Mike
12/28/2008

December 28th. Our last day at. Morgan's Bluff, Andros, Bahamas

Tom came over this morning to listen to Cruiseheimer's at 8:30 and then stayed for the Tech. net that follows. I downloaded the GRIB files to check out the forecast wind for the next few days and everything looked fine.

Then I spent the majority of the morning fishing. Although I hooked a few edible panfish, I didn't land any. The ultra light rod that I was using didn't have enough set to get the hook stuck in their mouths.

After lunch we walked the beach with Barry and Susan to get a little exercise. When we returned to the boat, we decided to look around for another lobster. I got the mask and fins on and pulled Kathy in the dinghy with the look bucket. In about 30 minutes we found one and after a couple of dives had enough for supper.

Later I tried to catch some bait fish to drag behind out boat tomorrow but failed miserably. Barry was catching them hand over fist right next to us, but I didn't ever have a bite.

We boiled the lobsters, cut them up and put them in the refrigerator to cool. Then, we made a salad and put a layer of chopped lobster on the top. Sorry.but it was wonderful with a buttermilk ranch dressing.

Video before bed as usual. and we set the alarm for 5:30 to travel.

PS.our radio email address is kd8fqd@winlink.com We'd like to hear from everyone but please keep things a little short..no photos, jokes etc.

PPSS. Ellie we need you to research how to call London from the Bahamas. We have your sisters' phone numbers but don't know the prefixs.. no internet here. thanks

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Mike
12/27/2008

December 27th. Morgan's Bluff, Andros, Bahamas

The forecast says that the winds will decrease tomorrow and then more on Monday and Tuesday. Since there is a chance we'll be moving soon, Kathy took advantage of the water supply and washed some cloths for the second day in a row. I worked on fishing tackle.changing lures, sharpening hooks and checking the line. The next two jumps are probably the best chance I have to catch something big in the next few weeks or so.

Barry and Susan stopped by to say that they were hitching into the store and Batelco if we wanted anything. The only things we could think of were a couple of tomatoes and green peppers. and a $20 pre-paid Batelco card.

I continued my work on fishing stuff and then switched to the spear. I have two points and after a few lobsters, I am thinking about changing to the single point tip. Unfortunately, It was rusted so I had to get the dremel and clean things up a little.

I also patched three of our six water transporting bags which are flimsy and are constantly developing small leaks. I have some thin plastic patches that work reasonably well on them but have been putting off the job.

We refilled our water tank and I went to shore to fill all of our water containers. We will leave with 140 gallons and a 5 gallon solar shower, which will last us from 3 to 6 weeks depending on our conservation measures.

Barry and Susan returned with our purchases and we agreed to take a hike out to the bluff to see what the ocean is like today. Since we can hear the breakers hitting the bluff we know that the seas are still high.

After some lunch we headed ashore. The wind gauge read a steady 22 knots with gusts to 30. The waves were about 6 to 8 feet and short. We decided to leave on Monday instead of tomorrow.

I told "Night Hawk" and " Perseverance II" that they were welcome to come over for social hour at 4pm but that they would have to stop talking at 5pm so that we could listen to the Basketball game. They left about half time and we cooked the snapper that I caught the other day.. It was excellent pan fried with some dill sauce. I cut up a potato for some American fries and Kathy cooked a vegetable.

After supper we watched "The Freedom Writers" which Nancy had sent along in our Christmas bag of goodies.

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mike
12/26/2008

December 26th. Morgan's Bluff, Andros, Bahamas

After wasting some time in the morning we tackled last night's dishes. With me washing and Kathy drying and putting them away, it didn't take too long. We will be here until Sunday at the earliest, but the real good weather for crossing the Tongue of the Ocean, over the banks and finally to the Exumas, will be Monday and Tuesday. We'll first run south, down the east coast of Andros to Fresh Creek for a night before heading east to the Exumas.

Later in the morning, I tried some fishing without success and then went out with Barry with the look- bucket spotting Lobsters. We found only one, which I'll get to in the afternoon.

After lunch Barry, Susan, Kathy and I took the dinghies to a cove a couple of miles west of our current position. There was a pleasant little house in the cove with people on the beach so we anchored a few hundred yards or so from them to be polite. One of the ladies immediately got up and started a fast walk toward us.she was either going to kick off her beach our invite us over. As it turned out she was very nice and out for her daily power walk. She was from Vermont and with her husband, spent as much time at their place here on Andros as they could.

We hiked the beach to the point about 1.5 miles away passing a few homes and a section of bone dry trees that have drifted in over the years. At the end of the point we could see miles of flats.perfect for bonefishing.

It was a slow ride back into the wind and waves but once there we grabbed the snorkeling gear and spear to collect the lobster that we had spotted in the morning. It took two dives but he really didn't have a chance.

Since I was wet, it was a good time to scrub our water line and the bottom of the dinghy. The dinghy had a good crop of Vero Beach barnacles and I had steadily been working to get rid of them.

I was pooped by the time I finished. but with more swimming, an hour of treading water shouldn't affect me much at all.

One of my jobs for the day was to make another trip to the inner harbor for water to make sure that all of our transporting containers were full when we leave Morgan's Bluff. After filling up. I wandered over to the Willie's bar to have a beer with the rest of the gang. There was a semi-deranged conch fisherman there as well as Mr. Campbell who owns the nearest grocery and who is building a hotel/condo development on the beach we hiked today.

Back at the boat we had supper and watched some video for a while before bed.

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