Feb 22
We got up and had our coffee while listening to the weather on the radio this morning. There is no change in the weather forecast, so we will head for Georgetown today. There will be no sailing, since the wind is forecast to be light and right on the nose, but we need to get a good battery charge anyway. That's how I justify almost never sailing. Raggy Chap left about forty-five minutes before us, and as they went out of Farmers Cut to the deep water of Exuma Sound, it looked like they were bouncing around quite a bit. The cut itself was not in a rage, but after they turned south, it looked like they were bucking fore and aft. I called them on the radio, and they reported it was pretty choppy, and the wind was right on the nose as we expected.
We got underway about 08:00. Leaving the mooring was nowhere near as exciting as picking it up had been. We motored out the cut with no problem, and turned southeast. Even though the wind was only ten knots or less, the chop remaining from the previous day was three to four feet, right on the nose. So we were bashing into the waves head on. That is better than taking them on the beam and rolling around, but it was not comfortable. Within about and hour, the cat got sick, even though I had given him Dramamine at 06:00 when I first got up. Once he threw up, he was fine, and slept the rest of the way in the cockpit with us. The Captain on the other hand, did not enjoy the ride either. Normally, bashing into the waves doesn't bother me, but after an hour and a half or so, I just didn't feel well. I didn't feel nauseous, but I didn't feel good. Since the wench is blessed with never getting seasick, either above decks or below, she offered to watch while Auto drove the forty mile straight course for Georgetown. I laid down in the cockpit with my eyes closed most of the way and felt much better. Seasickness is the confusion in your mind between what your eyes see, and what your inner ear senses as far as movement. So, for me, just laying down and closing my eyes takes away one of the inputs and I feel better.
The trip was uneventful. The autopilot drove for forty miles, and Barb watched as about fifteen boats passed us going north. Just as we got to Elizabeth Harbor, where Georgetown and Stocking Island are, we caught up to Raggy Chap. We passed them and proceeded into the harbor. We were not sure what to expect here, since we know there are already over three hundred boats anchored here. Most of the boats anchor on the east side of Stocking Island, which runs northwest to southeast. As we came in from the north, we passed Monument Beach where the first batch of boats were, then Hamburger Beach, then Volleyball Beach. There were many, many boats here, but there still was plenty of room to anchor. We continued a little south of Volleyball Beach, but not as far as the last batch of boats at Sand Dollar Beach. We dropped the hook in about eighteen feet of water and had plenty of room with our neighbors. We are about five hundred yards from the Chat and Chill on Volleyball Beach, and a mile from the dinghy dock at Georgetown proper. All the beaches I mentioned are on the east side of Stocking Island. This is where 90% of the boats are, as there is limited room to anchor right near Georgetown proper.
Even though the day had been pretty straightforward, we elected to just stay on the boat for the evening. There is lots to see, but we will have plenty of time. We had cocktails and then dinner - our only meal of the day. We hit the sack about 20:00.
GPS N 23-30.914 W 75-45.232 Miles made good this leg 43. Total miles covered 3971.
Feb 23
Our first order of business today is to become legal once more. When we flew back into Nassau from New Orleans, the Immigration officer would only give us thirty days on our passports. The legal limit is six months, but the Immigration Department readily admits that what you get is at the whim of the officer. We thought we could get an extension in Staniel Cay, but it turns out they do not have an Immigration office there. That meant that by the time we got here, we were five days past our thirty. So, we dinghied across the bay to Georgetown proper, and went to the Immigration office. I told the man we needed extensions. He went to his file and got four copies of the form to request an extension. Two copies for each of us. He then got a piece of carbon paper - yes real carbon paper - and instructed us to fill them out and come back. We could not stay in his small, but air-conditioned office while filling out the forms. We had to go out to the hot and humid lobby. Once the forms were complete, we knocked on the door and were allowed back in, where he did his methodical thing and re-stamped our passports giving us sixty more days. I never pointed out to him that we were overdue, and he didn't notice or didn't care, so that was not a problem.
