I have no idea how long we've been here. A few days? A few weeks? Time is just flying by. We're in one of the most peaceful anchorages I've ever been in and I'm loving it. There's no sound except the gentle swishing of the water off in the distance. You can't even really hear water lapping against the boat because it's so still in this bay. Relaxing here has been amazing.
There aren't really any beaches around though, so we've been makin our own fun. Garth has finally stuck my trapeze up again, which has made me very happy. We used to use the spinnaker pole to rig it with and we think that's what might have damaged our pole. We don't want to wreck it again after waiting weeks for new parts to arrive in Panama. So instead, he took the pole we acquired as the mast for our sailing dinghy and lashed it high up on the mast just above the first set of spreaders. It's perfect. The trapeze now gets tied to that and the bar hangs low enough to reach from the boat and high enough so that our feet don't get wet any more. So I've been having a lot of fun playing over the water.
Lying around with Tori
Tori and Dave
We've been hanging out with Dave and Tori nearly every day, drinking our weight in cocktails and listening to awesome music. Even though we've been doing a lot of boat repairs, it really feels like we're on vacation. They're vegetarian, so we've been getting better at cooking vegetarian meals. Which is a good thing considering we often go for weeks without being able to get more supplies. They're both really amazing cooks and we'll have to steal a lot of their recipes before we go our seperate ways. It's interesting for me to eat so much amazing vegetarian cooking - I'd always thought of vegetarian food as just food without meat. But their meals are so packed with flavour that adding meat would actually make them worse. So we're thoroughly enjoying all the food. Our fridge is nearly empty now, which has forced us to get better at making great meals from virtually nothing. I'm really enjoying our constant supply of yoghurt. After the lovely Liesbet gifted me a little thermos to make yoghurt in when we were in French Polynesia, I've been making it at least once a week. It's a really valuable thing to have on board. You can make sauces, dips and cheese out of nothing but milk powder, water and a few tablespoons of leftover yoghurt. When we really ran out of food I made yoghurt cheese (labneh) and mixed it with dried spinach to make a delicious filling that tasted exactly like ricotta and spinach. Then we even scrounged up some pasta sheets out of flour and water to make a delicious cannelloni. I've also got a permenant supply of labneh balls in the fridge. I form the labneh into balls, roll them in whatever herbs and spices I feel like mixing up and then keep them in oil for when I need a quick dip. In a land where the only salad we can find is cabbage and sprouted lentils, yoghurt also makes an awesome coleslaw dressing. It's fabulous.
Dave up our mast
Tori being her fabulous self
Enough about food and back to our awesome lives. The other day we were all hanging out on Heartbeat when the boys got really excited and ran off together. Tori and I were skeptical but left them to whatever they were doing. Then they refused to tell us what their plan was and alarm bells started ringing. But at this point we couldn't really stop them, so I just kept chatting to Tori and ignored their nonsense. An hour later Garth was up the mast with a rope and some pulleys, and Dave was out in the water setting up our spare anchor on the port side of the boat. More alarm bells. They had attached a line from the top of the mast to the anchor and pulled it tight, which was when we got wind of what was happening and started protesting. In response to our objections, Dave yelled out 'This can't fail!' Garth took that as his cue to jump off the mast and he landed with a splash, narrowly missing our lifelines on the way down. They had made a zipline. And it was not safe.
Straight down...
After a lot of tweaking they managed to fix it so the line didn't go straight down to the water and was on an angle instead. A scary angle, but an angle nonetheless. They also tied a line from the stern of our boat to the bow anchor so the boat wouldn't twist around from the weight when the boys jumped. Now their zipline came straight off the port side and went down into the water. It was safer. But not safe. Tori and I hung out in the water, not at all convinced that this was a good idea. But after they went down one after the other for about half an hour I eventually gave in to Garth's coaxing and had a go. I hate heights. So climbing up the mast and balancing on the first spreader as Garth reached up to the top and brought me down a bit of rope to hold onto did not sound like a good idea. Then I had to untangle myself from the spreaders in order to fall cleanly from the boat. It was terrifying and I hated it. But after jumping off (and screaming at the top of my lungs the entire way down), I was sold. It couldn't fail. It was genius. So we spent the rest of the afternoon playing on the zipline and much fun was had by all.
Garth going down
Tori!
