Rather than push right on to Isla Isabela we decided to take an extra day at Deer Island. This gives us a chance to get our sea legs and get back into cruising mode, especially Ziggy who appears to be wondering when we'll be returning to the dock. Also, the wind forecast is more favorable for the possibility of sailing if we leave Tuesday.
Yesterday the morning clouds remaining from the front that passed through Sunday night eventually cleared away and it was a warm sunny day. At 82 degrees the water temperature is perfect for swimming and scrubbing the hull. It's a few degrees cooler than when we were here the last couple of times, but still very pleasant. We didn't bother going anywhere in the "new" dinghy, instead we enjoyed a quiet day studying French, reading, and doing boat chores. After a sunset swim, John played his ukulele, then he made dinner, and we watched some TV before sleeping through an uneventful night.
I guess I should say a word about our replacement "car." Kim and Linda of S/V Endeavor were kind enough to pass on an old Achilles air-floor dinghy that had been stored away as a spare since 2009. They got a lot of use out of it before then, and John patched over a dozen holes in the tubes, air-floor, and dinghy floor (the air-floor comes out of the dinghy as a separate unit) before it would hold air and not leak water up through the dinghy floor. He also managed to fashion a pair of oars out of a spare set of plastic blades we had on board, some PVC pipe and a piece of aluminum tubing. We then tried Endeavor's old 15HP 4-stroke Envinrude but our outboard hoist was too short to get it up to Nakia's stern rail, besides being too much for the dinghy to handle. They were practically giving it to us at a very low price, so we felt terrible for returning it. John mentioned it to a local sport fishing captain who ended up buying it from Endeavor at a fairer price (for Kim and Linda), and everyone was happy in the end.
Bob, on a neighboring Hans Christian, had an old 2HP 2-stroke Evinrude for sale. After a day's worth of labor John got it running to his satisfaction, and bought it. That brings us full circle to 21 years ago when we had an old heavy Sabot for a dinghy and a similar motor for an outboard. We won't be going anywhere fast until we find something newer and stronger to replace these, but at least we'll be mobile again!
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