Once legal, we set about exploring Georgetown. We went into Exuma Market first to see how it compared to the stores we have seen so far. It is nowhere as big as in Marsh Harbor, or Spanish Wells, but it has everything we may need here, and the prices are reasonable by Bahamian standards. We then walked down the street a little to see what else is here. We spotted a couple of Internet Cafes, a couple of laundromats, checked out the marina where we may go in if we really need to charge batteries good, and figured out where to have our mail UPS'ed to. We then found a marine supply/hardware/toy/housewares store where we got a new boat hook, for about the price I would expect to pay in the US. I also got new alligator clips for the dinghy motor battery cables since the old ones are disintegrating. A small science lesson here - copper alligator clips, on lead battery terminals, combined with constant salt water exposure, makes the copper dissolve.
We then hit the liquor store for a case of beer, again reasonably priced by Bahamian standards. Then to the grocery store for a few produce items and back to the boat. I should mention a little about Exumas Markets. They cater to the cruisers. They have a large new floating dinghy dock with room for thirty or forty dinghies, free for our use. They take garbage in three large dumpsters behind the store, also free. They have water available on the dinghy dock to fill jerry cans with, also free. They accept mail, UPS, or FedEx deliveries and have an alphabetical set of boxes setup for cruisers to have mail forwarded, also free. In exchange, they get almost all the cruisers grocery business, even though there is another store down the street.
We took our stuff back to the boat, stowed it, and then headed to the Chat & Chill on Stocking Island for lunch. Stocking Island is where most of the boats anchor, to be protected from the prevailing easterly winds. It is on the opposite side of the harbor from Georgetown, but has stuff to offer itself. The cruising community in Georgetown is very organized. As I said before, there are hundreds of boats here. Many come straight from Florida to here and stay all winter. There is very organized volleyball, tennis, bridge, dominoes, yoga, tai-chi, religious events, etc. Obviously, you can be as involved or not as you want, but it is a very different experience from the rest of the Bahamas, even Marsh Harbor or Nassau.
Once we beached the dinghy on Volleyball Beach near the Chat & Chill, we were immediately exposed to the organization of Georgetown. There was a volleyball tournament in full swing, an arts and crafts show going on on the many picnic tables, and bridge or dominoes being played on other tables. We looked at the crafts quickly and went to Chat & Chill for a beer and burger. We got seats at the bar, which was quite crowded. We placed our order for cheeseburgers and fries with Arlene, the only person waiting on everybody here, who was not in a good mood. While we were waiting for our food, I saw a guy across the bar who looked familiar. He came and sat about three stools down from us and I heard another lady call him by his name - Toby. That's why he looked familiar. Toby and his wife Donna, were about three boats down from me on F-dock in Kemah, when I first got MoonSail. They were amongst the first people I met when I started living aboard in 1999. They left in the fall of 1999 to go cruising, and have been coming to Georgetown every winter since 2002. We got reacquainted over a couple of beers.
Once we had finished eating, we went back out to the beach and there we found Gordon & Leslie from Synchronicity. They had been mooring neighbors of our friends Dan & Jaime when they were in the Sea Park in December, and we had spoken to them on the VHF along with Dan & Jaime when we were in the park. This was our first face to face meeting. We grabbed a small table and started chatting. After about an hour of chatting, some people came up and asked us to give up the table if we were just going to talk, because after all, these tables were for bridge players. Such is the life in Georgetown. We gave them the table, although the more I thought about it, the more I wished I had told them to kiss my ass.
We left Volleyball Beach, and took a dinghy tour. From Volleyball Beach, we toured the three "hurricane holes", which are very protected bays that have room for about fifteen boats each and have mooring balls. It appeared 90% of the boats on these moorings were stored here and did not have people on them. We then went north past Hamburger Beach and Monument Beach checking out boats, looking for anybody we knew. We saw Gypsy, who we have been tagging along with since Spanish Wells, a few other names we recognized from the radio, and saw Cariba, Toby & Donna's boat. We stopped at Gypsy, but they weren't onboard at the time.
Back at our boat, we relaxed a bit and then Gypsy hailed us on the radio. We answered, and they were at the Chat & Chill for dinner. Since Linda is flying out to the States tomorrow, we said we would join them for dinner. So, back to the Chat & Chill we went. Arlene wasn't in any better mood when we gave her our dinner order. The food was pretty good though. Barb & I both had ribs, while Clyde had chicken and Linda had fish. They were all accompanied with rice & peas, and cole slaw.
