I can stop the RAIN!!

I have developed a rain shield. It was originally intended to be a rain collector but it is actually a rain shield. When I built it a few days ago during a driving 1-inch frog strangler down pour the rain ended as soon as I had it deployed. Once it dried I put it away. This morning we had a light shower and I thought I should set it up again but I delayed. Then another 1-inch frog strangler hit and I could kick myself for not setting it up. At 20 cents a gallon for water I was not adequately motivated to deploy during the storm. When the rain let up I set it up. Then the rain stopped and has been stopped ALL day!! Thus a rain shield.

I tried to buy some coconut bread yesterday in town but all was gone when we looked. So this morning I opened one of the coconuts I had extracted from the coconut husk. I successfully drained the juice, which was delicious and removed the excellent meat. Karen found a recipe for bread with nuts and we modified it for the coconut meal. It turned out pretty good with just a hint of coconut flavor in it.

The wind has been blowing continuously in the 20 kt range all day with higher gusts. The boat is dancing but feels in control – no jerks. All the boats here on anchor seem to be behaving nicely today. Unfortunately it is just too uncomfortable to get off and with the wind chill it is probably in the mid 60s so we postponed the Bocci Ball tournament today.

On the plus side the wind generator is feeling quite prodigious with its amp output and has behaved and not overheated so we may watch a movie tonight since we have excess power today. I have spent most of the day reading so I don’t think I want to continue reading tonight. We will see.

The weather forecast is not good. In Chris’s forecast today he has the windings staying in the 20 + kt range through Thursday and he sees the seas building each day. He even noted today that he thinks the Whale Cay passage will be impassable until next Saturday!! Doesn’t look good for our weather window next week. Oh well this is a good place to stage and wait. We will definitely get off the boat tomorrow but today I think we will just keep sitting tight.

Island Gas Truck

Life is different on an Island. Like when the fuel truck comes to the gas station it is actually a fuel barge that comes in. It is big and hulking and kind of scary but it does make it through the windy entrance to White Sound. Today it came in and fueled up the Green Turtle Club. At $6.17 a gallon they still have plenty of gas over at the Bluff House. As he approached one boat just after the channel entrance they yelled that he was in the channel and had to move. Then they easily maneuvered around him. I think someone has a little Napoleon attitude here.

It was a nice day. Flat calm this morning but is supposed to be blowing 20 – 25 after midnight tonight and for the next several days. Always it’s the middle of the night!!

We went to the ocean side of the beach across from Black Sound near low tide. It sure didn’t look like low tide so must have been wind – wave – swell conditions. At any rate we had a nice walk about town. I tried to get a case of Kalik Gold at the liquor store and they were already sold out. No more till next Thursday!!

After lunch we returned and went to the Library and the grocery. With the forecast winds it will be a few days before we can dinghy back to town. But hey – unless it is raining we can still get off the boat here in White sound and walk the roads around the Green Turtle Club and the Bluff House.

I think tomorrow it will be a Bocci Ball tournament on the beach at the Green Turtle Club!!

The long range forecast has a possible really good weather window coming in next week Thursday through Sunday. If it holds then that will be our window to return.

Make Lemonade

What's that saying? "When life throws lemons at you - make lemonade". Well that is what I tried to do today.

We have had nearly nonstop rain today and very heavy at times. Gosh I thought - at .20 cents a gallon wouldn't it be nice to collect that rain?? Well I'm trying. I made a rain catcher today out of some scrap Sunbrella and a plastic thru hull I had. I sewed the scraps together and put the thru hull in the center and attached a spare hose to it. Then the rain slowed to a drizzle.. Ohhh well I'll test it later.

Earlier we had a LOT of rain because the dinghy was fully 1/3 full!! It took awhile to pump that out but none of that went into the water tank.

Other than that nothing much else going on today. Two boats left and none arrived. I finished another Clive Cussler Dirk Pitt novel and tried to get a more reliable connection to the internet here. For some reason when it rains - the WiFi just goes to hell.

If I get a good connection I'll attach a picture of the rain catcher to this Blog.

Hopefully it will stop raining tomorrow and we can go to town. I heard Abaco Seafood has Lobster for $12 a pound and the season will end in just about 10 days - time to stock up.

On that note I defrosted the freezer and it took about 1.5 hours. It was a mess. Nearly everything was in cased in a solid block of ice. I think this occurs when I put the new bags of ice in that don't quite fit right and they partially melt. I'll just have to throw the excess ice away in the future. That is hard to do at $4.50 a 10lb bag!!

Rain Rain Go Away

This is different - a rainy day in paradise!! Yes we have had a couple of trace rain showers over the last 3 months but this is the first full day of overcast skies and off again on again rain showers - albeit light. It's different.

I took the time to organize and consolidate stuff stored above in the V-berth and store some things in the area under the V-berth now that provisions are being used and space is opening up..

I also changed the engine oil in the genset today. It has been 108 hours and it was ready to be refreshed. It has been working great on this trip 200 + hours without an issue. I like it - hope it continues.

