Week Ending 23 November 2008 - Curacao (still)
If Knot Y Knot
Patricia Day
Sun 23 Nov 2008 16:32
Monday -
-
3rd trip to the dentist, more diabolical filing with no anaesthetic; the deeper they go the more it hurts, so it is still too infected to fill – another appointment.
- Tuesday – I got the sewing machine out and remade my drybag, I also made a good start on the sunblinds for the cockpit, but it is too wet to fit them for final adjustments.
- Wednesday - It is rainy season here and the island changes from skinny cacti and brown vegetation to plump cacti and green vegetation. The roads in town were flooded a foot deep. Jimmy has a friend arrived to sail with him and has a hire car for a few days. They went in to immigration and I went to post my laptop to the service centre in Aruba. First they would not sell me the box to post it in because the box was too big and the laptop would move around, they did not sell any bubble wrap. They suggested I get a box from a supermarket. There are no supermarkets near the post office and so after doing a circuit of the bins in the area I went back and insisted on a box. I was going to buy the bigger box and use the smaller box as filler, but they did not understand this concept and eventually I persuaded the supervisor to sell me a box. I then went to the reception desk where the security guard helped me build the box, found me newspapers to fill the space and provided paper to address it and parcel tape to seal up the joins – he was the only helpful person in the building. I went back to the counter, same guy, and handed over my parcel. It was going well until I had to provide ID, I had photo ID driving licence and a photocopy of my passport, but you need your passport to send a parcel here. I gave up and went to find Jimmy, they had also failed with a missing piece of paper at immigration, so we would all be coming back tomorrow.
We went to the north of the island to tour the national park, where there were lots of lizards. It was difficult to drive without running over them. We did get a photo of a 3-4' iguana which was sitting on top of a large bush, I do not have a camera that works, but I hope to get a copy of the photo.
Thursday – back to the post office and the same guy served me. This time I had my passport and they took a copy (I bet it looked just like the copy I had yesterday). I asked how long it was going to take and they said 2 weeks, I could have sent it in a plastic bag and down wind and down current to Aruba it would have been there in a day. I sent it express and that would only take 3 days, at this rate I would still arrive in Aruba before the computer.
We went to the maritime museum and then found the salt pond with the flamingos that somehow we could not find yesterday. The flamingos like the rain and there has been lots of rain, but there were not that many birds. Then we went to the ostrich farm, but did not go on the tour. We could just see them from the restaurant, there would have been one more, but Jimmy was eating it.
Friday – the dentist. I told her I was leaving on Monday and she said it would be finished today. Started with anaestetic, a good job too, it was as much as I could do to sit through it. My absess is nearly gone, I thought it had gone until the dentist started poking at it with something sharp. Several months and several islands have passed, but it is finally done, although I really need to get it crowned.
Saturday – I keep tidying the boat and I can now sleep at least one person in the aft cabin, two if I move a few ropes and the spinnaker – which I still have to sew together.
- I snorkelled under the boat and scraped the hull, I have been here nearly 3 weeks and things grow in that time.
Sunday – It has rained so much and I have collected so much water. I had the bilge full of bottles of water maker water that were 300ppm, perfectly acceptable to put in the tank or flush the watermaker. I had already changed tsome of them for the rain water which was 20 – 200ppm and that was contamination from the collection process. I put everything above 20ppm in the tank and filled the bottles with more rainwater. I have 10 x 5 litre bottles, but like to carry them empty when I am sailing. The tank water is only 100ppm because the rain catcher has been so effective.
- The drawback with the rain and overcast weather is that the batteries have not been charging fully, but this morning they are fully charged and I have tied up the wind generator for the afternoon to give it a rest.
- We are going snorkelling this afternoon on the beach just outside the lagoon. Bluewater Cat, Passat and I should be checking out tomorrow and heading for Aruba.