Sunrise
I rose with the sun. Sort of, since there is a dense cover of clouds today that obscure the sky. After my coffee and a quick check of e-mails I went topsides to give the decks one more scrubbing. I’m letting the dilute dishwashing soap mixture sit for a bit in the hopes that this will inhibit or destroy the fungus and other growths. The rain will come soon enough and wash it all away. I started a busy day aboard Zanshin and hopefully can keep the momentum going.
There is almost no wind, so the poor racers are going to have a tough time getting out of the marina and into clean air.
Lunch
I went ashore between showers and got a BLT at Cafe Olé. Since the grocery was open, I went in and got a case of Heineken cans. Ouch! That’s 24x 250ml cans and I paid 117XCD, which is US$43 or €41.50! That is over $7 per liter at the grocery store, not at a bar!! More than gasoline. This remains a shock for me, having just come from Germany. Where that amount would have cost me whopping €8 including deposit.
Afternoon
My momentum keeping busy aboard Zanshin has dissipated. The sun is out in full force so I’m sticking belowdecks now and I’m looking at my generator cover and debating starting to locate the problem. I know it will take a couple of hours and am loathe to start since I know that I won’t stop until I make some progress.
The clouds moved in again, so I got out my metal polish paste (Star Clean) and cloths. The first step is to remove the rust on the dodger and bimini supports. They don’t have a lot of rust, which made the job a lot easier and faster to complete. I’ve got the dodger and spray coverings up and ready, the big bimini cover is next but I’m taking a break from the heat outside and am ingesting some chilled frothy beverage to re-hydrate.
I got the bimini cover up, but as luck would have it the winds picked up after I’d started. This made assembly all the more difficult and frustrating. Despite my struggles, the 2 people sitting in the shade of their cockpit two boats over just watched and made no attempt to ask if they might assist. And I was too proud to ask. All that work kept me busy aboard Zanshin today.
Dinner
Since I’d neglected to put the expensive Heineken into the fridge, I went ashore and had some at the bar. After showering I thought I’d try some spicy Thai food again instead of cooking aboard as I know I’ll have ample opportunity to do that going forward.