How are you doing. Yesterday was clean the boat bottom day. I cleaned the barnacles off the propellor and the shaft that drives it. Then I took a noodle tide to a line and had Elyse hold onto the other end and went along the side and scrapped the growth from the the waterline. I'm sure the boat will sail much faster when we leave here next week.
things are good. Life is pretty easy. Today I put two of our 5 gallon jugs of diesel into our big tanks and then we took them into to shore and filled them. I can tell you that diesel weighs a lot less than water weighs. I empty one of our gasoline tanks into the dingy tank. Tomorrow I will empty our water jugs into the water tank and we'll take them ashore tomorrow. Today when I filled the two 5 gallon diesel jugs the guy at the gas station loaned me his truck to drive the jugs back to the dingy. It was about 2 blocks. I then took him his truck back. I had to remember to drive on the left side of the road.
we are doing well. Dinner is ready so I will go.
Love from John & Elyse on Spunky
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Long Island
Hey gang,
We are sitting in Thompson's Bay in Long Island. We are just south of the the Tropic of Cancer so we are officially in the tropics. The line goes through Simms which in the next bay north. We are able to get online here with our new Spot antenna. We bought it from someone who turns out to be in Wewahitchka, FL not far from Panama City. When I ordered it I asked if they would include some Tupulo honey which special and only comes from Wewa. He said no. It enables us to get Internet on the boat. The antenna, not the honey.
It is beautiful here. The wind in the Bahamas blows from the southeast. When you sail into the wind you say you are sailing upwind. Because of that people say they are sailing down north our up south. It can be confusing. Long Island was Christened Fernandina by Christopher Columbus when he landed here in 1492. The Island is 80 miles long and 4 miles wide at its widest.
This is a delightful place. It's as far south as we will go. We will start working our way back up the island and then plan to sail to Conception which is east of us and then start back north. We plan to reach the Abacos by the first of April. We are not in a hurry. This afternoon I have boat chores. We bumped a reef leaving Georgetown so I will swim down to be sure everything is ok. I will probably clean off the prop and prop shaft. They were starting to grow things the last time I looked. If we were in the states I would probably hire a diver.
We are sitting in Thompson's Bay in Long Island. We are just south of the the Tropic of Cancer so we are officially in the tropics. The line goes through Simms which in the next bay north. We are able to get online here with our new Spot antenna. We bought it from someone who turns out to be in Wewahitchka, FL not far from Panama City. When I ordered it I asked if they would include some Tupulo honey which special and only comes from Wewa. He said no. It enables us to get Internet on the boat. The antenna, not the honey.
It is beautiful here. The wind in the Bahamas blows from the southeast. When you sail into the wind you say you are sailing upwind. Because of that people say they are sailing down north our up south. It can be confusing. Long Island was Christened Fernandina by Christopher Columbus when he landed here in 1492. The Island is 80 miles long and 4 miles wide at its widest.
This is a delightful place. It's as far south as we will go. We will start working our way back up the island and then plan to sail to Conception which is east of us and then start back north. We plan to reach the Abacos by the first of April. We are not in a hurry. This afternoon I have boat chores. We bumped a reef leaving Georgetown so I will swim down to be sure everything is ok. I will probably clean off the prop and prop shaft. They were starting to grow things the last time I looked. If we were in the states I would probably hire a diver.
Monday, February 13, 2012
George Town
We have been here since last Wed. We have joined some of the activities, but it is a little bit too organized for us. We will go to dinner at Chat and Chill on Volleyball Beach for Valentines Day and go to the dance after on the deck and were planning on leaving Wed. for Long Island but looks like the weather may not cooperate. A front came through over the weekend with winds to 26 mph and rough water. It was also cold enough on Sunday to wear jackets. Most cruisers stayed on their boats but we went into the beach twice a day for Moose.Taking Moose in was a very wet experience. He did not like it at all nor did he like getting washed off with fresh water when we returned to Spunky.
