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Go To: 10/7
10/14
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10/1 |
What a lightning show we
experienced during the night. We could almost feel our hair
stand up with some of the strikes that were so close...and so loud.
We are so thankful we did not get hit.
We were able to fill our
water tank though. We must be using just the right amount
of water during the rainy season because as soon as we get low on
water and think we will have to run the watermaker for a while to fill
up....it rains buckets. Filling a 100 gallon tank on one
rainfall is nice.
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Robert and Carmen are returning to the Bay of Cholon today after a
months vacation to the States. We are excited to see
them. |
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10/2 |
It's Saturday night....so we all
gathered on the Manatee to catch up on stories of Robert and Carmen's
trip to the US. It was Carmen's first time to California and Las
Vegas. She was impressed and scared by the traffic and speed at
which everyone drives.
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10/3 |
Another rainy day.....it is the rainy
season. Our water tank again is full and running over.
We are thankful for the rain.
Years ago, at home, a rainy day
meant cooking a nice, big pot of chili, snuggling up to watch a movie
or football game, or sleep, listening to the pitter-patter of the
raindrops.
On the boat, after it has rained a
bit, Sonny runs out
- Cleans the deck with a
brush
- Opens our deck fill cap to our
water tank
- Puts a damp rag behind it as a
dam
- Gets out the hose and connect it
to catch the water off our hard bimini. (We had a
fiberglass lip installed around the edge of the bimini to catch the
water).
- Run the hose to the deck fill
area
- Gather up our 3 buckets and place
around the deck to collect more water.
- Sit in the cockpit and contently
watch the precious rain fill up all of our containers.
Being able to live self-sufficient
is gratifying and we take pride in being able to live on a boat, make
our own water (either by collecting rain or using our watermaker),
generating our own electricity from our solar panels and wind
generator, and occasionally going from one country to another under
sail without the use of fuel. |
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10/4 |
It has been too long.....we have
neglected to clean our chain for three weeks. Our chain is
6 years old and needs to be replaced soon. While on anchor, we
have to bring in the chain with the windlass and clean the barnacles
that have grown to it. It is a dirty job. We like to do it
after a nice rain and our water tank is full, so the dirt and salt
water will be rinsed off the deck before we need to collect water
again. We walked up to
Robert's this afternoon with Billy (S/V AnnVeraLynn), John and Delisa
(S/V Fortitude) and Russell (S/V Loutournea). The view is always
special and overwhelming.
After much discussions about when to return to the States for a visit,
I purchased our tickets today. We got the "special" with Spirit
Air for $62 per person from Cartagena to Fort Lauderdale.
When we finished with taxes, baggage, miscellaneous charges and
airfare, our round trip total was $725. I did not even opt
to pay the extra fees for our seat.
We are flying out of Cartagena on Dec. 1st and will return on Feb.
16th. So, we will have 2 1/2 months to spoil and love on our
grandbabies, (well, some are teenagers so they may not appreciate us
hugging and kissing all over them...but we will anyway). ; ) We
are looking forward to spending time with family and friends that we
have not seen in so long. I
had previously returned to Texas in February 2010 to take our ssb radio back for
repairs, but Sonny has not been home since March 2009, so it is time
for a good long visit. We are
returning with our ssb, again. Hopefully, this time it
will be fixed right and it will be working again. We miss it
dearly. Out here, it is our lifeline. And, of course...it
is time for some shopping. Being out, you do not buy
things that need to be replaced, so it is time for some of that. |
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10/5 |
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Another rainy night and morning in the
Bay of Cholon. |
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10/6 |
Another rainy day.....just a slow, lazy
drizzle. Makes me want to do some cooking in the galley.
I made the quich dish and used broccoli and rice for a nice change.
Also made some pico de guillo. A good, restful, calm day for
reading, playing Baha rummy, watching movies and cooking.
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10/7 |
When we were in Cartagena, we bought
some material for 6 ml ($3 US) to make three Colombian flags.
Our flags get so tattered in the wind, and Colombia's flag looks
rather easy.....so we will give it a shot.
I cut and sewed them together and Sonny
put grommets in them. Pretty good deal, only our time
involved and three flags for $3. However, I don't think we're
ready for the US flag yet. ; )
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No, Sonny is not in the doghouse....he
is working in the quarter berth today. He checked the water in
our batteries down below and trying to find a loose terminal which is
giving us incorrect readings on our gauges.
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10/8 |
We went walking early this morning. It was the first morning
without rain. We went up to Robert and Carmen's for a while and
returned to Valentina....just in time....for the rain.
