Provisioning is complete!

Today we did all of our shopping and stocked the boat.  With the amount of food we had left on board from the last trip, it was a pretty quick shopping expedition; mainly fresh produce and dairy.  We could probably go 6 to 8 weeks and not buy anything but produce and dairy.   We checked out Little Girl and she cranked right up and purred like a kitten.  We took a trip to Rip Off Ronnie's and got a few parts to fix the Bimini Sling and a Hummingbird depth finder for Little Girl  and took on 200 gallons of fuel.  Only one thing left to do, and that's to pull out the dive gear.

Last night we did a little shakedown cruise from St. Lucie Inlet to Ft. Pierce Inlet which was a nice 5 hour off shore run.  The weather was perfect with 2-3' seas.  Fat Bottom Girl ran perfectly. This was the first time in 13 months we've had an opportunity to return and spend any time on her.  However, in our absence she has been routinely cranked and had her full systems ran.

Our plan is to pull out at 4:00AM and go straight to Sail Cay which will be about a 15/hour run. Monday morning we'll head straight to Green Turtle Cay to clear customs.

The forecast for tomorrow is:

 SUNDAY

 NORTH WINDS 5 KNOTS BECOMING SOUTHEAST 5 TO 10 KNOTS IN

 THE AFTERNOON. SEAS 1 TO 2 FEET WITH A DOMINANT PERIOD

 10 SECONDS.

It should be a beautiful day for crossing :)  So say a little prayer for fair winds and following seas and we'll post again as soon as we have a Wi-Fi connection.


Fat Bottom Girl - out

FBG get's a little TLC

Even though we've been bogged down with land based responsiblities and haven't had the opportunity to spend any time with our girl, she hasn't been neglected too bad.  

She has lots of friends that come to see her routinely; she has a particular fondness for Bridgette and Andy Robinson from Stem to Stern.  They make sure she stays clean and waxed (she looks at it like having a good massage)  and Andy pays particular attention to her botttom, so I think she has a thing for him :)  

They also dedcided it was time to have her teak redone; she was so proud she wanted me to share these photo's with you. 

She's also had a visit from Captain's Chris and Alysse Caldwell (our friends, instructor's and dock neighbors).  They came over to flip her in her slip so Bridgette and Andy could get to the teak on the port side.   While on board it's their SOP (standard operating proceedure) to run her systems and do an overall check.

Her buddy Dave Arnold has been to see her numerous times.  He's worked on her windlass, davit, and performed all routine maintenance.   Dave is a lifesaver and a great caregiver - I'm so thankfull and blessed that she has such good people that I feel confident are taking good care of her in our absence.

It won't be long baby girl, we'll be there soon!



Land Based Responsiblities - AKA Ball and Chain

As you may have noticed, we haven't posted since May of last year.  We returned from the most wonderful 6 week trip through the Abacos and Exumas to complete chaos.   Let's just say the fit had hit the shan..... 

While cruising,  a  polybeutelyne plumbing pipe had burst in our home.  The culprit was in the ceiling of the main level of the house, which sent water cascading throughout the main level and down to the basement.   We have no idea how long the water ran, but thank goodness one of our boys stopped by to check on the house.  He discovered the flood, and took immediate action.

We've spent the last 8 months fighting with our insurance company ( who is NOT a good neighbor!)  and only after hiring an attorney and the involvement of the Insurance Commissioner we finally received an acceptable settlement.   

Due to the fact we're a commercial interior contractor, it only made sense for us to do the work ourselves.   This enabled us to complete the job for much less than if we would have contracted it out,  and gave us extra money to renovate the remaining areas of the house that weren't affected by the flood.

The problem is that we are still actively employed which didn't leave a lot of time to dedicate to our own project.   We are fortunate that we were already living on our GA boat when the flood took place, so we weren't really displaced from our home (just our furniture and personal possessions were displaced)  We've spent a couple of hours everyday as well as most weekends working on the house.   I'm elated to say that eight months later we are 99% complete and have a "better than new" house - however, by the same token I'm saddened because we've neglected Fat Bottom Girl and ourselves.....

We should be able to move our displaced furniture back in in about a week.  It's our plan to stage the house and not clutter it with personal items, as it will immediately be put on the market.   I know, it's probably the worst time to try and sell, but it's our goal to eliminate all of our "Land Based Responsibilities" as soon as possible so we can get that much closer to our goal of full time cruising.  YAY!

The Conch Wrangler

After the storm cleared and the dingy was repaired we took her around the island in search of the elusive conch.  David was determined and confident we would find them.  We drove to the north end of the island to a large cove and beautiful beach with a grassy bottom which is perfect conch territory!    He swam while I followed after him in the dingy.  The currents were pretty strong so he was moving quickly.  Then he found one, it was a beauty and definitely big enough to keep.   Then he hit the jackpot, every few minutes he'd come up with a new one. As his excitement grew, so did the currents,  He had the idea for me to drag behind the dingy him with the tow.  This worked great until he came up and said he was being asphyxiated by the outboard fumes.   Back to snorkeling without motorized assistance, he continued to find them, we decided not to take more than we could eat at one time so he stopped at 7. 

