Back in Cruising Mode

MMMM mmmm good. As I write this I'm munching on a handful of coconut meats I extracted from my first coconut the other day.. boy they are GOOD!!


Boy the wind blew hard last night but the lil 22lb Delta and my chain-rope splice seems to have held well. I’m still in the same place. I wasn’t comfortable but I did get some sleep.

Today has been pretty windy and again no problems. Didn’t do much – just hunkered down for the blow.

I adjusted the cables on the steering quadrature to quiet a clanging sound in the pedestal and cleaned and retightened the battery connections to House Battery 2 – it has been recording some wild current draws lately.

Overall the batteries behaved very well overnight and obviously like being equalized in the marina the other day.

The rest of the day was spent reading and relaxing and a long beach walk over at Nipper’s. Gosh during the week the place is quiet. There were only 2 people at the bar and we did NOT join them. Sea glass hunting was the pits at low tide – only one pretty shell offered itself.

The Pot Luck last night was not so good. Obviously the professional eaters have discovered and use and abuse the occasion. When they rang the bell to line up it had already been formed by the “professionals” and we were way back near the end. There was a lot of food offered. It looked promising until we saw little ol ladies leaving the tables with 2 and 3 plates heaping high in food. The early birds obviously loaded up on the “worms”. When we got to the table it was only vegetarian pickings. Still good but a disappointment for a meat eater. I’ll doubt we will be back.. Ohhh yes – all my deviled eggs were gone (20 of them) before we got there so we enjoyed NONE.

We ate with the crews of Born to Cruise, Celtic Cross, and Cyprea and agreed to meet on Born to Cruise tonight after dinner for a night of games – Farkle and Mexican train Dominoes and maybe some other games

Should be an enjoyable night now that the wind is dying done and will be a pleasant ride in the dinghy over there.

Ohhh the dinghy ride last night. When we first left the dinghy dock in the deep dark we only went about 20 yards and the motor quit.. Grrrr what was wrong?? Wouldn’t start then under a flashlight Karen noticed the fuel line had popped off the motor. Reconnected and we were on our way but not before Ian and Sharon came by and offered us a tow. Great folks. There were 35 boats here last night and it was DARK when we came back from the Pot No Luck. I was worried about trying to find Temptation then Karen noticed a catamaran all lit up like an airport runway – Born to Cruise. We knew where we were then. Successful find.

Anchoring INSANITY!!

Today my CQR FAILED me!! It was anchoring insanity here at Fishers Bay on Great Guana Cay. Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome!

I talked Celtic Cross and Born to Cruise to join us here tonight for the Wednesday cruisers pot luck at Grabbers. In the past it was great and we have heard good things about it this year so – we need to try it.

We left Mangoes Marina this morning – easily and had a bit of a lumpy motor sail to Great Guana Cay. Not too bad wind 10 –15. Then just as we rounded the point to head in and bring the Genoa down it gusted up to 22 kts and held. Ohhh it was not nice bringing that Genoa in all that wind. It did not let up either – mayb down to 18.

Finally the sail was stored and I went to one of my favorite (just used it twice) anchor spots and dropped the CQR. Hmmm didn’t hold. Pulled it and tried again. Still no luck. Then again – no dice. We moved to another location and tried again – no luck. Ian on Celtic Cross came over in the dinghy and found a sandy spot – twice no luck. Ohhh it had been nearly an hour of attempts now!!! One more time – no good!!.

Hmmm what to do. I’ve never seen it this bad before. Hell everyone else got it to stick on one try!!! Ian insisted I use my 22 lb Delta anchor. I’ve never used it and it has a rope to chain splice I did and never tested under conditions. Dropped it – held right away!! I laid down 60 feet of chain and 30 feet of line. Looks amateurish with all that scope out but I want to sleep tonight – fat chance ehhh. When you have a failure like this it will be awhile before the confidence returns.

