Finally Cruising Again

(This is being posted from Treasure Cay in the Abacos, sorry for the long delay)

I asked Wayne to write about the land activities of the FLUKE crew that had occurred since the last cruise so that I could be working on writing the outline for this portion of the blog. I knew we would be under “pressure” to be able to post to the blog since our cruising plans for the first part of the trip indicated we would have very limited access to any internet connections. Another reason for Wayne writing that portion was so that he could more accurately fill in the details of the work we had done which will be of interest to other cruisers who read this blog. The last reason was because I would have probably broken the keyboard typing about my feelings for how long the work was taking at American Custom. As the months went on, workers would thank me for my “patience” in bearing with the time frame of the project; I would reply “Thank Wayne, I no longer have any patience”. I know they were thinking I was a real boat bitch at that point, but, as I told the yard manager, if they ran all their projects that way, they wouldn't have a business. I think the temperature in the pilothouse is already rising as I have just written those last two sentences, so I will move on to the good stuff, and some more of the bad, as usual.

Show Us the Way

TRYING TO LEAVE TERRA FIRMA

One day during the last week of April Wayne said he thought we could leave the home dock on Monday, May 4. I quickly asked if he had looked at THE LIST to see all the things that hadn't been checked off and still needed to get completed before we left. THE LIST shrinks and grows daily as the day we hope to leave the dock gets closer. Think of all you would need to do if you were going to be gone for 3 months (or 6 if we decide to head north when we return), leaving a home behind and hoped to be self sufficient and isolated for that time; you can't just pick up the phone to make a call or run to the store to pick up something you need. You have to be mentally prepared to go and do without.

THE FLORIDA LEG

We finally left the home dock on Thursday, May 7 at 6:25 a.m.. Our plan was to travel south on the Intracoastal Waterway to Lake Worth, kind of a full day shake down cruise, where we would be protected and have access to goods and services if something critical broke down. Then we would travel south offshore to Miami where we could make the 45 mile crossing to Bimini and clear customs and be officially in the Bahamas.

After a relaxing, calm cruise south on the ICW, we had the anchor down in Lake Worth at 4:25 p.m. The sailboat next to us had two dogs aboard and one of them was sitting on the deck-mounted solar panels barking at us. I could hear his owner yelling “Shut up, Diesel and get down here”.

We had the anchor up by 5:30 a.m. the next morning so we could get an early start for the long day's run down to Miami. Even though it was still dark, the inlet is well lit, although the city lights make it somewhat difficult to see some of the markers. We just creep along until we are in the channel within the inlet and the dark ocean lies ahead of us.

Mild winds, less than 10 KTS, and seas that were a little choppy around the inlets were our fare for the day. We traveled within 2 miles of the coastline to minimize fighting the northern flow of the powerful Gulf Stream which comes close to Florida's coastline in that area. We wanted to minimize our fuel use, so we traveled about 7 KTS, slower than most of you would be riding a bicycle!

Since we were so close to shore we could see all the mansions of Palm Beach, high rises of the coastal cities, and inlets with all their boating activities. We trolled fishing lines, but didn't get any hits.

On bright, sunny days I always delight in seeing the Miami skyline from the ocean side. It has such a beautiful, vibrant appearance; the colors and diversity of shapes of the buildings is eye-catching to say the least. It is difficult to take it all in.

Miami Skyline

When we got to the inlet in Miami we had to use the “alternate” route through Government Cut, the Loomis Channel. That route is primarily used by the commercial traffic to get to the derricks and docks of the Miami Port Authority which handles all the containerized freight entering and leaving the country. The Coast Guard kept broadcasting that the main channel was closed to recreational traffic because there were 2 or more cruise ships in port, and they have a Homeland Security rule that says no one can transit that area if more than one cruise ship is in port. I guess if you want maximum U.S. Coast Guard protection from terrorists you should book your cruise on the same day another cruise ship will be in port. If yours is the only one, you should hire private security. Our crew discussed this and felt that the run of the mill terrorist would be just as satisfied to damage one ship as two, but I guess the higher ups think otherwise.

Anyway, I like using the Loomis Channel. It is a flurry of activity with the ships being loaded and unloaded. I like seeing the flags from the other countries, style of ocean going ship, and the colorful cargo containers and how neatly they are stacked and packed both on the docks and on the ships. Judging by this photo, it is apparent that the U.S. isn't just importing everything from China; we are sending them some exports too.

