Invest90L in the am

So last evening we did a TGIF at Popcorn's and got a great view of the crappy weather to come.



We also got to meet Flush, a cat Popcorn found in his toilet's drainage pipe when he was building his house about a year ago. Not that you can tell from the photos, but she has a really long neck and tail and looks a bit weird. Not surprising, her owner looks a bit weird too. Normally Flush is out prowling around, so we hadn't had a chance to get to know her yet. Popcorn is very much a dog person, but he's really warmed up to this furry munchkin. Luckily for Flush, Betsy, Popcorn's lab took to her too and acts as her protector.



This cat is a hoot and oddly does the same thing our cats do with their tails - they shake them rapidly like a rattlesnake when they get excited. Must be a Kittitian kitty thing. It turns out Flush is incredibly friendly and very playful and started seeking Michael and me out (out of a dozen people) so she could attack our ankles. We renamed her Psycho Kitty. She could use a nail cutting.



This morning, I did an Invest 90L check. After a pretty crazy night of rain, lightning and thunder, this morning things didn't start out looking all that bad. It looked like most of it had passed us already.



As the day has progressed, we've gotten a dip from the northeast that got us a bit wet earlier in the morning and are now getting it from the southeast as a storm that looked puny earlier has exploded over the top of us. As soon as I made the latest entry on StormCarib and said that I jinxed us, the winds picked up and it started pouring. Spoooky. Hopefully after this latest cell passes, things will clear up a bit. Hopefully. Gonna be an unpredictable day today - in other words, a typical day in the Caribbean after a tropical wave has passed.

Today's challenge is to get one of my cats, Zura, to get over her fear of thunder. The other, Jack, isn't phased and will even sit outside until it rains on him (although I did initially sit out there with him and talk him through it - I don't have to do that anymore). Zura hides behind the washer. This isn't wall-shaking thunder, just grumbling (baby stuff), so I closed the door to the washer closet and have Jack helping nudge her out of her other hiding spots. Come play! She's out, but not too thrilled about it. One step at a time...

Hey, my fancy clock tells me that's only 82 degrees (in the house, without the breeze or even ceiling fan). You people sweating it out up North might want to come down and cool off! With these latest gusty winds, I'm going to have to go put on a sweatshirt. And close a few windows. Brrr.

Did I mention the power went out? Not sure we cleared 36 hours since the last outage. I'd read but it's dark in here and it's only 2:00!

Bye. Sniffle

Well, we had our last night out at The Dock with Charlie & Tanya (well, until they come and visit again). For those of you receiving this by auto email, I'm not sure you'll see the pictures as I had to upload them differently than usual due to Blogger issues. If you're not seeing anything - go directly to the blog page)



The happy (?) couple



3 of this bunch (in the middle) belong to the departing clan. Wait until they figure out they have to wear shoes everywhere now.



Lots of photo ops as we talked about where we'd meet up next - Barbados marathon?



Michael played shutterbug for the evening and got so into it, we even have a picture of him the bathroom. Um, thanks?



Well, we hope the 5 of them and their 2 island kitties have a good trip and can't wait to hear how Seanessy liked the taste of his first snowflake.



Bye Guys!

A Quick Visit

Well our friends, Jim & Wendy, sailed in for a quick visit and should be headed to the next island later today. After sitting anchored in the too-yucky-to-swim-in Lagoon in St. Martin for months, they were pleased to spend a couple of hours at the pool. Jim also took advantage of being able to get a haircut somewhere that wouldn't leave hair all over the boat. You really can't beat that view for a salon.



We then went for a quick meal at Ziggy's and were disappointed to see that they'd taken panini's off the menu. As usual, just about every restaurant accommodates vegetarians by putting a bland veggie burger on the menu, and Ziggy's was no different. I was able to get a chicken quesadilla minus the bird though. It wasn't too bad. Our guests were unimpressed with their "real" burgers, which looked a lot like Michael's fake one, but the cheese fries were really cheesy. Seriously, any restauranteurs reading this - use some imagination! One restaurant thinks celery sticks & carrots count as an appetizer. Unless those veggies are in a bloody mary, give us a break. What do we look like ? Is it too much to ask for a veggie roti? This is really amazing considering how many Rastas, Indians, and vet-school vegetarians are on island. Good thing there are a few Indian restaurants here or we'd all be relegated to pizza. Why we don't eat out much...(well, that and the ever-rising prices).

We had some lightning and thunder (and rain) last night, not fun when you're on a sailboat (particularly one that was struck by lightning a few months ago), but all is well and the weather should improve giving our pals a decent sail. Should. Happy sailing!

Here's a cute picture of Michael and me taken by Jen at her party over the weekend. Adorable, I know :)

Long Weekend

So I got the edits back on my book (I believe they've accepted my latest title A Sail of Two Idiots) and have had to plow through those to meet an early July deadline. That means that I'm brain dead on my down time and don't want to read or write anything. The blog suffers...Sorry about that, but you'll just have to bear with me.

