Our first night on Milu since last April and it was a hot one. We are perpendicular to the breeze so we don’t get much down below. We tried sleeping on deck but it is so dewy that you end up soaked. Also, there are mosquitoes about so you are a little bit exposed. After a while, I went down to the salon couch which wasn’t too bad.

Every day is a big day with a zillion things to do. First thing for me is coffee – we’re out but I don’t get one till after 8 am when the restaurant has it brewed. It’s pretty average coffee.

We are trying to stay out of the way of the workers who are putting in new solar, a new 220V Victron inverter and all the gear that goes with it. The salon is torn up as is the spare bedroom since they need access there to run cables from the panels on the back to the electrical box. I discover our water pump isn’t working but I assume it is because Fabien has disconnected power to it. (We fill up both our water tanks with Clarke’s water – I am happy to drink it, no ill effects – yet.)

I borrow a trolley and make the hot, dusty walk to North Sails to pick up our genoa they repaired. Takes us half an hour to find it but we do, and I drag it back to Clarkes where I also pick up our engine spare parts from James and take both onto the dock. We’ll wait to put the genoa up as the wind has already come up.

I walk up to see if Axel is about and he gives me a bit of spare fiberglass and instructions on how to repair our dinghy bottom. It has a bit of a crack in it but somehow doesn’t leak water into the bottom. Or so we were told. Still, would like to repair it.

Today we are picking up our “new” dinghy. We are also hoping to get Kelly across the bay to finally measure our davits for a sun screen he promised to build. Similarly, we pick up the dodger they repaired.

We dinghy over to the other side of Woburn where we realize we forgot to bring our gas for the dinghy motor – kinda need that. I drop Christy off to pay the guy for the repairs and then dinghy back to Clarke’s.

Halfway across, sputter, sputter the dinghy engine dies. Out of gas. You’re a genius Perry. Nothing for it but to row to Clarke’s. I walk up to the restaurant and there’s Mike and James (I learn his name then). I ask Mike if he has any 2-stroke gas I can buy off him. Nope. James does though and he loans me a litre or two. What a saviour. I get our gas can and joke with him that he saved my life – Christy is on the other side of the bay, has no idea what has happened to me, and is likely to kill me when she finds out. He laughs.

Sure enough, when I finally get back there she asks what happened. It’s kind of funny, but could have been a lot worse.

The mechanic and one of his big henchmen help us put the dinghy in the water and load the motor on top. Not too bad a job for me even since it’s only a 9.9 hp. I could shift our 20 hp Honda but that’s about it – no way I could lift it onto a dinghy transom alone.

We start our new dinghy and after a few pulls she starts as advertised. I drive Bob’s dinghy and Christy takes the new one over to Bob’s where we tie off his dinghy and I take his gas can so we can fill it up. Gonna leave him with a full tank. Dwayne calls later and we are going to haul his dinghy out tomorrow morning early. That should give me lots of time to get gas.

We dinghy over to La Phare Bleu where I just found out they sell gas. It’s a nice ride, we’ve done it quite a few times.

Holy mackinaw Joe, the deli is open – first time we’ve been here where we can go in. Christy goes shopping while I try to arrange gas.

I didn’t bring any two-stroke mix and they don’t sell it here. Sigh, besides the gas guy is 45 minutes away which in Grenada-speak is at least an hour.

I chat with an American couple sitting in the shade outside of the deli and learn quite a bit about Martinique and other places. I share my knowledge of Clarke’s and tell them how great it is as they are hauling out here in a few days. When I tell them we plan on anchoring/mooring for 2 months over December/January, the woman says “I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t want to trust my anchor and certainly not someone’s mooring for that long when I’m not around.” She’s got a good point. Christy and I talk about it and decide to investigate pier-based tie-ups.

While all this boat stuff is going on, I have near-continuous calls with St. Elizabeth and Fidelity. Big cutover for Fidelity this weekend and SEHC is having big problems with their fax servers. I have a couple calls with the product techs and tonight at 4 pm I will escalate the situation to Code Red.

Also tonight, we have a call with Platform Condos. They sent us a nice email last week saying you owe us $27,000 for the flood repairs. Ha! We told them, not likely. The property manager had the brass to say “If you don’t pay by December 1st, we’ll put a lien on your property.” When the condo flood happened last January and the idiot property manager was an idiot property manager, Christy and Audrey were saying “be nice, be nice, you catch more flies with honey”. I tell Christy that I have no intention of being nice now and she says “Go get ’em”.

The call starts with the condo corp’s insurance agent and the VP of the property management company stating “these are the rules, so you have to pay, any questions?” Woo hoo, there are questions. By the end of the call, it’s clear their position is not “these are the rules, so you have to pay”, it’s “we are in trouble here.”