Loading the Ship

Passing the Egyptian freighter made me wonder if they were going to have to worry about the Somali pirates when they went home. We always get asked if we worry about pirates, even more so now that those creeps from Somali have gained such notoriety. We don't worry about those kinds of pirates boarding us while we are underway and taking over FLUKE. We don't carry any weapons, and Ursa would be useless for protecting us. I wish she were a better watchdog when we need her to do that job the most which is at night. But once she goes to sleep she is a sound sleeper and perfectly content to let the rest of her pack members tend to keeping order in the night, which is when are likely to have a problem with someone trying to steal FIN, the dinghy, if we have her tied up alongside FLUKE.

Notice the Lifeboat

After weaving our way through the industrial port area we entered beautiful Biscayne Bay and dropped the anchor close to the old Nixon Florida White House. In its time it was an impressive structure, but now it looks dated and worn compared to the majestic, new mega mansions that now line Miami's prime waterfront property.

So, with the sparkling Miami night skyline in the distance, I slept peacefully in my comfy bed illuminated with beams from the bright moon shining through my overhead hatch and looking forward to the sapphire blue of the Gulf Stream crossing when FLUKE and her crew would start another Bahamian adventure.

THE CROSSING

We left the anchorage at 5:40 a.m. and followed the well lit channel through the shallow waters of Stiltsville to get out to the open ocean. There was a lot of turbulence where the Bay waters met those of the ocean. I noticed that Wayne had not taped down the 17” navigation monitor and it was sliding and bouncing a bit. I told him that I thought it was going to fall over if he didn't do something with it, but he shrugged me off. Within 5 minutes the monitor crashed into the elevated instrument panel on the helm. We were so lucky that the screen didn't crack or cease to operate altogether. I always marvel how a crew like us, who have logged over 10,000 miles on FLUKE alone, can continue to make such stupid mistakes. I wonder if it was the same way on the Bounty?

I put out the trolling lines once we were in deeper water. We caught one barracuda and had another fish on the line, but it broke while I was trying to reel it in. I suspect it may have been a billfish since I did see a huge wave of water when it broke the surface after pulling most of the line off the spool. My life list includes catching a billfish, so it is exciting just being that close.

Now I have to tell you that I am responsible for getting all the fishing gear together and doing the boat fishing. That includes purchasing the lures, bait, and other paraphernalia. I also make up a lot of our own rigs. However, Eddie keeps the gear organized and is generally good about helping me to do things with it if I ask him. Whenever something goes wrong, like a line breaking, my two crew mates jump down my throat and blame me with a litany of reasons why we had a fishing failure: Carol bought cheap line, she didn't tie the knots right, she keeps using the same worn junk, she didn't make the leader long enough, she's using the wrong sized hooks, she didn't buy enough of such and such and she is trying to make due, she waited until the last minute to get the fishing gear together, etc. I hear the same thing EVERY time we lose a fish. I wonder if it was the same way on the Bounty?

The day before we left the home dock I went to the local bait shop to stock up on materials to minimize some of the “chatter” I just mentioned. I spent quite a while picking out a wide variety of plastic lures, weights, and various other supplies. I asked the older man at the counter if he had any blue and green skirts in the back, and he said that everything they had was out on display. I sensed some annoyance on his part, and then he asked me “Are you planning on doing some real fishing or are you just picking out stuff to use for decorations?”. I paused, took a deep breath, and calmly replied, looking him straight in the eye, “Oh my, I use these things for hair decorations”. He had such a startled look on his face, and then he started laughing, and said “OK, you really got me good!”. He must have crewed on the Bounty.

CLEARING CUSTOMS

Those of you who have followed our previous adventures know about the “issues” we have encountered when trying to clear customs. We have never determined any consistency in the method, as it all depends on the customs “official” you wind up dealing with. It is apparent they must not all go through the same training program since they all do things differently. At times clearing customs can be intimidating and frustrating.

We were trying another approach this time. We decided to clear in Bimini, and we heard we could go into Bimini Sands marina and tie up temporarily to their docks while we cleared. So, we called them on the VHF and were pleasantly surprised to hear that we could tie up at NO CHARGE while we cleared.

