices. It tasted pretty good but gotta admit, it LOOKED and really SMELLED like the cat food we used to open for Cat and Sushi, back in Pittsburgh. I really, REALLY hope I just ate human food. And please don't tell me - if you know - that Belle France is their largest cat food manufacturer.

So, tomorrow, will try to find all of the parts for the wind generator and solar panels and start to read the instructions.

Meow.

Life is good.