3/2: I forgot to mention that Ziggy was pretty stressed by Monday's haul out events. When we entered the slip way to position the Travlift slings under the boat I put Ziggy in his crate and left the boat to find a shady spot to wait. We hauled at 0930 and weren't settled on jack stands until after Noon. It was particularly bad when we got him back on the boat and he was panting hard. The interior boat temp is actually higher when we're out of the natural air-conditioning of the cold water. There wasn't any breeze so we put a fan on him and he finally settled down to sleep. Of course he watches us going up and down the ladder and walking around on the ground and he's dying to figure out a way to get down there too. This morning he even watched a black cat leaping from boat to boat in the boat storage shed obviously hunting sparrows. Last night we had burgers at the Harbor House restaurant here and fed a stray cat that hung out until we were finished eating. This morning he's running around looking over the edge and scaring me to death by insisting on walking on top of the cap rail.
3/3: John is working hard and I'm trying to pitch in where I can. Yesterday he put primer on the bare spots (where the bottom paint had completely worn through) and today he'll put the first coat of bottom paint on those parts, on the old blue boot stripe, and on the bare gel coat where he's raising the waterline. Glenda's b'day lunch is this Friday, so we get a break for that!
3/4: Ralph and Glenda stopped by on their way to Costco late this afternoon so we dropped what (little) we were doing and went with them. I can now cross green beans, Trident, diced tomatoes, and refried beans off my provisioning list!
3/7: I picked up the third season of "Lost" from the library yesterday. Our three month visitor cards had expired but they let me renew mine (for another $10 - the best deal in the islands!).
Ziggy hasn't figured out how to climb down the wood ladder yet, but he's fascinated by the feral cat population here in the yard. The weird thing is that he seems to be calling to them (or having a one-sided conversation of some kind). Can't figure out if he's just trying to be sociable or what, but they don't appear to be interested (and no repeat of the big black one coming aboard). I think he mostly misses his dock walks now that he's confined to the boat again.
Several of the boat yard laborers are from places like Guadalajara and Guanajuato so we're brushing up on our Spanish again (of course, now all that pops into my head is French!).
The surprise b'day party for Glenda was a huge success. Three more friends joined us at Tante's (near the Kona Seaside hotel and the Fish Hopper at the pier end of Alii Dr). It's a modest Filipino-owned place with a great view, and is moderately priced for the location. I had the fish and chips for $8 and thought it was quite good and plenty of it. The stunner was when the bill came and not only had they served us all a free dessert (called haupia, like a coconut pudding drizzled with lilikoi sauce and toasted mac nuts) but they also didn't charge for the b'day girl's entree! The free dessert threw all of us because Ralph had said we were going back to their house for cake and ice cream. We thought he'd changed his mind but he was just as surprised as we were. So we all had coffee, cheese cake and/or vanilla ice cream back at the house before they drove us back to our home in the air.
We may spend a little more time here in Kona before heading to Hilo and then back to French Polynesia. John thinks he needs to get a diesel mechanic out to the boat - something about fuel injectors. Plus the trades have settled into a regular pattern and it will be some time before we get a break to get around to Hilo (let alone to set off for FP). We are so looking forward to getting out of here. Both of us are getting fat and soft. I never thought I'd be looking forward to an ocean passage but this time I really am. Life is just a little too complicated here!
Linda