Getting into the facility is somewhat daunting as you have to find the deep water channel that parallels the shore and then navigate through a dredged channel in a rocky opening not much wider than FLUKE, but once inside, there is plenty of room to maneuver and the surrounding buildings block much of the wind. A dock hand was prompt with assisting with our lines to tie us off to the dock. He showed up again within a few minutes, carrying the papers we would need to fill out to clear customs. He said that the airport, where the customs officer was located, was a 5 minute ride away, and the charge was $4 each way. Captain Wayne took off to do the deed. He returned so quickly I asked him what was wrong, and he said it was done!! We were off the dock again, having completed the entire process in less than an hour. That is a new record for us, and now will become the standard for all future clearings in the part of The Bahamas.

In contrast, cruisers can clear at Cat Cay, a private facility located a short distance from Bimini Sands. We have cleared there once before, many years ago, but figured it would be too expensive and it was more out of the way for us. We made the right choice this time, as we ran into some other cruisers who had cleared there a week later than we did; they were charged $100 just to tie up to the docks while they met with the customs officer.

Since it was only 2:00 p.m. with mild weather conditions and a good forecast for the rest of the day, we decided to keep traveling eastward, across the shallow waters of the Great Bahama Bank until we would stop for the night. At times, we had less than 2' of water under our keel, and the water was so clear we could see every spot on the bottom.

We pulled a ways off the route to anchor for the night. A good analogy is to imagine that you are traveling with your motor home in a corn or wheat field that goes for as far as you can see in all directions and you want to stop for the night. You don't want to just stop on the same path you have been traveling since it is the one through the field that most other people would use too. So, you need to pull off a ways so some other RV driver, who might be asleep at the wheel or on autopilot, doesn't just plow into you in the night. Oh, make sure you leave a light on to make your location more obvious; in our case, it is our mast light which is visible for a couple of miles. Sleep tight, and be ready for an early start in the morning.

HELLO, CAPTAIN MORGAN

After leaving the Banks we headed out into the Tongue of the Ocean with a heading to Andros Island. There is always good fishing in the TOTO, so I was anxious to get the lines out ASAP. We were rewarded with the action of 2 barracuda, one 43” dolphin, and we lost one dolphin at the swim platform. I blame it on Eddie not grabbing the leader and pulling the fish in through the transom gate in one full motion. The guys blame it on me for all the other reasons I already described. If you are a previous reader you will remember how this crew prides itself on assessing blame before all else. As we get more sophisticated in our blogs, we may move towards a utube video, so you can see and hear all the action that takes place during our attempts at landing the fish. Young children should not watch or listen.

Our Good Catch

In defense of our fishing skills, we are handicapped from the beginning. FLUKE is not a fishing vessel like those you see on TV or hire for charter adventures out of some fancy marina facility. Her transom is very high, and her swim platform is very wide. And, we are not professional fishermen. And, we are getting older, so we have to be more careful and our strength and balance isn't as good as it used to be either. Despite these handicaps, we still give it our best shot.

We troll from our upper aft deck. When we need to bring in a fish, Eddie goes below in the cockpit, opens the transom door, and then he is tries to haul the fish in when I reel it close enough to the swim platform (keeping it free from the prop, swim ladder, flag, and edges of the platform, all while the boat is rocking and rolling). He is supposed to grab the leader, keeping tension on the line so the fish can't throw the hook and pull the fish through the transom gate (I say the fish then smells wood, since the gate is outlined with teak) and flop it into the cockpit and remove the hook. Wayne is trying to keep the boat from rolling any more than is necessary, so we are all in 3 different places yelling into the wind at the same time. It's a good thing we don't have to hire ourselves out for charter.

We pulled into Morgan's Bluff at 4:30 p.m., in plenty of time to get the dolphin cleaned and ready for a yummy dinner. We last visited here 2 years ago, but didn't go ashore, so I was looking forward to walking around and seeing what the land side of the area looked like.

Going to Look for Treasure

So, we launched FIN and headed into the crowded little dock area. A friendly native suggested we tie off to his boat and jump over to a landing area. Eddie was supposed to be tending to Ursa, who was very excited to be going to land and was riding on the bow. She tried to jump to shore before FIN was secure and, since Eddie was holding her leash and was himself flopping around trying to get FIN tied off to the other boat, he pulled her into the water. It was a comedy show for the locals.

