sittononthebeach.com

Tonight we are in bug /mosquito paradise….  Still in the harbor at Rum, tonight just before dark the wind stopped……

Luckily I bought a 5 gallon can of gas today for the generator ($8.00/gallon) but that just means we will spend $8 bucks tonight being bug free and dry.  That’s cheap, but the problem is finding gas here in the out islands.  $40 dollars for a 5 gallon can of gas……  OK, I admit it…. Being in America has certain advantages.

In the remote out islands weather plays a much bigger part in your travel plans.  Every move from island to island is an open ocean voyage.  That means the possibility of big swells even on a good day.  If there was a storm 1000 miles from here……. The big waves eventually show up.  A tsunami is a radical example of open ocean waves…. But you get the idea.  In the Exumas you can sail almost any day in the lee protection of 300 islands strung tightly together.

It may be wise to not do all the out islands in a row…… Just hop out to them from the Exumas several times in settled weather.  We have enjoyed the dead calm of this little harbor…it was good for us after a couple big wave crossings in a row.

Well I’m about to step outside and see if the  mosquitoes have gone to sleep yet.  They are most prevalent at dusk….. Hopefully they have gone away.  I’d like to open the boat up tonight…… But I’m about to find out if that’s possible.

Shoot! no bugs and a bit of a breeze.  Not much reason to run the AC now.  I thought I’d find it buggy and make the decision easy.  We have trapped more bugs inside than I saw outside.  We are turning off the AC and giving Mother Nature a try.  If it gets too still I’ll get up and get the AC going again.

Goodnight all.  Rusty

We have shamelessly ignored our blog…..  To catch up on our travels, lets start with some logistics in reverse chronology and go from there.  SYL is sitting calmly on Rum Cay this morning.  We exited Crooked islands for the second time yesterday and made a decent 60 mile crossing.  The unsettled weather of late has made  departure from the Crookeds quite a challenge.

Yesterday there were no squalls so the trip was doable.  It is fortunate that winds and waves were on our starboard rear quater because the open ocean swell ran 5 to 8 feet all day.  Winds were 15 and as I said dry with out the thunderstorms we have been having most every day.  The trip was not a postcard 10%er but overall not too bad.  About two hours before we left a couple british gents on a Prout 37 Snowgoose named “Snowball” left the anchorage.  Once we picked up our heading it was evident they were also heading to Rum, so that added to the enjoyment of the trip.

We passed Snowball just before the halfway mark to Rum.  Winds were almost too directly behind us…. the trick of the day was keeping the jib full, not letting the main steal all it’s air.  After passing our boat buddy I headed up as high as I could to keep the jib puling in case the wind changed. It turned out to be a good move.  Winds went a little South of SE and I was able to come up enough to fill the jib.  Naturally before the shift there was a settling… winds dropped to under 10 knots.  That gave the advantage to Snowball because of his large genoa.  I was no longer gaining ground in the “undeclared” but always present race when two boats have the same destination.

Winds did go more south and picked back up to a useable 13 knots so I headed up to use that slack I put “in the bank” earlier in order to use all my cloth (keep the front sail full).

After a bit I looked back at Snowball and he had taken down his big genoa and hoisted a parasail!!!!!!  This thing goes dead down wind like a runaway train.  It was beautiful to watch as they got closer and closer to me…. lol.   Luckily winds stayed high enough for my boat and I made landfall first.  Had winds gone light he would have made ground quickly on SYL having only a jib and main.

Rum Cay is plesant so far.  We slept well without a swell, having anchored as deep in Nelson Bay as we could.  Snowball continued into the old harbor (it’s closed without services but still has the docks) so I’m sure they rested well in the calm water as well.  I took the dinghy in yesterday to check out the harbor and help our new buddy tie up.  I think we will move into the marina this morning as well.  Normally a harbor gets hot without a good breeze.  We will see during the day today…. if there is no breeze we’ll come back on anchor.