Well after a couple of therapeutic beers and some lunch I made my world famous deviled eggs for the pot luck tonight. Hopefully it will be GREAT. The wind is laying down and the tide will work with us to get us on and off the dock here at Fisher’s Bay.

Not sure about the Internet since I anchored far away from my usual spot but if I have it I’ll include a picture of the CQR – still in the bow roller tonight – with the sand blasted polished edges.

COCONUTS!!!

I opened my first coconut today. It was not pretty.. Fortunately I did not hurt myself although the potential was there..

Ian and Sharon came by early this afternoon and Sharon mentioned that she had found a coconut that she wanted to open later today. I told her I had bought a machete for that purpose but had not tried it yet and I would be happy to try and open her coconut. It was not pretty. The first blow bounced off the husk. The second missed the first whack area by a good inch. Then the jokes came about how lightning never hits twice in the same spot. Well I wailed away and slowly loosened the husk but no nut was yet visible when they asked that I stop and they would finish the job with a hammer and screwdriver. Grrrr.

Well I have 2 husks I have been saving so I wailed away on one of mine. Not pretty. The I busted the nut and lost the juice. Grrrr. Well then 2 full strength blows had the husk and nut in two halves. Hmmm I wonder how the store is able to just offer the nuts??? Mine would not come out of the husk.

Well not to be deterred I hacked the meat out of the 2 halves with a paring knife – again not pretty. I apparently have a lot to learn about opening coconuts. However – the meat was delicious.

I spent the day working on the boat some more. I have a new patch applied to the dinghy and replaced an oar holder and installed a mounting base to the bow for attaching a red/green navigation light which is required in Florida but no where else when running at night.

We did a provisioning run to the grocery and drug store and did a couple of loads of laundry. I went next dolor to Harbor View Marina and filled my diesel deck cans (12 gallons) and topped off the dinghy gas. We are ready to leave in the morning and enjoy life on the hook again. Life is better on the hook rather than the marina.

The air is better, it is not as noisy, and the SSB works a lot better. A lot of static on the radio when in a marina and the WiFi is better on the hook.

Tentative plans are to head to Great Guana Cay tomorrow for the Wednesday Cruisers pot luck dinner there, then down to Lynyard Cay Thursday or Friday to do some sea glass hunting on the ocean side beach. Possibly Born to Cruise and Celtic Cross will accompany us to either one or both places.

Hmmm might find another coconut to open too!!

Sorry – again lousy Internet connection so no pics tonight.

Just Work Work Work

Just another day of work – cruising on hold for a couple of days. I really felt I had dropped out of cruising mode when a dinghy with a couple from an Endeavour 33 came by and asked me to go play pickle ball with them and I declined – had stainless to polish!!

Work was easy since the internet was just crap today – not sure where the problem is but we expected much better once tied up in the marina.

The weather is unusual as usual. Another cold front came through today – a little late and the temps dropped from 73 to 65 but with overcast skies it felt a lot cooler today.

Thus no pictures from the Junkanoo exhibition yet – maybe tomorrow.

Karen found an excellent book on Sea Glass and has determined that she has already found some real “jewels”. She is tickled by that.

Me I’m just in work mode. Boat is cleaned and problem areas have been waxed. The dinghy is cleaned and ready for a couple of patches but waiting till tomorrow with a less chance of rain. Tonight I’ll set the battery charger up for Equalization and that should breathe new life into the batteries.

That’s it – a pretty lackluster day but a day nevertheless.

Working like a Dog Today!!

Work Work Work!!! Gosh is today really Sunday??

We headed into Mangoes Marina this morning early - 7:45. It was just an hour after high tide but we need the depth to make the approach. Conditions were ideal - nearly calm wind and bright and sunny. Ray was on the dock just like he said he would be - they are usually closed on Sundays. HE took our lines and we made an okay arrival but I did need to adjust the Magna Grill after a brush with a piling. Hey it has been weeks since I was in a slip. Wayne from Born to Cruise was also on the dock
giving us a hand.