Turns out there is no town, only a dock, Esso station/convenience store (the “store” is about the size of the salon on FLUKE, and we are carrying 20X more food than what is on the shelves in the store), and bar, Willy's Water Lounge. The bar is “upscale” – it has a pool table, and a huge rock on the open air porch. I have no idea what the rock is for.

We walked over to the point dock where the water barge, Titas, was docked. Titas makes the round trip over to Nassau in 21 – 27 hours, and that is its only purpose in life: moving water from Andros to Nassau. The crew member we spoke with said the only people making any money on that operation are corrupt politicians. Titas was having a problem with a valve, and so they listed the boat to port by filling the water tanks on that side, which lifted the starboard side out of the water so a diver had easier access to the valve problem.

Titas Listing

We stopped by Captain Henry Morgan's cave (I believe the community's entire advertising budget was used for the nice sign). It is rumored that treasure was hidden in the cave, but no one has ever found any. We found it interesting, especially the bats. They didn't like getting their picture taken with the flash; some began flying around. Eeee...bats in my hair!! Since it is below ground level, it would not be a good place to be in the event of a flooding hurricane.

Beginning Another Adventure

The Real Bat Cave

We talked with a friendly stone crab fisherman who was unloading all his traps since the season had just ended. He said he works 8 months collecting crabs from the banks on the west side of Andros. I thought it was interesting to hear that he baits the traps with pigs feet-they hold together well and last a long time. He sells them all, ranging from $7-15/lb, to a supplier from Miami who flies over every couple of weeks to pick them up. He let me use his hose to rinse off Ursa who was quite crispy from the dock dunking.

Stone Crab Boat With Traps

There was a cruiser, Calvin, waiting for the customs officer to arrive to clear him in. He had been waiting since the day before, just having to hang around since no specific time would be given as to when the officer would show up. We told him how easy it had been for us to clear at Bimini Sands, and he said he had thought about clearing there too, but had passed on, now with much regret. Calvin had single handedly sailed his little sailboat all the way down the eastern seaboard from Newfoundland. What an adventure!

NASSAU

After leaving Morgan's Bluff, we decided to make our first transit through Nassau harbor since it was in the direction we were headed anyway. On the way over, Titas passed us on the high seas on its return trip to fill up with more water.

We all found Nassau Harbor interesting for a drive through, seeing all the cruise ships and colorful buildings, but it is not the type of place we would choose for one of our leisure destinations: too congested, too many people, too many buildings, too noisy and too much development.

Choose Your Ship

Something For Everyone

Exiting the harbor it was a short distance to our anchoring destination at Rose Island. Since it was still early in the afternoon, several tour boats were using the area. They had large numbers of people aboard, probably from the cruise ships and were dropping them off to snorkel the shallow reefs nearby.

We remarked how spoiled we are and lucky to go places where we have the reefs to ourselves and don't have to deal with running into 50 other bobbing orange snorkel vests. At least those people will experience the thrill and wonder of seeing all the tropical reef life. Seeing animals in the wild has a much greater impact than watching them on TV or seeing them at Sea World. When you see a turtle or dolphin swim close by it gives you a greater sense of appreciation and might motivate you to help protect and preserve the ocean environment.

SHIP CHANNEL CAY
May 13-19

As we cruise down the Exuma chain of islands, we are going to try to anchor places we haven't anchored at on previous trips, weather permitting.

We had a very windy ride down from Rose Island; we are hoping for a rain shower to rinse off FLUKE. Winds have picked up, so our activities are going to be restricted to the lee side of the cay. Since this cay is 3 miles long and 400' wide with hills as high as 40' in some places we have good protection anchored on it western side when the winds are out of the east, and there is perfect holding in a nice, sandy bottom.

There are a lot of good snorkeling reefs on both sides of the cay. The southern tip has an area used by a tour group out of Nassau called Powerboat Adventures. We can see them roaring by on speed boats (4 x 250HP engines), and then they are there for the whole day. They have a shark feeding area, which we presume must be used at the end of the day when all the other water activities have been completed. Cruisers aren't permitted to mingle with the paying tourists, not that we would want to anyway.

We did get some rain, about 15 gal. worth in our deck buckets. I climbed up on the roof to scrub it during the shower so that we could use the water to fill our boat tanks, but it didn't rain enough to get clean, free flowing water.