We did move into Sumner Point Marina, and docked alongside with Paul and Tony, our new friends.  They were out most of the day with “Big E”… the local color commentator/snorkel guide/fishing expert and overall loud goodfella here on Rum Cay.  I understand he did the grandtour with his guests….. allowing them the opportunity to spend money with everyone on the island.

This afternoon I got some time with the guys after Big E left.  The advised me not to enlist his services unless I wanted to spend the whole day with the loud somewhat overbearing guide.  After a quick tour of SYL, Paul talked about sailing in Greece.  He showed us the prime areas and was very helpful having spent several years in the Med.   We have often thought of flying over and chartering a boat to sail Greece….. interesting.. but not in the cards right now.

Sunday:

Snowball left this morning before we got out of bed, they are heading to Cat Island, and the USA.  Thier intent is to leave the boat in North Carolina, buy a couple motorcycles and ride across America.  I wish them well.

Yesterday we rented a golf cart from Josie around noon and I returned it today.  The golf cart trip made our Rum Cay experience doubly memorable.  Yesterday we skirted the beach road so that it was easy to stop and discover many remote beaches along the way.  We picked up some nice driftwood and some new (old) colored rope to hang on the front of our dinghy.  Another spot we visited was absolutely magical… they call it North Beach.  Its remote and very picturesque.

Last night the wind was dead and it had been raining so the boat was damp.  When the wind drops out the bugs come out….  so we closed up and turned on the AC for the night.  Unfortunately,  I set the Honda out on the dock for the night… about 2AM the bottom fell out and it rained for quite sometime.  At 2:30 the generator got too wet and quit.. so I got up in the rain to try and restart it without success.  I went back to bed around 3AM and didn’t work on the Honda until noon.  I cleaned the carb, but I knew that wasn’t the issue… I just did that waiting for the generator to dry out so it would fire again.. the spark plug wouldn’t spark.  I kept checking fire, to see if it was thru complaining yet but alas… it was not.  After the carb refresh I started unplugging wires looking for moisture.  I had opened 4 connections and found them dry as a bone so I almost skipped that one on the bottom that’s so hard to get to.  Good thing I didn’t skip it….. there was water inside the connector.  After flushing the connection with carb cleaner to get rid of the water I dabbed it out with paper towel and a tooth pick.  I couldn’t wait to check fire after I got it back together!  It fired nicely so I knew it would run. With a fresh plug and clean carb it fired up on the first pull.

Adding AC power to our boat is pretty important.  When the sun is out we can make water on the solar panels… but no 110 volt power means no oven and no way to recharge the batteries unless we are in a marina.  Our plans are to not see an active marina for weeks.  Sumner Point where we are now is closed… you can tie up but there are no services.  The mail boat came in yesterday so I was told gas is available again.  Josie told me he couldn’t rent me his cart because he didn’t have gas….  I told him I had a little so he rented to me at a discount, my maintanks are almost full and I have two 5 gallon cans full, but as I said we expect to be remote for a while so having an extra 10 gallons for the generator might allow more nights of air conditioning than we otherwise might choose.  We don’t run it much… but after a soaking rain it’s nice to dry SYL out.

RUM CAY:   We like the little island.  Linda found out there are 35 local inhabitants and they are noted to be most friendly.  The remoteness is the attraction, not many folks hanging out here…..  The waters aren’t particulary clear….  but hey we have been on Crooked Island for 3 weeks and there are no cleaner waters anywhere I know of so that may be an unfair comparison.

Many sport fishermen use the closed harbor to come in and clean fish…  that means there are plenty sharks swimming in and out looking for a cheap meal… this must be the McDonalds of the Bahamas.  I have seen as many as 6 under the boat at one time.  They are primarily nurse sharks… but there are also Bull sharks and several other species so swimming in the harbor is not an option.  Thats unfortunate too because there is a nice little beach right in the harbor.

The harbor is a nice option primarily because it’s free and protected from waves at almost every direction.  Having done the golf car tour and seen much of the island we will leave for Conception Island tomorrow weather permitting.

