Mike
04/24/2009, Marsh Harbour, Abaco

April 19th... Lynyard Cay to Marsh Harbour, Abacos

We had our normal weather and coffee fixes and then wasted some time until about 8:30 am. It was blowing from the SW at about 18K but since our trip of 20 miles was a northward zig-zag, it wasn't going to be a problem.

We hoisted the mizzen while we were at anchor, but kept the main in the sail cover. With all our sail up we would have been way too sideways for Kathy to keep her weaving stuff on the seat. We rolled out the staysail as we got under way and made 5.5 K as we passed a large opening to the Ocean which had some good rollers. After a down wind leg between two sandbars for a couple of miles we rolled out the Jib and doused the staysail...running at 6.5 on a beam reach with the weaving crap still on the seat.

Our course was dictated by shallow water and shoals but we did a good job of sailing all the way to the harbor entrance. I did resort to the engine once when I came up 50 yards short at Sugar Loaf Cay.... it was just too much up wind for us to make without the main.

We arrived in Marsh Harbour and anchored with a fleet of about 25 boats, half of whom we've seen before. There wasn't much to do on shore on Sunday afternoon so I changed the oil and accomplished a couple of other jobs that were on my mental to-do list.

For dinner we had bad hamburgers from the freezer and green beans. It was undoubtedly the worst meal we've had in months. We bought some frozen patties in Georgetown and will not make that mistake again.

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Miike
04/24/2009, Marsh Harbour, Abaco

April 18th... Lynyard Cay, Abacos

We listened to the weather and then got "Sapphire" ready for our planned 8:30 departure... and then changed our minds. Although Marsh Harbor is only about 20 miles to the north, we were looking at a 20 knot + north wind all day and would be bucking 2 foot seas all the way. I called "Fine Lion" with the proposal and they concurred. We also invited them to dinner that evening.

The boat hadn't been thoroughly cleaned since Matt and Ellie were here so that was one of our projects for the day. We also had a yellow cake mix with a can of chocolate frosting that was supposed to have been baked when Ellie was here. That became another goal.

We also continued to work on our wifi antenna with the hope of getting on line sometime during the day. It would be nice to get the blog updated.

I made beef stew for dinner which also took awhile so between cooking, cleaning and working on the computer, 5:30 rolled around quickly.

We had a nice meal with Steve and Kim and later watched an episode of "The Soprano's."

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Miike
04/18/2009, Lynyard Cay

April 17th Lynyard Cay, Abacos

We didn't do much of anything in the morning. I worked on updating our Blog and then on attempting to get online. Kathy was able to make a connection with her Mac in the cockpit with the internal antenna but the external antenna for my computer was having trouble.

After reloading the software and altering the com port to the only usable usb on this machine there was still nothing.

There is a splice in our antenna so I took off the tape and checked it out. What I found was that the shielding on the antenna side of the splice was powder. It was completely oxidized for about 3 inches. Cut out a section of both ends and made a new connection. For a while at least I had a great connection.

We went ashore with Kim and Steve in the afternoon to check out another couple of beaches. I picked up sea glass and Kathy found a heart bean so it wasn't a total waste of time.

With a dinner invitation from Steve for 5:30, we returned to the boat and put together an anti-pasta plate. I turned on the computer and couldn't make any type of connection.

Anyway we had are great dinner and lots of fun with Steve and Kim and returned in the wind and waves in time to watch a little video before bed.

We decided to leave for Marsh Harbor tomorrow morning which is Saturday. We need some supplies that we wouldn't be able to get on Sunday and Steve needs to have some refrigeration work done.

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