After the Storm

We went out spear fishing and Eddie speared a strawberry grouper and gray snapper. There are plenty of heads in the area which should provide good habitat for some decent fish. I wish we had better weather to dive the oceanside reefs, which I suspect would be more productive. Lloyd (as in Bridges) and Jacquelyn (as in Cousteau) will have to wait for better opportunities as the voyage continues.

There are some ruins on the island. If you are adventurous enough you can land the dinghy and hike up to them. There are no beaches, so you have to do a wet landing, tie the dinghy to shore off the bow and throw out the stern anchor and then wade in. The rocks are smooth enough to walk on, but you will need a good pair of shoes to make the walk to the ruins.

A Difficult Step

We hiked up to the first ridge line where we could look down to a transition zone between the mangroves growing in the inland pond and the silver buttonwood growing upland from them. The vegetation is sparser in that area, but you have to walk on the hard rocky limestone, carefully watching for all the holes, some of which are very deep. When you think you are below the ruins, pick your way through the thick brush, avoiding the poisonwood.

The ruins have a beautiful view and a finely crafted set of wide, winding steps that lead down to what was a patio/docking area on a plateau above the waterfront. It is a peaceful area to sit and have a picnic lunch or contemplate how fortunate you are to be sitting right there at all.
The last night we were here a tug and barge arrived late in the afternoon to anchor for the night. I had looked at the barge trough the binoculars a couple of days earlier as it was headed south carrying what appeared to be construction equipment. Once they were situated the decks erupted with a flurry of people scampering about, kids of various ages from a toddler to a teen. Soon, several jumped into the water and swam towards shore with a bucket, collecting “things” from the exposed low tide rocky shoreline. I suspect they were collecting chitins for making a stew, an island fare I described last year.

The Family Barge Company

HIGHBOURNE CAY
May 17-19

This cay is the northernmost inhabited cay in the Exumas, but it is a private island with a marina business. However, you can anchor out and walk along the beaches and shorelines as long as you don't walk upland. Most cruisers don't anchor here because they anchor nearby at Allan's Cay, home of the famous land iguanas. If you want a more private location, you can anchor at Highbourne and take the dinghy over to Allan's. We anchored in North Cove in good sand after weaving our way through Allan's and over the coral heads in between the two cays. I could see sand dollars on the bottom.

Bleeding Tooth Shells

The whole area between Allan's and Highbourne is filled with nice coral heads and is a great place to snorkel on slack tide. The depth varies quite a bit, down to about 20', so there is a diversity of bottom and structure. We saw a variety of fish species, but didn't spear any fish. I suspect it would be a great place to troll from the dinghy, but we didn't have time for that.

One of our shore walks took us along the soft, sandy rocky areas of the west side and north point where we found nesting red-billed tropic birds way up in small caves. We decided to try to cut back to the western beach area where we had left the dinghy and chose a recently cleared survey path that appeared to transverse the island where we thought we needed to go. It was a terrible walk although I delighted in seeing 3 different species of orchids growing prolifically. The piles of brush were difficult to walk through, and the path wasn't clear cut to the ground level. The worst part of all came when we had gotten 2/3 of the way through and stood above a huge cavernous pit and cave. The path had not been cut around it; the survey cut had been made from the two sides of the pit, originating from the opposite sides. We were too far through to go back, so we had to weave our way around, which included scaling one end of the pit by holding onto branches at the sides to keep ourselves from slipping downward.

Cavity Nester

Wayne had been carrying Ursa, so getting through this area was extra challenging. We had to let her pick her own way around through the underbrush, still connected to the leash. We were so scratched up by the time we reached the beach; we all headed into the water and let the salt burn our wounds.

We overheard an interesting radio conversation between a research vessel and eco tour boat that frequent the area. A dead land iguana had been found and people from both vessels were getting together to perform a dissection. I was dying to ask if I could stop in for the show as I would have loved hearing what they had to say and learning more about them.

Giant Land Iguana

BLACK POINT, GREAT GUANA CAY
May 20, 2009

This was just going to be an overnight stop because there was no better place to go with the steady winds out of the east and the long distance we wanted to travel, and it was easy to get in and out of. Plus, we had anchored here before and knew the holding was good.