While having dinner, we resolved our mail issue. I had e-mailed the UPS Store that gets our mail and asked them to ship it to Exuma Markets. They had replied that they would be glad to, but it would be $165. They also said they recommended FedEx because they were more reliable in the Bahamas. I replied back that we had been told UPS worked ok, and they said UPS would be $94. Over dinner, it occurred to us that Linda would be in the States for a week. So, we are having the mail sent to where she will be and she will carry it back here for us. The only reason I care at all about it is to get our taxes done without having to file an extension.
Also while waiting for dinner, we ran into Katherine and Rick who are the captain and crew of a sixty foot motor yacht names Serenity. We had met them with the yacht's owners up at Ocean Cabin in Little Farmers a few nights ago. Now, the owners were gone home, and Rick's parents were with them. The owners let them use the boat whenever they aren't or when it isn't chartered. We chatted with them a bit, and were invited back to the boat, although we didn't go since we were tired after dinner, and I suspect they had already had enough to drink and didn't really need guests.
GPS N 23-30.914 W 75-45.232 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 3971.
Feb 24
This morning my goal is to publish the website. I have not been able to publish at all this month, thanks to Direcway. We packed the computer into it's waterproof Pelican case, and went to Georgetown. We headed to Bal Sound Electronics first because we had been told they charged $3/day for wireless use. After a little confusion, we found the store and went inside. There were about a dozen people stuck in every nook and cranny of the store using their laptops. I found a spot and plugged in and got connected. Unfortunately, they have the same Direcway service that Staniel Cay had, so I was unable to publish. At least they didn't charge me since it didn't work. We then went back down the street and stopped in this concrete shack that was a tiny grocery, but had a sign out front saying they had wireless Internet. Inside I found an old man tending the store. Once we got the word "computer" in common, he said he would call his grandson. His grandson, Julius, was probably thirty. He set us up, and we tried to publish, and it worked. It took an hour to upload a month's worth of pictures and words, but it worked. At $.10/minute, that was $6. I was happy to get it done.
On the way back to the dinghy dock, we came upon Mom's Bakery. Mom's Bakery is actually at the far southern end of the next island south of here, but she comes to Georgetown twice a week with a mini-van full of baked goods. She parks by the sign and sells all her stuff in a couple of hours. She has white, wheat, raisin, or coconut bread, French bread, apple or banana-nut cakes, rum cakes, cupcakes, and several other goodies. We bought a small apple cake for breakfasts and a hunk of French bread to make garlic bread. One of the things about buying baked goods from Mom, is that every purchase comes with a hug and a "God bless you" from Mom.
We dropped the computer back at the boat, and placed a call to Radio Margaritaville to see if Carson was available to do our next interview. I got him on the phone, and then he called me back in about twenty minutes to do the interview. He also was able to tell me that it will air Sunday at 12:15, so maybe we will hear this one.
We then went back across the bay to the Palm Point Beach Club, where the Bilge Boys, a three piece band made up of cruisers, were playing. Toby & Donna had made sure we knew about this yesterday. There were easily a hundred people there, and although the staff of the bar and restaurant were overwhelmed, they did their best and maintained a good attitude (unlike Chat & Chill). We had good burgers and cold beer while listening to Buffett music from the band and meeting many more cruisers.
About 15:30, we came back to the boat. We had been told about another party at 17:00 at the Peace & Plenty Hotel, but we need a break. We relaxed for awhile, then had a nice dinner onboard.
GPS N 23-30.914 W 75-45.232 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 3971.
Feb 25
We awoke today to much stronger winds. They had also come around to the east, which meant the wind had the whole length of the bay to pick up waves. Even though Stocking Island runs northwest to southeast, which would give the appearance of protection from an easterly wind, the wind is blowing about twenty knots, and there is a good two foot chop and whitecaps on the water. There are a few places to get into nice secure anchorages, with protection from all sides, but these were full long before we got here. So we stayed on the bouncing boat. The cat seems to think we must be underway, since he is hiding under the covers of the bed. I had to stay up in the cockpit to avoid getting seasick. Barb, of course, was able to be above or below, since she doesn't get affected by the motion.
