October 10-21, 2001 -- Dinghy Covers and Other Stuff

Since we got here, everyone has been telling us that we needed to see Simone for a dinghy cover to protect the tubes from the sun. So, today was our day, along with several other people. We took our dinghy in for the preliminary measurements for the cover, engine cover and tube covers. This doesn't sound like a complicated process. It is. The dinghy dock extends our almost 200 feet from shore. It does this for a reason. Beyond about 50 feet from the end of the dock, the water becomes to shallow to run the engine on any dinghy. So, we pulled the dinghy up to the end of the dock. I hopped out and Mike stayed in the dinghy. We pulled it around the T head, and dragged the dinghy up to the beach via the dock. I would pull on the dinghy painter line and Mike would push out from the dock. As I would pull forward, the dinghy would come back towards the dock. Mike would push out, I would pull forward, repeatedly. Finally Mike got out of the dinghy and we pushed and pulled and got it beached. Simone came out and did the preliminary measurements. If you ever watched him, you would think that the cover he made would never fit. We watched in consternation as they pulled out magic markers, plastic and scissors. They laid the plastic on the dinghy, and trimmed it on the outside. On the inside, they took a magic marker and made seemingly haphazard approximate marks as to where the tubes ended and the hull began. We got back to the boat around 1:30 PM AST or so. We had been up there since 9:30 in the morning. Mike was overheated, so we didn't do anything else today. On October 11, we continued working on varnish. We went to the Brazilian restaurant for a late lunch with a large group of people, and then wandered around with Ashley and Carol from Blind Date for the afternoon. On October 12, we worked on varnish in the morning. After finishing the work on the boat, Micki from Beaujolais, Jerry from Stargazer and I went into town. I needed some new shorts, and T-shirts as well as a new pair of Tevas. Mike also needed shorts, but opted to let me buy for him. I got back to the boat in time to nap before we spent the evening up at Jak's Restaurant for dinner and drinks. On October 13, we went into town to exchange Mike's shorts for a larger size. Then we went to the computer store we had seen while wandering around with Ashley and Carol. We were in search of a mopier since our printer had died. While we were in town, we ran into the owner of the restaurant who invited us to a BBQ the next day. We continued wandering around town, unfortunately we never did find a mopier. We returned to the boat to spend a quiet evening. On October 14, I went to the BBQ while Mike spent a quiet day on the boat. We traveled to a house in San Juan, about 25 minutes from Porlimar. The house was magnificent. It was an open air house/compound. The kitchen had walls on only two sides! The stairs were all open construction. And there was this tree. It had a cave in the center of it, naturally formed! The place is just beyond description. On October 15, we went on a tour of the island with Miss P and Stargazer. The first half of the day was pretty interesting. However, the second half left something to be desired. After all, how many beaches and hotels can you look at? On October 16, we had our preliminary cover fitting. See above for getting the dinghy ashore! After we finished that, we returned to the boat and did varnish work. On October 17, we spent the day cleaning the boat and doing maintenance items. On October 18, we went to the Mangrove area on Margarita with Miss P, Stargazer, Blind Date, and Beaujolais. We did a tour of the mangroves, then spent the day at the beach playing the surf and looking for clam beds. On the trip back, we took a different route through the mangroves and were treated to an entirely different scenic view. We saw star fish, sea horses, and other aquatic type animals. On October 19, Mike had a sinus headache. We also had the secondary fitting for the dinghy cover. Usually it only takes two; however, we wanted clear pockets sewn into to the cover for our name boards and numbers, so they had to fit it then mark where the clear pockets would go. After we did that, we returned to the boat and had a quiet day. Mike wasn't feeling up to going to Mexican night, so I went alone and spent a few hours up there before coming back to the boat. On October 20, we saw Coos and Martha from Orca. They had arrived yesterday. Our dinghy cover was completed and put on today, well mostly. The rail covers still needed to be completed. They promised that tomorrow morning they would be done. Mike's headache was still there, so we spent another quiet day on the boat. This is just part of the arrival cycle we have. Each island has its own pollens and irritants that we need to get used to. So, one of us almost always gets a sinus headache after we have been in a new island for a week or so. On October 21, the rail covers were installed! Our dinghy cover was officially done! When Simone finished, we dropped him off at Stargazer to look at the problems with the sail cover that Simone had made them. In the afternoon, we went in to play dominoes