Once checked in I hooked up the power cord and the hose and proceeded to wash the boat down and really charge the batteries up. I don't know why the difference but the charger works harder from shore power than the generator. I could hear the cooling fans running hard.

We were supposed to get a little rain today but that didn't happen. I concentrated on cleaning the windlass area and bow pulpit. The pulpit was nearly brown from rust stains and the windlass wasn't far behind. The deck was stained like from Neuse Juice so I had to do an Oxalic acid treatment to make it white again.

Then spent the afternoon cleaning decks, and polishing some of the stainless steel. Karen did some laundry and we have fresh bedding tonight. Boy won't know how to behave now!!

Then polished off the afternoon with a LONG HOT shower in a large shower stall. Ohhh the little things feel so good.

We will have a quiet evening tonight. We were up way past cruisers midnight last night. Went to the Junkanoo Exhibition and watched 3 of 5 groups perform. It was pretty good but just not the electricity in the air as with a real Junkanoo parade.

Unfortunately there are internet problems so I'll send pictures hopefully tomorrow. This post is via the SSB tonight.

MERMAID!!

Ahhhhh Mermaid Reef. One can’t go to Marsh Harbour without a visit to Mermaid Reef. Unfortunately the water is too cold (for me) to snorkel today – 68 degrees – so we just visited it. Just beautiful.

The Junior Junkanoo was okay last night but started much too late. It was supposed to start at 6:30pm but didn’t start until 8:30pm . It was 65 degrees with a stiff breeze so we were very cold. Sorry blood thinned by tropical sun has 65 degrees as COLD!!

I took a few pictures but they were just so so. Tonight is the senior exhibition but I’m not sure if we will go. We will see.

This morning we did some provisioning – sewing buttons, beer and rum – just the essentials. I bought some Gosling Black Seal and some ginger beer (Old Jamaica) and will try my first “Dark and Stormy” tonight – 2 oz Gosling, 3 oz ginger beer.

The day has been quite windy and cool so it was great for walking around town and the reef but kind of chilly on the boat.

The weather forecast has some unsettled weather coming in tomorrow night so I made arrangements to go into a marina – Mangoes Marina for a couple of days. It is time to clean the boat and fully charge the batteries as well as ourselves. Haven’t been to a marina for a stay since before Christmas at GTC.

Well enjoy the pics of Mermaid Reef.

Real Salty trip today

On the move again… Finally left Hope Town. It is difficult to leave a secure harbour once you have been there awhile.

That cold front last night came in late and had just passed this morning when we needed to leave Hope Town on a favorable tide. It was blowing 17 kts from the W-NW and should have been N-NW at 20. Hmmm good reason to stay?? No we left any way. It was time for a different view.

We had no problem leaving but the 2 foot wind chop nearly on the nose was creating a lot of spray. Our enclosure kept us dry but ohhh the windows – just salt encrusted!! We only went 7 miles but ohh the crust was worse than we got in a 26 hour 155 mile\crossing of the Gulf Stream!!

Once into Marsh Harbour everything laid down.. The anchorage was sparsely populated and we got a primo spot in front of the Jib Room marina. Great WiFi There.

After sorting thing out we went to town and did some light grocery shopping. On the way back we cruised over to Hollywood Georges Conch Salad stand to get some Conch Salad. He was just in the process of whipping up a new batch. We watched him extract the conch from the shells and dice all the fixins for the salad —he is a virtuoso with the chef knife.

Back on the boat for some lunch and of course – conch salad – ummmm good.

Then later in the afternoon we went over to Mangoes Marina and made a reservation for a slip for a few days beginning Sunday. We need to clean the boat, charge and equalize the batteries, and weather another strong cold front coming in Sunday night.

Tonight some light entertainment of the crew from Celtic Cross then on to the Junkanoo Exhibition of the juniors tonight. Seniors tomorrow night.