Moose has made several friends. Yesterday he ran on the beach with two other bigger dogs. He is also the toast of the town with the cruisers. Everyone thinks he is so cute and John keeps trying to give him away !!! He is getting more comfortable on Spunky and really does well riding in the dinghy. He walks along the edge of the water and will actually get his paws wet.
I hope this finds all of you well and happy. I hope the winter is mild wherever you are.
Moose has made several friends. Yesterday he ran on the beach with two other bigger dogs. He is also the toast of the town with the cruisers. Everyone thinks he is so cute and John keeps trying to give him away !!! He is getting more comfortable on Spunky and really does well riding in the dinghy. He walks along the edge of the water and will actually get his paws wet.
I hope this finds all of you well and happy. I hope the winter is mild wherever you are.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
George Town
We arrived in George Town about noon on Feb. 7 I think. It may have been the 8th. I have lost total track of days and John wears our watch so he has the dates.
George Town is amazing. There are so many boats in Elizabeth Harbor. We are anchored off of Volleyball Beach where all the organized activities take place. There is volleyball, dominos, scrabble, yoga, straw work, art, softball, church and of course the Chat and Chill restaurant who sponsors all of this. There is a morning net on VHF where every morning announcements are made about activities and needs of boaters in the anchorage. It is pretty amazing. Very organized. In town there is a really good grocery store. We sit on a bench outside the market and use their internet. The market also allows us to use a hose on their dinghy dock to fill our water jugs which we take back to Spunky to fill her tanks.
We have caught up with some friends here. Our friends in England told us to find Water Witch, a 65 ft. Tayanna, who are friends of theirs and lo and behold but there they were anchoring next to us on our first afternoon here. Thanks Ed and Sue. We have really enjoyed meeting Mike and Deanne. They taught us how to play Mexican Dominoes.
Moose also got to see his friend Checkers from the cat Smooch who he met in Warderick Wells. Checkers is a huge Golden. He is very mellow and easy for Moose to be around.
This afternoon when we return to Spunky from town, we will defrost the freezer and try to get up the nerve to give Moose a haircut as his undercoat has grown in and he is very warm.
We plan on staying until the 15th and then heading to Long Island and Conception if the weather is cooperative.
More later-
George Town is amazing. There are so many boats in Elizabeth Harbor. We are anchored off of Volleyball Beach where all the organized activities take place. There is volleyball, dominos, scrabble, yoga, straw work, art, softball, church and of course the Chat and Chill restaurant who sponsors all of this. There is a morning net on VHF where every morning announcements are made about activities and needs of boaters in the anchorage. It is pretty amazing. Very organized. In town there is a really good grocery store. We sit on a bench outside the market and use their internet. The market also allows us to use a hose on their dinghy dock to fill our water jugs which we take back to Spunky to fill her tanks.
We have caught up with some friends here. Our friends in England told us to find Water Witch, a 65 ft. Tayanna, who are friends of theirs and lo and behold but there they were anchoring next to us on our first afternoon here. Thanks Ed and Sue. We have really enjoyed meeting Mike and Deanne. They taught us how to play Mexican Dominoes.
Moose also got to see his friend Checkers from the cat Smooch who he met in Warderick Wells. Checkers is a huge Golden. He is very mellow and easy for Moose to be around.
This afternoon when we return to Spunky from town, we will defrost the freezer and try to get up the nerve to give Moose a haircut as his undercoat has grown in and he is very warm.
We plan on staying until the 15th and then heading to Long Island and Conception if the weather is cooperative.
More later-
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Musha Cay
This morning we bid farewell to our cruising friends at Little Farmer's Cay. They are all headed back to Black Point to watch the Super Bowl at Loraine's Cafe and then continue on further north but we are still headed south and motored with the wind on our nose to Musha Cay where we are anchored off the private island owned by David Copperfield. He rents it out for $325,000 for a week but it accommodates 20 people. We are anchored right off of his beach where there are Skidoos parked and cabanas amidst the palm trees. We are hooked into his wifi. We cannot take Moose ashore so we will take him over to another private island that has a more remote beach that we think we can use for a short time. Tomorrow very early at slack tide we will go through the Cave Cay Cut into the sound and head toward Georgetown.