We left the North Cove anchorage by taking the cut out between Allan's and Highbourne. I knew we should have just turned around and gone back to the Banks side as soon as we cleared the last point of land and just started bouncing around like a cork. Plus, Captain Wayne, suggesting what a great opportunity it would be to do some offshore fishing, had charted the course to take us far offshore, well away from the nutrient rich waters associated with the numerous cuts between the cays and the near shore drop offs. I asked him if he thought we were trying to fish with Davey Jones in the 5000 ft. depths we were traveling through.

After several hours of sea misery, and no fish, we gave up and we took the cut in at Warderwick Wells, home headquarters for the Exumas Land and Sea Park. It is one of the most beautiful places in the entire Exumas. There are more colors of blues and greens than can be described. The shoreline is an interesting mix of white sandy cliffs and gray outcroppings. The main anchorage has calm, protected waters and looks so peaceful and inviting after a rough time at sea. The sun was even out by then so the area sparkled at its best and helped calm our nerves. Plus, it was lunch time, and we don't miss many meals aboard FLUKE!

By the time we finally got to Black Point we were totally covered in salt from the choppy sea conditions. Touching anything outside the boat felt gritty. We tracked salt inside on our bare feet and everything was damp. Yuck. At least eating dinner would help get our minds off of the miserable day.


GEORGETOWN HARBOR, GREAT EXUMA
May 21 - 24

Here we are once again, in the famous cruising mecca of the Southern Exumas, and frequent winter home for a big majority of serious cruisers. Overall this neighborhood is very quiet now, with most of the winter cruisers having already left. However, there sure aren't near the number of boats that we saw when we were here 2 years ago. We wonder if the downturn in the economy has changed many plans.

A Working Native

The run down from Black Point proved to be a cruising adventure that will become part of our conversations in years to come. We traveled on the Banks until we went out Galliot Cut on an outgoing tide.

We all agreed that we would leave Davey Jones to himself this time and try fishing the drop off lines, only 1 -2 miles from shore, especially with the outgoing tide. That strategy really worked. We caught a big king mackerel, 2 tuna, and had a dolphin in the boat. While I was looking over the upper aft deck railing, hearing Eddie down below wrestling with the dolphin I saw the fish and Eddie wind up on the swim platform, and then it looked like Eddie actually released the fish! I couldn't believe my eyes and asked what he was doing (not using those words). He said his hand had gotten tangled in the line and the fish had jumped back out through the door after the hook had gotten off. He just couldn't keep hold of it so it slipped out of his hand.

As we were getting nearer to our destination we ran into a rainstorm. The line on one of the reels started screaming and being pulled out at an extremely fast rate. I didn't think I would get to it in time to set the drag enough to have any line left, but I did. We all went into the “fish on” mode despite the cold rain and lightning. There was something really big on the line, but it stayed deep as I was trying to reel it in. My arms were getting so tired and I was cold from the rain. I forgot all about my discomfort when I finally saw what we had on the line. It was a beautiful white marlin, one of my dream billfish. I told Eddie to just cut the line so we could release the fish, but he wanted to try to save the lure and managed to make the fish “smell wood” as I watched Eddie drag the big fish over the swim platform and through the transom door whereby I was able to really get a good look at it both going in and out after the hook was removed. Eddie thought it was 5' long and weighed about 70 pounds, and despite having bent the hook, we still boated it. So, that was quite a feat for the fishing flunkies of FLUKE.

We continued onward. Headed for the cut, coming from the port side was a black sailing schooner under full sail. It looked so mysterious through the pouring rain. Since it had been a magical day anyway, I was hoping maybe it was the Black Pearl with my favorite pirate at the helm, Jack Sparrow.

The schooner, a huge motor yacht, and FLUKE all went through the north cut into Elizabeth Harbor in the pouring rain. We motored slowly through the harbor all the way to the southern end where we dropped the hook off Sand Dollar Beach.

Eddie and I immediately began cleaning fish, in between lightning strikes, since we wanted to have it fresh for dinner. I had hoped to grill the mackerel and tuna, but the rain wasn't going to let up, so I ended up baking it with a new recipe. It turned out great, and we had plenty of leftovers to use for a fish salad for lunch the next day. I spent quite a while removing all the skin and bones and saving only the purest meat, like fresh tuna fish. When I woke up the next morning I found the container sitting out on the counter, where it had been left to cool and forgotten about all night long. It became fish food for the scavengers. Fortunately we froze all the rest of the fish and will have a chance to try it again on the grill.

