April 5, 2012 Mayaguana

Thursday April 5, 2012

I slept like a baby last night.  So did Fred, although we must have needed it.  Fred is going to put on a bridal to keep the boat from rocking so much.  It is rocking a lot, and hard to keep balanced when standing up.  We got a call from s/v “Wild Hair”, Dave and Heather and we decide as they did not to continue this trip as yet.  The conditions don’t look favorable, for us or them, although, another boat left and they are going to try and brave it to Rum Cay.  We do know Rum has no diesel fuel and that would not help us at all if we don’t get some between here and there.   Dave from s/v “Wild Hair” called us and came up with a great idea.  So Fred is going topside and emptying the diesel in our jugs into the tanks.  Dave is doing the same and they will both take them into Mayaguana to Betsy Bay and get more diesel.  That should get us pretty far.  We shouldn’t need to rely on diesel in a sail boat although when winds are light and the nights are long, it helps.  After we left Luperon we hit places with no wind and the engine helped us along.  There is also a matter of timing.  Some destinations are full of coral reefs and heads and night fall is not the time to come into an area like that unless you are crazy and have lots of insurance on your boat.  We are never in that much of a hurry, that’s for sure.  The winds today and tomorrow could get up as high as 40 knots.  This is when I would rather stay put until the conditions are favorable for a more comfortable ride.  I was happy Fred chose to stay here.  We stopped in Mayaguana as we were headed South but never made it to shore because it was just an overnight sleep stop.  Now I can go on the island and explore.  I love that!  There is not much to say about Mayaguana except it is sparsely populated and have a few provisions, but we are set on provisions.  I just want to explore.  Today it will be long sleeved shirts long pants, a backpack and camera.  It’s cold out there.  Dave said that customs suggested that we wait until we got further North to check in because they do not have the funds for change etc.  So...the “Q” flag still flies but we are going on shore anyway.  They do a pretty good job of keeping cruisers off this island.  Even the dinghy dock, what’s left of it, is hard to access.  We may need to just beach the dink and walk to find transportation to Betsy Bay fuel station.

We crossed paths with s/v “Hippo”.  They were on their way to Georgetown, leaving Mayaguana as we were entering.  They have another 30 hour trip ahead of them.  Guess they are going to bypass all the beautiful islands along the way.  Not us...that’s not our plan anyway.  Poor Hippo, they had to return to Luperon when trying to go through the Mona Passage because 2 of the three of them were injured.  They made another attempt for the Mona Passage but their mast broke before they got out of the harbor so, they grabbed another mooring ball and stayed until the mast was repaired.  They had to cap the mast and reef the sails to use it.  Two reefs I think Diane said.  The third time they decided to head for Georgetown.  Things happen on a boat and the conditions are not always conducive for repairs and supplies.  I think they made the right choice.  We will meet up with them in Georgetown, I am pretty sure of that.  When???  Who knows.  We have some more exploring to do and adventures to journey through.  Life is good!

7:45 pm

The day began warming up in the late morning.  Dave and Heather from S/V “Wild Hair” came over and we loaded our dink up with diesel cans and we headed to shore.  Immigration was a breeze.  As we finished up I was already looking for a way to the fuel station.  There he was, God’s answer to a prayer.  “Skully offered to take us to the other side of the island and show us some history and settlements along the way.  The people who were in immigrations told me he was the man to see about anything.  A bit like having a Papo in Luperon.  That was some heck of a fuel station.  Diesel filled a bucket one by one as it was siphoned into each yellow jug.  By the time we were all filled up, we had gotten 40 gallons of fuel between us.   $138.00 later we had all our fuel jugs delivered back to the dink and a complete tour of the island.  I think Scully knows everyone on this island.  He honked at every house who had someone outside and that was most of the homes on the island.  Pretty flat here compared to Luperon.  No big trees anymore although he did stop and break a piece of tree known to be one of the hardest woods in the world.  I forgot the name of it.  He also informed me that the leaces could be brewed into tea.  I have to ask him the name again.  I have a few tea drinking friends in the US!  A research is in the making but we have no internet here on this island to reach Casa Mare’.  He also stopped to pick some Dilly fruit and promised we would love it, once it is ripe.  I wondered if this was the same as Joy Wood with the most fragrant blooms I have come across on any of these islands.  There is one breadfruit tree on this island, I just had to ask because I want to make breadfruit chips someday.  A few years ago there was a marina planned and most of the equipment brought in but you could see it came to an abrupt stop.  I heard because they were completely defacing the island and the government ordered them to stop.  There is also a Navy radar tracking station here which closed back in the 70’s.  Scully said they were there to track anything going on with Cuba, which might I add is pretty close to here.  Most investors come from China, but I see no Chinese here.  Probably a plan to own something in the islands when they take over

the US and other countries.  Oh well, just thinking…!

We climbed up one of the towers and the site from there was spectacular.  We could even see Casa Mare' in the distant blue waters.  On the way there and back, Scully used the still active airport runway to get to these stations.  A plane graveyard sat just at the tree line.  Although it is hard to believe anyone would just up and leave these planes there, Scully assured us these planes were once used by drug runners.  Well...that just sums it up...yessiree.  I hear those drug people have lots of money and can afford to just abandon a plane.

We ended up at Reggie’s for lunch.  I had the simple hamburger while Fred, Dave and Heather had the Cracked Conch.  They went back to their boat and Fred and I stayed to catch up on our computers.  I guess we spent about 1/2 hour on them.  I just wanted to post a few days of my journal and Fred did his stuff and made two phone calls, one to his daughter Kellie and another to our friend Rod.  We walked to the dock and met another couple who are from South America.  As we were talking I saw a big splash in the water and turned just in time to see this young fellow fall back into his boat.  He was fishing with a hand line and it nearly took him with it.  It was a 3-4 foot shark.  The shark freed itself and the young boy was devastated.  I did feel sadness also.  I bet he had a ball pulling it in though.  Then and there I knew I was not going to wade in that water to climb on to the dink.  That left Fred with the duty of retrieving the dink.  He did as any Captain would do, climbed down into the water, and brought the dink to me saying “Your chariot has arrived”.  He is such a hoot.  We came back to Casa Mare, a full day of adventure and many more to come because Fred said it looks like it will not be until the middle of next week before we can leave.  I can’t wait to go beach combing.  It certainly has been a blessed day for me.