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| Adorable, yet not so snuggly sloth |
Walking out of the marina grocery store we encountered a juvenile male sloth (kind of personal how we know that). He seems to have blundered into the marina area from the jungle and was seeking a tree to go to sleep in (they sleep 18 hrs per day). This one wasn't the smartest sloth on the island as he kept choosing bushes, slippery trees, and poor hiding spots for the site of his next nap. Since I snuggle (or at least try) all living creatures I rubbed his back.......until he swung at me in very slow motion with his huge claws. Plenty of time to dodge that attack. It was like being in the "the Matrix".
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| Smiling in ignorance- the tree he's "climbing" is only 2 ft tall |
We've realized that everything on a boat (or in our case, a yacht) lasts about 10 years. Radar ? Broke like clockwork (2.1 kilo-dollars). Wind instrument ? Shorted out right on schedule (0.2 kilo-dollars). VHF ? Bailed on us like a rat off a sinking ship (or in our case, yacht).....cost unknown. Water heater control system? Folded like a cheap suit as it turned 10 years old. But our darkest fear regarding this remorseless obsolescence schedule was the bimini. Nooooooooo. Please, not that !
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| Another water taxi over-loaded with parts for L'ORIENT |
Let me explain. Yachtees live outside. You eat in the cockpit, entertain in the cockpit, and unless you're psychotic, of course you pilot the boat from the cockpit. With wind, rain, and sun pounding you virtually 24/7 you depend on your bimini (equivalent to a car's convertible top) to protect you. Oh, and if you've chosen weather windows poorly, you also can get hit with waves there too. So, your bimini needs to be up to snuff or sailing can be a miserable (and dangerous) experience.
Our bimini reached the ripe of age of (you guessed it) 10 years and called it quits. Fraying, leaking like a sieve........effectively only good for catching bird shit from the marina sparrows that congregate in the rigging above. What to do ? There are actually two canvas vendors here in the marina. Great. One is a French woman who is a bit of an artist regarding canvas. You might have guessed- she's booked until next century. America will win the FIFA World Cup before you can get on Stephanie's schedule. The other competitor is newer to the canvas game. They saw our Amel Super Maramu 2000 Red Line and imagined kilo-dollars of potential. The estimate? $5,000 to sew a bimini measuring about 12 ft x 8 ft. Kirstin ran into a nearby phone booth........smoke engulfed it......and out came "the surly seamstress". Her midwestern thriftiness would not allow her to pay that. "I'm doing this myself". And that was that. Game on.
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| The surly seamstress chopping apart the bones of our old bimini- nothing is wasted |
Kirstin, as you might recall has done quite a bit of sewing on L'ORIENT......having reupholstered our settee, forward cabin, rear cabin, and innumerable other things. She's no canvas "Johnny come lately". Even our gigantic genoa sail has experienced her expert repairs. The one achievement missing from her otherwise impressive canvas resume is a bimini. They are really complex and bedazzled with 3-D shapes, snaps, zippers, pockets, windows, and nary a straight line to be found. They have to be water-proof, streamlined, and look sharp as your bimini is the focal point of our living room, in this case the cockpit. Anything but a snappy functional bimini would imperil L'ORIENT's dignity (and we can't have that).
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| The new bimini takes shape........this is a big deal if you live in the tropics |
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| Whoops- ran out of fabric........so our unplanned skylight waits for the next delivery boat |
Before the gloves came off and the real shooting started, the supply chain needed to ramp up. First, 1.2 kilo-dollars of fabric, zippers, tape, thread, etc. had to travel from Indiana to Miami to Panama City to Bocas del Toro and finally to our boat by water taxi. Whew. Several trips to the third world Home Depot ensued (wonder if your Lowes has this selection of machetes ?)
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| The surly seamstress at work.....rocking some CVS reading glasses |
In other news we're learning survival tactics necessary in our marina paradise in the jungle. Want to stay at the pool until 5:30 PM vs. the usual 5:00 leaving time ? That will cost you about 50 mosquito bites and that wonderful all-over itchy feeling for 3 days. Want take out pizza at 6:30 ? Your stroll back to the boat will include dodging close fly-overs by bats. Yes, I said bats. At least we know where the sloths live. They are masters of camouflage but lazy as hell.........they always hide in the same places.
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| Lunch spot on the ocean.....I recommend the rum punch, amigo |
As we're in the lower left corner of the Caribbean sea and nobody can go anywhere until hurricane season ends, a certain routine has taken hold. We know everybody. Everybody knows us. And a certain community has formed. Backpackers, alcoholics, sketchy womanizers, millennials, and people who seem like they are "on the run" form our cohort. We keep to ourselves for the most part. It's better that way.
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| This bar is on to something in terms of creative seating |
More to come from our jungle outpost.
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| Couple of caballeros out looking for business |
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| Our beach walk |
