My Science Experiment...

Today I proved to myself once again what a bonehead I can be. Most of the work is done on the boat (at least the stuff that has to be done out of the water, I still have a full page list of random projects to complete) and today is Saturday and the boatyard is shut down until Monday. I'm scheduled to splash back into the water on Monday afternoon. Originally we were shooting for Friday afternoon but we need to finish one last repair on a transducer. Anyway, I figured since no one is in the yard, it would be a good day to go stock up on groceries. Before I left for California I had pretty much used up all the items that require refrigeration. The few things that were left I gave to one of the guys who works here in the yard. I figured it was safe to shut the freezer off and fly away for my trip. I suppose it should have occured to me that there is a drain that is open through the bottom of the boat and maybe, just maybe I should have left the lid up in the locked position so it could get adequate ventilation. When I opened the lid to take stock of what little I had left in there I discovered that I am quite the bug farmer. Apparently, even though certain items don't require refrigeration and are sealed, if left in a hot, humid environment with little air movement, they will magically produce hundreds of tiny little insects that cling to every F-ing thing possible. So a solid two hours of my afternoon was spent hanging upside down in the freezer, washing, bleaching and completely sanitizing the entire thing. It's funny that as I was sweating to death wiping out my infestation I recalled leaving an entire tuna in an ice chest for over a week in the summer heat of Fresno or the countless times coming home from the lake hammered off our asses and leaving ice chests full of beer, liquor and half eaten sandwiches on the back patio for days on end. I don't know how many ice chests have been thrown away just because it was easier to buy a new one than to face the horrors of what had developed inside. I suppose one of these days I'll learn my lesson. Maybe.

Tomorrow night a girl named Jaymie is flying in and she will be on the boat for a month. We originally met in a roundabout way last year when I was leaving on the Fearless trip. She had applied to crew on that boat and when I set sail with them, she e-mailed to say good luck and that she would follow our progress and we have kept in touch since then. Back when I switched boats and began full time on Rum Boogie, she e-mailed to ask why I changed. I gave her the story and she said that if I ever needed crew that should would be up for it. I said anytime and she jumped on it. She made arrangements and will be trying out the life of a full time liveaboard for a month. The plan for now is to get in the water and spend a few days making sure all systems are go and then when the wind lets up (it's been blowing pretty stiff for 3 days now) and the seas lay down, we will shoot down to Venezuela to top up on diesel for 25 cents a gallon. We probably won't stay there and weather permitting will make a round trip and sail back to Grenada. Well I'm off to bed, it's midnight here and I have had a wild Saturday night eating chili, drinking Gatorade and reading all about Single Side Band Radios (oh wow, hold on to your panties girls, I know this sailor talk is hot stuff). See ya...