It was my 36th birthday today, but it was mostly just another day on the boat. Dawn went to water aerobics this morning while I varnished and fixed the hawse pipe (yet again - drilled new holes and used oversized screws and washers, hopefully it holds this time). Once she got back we repositioned the boat over to Georgetown and I made a few water runs and attempted to get diesel for our jerry cans while Dawn did two loads of laundry at the laundromat. I say "attempted" because the Monday after Easter is a holiday here so most everything was either closed or had limited hours. I showed up at the Shell station 5 minutes after they closed, and there was nobody who could pump diesel around the Exuma Yacht Club docks. No biggie, I can do it tomorrow morning, and in any case we don't actually need it. I think we could get back to the States on the diesel we have now and I'm planning to top off in Marsh Harbour.
After laundry was done we had lunch and launched into a bit of boat-cleaning. We have to do that more often than the average boater thanks to our four-legged friend on board. I never thought he shed that much until we moved aboard. His fur gets absolutely everywhere, in amazingly large quantities. I shudder to think how much makes it into our engine (Yanmar 4JH's don't have an air filter). So we beat rugs and cleaned upholstery and swept and cleaned the heads and swept and wiped down the cockpit. Then I decided to clean our cockpit cushions which haven't been cleaned in forever and have some mildew spotting on them. They didn't come completely clean - maybe Judy will have some tips on what she used on them. By now I had an ever-so-rare cleaning bug up my butt so I attacked the dinghy with some inflatable cleaner. It worked well but still ended in frustration as it was way too rough out. There weren't too many boats on the Georgetown side when we moved so we were able to tuck way in - further than I thought our draft would permit - but during the day the wind backed so we no longer had the protection of the small cays just SE of us.
After putting away the cleaning supplies we showered and put on nice clothes, enjoyed an early sundowner, and then took the dinghy over to Peace & Plenty Hotel for a 6:30 dinner reservation. We were originally planning on eating at St. Francis Resort (where we attended open mic music night yesterday) but they're not open Mondays - and it's for the best as we would've got soaked on the mile-long dinghy ride across the harbor. The Peace & Plenty put on a really nice meal of blackened Mahi, veggies & potato topped off with a birthday piece of rum cake. We don't really eat out much these days, when we do it's usually with guests or an order of fresh conch salad or conch fritters at our favorite beachside watering holes. The dinner did make me just a little irked that I haven't caught a Mahi yet. I love Mahi. I have lures that Mahi supposedly love. But they've been ignoring my lures while practically jumping into friends boats. For not being much of a fisherman back home I've caught fish fever pretty hard this trip. I'm still not much of a fisherman but the desire is there!
Tomorrow we have a few more chores early and then Judy Handley arrives from Boston via Atlanta. Tomorrow night we're getting together with Rick and Robyn from Endangered Species. They knew Mark and Judy ten years ago when they were cruising the South Pacific at the same time. On Wednesday we'll probably do some snorkeling and hiking, and maybe get in one last game of volleyball at the Chat-N-Chill. We'll be leaving early Thursday and hope to make it up to Black Point, and then on to Warderick Wells on Friday. Our friends Dan and Isabelle on Epiic just crossed from Nassau to Norman's Cay today so it appears we'll be getting together in Warderick after all. We're super excited about that.
I got my work schedule for May yesterday. There is a nine-day international trip starting on May 17th that I'm thinking is going to be tough to drop, and maybe I don't want to (55 hrs of pay, layovers in London-New York-Amsterdam-New York-London). So we're going to try to get the boat somewhere in the US that's convenient by May 15. With a really good weather window it could be South Carolina. Otherwise it'll be somewhere in Florida, and in that case I'm pretty tempted to get our canvas done right there while I'm off flying. I'll bid for a bunch of days off in mid-late June, and that's when we'll plan on bringing the boat north to the Chesapeake for the summer.
After laundry was done we had lunch and launched into a bit of boat-cleaning. We have to do that more often than the average boater thanks to our four-legged friend on board. I never thought he shed that much until we moved aboard. His fur gets absolutely everywhere, in amazingly large quantities. I shudder to think how much makes it into our engine (Yanmar 4JH's don't have an air filter). So we beat rugs and cleaned upholstery and swept and cleaned the heads and swept and wiped down the cockpit. Then I decided to clean our cockpit cushions which haven't been cleaned in forever and have some mildew spotting on them. They didn't come completely clean - maybe Judy will have some tips on what she used on them. By now I had an ever-so-rare cleaning bug up my butt so I attacked the dinghy with some inflatable cleaner. It worked well but still ended in frustration as it was way too rough out. There weren't too many boats on the Georgetown side when we moved so we were able to tuck way in - further than I thought our draft would permit - but during the day the wind backed so we no longer had the protection of the small cays just SE of us.
After putting away the cleaning supplies we showered and put on nice clothes, enjoyed an early sundowner, and then took the dinghy over to Peace & Plenty Hotel for a 6:30 dinner reservation. We were originally planning on eating at St. Francis Resort (where we attended open mic music night yesterday) but they're not open Mondays - and it's for the best as we would've got soaked on the mile-long dinghy ride across the harbor. The Peace & Plenty put on a really nice meal of blackened Mahi, veggies & potato topped off with a birthday piece of rum cake. We don't really eat out much these days, when we do it's usually with guests or an order of fresh conch salad or conch fritters at our favorite beachside watering holes. The dinner did make me just a little irked that I haven't caught a Mahi yet. I love Mahi. I have lures that Mahi supposedly love. But they've been ignoring my lures while practically jumping into friends boats. For not being much of a fisherman back home I've caught fish fever pretty hard this trip. I'm still not much of a fisherman but the desire is there!
Tomorrow we have a few more chores early and then Judy Handley arrives from Boston via Atlanta. Tomorrow night we're getting together with Rick and Robyn from Endangered Species. They knew Mark and Judy ten years ago when they were cruising the South Pacific at the same time. On Wednesday we'll probably do some snorkeling and hiking, and maybe get in one last game of volleyball at the Chat-N-Chill. We'll be leaving early Thursday and hope to make it up to Black Point, and then on to Warderick Wells on Friday. Our friends Dan and Isabelle on Epiic just crossed from Nassau to Norman's Cay today so it appears we'll be getting together in Warderick after all. We're super excited about that.
I've been following your blogs since the Horizon days and really enjoy your work. Will you be able to add more photos as you work your way north and wifi becomes more available?
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