Hi everyone. Today is our 2nd full day here and it's getting kind of "cool". Not comfortable cool, but "cool". I know enough not to complain to my buddies in NY about the weather here as I sit in a waterfront internet cafe and all of the beautiful french men and women walk by, oh so chic...and it is about 80 degrees and we're all in "T" shirts and shorts and sandals.
Yesterday we spent the afternoon in the air conditioned marina office typing yesterday's blog and ventured out about 5:15. The air was so balmy and comfortable and the light so beautiful. The waterfront around where the boat is moored (fore and aft mooring balls, pictured above) is like a little French village filled with bistros and stores, both local and places such as Cartier and Mont Blanc and any other high end store that can be found on Fifth Avenue. Roger says this scene reminds him of the inner harbor of Nice except these are pleasure boats instead of fishing boats.
While I type this, Roger is off running some errands and when he returns we will have some lunch and then head over to the Dutch side in our dink. The dink is our car and will be for the forseeable future. I'm seeing how important it is to have a dink with a hard bottom (our dink's bottom is soft and won't handle the rough water, when it happens, as well as one would with a rigid bottom) and a more powerful engine. Maybe I'll make a placement and buy us a present. We shall see...
I've posted some pictures of Alpha Girl & Whitty and can hopefully fill in some details surrounding the pictures...so, here goes.
One of the uppermost pictures is of my Whitty's tush. He is digging between the pillows for one of his favorite toys which is a sparkly red ball that he chases and which sheds little sparkly red threads all over. I wouldn't change having them aboard but there is definitely a price to be paid in having their hair...their litter dust and their toys as constant companions. The picture of Whitty up near the bowsprit is about as close as he gets to the edge. He is a cautious cat for which I am grateful because I don't think my heart could stand having another wild and crazy cat in addition to Alpha Girl who fears nothing! Why stay on the edge if you can tiptoe out right onto the bowsprit and straddle it?
The other picture at the top may not have been taken on this voyage but rest assured the top of the bimini is one of Alpha Girl's favorite perches. Whitty NEVER dares to go up there! Actually, AG moves way above the bimini. She frequently ventures onto the boom, which is of course even higher. In fact she will...if another boat is close enough, leap across the water to jump on the boat. She's a fun girl to have around but quite the troublemaker. The picture of us moored shows us close to the boats on either side but too far for her to make the leap.
About 4-5 days ago when Roger & I returned to the boat we noticed a pool of water on the table below one of the open hatches as well as on the cabin sole floor. Had it rained? There wasn't water below any of the other open hatches so how could this be? What happened? The answer came in the appearance of Alpha Girl from the aft cabin and while she was mostly dried off it was clear she had been submerged in water...like she'd had a bath, or like she'd fallen into the great blue sea. This will never be fully explained (without an on board video camera) but we can assume that she had her first fall into the water and she had gotten herself back on the boat!
In the last picture, if you look closely at the bottom right corner of the rear swim platform, you can see the braided line that Roger fashioned for the cats to use to climb on board if they fall in while at anchor or on a mooring.
On the overnight trip, the cats presented another aspect of the challenges of sailing with them: We were life jacketed, harnessed and tethered to a line that runs around the cockpit floor, to prevent falling off and with lights and whistles we can use to signal if we somehow did fall off. But not the cats. But they wanted out and not just to stay in the cockpit. Eventually we collared and leashed them and let them roam, but only in the cockpit.
We seem to have the picture problem solved so keep coming back and we will give you more.
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