NEW Residence

Well, as they say in the cruising circles – we swallowed the anchor and are now dirt dwellers. Here's our new digs. Its complete with one dog, one cat and four chickens. It's located on an island in Tierra Oscura and has three bedrooms, two baths and a stove with SIX burners (mine on the boat has two!) Michael is re-learning how to use a remote.

Okay, okay – we're not permanent residents – simply pitched in to house (and animal) sit for four days at Cyndie's house. Juanita was house sitting and because she had to leave the country for three days to renew her immigration with a quick trip to Costa Rica, and her backup didn't show, we got recruited.
Its weird being in a house again – and it comes with lots of responsibilities. The animals make you feel like you're on an episode of “Green Acres.” We were left with three chickens and now we have four (one that was thought to be lost has reappeared – better than losing animals on your watch!) But they haven't pitched in on the egg front yet.

The house is a lovely home where we've had the pleasure of dining and swimming in the past. Cyndie is in Europe and has been hospitilized there and so we thought we should do our share to help out. Cyndie is one of the area's most gracious hostesses. So with house sitting also comes all the social mandates. Wednesday, you host the ladies for mah johg. Thursday is the grill night for twelve! Luckily, Captain Ron brings the meat and does the grilling and everyone brings a dish to contribute to the dinner. But it means cleaning and prepping the house and cleaning up afterwards. Whew.

Then we'll take off on Friday morning (after feeding all the critters) and head back to Bocas town for a big nautical flea market where we will try to foist some of our old stuff off on others. Trying to lighten the load.

So it's been a busy few weeks here and this house sitting has added to the “fun.” Michael has been ordering supplies (new chain is ordered Tom, and thanks to Richard *(Barbara's brother) we have the material for a new shaft ordered). When we have a firm shipping date for those things, we'll make our way to Colon for a haul out and the shaft replacement.

Meanwhile, we'll be having our drinks on the deck – only this one doesn't rock.