Our chartplotter is not working at all now so we are using a handheld GPS that keeps running out of power. It makes things a bit more of a challenge but folks cruised these islands for many years without any electronics. I am going to send this off while I have the capability. We will be in Georgetown before I can get wifi again.
Our chartplotter is not working at all now so we are using a handheld GPS that keeps running out of power. It makes things a bit more of a challenge but folks cruised these islands for many years without any electronics. I am going to send this off while I have the capability. We will be in Georgetown before I can get wifi again.
Hello From Spunky
Many of you receive Elyse's update which is much better than mine so I have included it below for the rest of you. Life is wonderful! We are anchored off of David Copperfield's private island. He is nice enough to provide free wifi which we are taking advantage of. I am hopeful we will be able to get the Super bowl tonight. Elyse is pretty anxious to know how it turns out.
We have met a ton of people crusing on their boats. What a wonderful life. Things break and we continue to learn how to fix them. One guy said we would all make good farmers being so self sufficient.
Those of you who don't know, when we mention a Cay ( pronounced key) we are speaking of islands. Yesterday I met a guy in a ratty Florida State tee shirt walking with a Bahamian taling about dogs. When I asked if he lived there he said no, he lived in Miami. He said he owned some real estate in the Bahamas. When I asked for details he said he bought 5 islands 20 years ago. He sold one of them not long ago to Tim Mcgraw and Faith Hill. Life is good for him as well.
It feels like we are hardly making a dent in our food supply although Elyse informed me we only have coffee filters to last a couple of months. Life can get tough but I think we will be alright. We looked all down the east coast for the #6 size without luck.
Tomorrow we will go onto the Sound side of the Exumas. We have been on the Banks side where the depth rairly gets above 20 feet. In the Sound it will get up to 1,000 feet deep.
Moose does better every time we go out. That being said I think we may look for a loving home for him this summer so he doesn't have to return with us. This afternoon it was low tide and I had to walk the dingy about 100 yards to get to shore. Actually it was still sitting in about 4 inches of water when we carried him in to do his business.
Elyse is terrified we will get lost or run aground. As a result she has become and unbelievable navigator. We are having problems with our chartplotter but she has her charts and plots our location about every 30 minutes. Today we used our hand held GPS which allows us to set up waypoints so we know which way to go. I have become very lax an
We have met a ton of people crusing on their boats. What a wonderful life. Things break and we continue to learn how to fix them. One guy said we would all make good farmers being so self sufficient.
Those of you who don't know, when we mention a Cay ( pronounced key) we are speaking of islands. Yesterday I met a guy in a ratty Florida State tee shirt walking with a Bahamian taling about dogs. When I asked if he lived there he said no, he lived in Miami. He said he owned some real estate in the Bahamas. When I asked for details he said he bought 5 islands 20 years ago. He sold one of them not long ago to Tim Mcgraw and Faith Hill. Life is good for him as well.
It feels like we are hardly making a dent in our food supply although Elyse informed me we only have coffee filters to last a couple of months. Life can get tough but I think we will be alright. We looked all down the east coast for the #6 size without luck.
Tomorrow we will go onto the Sound side of the Exumas. We have been on the Banks side where the depth rairly gets above 20 feet. In the Sound it will get up to 1,000 feet deep.
Moose does better every time we go out. That being said I think we may look for a loving home for him this summer so he doesn't have to return with us. This afternoon it was low tide and I had to walk the dingy about 100 yards to get to shore. Actually it was still sitting in about 4 inches of water when we carried him in to do his business.