We ran the 1st ever Health & Fitness 5K in Frigate Bay on Saturday morning. The three people who organized it, Carla, Leigh-Ann, and Marcia did a great job and even completed the race themselves. There was quite a good crowd considering the early hours and, as usual, was rather diverse. I don't have a lot of pics, as I was running and trying to not pass out from the heat (at 7:30am!), but here is the competitive bunch.



John, on the left there, actually ran with a 2" splinter in his foot, then went to the hospital to have it removed, and then came back for some grub.

You can see Michael & Kat in the front there (although there were 3 guys in the lead).



I was pretty much in the middle of the group. Here comes the finish line! YAAAAAY!!! Of course, this required a picture before leaping gratefully over the line.



So the winner, who had legs so long I will always think of him as Daddy Long Legs now, finished the 3 miles in 19 minutes. Michael & Kat weren't too far behind finishing in about 22 minutes. I was 8 minutes behind them. That's a respectable 10-minute-mile but considering how much I run was a bit disappointed. I'm used to running early to beat the sun and get my butt kicked by the rays every time. I wasn't alone though - one student who runs a lot and was near the lead got overwhelmed by the heat right at the finish line and had to be helped over and then was given medical attention. On the one hand, you want to start these things earlier, but on the other no one wants to get up that early. Food came a bit later (good veggie patties) and I think trophies were handed out, but it took a while to get all that coordinated and we had things to do.

There's a 10K coming up in July, sponsored by Caricom. We're not sure about that one yet.

After that came time to celebrate a birthday at my favorite pool on the island.



Happy Birthday Jen!



Dave, the birthday spouse, cooking away.



Dusk.



The water was incredibly warm. Of course, that was not a complaint.



As the night went on, we got more and more silly of course. That's Ray obsessed with the water features posing as if the stream originates, um, elsewhere.



We had a good time. We also slept in the next day. Once at the beach, we were shocked to discover about 1/4 of it littered with trash brought in with the tide. This was 10-minutes worth of garbage gathering. Yuck! Lots of water bottles and juice sippy bags. Hrmph.



Water-wise, the Atlantic was almost as warm as the pool. A friend of ours who went fishing last week registered a 91 degree reading at one point. Wow! Buoys near the island have us around 84.

Today, Michael has off for Whit Monday, but I still need to get some edits done. Green Valley/Cayon is on their last festival day and will be having a parade around 2pm. We just might check it out (gotta find my earplugs first).

How Many People does it Take to Open a Beer?

Now, I have to admit that things have gotten a little ho hum lately. Michael was working a lot of hours for an event that has come and gone and I've been in contract negotiations for a book I wrote about our sailing adventures. That said, this is also what our lives have come to.



What is happening here? The bucket of beer did not come with a bottle opener and Michael could not figure out how to use one bottle to open another, something everyone else at the table was quite adept at. This led to a bottle opening lesson. Of course, everyone had their own method and had to show Michael the "right" way.



Michael never did get it...I give him credit for not using his teeth.

Then it was time to watch for a green flash.



Wait for it...



Well, it did turn a bit green-ish once it got to a little sliver, but not as good as I've seen it in the past. Amazingly, in all our years sailing we never saw the elusive phenomenon, but about 2 months ago finally saw one that was undisputed - everyone on the beach was moaning that they hadn't had their cameras out. Our pals on Merengue have caught a couple on film, so if you think they're a myth - observe.

I've had fun lately meeting a couple of Canadian blog readers and long-time St. Kitt's visitors over the past two months. This week, I met Jilly and enjoyed talking to her face to face. Of course, she's on vacation and I wanted to go running the next day, so I called it an early night and left Michael and others to complete their night of debauchery at the Shack.

For our day at our usual beach, we saw several guys fishing, which was a first. While they had fishing rods, one guy was more successful just using a can and some fishing wire. He only caught a bunch of small white fish, but that was more than the guys with the big poles (so to speak).



The water was a bit colder than last week, but really green, and amazingly clear (as always). I doubt the picture does it justice.



We then ran into friends we hadn't seen in about a month (having our latest hash canceled threw off everyone's social life) and talked and talked until it was time to pack it up. Michael & I are both burnt to a crisp (front & back). The only publicly seen place on my body not red is where my sunglasses were. A-tract-ive...Jeez. I think it's pretty clear that our new suntan lotion does NOT work. OUCH!

So that's it. We are looking to get off island for a couple of short trips this summer, but need to find some new things to do to stave off boredom. Our pal Tina has suggested a Tuesday outing each week, so we'll see what we can come up with. This week, the contract negotiation is back in my court, so I have to focus on that, but hopefully next Tuesday we'll do something I can write about.