My life for the last while has been peaceful and boring but completely ruled by the oppressive brutal HEAT…!   OMG it is so flippin hot down here i’m just dyin in the heat. It rains everyday, so everyday in the horrible heat I have to close up all the hatches as the humidity climbs to unbearable. My life is ruled by the oppression of the tropical summer heat.

 

 

 

Oppressive Heat

I talk about this all the time as it is the most prevalent and consistent thing in my life lately. Canadians are simply not biologically designed to survive in this type of heat. At freezing temperatures I am completely comfortable in a T-shirt. In Canada I keep my thermostat at 15 degrees C in the winter because it is so comfortable, a comfortable room temperature for my body. In the summer I would raise the thermostat set temp way up to 20 degrees C to be nice to the air conditioner and I would tolerate the heat.

 

 

If only I was a millionaire and could afford a yacht with so much spare electrical power I could run an Air-conditioner  to save me from the horror of this oppressive and brutal ever present heat. Even living mostly naked is not enough to help cool me down. Several times a day I have to dunk into the warm water behind the yacht to try to get my core body temp down.

Really…  I am close to heat stroke everyday…!

 

 

Just when you think you are going to be okay and survive the day it suddenly starts to rain out of nowhere, short heavy rain squalls. I have to drop what I’m doing and run to close up the hatches. The humidity climbs up even more and I dream about how much I miss the snow.

 

 

First thing in the morning I climb out of bed and hope maybe today will not be so bad. As long as I don’t move around and stay in the shade.. maybe today will be okay.

Then as I am watching TV in the morning the rain hits and I scramble to close the hatches again. The boat becomes stiflingly hot.

 

 

When the rain passes I open up all the hatches I can and go up into the cockpit naked to try and catch some slight breeze to save me from heat stroke.

Sometimes I have to soak down a dish towel and put it in the fridge and then lay it on my skin to cool off. When I really feel close to heat stroke it is my last line of defense.

 

 

Eventually when the humidity is so high I wonder if even dunking in the water will help me at all. The water temperature is 32 degrees C and once you come out of the water there is no way to dry off, the humidity holds the water clinging to your body unable to evaporate. Even when you towel dry you are still covered in moisture.

You reach a point in your day when the air around you is so much hotter than body temperature  you have no way to dissipate the heat and you start to worry. Then it rains again and your moral plummets.

 

 

So mostly you just lay around all day and try not to move. Try not to generate any body heat, do not burn any calories. You have trouble thinking clearly. Personal motivation to conquer the to-do list fades quickly.

There is only one good reason for a girl to get all hot and sweaty and this is not it…

Then come the criticisms from non-cruiser people…   the trolls…    Lexi you are such a vixen… such a temptress… always parading around naked… you are trying to attract attention from men… you deserve to be raped for the way you act….

MORONS…. 

It is purely a biological survival reaction to the extreme heat you cannot see in the videos or in pictures. Most solo sailors are naked when home alone, its just part of the lifestyle. My gender matters not.

 

For the Love of Pink

 

When I was onshore with boat Dad last week we went to a hardware store where I found a spectacular can of berry pink spray paint that is safe on plastics….  yay. Everyone knows Wild Captain Lexi has a life long pink obsession. Doesn’t the color pink bring everyone emotional happiness when they look at it?      🙂

The first order of business was the dinghy. The pink racing stripes that used to prominently identify her as belonging to me have faded away over time. I have been trying to solve this problem for over a year with no luck. A new island means new shopping possibilities though. I hit the jackpot when I found this can of pink spray paint, my child like delight was barely containable.

 

 

On the surface this may seem like an immature girls obsession for pink and graffiti going to far, but is actually a stroke of brilliance. This is a relatively new and good condition very expensive Hypalon dinghy. Something another cruiser long ago explained to me is that you never want to own the shiniest newest looking dinghy at the dinghy dock.  Let the thieves choose to steal the shinier dinghy beside yours instead.

Old people and rich people love shiny things. Smart people know to remove the gloss and shine from your toys right away. Camouflage your toys to look old and crappy to avoid attention.

The other lesson I learned long ago working as a service engineer among all male colleagues…  is that men will not steal pink tools… they don’t even want to borrow your pink tools.  Given most thieves are men, no man is going to want to be seen in a pink dinghy never mind steal one that is easily identifiable to the police later.

So I casually joke with people that my pink racing stripes on my dinghy help it go faster… obviously…  I say with a big smile…       🙂

I hide the genius with simple child like innocence

Some people are convinced I am a simple idiot girl… but I am okay with this. Judge away muggles.

 

 

Given that the color pink just makes me emotionally happy… there seems to be no reason to waste the left over paint right?

These plastic rubbery air vents have been degrading in the UV rays of the intense tropical sun. UV protection seemed to be in order.

