I’d like to portray cruising as the “cruising” magazines do, “everyday a vacation on a beautiful deserted island”, but that’s just not the reality. I’ve submitted articles to some of the bigger sailing magazines in the past and I usually don’t fit into their “format”. They don’t like articles with talk of bad weather, pirates, or any kind of hardships. Luckily I’m not in the business of selling boats so I can speak my mind.
All the elbow grease I’ve been putting into Splendid is catching up with me. My upper back & neck got the best of me for the majority of the last week; I could barely lift my coffee cup this morning.
Luckily I carry a portable tens unit on Splendid which is saving my ass, well in this case, my upper back & neck. If you are susceptible to any kind of back or muscle pain I strongly suggest you invest the $25 – $60.00 in a portable tens unit for your medical kit. I recently had a neighbor who was sooooo grateful that I could loan it to her after she threw her back out working on her property. A tens unit is a device where you put pads on your sore muscles and massage them with an electric shock, it works great!
I’ve been taking it easy and focusing on smaller projects over the last week. I bought a small winch for my roller furling line a few months back ($60.00) and installed it yesterday. My friends 
Jim & Heather also gave me a larger winch for my main sheet which I’m hoping to install this week. I have been using a small winch between the mizzensheet & mainsheet’s since I’ve had Splendid and it’s a bit awkward. I like the new system much better, not to mention my back will love it as the years keep rolling by.
Carla on the other hand is full of energy. She was studying Pa-kua in Argentina for the past year and training 4 times a week. She was bummed about not 
having access to a heavy bag and bought one for Splendid. We filled it with sand & life jackets and it works great, HiYAAAA!
When she’s not kicking, punching the bag, or swimming, she likes to work on the boat. My windows on splendid have never been cleaned. They were covered with various primers, paints, & silicones. I’ve been meaning to get a razor and scrape them for years and just never got around to it. Well she took a few hours and cleaned them up. I’ve been searching for a scraping razor here for quite a while and ended up making her one out of a razor, tape, and a small vise grip. It’s so nice to be able to see out of the windows, what a beautiful place we live in : )
Carla has also discovered the thieves market in Colon. It’s really the only good place to buy any decent produce around here. I can’t stand it as it smells of rotten meat and is over crowded by a motley crew but she REALLY likes the fruit & veggies. Next time I’ll try to take a picture or some video but I’m afraid of losing my camera, it is quite an experience.
We’re itchy to get to San Blas but will be here till I can take possession of my new editing computer. The only time I feel financially crippled is when I deal with “land people” problems like shipping. Governments really have their hands out when it comes to 
shipping and I find the whole thing ludicrous & stressful. One can fly here from Ft. Lauderdale for $99 and bring what they want (computers/boat parts), why does a box that weighs 1/8 my weight cost three times as much as a plane ticket? All packages are opened by the government and sometimes (often) things go missing if one uses regular post. However it looks like I have someone who will bring it here on the plane, it will just take a little time, and when it comes to time I’m a rich man. Technically I’m supposed to be a “Yacht in Transit” and not pay any import taxes but “they” have made it so complicated that it just isn’t worth it. Last time I was here I had a package sent to me “yacht in transit” and they ran me around for 6 weeks, I ended up having to pay them a large fee to deliver my package to the boat so they were sure I was indeed a yacht in transit. Bureaucracy, not my favorite pastime, they get your money one way or the other : (
Life continues aboard Splendid and my projects are getting smaller. I must admit sometimes I dream of a smaller boat. However I think once I knock out a few more things and get rolling I’ll be fine. I dream of more sailing and less work. I’m growing quite tired & weary of boat work. I must take my own advice and “Sail far”.
It’s blowing like HELL 2day!
Peace, Love, & Coconuts
alex