Sunrise

This morning there is a light breeze from the east. It is going to be our normal breeze for pretty much the rest of the season while we are here. The easterly breezes here are called the trades or trade winds. They got that name from days of ole when the ships that plied these waters were all powered by sail. The trades are a constant east wind that blows from the eastern Caribbean to the western Caribbean and towards Florida. The old sailing ships based their trading routes on where the winds blew them. Thus the trade winds.
The breeze is nice sitting here on the dock.  The sun is coming up fast and warming the tropical air quickly. The humidity from the nightly rains is thick and you can practically see it rising as the morning sun heats the ground and steams up the atmosphere. My little friends  the turns, are scurrying about the dock chirping and looking for scraps. They are finding plenty.
The docks were very busy this weekend as it the Dominican Labor day weekend. There were many boats filled with families that have been out this weekend. When a Dominican family goes boating, its not just mom dad and two kids..... Uncles and grand ma and great grand pa in the wheelchair are all piled onto the boats. It is quite the event.
The last week was great. We had the boss in town for the entire time. We fished quite a bit and had some great and some slow days fishing. But even our slow days were good. There are not to many places you will see as many Blue marlin as we see here. our last day was a real slow day. We only had two shots at Blue marlin and missed them both. The Betsy had 7 shots and caught 5 marlin. Seems like each day is different for each boat.
 It was kinda depressing taking the boss to the airport yesterday knowing that We wont be fishing for a bit, or till he returns.
Kyle and I drove the boss to the airport yesterday. OH MY GOD. It reminds me of Mexico ten years ago. The crap you see driving on the roads here is mind boggling. The poor driving skills, The speeders,  the lack of respect on the roads, the poor quality of the roads, the pedestrians dashing across 50 mph highways, the horses using the roads, The motor cycle that has a trailer hitch pulling a trailer with 4000 coconuts in it........  Also, Stop lights seem to be more of a suggestion to drivers here.   The trip to and from the airport seemed to fly by as you are constantly bracing for impact or laughing at something completely ridiculous or out of place. Then there are the window washers. I have dealt with them in Mexico before. But here they are everywhere. They are kids that hang out at intersections that run up and splat a sponge on your windshield and then squeegy it off.  On the way to the airport we only got hit up once but on the way back they were constant. My wind shield was perfectly clean but they just kept coming. I tried flipping on the wind shield wipers but they would just flip them forward and continue. Persistent little buggers. They see a few white guys in a car and figure they are getting the big pay off. I just gave them change. And in pesos here change isnt much. A figure one time I gave them 15 coins that amounted to 35 cents US$. I now have the cleanest wind shield in all of the DR.
Today we are working on the steering a bit. I am hoping for the best but fearing the worst. I believe I have on steering hydrolic ram that is not working. If I need a new one, It will be such a pain in the ass to get here. And an even bigger pain in the ass to try to fly one in.
On Wednesday I fly to the states for a week. It will be good to get back for a few days and be away from the boat. Although as I always say, when we are on the boat we think of being home and when we are home we think of being on the boat.