Cool north winds at 20knots
12/20/2010, Hopetown on Elbow Cay

Another week has drifted by filled with long walks, some snorkeling on the big reef, a complete rebuild on my favorite Mitchell 330 fishing reel, some unsuccessful fishing and lobster spearing (those big fish seem way too smart/fast to catch!) and long bicycle rides down the island to watch the surfers catch the waves.
My body is not used to all of the exercise, so I'll need to slowly work myself into top shape.

Louise is busy baking bread and experimenting with new treats ( the papaya and prosciutto is quite interesting) with lots of crab claws and lobster tails.

The boat seems to have stabilized itself in terms of repairs, so we'll keep our fingers crossed that no major problems develop. After much difficulty our new dinghy was picked up last Friday in St. Pete's Florida and will hopefully be delivered today to West Palm Beach in time to make the freighter departure (I'm not optimistic, based upon results to date).

The Christmas lights are organized, the presents are wrapped, we're ready for a festive holiday!

glen

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Still blowing and getting colder!
12/14/2010, Hopetown

We awoke this morning to strong winds and 10C in temperature....even Louise was cold! (but not complaining).
Sipping my coffee with my warm socks and hat on, I decided to throw caution to the wind, and see if the on-board heating system works.
After four years of boat ownership, this feature had never been tried.
Start the generator, switch on the A/C main breaker, turn on the forward A/C unit (we have two, fore and aft), and select heat.....
Within ten minutes warm air is pouring into the main cabin, we're charging our main batteries at 70AmH, and turned on the hot water heater.
Within 30 minutes, it's warm and toasty!
Now all we need to do is wait for the sun to do it's job, and warm up the air outside!

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Cool and strong winds!
12/13/2010, Hopetown on Elbow Cay

With the wind gusting to 80kph we're hiding in Hopetown harbour getting tossed all over the place! Several neighbours have gone ashore to avoid the seasickness, and Louise is finishing up the stainless steel polishing. I've never seen such a lovely protected harbour so rough with whitecaps and howling wind. If our mooring line let's go, we'll be toast!
Lots of bright sunshine allows the solar panels to fully recharge the batteries, and all of my internet problems have been sorted out, so the current challenge is to find a safe and reasonable way to get our new dinghy from the west coast of Florida to Marsh Harbour..... it would be virtually impossible without internet.

The bilge is dry, the beer is cold and the sun is shining.... all is well!

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