It has rained for 3 days now and our tanks are filled up. I have even gotten to do a load of clothes with all the extra water. All our deck buckets are full, so we'll be able to rinse off whatever we need to clean. You can truly see that storm clouds may have a silver lining judging by all the good that has come our way, as we are waiting for better weather to make the crossing to the islands we intend to visit east of here: Rum, Long Island, and Conception.

We have limited email access, being able to buy time in 80 minute increments if the provider deems that the system is not too filled with users. I have been typing for hours to complete this in case we get to leave tomorrow (May 24) and so Wayne can format the text and photos for the blog. One last segment remains for my story, a popular regularly featured presentation.

WHAT'S NOT WORKING

In no particular type of order (i.e. safety, comfort, fun, necessity) I'll bring you up to date on some of our “problems”.

We made it as far as Lake Worth to discover that the satellite TV wasn't working. It had been in use daily while we were at the dock. Basically we just can't pick up the signal, and we have never had this problem before, so we think it is pretty serious. I was worried that Eddie may decide to abort the trip, but he decided to tough it out, with the slim chance that Wayne could figure it out and get it working again. We have given up hope at this point. Eddie is truly in a withdrawal period, but I think he will make it.

Trying to Diagnose Satellite Disease

The sewer system is always on the list for one reason or another. This time it is not really broken, we are just having a maintenance disagreement. Holding tank chemicals help control the odor and facilitate the breakdown of wastes. I don't like using the chemicals if we are going to be pumping out on a regular basis anyway since the chemicals are expensive and it is just one more thing to dump into the ocean. We have to dump the waste since there are no pump outs to process the material, so we pump out in open water where the waste will be easily dispersed. Whenever one of the toilets gets flushed, it forces residual gas out the vent line. Coincidently, the noxious gas fumes flow down the port side of the boat and usually stream right into the big window where Eddie puts his head to sleep. (I'm laughing now as I write this). He thinks if we used the deodorant he wouldn't get the stinky fumes. As a compromise, whenever anyone flushes they have to announce the event so Eddie can close his window. The only problem with that is that Eddie naps quite a bit, and goes to bed early (since there is no TV) so he has to be awakened to close his window, and that makes him more miserable. Funny how all operations are so interconnected, huh?

The bilge pump in the dinghy was on the fritz altogether, meaning that we had to manually pump it out. That is kind of a big deal because the lowest part is under the seat, and you have to lift up the seat and cram the end of the manual pump way underneath and hold it at a funny angle for maximum suction. Simply no fun. Seems that the WE team managed to fix it to where it won't pump automatically, but it will pump if the switch is turned on by hand, a truly great compromise.

Lastly, some rather sad news for our readers. The camera bit the dust when we were at Highbourne Cay. It is a rather bitter sweet event since I have disliked that camera for a couple of years now, but I will no longer be able to better accurately record the images of these adventures. I've mentioned that I may do some drawings or scan some images, but Wayne thinks I can't draw anything, or have no other artistic talents for that matter. I may do some and see what you all think anyway. I am looking forward to being able to donate the camera to Davey Jones when we are in his neighborhood again.

Not Having a Camera Makes Me Mad

BRIDGING THE GAP

Since the weather wasn't cooperative for a departure on May 24, we decided to stick around for at least another day; we would take a trip into town and keep trying to post the blog. We had heard radio chatter from other cruisers inquiring about the status of the WiFi service, so we weren't the only ones waiting for that.

Obviously, we never made the post since you are having to read this along with everything else. The little time that the connection stayed up, everyone else was also was trying to use it, so the system was so slow. Wayne was never able to fully upload our publication, and then the system went down altogether. He even tried it again before we hauled up the anchor on May 25. So, we “wasted” our purchased minutes. That's how life is in the out islands. If staying connected 24/7 is critical to your existence, don't plan on coming here for an extended period of time.

Our trip to town was rather uneventful. Not much was happening since it was Sunday, and most of the businesses are closed. I managed to find a phone booth and had an old Batelco (the out island equivalent of AT&T) card and decided to try it in the machine. To my complete surprise it worked, and I was able to call my Mom, who was pleasantly surprised to hear from us.