A fellow boater who is known to the readers but will remain nameless for fear of embarrassment decided to move into the Bluff House Marina this afternoon and got into a little trouble. The wind was blowing strong and he tried to back into one of their slips and the wind caught him before he secured a line on an outside piling and was then blown broadside to the docks crossing a couple of slips. With the help of many hands and me in my dinghy we got him right in the slip. Ohhh so embarrassing
but hey could happen to any of us.

The rest of the afternoon has been spent reading some fiction and reading the small engine repair manual on my Yamaha Outboard motor. It is working okay but just doesn't develop as much power as it used to before that guy in Hope Town worked on my carburetor. I suspect I need to put a rebuild kit in the carburetor or just replace it. I'll do that once back in the USA. It works acceptably but could be better.

Not much planned for tonight. This rain will probably keep us all boat bound for the evening. Hmmm that dock is not looking so bad right now especially since they are still running the special on "dockage for food".. Dream on - it will be left overs tonight and besides we had a feast last night with Born To Cruise with barbecued chicken from the grill.

Barbeque in GTC

Just another nice day in GTC. This place is just so pleasant. This morning just after sunrise we could hear songbirds chirping melodiously. The ubiquitous rooster crowing in the distant. I was reluctant to start the generator to charge batteries and heat water. Just every thing seems right with the world here. Except for real estate prices!!

We went for a walk on the ocean side beach this morning and passed a low spot in the road – probably marshy during the rainy season. It had a for sale sign – 100’ by 199’ for $199,000 Gross!! That is GROSS!! Not water front not even water view property.

The beach was very clean. We only found one piece of Sea Glass and some assorted shells.

Later in the morning I decided to fill the Aft water tank – it was nearly empty and I hate pulling the anchor just to top off water and fuel so I jerry jugged about 60 gallons of water. One has a better appreciation for water conservation when one has to heft about 60lbs of water over the side of the boat – each jerry can near overflow weighs that much.

A check on fuel and water prices showed the following:

Bluff House: Gas $6.17, diesel $3.07, and water $.20.

Green Turtle Club: $Gas 3.98, $diesel 3.08, and water $.25.

Don’t just fuel – ask prices first!!

Just a relaxing afternoon watching several b oats coming in to anchor in advance of this next weather system. The forecast does not look good through Sunday – in fact Chris was forecasting sustained 25 kt winds on Sunday. Ohh well this is a great place to be “Stuck”.

Tonight is Barbecue Chicken night and some new rummy game with the Born to Cruise crew. Who says cruising is boring?!!

I Love GTC

Ahhhh back in Green Turtle again. I can’t pin it down but there is some things about this place that makes it most comfortable – except for the endless parade of BOZOS that have to run their little stink pot boats through the anchorage at full throttle and many do not even realize that they have not trimmed the boats – genuine BOZOS.

Today we took a couple of long dinghy rides to the southern beaches of GTC and to the area just below the Bluff House and did some beach combing. Except for a handful of very nice shells nothing interesting was found. After lunch we went to town to see if we could get our Visas extended. The customs office was closed – hmmm no hours posted. I stopped next door at the Post Office but the Post Mistress pleaded ignorance and knew nothing.. except the officer had just left..

I ran into a couple on the street and they gave me the straight skinny. Then have been non a mooring all winter on White sound and extended their visas. You can NOT do it at the regional offices. You have to go to an airport – they had had good luck with the Treasure Cay airport and on the day their visas expired. We will see.

We did some grocery shopping and hardware store browsing. It is just so comfortable walking around GTC. I think it is all the wild chickens running around and the constant distance crow of the roosters that I like. No big engine cars or trucks – just a noisy motorboat once in a while.

We will stay a couple of days till this next weather system passes. It is coming in tomorrow and the weather looks dicey through Thursday so we will probably leave on Friday for Island exploring here North of the Whale.

Ohhh yes we stopped at the library in town this afternoon – very neat and large selection of cruisers books for 1 – 1 exchange. They were impressed with my donations of Clive Cussler Hardback books that I picked up in Treasure Cay Library. They indicated those would not go into the exchange shelves but would be on the resident loaner shelves. I’m glad I made her day.

Born to Cruise came in and anchored today so it will be another night of wild dominoes!! Wuuu Huuuu.

Gone Whaling!!

We are now back in Green Turtle Cay anchored in White Sound. We had an easy passage around the Whale Cay Passage this morning. It was impassable for the last couple of days but really settled down yesterday and was just a "pussy cat" today. I was careful to time our passage when wind and waves were together and near slack water to make for an easy crossing.

It's been a nice day but again windier than forecast - so what else is new??

We have a weather system coming in Monday - Tuesday so we decided to anchor in White Sound until it passes. Then we will explore Manjack and Powell Cays.

Today is just a relaxing day enjoying the fresh breeze on the hook and charging the batteries via the wind generator.

I went over and visited with Evert on Capricious. He will be here till the 28th then back to Ontario (Canada -- for you Ohio readers). He is the resident BASRA Weather forecaster from here so I will just check in and not report while staying in White Sound.

Not much else to report just reading and enjoying the fine weather here. There really isn't much going on in GTC on a Sunday anyway. We will do the town tomorrow and donate a PILE of books to the local library here. Who knows - might even be able to get our VISAS extended too although most cruisers have reported problems with getting extensions. Everyone is hearing a different story it seems. I'll report mine later.