Thursday, March 3, 2016

2016 Winter and Spring


Wereda on the hard at TOBY
                                                                           
Entrance to TOBY. To the left - the Wall of Fame

Arrived in St. Martin on January 14, as planned.
Click HERE for very short video of the MIA to
SXM leg of the flight.



Found Wereda well "preserved" and in good
shape, just as we left her here last June. The
crew at TOBY welcomed me back cordially
as did the "residents" I've met here last and
previous years. I was shown a brand new and
excellent shower facility that was recently
installed



After hooking up electricity, the first order of
business was to reinstall and reconnect solar
panels to full power. I left only one panel
"trickle charging" the entire battery bank to
keep them healthy. After that was done I could
New faucets installed in the galley
go ahead and get the fridge going.



The list of tasks to do was as long as in any year
so far, but replacing old  rusty galley faucet was
deemed the most tricky and difficult. So that
was tackled first and with good results. While
there, I decided to swap  salt water pump and
manual fresh water pump to get the hands free
A new AM/FM CD/MP3 player installed
fresh water access without using pressurized
system.

As said, the list of tasks was long and it would
be quite boring to go over all of them here. The
pictures posted here will give you some idea.


On the first Saturday of February TOBY held
Branko welding my broken stanchion base
its monthly Flea Market. It is always fun. Managed to sell several items.

It is not all hard work here. Watching birds and
trying to capture them on camera as they feed is
a great and relaxing activity. Click HERE for a funny video about these birds.
Also, on a couple of occasions I ventured out to Phillipsburg and to Grand Casse.
In Grand Casse, as I was getting in the water, I lacerated my right foot on some sharp object in the sand. 170 euro and 5 stitches later I was
Bananaquits enjoy free meal
released from the local ER, and limped back home to Wereda.



Our sailing season this year was to be abbreviated
by a month due to the wedding in the family this
May.


Taking into account that Ginger's house that has
And so is this male L.A. Bullfinch
been put on market, may sell at any time, we
have decided not to put Wereda on the water this
season. Instead, I will fly back to Houston in
March.                                                            



Sandpipers on the Maho Beach
A close-up on one of the Sandpipers








Ahh! Nice, fresh coconut.
Kim Sha Beach at sunset