Back at Puteri Harbour Marina

It has been raining almost constantly since we returned to the boat after our trip to Thailand.

We are all getting a little stir crazy staying cooped up inside the boat.

One day BeBe wanted to cook something and we agreed that I would teach her how to bake a cake. I wanted to bake a meatloaf -- something we haven't had since last August in Cairns. I don't like to heat the oven just to bake one thing, so this seemed like a feasible idea for a rainy afternoon. Unfortunately, due to foreign language printed on the labels, the can of evaporated milk that I thought I was opening turned out to be a can of sweetened condensed milk. Not something I want cooked into a meatloaf. So I asked Bill to get online and find us a recipe using sweetened condensed milk. Normally the only thing I use this for is to bake granola, and I did not have all the ingredients for proper granola. He found a pan cookie recipe and a fudge recipe. Both kids immediately exclaimed that they wanted the fudge. So Elisabeth cooked her first batch of fudge. It turned out just fine. Better for her to start with this simple recipe than to try her hand at the better and more difficult real fudge recipe that we prefer.

It had stopped raining by the time the fudge was ready, so she and Zach brought a small amount of the fudge to share with Bill and Amy on S/V Estrellita. Later, they came over to our boat and we enjoyed visiting with them in our cockpit. BeBe and I managed to get a lot of insect bites and will be itching miserably for weeks. It really isn't fair that she and I are the only ones who react so severely to insect bites. That is the main reason I stay cooped up inside the boat so much. With all this rain, the insects are particularly thick.

Last night we were treated to dinner at the marina cafe by Randall and Ruth on M/V Dora Mac. Bill had checked on their boat several times while they visited Nepal and Tibet. They reciprocated by buying dinner for all 4 of us. How sweet! And totally unnecessary. Bill was happy to check on their boat in their absence. Cruisers always are looking out for one another.

Nothing else going on -- except more rain, rain and rain.