SailingKnitter

Admiral and Terry

Welcome to the Niki Wiki Adventure Camp for Boat Pets. This week we have on board an adorable little dog named Admiral. His human traveled up to Mexico to help sail a boat back down here to Guatemala so we get the pleasure of a temporary pet. Yes. It is a pleasure with this little guy. He is so smart and well-trained! We're having a blast and I'm (Terry) getting a lot of exercise taking the dog out for walks.

The amount of time available for knitting has decreased because of these duties though. That and the fact that Admiral loves to sleep on laps. It's been more than six years since I had my own Niki kitty sleeping on my lap so we both, Admiral and I, needed to work out the dynamics. After a couple of days he's learned to relax during Arts and Crafts time and not to be bothered by yarn tickles or the occasional poke from a knitting needle. Oh, and because he has to go do his "business" in the morning, I have to get dressed and off the boat and can't laze about in my sleeping tee-shirt all morning. But it does mean too that I've had the privilege of hearing and seeing the parrots in the trees on these mornings.

Ginger

Last week was our Cat camp session. We pet-sat a lovely cat, Ginger on our next slip over neighbor's sailboat. They went out to the Sapodilla Cayes, Belize to do some scuba diving which Ginger certainly would not have enjoyed. She was much happier staying home and being entertained by the Niki Wiki Camp Counselor.

A new Mystery Lace Sock Knit Along has begun on the Nicole Rodgers Designs group on Ravelry with a beautiful sock pattern. Although the pattern is named Eggplant Parmigiana, I have chosen a bright chartreuse hand-dyed yarn I picked up at the last Sock Summit convention. So far we have only recieved the "clues" (instructions) for the cuff which is worked in broken rib stitch. Hopefully there will be a girl in Kazakhstan who will enjoy wearing lace patterned, bright colored socks. Here is a quick photo of our progress so far...


Jonesy has been busy with some final preventative maintenance on the boat before our planned exit the first week of February. But, he found a problem on the engine. Actually, we're very fortunate that we found this before we headed out to sea and had some sort of a failure. But, now it means that our schedule may have to slip. Dang. He found that the auxillary shaft coupling for the raw water pump has exploded away leaving just bits behind! He took this photo a couple of years ago when it was still in place which is a good thing because we have emailed the picture to the engine supply company. Now we need to get a new one down here to us - that's the tricky hard part! If Jonesy had a spare, we'd be ready to go in one day. On boats, it's always something.

Perkins Engine Raw Water

Yesterday I met up with a group of gals for the first time to work on rag rugs to sell to support an animal charity. "Freddy's Friends" is run by Pam and she administers wormings, vitamins, and information to the local residents so that they can take better care of their pets and farm animals. These rag rugs are sold at our twice-monthly cruiser swap meets. I helped to rip up sheets into strips and roll these into balls. Other crafters, including Pam, crochet them into thick area rugs of various sizes.

Crocheted Rag Rugs

Freddy's Friends at work

I got involved with Freddy's Friends just this past Sunday at one of the swap meets. Pam was selling the rugs there and had information about the work she does with the animals.

These past few weeks Jonesy and I have been feeding an emaciated little black dog who lives out in the jungle where we walk. I have only been able to get close to her one time, and that was because she was so weak she literally stumpled and fell on the side of the road. I hand fed her what I had been able to buy in town - just some dry Purina dog chow, some chicken ham, and sliced american cheese. Now, Pam has supplied me with some worming medicine and liquid vitamins. But, we haven't seen the dog this week yet. I hope I can get her to get close to me again so I can squirt the meds in her mouth. We'll keep walking and looking for her.

So that's how we've spent the last week or so, enjoying other peoples' pets, crafting, and preparing for our trip to sail up to Belize and Mexico. Come on engine supply house and airfreight and get that part to us NOW!