Day 129, Year 5: Birthdays
Date: Thursday, March 4, 2010
Weather: Hot and Hazy
Location: Bolgatty Hotel Anchorage, Cochin (Kochi), India

If my mother were still living she would be 102 today. I was too stubborn to let myself be born on her birthday, so my day is tomorrow. But today is my brother-in-law Joe’s birthday, so “Happy Birthday, Joe.” March 4-5-6 are birthdates of other friends as well. Happy birthday to Susan on Sea Bunny and Alan Kanegsberg back in Concord, NH.

I spent my day doing laundry and baking once I found out that no one would be coming to work on the freezer today. We don’t know why, but no one was available even though the team that left late yesterday evening said they’d be back this morning. When we called this morning, we were told that someone will come tomorrow and will definitely get the freezer running. We shall see. Mark found a place that works on alternators so he took our big alternator there this afternoon. We are not sure how long that repair will take, so we just have to take one day at a time. We are still planning to check-out on Tuesday and leave on the high tide on Wednesday. Lynn will be returning from the US early Saturday morning and once she is rested, the final provisioning will begin.

Now it is time to start the boat cleaning process. Everything on the deck is just filthy from a month of Cochin pollution, so sunshades and cockpit seat covers were sent home with Nazar today to be washed. We will start soaking lines tomorrow. You cannot tell that they were once white. Most everything is a lovely shade of dark gray now. I will also work on cleaning the waterline tomorrow. So tomorrow is a cleaning day for me. Mark will be working with whoever is here to work on the freezer. And if there is time at the end of the day, we are planning to make an artichoke (out of a can) pizza for my birthday dinner. I love artichokes and think I have had them on my birthday for the past 36 years. Don’t want to break that tradition.