On land, Sunday seems to involve a bit of ritual for us. We sleep a little later, run up the driveway to get the New York Times, and eat a somewhat fattening breakfast while watching the talking heads on the tube.

Things are less structured when we’re cruising – perhaps it is the lack of a Sunday paper. This past Sunday, for example, started out a little later than normal (we’d stayed up past bed time at the yacht club Saturday evening waiting for the America’s Cup race to get underway, and then giving up after an hour of light-air postponements, dinghied back to the boat – we still haven’t found out what happened).

While Linda prepares breakfast I check off a few things on the ever-present “to-do” list. There are two control lines which need whipping on their ends, a loose connection on one of our battens requires attention, and the foot pump for our cold water tank gets a new diaphragm.

Breakfast consists of sausage, eggs, and fresh fruit (papaya, banana, and pineapple). We’re getting low on fruit and will need to make a market run in the next day or so.

With the galley cleaned up we decide to do a bit of boat watching from under the cockpit awning. Between the bare boat charters, crewed charter yachts, mega yachts, and cruisers there is a lot of traffic, and a pot-pouri of shapes and sizes. We watch the boats and their crews in between trying to work our way through the stack of reading material which arrived in Curacao.

By lunchtime we are in the dinghy, checking out some of our neighbors, taking photos of interesting gear, and picking up tidbits from the experience of other cruisers.

One of the boats we chat with has an Inmarsat Mini-M satellite phone aboard. The antenna is the size of a medium plastic bowl, and comparing notes it appears that at present, for a combination of e-mail and voice communication, this is the best answer – if you don’t want to mess with SSB. Of course we’ve got both SSB e-mail and Sat C aboard – but if we were doing it again…

There’s a classic-looking yacht from the past over by the beach. She’s a Sparkman and Stephens design, built by Chris Craft in the early 70s – and very pretty. We are also attracted by an interesting wind scoop/rain protector over their forward hatch,and a nicely executed dodger sun extension.

Needing some awning work in the near future, we inquire, “Where’d you have that beautiful work done?”

The answer is New Hampshire, which is not going to do us much good. But as we chat we learn a bit about anchoring in Bermuda, and then the subject turns to computer problems.

We should tell you that we’ve had all sorts of land-type computers on boats since 1983, without ever having a difficulty. But in Costa Rica our brand new Mac G4, which we’d brought aboard to work on a book project, died – apparently from a defective hard drive.

A new hard drive arrives in Curacao, we install it in Grenada, and that does not sort out the problems. So we are stuck till we get this thing back to the States. Our neighbors have a similar problem with their portable Mac. What do you suppose the odds are of having two boats, anchored at the south end of Grenada, both with Macs aboard, both of which are DEAD! Steve Jobs, please take note.

And then we spot a really interesting-looking boat in another corner of the anchorage. We dinghy over, and circle slowly several times, taking in the hull shape, and deck details. The hull has a modest beam, and beautifully balanced lines. We meet the owners, Ingrid and Robert Jacobs, and they invite us aboard.

It turns out that their boat was built by Amel, in France, in the early 1970s, and is called a Europa. She is 41 feet long, 10 feet wide, and draws a hair less than 6 feet. Talking to the Roberts confirms that this ia a very quick, easily driven boat. They regularly do 160- to 170-mile days in the trades (dragging a fixed three-bladed prop!) and the boat steers like a dream. The center cockpit is deep, and laid out so it is easy to move around in a seaway, and there is a fixed dogger/windscreen. They even have a forward watertight bulkhead.

We are often asked for recommendations on used cruising boats and don’t usually have much to say, but this is one boat we are very impressed with. Fast, and an excellent configuration if caught in heavy weather.

And the best part is the price. These boats can be purchased in the range of US$75,000 in good shape with a full range of cruising gear.

It is getting late, the breeze has dropped off a bit, and after firing up the SSB to check for e-mail, we both settle down with our books. Before long the galley is in process again while things are being checked in the engine room.

By the time the galley is clean it it time for a shower or bath before we horizontalize for the evening. We are both exhausted from this strenuous day of cruising, and need our rest before the stress of another tropical sunrise.