Ok, Campbell, some of the steps need replacing, let's count 'em. Sixteen, 48" 2"x10" nispero. I called a neighbor that had a bunch stacked for the construction of a house he will probably never build. A quick phone call. Sure, I could by some off of him.
We hopped on my boat and a few minutes later arrived and looked at the pile that had been sitting, soaking on wet earth for five years. Moldy, green and black mold covered all surfaces. We picked up a 15 foot board, which weighed 140 pounds apiece to find termites crawling under it. We took some scraps of aluminum plate and scraped the wood. Yup, it looks good. Nispero is amazing stuff. Untreated in rainforest, uncovered and no rot.
We picked them up, moved them over near the generator as the extension cord had been borrowed and not returned, a common situation in Bocas and using an old left handed circular saw, I didn't even know such a thing existed until I was handed it, at cut them to length. The saw was old, the blade dull and glazed with resin. The saw had a workout. Board after board and hauled them to the boat.
Steps were pried out, wood scraped, wood treated with insecticide and a mixture of diesel and used motor oil on the underside and the posts. This is an extremely effective means of treating wood. I didn't have a circular saw an I sure wasn't going to try to use that one to do the finish cuts. A text message later, yup, I have one you can use. A drill, a text to somebody else. He had one.
The floors were sanded to the finish state and I headed out to town to get a couple of gallons of varnish that I will mix with penetrating oil to make a Danish Oil. The lady behind the counter asked where I've been. "Did you go out of town? You haven't been here in a couple of weeks." A South African from the top end resort in Bocas, where rooms are over $500 a night, "Hey, Jim, come and visit." Yeah, I'll have to go back, I get rooms for free. A very cute blonde walked in and gave me a hug. "Hi, sweetie." And so it went for 10 minutes, I knew everybody who walked into the place.
Got any sponge mops and refills? Shakey proudly showed me all the refills. Wow! I should stock. Do you have the mops that match. He told me to look for myself. Past the authorized personel only gate, Jessie and I went. "My head is spinning, is there someone in this town you don't know?" "Yeah, lots, but everybody knows me." Two cans of marine varnish, a paint brush, some turpentine filled into a water bottle. "Could you put a tape label on that?" A piece of masking tape was stuck on the bottle and the spanish word for turpentine was put on it. It came to $97.34. "I left my wallet at home." "Ok, just put your name on the top of the bill".
Jessie ran off to buy some rum, wine and fruit and we took off for home. I decided to take the long way. This young man took notice that we were on the wrong side of my island. On my side, Bastimentos is but a mile away. On the other side there are hundreds of mangroves. They don't remotely resemble each other.
We were 100 feet from a large steel Chinese Junk, made by a guy I know with three other people over the course of fourteen months. The main mast which, a large spruce tree was floating in the water, tethered to the boat. The rudder had snapped off. We had a hell of a blow last Sunday, We boarded the boat. A grizzled old man looked through the window at me. "Permission to come aboard." He put on some clothes and we entered the dismal cabin. Clive offered beer, Jessie accepted. The plan was to pull off at high tide on the new moon. "That's tomorrow right?" Yeah, 8 o'clock. "Need help?" "We can always use help." We'll be here and bring you some breakfast burritos.
Kirk is going to Thailand, I have to visit him. We pulled into the mangroves, walked down a long dock. I knocked on the door of a tool shed. A grizzled 77 year old man, missing half his dentition looked through a crack in the door, swung it open and crushed my hand in a popeye grip. "Jim! Where are the pretty girls?" Sorry, not today, I was at the Junk, thought I'd swing by, you look beat, did we just wake you up?" I was just watching Bonanza come on. We entered his living room a 10' x 8' room adorned by calendar girls, a band saw, scuba tanks, a two stage air compressor for filling scuba tanks, cans of paints, a drill press a bench that served as a table and a chair. Jessie looked like he'd just entered Oz. "Kirk, built Odin, that 60' foot trimaran, himself."
"I just got back from a cruise with Chris." "To see the 80' trawler? How's it looking." "Yeah, it's in rough shape, at least 3 injectors are stuck, we are sending them all off to David." I told him we were going to try to get the junk off the sandbar tomorrow morning. He said he would be there.
The boys swept and scrubbed the floors and removed most of the remaining dust that covered every surface of the bathroom.
Back home, we decided to go to the pizza fest being held on Red Frog that we were invited to yesterday. A mile boat ride, a walk through half a mile of jungle and a couple of hundred meters on the beach to be told that they couldn't accommodate us. The place was full. There had not been a boat at the dock. The operators were sold out due to accommodating the outgoing crew, the incoming crew, the operators relatives and a few guests. I don't know why they invited me if they couldn't accommodate me.
Sam cooked up a rice, brocolli and onion dish, made some a curry and stir fried some chicken breast while I wrote this blog entry and made a few phone calls.
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