Tessa and her jellyfish.  You have to look really hard to make it out.

We are just going to blame the last few days on the Spring Equinox. There really is no other explanation.

It started Thursday night. Mathew, Tristan’s friend from Antigonne, Tristan, and Theo from Tyree 111, were trying to use the internet. We are in the water, on the dock, far from the office where the internet is strongest, so the boys were sitting outside the office playing Club Penguin online. A rather rotund Norwegian man was also using his computer, trying to SKYPE his wife back in Norway. He wasn’t having any luck and seeing the boys “wasting the internet playing games” set him off. According to the boys, he called them “little ba#$@$%s” and “rich Kids” and they were using all the internet and he couldn’t get his call through. He wanted to know what boat they were on and they wouldn’t say which set him off even more. The boys wisely decided to come back to our boat and told us what was going on.

This is where good parenting comes in. I listened to their stories and sympathized with them. Then I explained that when people get really mad like that, generally it’s not because of you. Usually something set them off before you got there and you just happened to be next in line. We don’t know what happened to him before you showed up, so while it was wrong for him to talk to you like that, we need to have some understanding. Then I looked at Dan and said “Dan, you need to go kick some a#&!” (I call it the yin/yang of compassion.)

No I didn’t really say that to Dan but I did say he needed to talk to the guy. So Dan and the boys went back up to the office and the boys got schooled in problem solving among grown men. After loud talking, finger pointing, name calling (he called Dan short, not sure why but maybe in Norway that’s a big insult) and nearly coming to blows, Dan was able to explain how the internet really works. It’s a lousy system and actually it’s SKYPE that takes up the most bandwidth so really the problem was with him! In the end, Dan did get the guy to apologize to the boys. Apparently he was having a big fight on the phone with his wife back in Norway and that started the whole thing.

The next morning, we are sitting on our boat and here comes the Norwegian, “Are you using the internet?” Asking every boat, trying to find out who is using all the bandwidth because I guess he needs to finish the argument with his wife. Craziness!!!

That morning, a big fuel truck pulled up on the dock next to our boat. He was there to supply fuel to two new power boats docked next to us. This was his second trip and I told Dan that we should try to get some fuel from him as it would be so convenient. The driver told us we’d need to talk to Maureen up at the office, so Dan did. Her reply? “No. You can’t afford it.” What??? “It’s too expensive for the small amount you will need. The delivery fee is expensive.” What delivery fee? The truck is literally 3 feet from our gas tank. “Too expensive for you!” Ok. Whatever!

That night I came back from the shower and one of the Venezuelan’s had his truck parked again about four feet from our boat. The engine was running and he left the lights shining in our cockpit, lighting it up like a Christmas Tree. I looked around and they were standing on their boat just talking. I called to them and I asked them to turn off the lights. They just looked at me like I was crazy. I couldn’t think of the term for lights in Spanish. I thought it might be luminaries but then I thought that might mean a small votive candle. so I did the American thing of talking louder and using weird hand motions from the 1970’s when you used to pull a knob in and out to turn on the lights. I could be saying “Turn off the lights” or “Let’s play pinball.” It was really close. Finally someone yells back, “Yeah, just a minute.” He could have walked 15 feet and shut the lights off but no, he opted to talk for another ten minutes before moving the truck. I was about to just reach in the truck and shut them off myself but with my luck I would have accidently put the truck into drive and drove it onto our boat. I didn’t need that kind of international incident!

Yesterday, we had an absolutely frustrating day of trying to check out and missing immigration. Tessa and Tristan were playing with Simi and Theo on Antigonne. Tessa had been spending the last few days really pushing our buttons. For school on Thursday, I told Tessa she could sit on the back of the boat and observe the jellyfish swimming around and later we would do some research together. I was busying helping Tristan when Dan asked me “What is Tessa supposed to be doing?”

“She’s watching the jellyfish. Why?”