By about 11:00, I had enough of the bouncing and wanted to be on terra firma. I was convinced that if we were going to have any problem with our anchor dragging, or any of the boats around us dragging, it would have happened by now, so we hopped in the dinghy and made the short ride to Volleyball Beach. Chat & Chill wasn't open yet, so we just walked around a bit and observed the activities. There is always something organized going on here, perhaps because we are coming up on the Cruiser's Regatta week. There are two regattas here each spring. The Cruiser's Regatta is next week. Cruisers will race their boats in two races. One is around Stocking Island. The other is in the harbor. That ought to be interesting with all the boats here. There is also a tennis tournament, a softball tournament, a pet parade, a variety show, a children's day, a decorated flip-flop contest, a crazy hat contest, a contest for the design of next year's regatta t-shirt, etc, etc. The second week of April, is the Family Island Regatta. This is where boats from all the outlying Bahamian islands come here to race. This sounds much more interesting to me.
At 11:30, Chat & Chill opened the doors and shutters, and Clyde and his guest Jeff from Gypsy came ashore, so we went in for beer and burgers. We were informed that they really weren't open until noon. (You might ask why they opened the doors and shutters then, but you would not get an answer and you would decrease you chances of getting any service after that.) Arlene did acquiesce to go ahead and give us beers then, but we would have to wait to order food. We smiled and thanked her and said we were in no hurry. Of course we were not the only people who got the impression they were open, and most of them were not as quick to figure out that you don't complain about being ignored by the staff. The staff was busy preparing to serve forty people who came in from Emerald Bay on a large day-charter catamaran. Those people were going to be served on the beach, so at least they weren't in our way. The owner of Chat & Chill has been heard to say (not by me personally), that he wants to build his business catering to these charters from Emerald Bay, and he could care less about the cruisers. Since the hundreds of cruisers who come here each year are probably 95% of his business, this makes no sense to me, but it is obvious by his attitude that he doesn't care about keeping cruisers happy.
About 12:15 when Arlene was ready, she took our food order and replenished our beers. After the rush was slowing, we went out of our way to be very pleasant to Arlene, joke with her a little, and give her a good tip. We'll see if this goodwill carries over to future visits.
Clyde had a dinghy motor failure a few days ago, and is using a rental dinghy while his is being repaired. Unfortunately, the rental dinghy has a soft floor, instead of a hard fiberglass one, so in these rough water conditions it means the occupants get a free soaking along with their dinghy ride. Clyde needed to go across the bay to town to get some provisions, so I agreed to take him in my dinghy. All four of us went to our boat where we dropped Barb and the rental dinghy, then Clyde, Jeff and I headed across. On the way in, we stayed pretty dry, because the seas were mostly behind us. We got to the dinghy dock and tied up. Clyde and Jeff went to the grocery store while I took the gas can over to the gas station to refill it.
Once the shopping was done, the three of us and six bags of groceries headed back. As soon as we got out of the protection of the dinghy area, we knew we were in for a wet ride. We were bashing into the seas now. We got soaked, and had to keep bailing water out of the dinghy as we went. It probably took fifteen minutes to get back to MoonSail, where we transferred the groceries and Clyde & Jeff to their dinghy. Their ride from MoonSail to Gypsy is downwind, so they made it fine. I took off my clothes and took a fresh water rinse.
While we were gone, our next door neighbors on Helios, came over and spoke to Barb to apologize for being so close. When they anchored, they were not too close given the wind direction then, and they planned to leave the next day. However, they had a fire onboard which fried their engine wiring, so they cannot run their engine until they repair this. Helios is a French Canadian boat, with a couple in their thirties perhaps, two children under ten, and grandma and grandpa. This is all on a thirty-five or so foot old steel boat. This is cruising on a budget. The guy assured Barb that he would pay attention as the wind swung around and change the length of his anchor rode accordingly so as not to hit us.
