Saturday February 4, 2012
Well, I found out what will keep me awake for the upcoming overnight sail. Coca Cola. I knew better than that but just didn’t think about anything except it was cold. 3:30 am I was still awake. I had great internet that early in the morning. By 10:30 am the sun beams coming through the hatch woke me up. I got plenty of sleep. My day will be shorter. Nothing planned anyway because I got pretty much everything done for the voyage to Managuana. Fred and I talked about going to the beach on the West side of the island, very close to the marina. The Northern side is about 5 miles and has some pretty views but Fred is the Captain. I think sometimes my adventure aspirations wear him out but he is such a great sport about it. We both need the exercise and I know he is getting it around me.
By the time I had the coffee perking, Bee from the catamaran s/v “Waking Dream” came to visit. She is interesting to chat with. She is from Tailand. Barry, is from Australia, I think. Bee said she looked at the weather on the internet this morning and was worried about us leaving today because the forecast changed. I was amazed. ‘She knew that and came just to tell us that?’ I thought. I was impressed. She went on to tell me that if we left today and were heading to Mayaguana the seas would be rough and it would be a very difficult trip because of the wind. I wanted to know what she knew so now I want to learn weather, enough to know about the winds and sails between destinations anyway. She could certainly teach me a thing or two about sailing. I am not sure but I think she is the Captain and calls the shots while Barry is the Admiral. She said they will not be going any further South this year, although Barry wants to. She wants to slow down and enjoy the islands between Rum Cay and the USA. I don’t blame her. There is certainly plenty of beauty to see when not in a hurry to move on. She would be fun to have on the trip south. Another time perhaps.
Fred found a website on North Carolina dinghy and all we need to do is contact the precious owner for the information we need. We walked to the dinghy and Fred was pleased. Not as pleased as I was though. He liked it. Same size as ours, same brand, the only difference is one was gray and one was white. We met Rasta and the guys talked. Fred decided it was worth the footwork to pump it up and see if it held air. This, I have found, is very important, especially when I am in it. We hopped in our dink and took turns pumping until it was hard. Since it was on another boat, we grabbed the sides and threw it overboard into the water, attached it to our dink and towed it to Casa Mare where Fred proceeded to see if the davits would hold it. I think he is going to ditch the old grey mare and take on the white filly instead. If so, we have one day to get it ready for the overnight before we cut the lines here at the dock. We are not sure what we should do with the old dink though. Maybe tow it out to sea and let her loose. It would be a good resting place for birds I bet or, maybe she will have more stories for one to write about. I sure did get a kick out of the adventures she gave us. She will be missed, for about as long as it takes to sail out of her site. A little sidenote though, Steve from s/v “Chaunteeler” , the guy who lost his dinghy from here a few weeks ago, went back to Warderik Wells to retrieve her asked Rasta why he didn’t offer it to him when he lost his dink. Rasta said he never thought about it. Me??? I think God planned it that way. I have always believed if I don’t get something, I wasn’t supposed to have it until God wanted me to have it. Somehow I feel this is a blessing and if we do pull out of here with her attached, there are a few people I know who will be relieved when they read this. I still laugh when I think of our dink adventures! I am actually ‘finally’ laughing about our last collision with a brain coral head and went airborne motor in Fred’s lap, still running full throttle as he thought he was throttling down but, in his lap, he got it reversed and throttled up. Yes, it was a very serious collision and yes I can laugh only because we were not injured, but it could have been disastrous. God was certainly controlling that dink and motor after we hit the brain coral.
Lobster tails again this evening. We have been reading all evening, listening to the wind and feeling it rock Casa Mare’.
Mayaguana, (Abraham’s Bay) if we get there, is one of the less visited islands and is the halfway point between the US and Puerto Rico. There is no marina on the island. They have goats, iguanas, and flamingos on this sparsely populated Cay. Fishing is good (there still may be hope for me) and they do grow a few things there. Not sure what yet. There used to be a missle tracking station but it has closed down and now used as an airstrip for private planes and one small airlines. There is a dinghy dock at the government dock if supplies are needed but they don’t really cater to the boating community. Laundry can be given to the locals and they will do it for you. No laundry mats there. Scuba diving is great. That about sums it up except there are plenty of coral heads even in Abrahams Bay where one would get shelter from the elements. We (plan) to just stop there for an overnight. Weather will predict that. Then we are off to the Turks and Caicos.
No comments:
Post a Comment