“She’s got two jellyfish in a plastic container in the cockpit.” While observing them, she decided to catch them with a bucket. Now she could observe them up close. Dan told me to make sure never to have her observe sharks!

That afternoon we walked over to Tyee 111 and introduced ourselves to Lucie and John, Simi and Theo’s parents. We were having a beer and good conversation when Tessa burst into the cockpit of their boat.

“I lost my shoe in the water,” she yelled. She’s very upset and so I ask her what shoe she’s talking about.

“My shoe with the hump!”

Shoe with the hump??? What is she talking about? Dan and I both had flashes of the shoes that “special” kids had to wear. What a great impression on our new friends! Actually she was talking about her new flip flops we bought (they had a little heel, hence the hump). Now most people would say flip flops, big deal, but it was a big deal. We spent a long time shopping for flip flops for her that would last. These were twenty dollar flip flops, and her only shoes besides her heelies. Dan and I jumped up.

“Your new flip flop? We have to get it.” We sprang into action. Tessa tried to stop us. “It’s gone! It’s under the dock!”

“We have to get the flip flop!”

Dan and I scramble out of the cockpit, calling back to a stunned Lucie and John “Sorry!” “We’ve gotta go” and lastly, “Flip flop! Flip Flop” like a crazed version of “Rainman.” I hear John calling faintly behind us in his heavy Canadian accent, “It’s only a flip flop eh.”

We scurry back to the boat and in the water I can barely make out a floating flip flop. “Get the net!” I yell and a few minutes later, Tessa’s shoe is safely back on Alegria. Dan asks me if we can go back to Tyee now and finish our beers.

“Are you kidding me? We just ran out of there like crazy people, yelling flip flop, flip, flop! They think we’re freaks! We’re the freak family who’s daughter wears shoes with humps!!”

You know nothing makes the days fly here like teamwork and stimulating conversation. 

A few days ago, Dan was preparing to put  the primer on the boat bottom, while I was on top of the boat, buffing the topsides.  The temperature was about 90 degrees, the humidity about 70% and we were tired and cranky from lack of sleep due to the killer mosquitoes.  Suddenly I hear a yell, followed by of course, cursing, which I, of course, choose to ignore.  This leads to more yelling and cursing.  Apparently, Dan had been pouring some primer into a smaller container when the container disintegrated and leaked yellow paint all over him and his new watch.  He was desperately calling to me, even though I was desperately trying not to hear him.  Finally I can fake it no more and have to see what he needs.

“What.”

“I need your help.  Hurry!  I have paint all over my watch and I need you to rinse it off before it dries!”

He was indeed covered in thick yellow paint but he was standing right next to the water hose.  I would have to go to the back of the boat, climb down the ladder and pick up the water hose that was at his feet.  This made  no sense to me.

“Why don’t you just rinse it off with the hose?  It’s right next to you.”

“I can’t!  I have paint all over my hands!!  Hurry!!  This dries in like five minutes!!”

Really??  That’s odd.  He’d been putting off painting for a few days as he was afraid it would rain and the paint would need to dry overnight.  Now suddenly it can dry in five minutes.  Curious.

I gazed calmly at his yellow smeared appendages.

“I thought you said the paint needed to dry overnight?”

“What??”  He shakes his head in disbelief.  “Are you going to help me?  My watch is getting ruined!” 

He is a yellow time bomb waiting to explode.  I decide I’d better help.  I meet him at the back of the boat and he hands the watch to me.  It really is in dire shape.  Luckily the face of the watch is fine but paint has seeped into every nook and cranny on the band.  I take the watch to the sink and begin scrubbing as best I can.  It’s coming off pretty easily, but it could take me awhile to get this done, and I have wax that’s drying on the topsides that needs to be buffed.  More than five minutes have passed.  I grab a plastic cup as Dan comes up behind me.

“How’s it going?  Is it coming off?”

“Yeah.  Pretty well. I’m going to leave it soak in water while I finish buffing.”

