BACK IN AND ON PARADISE

The view from the other side of the house

In the yard at the house is a boat shed where we stored our dinghy. One morning Sid found the dingy gas tank empty, from then on he took it out of the dinghy every night and hid it. Well, you know what happens the one time you forget to do that, yes you guessed it, the gasoline was gone again, but this time the “Maliante” (criminal) took the whole tank. Since the boat shed and house had video cameras Sid spent quite a few hours to find the moment where the Maliante climbed over the fence at 3 am, grabbed the tank and climbed, back. Sid was very impressed it took the guy a whole 18 seconds and he was gone. Neither, Jack, Teresa nor Sid could really recognize who it was but we all had our pick, either Mario or his brother. Same evening around 8 pm Mario whistled outside the kitchen window (he did that from our neighbors yard). I went outside to see what was up. He had some langostinos (a type of small lobster) and wanted to know if we wanted to buy them.  I went inside to weigh them and get the money Sid went outside to have a talk with Mario. With his broken Spanish he somehow got across that our tank was stolen and that we wanted it back. A couple of minutes later I gave Mario the money for the langostinos and he was on his way home. Not 5 Minutes later, Mario whistled again and when I opened the door I saw him grin from ear to ear telling me he had a regalo (present) for us while holding the gas tank in his hand. After questioning him where he had found it, he mumbled something about his cousin Kentucky, but I could not understand his mumble as usual. We were just happy to see the tank. I called Jack (Binnie’s Forman) and told him what had happened. He giggled and told me that he went from door to door in town and told everybody that our gas tank had been stolen and that we didn’t care about getting the gasoline back but that we wanted the tank and if it was not in our yard by morning we would go to the police with the video. I thought this was quit clever of him.

We were kind of laughing about this: imagine having found several stolen gas tanks in our yard. Well that didn’t happen, but would have been funny.

The Domino Diva’s celebrated a wonderful Valentine’s Day at Heather’s. It was a beauty and spa day. Everybody had to bring something home made. Debbie made for each girl a hair conditioner especially to her hair type. Renee brought some facial cream and was rinsing everybody’s hair conditioner and each time she said: “O gosh another salad rinse” as bits and pieces of cucumber or whatever was stuck in the hair and hard to wash out. It was fun. Anita had a massager and gave everybody a good back massage. Heather did wonderful neck massages while some including me massaged feet. Melania was doing manicures, everybody did something. After the beautification we all sat in the pool sipping on champagne and singing along to my Domino Diva song. I almost forgot to mention the wonderful food everybody brought.

Melania with Chocolate Facial

Renee washing Salad out of Cindy's hair

The foot massage corner

Yep, still salad in the hair

Time was ticking away since we were told we had to move out and there was no negotiating with Binnie about being able to stay the extra month to end of March when we had planned to move out. Her boyfriend Sid wanted us out ever since he moved in, he finally got his way. 

There frankly, was not enough time to get everything out to the boat in such short notice. In haste we packed everything into boxes, there was no time to sort things out and with the help of some cruising friends we were able to bring all our stuff to Cindy’s garage. It was rough going for a while as we lived like homeless people in our own boat, pretty cruel. Every day we brought two to three boxes on board not knowing which ones to take first and finding one part but not the other or one shoe and not the other and: "Honey where are my underwear?" - "Oops still in the garage!"

It took many, many days of non stop going and moving things. We are almost there but have still a few things in the garage. Good thing is we know now where everything on the boat is LOL.

We are pretty broken hearted though over this ordeal but I guess life goes on.

And life does go on. Ida our dentist invited the Divas to her beautiful Resort where we were greeted with Pinacoladas, a dip in the pool and a wonderful lunch buffet. She also brought out the most incredible ceviche I’ve ever had, she added fresh fruits to it, yummy, I will definitely try this next time I make ceviche. Ida had no idea that we knew it was her Birthday a few days away, so her invite turned into her own Birthday Party.

Ceviche with mixed seafood and fruits , sweets and Pinacoladas

First casualty

Deb at work

Water fight

Who's got the biggest umbrella?

Ida the hostess

Having too much fun!

Deb's other job!

Sid’s been working hard on installing all the instruments, laying out new wiring for this and that and getting the boat back in working order. But this year the Christmas winds were still blowing strong. Sid was unable to climb the mast and clean the rigging or put up the new windex or the radar or dive and work on the mooring. Our departure is delayed by weeks. At least we only had an occasional shower of rain, usually lasting less than a minute. We did get one week of nothing but cloudy skies especially on one particular day this ominous clouds scooted by the entrance of this beautiful cove and I notices this white streak in the cloud, hmmm what is that???!!! Then when I looked at the water level I saw some churned up water and realized immediately that the white streak up in the cloud was the begin of a waterspout, the other end was down at the water. It was pretty close to where we were, just between us and Mamey Island.

  

Could only see this part in cloud plus the churning water, nothing between

  

We definitely have been here way too long as we celebrated Deb’s birthday for the third year, wow time is just getting away from us and we are all just getting older. As always we had a wonderful time and Debbie was really surprised, she had no idea there was going to be a party for her.

and of course the champagne was flowing

Octopus stuffed plantains appetizer

  

Langostinos and shrimp

Patacones (plantains), coconut rice and fries

   

Opening Melania's present

  

 

More presents

Pat's home made cup cakes: Moccha Bacon and Passion Fruit

   

 

and more fabric

and matching nail polish and earrings

Debbie is the Cruiser's Hairdresser and needed new supplies

She's styling

  
Still finding lots of things to be done including finding the Biminis’ canvas ripping apart in places. We have learned over time that everything sold in third world countries is seconds and does not last as long as it should. Actually the Sunbrella canvas I bought here it says right there on the label that it is seconds but they still sell it for the same price. I had a heck of a time sewing the bimini and the fabric just scalloped, no matter what I did to the machine. Bimini is done but not the way we wanted it, the scalloping looks horrible.

It looks like rainy season is on its way as we get more frequent and longer lasting rain, but the winds are still blowing strong. There was one gale after another off the Colombian coast bringing good sized rollers through the anchorage; still not a good time to get up the mast. Eventually we did get a calm enough day for Sid to install the radar and windex and another one for Sid to work on the mooring lines to get us in launch position.

Do we have a date yet when we’ll head out of Puerto Lindo? Nope not yet but it’ll be here soon, as soon as the boat is safe and sound, any day now. Plan is to head to Portobelo. I want to take up some more guitar lessons I had to give up during the move. Sid still has this or that project to do and more sewing is waiting for me as well.

We are looking forward to May 22^nd when Lia, the daughter of our long time buddies Joyce and Larry Rabellino is coming to visit us with her friend Jesse and join us for an adventure in the San Blas. I think they are just as excited as we are. Lia called us the other day. She had many questions for us. She also wanted to know if she had ever met us. My responds: “Yes, you have, that was when you were still pooping in your pants”. She laughed and said: “Oh gosh, I don’t do that anymore!” Well, let’s hope so LOL.