Elyse is terrified we will get lost or run aground. As a result she has become and unbelievable navigator. We are having problems with our chartplotter but she has her charts and plots our location about every 30 minutes. Today we used our hand held GPS which allows us to set up waypoints so we know which way to go. I have become very lax an
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Little Farmer's Caye
Little Farmer's has been fun. We volunteered for the festival events. The wet tee shirt contest did not draw a single woman, but the legs and buns contest got about 20 men. John did not take part although I thought he could have won. The prize was a bottle of rum. There were also crab races which folks bet on. I would say there are probably 50 boats here for the festivities. There were class c sailboat races yesterday. The 17 ft. boats are towed in and the bahamians race. The boats are like the log boats in the Chesapeake with side boards that the crew sit out on to balance the oversized sail.
We are anchored south of the airport runway but off to the side of the flight path. Yesterday morning a plane took off over some of the boats anchored in the flight path and it was pretty dicey. He did not pull up and came very close to some masts.
Moose goes into the beach with us and has met some other dogs. The main restaurant and meeting place in town-Ocean Cabin-has an outdoor patio so Moose can sit with us for company and internet. He has made a lot of friends both human and canine. He is happy when we are anchored in one place for a while. It is upsetting to him when we travel.
So far our antenna has not caught any wifi on the boat. We have had to go in to shore and pay for service when we can find it.
We listened to weather this morning and it looks like we will leave tomorrow and make a 2-3 day trip down to Georgetown depending on our weather window. One has to time going through the cuts between the shallower banks of the Bahama Banks and the Exuma Sound as it can get very rough and the current can push you into the reefs if you try to go through at the wrong time. We have to go out into the sound in another 8 miles or so as it gets too shallow on the banks for Spunky.
These islands are so pretty and the people so nice and helpful. The colors of the water are spectacular and one must learn to "read" the water to tell when a coral head, rocky reef or shallow area is ahead. Most of the food served at the restaurants is fried fish or chicken and mac and cheese is the big side dish. This afternoon we watched the boat races off the airport beach where the crowd of locals and cruisers gathered. The Exuma Youth Band came to the island to march and play for the festival. It was great to watch them. It has been a wonderful experience so far and we are looking forward to the coming weeks.
We are anchored south of the airport runway but off to the side of the flight path. Yesterday morning a plane took off over some of the boats anchored in the flight path and it was pretty dicey. He did not pull up and came very close to some masts.
Moose goes into the beach with us and has met some other dogs. The main restaurant and meeting place in town-Ocean Cabin-has an outdoor patio so Moose can sit with us for company and internet. He has made a lot of friends both human and canine. He is happy when we are anchored in one place for a while. It is upsetting to him when we travel.
So far our antenna has not caught any wifi on the boat. We have had to go in to shore and pay for service when we can find it.
We listened to weather this morning and it looks like we will leave tomorrow and make a 2-3 day trip down to Georgetown depending on our weather window. One has to time going through the cuts between the shallower banks of the Bahama Banks and the Exuma Sound as it can get very rough and the current can push you into the reefs if you try to go through at the wrong time. We have to go out into the sound in another 8 miles or so as it gets too shallow on the banks for Spunky.
These islands are so pretty and the people so nice and helpful. The colors of the water are spectacular and one must learn to "read" the water to tell when a coral head, rocky reef or shallow area is ahead. Most of the food served at the restaurants is fried fish or chicken and mac and cheese is the big side dish. This afternoon we watched the boat races off the airport beach where the crowd of locals and cruisers gathered. The Exuma Youth Band came to the island to march and play for the festival. It was great to watch them. It has been a wonderful experience so far and we are looking forward to the coming weeks.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Little Farmer's Caye
We are today in Little Farmers Cay. We believe we will be here for a week waiting for the festival this coming weekend which is supposed to be a big deal. We sailed down today from Black Point Cay and hit some gusting winds and squalls. We left Exuma Park and motored to Staniel Cay where we snorkeled in Thunderball Cave where the James Bond movie was filmed. It was wonderful. Pretty tropical fish and coral. I am getting more proficient at using my flippers. John lost one of his overboard in Exuma Park so we are on the lookout for another pair for him. We visited the little stores and purchased some green peppers, bananas and oranges. There is a yacht club in Staniel but we anchored out and rode the dinghy in to shop. It is a lovely little island and the stores are named by their color. Pink store, blue store and the bread lady in the yellow house. We went to a barbecue put on to raise money for the school and we donated some pencils we had brought with us to help out.