Then the next morning, still with a supply of pink paint in hand, I was sitting in the cockpit looking out the back when inspiration struck.

 

 

I will say these are just lovely boat improvements aboard WildChild as of late. I understand they may affect my resale value but the happiness quotient it gives me makes the trade off worthwhile.

 

Shopping

 

My boat Mom and Dad invite me with them sometimes when they are going to catch a bus and go shopping onshore. The bus system down in Grenada is awesome once you get used to it, very effective. It still confuses me so I stick with mom n dad who understand the system far better than I do.

Many of these former British Caribbean islands do not make employees pay income tax off their paychecks. Instead they have a very convoluted and complex customs system to tax the living hell out of everything that comes to the islands. Free trade is not an idea they agree to. The import taxes on ALL goods is nearly 200%.

 

 

So whenever us sailors need to buy parts to repair our yachts we are paying well beyond top dollar for everything. It is very frustrating. I need to replace a damaged solar panel ($300cdn) but priced them out down here at $1800e.c ($900cdn) before the 35% sales tax of course.

I have been craving the vitamins of berries for years now but could not ever afford such crazy high prices. Mom and I wander around local stores and I study prices to decide what I can and cannot afford to eat. Also understand the average wage down here for local people is about $100-$150e.c per day.

I feel rather bad for the locals trying to live like this. Imagine if you were a man down here with a family and you wanted to build yourself a shed or shelves or had some small project to work on.

 

 

Just to help your brain understand this in relative terms…. to buy a Dewalt cordless drill will cost you a full 2 weeks pay. Think about how much you make in two weeks, now imagine this was the cost of a cordless drill for you. Does this sound like a good idea to you?

Hey sailors and dreamers….  make sure your yacht is fully equipped with tools and spare parts before you come down here.

 

 

I also get to discover various new treats as I hunt around thru products I have never seen before. Down below on those shelves I found these delicious brownie cookies and some white chocolate with cranberry cookies.

I am not a shopper kinda girl personally. I have never wanted to go hang out at the mall shopping for the day with friends. I am glad though that I can shop with mom so she can show me where to go and what treat is best at each store.

 

Change of Venue

 

Between this blog and the last blog I have been rather busy online. I decided to end my old YouTube channel. I never started the channel, it was never mine, it was forced upon me. I kept it up because it was there and I still wanted to share my adventures with friends and family. Over time though, the channel fell further and further behind my reality. It became a less effective tool to achieve this goal.

 

 

Also the story it had to tell is an unpleasant one. Each video took between 5-10 hours of editing alone to make. For me this was also reviewing old and bad memories. I was really deeply in love with Elena, and she went really and truly insane. Watching the old videos brings up a lot of painful memories for me. I decided it was becoming unpleasant for me to suffer thru this needlessly.

So I ended the old YouTube channel.

I still want to share the adventure with friends though…

So I started a new YouTube channel. This one is my own. It is not the story of the yacht… it is my personal story. The new channel gets to be my video diary. It is the anti-dote to my eternal loneliness out here on the ocean. The camera does not carry on a conversation any better than my teddy bear does but somehow I feel less alone knowing someone somewhere knows I exist.

The nice thing as well, is that the editing times are down to less than an hour per video. Usually it takes more time to upload the video than it does to make it. This new easy creation should allow me to keep the videos current and not lag so far behind real time. The new videos will compliment the blogs nicely.

Also I get to be off the hook and just as wild and untamed as I want to be.

cause…

FUCK IT…!

I also figured out how to remove the comments from the new YouTube channel which will save me a lot of grief too. After my website had over 80,000 spam messages and comments and attacks I figured out that spiritually I do not need to invite the horror of the world near my soul. I removed the comment section from my website.

My old YouTube channel withheld all comments until I approved them. It became a chore for me to check everyday to screen out the trolls and haters and spammers. So much negativity in the world.

So although I did have a few followers who wrote lovely supportive comments, as the section is intended, I also had so many evil people use the comment section to further their harmful agendas towards my soft and sensitive soul.

 

 

I really do not mind how other people judge me, judge me to your hearts content. Make fun of me all you want. I just do not want to ever hear about it. I worry about God’s judgment upon my soul and conduct, nobody else’s.

I learned a long time ago… a military saying I grew up with…

“mind over matter…   I don’t mind and you don’t matter…”

It sounds harsh at first, later you discover how freeing it is. YOU DO NOT MATTER…  Nothing you ever say or do in your entire life will ever amount to anything… nothing about you will ever change the course of history or matter a hundred years from now. Your whole life is irrelevant.

It sounds harsh… then you realize… you are free to be you.

You stop worrying about silly things like what other people think of you, how others judge you.

 

Be free children…

Life is too short to live any other way…

 

cheers

 

Wild Captain Lexi

 

… peacefully free …..