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14 October - Livingston, Cat Operations & New Home
Since getting back from our travels we spent another week in Xalaha Marina. We finally got round to buying a new dingy as our old one really did only have hours left in it. In the end the transom was held on with a piece of string and every morning when we woke up we had to pump it up straight away otherwise it would have been at the bottom of the river before breakfast time! Click here to see the pics of the new dingy and Jennifer's birthday party.
The dingy was a great deal and only set us back $150, it is still a soft bottom but is a lot more sturdy than the last one and we don't have to faff about with wooden bits for the bottom. This also makes it easier for us when we go away as it means we can just deflate it and store it easily on the boat.
We left Xalaha on the 7th after having a fair well bar-b (not that we are going very far but anything is a good excuse for a bit of a knees up!) We picked up Ron, Ariane and a friend of theirs that was over on hols from France, Mateaus, then set off for a weekend in Livingston. Click here to see the pics. We had a nice weekend, no wind for sailing as usual so we motored all the way down and back. The weather had it in for us for most of the weekend (pretty typical outing weather!) The trip down was good, nice and sunny, but as soon as we got to Livingston it started to rain and continued to do so all night and all the next day on the way back!
Anyway we didn't let that stop us from having a good time, we went into the town in the evening and had a nice meal. A fairly breezy storm picked up whilst we were having dinner which kept blowing all the doors and windows open and the power kept coming on and off! After the meal we partook in a few beers, some more than others! After leaving our dingy in the most rubbish spot possible (a half built restaurant which one of our friends was managing, he told us to leave our dingy's there as it was a good safe spot). The only problem being that it was basically a building site and pretty difficult to get to! We eventually made it back to the dingy in the pouring rain, after having to climb over the locked gate and after Mateaus lost one of his flip flops in a swampy bit, then we all had to tight rope along a semi built pier at which point Eric was so ecstatic that his boat hadn't dragged out to sea in the storm, he promptly fell of the pier and into the water. Mateaus seeing this followed suit and fell in straight after! We surprising managed to make it back to the boat in one piece.
Its the first time we have had more than just us 2 sleeping on the boat, but it all worked out pretty well and all 5 of us fitted in without to many problems. There was a strange symphony of snoring throughout the night and at one point I had to get up as I thought I could hear the cat being sick and was a little worried about him, only to find out it wasn't the cat at all but Mateaus' snoring! I'm not too sure how amusing all these little things would be if you were spending a long passage with this many people!
It was quite nice coming back to the river in the pouring rain, it was like a wet weekend back at home. We kept every one happy by supplying soups and cups of tea, whilst out in the rain and drizzle. True English moral food!! (not to mention good hangover food!)
We got back to Ron and Ariane's for the Sunday and just in time for our appointment with the vet. All the cats were to be neutered and spade. The operations were performed on the kitchen table, which was really quite mad. Tres the mum cat turned out to be preggers again (we have decided that she really is a little slut, her babies are only 4 months old and here she is ready to knock a load more out!) Heather the vet was fantastic and managed to perform what looked like a pretty difficult operation with people wandering back and forth, shouting and sticking there heads over her shoulder to take a look at what was going on. There were boat engines and grinders going on in the background, but it didn't phase her and soon she had all cats de sexed and lined up in a row waiting for them to come back round. Click here for cat operation pics (don't worry they're not graphic!)
They all come back round slowly but surely, we had 3 very drunk looking cats staggering around the house bumping into things and wondering what the hell had happened to them!
The day after the operation Ron and Ariane pack up their stuff and headed back to the States for a 3 week hols and left us in charge of the house and the cats. So we are now currently staying in their place which is a nice change to living on the boat. This also means that we can do some work on the boat that it would have been difficult to do whilst we were living on it and it also means we have a fridge!!! This is the most exciting part for me, cheese that hasn't turned to oil is a luxury!! Mmmmm cheese!
Click here for pics of the house
Ron and Ariane get back in Mid November, when there are back we plan to leave the Rio for good and head on down to Honduras. So next time I write we should be just about redy to go!