The next day we motored down to Black Point Cay where we stopped at Lorraine's Cafe for drinks and wifi. There is a wonderful laundry there that our new friends took advantage of. We decided to hold off until Georgetown for that chore.
Arrived at Little Farmer's today and we are awaiting the end of the rain squall so we can go into town and explore and perhaps find internet. The trip down was exciting when the squalls hit and the winds spiked. We had out too much sail and really got hit but fortunately they passed fairly quickly.
We are anchored out on the southwest corner of the cay hoping to get some shelter as the winds are forecast to gust to 30 kts. + for the next few days. We shall see how it goes.
The next day we motored down to Black Point Cay where we stopped at Lorraine's Cafe for drinks and wifi. There is a wonderful laundry there that our new friends took advantage of. We decided to hold off until Georgetown for that chore.
Arrived at Little Farmer's today and we are awaiting the end of the rain squall so we can go into town and explore and perhaps find internet. The trip down was exciting when the squalls hit and the winds spiked. We had out too much sail and really got hit but fortunately they passed fairly quickly.
We are anchored out on the southwest corner of the cay hoping to get some shelter as the winds are forecast to gust to 30 kts. + for the next few days. We shall see how it goes.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Living The Dream
We continue to head south in the Exumas. As you can see by our Spot at the end of my message, we are in the Exuma's Park. We have found as we head south it just gets better. The water gets clearer and it gets warmer. Please don't tell my dermatologist but Elyse mentioned tonight that I was getting "brown as a berry". I love the weather. When I retired I told people I was looking forward to not wearing socks. At this point I only put on shoes for special occations.
I thought I would tell you how we spend a typical day. I jump out of bed at 6:30 am to listen to Chris Parker on our SSB High Frequency radio. He gives the weather forecast. Because we have paid him after the forecast is given we can call and ask specific advice about where we want to sail to next. So far we haven't used that because there is usually someone else in our area who has asked that question. I record the broadcast on a small tape recorder for Elyse to listen to later. While I listen to the broadcast I put away last nights dishes and make coffee. I also take down our LED mast light and put up our American flag.
Elyse and I then sit in the cockpit drink our coffee and listens to the recording of the weather broadcast. Elyse records the predicticions in a notebook for later reference. This is also a good time for us to plan our next several days. One of the great things about living on the boat is we have no time schedule. As far as possible we are commited not to travel unless the weather is good.
After our cereal we take Moose ashore in our dingy. It is our "car" and we have become dependent on it. The other day we towed another boat dingy over a mile back to it's boat. Touch wood, ours has been great and reliable. When we get back from our mourning outing we try to do a couple of boat chores. It may involve cleaning or fixing things. I built a step the other day so that it is easier to get out of the dingy into the the boat.
Then we relax. Most days we read. We have two bags of books. One to be read and the other we have finished. Elyse is way ahead of me and usually I read something she has recommended. I finished Bill Bryson"s Short History of Nearly Everything. Most days it's a mystery.