David the "Conch Wrangler"

Evidence of a prior conching expedition



Catch of the Day

We went home, cleaned the conch, searched the Internet and found a recipe for authentic Bahamian Conch Chowder and was amazed we had every ingredient.   It was fantastic!




Dingy Debacle #2

We left Man-O-War Harbour hoping to anchor at Green Turtle Cay, however there weren't any decent anchorages or anywhere we could get in with our draft so we continued north to Munjack Cay.   David and Ryan stayed here the month prior and knew it had good holding.  We had an approaching storm with heavy winds and wanted to make sure we were in a safe harbor.

Approaching storm

As the winds increased, the waves and current did as well.  We have been towing Little Girl the whole trip and now she was slapping up and down putting a lot of tension on the towing bridal.   David was on the cell phone and walked out onto the starboard walk and screamed "Jackie, the dingy's gone".  It was about 100 yards behind us bobbing away.   I grabbed his fins and a life vest and just as he was about to start swimming for her; we saw a neighboring sailboat couple making a mad dash in their dingy to retrieve her.   When the lady reached for the towing bridal which was lying across the bow we realized that something had broken because the whole thing was detached.   They brought the bridal with them and came to our boat to pick up David and take him back.  He jumped in, cranked her up and brought her home.   We thanked them profusely and got busy investigating the problem.

The "U" bolt on the bow of the boat had come loose.  I guess the rough water had vibrated the nuts off the end of the bolts and it just pulled out.   While David was retrieving her, I pulled in the end of the rope and realized the "U" bolt was still attached to the rope.   I took it off the end of the rope and DROPPED it in the water!!!   Since we were only in about 13' of water David decided to snorkel to see if he could find it.   I explained where I was standing on the swim platform when I dropped it, however with the wind and current we were swinging on the hook pretty good.  There was a fair amount of territory to cover, but after about 10 minutes he found it.  Thank goodness!    We then noticed we had two additional "U" bolts on the transom of the dingy that weren't being used.  So we robbed the bolt and nuts from the transom and Captain Dave saved the day again.   

Little Girl - rescued again and towing fine

Green Turtle Cay

We began the day at the historic settlement of New Plymouth.  This was another quaint old-world town full of character and charm.

New Plymouth is very small, and you can cover just about everything in a couple of hours. 







David in front of the New Plymouth Town Jail

We went to the Green Turtle Cay Cemetery, there were headstones that were legible that dated to the early 1800's and some that were so old, there were no headstones - just a pile of crumbling rubble.



We toured the Albert Lowe Museum

Albert was famous for making model ships

Painting of Albert by his son - Many of his son's paintings have been on various Bahamian postage stamps for years

Just a cool old house

We took the golf cart around the island to Black Sound, only to discover that there's really nothing much to see.  There are a couple of marinas and restaurants but nothing special - so we headed back to Little Girl to go do some exploring.   David wants to go conching and he's insistent he's going to find some!

Man-O-War Cay

Man-O-War is famed for its boat building and the Albury name is known throughout the entire Bahamas.  They have been building boats and sail making for almost 200 years.

We had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Joe Albury, he welcomed us to his shop to show us some of his handi work in progress.  He said he only makes 2 or 3 boats a year and the rest of the time concentrates on making models.  More people can afford a model than a hand made boat.

Joe's father Lewis Albury began this particular shop in 1927, however many of the Albury relatives and ancestors have been building for much longer.   Since so many boats are going to power, the need for sail making is not what it used to be; now the sail shop has been converted and a group of ladies make souvenir's with the sail cloth.  You can get anything from a toiletries kit, a pocket book, book bag or duffel bag, or many other items in a variety of colors and patterns.  You can add whatever color strap you want at whatever length suits you.  The only place in the world you can get one of these treasures is at Albury's Sail Shop.  They do not import or sell to anyone else.   We met a sweet lady in the shop by the name of Nan Brown, she is a resident of Commerce, GA and knew the moment we started talking we were from somewhere in GA.  She has been visiting Man-O-War for over 50 years for a one month vacation.  She along with her 85 year old sister traveled together.  Her sister has worked for First Baptist Church of Atlanta for 50 + years and was there before Charles Stanely and claims she taught him a thing or two.

Man-O-War has maintained its integrity and kept it unique character mainly due to a strong religious sense of bonding that holds the community together.  They live differently from the outside world and have a total ban on alcohol sales on the island. 

We had a nice time and met a lot of wonderful people.