Thursday, February 26, 2009

Went to shore to connect to the Internet to get a weather forcast and make a garbage haul to the dump. Chatted with Aeolus - he was there getting a weather forecast too. We both downloaded the gribs from passage weather and then checked to see if we could get dinner tonight (yes). I was looking forward to more conch tonight but the way the winds and waves were building throughout the day it was looking iffy that we'd want to make our 6:00 dinner. Wayne worked on getting the Energy dissipater hooked up but still needs to get it programmed yet.

We'd seen a boat come in and pick up a mooring Lunatic Fringe so we warned them to make sure they had a chain under them because several other boats had dragged or broken free from the moorings. They had a nice looking larger dog on board that looked like he wanted to jump into our dinghy - a boxer's head but the body didn't look right. They thanked us and we then we decided to dinghy to a beach area to do a quick wash down in salt water, and then come back and fresh water rinse. The dinghy ride to shore was more than enough to convince us that we didn't want to come back for dinner when the waves and winds are usually worse, so we came back to the boat, grabbed some money then went to the marina to pay up for our mooring and cancel dinner. We were thoroughly soaked. The new guys were also headed for the marina and they'd put the dog over the side in the water but it followed them back out into the strong currents as they came back out to the dinghy dock tie ups. I couldn't believe that they let the dog swim the entire way in that current. I'd have downed and didn't much like the caviler way they treated the poor critter. It didn't deserve their reactions to be left, then made to stay in the dinghy once they hauled him into it and went ashore. If they couldn't take proper care of it or have it trained to sit and wait on shore for them, they shouldn't have brought the dog to sea with them. I don't think they'd have liked being thrown overboard, feeling abandoned and then swimming in that current to get to the boat and then ignored... Sorry for my tangent but I think everyone knows how I feel about children and animals (or generally those that can't protect themselves from abusers).

Anyhow.... We were soaking wet and our dinghy dancing under the ladder but we made it to the restaurant. We talked to Hilda about dinner and she hadn't started it yet so it was no big deal but we told her we didn't know about Aeolus's plans (they'd took a 10 mile hike to Chub Cay) and didn't cancel dinner for Aeolus since we didn't know what they wanted to do. We settled up our bill with Andrew but he seemed to not know anything at all about our dinner plans and said something about having to meet the mail boat at 7pm so he thought it wasn't possible to begin with (???). I kept an eye out for them so I could tell them when they got back to the boat that we'd canceled our dinner plans, etc.

We were glad that we'd canceled because by 5:30 the water and winds were rougher than they've been the entire time we've been here. We looked like drowned rats in a little white sailboat dancing in a circle of foamy green water around our mooring. Periodically it'd go under the boat again - bang, bang, bang... As I look up into the cockpit, the sky and clouds look like a bouncing ball - up and down, up and down... I'm so impressed that Wayne can stay down here and not get seasick. I'd say he's found his sea legs. Instead of conch, we had franks and beans with Hawaiian rolls for dinner - it's been a long time. It actually didn't bad taste. Didn't taste anything like conch (I tried to pretend) but not bad never the less. According to Chris Parker tomorrow is the day to leave. He's the weather guru that everyone turns to before they take off. We'll see... This seems kind of strong out here at the moment.