Still in the Abacos
24 June 2009 | Same
Wonderful

Hello,
Sorry we are not blogging often. Internet connection is hard to find and when we do have it just checking our E-mail takes time and usually we lose the net connection before we are done. My boating friend Linda on Troubadour had a good idea of typing and saving daily events on word, then copy and paste to the blog when we do have connection. That is a great idea however after the days events of swimming, snorkeling, sailing, fishing and of course cooking and cleaning, I am too tired to write anything. The boat log is also neglected. I know we have to do better but...... when you're having fun some things just don't get done. We do respond to every E-mail we get.
We are having a great time here in the Abaco, we thought we would be further south by now out of the hurricane paths, but we are enjoying these islands so much we just can't seem to leave. Waldo and Melody were here for the last two weeks in April. We had a wonderful time with them and can't wait for them to come back. The weather was a little cool while they were here so we did a lot of fishing and had some wonderful meals. After they left we headed back up north to Grand Cay to do some more fishing and had a week of rain. We did have a good time though, we met Rodger and Eddie and Claude and Louise, we all went to a partially finished shack for some great turtle stew. Then Larry speared some grunts and Louise made fish soup and Rodger made some bread, another great meal with wonderful company. The next day Rodger and Larry took the dingy out fishing; it was a cold, 78 degrees overcast, and 15-25 knots of wind. Eddie and I stayed on the boats, did some cleaning and caught up on our reading. They came back with some conch and Rodger and Eddie come over for conch salad. Rodger is the expert at making conch salad. Both couples were waiting for a break in the weather to head back across the Gulf Stream, going home to the states. With a week of rain everything was wet or damp. The sun came out a few days before my mom came to visit so I was busy cleaning and drying everything out. I had everything ready for company. We docked in Marsh Harbor at the public docks and went grocery shopping and you guessed it - while we were in the store it started to rain and all of our hatches were open to complete the drying out process. Larry took off running to the boat, but the skies just opened up and drenched us and the inside of the boat. We were putting away soggy groceries and weren't very happy campers. Now when we leave all the hatches are closed no matter how hot or damp it is. The next day we docked at Mangoes Marina and when the sun came out so did our wet cushions and bedding. Thank goodness Mangoes Marina has a wonderful washer/dryer. We were almost dry again when my mom came, June 29. Mom brought us two suitcases of provisions and stuff we needed for the boat. We stayed at Mangoes for a few days and met Rick and Teri, Dave and Debbie, and Wes and Kathy and had potluck up on Mangoes patio. Rick was having some trouble with his motor and Larry helped. We took mom further south to Sandy Cay where we found sea glass and snorkel on a beautiful protected reef Mom stayed in the dingy and used a glass bottom bucket to view the reef and all the colorful fish. We took her to Pete's Pub for dinner in Little Harbour and the next day since we were anchored in just 2-3 feet of water at low tide Larry scrubbed the bottom of the boat while mom and I napped and read. After Little Harbour we headed north again, the weather is now in the high 80's so we swim and snorkel every day to keep cool. Sometimes if we are sailing slow one of us will hang off the swim ladder and just be drug along. Larry likes to put on his dive mask and look at the bottom for conch. I just want to cool off. We made our way back up to Great Guana and on the way Larry caught 8 fish. We stopped at Spoils Cay and found shells and my very first note in a bottle. It read - Happiness is a bird, if you chase it, it will fly away, but, if you sit quietly, it will land on your shoulder when you least expect it.... By anthropoet@twitter.com. Well, at least it's not a sailor in distress. I think I'll add my own note and toss it back in. We found more sea glass at No Name Cay and took mom to Nippers for their famous Sunday pig roast and a swim in the ocean. She left on the 18th from Marsh Harbour. Since then Larry and I have been fishing for our dinner and snorkeling for sea glass. I took him back to Nippers famous Sunday pig roast for father's day dinner where we ran into Christine and Bob. They make beautiful jewelry out of sea glass and had a sale booth set up at Nippers. If you would like to see what I'm talking about look at her web site www.pureseaglassshop.etsy.com. Larry and I have found some beautiful pieces of glass and will be trying our artistic hands at jewelry and stained glass items when we come home. We have also learned Conch have pearls. They are very rare but from now on we will be checking our Conch before we cook and eat them. Larry and I have really enjoyed our Gemini catamaran. We have less than 2 feet clearance and can go where most boats can't. We have ran aground twice looking for that perfect reef to dive on, both times the seas were flat and Larry just got out and pushed the boat off. Now we anchor away from the reefs and if we can't swim to it we take the dingy. A lot easier than pushing a 9 thousand pound boat! Lesson learned. We have had rainy weather and high winds but the worst was yesterday. We had just left from Great Guana when a storm hit. Lightning and thunder right overhead and sheets of rain you could not see through. The rain was hitting us from all sides. This was the first time we had to close the door to keep the rain out. Wet again!! UGH... The good thing is it wasn't cold. We were familiar with the area but glad we had the GPS. We tucked into a bay and at 2 feet dropped anchor to wait it out. About 30 minutes. Then we went to Fowl Cay on the Atlantic side and did some snorkeling. The air and seas were calm, dead calm. I was in the dingy enjoying the day waiting for Larry to finish his snorkeling and thinking about going ashore to look around when I saw lighting far to the east. I kept watching but when the winds were blowing they were blowing to the east so it makes sense that the storm would be going away from us. No way we would be so lucky. When I realized it was heading our way and got Larry in the dingy it was starting to rain. The seas were still flat and we quickly made headway to the west side of the island and tucked into another bay at the north end of Man of War Cay to wait out this storm. When it subsided we went into Man of War Harbour from the north side and anchored. Storms were still hitting us and we clocked winds at 43 knots but we were safely anchored in the harbor, or so we thought. Just as we sat down to dinner we both felt our anchor slip. We jumped up, Larry started the motor and I grabbed a boat hook in case we came close to one of the other boats anchored close by. It was raining so hard we got soaked again, but we held our position amongst the other boats. The weather broke a little so I manage the steering while Larry went to pull the anchor up. Of course now the anchor was stuck and would not pull up. We were very close to other boats and knew this would not be good through the night. We needed to know what we were stuck on, so when Larry had a chance he dove down to see what was going on. The anchor was stuck by one tooth on a chain. The chain was a mooring buoy chain so Larry brought up the sunken lines, hooked them to the boat and unhooked our anchor and brought it up. Safely moored we slept soundly through the rest of the thunder storms that passed us by. Tomorrow is suppose to be a nice day so we'll be off fishing, diving and thinking of our family and friends who should be here enjoying this adventure with us. We will be staying in the Abaco at least through July. The sailing regatta starts the 3rd and is suppose to be the best time here. We are still only 90 miles from Florida and have not left the Abaco Islands so we are not posting our position on the Map. Keep in touch.