Saturday 11 Apr, CY day 28: Looking at the forecast over breakfast, the wind is definitely starting tomorrow. So will need to have the over-boom cover off as we don’t want to risk it getting damaged in the strong wind. This also means we need to get the bimini back up tomorrow, or we will have no shade whatsoever. And, in turn, that means we MUST finish installing the sliders for the 6 new solar panels today. Pressure is on! We sewed on the first one last evening and it took 3 hours. So it’s going to be a looong day in the Cloudy Bay sweatshop sewing saloon!
And that was pretty much the day: fighting with the massive amount of stiff and somewhat dirty bimini canvas. And trying to squeeze it all through the sewing machine as we sew on the slider strips, UV cover strips and corner wear patches. I’m frankly a bit worried that when we finally get the thing back up tomorrow, maybe I will have distorted it with my inexperience using the machine and the cramped workshop.
Finally, by midnight, all 6 sets of sliders are sewed on. Not as good as a professional canvas shop, but nonetheless we are pretty pleased with our efforts and the result. But as they say, “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” – how will it all work when we put it up tomorrow and slide in the 6 solar panels?
Today the daily briefing resumed. It seems the police had quite a task on the beaches yesterday. Several groups of people claiming to be exercising, but obviously actually having mini beach parties. Apparently beach gatherings during the Easter weekend is a tradition. The Premier, Governor and Police Chief are pretty upset about it. So it’s decided there will be a full ban on ANY beach activities from Monday onwards. Other news is that many other Caribbean countries have been pleading with Cayman to sell them some of the 200,000 test kits the Caymans recently acquired from South Korea. 20,000 are already sold to Barbados. It will be interesting how they handle these requests in the coming days.
After a marathon day sewing, under a bit of pressure to finish, I’m totally exhausted by midnight when we fall into bed.