We have not had internet for several days.  I am currently sitting in our dear friends house, Jim and Lynne, in the Crooked Islands.  We have had a great few days.  We decided rather suddenly to leave GT and head for the Crooked Islands.  The passage to the Crookeds is rarely fun.  You notice I said passage not sail.  We motor sailed to Rum Cay where we stayed a couple of days.  The path from GT to the Crookeds and beyond is called “the thorny path” for a reason.  It is usually a difficult passage because you are fighting a 1.5 knot current and prevailing SE winds.  We went to Rum Cay to try and get a better angle to the Crookeds.  We anchored in the middle of coral reefs and it was cool to be able to just jump off the boat and go snorkeling.  We were in about 7ft of water.  The coral heads around us came almost to the surface and we were deep in the bay so it made really nice, comfortable with a lot of choices close to the boat.  We found the sunny side of the reefs had most of the fish.  It was fun.  We stayed two days and we were the only ones in the bay.  We enjoyed our solitude after the craziness at GT.  

Rusty here: We left for Crooked Island early Monday morning. The easting that we took going to Rum Cay was intended to set us up to be able to sail without engines to the Crookeds.  What I forgot was there was a 1.5 knot current in my face so when the winds were low I had to run one or both motors from the first half of the trip to maintain passage speed for the 60 mile trip.  As is it turned out the second half of the journey and it helped my apparent wind drive the boat without motors.  Suffice it to say the rain we got when we arrived to the Crookeds was welcomed to get the salt spray off the ROOF of the boat.

Linda here:  It was a rodeo!!!

Sea Yawl Later!!

I just got back from watching the big “A” Class race from the dinghy.. great fun.  “Tida’ Wave” from Staniel Cay is quite the favorite…. I didn’t see the end, but she started third and by the first turn she was in the lead.  The first leg is upwind and she outpointed all the other boats.  The boat I picked to do well was “Red Stripe” from Black Point.  They build great boats there… but I’m afraid I’ve never seen a keen skipper from Black Point that could bring home the bacon.  The top of Red Stripe’s sail laid off badly upwind, even though she was close hauled….. she gave a lot of her power away up high.  She started first by 3 lengths.. at the first mark she was 150 yards below the windward mark when “Tida’ Wave” rounded.  Sorry I didn’t have the camera for the “A” race.

It was quite the worry about having enough wind to complete the 4 day event…. so far the only race that suffered was yesterdays “C” race.  I was at the line when the Race Commodore said… “gentlemen all I can tell you is be ready… when we get a little wind we are going to start you.. whether it’s upwind or down”….  WOW, I just heards the cannon fire for the end of the big “A” race.  “Running Tide” took the fleet.I took this immediately after the “A” race from the boat.  I can hear hollering and jubilation across the water 200 yards away from the finish.  It appears “Tida’ Wave” and “Rupert’s Legend” finished 2nd and 3rd..  Funny that the first 3 boats are painted white.  There are boats of every color out there making the race quite the visual spectacle.  “Running Tide” took a unique line thru Kidd Cove and all the cruising boats that must have netted him some real estate.  He made up quite a bit of ground on the leaders to pull off the win!

The previous race allowed me some nice pictures that tell the story of how the races area run.

The race begins by jockeying for position, lots of yelling with bull horn replies from the race committee. When the committeemen are satisfied they shoot a cannon and they are off!

At the start they have an anchor set about 40 yards out in front of the boat…. they get up to speed by pulling hard, then raise the sail.

This race was the second of the day, the “B” class.  I was on the line when “Lady Sonia” pulled off a fine start and held it to the end.  I got some great pictures of the race and took a congratulatory picture after the win.  The skipper gave me his email so I was able to share his victory with him and his shipmates via email.  I’m sure I was the first to inform his wife he had won… because of the lighting speed of email and his holding up a single “first place” finger in the camera shot after the race was over……

Iv’e often wondered just how fast these boats are.  Its forbidden to have electronics of any kind on any of the boat even for practice.  The purity of the sport is regarded as almost sacred.  Following along in the dinghy, I can report that with the light to medium winds, I didn’t have to get on plane to keep up with any class of Bahamian Sloop today or yesterday.  I haven’t put a GPS on the boat, but my RC boat is about the same speed.

