April 29, 2003

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Hello!

Well, you know how you get used to just about anything given enough time? Well, I'm still not used to fighting roaches. : ) I do see differences, though. I started out with some rubber gloves, but after bleachy water running down into them, burning my hands, I've given up on them. I've also been wearing my sandals the whole time, even though when a roach runs across your foot it thinks it found a good place to hide amongst the straps. As of today I'm not wearing the sandals, either.

The forward cabin is emptied of everything, cushions included, the salon is emptied of everything, cushions still in there, the head is mostly emptied, the galley is emptied, scrubbed, rinsed and mostly done. The quarterberth, at the rear of the boat still remains roach territory. You choose your battles around here.

Fantastic news is that the cushions have been cleaning up wonderfully. I was really considering tossing them, imagining that I'd never want to lay on them again, nor would anyone else. There was a lady walking by (I've become the topic of conversation around the marina as of late) who asked how it was going this morning. I told her about the cushions and she said bleachy water would do the trick. I was a little skeptical, since I didn't tell her that all the covers were removed before I left (bad idea) and that the roach crap was all over them, staining the foam, not to mention all the pock marks that they chewed in them to lay their eggs.

Sure enough, I pulled a few out this morning and grape squishing style stomped all over them, a bucket of bleach, soap and water apiece. Would you believe they almost look new? No signs of roach stains at all, although there are still miscellaneous stains that were there before anyway. There's nobody occupying the two boats directly across from me, so I'm using the pier between them as the cushion drying station. They're so heavy they can't blow away yet, although when they get a little drier I'll have to tie them down.

The winds here have been around twenty knots steady, gusts to I'd say about thirty. Apparently there's storms in South America, giving rain, although here just sixty miles north or so it has been completely dry. Makes for good boat cleaning weather. If only it were cooler! Down inside the boat I've been working with the ports closed so as to maximize the chemical effect, although the downside is that the temperature guage reads 100 most of the day. I'm drinking a lot, though. 

Speaking of drinking, I was a bit appalled at the amount of alcohol on the boat! I remembered stashing some (several, ok, many) bottles of agricole rum from Martinique in the forward cabin, the cupboard under the stove was the liquor cabinet, then while cleaning I remembered that there was a 'hidden' cubby that can only be accessed when you remove the stove. Bingo! Another eight bottles or so. Then I just was positive that all the Venezuelan rum wasn't finished off before returning and behold, there were three bottles of Aniversario (hoo-hoo!) hiding away in the pit. All the booze is up on the deck, and my best guess is that there's about 30 bottles or so. All the books are up there now, too, and they number about 175, all of them sitting spine down so the sun will hopefully bleach out the edges of the paper. It pains me to throw them away, so I'll let them bake for a while and decide what to do at the end. I didn't ever see any eggs on the books, and they all got sprayed, so perhaps they are roach free. The smell and dirt may be another matter...They all got a bleach spray/disinfectant spray so they at least aren't 'dirty' just stained.

The pit (a storage area in the galley accessible through a hatch on the countertop) was a mess. Everything in there was a total loss. There was a plastic bin that had a closing top on it that did quite well in keeping moisture out, but it was no match for the beasties. Then, they chewed through the aseptic packs of milk, which flooded the bin, thereby rusting away the bottoms of all the cans, releasing their contents as well. Roach inhabitants of this morass: app. 75. Survivors: 0. So far I'd have to say the score is about Tom 450, Roaches 0.

As far as the overall cleanup is going, I think I'm just closing in on half way. I'm still not sleeping inside, but as of tonight I'll at least be sleeping on a cushion. In the cockpit. Surrounded by the mosquito net, of course. She'll be the cleanest boat in the marina by the time I'm done, that's for sure.

An interesting thing has happened to me while I've been here: I've realized that you can do with even less than I thought before. : ) Leaving a 'normal' life in the States when I left in 2000 was the most dramatic lesson so far, but this is an interesting addendum to that realization. As I'm going through literally everything on the boat, which was home for about two years before, I am amazed at the stuff that accumulated, even on a 34 foot boat! Oh well, that's ruined, trash it. Buy another one? Nah. I've been living in the eight foot cockpit, my groceries on the dock in a bag, using two sets of clothes the entire time. At the end of the day, I go and wash myself, along with the clothes and set them out to dry.

So much of the foodstuffs I've tossed have been there far too long. Leaving the States, you're not sure what you'll find and when you'll find it, so you stock up, as I would if I were starting right now, even knowing what I know. What amazes me is how much of the original stock is/was still here! I'm in a way, very glad to know that, since that meant that over 4500 miles of sailing, I got to eat more or less what the locals ate. That having been said, I'm still planning on a quick run to Venezuela to stock up on some goodied before I head north.

The latest thought is that I can head to the Dominican Republic and right away find an upholstery shop that can make new covers for the cushions. While they're busy on that for a few days, I'll get to explore a bit before I move on. Circe will be just sparkling with new cushions!

Before I leave Bonaire I'll post some pictures and such, but right now I'm still in the thick of it and don't have much time to spare. Believe it or not, but I haven't even been in the water yet. Not even for a snorkel. Shame on me, I know. That's how busy I've been though...

OK. I'm off.

-Tom

 

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