Not all Saturdays are restful
January 4th and 5th, 2025
Early on Saturday, Mike said he was planning on a restful day. This began with a trip to the fuel dock in the big boat. So up came the anchor, before breakfast. Our thinking was “get to the fuel dock before it gets busy.” Once we had motored into the marina area, we found both sides of the fuel dock occupied AND a catamaran waiting in the “basin”. Not much seemed to be happening at the fuel dock but we thought “no big deal, we will circle until there’s space.” in short order another three boats arrived. Now there was hardly any space in the basin with boats trying to avoid collisions. It was a long tedious forty minutes. Just as the boat ahead of us was getting ready to pull into the fuel dock, another small boat appeared and zipped into the space behind the original small boat that had been “fueling” for a ridiculously long time. This was more than we could tolerate. Much shouting and swearing ensued. I’m not sure that we intimidated him but both small boats did depart. Mike did a terrific job of sidling Cotinga up to the dock. We had to wait for a diesel hose, so started on water. Once both tanks and all jerry cans were full, we started on the diesel. Five jerry cans and one top-up of the main tank later all that remained was to pay the bill (ouch). The undocking went smoothly and we threaded our way through the waiting boats to return to the anchorage. My stomach was reminding me about breakfast but we had one more job. We motored out of the harbor on "the sail of shame" to dump our holding tank, then back to anchor in nearly the same spot as earlier. Two hours had elapsed.
Shortly after breakfast, we worked on treating the diesel with stabilizer / biocide and stowing the jerry cans. Then it was time to go to shore to retrieve our laundry. We had expected it on Friday but returned empty-handed from the first trip. This time the last items were being folded and place in our bags. We dumped the laundry bags into garbage bags (to keep them dry in the event of rain or splashes of seawater) and placed them in the dinghy. Then we were off to the supermarket for a few items and some ice. Once we had all that loaded up it the dinghy, we made another stop at the fuel dock to fill up a jerry can with gasoline. The dinghy was riding low in the water on the trip back to Cotinga.
If that wasn’t enough for one day, Mike decided that we should start work on the sunshade. While we were in Martinique, we bought some fabric to make a sunshade. What followed was a flurry of tying, pinning and lots of head scratching. We think we have a plan but there are many steps still to be executed. We have reinforced the top, attached a few pieces of webbing for ties at the top. Now we need to figure out how to reinforce the next attachment areas. Then there will be edges to deal with and figuring out how to connect to our existing filler (between the dodger and bimini).
Dinner was somewhat delayed and we found ourselves showering in the cockpit after 8 pm. Bedtime followed fairly swiftly!
Sunday was another beautiful day and we went to shore and took a walk over to the bay to the north. We have never anchored in Five Island Bay - we aren’t sure why, but it looked fabulous. We strolled along a gorgeous beach in front of a 5-star resort, and would have stopped for lunch but their restaurant was only open to residents. We did stop and have lunch at another place on the edge of Jolly Harbor which was decent if not brilliant. In the afternoon we went over to the catamaran Charm to get advice from Dean and Kris on their favorite spots in Puerto Rico, the DR and out-islands of the Bahamas, which was really helpful for our future planning.
Gloria
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