I need to get up early and listen to the weather.  Soon we will be heading South/SE toward the Crooked Islands.  The prevailing winds are also SSE.  Lately fronts have been coming thru about every 6 1/2 days.  If that holds true, I need to be ready to move out after the Norther passes in about 4 days.  Some nice following North winds would be nice!

All I need is a couple more cans of gas.  There aren’t many places where you can put $63 dollars worth of gas in two 5 gallon cans!  But it’s easy to do in the Bahamas.  There is no opportunity for gas for the next 100 miles (to the Crooked Islands) so it makes sense to fill all my extra cans in GT before we leave.  You can go on the opposite side of Long island and buy gas, but the most direct (and probable route) is pretty remote.

Sunset is an hour away….. almost horn blowing time.  I can hear the huge speakers at regatta point (the zoo) boom boom… boom boom.  There will be a high time ashore tonight!  Glad I went ashore earlier to pick up my event tee shirt.  I’m all set for the night.

I heard something strange today…. Linda said “I think I’m ready to go sailing soon”  She’s always the one that wants to put the anchor in the sand and stay put for days on end.  Which we have done lately.  I’m glad to hear she will be ready for the next leg of our trip to the Crooked Islands.  I’m hitting the sack early tonight so I can get up and listen.. maybe talk to Chris Parker about my next leg.  He will be the best resource to say when to go down the “thorny path” so it’s called toward the Caribbean.

Two mail boats brought bahamian race boats from all across the Bahamas for the big event

Regatta Point is a great viewing area for the big race that lasts 3 days. Bahmians talk smack like you can’t believe about his favorite boat or against his buddies team.

This is a “B” class, the smaller boats do not have a front sail.

The cloud patterns that make pretty sunsets also make a nice scene with the regatta boats mast straining against the wind.  The cloud pattern closely resembles the shape of the land mass below.  What happens is…. clouds form from the rising air off the hotter land mass.  The clouds drift down wind and it forms sort of a trail of clouds spawned from the island’s mass.  If your’e ever lost at sea and can’t find land……. look for clouds, chances are there is land under them…

This boat “SV COOL CAT” came in and dropped the hook next to us. I went over and talked to the owner. This thing is all carbon fiber, boat, mast and all.. it’s 47′ long with a rotator mast and dagger boards. Paul, the owner said his average cruising speed under sail is 14 to 16 knots. When it pipes up he can hold over 20 knots but according to Paul “it gets a little fidgety” sweet boat!

The water in all the Bahamas is exceptionally clear. It’s hard to forget, yet it surprises you how pretty it is when you come back.

There is not an abundance of space on any sailboat but I found a good place for my toy while it’s set up. I only took it apart once while we were in GT due to expected big winds.

Iv’e had lots of fun with my RC boat, kids want to sail it, adults want to buy it…. The water here is so clear it looks almost like it’s floating in the air. This is about 11′ deep.

My little ship

She sure looks sweet on the water. After finding all the bad power and signal connections and bare wires that caused malfunctions…. I don’t have to keep the dinghy handy to go get the boat anymore. Once I let the batteries get too low on the boat and had to go pick it up.. but that was my fault. It’s nice to sail right up to SYL and pick it up off the stern. Yesterday I took the boat and it’s stand to the “zoo” at regatta point where the carnival atmosphere of the race is centered. I set up next to the first beer joint / food stand I came to and sat on the rail talking to passers by and answering questions. By this time many had seen the boat on the water and wanted a closer look. It was fun to be part of the attraction for a while.

When the wind lays to 10 knots or less… it’s perfect weather for sailing the AC replica….

Sunset over Regatta Point at Kidd Cove in Georgetown.

A closer shot thru the trees looks altogether different than the wide shot above.

Sunsets in the Bahamas always have character… I imagine it’s due to the island terrain that forms unique cloud patterns.

