Another women's toes & Snakes

The Berthing Fiasco and the Arctic Ice

After months of Intle Breeze being still and tied down to the riverbed, the time has come for us to move back to our original Marina, Monkey Bay, we will continue to hang around Rio Dulce waiting for hurricane season to pass. Not to forget we still have some boat jobs to deal with

Moving the boat technically was relatively easy except for the small detail, that it took us three tries to get into our berth, somehow both Eric and I were off our game. The last time we did this it was easy as pie and the space was even smaller and he wiggled in with masterful precision, well I guess we may have been a little out of practice. As for my ability to throw lines, well that was clearly left behind on another dock somewhere, as every throw landed perfectly - in the water, my goodness how could we get so bad in such a short space of time, my arm that has not bothered me for many months decided to stage a protest and rendered itself useless and off duty.  Eventually though all was well, and we tied down safely, with just enough chaos to be considered light entertainment.

The next few days our time was filled with many boat tasks including defrosting my freezer which had more ice than Antarctica. We mostly try to ensure that items we have on the boat have more than one purpose, well it turns out that my hairdryer only has one purpose and that would be defrosting the freezer, as using it for my hair is certainly not a thing when living afloat.

Homemade is Best

You know you have struck gold when you find someone who not only makes homemade Greek yoghurt and gets honey straight from the hive, never been heated or processed in any way, but also delivers it by boat in her little launcher. (water taxi) Both the honey and the yoghurt were amazing.

This did inspire me to get back into the food prep and cooking groove, as during our travels I got right out of galley thinking, between staying in hotels and all the spoils with family. Boat life and healthy living are finally back on track.

Feeling ambitious I decided to make my own Greek yoghurt, for the first time, so I do feel very smug about this AMAZING, thick smooth and gloriously creamy delight. The only surprise though was how little yoghurt you get form 1 litre of milk once it is properly strained. Although this does give me a better respect for the price of this thick smooth and creamy luxury in the store. So next time I will filter it less as we need lots of it, for everything from breakfast, smoothies, tzatziki, dips and much more.

Of course, yoghurt is not the only thing coming out of the galley these days, the delicious homemade seed bread has been on the table as well, let us be honest most normal human beings just go crazy for homemade bread straight from the oven and it is no different here on Intle Breeze.  To push my baking skills a little further a friend from SV Sunriser, gifted me a sourdough starter, which I must be honest still makes me a little nervous, although I have been feeding my very hungry starter baby like a nervous  parent, doing my job on keeping it alive, eventually I will get around to making a sour dough bread as these are hard to come by around this part of the world, almost as rare as a flat sea in a squall. Will for sure let you know when I decide to use it, for now I am just keeping this creature alive.

Right now, the galley smells like freshly baked bread. Both the recipes are on the website if you wanna give them a try. Yeah, I know many people have asked me to put up more recipes, this is a very slow work in progress, as mostly they live in my head like imaginary friends. Soon I will have more recipes to share.

Unwanted Guests

You know how people talk about unwanted guests, usually loud neighbours, in-laws overstaying there welcome or even that one friend that forgets to leave after dinner, any of these would have been a better option.

 Today’s visitor was a nasty green snake known as a vine snake, might I add that he also had an attitude of “I live here now” kind of like someone that pays rent. I swear this scaly intruder had every intention of climbing our lines and moving in, cozy right? NOT, I do not do snakes, as far as I am concerned, the only good snake is one in another dimension where I do not exist.

There I am doing my best impression of horror movie screaming and my dear husband armed with nothing, but a boat hook and a ton of courage had to be the reluctant hero and relocate the serpent to a new home in the jungle.

Me still recovering from the trauma and constantly trying to remind myself that we do currently live in a jungle, and the jungle does not have a “no creepy crawly policy”

Here is a disturbing fun fact snakes can swim, as if slithering around like an evil noodle is not enough. This also means that even at anchor we are snake bait. So, between, me google and my land friend Liz, we are trying to find a variety of things that can be used as snake repellent, garlic, essential oils, a “No Vacancy Sign” I seriously did not know that these creatures are multi-talented enough to swim.

We are open to all suggestions. Until then I will sleep with one eye open and maybe a machete close at hand.

A Leaky Afternoon Nap for the Oldies

The last couple days we have had loads of rain, and it has been pretty chilly, there is a massive cold front coming all the way down from Canada, can you even imagine that it affects us all the way down here, I am sitting here writing this wearing long pants which I had to dig out of the furthest draw right at the bottom and also considering putting on some socks. With this cold comes rain and lots of it.

While Jens (Dilly Dally) is having his afternoon nap and in the best part of his dream he mysteriously gets woken up by wet boobs, uhm, his own are wet nothing romantic here…..Yes there is a leak in the port aft cabin………..Damn we thought that problem was solved.

It turns out that there is a new leak, coming from a cleat. Oh, wait I have on several occasions complained about this cleat, literally since we left South Africa. The two guys pulling off panels and checking all over, until genie over here (me) suggests the cleat may be the problem, yup, turns out the women is always right, wish I could tattoo this into the male brain. So, as a temporary solution until the rain stops it is secured with duct tape, one of a sailor's favourite items.

Finally another Women

After living with 2 needy old men for a couple weeks, Arzum (SV Dilly Dally) finally arrived back from Germany, smart girl boycotted working on her own boat for a few days while she recovered from jetlag. To my relief, she also helped Eric with one of many boat jobs, while I tackled other tasks, like packing for our next land adventure.

What I did not know though, is that it was being filmed, and I just now discovered this video on my computer with little bouncy red toes being part of the footage, apparently ideal for anyone with a foot fetish.

The tiny spaces that my husband manages to fit himself into is still beyond me, as much as this man can drive me out of mind sometimes, I am incredibly proud of how this account and businessman, who has barely touched a screwdriver in his life, has become unbelievably handy and has taught himself how to fix just about anything.

Keeping in mind that when we met 25 years ago, he could barely hang a mirror on a wall without drilling 7 holes. Without getting into the boring details, one of his missions was a re-construction of our water maker, to make it easier to use and more practical for when we are sailing. As most sailors know, the people that are building boats have probably not even had a day trip to sea. They are simply following instructions.

That’s all for now folks, next story will be about the beautiful flower festival that we went to, with some luck if I don’t have too much other work to do I will have another story up sooner than this one.