Busy week in paradise

Equinox in her slip at South Side Marina

I have to admit the days are blurring together. What day is it, anyway?? You would think the day clock that we have in the salon would help, but I haven't even checked that lately either! Hmmm...so where did last few days of the week go and what did we do?? Wednesday and Thursday we did a few needed boat chores and odd jobs in preparation for our friends Paul and Muriel and their girls to arrive on the weekend. While we were waiting on Customs to arrive with our long-term cruising permit, I touched up the registration letters on Eclipse, did some much-needed cleaning aboard. I am amazed at the amount of sea dust that comes in on the breezes...but the breezes are lovely and worth the vacuuming and dusting, in my book! A small price for paradise, eh?  I also indulged in a few loads of laundry and galley cleaning to fill my time. Nothing too arduous, but necessary.

Ron stayed busy troubleshooting to find out why the satellite phone suddenly stopped working a day or so ago. We ascertained it was a power issue, and after some Skype phone support help from the installers, we traced the power supply lines under the helm station, and checked the voltage at all the electrical connections. Success! Ron tightened a loose connection and power was restored, so the sat phone is once again available for use when we are offshore. It's always something with a boat, so we are awaiting to discover the next pressing project!

I also spent some time in the kitchen, trying to find creative uses for the last of the ground beef and ground turkey we have in the refrigerator. With the demise of the flybridge freezer, we had to choose what to keep frozen and what to defrost, since freezer space was obviously more limited with just the one freezer in the gallery. So, we rearranged items, and took over one of the icemakers for use as a small freezer, and put a lot of ground beef and ground turkey in the refrigerator for use as it thawed. Items were all vacuum-sealed, so that helped, and my new favorite website became one titled "25 Ground Turkey Recipes to Tempt You"! Thankfully...after turkey chili, turkey meatloaf, spaghetti with ground turkey meat sauce, we are down to the last few pounds. Ready for turkey shepherd's pie and gourmet turkey and wild rice burgers for Friday's dinner!

Even though we spent a lot of time on chores, we also found time to relax and have fun. We bicycled about the island for a bit, including a stop at the IGA grocery store for a few needed items. Later, after returning to the boat, we joined all the other cruisers currently at the marina for the customary get-together for 5 o'clock sundowners under the marina cabana! It's always fun to chat and talk with everyone over the obligatory glass of wine or two...hear their boat histories, cruising stories, and just learn more about one another. We had to laugh when discussing the necessity of the second drink, for as one fellow sailor said, "Certainly no more, but for darn sure no less!"  :)