I am getting
a cold. I guess with the cool, damp weather. It probably
gets down to the high 70's with the rain and then back up to the upper
80's here.
We stayed on Valentina tonight and listened to our hometown
Waxahachie Indian football game on KBEC radio. |
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10/9 |
I did not feel well today, ran fever,
ached, stuffy head. Just laid around, watched some college
football and slept.
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10/10 |
I felt better this morning, but as the
day goes on, I start dragging again and running fever. I
just can't remember getting sick while we have been out cruising.
I guess it is a result of the cool, rainy nights. It is cool,
then it starts raining, so we have to close the hatches for the rain,
then we get hot, so we open the hatches, only to repeat again and
again. Damon came over today
to help us with some battery monitoring issues. Our gauges are
not consistently reading the same voltage, so he came to the rescue.
We also discovered a $500 part to our chartplotter is not
working. ouch! Our depth does not show on our
chartplotter, so we will have to do something about that.
There was a potluck on the Manatee for
the cruisers, but I did not go. I stayed on board Valentina.
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Check out the dinghies surrounding
Manatee when the cruisers are on board. |
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What a treat!
We finally got
to see Yvonne and Emma's new boat named "Mira".
Tonight was the first time for them to bring it to the Bay of
Cholon. He had it custom built and it just arrived.
Isn't she beautiful? |
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10/11 |
Today, we dropped the dinghy and went
down to Damon and David's boat. Sonny jumped in the water
to clean their prop and bottom, to thank them for helping us with our
batteries. When we returned to
Valentina, later in the day, Sonny began running a fever. Oh
no...I shared my cold with him. He is not feeling perky today,
so it is his turn to rest. |
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10/12 |
We are now both battling congestion.
We do not feel bad...just do not feel good. It is so unusual for
us to have a cold. But, we are doing better.
By 7 a.m. this morning, Sonny had
already had his cup of coffee on the deck and got hot. So
he jumped in the water to cool off....so, I jumped in too.
It felt good. It is very hot here in the mornings, and by
the afternoon there is wind, so it is not as hot.
We called Damon this afternoon and
went over to the beach for a swim. It was nice to cool off
again.
Robert had invited some local
Colombian ladies to come to Manatee tonight for live singing and
dancing. You just have to love the Colombian culture.
So full of life, music, dancing and joy.
Three ladies came and immediately
started dancing and playing the guitar and singing. It was
a nice evening.
I started yawning and it seemed so
late....we thought it had to be midnight, but we got back to
Valentina at 9:35 p.m. |
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10/13 |
I am starting to feel better so I
cleaned some today. Our white vinyl cushions have to be wiped
off every month or so, and it was time. I also made a pot
of soup with some vegetables we had on board.
Some friends we just met here, John and
Delisa on S/V Fortitude are leaving the anchorage today, headed to
Cartagena, then on to Venezuela. It was sad to see them leave.
We really enjoyed getting to know them.
We received the news tonight that
all 33 miners in Chile were safely rescued. What good news! |
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10/14 |
We just rested today. Not feeling
too perky for projects. But its OK, we can do it....maņana... |
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10/15 |
It's Beach Time!
Actually, it is haircut time. It
is so much nicer to cut each other's hair at the beach rather than on
the boat. We also get to play in the water and rinse the cut
hair off. Nice...nice.
And....the price is right! |
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10/16 |
We are taking the launcha water taxi
into Cartagena. It takes about 50 minutes to get there, with
about 35 people on board. He picks us up at Valentina at 5:30
a.m. so we arrive in Cartagena at 6:30 a.m.
Too early for stores to open, but we
can go to the ATM, to our hotel, and eat breakfast.
Sonny has a doctor appointment at 10
a.m. this morning, so we will stay in town until Monday morning.
Robert and Carmen came in with us and
stayed at the same hotel. David on S/V Bruadair is also at the
hotel getting some dental work done. So, we met on the
patio in the evening and people watched and had fun together. |
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10/17 |
Today, we walked around town and purchased prescriptions and bought
some groceries. We were going to go out to eat for the
evening, but decided to just stay at the hotel instead. You can
get a fried chicken breast and potatoes for 2.8 ml or $1.50. So,
we had a nice dinner at the hotel. |
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10/18 |
This morning, it was raining and raining. The day we take
the water taxi back to Valentina. When we were at Oscar's
restaurant drinking coffee, our cell phone rang. A friend
on anchor near Valentina in Cholon told us that Valentina possibly got
robbed during the night. Our hearts sank and we
immediately lost our appetite. We started making phone
calls and we were told that a launcha had been near Valentina when
Johnny on Manatee shined the spotlight on them and they left.