What did we all do before internet and Facebook?  We did not have internet for almost three days.  I must confess that we could access the net on my iPad but on it I can mainly read because I find it hard to negotiate around on the iPad.  Rusty went into town on the Monday after Easter and the town was closed up tight.  Someone told him that everything is closed the day after a holiday….good to know.  We have been without milk, eggs and bread for several days.  I didn’t realize how important those items were if you wanted breakfast.  I tried graham crackers and peanut butter………nope, then graham crackers and cream cheese which was ok by be but a negative for Rusty.  Finally I have resorted to protein bars and coffee.  Not very satisfactory.

Today being Tuesday after Easter, Rusty was able to go into town and get our laundry……….$56.00…….I know, I know…….but I really, really HATE laundramats.  Even when we were at the RV “resort” which had a nice laundry room, I would wait and wash when we went to the lake.  I don’t mind doing laundry at home but doing it all at once, hauling it around………it was worth $56.00.  In my defense, over half of the laundry was laundry that was already onboard when I got on SYL.  Most of it is towels, sheets etc.  I have been keeping a budget since we got onboard.  Once you get here you really don’t spend much money even with cokes $3.50 each.  I now have milk, eggs and bread………Yeah!

The weather yesterday was very, very windy with sustained winds around 20 knots with knots probably approaching 40 knots.  Needless to say I stayed onboard.  Rusty made that run into town and went over to the dock where they were unloading some of the boats for the Regatta and help bring one of them around.

It was so rough I couldn’t get in the water which I like to do everyday.  Today the water is still unsettled but I imagine I will get off the back of the boat.  Rusty has a water hammock installed on the back of the boat so I get my water saddle and bob around and do a little water aerobics.  Rusty is reading a lot but tomorrow the races start.  We are hoping we are in a good spot in Kid Cove to see the races.  I am sure Rusty will get in his dinghy and follow the activities.

Sea Yawl Later!!

Linda

Easter Sunday began rainy as a front came through GT.  The wind clocked as always from the SE clockwise all the way back to SE. At this writing (4pm).  we got a lot of rain (for the bahamas)  Afterwards winds laid to about 8 knots.

SYL moved again….. We left Goat Cay and slow sailed back up the harbor as the sun popped back out.  We dropped anchor in Kidd Cove, the closest anchorage to town.  tomorrow I’ll go get our laundry and make a store run for milk and eggs.

YardsWhen we got settled I took out the rc sailboat and made a big round.  Winds were perfect and she sailed like a champ.  I ranged out 80 to 100 yards.  We are close to the dingy traffic going into GT, so it was fun having people be surprised by the “little boat” as everyone calls it.  The little boat looks nice in 6′ of Bahama water…. You can see the keel.  Looks like it’s floating in the air.

Linda made steaks, corn and green beans for dinner…. Scrumptuous!  My rc batteries are charged again so I’m off!

Rusty

Today started out much like yesterday.  When I woke up I looked out the bedroom window to see if the wind had changed…  had the boat held it’s position, had we moved and if so my first effort is to see why.  Normally we are exactly where I expect.  This morning was no exception….  we still had the same land and beach out the bedroom window.

Often I get coffee in bed, linda is always up early.  My natural wake up time seems to be about 7:45… she hears me yawn or make some noise and she checks on me to see if I want coffee or even breakfast if its ready.  After being pampered and sometimes a chapter or two of the current book…. I get up.  If I’m interested in the weather it comes on the GT cruiser net at 8AM so I’ll get up right away.

My first trip is always to the galley to check the battery levels and take the boat’s pulse.  I look at the level gauge showing how much fresh water we have, check the freezer to see how much ice we have, then I’ll ask Linda if she needs the generator for breakfast if we haven’t already eaten.  The convection oven needs AC power so if the batteries or Linda need the Honda, I crank it up and often run the ice maker or watermaker at the same time to best utilize the gas burn.  If it’s got to run, I generally activate as many amp users as I need to bring the boat to ship shape.  The only no-no is running the air conditioning and the oven at the same time.

We normally drop the salon dividers to keep the dew off the seats and table at night.  If they are down somebody rolls them up, me or Linda.  Sometimes the boat gets open by 7AM… sometimes its closer to 11AM if we don’t have sailing plans that day.

