We hope! Soon come is a typical Caribbean phrase and we seem to hear it a lot these days.
Can't believe a week has passed since my last entry. Hope no one thought this was due to Joel being stuck down the hatch and leaving us to fend for ourselves! No such luck.... Ha! Truth be told we have been up to our elbows in tasks to get this boat shipshape and ready to leave.
Unfortunately a few unlucky breaks hindered our idea of leaving by the weekend. The entire seam of calking on the boat was sticky and had not dried properly meaning it all had to be removed, cleaned, boat taped and redone. And with rain over the weekend plus a holiday Monday, this delayed this job being completed until yesterday, Tuesday.
As this job was being undertaken the guy found cracks in the transom! Shriek! This was then removed and taken to be investigated and repaired. So we have not had a back on the boat since about Friday. Not a great safety aspect when you have two toddlers on board. We hope it returns to us today as of course, we cannot leave without.
Thankfully these problems have only been surface issues and nothing major that will impede our actual sailing, apart from the fact we are not sailing!
Other accomplishments include Joel installing a fan in the saloon and our berth- the girls already had theirs installed weeks ago.
He also finished installing two 20gal water tanks to increase our water capacity by another 50%. This has been an ongoing process with our bed being turned upside down every day to gain access to the space. The final hours involved cutting the water line- not a fun filled moment, and filling the new tanks ensuring there were no leaks. Thankfully there were no major ones- a few tweaks of the wrench ( or whatever tool it called for) and the minor ones were gone. Phew! A credit to both Chuck and Joel for starting the project and seeing it completed.
What else- Joel had the engine serviced and was guided on how to complete this himself. He seems to be trying his hat at many new trades, so who knows what he will end up doing once we settle down somewhere.
On a family note, we (the girls) have been trying to keep out of the way of the workers on board almost everyday. The pool has become a favourite venue, the ice cream shop yesterday and strolling the beach looking for shells and coral which gets shoved in little pockets. All in all the girls have been very good. Playing and building with Lego is the current trend.
Friday saw our first child fall in the drink... Joel kindly offered to take the girls for a dinghy ride as I prepared dinner. All I heard was a thud on the side of the hull and appeared to see Isabelle and Joel sitting on the dock soaked through. Isabelle was crying, but only for her beloved Lego train which I think was the cause of the fall in the first place! It was retrieved- Lego floats. And after a quick shower they went on their way again and everyone was happy. Phew...major disaster avoided as she was wearing her life jacket!
Apologies for the long blog, I will try to post shorter, more frequent ones this week.
Oh, and Matt C we had more provisioning arrive yesterday and you'll be pleased to know tinned fruit ( incl peaches) is now aboard!
Hope all is well.