Doing the Turtle Shuffle

Well I was told I still have to leave the Green Turtle Club marina on Saturday the 8th because of reservations.

This caused a lot of consternation. The weather forecast was for frequent severe thunderstorms Wednesday through Friday and a lesser degree on Saturday. The wind on Thursday was supposed to be low 20s gusting to 30s and I did not want to move my boat out of that slip and around all the mega yachts that have already arrived in the Marina -- it is tight.

We decided to move out Wednesday in only moderate wind and try and get a mooring ball in White Sound. I first dove on the propeller to check its condition. It had a lot of very fine grass like structures growing on it as well as the rest of the bottom but they brushed right off -- no barnacles. We then checked out and left the marina -- it was blowing moderately but we made it out with out any white knuckles or yelling -- a good thing. We saw a nice orange mooring and went for it. Well it took 4 attempts to finally get the bridle attached and then we could read the little float that said "RESERVED" -- aaaack. The wind was the factor. It would blow us away before we could attach the bridle.

What to do.. There was no other viable mooring available so I called the Bluff House Marina and they said I could stay tonight but they had reservation and I may have to move tomorrow. Ohh well, Chris Parker was calling for the worst storms tonight into tomorrow so we took a slip. That went pretty well and we were all tied up. Good thing because during the night we had numerous storms roll over and one had lightning so packed together that it looked like a continuous light!

It was a nice day. We met the folks on the 2 other sailboats here and they are all holding to cross back to the US too. Sounds like we might have a buddy boat or two which would be grand. The rest of the afternoon was on again off again showers.

For you cruisers here in the winter where most boats here are either sail or trawler, both marinas are full of large powered mega yachts now. No wonder they wanted me to be gone. These folks spread BIG money around although most are quite rude -- could be that "Kalik drip" they have all day long.

After a stormy night it has been a quiet windy day with just a couple of showers. I cleaned the knot log transducer and launched the dinghy. Installed new cam cleats on the dinghy davits. The old ones were slipping occasionally. We met the locals on a Catamaran on that orange mooring so it was good we didn't stay until kicked off. My old slip at the Green Turtle Club had a small mega yacht in there this afternoon.

So far they have not asked us to move. I hate when I can't have a definite plan!

Mark and I went to lunch at the Tranquil Turtle Beach bar here today. There were only a couple of folks there and we got waited on quickly. We ordered a couple of Kaliks and then tried to order lunch but she wouldn't take the order. "We are out of gas but more is coming". Grrrr this is the same place where my Christmas Dinner -- Special Sweet and Sour Chicken dinner -- consisted of 3 wings and a broken drum stick.

Well the threat of rain was high so we just enjoyed the bar and finally ordered about 45 minutes later. I had the Cracked Conch and it was good. Long lunch -- we didn't get back on the boat till 2:30pm

We have just been puttering around the boat and trying to look scarce so they don't ask me to leave -- wishful thinking I guess.

So we will probably be here tonight. I sure don't want to anchor out here because the holding is poor.

Now what's for dinner?