Mike
02/11/2008, Wardrick Wells ...Exuma Park heaquarters

February 9 Warderick Wells and more lobsters

Another beautiful day... We worked on the boat for a while and then I snorkeled on some nearby coral heads with Steve, Sandra, Beth and Jim. (Kathy doesn't have any equipment) At the first spot we saw two nice lobsters and a few big Nassau Groupers. There was also a sea turtle resting among the coral. At the next area, two more lobsters and lots of fish. Although everything is protected we are getting much better at spotting lobsters under and in the rock, holes and coral. Generally all you see at first is part of their antenna. Then by changing angles you can usually get a glimpse of them hiding.

We were going to go for a walk but ended up reading on the boat in the shade. There was a potluck at the park headquarters at 5:30 so we dinghied over...(it's about a mile away).

As always we met some great new people and ran into some folks that we had crossed paths with on our trip south. There were probably about 20 boats represented so it was a good crowd.

Back at the boat we listened to the Spartans... and hope that they can break the trend and win a couple of road games.

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Kathy
02/11/2008, Wardrick Wells ...Exuma Park Heaquarters

February 8 Warderick Wells


We started the day, as usual, with a little boat work. At around 11, we and "Madcap" got a call from "Princess" asking if we were up for a hike and a picnic and of course we said yes. We all dinghied down to Turtle Beach for a short hike to "The Pirate's Lair" and Capture Beach. The story is that pirates used to hang out there because the anchorage is well hidden from the surrounding waters by some high cays on the south side of Warderick Wells. The lair is surrounded by cabbage palms and there is a type of grass that grows here and nowhere else in the Exumas. The theory is that the pirates carried the seeds to shore in their blankets and clothing, and thereby the grass was inadvertently planted here. On the beach there was a picnic table where we had our little picnic and there was a hammock there in case one needed a nap after lunch. We were greeted by several lizards and a mocking bird who thought we might feed them I guess, but that is prohibited in the park.

From there we walked on sharp limestone along the edge of the island. I found this difficult to walk on and began to feel strange. I had to stop several times for rest and water. It was very hot (it has been around 90 every day-I know all you Michiganders feel sorry for us) and there was no breeze to speak of. We finally found a place to get in the water and cool off and I felt much better after that. We think it could have been heat stroke, or at least a heat-related affliction. We walked back across the island beside a wall that we believe was built to keep livestock out of the plantings, though how anyone ever grew much on this rocky ground is hard to believe. We got to Beryl's Beach where the girls waited and the boys took another challenging trail back to the dinghies.

We got back to the boat and headed for the office to buy more internet time and ice. We had plans to hike to Boo Boo Hill that evening to watch the sun set, but when it was time to go we all decided we had had enough hiking for the day. We spent a quiet, restful evening on the boat.

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Sapphire
02/07/2008, Black Point Settlement

Feb. 18

After the weather are coffee, we pulled up the dinghy for some more patching. Yesterday I found two small places that seemed to be leaking water. We hoisted it to the foredeck and while in the upright position, I patched the two areas. Then we turned it up-side-down to ride on the foredeck for the trip to Farmer's Cay. our destination for the last few days.

When we flipped her over we found that the 4 foot strip of fabric that connects the fiberglass floor to the tube was completely detached on one side. A major problem.. and one that could have been avoided if we weren't so cheap. A new dinghy at the boat was the proper course of action.

Anyway, we were here. and some work needed to be done if we were ever going to get to shore again. The strip of fabric was still connected to the tube so we carefully rolled it back and wire brushed the side to be glued. We did the same for the section of hull that where the fabric was going to be place and then cleaned everything with solvent. We gathered as many reasonably heave items as we could find to weight things down after gluing. Finally, I mixed up a batch of West Systems, (epoxy) liberally painted both surfaces and stuck things back together. Next I covered the glued area with paper towels and put the weights on top.

After a couple of hour drying, I removed the weights, scraped off the paper and inspected our efforts. Things looked good but I found two small places where water could find its way in so I filled them with 3M 4200.

I mixed up another batch of West Systems and cut a 6 in wide strip of fiberglass matting. half of which was placed on the newly glued section of fabric the other half on the adjacent section the fiberglass bottom. When that dried, I sanded the rough pieces of matting and applied a final coat of epoxy.

By that time the day was gone so we put off our departure until tomorrow.

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