“What?   You can’t do that!  The paint will dry and it’ll ruin my watch!”

“Well, it’s been more than five minutes and the paint hasn’t dried like you said it would.  Besides, the water will keep it from drying.”

“No it won’t,” he’s talking loudly now.  “It’ll dry in water!”

I look at him incredulous.  “How can it dry in water?”

“It’s made to!”  He’s approaching hysteria now.  ” I can’t believe you’re not helping me!”

“Well I’m trying to but you’re not making sense.   First you say you can’t paint because it has to dry overnight, but mysteriously it will dry in five minutes on your watch.  You tell me you can’t paint if it rains and then you tell me the paint will dry in water.  So which is it?”

Folks, this is the kind of witty repartee you can only get after being married more than 20 years!

Dan is about to lose his mind.   “Are you going to help me or not?”

“I am trying to but you’re making it very confusing!”

I’ll spare you from the rest of the dialogue which deteriorated rapidly from there and ended with my resuming my buffing and Dan taking care of his own watch!  When will the fun end?

Applying primer in style

Tessa keeps us entertained by reading

 Has it really been a month since we got back from the US? It seems impossible that we can still be here. How could it be taking us so long??

Well, the first few days back were spent unpacking and trying to put away the 8 plus bags of luggage. Dan installed a car kit for our satellite phone, which basically is an external antennae to the Globalstar SAT Phone and a handset/speaker phone. Before to use the satellite phone you had to take the phone outside, set it somewhere, wait for a satellite and hope you happen to be looking at the phone when it connected. Now, the phone stays inside, the antennae is outside and it beeps to let you know when it has connected. Very nice. Also that first week Dan installed a new fan for the refrigerator and worked on it with Louis the refrigeration guy. Also, I think we threw in a few trips to the grocery store on the free shuttle bus. We needed to build back up our inventory since we got rid of nearly everything before we left.

The next week Dan started buffing the boat, waiting to hear back from Sea Hawk paint on what they were going to do on the bottom paint. We paid for one of the boatyard workers to scrape the spots and he turned up quite a few. More calls to Sea Hawk and finally Dan talked to the CEO and he agreed to get us more paint. The other hull had only a few spots, but a lot of barnacles, so we took over the scraping ourselves. All of us! I think we also threw in a walk or two downtown to break up the work.

The next week, Dan was still scraping, Tristan and I were waxing the sides of the boat (they look awesome). Dan started sanding and sanding. He was really working hard. We finally got smart and started working the Latin America way. Work some in the morning, break for siesta in the heat of the day, then back to work around 4pm. Dan scraped and scraped. Tessa and Tristan helped scrape. I helped scrape and wax. A visit to the museum, a couple of shoe shopping trips and a visit to the movie theater rounded out our week. Dan applies the last of the primer on starboard hull and he and Tristan finish the week with an excellent bottom paint job on the starboard hull. I really give Dan so much credit for all the hard work sanding, scraping and painting. He’s really made me proud!

Week 4. We are tired, spirits are low. There are still lots of barnacles on the port hull to be scraped. On the plus side, we do have two awesome new leather cushions! The primer is painted and in a whirlwind afternoon, Tristan, Dan and I paint the port hull!!! We are so excited. It’s like a burden has been lifted from our shoulders! I would really like to finish buffing the topsides of the boat but I’ve really lost interest. Besides, I still have lots of cleaning work to do inside. The kids have been great about doing schoolwork and working on the boat. I’m really proud of them. We’ve all really reached our patience with boat work and the boatyard. Again, it’s a nice yard, but the mosquitoes are something else. We try to keep the windows covered, but they still get in and make for a very restless night. We could all use a really good night sleep! Our plans now are to do a little fiberglass work (Dan), clean thoroughly inside (me), maybe wax outside (me and kids) and be out of here on Monday/Tuesday after another big provisioning run. Keep your fingers crossed. We are so ready to go!