The rain is here, but that's O.K. because I've discovered Mangos...

Today is the first day in a long time that the rain has come. I think it's been a month or more since it rained here in St. Martin. At least it's been a long time where we come from....and it's a welcome change. I know that's a terrible thing to say when we came here looking so forward to get away from the rain, but it sure feels nice to be clean and not sweating like crazy and feel a cool breeze on our skin.

Embarrassing as it is, I have to admit that for the first time in my almost 39 years (plus a few), I've just discovered mango for the first time and I'm in love!! What a deliciously sticky, juicy suculent fruit!! I have a book by Ann Vanderhoof called "An Ambarrassment Of Mangos" (I highly recommend it for anyone interested in reading about another couple's cruising adventure) and there are so many great mango recipes in it that I now can't wait to try. I'm sure I will be soooo sick of Mango by the time we are finished this trip - but in the meantime, look out Mango Trees!.

I have also discovered Pressure Cooking. If you don't know what that is, a pressure cooker is a pot that has a tight sealing lid and cooks food much faster and healthier by using the pressure that builds up inside rather than releasing all the pressure and steam like conventional stove top cooking. We finally bought one a few weeks ago and I have only experimented with a few things. Last night I made bbq ribs in 7 minutes that were so 'fall off the bone' tender, they just melted in our mouths. Big thanks to Liz MacD for the book on pressure cooker recipes - it's already paying dividends. I know that it will continue to be a main source of cooking long after our cruising adventure is over.

Now that our mini vacation with our visitors from home is over until the next ones arrive, it's time to buckle back done and get stuff done. Ron has some more engine work and rigging to do and I have to get my nose into the GPS and Single Side Band manuals, learn sailmail, weather routing and figure out how to get out our GPS to communicate with our chart plotting system. So far they won't talk to each other and I'm beginning to think that it might be because we use windows 7 on our main computer. We still haven't got our radio and SSB licenses and can't do that until we get the boat registered and we can't do that until we get the de-registration papers and it's all on island time...

Olivia has really slid into this life very easily and loves life on the boat. She is quite happy to help out wherever she can and is starting to make more friends at the few social events we've been able to attend. There is a flea market at Lagoonie's Bar every Saturday and a cruisers breakfast at Turtle Pier every Sunday and she finds kids to play with at each one. We are going to get a "Kids" burgee to fly off the mast that lets other cruisers know we have a child on board and this is also a great way to get to know other cruisers with kids. Tomorrow, we're going to treat her (and us) to a trip to the local Zoological and Botanical Center and discover the various monkeys and other mammals that are indigenous to these parts.