February 1st, 2009 Thompson's Bay, Long Island

Yesterday when we hoisted the Windbugger into the rigging and plugged it in.it didn't do anything. There was enough wind, and it should have been running at about 5 to 10 amps, but there was nothing. It was too windy to do much testing, so we tied the prop down with a bungee and waited for the wind to subside.

After Cruiseheimer's ( which is an SSB Net that we listen to most mornings) on Sundays and Wednesdays there is something call "Tech Net" where boaters call in with all kinds of problems and solutions. I thought that the problem with the Windbugger was a bad diode and called in to ask if I could just hotwire the system directly into my battery bank. I didn't think it could hurt anything if I disconnected things when the wind went down. The consensus on the net was that I was correct.so I had a plan.

This morning the wind was down enough to do some testing without putting my life on the line so I started checking everything out. After about two hours of tracing continuity, I found a worn spot in a wire at the base of the mast where it goes through the deck. There was no way that I could remove the bad wire without creating a leak in our mast to deck seal so I had to run completely new wire. By noon I had a temporary fix in place.

We listened to the Spartans lose their second home game in a row. which has to be some kind of Breslin record. It sounded like Penn. State shot the lights out and we spent much of game missing everything.

Our plans were to go ashore to and walk to a Super bowl party but when it was time to go we were comfortably reading books in the cockpit and decided to just stay on the boat.

We baked some pork chops for dinner and watched an episode of CSI before going to bed.

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January 30th, 2009 Hog Key to Thompson's Bay Long Island

We left anchorage at Hog Cay at 8:30 and followed the Explorer chart route south through some shallow water along the west side of Long Island. It was a beautiful day, not much wind for sailing but clear skies and comfortable. The trip was only about 20 miles and by noon we were anchored in Thompson's Bay. We were surprised to find only about 10 boats anchored here. With two fronts headed our way in the next three days we thought the place would be full. The bay is huge and well protected a good spot to ride out a storm. Boats trickled inn all day, and by evening there were probably about 30 of us here with lots of room to swing.

After getting settled we had some lunch and lowered the dinghy for a ride to town. The settlement of Salt Pond is two or three miles away but with calm waters, isn't a bad trip.

We saw some dinghies tied up to a wimpy floating dock in front of a new resort called Island Breeze and pulled in and tied up there. As we stepped off the dock we were met by Michael who is one of the owners. The place is beautiful with a pool on the deck over looking the Bay. On the second floor we found our friends and a couple of other cruising couples. We chatted with Michael and Jackie for a while asking about their business and the Island in general. When asked about an ATM machine we learned that the only one was about 6 miles to the south.

A little later Jackie came back and offered to run us out to the bank.Susan and I jumped at the chance and as it turned out it was Michael who drove us done to the bank. He was a wealth of information. If we end up renting a car here we'll sit down with him first.

From Island Breeze we walked across the street to the grocery store and picked up a few things before heading back to "Sapphire."

On our way we stopped and chatted with Bob and Mary Lou on "Cygnus." We met them last year in Spanish Wells and spent a couple days with them exploring the area. We had seen them in Annapolis in October but hadn't heard from them since then.

We had another meal of seared tuna compliments of Steve and Kim who had dropped off a nice hunk of meat yesterday afternoon.

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January 29th, 2009 Clarence Town, to Hog Cay

I woke up a little before 5am to a squall with wind at 24 knots and a nice rain washing the salt off our boat. The wind stay above 20 and another squall went through about 40 minutes later. At 6:30 Chris Parker told us that winds were going to be 12 to 15 and decreasing in the afternoon. The anemometer was reading about 18 at the time so I was a little worried when "Night Hawk" began preparing for departure.

We hoisted the mizzen, uncovered the main and weighed anchor. Before leaving the harbor I tied a double reef in the main. The wind had been blowing 20 knots plus from Africa for the last week. We expected swells and were not disappointed. Our course to the north put the wind behind us at about 120 degrees but the swells were on the beam. It began as a rolly ride. We were making about 6.5 knots with the swells lifting us slowly and then dropping us off the back side. Sapphire's keel did a great job of maintaining course as we slid down the back side of each swell. I was not however, a comfortable ride. I don't even want to guess at the height of the swells. At one point we were 75 yards from Night Hawk and their entire boat disappeared.. including all of their mast.

As the day progressed we found the wind dying and motored sailed that last few miles to the northern end of Long Island. When turned to round the island, we picked up some wind and turned off the motor for our sail south (on flat water) to our anchorage off Hog Cay.

Fishing was not so good. We lost a Mahi half way to the boat and Barry lost two. Steve and Kim did land a real nice tuna and brought over a nice hunk of meat in the evening.

I made pizza for dinner that was not very good.and then we listened to the MSU Iowa game.

January 28th, 2009 Clarence Town, Long Island

After coffee I transferred 20 gallons of water from jerry cans into our tank. Kathy sorted dirty clothes and loaded up our waterproof laundry bag for the trip ashore. We fired up the Honda to heat some water for showers and by about 10:30 ready to head in. The dingy was loaded .. trash, dirty clothes and four water jugs.

After tying up at the marina we walked up to the office and paid for the tokens necessary for the washer and drier, 22 gallons of water, and the $10 internet fee.

Kathy got the laundry going while I loaded up the water and headed back across the harbor to "Sapphire." It was a wet ride but the extra trip was necessary. We checked our emails and worked on the computer for awhile but didn't really get to chat with anyone because of the time.

We had a nice lunch at the little restaurant at the marina with "Night Hawk' and "Fine Lion" and then took a walk to check out the two churches in the town that were built by Father Jerome. On our walk we stopped by the Ag Center near the government dock. I was a new building where three or four guys were packaging papayas and cabbage for shipment on the mail boat. They also had tomatoes, green peppers, scotch bonnet peppers, and egg plant for sale. We picked up a bag full of vegetables fore $4.75

During lunch we all decided that given the weather forecast we have two options for the next week. Stay where we are our move to Thompson's Bay on the other side of the Island. The consensus was that we had seen enough of Clarence Town and needed to move.

Back at the boat we spent the remainder of the afternoon reading and getting "Sapphire" ready for Ocean travel. We have to take the outboard off the dinghy and mount in on the stern rail. Then we lift the dinghy up on the davits and lash it in place. The Windbugger has to be lowered from the forward rigging and lashed to the deck. Finally we lash all the jerry cans in place and stow anything that is tied down.

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