Generator troubleshooting took up most of the morning. Not much Mr. Jim cannot fix but this one has completely stumped him.  Savannah studied the actual boat manual and of course I offered my few cents. You know.. comments like. “Jim have we ever actually had a generator that worked”??  “You look sexy my little Huntress grease monkey”, and “hey you’ll at least will learn the boat by having to open up everything”.. typical wifey comments.   Turns out it’s the fuel primer pump to the generator that went bad. It supplies fuel from the main tank to the generator. We were prepared to not use it for the trip and charge the house batteries with the engine like we have in past, but because Grand Soleil was adamant that either we figure it out so they can send us parts asap or they fly to islands to trouble shoot. First class customer service. It’s a boat.. things happen and it’s reassuring that Grand Soleil of the Caribbean has our back!!

Now back to the fun stuff. We totally salvaged the day with snorkeling and exploring. We stayed another evening on the same mooring ball on the West End of Culebra. We love the seclusion and are in no rush other than to time seeing our friend Jerome pass through the islands on his solo, non stop circumnavigation around the world (more on this around day 4 ish..) While Jim continued to troubleshoot, Savannah and I rigged the inflatable Yolo paddle board for a snorkeling platform and headed out to the rocky point for some water exploring.  I did not take photos of all of the marine life but Savannah posted to her media pages. The reefs look surprisingly good post storms and the huge swell we had this past spring.  Beautiful variety of fish and healthy coral.  We were being watched by our guardian goat who held fast on the rock above us! One of my favorite things are the wild goats that habitat many of the Caribbean islands, including deer and donkeys! HEE HAW!  We then decided to anchor the board and walk across a little peninsula or saddle to another beach and walked along the waters edge taking in the salty air, gorgeous shells and not a soul in site. I personally had one of those moments of sheer happiness and contentment. It was a powerful moment and one that I won’t forget. Just being with my daughter and our easy conversation, her laughter and sense of humor and no rush to go or do.. I think this has been one of the biggest “lessons” for me in a long time in learning to calm my thoughts. Through the years they have always had some kind of underlining “goal” whether it being my aviation career, home schooling, competitions in SUP and running, or house renovations and moves.. Now that I’ve not been able to run or paddle for fitness for almost 3 months, my brain is slowly adjusting to this as well. I’m not constantly thinking or focusing on an upcoming race, or training schedule or distance goal.  I really had no idea how much I thought about staying in “endurance” shape, regardless if I raced or not.  This is my first break from running for literally 40 years!!  We are a very active family, both Jim and I are passionate about staying strong for doing all of outdoor activities we love to do with out paying for it with soreness the next day or pulling a muscle. Plus Jim and I loved running together and he too has not been able to exercise since last Oct.  Don’t get me wrong, i take a lot of down time physically but it’s really neat to not feel guilty about it if you don’t get it in. I think we have managed as a family very well this past year in light of the storms, health, school, jockeying around and general craziness, so this is a real treat to have these “happy” moments and not giving a second thought if I ran or paddled 5 miles. The walk and hiking and snorkeling will suffice just fine!!  Ok those were my deep thoughts.. sorry!

Another amazing moment.  On the paddle board my daughter kissed me on the arm out of the blue and said this “this is really fun Mom”… priceless (considering she is 16..!).  I also loved when she referred to going back to the boat as “home”.

After a lovely chicken salad lunch we insisted that Mr Jim (Daddy) take a break on the boat and come play with his girls! We took him on a great beach treasure hunt and found so many gorgeous shells washed up! You can definitely see the effects of the hurricanes, but for me everything is just as gorgeous as ever, maybe even more so knowing how resilient nature really is.  We then cooled off for another fun snorkel chasing lion fish and lobster. Next snorkel we will have our “gear” with us to help with the lion fish eradication and hopefully get us a “bug” to go with left over Tuna! We did have fun trying.. 🙂

Oh something I failed to mention day 1 on provisioning.. Jim and I have made some lifestyle changes of only having 2 drinks or less per day including weekends.. Back in the day these sailing trips involved a LOT of cases of Heineken and always buying more Heineken and ice, ice, ice..$$$! We feel great, sleep is amazing and of course never a hangover! It’s been hard when we get together with friends, but with Jim’s health issues last fall we are a team on this. I’ll let you know if we break the rule deeper into the islands..!! Now we just put our allotment in the freezer midday and it’s ready in time for a sundowner!

Dinner was fresh tomato/basil soup and browned beef, over gnocchi, YUM!

Evening entertainment: Major belly laughs, song and giggles while Jim rolled individually Savannah’s 27 baby dreadlocks to keep them in form until they are more set- PRICELESS. Yes I have a video.. not sure I can upload it right now, but trust me my stomach muscles hurt from laughing so much!