Rainy, chilly, squally morning in Antigua. I got up an put on a long-sleeved shirt. It almost feels like a Monday in November. Except I don't have to drink my coffee in the dark and put on a winter coat and winter boots and walk to work in two inches of slush and then come home in the dark.

Celebrated my 49th birthday with high school friends Gord and Marj. That's what makes you feel old, realizing that you've known people for over 30 years. They sort of look the same, which helps, except Gord doesn't wear the leather cord around his neck (he accessorizes with the lawyerly blackberry) and Marj's blonde hair is about a foot and a half shorter than it used to be. And in high school, we didn't have long conversations about our eyeglasses prescriptions. We seem to drink more wine than beer these days, and after really good meals (which are now important to us) we go to bed a lot earlier than we used to. It's less dramatic. But then, we're living on a boat in the Caribbean, so there's been progress.

There were some really good meals while they were here, including two evenings at Trappas in English Harbour. Really yummy. There were a couple of nice sails, to Deep Bay for a swim and a hike up to Fort Barrington. The fort is surrounded by goats, and everywhere you walk, there's drifts of goat poop, which happily is more like rabbit poop than dog poop. The benefit of a vegetarian diet. Great view from the top. Marj had a great turtle sighting on the sail around to Falmouth Harbour.

We're really enjoying the new outboard. Randy calls it Yammy. I'm still revelling in its excellent reliability -- I won't start calling it names until it gets cranky. The motor almost makes us forget that the dinghy itself is an aged, leaky vehicle. I've been driving it daily, and I just LOVE it -- the way it starts first pull, the snug and confident way it clicks into gear, the unbroken nature of all its moving parts. I no longer feel dependent on Randy to drive me to the store.

The rowboat has been up on the davits for a week or so while we were sailing around with Gord and Marj, and one afternoon Randy glanced over to note that one of the lifting eyes in the bottom had come loose. The plywood square that it was screwed into had delaminated and let go, so that was another small repair job. We'd had trouble lifting it up anyway. In spite of various machinations, it always tipped over completely sideways until it was hauled up high enough to balance it from the deck. We're trying a different combination of lifting eyes this time to see if we can sort that out. Fascinating, eh wot?

Next job is the annual overhaul of the leaky head. When it stops raining, we'll go hunt down a chunk of plywood to replace the base which is starting to act a bit spongy. Nothing like a toilet that rocks slightly when you pump the handle, and constantly leaks seawater into the shower pump. One wants to feel more confident about one's important appliances!

It's turning into a completely rainy day here, and we're collecting free water for our tank. There, that should wrap up a typical Brown update. I've mentioned weather, food, three different kinds of poop, and discussed the toilet. Laundry update coming soon!