We are getting rested and settling in here. Cassidy and Courage have done much work on the mast and mainsail. I've been spring cleaning after things hit the floor on the crossing and we had some sort of hatching of what I'm calling "bean bugs" in our dried bean stores. These bugs are like doublewide weevils shaped like triangles that came from Panama. I put our dried beans that I bought at the Farmer's market in bulk into Ziplocs. For whatever reason, months later, these things went crazy in the closet where they were and came out in droves!! They had eaten through the zip locks in large holes. So I tore apart the whole bedroom, bleached and scrubbed, and the beans had to many holes in them and so many bugs in them, they went overboard. That, and the need to pick everything else up, prompted a spring-cleaning. So, between shore runs, I've been working on getting us back up to speed indoors.
We got the motorcycle launched and Cassidy and Courage made it to the main town here. It was about 45 minutes away. There is a supply ship coming in today, so I asked for carrots if possible, but no such luck. It apparently comes in at 1:00pm, so it was a no go. Not a problem though, we're in good shape. The shore is not too steep and there was a road just 10 feet from the surf. Not terribly hard to get it up there. It's been fun being able to get out and explore more of the islands than most boaters get to. And we're getting smoother on our launch and retrieval.
I walked to the ocean side of the island with the kids this morning. It wasn't terribly far (but of course I was wearing shoes, which they weren't). This is where things wash up from sea, so Integrity called it "Treasure Beach" and found many items. The girls found some hermit crabs and Valiant and I played in the tide pools. It was lots of fun to explore a new area and nice activity for us.
There is no surf on the inside of the island, so it's easy for Innocence to kayak to and from the boat and land on shore. She retrieved the snacks from the boat, drops kids off, etc. I think she likes to run the shuttle service sometimes.
We've had lots of great celebrations for Intrepid's birthday, which I'll write about separately. We've had a couple of nice snorkels, seen reef sharks, and played at the beach.
Yesterday we burned the garbage onshore. It was beginning to get maggots in the cockpit. Vitality found one to play with. I told her "Do not go inside with that." Guess what little mischievous did? Then she returned and reported back that it was lost. Gone. I asked Intrepid to go help her with that and find it.
It cannot be gone. She showed us that she was going down the stairs to MY bedroom with it when she dropped it. Intrepid came back and reported, "It's gone for good." I told Vitality that was NOT GOOD! She was not supposed to have it indoors. She looked up at me and said, "It's gone for bad."
Today, the cruisers organized a potluck lunch on shore. At this point there are 9 boats, we had a great feast!! There are 3 other kid boats. We're the only Americans. They are Swiss, British, Australian, Canadian, etc. I made key lime pie, carrot sticks with dip, and Cassidy made biscuits. We stayed onshore all afternoon, kids all playing, parents all chatting. It was a really pleasant afternoon. Sounds like everyone had a similar crossing, pretty rough. - - Waves over the cockpits and decks, bananas ripening and hitting the floor and being thrown overboard, etc. Everyone has been happy here to be resting, recovering, finally not in a rolling anchorage, which we've been in much of the Marquesas, Galapagos, etc. The adults were watching some reef sharks when they came where the girls were swimming, the 4 year old screamed and ran out of the water. Innocence re-assured her that "these sharks don't eat people, other sharks do." It seemed to work; she went back in.
The boys went for a play-date at another boat for hours this evening and had a great time! We are all exhausted and will sleep well. Tomorrow we hope to do a nice snorkel at a reef farther out. I plan to caulk the cockpit roof finally so maybe it won't leak. Courage is going to work on the mainsail again I think. We began realizing that we only have a few more days here and many projects to get done on the boat to make it functional and more comfortable. Better be knocking them out while we explore also.
Shannon
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