Whew......Our dinghy is high on the davits but you can just never be
too safe. Then, we went to Mega Tienda, the grocery store we use in
Cartagena. It is about a block from the water taxi and one of
the boys will carry our groceries to the launcha in the grocery cart.
Makes it nice. But, the streets are flooded and water is
everywhere.
We got to the launcha and waited at least an hour for everyone to
arrive and get packed in. It was loaded down in the
drizzling rain. Then, when we started the motor and
started backing up, everyone started grabbing the huge black plastic
and pulled over all of our heads. It was all right, until
he picked up speed, and the winds blows against the plastic, popping
it and pushing it against your head. Whew....what a long
ride. What fun it is to be with 35 other people, under a
big black plastic on a launcha, in the sea in the rain. You have
to have a good attitude....everyday is just another fun adventure.
When we returned to Valentina, we were thankful she was OK and
nothing broken into. Very thankful! |
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10/20 |
Today, I crashed our only working computer.
One of the very few days I can remember having tear in my eyes, since
cruising.
We told a friend in the anchorage that we would be taking Valentina
into Cartagena in the morning to get our only computer repaired,
hopefully, then return. He said, "Wait, let me look at it
first". We told him we were sure we would have to just
reformat the computer, and he said, "I can do that, don't go, let me see it
tomorrow". So we did. |
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Damon on S/V Bruadair is one amazing
guy. Not only is he an electronics guru, he is a computer
whiz. He spent about 8 hours, copying our files on our
laptop, then reformatted the hard drive. And, it was a new
computer when he finished. Just have to update everything
now. A million thanks to him! |
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10/23 |
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It is fiesta time on Manatee tonight! Bill
and Pam on S/V Songbird and Dave on S/V High Spirits are in the
anchorage, so we had lots of music time. It was very good.
To listen to Pam sing "Summertime" gives you the goose bumps.... |
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10/25 |
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Happy Anniversary to our son
Garrett and his beautiful wife, Madonna. It is 7 years for
them. We wish you many, many more good years ahead. |
And, it is our 19th Anniversary! We cannot believe
it has been that long! Time has really flown by, but....we are
having fun!
We are blessed and are very thankful for each other.
We decided this year for our
anniversary....to go on a cruise! We were very excited and
anticipated the trip giving much care to "what to pack".
So, at about 4 p.m. today, we left. We packed our snacks
and fishing pole with a red and black rattle jet lure and climbed in
our dinghy. We trolled around up to the north end of the
bay, then turned off the engine, drifted back to Valentina, enjoyed
the beautiful sunset and each other to complete our circumnavigation
and 'cruise'.
Being together for 19 years has been
very good for both of us. Our life is simple....a "cruise"
around the Bay on our 19th anniversary is exciting to us. We do
not need a lot to be happy. We even did a circumnavigation of
the bay. And, we look forward to many more together. |
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10/28 |
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This morning was a real treat for us.
Robert Gallagher, a teacher at the Waxahachie High School (where Sonny
graduated a few years ago) set us up with two of his classes to meet
us and talk to us over Skype. It was very good to see the
children, who had some very thought-provoking questions about living
on a boat. |
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Stacie, our daughter, and Sonny's
brother, Billy and his wife Jeanie also came to the high school and
surprised us on the Skype call. |
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10/29 |
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Time for some
maintenance repairs. When Sonny was checking the
engine this morning, he noticed a hose that runs from our engine
to our engine's bilge pump. It has rubbed through with
the friction on the belt. So, it was time to do some
maintenance. Glad he caught that now, rather than underway. |
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10/30 |
| Wilson came by this
morning selling fruit. I bought two
papayas for 5 ml ($2.50). |
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Tonight is another good music night
on Robert's Manatee.
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10/31 |
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We woke up this
morning to a very bright, brilliant rainbow. We were
trying to see who's boat it was over so we could take a shovel and
find the pot of gold. It looks like Damon and David's
Bruadair is the place.
"Now, where is the shovel honey?
What, we don't have one?"
Our friends, the Caballeros are
down this weekend so we have spent a lot of time with them,
enjoying their company. Such good, good Colombian people. |
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or
"On
to November"
"At sea,
I have learned how little a
person needs, not how much."
Robin Lee Graham |
