Hot sunny.

I’m up and I leave the door open as Bob is going to show me and Dwayne how to haul out his dinghy. He sees me, says “Are you up Perry?” . “I’m up”.

The three of us go down to his boat shed and he gives us the skinny. Bob says he trapped a manicou up by Mina’s fig trees so afterwards, Dwayne retrieves it. It’s dead, died of heat in the trap I suppose. I thought a manicou was a racoon-like creature but it is actually an opossum – perhaps one of the ugliest creatures there is.

Christy and I eventually make our way back to Clarke’s where we have another day of painting to do. We pick up a few more paint and sanding supplies as (hopefully) we’ll get Clarke’s to move our boat stands so we can finish the spots where the stands cover the hulls.

Back at the boat, I pump up the dinghy and – holey moley – it seems to hold air! I leave it for a few minutes while we prepare to paint the first coat of anti-fouling paint. Within a few minutes, it is clear the dinghy is NOT holding air, though it is leaking slowly. “Maybe it’s just the valve” I say since I left the hand pump hooked up to the valve. Christy pumps it up again and removes the pump from the valve and it looks really good. 10 minutes later it is sagged again. We check out the patch – right beside it is ANOTHER tear that wasn’t there before and my original patch is not even sticking, I could peal it off like tape on plastic. Christy wants to try one more patch though I am sure it won’t stick. Still, I try to prepare the area and as I do the dinghy cover rips open maybe 10 inches long. Clearly the dinghy material is finished as it was the air pressure that made the second rip, and I wasn’t even putting too much stress on the cover.

A yachtie comes by and looks at the rip and we all agree our decision is made for us. That dinghy is toast. Perhaps some relief in that. OK, we’re going to try and sell our motor which is solid but just too big and heavy for us and then somehow find a replacement dinghy. We’ll work on that project over the next couple of days.

OK, time to start the anti-fouling paint job. We bring the cans of paint down – it’s pretty toxic stuff so need gloves, head covers, goggles. We have to stir the paint by hand since we don’t have any tools for that job. How hard could it be? Turns out the paint is about 15% liquid and 85% mud. It’s nasty and takes at least 20 minutes to get it to a point of general liquidity we can live with. My arm is about worn off already.

Off we go. The two of us can do a whole coat of paint in under two hours but with all the gear we have on it’s not exactly fun. Takes just under 2 gallons of this goop to do one coat. Have to stop for a break to stir up the second gallon. The break is good too cuz we’re both a bit nauseous and light-headed from the fumes of this awful paint. Thankfully Axel (that’s not is real name but as close as we can get to the pronunciation) – French guy who is in the yard just past us somewhere comes by and loans us his battery-powered drill. We attach a bbq skewer and it helps stirring immensely. Glad I loaned Axel an obscure dinghy repair tool that helped him as he now returns the favour.

The second half of the boat goes quickly and we are both immensely glad to get out of the Michelin Man suits.

We get cleaned up a bit and decide to head to Hog Island to experience some “livin’ the dream” moments.

There was a dinghy poker run from La Phare Bleu today and there’s perhaps 20 drunk yachties at Hog Island who’ve been drinking rum all day. This is their second-last stop as they head back to the beginning to see who won. We’re planning dinner there but we don’t expect to see any of them still vertical by the time we arrive. Some of them will be lucky to make it there.

It’s great to relax and have a couple of cold beers and sit in the water (well Christy does). The locals give us some home-made chicken soup which is awesome, I give them EC$10 and they’re very happy.

Back at Bob’s it’s only about 3:30 pm so we laze by the dock for a bit before heading up and getting ready for dinner.

We get cleaned up and decide to walk to La Phare Bleu. Is it easier to walk up the hill and over there, then come back up the hill again or go down the steps to the dinghy, drive around and come back in the dark? Dunno, but we elect to walk, taking bug spray with us as apparently Dengue Fever is a problem down there.

At the top of the driveway, I reach through the fence to type in the gate code. I can’t see the numbers on the keypad but guess where the 3 and 6 are but the gate won’t open. No choice so I hope the fence and sure enough I had it right but I guess the code doesn’t work from the inside. Oh well.

We have a nice dinner and the walk is nice despite the serious hill up and down and then up and down again. Christy has wings, I have roti, the wings the better choice due to being half the price of the roti. C$30 for a chicken roti? Seems a bit, um, excessive.

No sign of the rummed-out poker run crowd.