Tayrona at anchor
Tayrona at anchor
Picture of Arnd

Arnd

2023-06-09 Approaching the weekend

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
Distant Guadeloupe seen while approaching the weekend
Distant Guadeloupe

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
Lots of larvae on the equipment

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
Approaching the weekend and my packaged spare ribs
Packaged Spare Ribs

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.

Approaching the weekend - seasoned spare ribs
Seasoned spare ribs

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.