Lots has happened: the electrician fixed the windlass, the refrigerator guy fixed the refrigerator, the rigging guy fixed the spreader and a couple of other things. We went to town and got groceries and various supplies. There was a coffee crisis. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I generally travel with Peets coffee, filters and a single cup plastic cone. Well, this time we had so much junk, I just brought the Peets. And we can't find any kind of coffee cone anywhere. We did find some #2 filters and our galley has a plastic funnel, so we are making do.
    The dinghy is inflated, the engine has been lowered down, after much consideration about how not to drop it in the water. Then there was the discussion about whether the gas was still usable. Smell it, they say. How do I know what bad gas smells like? More than half of the blade of both oars was broken off, and we found the store that could sell us spare parts(>$18 a piece for a not impressive piece of plastic.)
    While clearing out the port aft cabin so we can replace the diesel filler hose that has chafed itself to a slightly leaky state, I noticed that the mattress cushions were wet. This caused a long investigation and unscrewing of many things, and Lance pouring water in suspicious spots, while I watched, err, rather caught it in the face, below. So now the To Do list keeps expanding beyond all the things the surveyor found. We took a short ride around in the dinghy, and except for

missing rope handle, which Lance will construct, it looks fine.
    We continue to meet lots of interesting people. Yesterday, we went aboard a lovely 46 ft Hunter Legend. The owners do crewed charters on it. We admired all their improvements, and he lent us the two bottles that you use to clean up the cloudy compass. Note to boat partners: we have some of this on Mostly Harmless. One white bottle of plastic cleaner, then a gray bottle of plastic polish. It cleans up the cloudy compass plastic so it is all clear again. Who knew?
    If you ask for advice or help, you generally get lots of it. People tell you what products to buy and where to go to find them. They come look around and tell you how to fix things, and what to replace it with. The refrigerator guy was a sweet guy from Guyana, who patiently showed me all the parts of the refrigeration system, and the flow of refrigerant, which side should feel hot, which side should feel cold. Then we exchanged recipes, except I didn't know what dasheen, tania and edo are. They all look like root vegetables. And the things they call yams are not sweet potatoes, they look more like dasheen, tania and edo.
    We have found that our boat comes with some masks and flippers ( none really big enough for lance, though he can squeeze into some). It also has a couple of lures and a fishing line. It has a raggedy, rusty and minimal assortment of tools -- we have found a couple of screwdrivers, a crescent

wrench, needle nose pliers, really crummy small pliers, and a hammer and hacksaw. Kitchen has the charter supplies: 3 nesting plastic mixing bowls, a plastic cheese grater that is not long for this world or this boat, can opener, corkscrew, serving utensils, plastic cups, 5 wine glasses, and a set of corelle that implies that the stuff really is nearly unbreakable. There's some pots and pans, and two percolators, one stainless stell, but missing the little glass piece on top, the other is clearly the crumby aluminum replacement.
    Most nights it rains, at least occasionally. You have the hatch cover open above you, and then reach up and close it when you get wet, then open it again when the rain stops. There is a guy here who says he has patented a device so you can leave your hatches open and get air, while all the rainwater is sent down to the bilge. We hope to go see that. The rains cool things off just a touch, and are usually brief.
    We have a couple of anchorages picked out where we hope to spend Christmas, if we get clearance to go sailing. It's been a whole week here, and we'd really like to go sailing. Meanwhile, the to do list grows faster than we can check off items. The anchor light atop the mast is missing it's bulb. Putting in a bulb may or may not fix it, but also involves one of us going up the mast. Who do you think it will be?