What goes in between daylight and dark are seldom scheduled as of late.  The big coming attraction is the Family Island Regatta.  Tomorrow is Sunday, boats will begin arriving in GT.  This year is set to be a big race in the “A” class and there is an expected favorite from Long Island in the “C” class…. a fairly new boat.  The races will go on all week. These boats are amazing. The largest class is limited to 21′ in length with a 63′ mast and a 45′ boom.  Pictures will no doubt be posted during the event.  Some of the favorite boats are “Lady Sonia”, Red Stripe” and “Tidal Wave” from Staniel Cay.

Today it was windy, gusts to 35 – 40 knots in the harbor.  I moved the boat a couple times to find a nice motion for the night.  I ran spot so people could see where we moved to.  We are tucked in tight behind Goat Cay inside the harbor.  It is supposed to go very light for the next 3 days.  Hopefully the Regatta won’t suffer without any wind but I expect that may be the case for at least some of the races.

Tomorrow if it does go flat… I may break out some snorkel gear and look around in this cove a bit. I see some big dark areas that may be a reef structure.  The big cove is very shallow.  I came in near low tide and saw 4′-1″, so its not a big boat hang out.  I’ve been in this cove many times.  This is the beach you go to to walk to the hardware store.  Its nice sized, tonight I see 5 other mast lights nestled in here.. out of the waves.  I guess the average depth is 6′ and the bottom is pure white sand.

The past 2 evenings we spent with “Cat’s Meow” playing games in the evening.  Thursday night we met on SYL and played Mexican Train, last night we learned a new game on their boat….. they didn’t know the name of it, but you get dealt 9 cards each.  We placed them face down in 3 rows of 3 cards like a block, turn 2 over and start the game.  The idea is to finish with the lowest points each hand.  We really liked it.  If anybody knows the name of this game share it with us.

We are listening to XM radio.  I wandered off the “Love Channel” temporarily and found channel 56….lol.  “Ranger Doug’s Classic Cowboy Corral”  it’s old time cowboy music.. even yodeling and a couple polkas…. lol.  Mostly it’s true old school cowboy music.  I can’t believe how much I am enjoying it.  Hank Williams Sr. is the most recent artist Iv’e heard.  It’s normally the “Willie Nelson Channel” tonight must be a special event but I’m loving it.  The music business was a much simpler world back then.  My brothers best friend in high school is the president of the CMA  “Country Music Association”.  It’s amazing how the business has changed in the past 15 years.  Back then it only took a voice and some luck… now it’s big business with lawyers and managers…. the “talent” that makes most of the money now are litigators.  Sad isn’t it where slick men is expensive suits took over the USA at almost every level.

The US has something like 5% of the worlds population and 95% of the worlds lawyers.  I don’t want to get on my soapbox… but today what is “right” is determined by what lawyers can most easily prove rather than right and wrong.  Generally a litigator with political aspirations well manages his own sense of reality… the more he can influence the masses to believe his “reality” the more power he garners.  Today we live and manage our lives to fit within what a lawyer says we can get by with in the US.  There are very few “statesmen” that stand on their honor and do what’s right for America…. it’s all about what will make himself more powerful.  Sad isn’t it.. that the simple life we 60 year olds grew up in is gone.  I keep looking for the pendulum to swing back to christian values… and there has been some of that, it makes me hopeful….  but not very.  It’s hard to put water back in the faucet after it’s out.  “Politics” is a word to spit out of your mouth these days.  OK…  I got on it..now I’m getting off my soapbox……

Sea Yawl Tomorrow, Rusty

Winds were a little too high to play with the RC sailboat yesterday.  We did go bobbing with “Cats Meow” yesterday… the water is a little cool but it was nice.  It was not effortless because the tide was going out quickly.. we had to reposition the boat several times, and the Chat-n-Chill beach is not nearly as good as Black Point.  I found several small starfish under the boat, but nothing more to talk about on that.  Actually I do have something else to say about the Chat-n-Chill.  This made the third evening in a row we pulled up to bob on the beach.  Normally we spend money at his establishment but not always.  This day the owner came by and said we could not come to his beach “every day”.   I don’t understand that… why wouldn’t he want people coming to spend money at his establishment.  Collectively in the 3 days we spent about $70 bucks on drinks, a burger, a tee shirt…. and he wants to make sure we don’t make a habit of it?…. OK I won’t.

