Every second Wednesday in Hope Town is sailboat racing day, setup and sponsored by the Hope Town Sailing Club and a number of boats from the club, several visiting boats, and some from neighbouring Cays all turn out to chase the silverware. Today was no exception with the small proviso that there wasn't expected to be any wind in which case the race was going to be postponed. As recently as late last night the weather witches were calling for very light winds and we all expected that the race would be scrubbed, but at the eleventh hour, or should I say, in the wee small hours of this morning, one of the race committee went outside the harbour to check the actual conditions and came back in to report that the race would go on as scheduled. Meanwhile the captain that I usually sail with had decided that they would have a family day instead so they went off in a golf cart.

In the end this turned out to be good for us getting work done on the boat. We took the covers off the pontoons on the dingy and Barb was able to fix the couple of spots where rubbing against the davits underway had worn some holes, and I was able to make some real progress on the plumbing for the water maker. In the end my plan is to have, when it's running, the water to go either to the sink for testing and filling the gallon jugs that Barb prefers to use to cook from, or directly to the boats main water tanks, or to an intermediary tank prior to being pumped into the main tanks. The above necessitates the installation and use of two three way valves and ideally we should be able to access them without undue effort which means there should be an available accessible control panel where we can grab the handles for those valves. I have not built the control panel as yet but by tomorrow I should have the valves installed and should be able to use them with a minimum disruption in our normal operations.

I needed to get some more parts and discovered that Elbow Cay actually does have a hardware store, it's just a mile or so to the south of the settlement towards White Sound. We have walked down there before to check out Pappa Nasty's and just to explore, but that requires a dingy ride across to the settlement and then the long walk. One of the other boaters here in the marina told us about a footpath through the woods on this side of the harbour and Robert, the guys side of the couple, was kind enough to show me the route. It definitely needs local knowledge as the path winds through the woods and there are a number of branches, forks and turns, but it was blessedly all in shade. The distance, as the crow flies, isn't all that different from that from the settlement but there is no dingy ride which cuts off about fifteen minutes from the trip. The houses on this side of the harbour, along the Sea of Abacos, are very different with larger lots and a lot more rustic in the setting. There is also an abandoned resort that has been squatted by a number of the Haitians who are over here for work (it would make a great setting for a horror movie) and although there are no dangerous fauna in the woods there are dangerous flora in the form of poisonous trees that can cause severe injury and in extreme cases death lining the path in several places. Not to worry, most of the problems occur when there is a rainstorm and the water is dripping of the leaves, bark and fruit and onto you. Today was quite dry if anyone was worrying.

Then we were back to the boat where we raised the Canadian flag that Barb had repaired and went over to the settlement to get a bottle of white wine to go with the wahoo that I will be BBQing for us tonight. I am making a marinade from lime juice, OJ, coconut cream and some paprika and cayenne pepper (small amount of the later) and then onto the Q, to be served with rice, raw carrots and corn niblets.

If I don't blog tomorrow you will understand that I have poisoned us.

Oh! I also discovered the answer to another mystery. Every time that someone comes in with a load of fish that they have caught, they clean he at the cleaning station right behind our boat this works out really well for us in one regard I that we can buy fresh wahoo or Mahi-Mahi almost any day that we wish, but the carcasses are always given to the Haitians that live in the area and work at the marina. Today I saw a couple of them further cleaning the carcasses and went over to talk to them. Initially I tried to speak to gem in French abut shortly we both came to the conclusion that I didn't understand their creole version of French and they didn't understand my québécois version so we switched to English. They told me that after they cut out the guts and all they would boil what was left until the flesh fell off the bones and they were left with a sort of fish stew which they would mix with vegetables or whatever for a meal. Kinda neat!

BTW here is a great recipe that the Sea Cook got from Pusser's Rum at the Annapolis Boat Show for Pain Killers:

1-4 oz your choice rum (the higher the number of oz means the painkiller is called a 1, 2, 3, or 4 dose painkiller. The higher the better IMHO)
1 oz cream of coconut (available in the best grocery stores)
1 oz OJ
1 oz pineapple juice
Serve over crushed ice
Wait for your eyes to cross. Please note that it is recommended that the percentage of rum should exceed the percentage of juice. So, no woosie single dose painkillers please.