The rest of the evening was spent in the cockpit, again to avoid the feelings brought on by the constant bouncing. We listened on the radio as Clyde from Gypsy arranged to get his second guest from the airport to town and then delivered via water taxi to Gypsy instead of braving the bay by dinghy again after dark. It was an interesting exercise, but they got it done. By 21:00, the wind had moderated quite a bit, and the seas were calming down a little. I had been mentally preparing myself to sleep in the cockpit, but since it was subsiding, I decided to try the regular bed first. As it turned out, the wind calmed substantially overnight and I got a good night's sleep.
GPS N 23-30.914 W 75-45.232 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 3971.
Feb 26
As soon as it got light this morning, the wind started to build again. The direction is changing and it is from almost due south now. There is not quite as much water from the south for the waves to build, but by noon it was pretty rolly again. For the morning we just stayed aboard. We have to be aboard at 12:15 to hear the Radio Margaritaville interview. We have sent an e-mail to our list to let them know when the interview will be, so hopefully some of them will hear it. Unfortunately, quite a few of our friends have AOL as their ISP, and AOL keeps rejecting all e-mails from me. I have done a little research into the error message that I get, and basically it thinks I must be a spammer since my e-mail goes to over two hundred people. I hope my AOL friends will complain to AOL about their friend getting a "421 Service Unavailable" message, or maybe they will just get a real ISP instead of AOL. I wonder how many other good e-mails they don't get because of AOL's practices.
At promptly 12:23, our interview ran. It was in the middle of a Buffett buffet, which is a solid hour of Jimmy music. We followed the song "Stranded On A Sandbar", which I hope isn't an omen. It was a couple of minutes long and pretty much unedited. We did mention our website during this broadcast, which we didn't do the first time. Within a few hours, we had fifteen e-mails, mostly from people we don't know. They heard the interview, went to the website, and sent the mail from there. We plan to make these interviews a weekly deal. I don't know if they will always air about the same time or not.
Once we had heard the interview, we met Clyde from Gypsy and his guests Brian and Jeff at the Chat & Chill for their Sunday pig roast. Since the pig roast is a buffet deal, there was no waiting. The food was excellent. We then sat out on the benches by the volleyball courts and visited. Brian is a retired NYC detective, and a natural funny story teller. He kept us laughing for a couple of hours. One of his stories was how he met Clyde back in January in Bimini at the Angler's Bar & Hotel. Brian was staying at the hotel, and the night after meeting Clyde in the bar, the bar caught fire. Clyde was staying on his boat just off the hotel area, and came ashore and went and roused Brian from his sleep to get him out before the fire spread from the restaurant building to the hotel building. The fire ended up not spreading, but burnt the bar and restaurant to the ground. The follow-on to this was that when Brian got to Georgetown last night and was trying to get a water taxi to take him across the bay to Gypsy, there was a fire in town which burnt the recycling business down. It was made from an old eighteen wheeler trailer, and it was totally gutted. Brian is starting to get spooked about his visits to the Bahamas. We were having a good time telling stories, but I don't think we fit in with the domino and bridge players nearby. Oh well. I think Volleyball Beach needs to lighten up a bit. I think a lot of these people forgot they are on vacation.
The evening talk on the VHF has centered around the wind shift expected overnight. The wind has steadily clocked around to due west during the day, as forecast. Sometime between sunset and midnight, it is supposed to go to the north or northeast and pick up to twenty-five or thirty knots. Since we are just off the edge of Stocking Island, we should be protected from the large wave action once this happens. And, there will be nobody in front of us for us to worry about them dragging towards us.
GPS N 23-30.914 W 75-45.232 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 3971.
Feb 27
I stayed up in the cockpit until midnight last night, awaiting the cold front. By midnight, the wind had come around to the northwest and was blowing about fifteen to twenty knots. Our neighbor, Helios, had let out some more anchor rode when he was astern of us so that we passed ok as we turned, so now I was paying attention to make sure we didn't need to adjust as we came around the other way. We seemed to be fine, although everything looks closer in the dark. I was starting to dose, so I went below and went to bed. At 02:00, the front passed and the wind quickly came around to the north-northeast and increased to twenty-five to thirty knots. There was also a brief rain shower, which we desperately needed to rinse the salt off the boat. Either the sound of the wind, or the rain woke me and I went outside to make sure we were ok. I spent about five minutes in the cockpit and was sure that we were not moving and our neighbors were not either. Since we are only a couple hundred yards offshore, now that the wind has come back around east of north, we are not getting the large wave action that the wind will kick up. So, I went back to bed and slept reasonably well the rest of the night.
