We are approaching the weekend – only a couple of hours of work left and then I have two days off. I haven’t decided whether to remain here a bit longer or continue on to either Dominica or Martinique. But I should get going sometime soon.
Morning
My second cup of coffee is almost finished and I’ve got lots of jobs started at work. Once my office hours are over I am going to don the scuba gear and complete the cleaning of the rudder, prop and keel so that I’ll be ready to depart at a moment’s notice.
The weather is mixed, with some cloud and an occasional sprinkle intermingled with sunshine. Winds are calm, at least here in the anchorage. I can see some whitecaps outside, though.
Noon
It is getting more difficult to concentrate on work, as I have two neighbouring boats that are definitely not doing home-office. But I’m slowly getting there, in another hour I’ll be ready to call it quits for the week. The first task is to clean the hull using the scuba gear – I’m getting close to leaving and want to be able to do so at a moment’s notice and not procrastinate because my underwater hull is fouled.
Weekend
I started the weekend with a scuba dive. Approaching the weekend should be better than this. It was nasty work underneath the hull. There was a lot more growth on the rudder, keel, prop and adjoining surfaces than I’d expected. And when I got out of the water just now my skin, shorts and BCD were covered in writhing larvae. I’ve taken 2 scrubbing showers and my skin still feels itchy.
I’d prepared the old GoPro camera and placed it at the side of the swim platform so that I could get some good footage after the cleaning. When I went to get it, the camera was missing! I think I’d placed it too close to the edge. I might dive again tomorrow to see if it sunk; but I’m afraid it has positive buoyancy and is now drifting off towards Mexico.
Evening
The wind has picked up a bit, so I’ll stay in my protected anchorage tonight. Some more pasta, fried sausage and Bolognese sauce is on the menu. While the sauce is simmering, I finally prepared the pork ribs I’d purchased a long time ago and kept in the freezer.
The silver skin was really difficult to remove, I got a lot of it, but there’s still copious amounts attached to the ribs which will prove to be inedible once cooked. At least I know I gave it my best, which just wasn’t good enough.
Dinner was acceptable, but I cracked open a bottle of 10 year old Talisker that I’d never gotten around to opening. I think it has another 3 years, gently rocked aboard Zanshin, now. Yummy indeed.