Free Water!!

We knew we were coming to Costa Rica in the rainy season and it is sure rainy.  Most days we still get to do our daily duties : go running with Skeeter, do some laundry, go to the market, oh I don't know maybe go have a beer at the local Latitude 8 bar.  But if we are not back to the boat by 3 or so we probably will get drenched.  We have been lucky, even with all the rain the sun still comes out for a while in the morning so the solar panels can charge up the batteries.  But we are deffinetly not getting the amps that we used to get with all the sun in Mexico. 

Jerry got 52 yards of an exterior nylon matterial for $132 at the duty free zone, it is not quite as strong as sunbrella but for the price you could not pass it up.  If it makes it through this rainy seaons its a win for us.  We made the shade the night before we left for our inland trip with Sam and Nancy, Jerry and I are getting really good at sewing.  After sewing around the edges and sewing the three 20 feet peices together we had one large tarp.  Jerry then decieded instead of putting gromlets that we would use plastic buckels, that we got in El Salvador for 5 cents, to strap it down to the life lines.  It works really good, now we can leave the windows open for breeze (which was the main reason for the tarp), plus it helps protect the wood panels on the inside of the boat under the window. 

But there is an upside to having all this rain, we get free water, no haveing to run the genorator to make water through the watermaker. Now with the water maker we get about 6.5 gallons of water an hour and with this rain and how Jerry made the water funnel we think we are probably getting at least 6 gallons of water an hour.  Since we could only find one funnel (and that was hard to find), Jerry made a funnel using a $4 bucket that he cut a hole in the bottom, fitted it with a plastic through hole attached to a hose.  He then needed to bring the side of the trap down at the center where the water tank holes are, so as you can see on one a chain attachted to a clip and on the other, what every we had laying around to make it heavey.  They may not look great, but they work perfect...so bring on the rain!!

We are having some cruisers over for 4th of July to BBQ some chicken with my homemade spicy potatos salad and Jerry's homemade baked beans.  Hope everyone has a great 4th.