Dog Fights & Dispair

Tuesday 30^th November

The weather continues to be truly miserable, this morning we have heavy dark gray skies, with not a threat but a promise of heavy rain, poor Bob has to get the windless motor back into the chain locker on deck today which isn’t going to be easy in the rain.  We have used up all our days, and have no choice but to leave in the morning.  I’m just praying the rigger arrives today, we have to get the sails up, and the dodger.

I finished all the work on the dinghy, but as the fork lift tried to put it back in the water we noticed that the steering had seized, OH another job. 

Louie brought the windless motor back this morning but I still have to get the epoxy on it, and that needs hours to dry before Bob can put it back in.

The Internet at the boat yard is still not working, this is 4 days now, the marina in Aruba are expecting us today, I really need to let them know I have to change our reservation again! I have only changed the reservation three times already, if we can leave in the morning we will only be a day late, I hope they will be forgiving.

The rigger arrived and left again, the splicer still couldn’t be found so we had to get a brand new outhaul line.

He returned mid afternoon and he, Bob, Cecil and I managed to get all three sails up and in 18 knots of wind.

We started to put the generator covers back together, the boatyard spray-painted the final coat for us, and they look almost new.  I still have to cut and fit the insulation foam.

My arms and legs are totally covered with mosquito bites, I ran out of refills for my protection device, and can’t find any here. The bites are making me miserable, I scratched them in my sleep and some of them are bleeding, so they don’t only feel nasty, they look nasty…

The boatyard has quite a few large guard dogs, they are a type of Pitbull mix, and they roam the yard day and night.  I love them, and have made friends with them all, but today two of them got into a really serious fight, Gyest (the boatyard owner) had to jump in and tear them apart before they killed one another, it was bad, she was bleeding from her chest, and had large tears and gashes all over her body, she had trouble standing on one of her front legs, and was obviously in a great deal of pain, it was horrible to see.  The poor thing looked so helpless, Gyest immediately called the vet out, and then came back out to the dog to comfort it, and the dog wagged its tail, that made me cry.  All the pain the poor creature was in, and yet she could still display happiness when Gyest comforted her.

The vet took her away, and late afternoon I was there when Gyest brought her back, she was stitched up and on pain medication but looking much happier.

Well its now 7:30pm and Bob still has to drive over to Louie’s to collect the wires for the windless, fit the windless motor (about a 2 hour job), repair the dinghy, bring it around to the boat and get it up on the davits. Cut and glue the insulation to the generator panels, put all the tools away, and return the rental car, and those are only the jobs I can remember, I know there are more.

We also should have re-fueled, but we haven’t.

9pm, Well the dinghy appears to be well and truly “broken” the steering is totally seized up and the engine won’t start, Bob worked on it for over an hour without any success.

I am absolutely exhausted, filthy dirty, my back aches, my ankle is swollen again, and the mosquito bites are driving me nuts! I really would love an early night but that’s not going to happen. It’s like taking 3 steps forward and two back with every job we undertake, I am so dejected, and beaten, I’m about ready to give up

This has been two of the most grueling weeks of my life.

Hopefully my next post will be from Aruba, but that looks to be probably Thursday now…