Brrr another morning of cold with dripping ports to wake up too. Is there anything better to wake up to than the drip, drip of ice water in the face ?

Mary & Axel on our walk

After coffee and making omelets I still didn’t feel like working with my hands again today. My thumbs feel painful this morning. The idea of sitting topside splicing, seizing and whipping the last two sections of line for the lazy jacks in the cold didn’t sound to appealing so, I thought I’d call Mary & see if she’d like to take a walk to some of the stores and along the bridge. Yep. After hearing that Axel wouldn’t mind a walk, Wayne decided that maybe working on the electrical could wait too. So we all took a stroll along the boardwalk. I don’t know why, but I thought that maybe I could find another whipping needle at one of the stores along the beach. Rigggght…. What was I thinking? They’re all tourist stores. I broke my heavy-duty needle on the last pull through the rope yesterday and need to find another one. I may need to wait until I can find a fabric store or until the next time we go to West Marine. One interesting note on our trip through the stores, I discovered that they sell the conch shells that we find for free for $24.99 at the CVS. Wow! Kill holes and all. If we set up shop outside along the beach and sell them for $20 we could make a profit and the tourists could save $5.

I feel bad for all the Christmas tourists that came down for warmth. You can see them on the beach, die-hards, trying to soak up the sun. It’s strange to see them in shorts and bathing suits, laying in the sun and strolling the beach while most people are bundled up. The thought of them paying all that money to come down to 27 degrees at night and 50 during the day has got to be frustrating. I know they came down for the warmth.

We stopped at the coffee hut so Mary & Axel could grab some breakfast ($5.99 buys a nice breakfast) then continued our walk south to the dock where the yachts and mega yachts are. I wonder what it’s like to crew on those? I know you have to be certified (okay maybe in both meanings of the word) to crew and stand watch on them. After meeting some of the people that rent them out, I doubt that it would be much fun. Maybe on the super cruise ships like the “Love Boat”… seems like that might be a good way to travel around if you’re a younger person.

Our wanderings ended with a walk over the bridge where we could look at our anchorage. Of course I had to take pictures of Kolibrie and Azaya! On the other side of the bridge, at the edge of the park, we noticed a painter. He was painting something in the anchorage or the houses on the other side of the anchorage, so we wandered over to see what he was painting. Wow! At first glance I was flabbergasted. On second glance I was in love with the painting. It was a veritable masterpiece - a beautiful water/landscape of a boat docked in front of the villa, with palms and bougainvillea in bloom. The artist had captured the essence of beauty in the way the light played off the colors and scenery. The painter told us that he could paint our boat if we were going to be around for another week. Wow. I got a picture of him and his painting but I fear it was all in shadow. I couldn’t help but tell him what a great eye for color he had. Looking back, it was one of those “Duh” moments… I’d gotten his card from him and once back at the boat looked at his web page (www.Tsar-Art.com). Mr. Valery Tsarikovsky was quite a noted artist! And, I told him what a terrific eye he has! He’s sold paintings to Donald Trump, Stevie Wonder and Oren Hatch! He’s been interviewed by CNN, and various magazines. From the looks of his paintings and the prices he can command for them, I’d have to go back to work in order to have a painting of his. But his painting did take my breath away… Tsar was blessed with a special eye and a talent for translating what he sees to canvas! He was able to translate depression to beauty with the stroke of a brush!

Mr. Valery Tsarikovsky and his painting - See more at: http://www.tsar-art.com/ 

Tonight for dinner is apple/cheese stuffed chicken breast with broccoli, and the last of the pumpkin pie.