The last six months or so have been extremely busy for both Andrea and I at work and at home, not to mention our purchasing Akupara and the beginning of the restoration. The next six months will be just as busy if not worse so we both decided a quick getaway was in order.
We went to our agent, picked something reasonably inexpensive and 7 days later were on a plane to de-stress in the sun and the sand. Of course this means that in effect we lost 2 weekends of work time, but it was well needed.
We actually did not talk a lot about Akupara during our trip which was nice, although when we did, it was interesting how both of us were thinking along the same lines. We talked briefly about how important it is going to be to get the watermaker working properly. This was reinforced by the fact that we were in the Dominican Republic which is known for bad water and a lot of people on the resort were feeling the results of that. Even though they had not directly drank the water, they had still been exposed through the ice in their drinks. Which led of course to a brief discussion on the importance of ensuring the refrigeration and freezer needs to be 100% as well.
By day 3 the admiral actually made the statement “I don’t think I can stay in the sun any longer, I need to find some shade.” Tada – the dodger and bimini is going to have to be well constructed to allow for lots of airflow and yet provide for privacy as well. At night in the hotel room, we eventually gave up on the air conditioning as it was way too loud, but that also brought up the question of, as we grow older, are we going to need air conditioning to sleep. At this point we can manage just fine but it also seems to help with the humidity as well so perhaps we should investigate it.
We rented a little speed boat and went on a guided trip up a local river to experience the “true” island life. It was a lot of fun to be blasting around and seeing the jungle from the river side. Almost felt like we were in the movie Apocalypse Now, parts of which were apparently filmed in the DR, without all of the shooting of course. Hmmm, maybe we need to upsize the dinghy and outboard. Our RIB is 9 feet with an 8hp motor, but would it ever be nice to have a steering wheel as opposed to a tiller on the outboard.
As our eventual goal is to retire aboard Akupara, all of these little things are actually extremely important to us and the wrong decision now, when we have the time to make the right one, could possibly come back to haunt us, and I know for a fact that I am not going to want to start major repair projects or modifications in 31 degree Celsius heat.
Most of the week there were local fisherman performing their daily activities in the bay in front of our hotel and I commented several times to Andrea how simple their life seems to be. Not easy by any means, but simple. All of them were in old boats with peeling paint and leaking seams, some without engines, none with watermakers, refridgeration, freezers, air conditioning, dodgers or bimini’s, high speed outboards or any of the rest of the fancy stuff we “need” and yet they get by. Our plan is to eventually make Akupara our home as I have said, and part of the reasoning for that is to make life more simple and therefore more enjoyable, and yet all of our needs seem to do the exact opposite. This planning process as we refurbish Akupara is going to be a balancing act of need versus want and complexity versus simplicity. It is hard to make a conscious decision to give up something, but then again, if it makes life too complicated in the first place, is it even worth it?
I guess this trip actually had a lot more to do with Akupara and her refit than I thought! I wonder if I can claim it as research? 😉
