Just back from dinner with Mel and Jane, the last owners of NAOMI, at 75 they are still sailing the high seas, just the two of them. I started the day at 06:00 with some push ups in the cockpit, while waiting for the mechanic to get here (hoping he would show up, wondering what I would do if he didn’t) he came at around 08:00 and we were at it till 20:00. It was one long day with the mechanic ailing from kidney stones and his assistant and i doing much of the work up to our elbows in sea water and engine oil, nuts and bolts, metal straps, hoses... Through all of this I feel more confident with my crew, they have been helpful and patient. We have another couple of hours to do tomorrow morning on the engine. We are now on the count down - ETD is for Wednesday morning... We have to replace the fresh food that has since been eaten or rotted, go to customs and immigration, fill a mountain of jerry cans with diesel and water, check out the weather and get the hell out of here. Our worldly experience of the Caribbean has been limited to a square kilometer, peopled by odd characters from odd places, displaced souls in a dusty yard, in a sea of petroleum and crab shells. We have sort of gotten used to this trailer park life.
