I remembered to switch to VHF Ch. 10 at 07:30 in order to listen to the St. Martin cruiser’s radio net. It is hosted by Mike of Shrimpy’s laundry and his jokes and repartees have remained unchanged in the years that I’ve been listening to the net – while it is nice to come back to things ones knows, a little bit of variation would certainly add flavor to the morning cruiser ritual.
I need to sort out internet connectivity today, so that I can be informed in time of the solar panel shipment, and to be able to upload the blog pages as well as get e-mail aboard. Since I’ll be here for a bit, going ashore with the little tablet won’t do. While the display is fantastically clear, I find myself doing a miserable job typing on the display, and I’d much rather resort to a real keyboard where I can use the 10-finger method rather than have to hunt-and-peck with one finger. I’m always amazed when I see people typing away at light-speed on these devices, and I think part of it is the predictive typing system which I find just reduces my keyboard throughput.
I’ll also head across to the French side to get the installation work for the solar panels arranged, and hit the sail maker to arrange them to sew the panels onto my bimini. I still need to find double-sided adhesive tape as well as some clear panels for backing the flexible panels around the supports on the bimini. Now that I’m back on island time, those few tasks will probably end up taking all of the day to complete!
The solar panels were delivered to the freight forwarders in Florida this morning but the arrive-by date here for sea freight was shifted back to the 9th of March and since I’m eagerly awaiting them, so I changed the shipping method to air freight and for $50 extra they will arrive tomorrow at the airport, which is much more convenient for me than going all the way to the far end of Philipsburg. I started work forward to get the wiring done for the panels, but finding a conduit between the deck and liner is proving very difficult.
I headed off the to Yacht club for the bridge opening and remained there for a few too many beers with Mark and others – returning back to Zanshin rather late and with just enough energy to make a sandwich from the remaining bits of baguette left over from before lunch and to drink a large amount of water to stave off any potential harmful effects from all those libations ashore.
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