Ralph
03/14/2010, Calgary

Its great to come home and see the kids, but I sure don't like the cold. And it's not really cold, but I guess it's what you get used to. When the cold fronts would come through the Bahamas the temp would drop down in the 60's over night and the wind would have a chill to it. And we would find that cold!

With Karen staying on the boat, we had to give her a crash course on using the dingy so she can get arround. We had talked about her learning more about driving the dingy, but we just never got around to it. So on Thursday, we had lots of running around to do before I left and Karen did all of the driving. We even had to cross the harbor to go into GT and it was a long bumpy ride, but Karen did fantastic and I think she wast starting to feel comfortable.

We did alot of sailing going back and forth to the Jumentos. And most of the time it was sailing in the company of other boats. We never had much confidence in our sailing skills, so it by sailing with other boats, we got to compare our abilities. On our first leg down, we there was a 40' lepeord cat going the same way. We were going dead down wind, and when they pu their spinnaker up we thought they zoom by us - but not the case. We used the whisker pole and travelled wing on wing and pulled away from them. Then the next day we sailed with Cat Tails (37 Privilge) and we kept pace with them until we got the wind righ on the beam and started to draw away from them. Then coming back, we were traveling with Kokopelli and Cat Tales and again we pulled away from both of them - until they turned on their engines! So we are starting to feel better about our sailing skills.

March is birthday month in our family. It was my lovely wife's birthday on thursday, so we went out for dinner at the St Francis and had an excellent meal. It was also my dad's birthday yesterday , my older sisters in a few day's and then my younger sister's birthday in a few more days.

So happy birthday to everyone.

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Ralph
03/12/2010, Georgetown, Bahamas

We are back in Georgetown - Unexpected side trip. I am flying home back to Calgary for a few days and Karen is staying on the boat here in GT. We were fortunate enough to get a mooring in hole 1, so Karen does not have to worry about moving the boat around when weather comes. It is extremely close quarters here on the mooring - especially since being down in the Jumentos where everyone spreads way out. There are a couple of boats close to us that we know, so I am sure they will look after Karen and help her out if she encounters any problems.

We had a great time down in the Jumentos, but did not have any success getting Lobsters. We went out hunting an number of times, but usually the places we went were just a little out of my skill level. But I kept trying and my skills are improving. We stopped at Racoon Cay on the way back and the last place we went hunting I finally found my first lobster but after one missed shot he climbed so far back in the hole I could only see the tips of his antenna's. Oh well. We still had a blast down there and hope to visit them again some day.

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Ralph
03/06/2010, Duncan Town, Bahamas

Uploaded a few new pictures.

It is pretty cool down here. What we have found is that the same boats that are currenly here have been coming down for years and usually spend most of their time in the Bahamas in this area and skip all of the rest. Conch, Crawfish and fish are all plentiful around here. Most of these boats eat all of the seafood they want. The weather has limited our snorkeling to only a couple of outings so far, but we plan on getting out more soon. i have yet to see a crawfish, but the group I was with got two the last time out. There are also fish to be had, but I have not done that yet either. The hunting does not have to be too hard either - All of the above can be found in shallower water. We also really like Duncan Town. There is not much there, but the people are fantastic. We were invited to a beach party on Monday evening - a birthday party for Dave from Dyad (Had not met before the party). It was a beautiful day and the party was a blast. Everybody brought a dish to share plus they grilled up some dogs over the fire. Then there was 3 guitars and 1 banjo and they handed out gazzoo's to the rest of the crowd - I counted 24 people at the party. We also met alot of fantastic people with my favorites being a couple from New Brunswick. They have been cruising for the last 18 years in a tiny 30 footer. No refridgeration - very few creature comforts, they rarely start the motor and sail everywhere. They are the dearest people you will every meet. This is their last season for cruising as age is catching up with them and they are finding it difficult to manage everything. It is blowing again today from the west-northwest - which means bouncing around and listening to the wind howl. Maybe we will bake bread today - we can't seem to buy any so it looks like its time to start making our own.

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Ralph
02/27/2010, Duncan Town

We are still in the Jumentos/Ragged Islands. We moved down from our first anchorage at Double Breasted and moved in between Hog and Ragged - which is the closest anchorage to Duncan Town. This is by far the most real village that we have seen in the Bahamas. We are going to spend the next couple of days here and then probably move for the next front which is supposed to be Tuesday evening. There is one coming tonight but should not be that strong. We went hunting yesterday with 3 or 4 other boats. Two crawfish (Lobster) were shot, but not by me. It was on the ocean side and the conditions were a little difficult for me. We stopped for Conch on the way back home and found LOTS. We are heading back into town today to attend a school fundraiser that should be fun. There are about 15 - 20 boats that are hanging around this area - They are hard core cruisers that are well experienced.

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