In the morning, we listened to the radio nets, while having our coffee. On the local VHF net they reported that every Sunday they take a count of boats in the anchorage, and this week is it up to 405.
Speaking of the radio nets, I have been checking in with the Cruisehiemers net for a few weeks now. I got an e-mail the other day from Richard, on Misty Blue, who we met in South Carolina last year. He happened to be on his boat one morning, in South Carolina, listening to Cruisehiemers, and heard us loud and clear. That's cool. Makes me feel even better about the SSB installation.
At 09:00 we got in the dinghy and headed to town. The seas are quite large as you get away from the lee shore that we are anchored on, but we have plans today to do a tour with a few other boaters. As we went west towards Georgetown, the seas were behind us, so we didn't get very wet at all. We were there forty-five minutes ahead of schedule, so we checked out the marina. We have been told this marina (the only one in town) is very rough since they do not have any kind of breakwater. We wanted to check it out in case we ever want to go in here and get recharged, etc, and it looked like it can be quite rolly in the wrong conditions. By 09:45, we were at the Peace & Plenty Hotel, to be picked up for the tour.
The tour is from Christine, a.k.a. Taxi 25. The cruising guides mention her tour as the one to do instead of the other canned tours available from Bahamas Tours. In particular, she points out many plants along the way that have medicinal values and the history of how they were used before any medical help was available to the islanders. We had fourteen people for our tour, and Christine was right on time. Her tour bus can hold twenty-six, so at fourteen, we were quite comfortable, and most of us knew each other from meeting along the way. Christine is an Exuma native, and is probably in her mid fifties. She was quite entertaining right from the start. All fourteen of us were couples, and she started off by telling the women she didn't like them. This was because the women all had men, and she has never been married, and she wants the men. She continued this game throughout the tour. The tour took us south from Georgetown, on Great Exuma, across the bridge at The Ferry to Little Exuma and all the way to the south end of Little Exuma at Williamstown. Along the way she explained the history of Exuma, the difference between generational lands and land that has been claimed via squatters rights and can now be sold and developed, the reason The Ferry (a town) is named that although the ferry is long gone and now there is a one-lane bridge, showed us a three plot graveyard dating to the late 1700's, passed the salt ponds where 800 people used to be employed harvesting sea salt via evaporation, and stopped and picked numerous plants and explained the medicinal uses for them. How was that for a sentence? At the far end of the tour, we stopped for lunch at the Santana Grill. We had called ahead with our lunch choice of lobster, conch, grouper, shrimp, or steak. The Santana Grill is a octagonal shaped building, with fold up shutters and seating for exactly fourteen on benches around the counter. They are not usually open on Mondays, but Christine had arranged for them to open for us. The restaurant was right next to Mom's bakery, who we bought bread from a couple of days ago. It turns out the woman who runs the restaurant is one of Mom's daughters. We ended up placing a special order for baked stuff for the whole group to be delivered in Georgetown tomorrow. We ordered a rum cake. The lunch itself was wonderful. Barb and I both had lobster, and it was prepared unlike we have ever had it. The tail was out of the shell and lightly breaded then fried. The meal included two medium sized tails, a huge pile of yellow rice, some mixed vegetables, and cole slaw. It was more than we could eat and excellent.
While we were eating, we found out that scenes from the Pirates of The Caribbean movies were filmed just south of here, and the cast and crew ate here regularly. They had a photo album that they passed around with pictures of Johnny Depp and other cast and crew, as well as an autographed t-shirt hanging from the rafters.
Christine had us back to town a little after 14:00. She was quite entertaining, and I'm sure more fun than the other "standard" tours available. We said goodbye to our friends who have been staying in the marina, and headed for the dinghy, expecting a wet and wild ride back into the choppy waters. As it turned out, the wind had laid down quite a bit during the day, so the ride back was not nearly as exciting as we were mentally prepared for. We got sprayed a few times, but not drenched like I did the other day.
