Thursday, April 16, 2020

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI
18.20.016N
64.55.440W

Well the Tinker Twins were at it again. 

When we last posted, the Tweaker in Chief was trying to convince me that he wanted to tinker with my remaining aero garden.  What I may not have explained was that an aero garden is a self contained, tiny water garden that grows herbs, lettuce or in my case cherry tomatoes and herbs.  I’ve been really happy with my tomato and basil harvest. 

When Dale didn’t like my head strong attitude towards his idea, he took it up with the Tinkering Consultant and surprisingly, the Tinkering Consultant agreed with me; don’t even try linking the two gardens together; too iffy a project.  However, going back to Dale’s original plan to convert the garden from a 110 volt to a 12 volt was thought to be prudent.  

Tinker Twins at it again!

Can you see me now?

I think they planned their attack when they made a trash run earlier in the day as it was a pretty well coordinated effort.  Gerry and Nicky came by in the afternoon and while Nicky and I chit chatted in the salon, Dale and Gerry began by putting some LED lights along our back arch so that we can more easily identify our boat in the anchorage at night.  They wired it into one of the lights already in the cockpit, so once power is flowing to the light, the switch to the arch lights can be turned on.  They were very pleased with themselves when it all went according to plan and the lights came on as anticipated. 

A 12 volt garden

Then they turned their sights on my poor little garden.  With multimeter in hand and poised to take action, they eagerly explained that they knew what had happened during the first attempt and that it would not happen again.  Dale even showed me how he was certain that it would have a different result by putting the pointy end of the multimeter into what looked like a socket of some sort.  (Forgive me but I was taught not to do things like that but he didn’t seem to get zapped, so I didn’t say anything).  Then while I was held as a captive audience, they wired the garden with a 12 volt plug and plugged it in.  I had my camera ready as I wanted a photo of the smoke as it rose from the lights.  As fate would have it, they succeeded in the conversion.  I now have a 12 volt garden.  Not that I wanted a 12 volt garden but Dale can be an amp nazi at times.  Not sure why, he has brand spanking new batteries that can handle a little tiny garden.  And besides, it was something to do. 

Today, we took the original (dead) garden in for a less than ceremonious burial in the nearest dumpster before making our way to Wendy’s for a quick chicken sandwich to eat in the marina park.  Previously Gerry had fed the local chickens some rice, so when we sat down, the chickens came running.  There’s something rather macabre about eating chicken in front of chickens.  The rooster was looking like a Sunday dinner to me.  When we were done, I took some french fries over to another area and sprinkled them out for the flock to feast.  Then we walked back to the grocery store for some milk and bread. 

The remainder of the day, Dale busied himself changing a filter on the water maker, making water and making ice while the sun was shining and then regluing one of the pieces he used on the solar panels to keep the main sheet from getting caught in it.  I don’t think the glue was setting up in this heat.  We’ll see tomorrow. 

I, on the other hand, am worrying over the fact that although I turned in our paperwork for an anchoring permit, I haven’t heard back.  Everyone else has, why not us?  Dale says not to worry because I have the hard copies should anyone ask.  I have visions of being arrested, thrown in jail, fined thousands of dollars, boat impounded, escorted out of the country, or all of the above because my paperwork is not in order!  Its things like this that make my hair fall out.