Luckily they haven't tried any more crazy stunts since then. We've just been hanging out and fixing things, enjoying the tranquility and the ability to swim whenever we want. We've got great friends right next door, amazing food, a neverending supply of cocktails, phospherescense in the water and a trapeze over our heads. Life is good.
Xxx Monique
Click here for more pictures!
There aren't really any beaches around though, so we've been makin our own fun. Garth has finally stuck my trapeze up again, which has made me very happy. We used to use the spinnaker pole to rig it with and we think that's what might have damaged our pole. We don't want to wreck it again after waiting weeks for new parts to arrive in Panama. So instead, he took the pole we acquired as the mast for our sailing dinghy and lashed it high up on the mast just above the first set of spreaders. It's perfect. The trapeze now gets tied to that and the bar hangs low enough to reach from the boat and high enough so that our feet don't get wet any more. So I've been having a lot of fun playing over the water.
We've been hanging out with Dave and Tori nearly every day, drinking our weight in cocktails and listening to awesome music. Even though we've been doing a lot of boat repairs, it really feels like we're on vacation. They're vegetarian, so we've been getting better at cooking vegetarian meals. Which is a good thing considering we often go for weeks without being able to get more supplies. They're both really amazing cooks and we'll have to steal a lot of their recipes before we go our seperate ways. It's interesting for me to eat so much amazing vegetarian cooking - I'd always thought of vegetarian food as just food without meat. But their meals are so packed with flavour that adding meat would actually make them worse. So we're thoroughly enjoying all the food. Our fridge is nearly empty now, which has forced us to get better at making great meals from virtually nothing. I'm really enjoying our constant supply of yoghurt. After the lovely Liesbet gifted me a little thermos to make yoghurt in when we were in French Polynesia, I've been making it at least once a week. It's a really valuable thing to have on board. You can make sauces, dips and cheese out of nothing but milk powder, water and a few tablespoons of leftover yoghurt. When we really ran out of food I made yoghurt cheese (labneh) and mixed it with dried spinach to make a delicious filling that tasted exactly like ricotta and spinach. Then we even scrounged up some pasta sheets out of flour and water to make a delicious cannelloni. I've also got a permenant supply of labneh balls in the fridge. I form the labneh into balls, roll them in whatever herbs and spices I feel like mixing up and then keep them in oil for when I need a quick dip. In a land where the only salad we can find is cabbage and sprouted lentils, yoghurt also makes an awesome coleslaw dressing. It's fabulous.
Enough about food and back to our awesome lives. The other day we were all hanging out on Heartbeat when the boys got really excited and ran off together. Tori and I were skeptical but left them to whatever they were doing. Then they refused to tell us what their plan was and alarm bells started ringing. But at this point we couldn't really stop them, so I just kept chatting to Tori and ignored their nonsense. An hour later Garth was up the mast with a rope and some pulleys, and Dave was out in the water setting up our spare anchor on the port side of the boat. More alarm bells. They had attached a line from the top of the mast to the anchor and pulled it tight, which was when we got wind of what was happening and started protesting. In response to our objections, Dave yelled out 'This can't fail!' Garth took that as his cue to jump off the mast and he landed with a splash, narrowly missing our lifelines on the way down. They had made a zipline. And it was not safe.
After a lot of tweaking they managed to fix it so the line didn't go straight down to the water and was on an angle instead. A scary angle, but an angle nonetheless. They also tied a line from the stern of our boat to the bow anchor so the boat wouldn't twist around from the weight when the boys jumped. Now their zipline came straight off the port side and went down into the water. It was safer. But not safe. Tori and I hung out in the water, not at all convinced that this was a good idea. But after they went down one after the other for about half an hour I eventually gave in to Garth's coaxing and had a go. I hate heights. So climbing up the mast and balancing on the first spreader as Garth reached up to the top and brought me down a bit of rope to hold onto did not sound like a good idea. Then I had to untangle myself from the spreaders in order to fall cleanly from the boat. It was terrifying and I hated it. But after jumping off (and screaming at the top of my lungs the entire way down), I was sold. It couldn't fail. It was genius. So we spent the rest of the afternoon playing on the zipline and much fun was had by all.
Luckily they haven't tried any more crazy stunts since then. We've just been hanging out and fixing things, enjoying the tranquility and the ability to swim whenever we want. We've got great friends right next door, amazing food, a neverending supply of cocktails, phospherescense in the water and a trapeze over our heads. Life is good.
Xxx Monique
Click here for more pictures!
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