In the afternoon we often have "lunch". It's not like it used to be. Often we split and apple and cut up some cheese. Many days we don't eat anything till dinner. Depending on where we are we then go on an adventure. That may mean a longer dingy trip to see something special or go ashore to hike a trail. Our first stop after leaving Nassau was at Allen's Cay. It consisted of 3 small islands. Two of them have tons of Iguana. When you would go ashore at least 30 of them would run down to the beach looking for food. We made that trip without Moose. The third island was such that Moose could go ashore do get his exercise and do his business
In any case, Moose is taken ashore about 4 pm each day. We then return to the boat where we have a drink and watch the sunset. Many of the cruisers have horns made from Conch shells and they will play around the anchorage. We then have dinner, clean up and most nights are in bed reading by 8 pm. Tonight I am between books and may watch a movie.
It's hard to believe how out of touch we are getting. I just found out who is in the Super Bowl yesterday on the 28th of January.
Yesterday we moved the boat to the place that they filmed the James Bond movie Thunderball. Last night we swam under the rocks among the fish into the "grotto". It was a dome with light coming through the top. Pretty spectacular.
I hope your life is good.
I thought I would tell you how we spend a typical day. I jump out of bed at 6:30 am to listen to Chris Parker on our SSB High Frequency radio. He gives the weather forecast. Because we have paid him after the forecast is given we can call and ask specific advice about where we want to sail to next. So far we haven't used that because there is usually someone else in our area who has asked that question. I record the broadcast on a small tape recorder for Elyse to listen to later. While I listen to the broadcast I put away last nights dishes and make coffee. I also take down our LED mast light and put up our American flag.
Elyse and I then sit in the cockpit drink our coffee and listens to the recording of the weather broadcast. Elyse records the predicticions in a notebook for later reference. This is also a good time for us to plan our next several days. One of the great things about living on the boat is we have no time schedule. As far as possible we are commited not to travel unless the weather is good.
After our cereal we take Moose ashore in our dingy. It is our "car" and we have become dependent on it. The other day we towed another boat dingy over a mile back to it's boat. Touch wood, ours has been great and reliable. When we get back from our mourning outing we try to do a couple of boat chores. It may involve cleaning or fixing things. I built a step the other day so that it is easier to get out of the dingy into the the boat.
Then we relax. Most days we read. We have two bags of books. One to be read and the other we have finished. Elyse is way ahead of me and usually I read something she has recommended. I finished Bill Bryson"s Short History of Nearly Everything. Most days it's a mystery.
In the afternoon we often have "lunch". It's not like it used to be. Often we split and apple and cut up some cheese. Many days we don't eat anything till dinner. Depending on where we are we then go on an adventure. That may mean a longer dingy trip to see something special or go ashore to hike a trail. Our first stop after leaving Nassau was at Allen's Cay. It consisted of 3 small islands. Two of them have tons of Iguana. When you would go ashore at least 30 of them would run down to the beach looking for food. We made that trip without Moose. The third island was such that Moose could go ashore do get his exercise and do his business
In any case, Moose is taken ashore about 4 pm each day. We then return to the boat where we have a drink and watch the sunset. Many of the cruisers have horns made from Conch shells and they will play around the anchorage. We then have dinner, clean up and most nights are in bed reading by 8 pm. Tonight I am between books and may watch a movie.
It's hard to believe how out of touch we are getting. I just found out who is in the Super Bowl yesterday on the 28th of January.
Yesterday we moved the boat to the place that they filmed the James Bond movie Thunderball. Last night we swam under the rocks among the fish into the "grotto". It was a dome with light coming through the top. Pretty spectacular.
I hope your life is good.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Norman and Shroud Cay
Norman's Cay was not our favorite spot. We had to anchor quite a ways out from the cay and it was a long haul to the beach for Moose's run. There is a Beach Club there and some neighbor boats went in for drinks the day before we arrived. They said it was nice but expensive. We did meet these fellow cruisers Debbie, single handing an Island Packet 29, Illusions, after her husband died in Granada 5 years ago and Ray and Gary from Australia on a Vagabond 42 named Fellowship. They are good friends who met each other months back in Oriental, NC.