Back at the boat on the quieter side of the bay tonight, it was actually calm enough to enjoy reading for a couple of hours before dinner. Tonight should be much calmer than last night.
GPS N 23-30.914 W 75-45.232 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 3971.
Feb 28
Happy Mardi Gras! Today is Fat Tuesday, which is the big day of Mardi Gras. Tomorrow everybody goes to church, repents, and has to lay off whatever makes them happy until Easter. Of course, there is no Mardi Gras in Georgetown. All the talk is about the Cruiser's Regatta which officially gets started Thursday. We did see a brief mention of Mardi Gras on the Weather Channel, which was on at the bar we were at this afternoon, and we send our regards out to our friends in New Orleans and hope this helps with the recovery.
We started the day pretty much as usual. Coffee and the radio nets. We did have an interesting conversation on the radio though. A boat whom we met in Staniel Cay tried to contact the weather guy on the SSB, and the weather guy in Florida could not hear him. The boat in question was here in Georgetown, and the weather guy could hear other Georgetown boats fine. The boat in question said this was his first attempt to transmit on his SSB. We contacted him on the VHF after the net and gave him a suggestion about his SSB. He then said, "Didn't I hear you on Radio Margaritaville Sunday?". That was cool to have somebody put it together.
We headed into Georgetown about 09:00, because we have to meet Mom to pick up our rum cake. She doesn't get there until 10:30, but I wanted to leave plenty of time to meet up with the rest of the gang who ordered, since it was all under one name. We went out to the marina where the other boats who ordered were and chatted with them. The other attraction in the marina was the tanker that was filling the marina's fuel supply. We had heard about the tanker on the local radio net this morning, because apparently some boats were anchored in the channel and made it hard for the tanker to get in. The tanker can only come and go at high tide, so they were announcing that if you were anchored in the wrong place you better move. While we watched, the tanker backed out of the marina and backed out the whole length of the channel. He stirred up a huge plume of mud as he left, but there was no crunching of fiberglass, so it was successful.
At 10:30, Mom showed up and we all claimed our baked goodies. Some folks had ordered banana nut cakes, but Mom had run out of bananas, so they will get those Friday. We got our rum cake and our hug. From there we sought out Jeff from Dragonfly, who had the SSB problem this morning. We had told him we would give him a copy of an article we had about building a SSB ground plane. I found him at the Internet place, had them make a copy, and gave it to him. Don't know if it will help him or not. I'm still amazed mine works.
We then planned to meet Clyde, Brian, and Jeff from Gypsy for lunch. We got them on the VHF and they were running late but were coming. We went ahead to Two Turtles Hotel, Restaurant and Bar, and got a table. They took a while to get there, and were all wet when they arrived thanks to their rental dinghy. We enjoyed lunch and many beers, for the better part of the afternoon. I mentioned earlier that Clyde's friend Brian is a retired NYPD detective. He just retired in 2004. That means he was on the job in 2001. The subject of 9/11 came up, and Brian spoke briefly of it and was very emotional about it. At that time in his job, he was assigned to the unit that handled security for anybody important, like the President, who came to town. He told us some very touching inside stories about the day The President visited, and also about friends he lost. It was the first time I had spoken to a NYFD or NYPD person who was there, and it was similar to speaking with someone who has dark memories of Vietnam. Later, away from the table, I apologized to Brian for bringing up painful memories, and thanked him for his part in being there.
We spent most of the afternoon at Two Turtles. Clyde made several trips across the street to the place fixing his dingy and never did get a good status. We finally headed back to the boat, with a stop at the water tap on the dinghy dock. We have three tanks on the boat, about thirty gallons each. One is empty, so we brought our two seven gallon jugs with us to fill. If we fill them every day, we can stay ahead of our usage. At the boat, we emptied the jugs into the tank and threw the empty jugs back in the dinghy for tomorrow. We had a light dinner, and big pieces of rum cake. Kathy at BMC, if you are reading this, Mom's rivals yours. But she probably can't make tres leches.
GPS N 23-30.914 W 75-45.232 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 3971.