Pink Jobs & Blue Jobs
Scott hates me calling them this… but they are what they are !!! Blue jobs = fixing winches, re-wiring shit, maintaining the engines, fixing the generator, making sure water stays on the outside of the boat, changing pump filters… stuff that requires muscle and a knowledge of mechanical shit. Pink jobs = hoisting the blue job guy up the mast to do shit 60’ above the boat deck (had to do it twice today with no electric winch… about 400 turns on the winch each time.. I think my arm is gonna fall off tomorrow)… getting stuff from the tool boxes while the blue job guy is up the mast.. cooking .. keeping the boat clean… laundry.. do you know when there is a breeze laundry dries way faster on the line than in the dryer?? Cleaning grease stains off the decking… cleaning winches.. sewing ripped rain covers.. wrapping the wheel with cord.. planning our next passage & researching anchorages.. I gotta keep busy with the pink jobs so that Scott doesn’t try to teach me how to do blue jobs.. 🙁 You know I really want to know how to change the oil on our engines!
It was a great day today… picked up our replacement wind vane first thing in the morning from the boat shop… took us about 5 hours to get it installed (just before the rain started)… but it works !! Problem solved… we have wind instruments !!! Our life raft was shipped from the mainland yesterday.. so fingers crossed it will arrive Friday! Yesterday we found an old fellow who was willing to repair our electric winch… rented a car for the day tomorrow.. a bit of sightseeing inland… groceries…
We have a really good weather window for an early morning (3:00am) departure on Saturday so we can make it to the SW corner of Mallorca by the end of the day… then onto Ibiza the next day… unfortunately on Monday, weather turns to shit again, so we may be stuck in Ibiza for a day or two before we can head to mainland Spain… weather has really sucked these past 2 weeks !! Rain, lots of wind… more rain… more wind !! Need to get south as soon as possible so I can wear shorts again !!
We Really like Menorca… Scott was here 45 years ago, but of course can’t remember anything… nice relaxed atmosphere… beautiful scenery… super old stuff as well as modern in a nice mixture… people are amazing… very helpful, welcoming & friendly. Just wish the weather was better so we could explore more. Spent about 4 hours walking yesterday in the rain looking for someone to fix our winch… lucked out on our third try. First place couldn’t do it, so they send us to #2… he was busy so he sent us to #3… of course he couldn’t speak a word of English, but we managed to sort out what we needed done, a price and a day we could pick it up. Having fun practicing my Spanish…
Cooked some amazing fresh mussels tonite… picked up at a fish monger about 200m from where we are tied up. Told the clerk I didn’t speak much Spanish and placed my order for some salmon & mussels… she said my Spanish was very good and proceeded to talk rapidly back to me… Of course after the basics I am lost… blank look on face… hate it when I say 2 perfect sentences and then they think they can carry on a conversation with me…. nope, that’s all I know!! Can order food, cold beer… the basics !!
Menorcan wine, cheese & beef are really good. The beef in France sucked… haven’t had a bad bottle of wine yet !! Bought some really yummy Menorcan cheese yesterday!