We left Norman's after one day and sailed down to Shroud Cay which is in the Exuma Park a protected area where fishing of any kind is not allowed. This is a beautiful area with large sandy beaches and creeks to explore. There is only one creek that the park allows motor driven vessels to run and it winds its way across the cay to the Atlantic or east side. There you can climb a pathway to the top of a hill with awesome views. The cays look to be volcanic rock with vegetation that can survive with little fresh water.
We anchored near Illusions and Fellowship and shared cocktail hour with them. Gary's outboard had died on their way back from the creek and we towed them quite a distance back to their boat.
Moose is loving the beaches and has a good run twice a day. He especially loves company and going to visit other cruisers.
We have to radio our next stop in the park to reserve a mooring ball as their are no anchorage areas and our radio is not reaching the park headquarters so fortunately Debbie's can and has relayed our request. If there are no openings, you must wait until the following morning to check in and see if there is space. On Wed. we got a relayed message that there was room for us at Wardwrick Wells on Thursday so we left and had a good sail in 18-22 knt winds.
We are learning things each day that we are out. John is perfecting the process of raising the mainsail so we able to do it more quickly. We now know that we require our batteries to be at a pretty high level in order for our GPS to work so we now plan for that if we are leaving early before the solar panels can supply enough energy.
It looks like we will stay here on our mooring until Sat morning and if the weather holds make our way to Staniel Cay which is the first place where we can find diesel, gas and water to fill our tanks.
We are settling into island time. John commented how strange it was not to know any of the football scores. We are without the constant communication we were accustomed to. We may be able to get on wifi at Wardrick Wells however they do not allow Skype or any social networks to be used as they don't have the bandwidth to support it. We will try to get email out later today.
Here it is. We are not sure when we will next get wifi. We have this connection through today. Just found out it may take 8 weeks to get our mail once it is forwarded. Not sure how we will handle that as there is some mail we must get by end of Feb. We have no phone connection here. May get it again in Staniel Cay. Life in paradise can be complicated. Hope you are all well and enjoying winter.
We left Norman's after one day and sailed down to Shroud Cay which is in the Exuma Park a protected area where fishing of any kind is not allowed. This is a beautiful area with large sandy beaches and creeks to explore. There is only one creek that the park allows motor driven vessels to run and it winds its way across the cay to the Atlantic or east side. There you can climb a pathway to the top of a hill with awesome views. The cays look to be volcanic rock with vegetation that can survive with little fresh water.
We anchored near Illusions and Fellowship and shared cocktail hour with them. Gary's outboard had died on their way back from the creek and we towed them quite a distance back to their boat.
Moose is loving the beaches and has a good run twice a day. He especially loves company and going to visit other cruisers.
We have to radio our next stop in the park to reserve a mooring ball as their are no anchorage areas and our radio is not reaching the park headquarters so fortunately Debbie's can and has relayed our request. If there are no openings, you must wait until the following morning to check in and see if there is space. On Wed. we got a relayed message that there was room for us at Wardwrick Wells on Thursday so we left and had a good sail in 18-22 knt winds.
We are learning things each day that we are out. John is perfecting the process of raising the mainsail so we able to do it more quickly. We now know that we require our batteries to be at a pretty high level in order for our GPS to work so we now plan for that if we are leaving early before the solar panels can supply enough energy.
It looks like we will stay here on our mooring until Sat morning and if the weather holds make our way to Staniel Cay which is the first place where we can find diesel, gas and water to fill our tanks.
We are settling into island time. John commented how strange it was not to know any of the football scores. We are without the constant communication we were accustomed to. We may be able to get on wifi at Wardrick Wells however they do not allow Skype or any social networks to be used as they don't have the bandwidth to support it. We will try to get email out later today.
Here it is. We are not sure when we will next get wifi. We have this connection through today. Just found out it may take 8 weeks to get our mail once it is forwarded. Not sure how we will handle that as there is some mail we must get by end of Feb. We have no phone connection here. May get it again in Staniel Cay. Life in paradise can be complicated. Hope you are all well and enjoying winter.
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