One of the things that gives me the “reset” I need after living for others and abiding by endless… even ever changing rules on the job is the lack of rules or even a daily direction when I get on my boat.  Low stress, no fuss no muss…. hitting the space bar in my mind for hours on end.  When that changes I don’t accept it well.  Who ever heard of rules in the Bahamas….. come on..  We pay lots of money to every local inhabitant we deal with and that should be enough.. but apparently it’s not even here in the Bahamas… somebody’s got to break the calmness.  It was like shattering a crystal wine glass on the hard floor in the middle of an empty room.  OK, I’m over it now…. pretty much.  Back to that space bar I enjoy so much………………………………………….

SYL   Rusty

 5-18 noonish

I moved the boat, we were just below the monument (the highest precipice on Stocking Island) next to Cat’s Meow.  We were tucked in close to the beach and the boat was moving around way more than it should under the given conditions.  The issue was wind would pour around one side of the mount, then switch a bit so that apparent wind came around the other side of the hill.  In between those two changes it got fairly calm.  This cycle happened about every 5 minutes.  When it got calm the chain would slack.. then we were off in a new direction until we hit the end of the chain again.  It’s much better here (about 1/2 way to the Gripe-N-Overcharge… I mean Chat-N-Chill.

Linda and I are about to go for a dinghy ride here in the harbor….. Sea Yawl Later

We just got back from “town”  I took the big boat across the harbor, anchored out and dropped the dinghy.  I made 3 stops, the first to get rid of trash, second to drop off some dirty laundry, then to Minn’s water sports to buy 10 gallons of gas.  All 3 duties were accomplished pretty quickly but now that I look at the clock it’s 11:30… where does the time go?

The pictures Linda took of the CHAT-N-CHILL this morning are still our exact view.  We anchored back in the very same spot after the morning trip.  Visitors are starting to gather at the beach, looking for the stingrays that come and feed on conch trimmings from the conch bar.  There are always a family or two waiting for the stingrays to show up or petting them if they are already feeding.

We are developing a routine….. about 2:00 the last 2 days we ease over to the beach with SYL.. put her nose in the sand and bob around under the boat talking to passers by.  Today Don and Lavonne will join us from the boat “Cats Meow”.  Linda is making her famous Amish bread, I’ve got my RC sailboat batteries all charged up, life is good.  Iv’e done a couple long range sails with the model boat, the farthest is probably 2 miles all at once.  The funnest thing is sailing off the beach while we are swimming (bobbing) under the boat.

Not much to report, I have a some phone calls to make, then it’s off to the beach.  I found something that reminds me of home.. well of work anyway.  If I ever get to missing my job, I can get downwind of my generator and smell the fumes…… reminds me of my office back at work inside the refineries.  Life seems better somehow on the other side of the generator.  To be fair… I’d never be here if it wasn’t for being there.  You have to paddle hard before you can drift a while.. and be old enough to not owe everything you make to the bank.

Looking out the window… three families are playing with the stingrays, they must be having a regular stingray buffet over there.  The wind is up a bit today, not bad but probably 16 to 18.  There are very few clouds, the water temp is 76 degrees.. about the same as the air.  With the watermaker brought out of mothballs.. all systems are now officially up and running on SYL.  She’s still not as spotless as we like.. but it’s getting there.

A big thing that was added this year is a sun fly.  Mark and Julie designed and made it for us.  I really enjoy the way it’s made and functions.  Thanks Mark and Julie for such a good product.  It makes a big difference, not only the temperature improvement.. but the visual calmness it adds with the shade is equally as nice.  Fill up Second Star’s tank and come on to the Bahamas!

Sea Yawl Later !!  Rusty