We have been sick...

...with a virus that knocks you out for four days and then revisits over the next four.  But we are fully recovered now.  So let me try to catch up.  We had visitors from hell.  A family who didn't give a damn about anyone else.  They arrived in an old chalky blue hulled Cabo sport fish and proceeded to dump all their gear on the dock and adjacent finger.  Now that may not seem like much but folks have to move a pump out wagon in between the pilings and we use a cart to move our heavier goods to our boat.  So when some narcissistic low-life from Fort Lauderdale dumps his dinghy on the dock that all becomes impossible. 

We weren't right next to them but Paul and Eileen were.  This next picture shows how this narcissistic *&^%, well, you get the idea, puts his gear on the finger so the neighbouring boat has difficulty getting on and off. But he doesn't give a shit, he's the honey badger.

Add to that that they were loud and obnoxious, pumped out their holding tanks in the harbour next to us and then allowed their kids to jump off their tower into the polluted water and you can understand why no one was unhappy when they left.  

Good riddance.  Rant over but this is what the dock should look like so Spooky can wander unencumbered.

I noticed this young lady's label sticking out of her bikini bottom and was going to rush down and do the gentlemanly thing and tuck it in for her but she left too quickly.

Even before the current formation of Tropical Storm Arthur we have had frequent bouts of heavy rain, thunder and lightning. It helps ease the hot and humid air that is developing.  We think August is going to be a bit steamy!  The storms pop up much without warning and mostly follow the land mass of Great Abaco and Marsh Harbour but we get our share at Hope Town as well.

After the rain passes the Captains and crew and, in this case, the owner, get out and chamois their paint work dry.  This is Rick looking after his Hatteras.

We have had a pretty constant stream of boats passing through.  This British Sunseeker came for a couple of days.

Our friends on Exit Strategy left for Marsh Harbour but left their tender so they may be back.

Shortly before they left, Julie, their Chef, left for a visit home.  We have become quite friendly with her.

Jo keeps up her social networking.  Here with Donna, Rick's wife.

And this is Rick.  He often stops by with something pithy to say.

A couple mornings ago, as Arthur was still forming I awoke to this pre-sunrise sky.  Honestly, the colours are accurate.  An hour later we had very heavy rain and it kept up pretty much all day.  

Although Arthur's centre formed well north of us it was being fed from the Gulf of Mexico right over us.  This animation I grabbed this morning shows us right in the path of the warm moist air being sucked up from the Gulf. We are at the extreme right a tad more than half way up the picture

This is the week-end dock-master Sam.  He is a bubbly, friendly sort who always has a laugh with us.

June 24th saw the 150th anniversary of the Elbow Cay light at Hope Town.  This is one of the very few manned lights left in the world and the only one that is manually turned.  The keeper lights a kerosene lamp each night and winds the mechanism every two hours during operation.  The lens rotates on a bed of mercury.  

Many of the boats passing through here are solely for fishing like this one.  The owners come over from Florida and stay in the Inn here.  They fish each day and party at night.  All of them are good sorts and many have given us some of the fish they caught.

Arthur being well established now it looks like this is the kind of day we can expect for a while since it is only moving North at 6mph!

That's it for now.  Sorry for the delay. Later, friends!

I know....

I am overdue a post.  I have been sick with food poisoning and, as soon as I am back to normal operation, I will be posting a block buster with videos and all.  Just give me a day or two.

Edit:  And now Jo has the same virus (evidently NOT food poisoning) so more time needed....

Sitting in the rain...

...waiting for Joe and his crew to arrive.  We were going to pick them up but thunder storms have been popping up all afternoon and, though I don't mind the rain, a lightning strike can hurt in a small boat.  They will catch the ferry from Marsh Harbour to here.  They caught the 6AM from Syracuse this morning so we are not expecting any partying tonight.

The trip to the Mermaid Reef park the other day was terrific.  They have four mooring buoys that you tie on to and snorkel a few yards to the reef.  Many more fish and greater variety than off the reef over at the Lodge on the Atlantic.  Here's a few of the pictures I took underwater with our new camera.

These guys almost swarm around you as you swim.

There was company of course...

I also took my Nexus 10 tablet out for some pictures.  Can't complain about the quality.

Or the features.  They make pano's really easy to take.  Try clicking this view of our marina from the owner's deck.  I did not reduce the size of this.

Ok.  I think it is cocktail hour.  The rain has stopped once more but the clouds threaten.

Getting Warmer

As we approach the summer solstice on June 21st the days are getting noticeably warmer. We are only a couple of degrees away from the Tropic of Cancer so the sun is almost overhead at noon. We seem to be averaging high 80s with occasional low 90s.. 

We can go visit Gary at The Reef Bar and enjoy a cold one while we sit in the cooler Atlantic breeze. But Spooky can't so we devised a way to cool her down.

And while we were at it we gave her a refresher safety briefing.

Our visitor permits were coming to an end and needed extending so we went over to Marsh Harbour to see Immigration.  We asked for a 9 month extension but got until November 6th which is the most they can legally give us.  We did a bit of shopping and had lunch at Snappa's while we were there.  This 82 foot catamaran was slipped at Harbourview Marina.

It was custom built in Canada by A.F Theriault in Nova Scotia for $7 million.  This newspaper article tells us a bit about it.  Carbon fibre hulls for lightness.

The third cottage is being erected across the marina.  Yours for $750,000.

And our new friends Scott and Catherine have departed for Bermuda leaving their boat here and me with the keys!  So long and see you later in the year.

Off to do some snorkeling.  I will try to update in a week unless something exciting happens.

Fishing Season begins...

Although we still have a healthy number of cruisers passing through we are seeing more and more sport-fishing boats coming in from Florida.  The boats are anything from 40 to 80 feet in length and are typically captained. The crew brings them hereabouts to wait for the owners who fly in for a few days of deep sea fishing.  They want Marlin but usually come back with Mahi Mahi (Dolphin) and snapper.  These are Dolphin.

The crew gave these to the marina dock-hands.  This one is Michael.  Great guy and always happy and friendly with a wicked sense of humour.

  We have been given so much fresh fish we are done with it for a while.  Until they start catching Grouper.  Can't resist Grouper!

The marina skyline is slowly filling with Tuna Towers.  That picture was taken when most of them were out fishing.  I spotted a couple up on top enjoying the view and used my 400mm lens..

Some of the fishermen bring their motoryachts and tow a 30 to 40 foot centre console boat to fish from.  Sometimes they don't tie them well.  This one almost took on water at low tide.

One of our new found friends here volunteered to let me have a new black water gauge shipped to his wife's hotel while she was away on business.  I have tried three different gauge technologies which have failed.  This one, thankfully worked just fine.

I mounted three gauges.  One for the black water and two for battery consumption which I will connect later.  The black water transducer bounces a sound pulse down to the water surface and back to the transducer and measures the time taken.  It then converts it to a voltage that can be fed to a standard gauge. Simple and, finally, effective.

Another common indicator of American sport fish operators is the crap they bring and put on the dock.  The guy behind us with the dolphin shown in the picture above brought multiple Yeti coolers, plugged a freezer in, put his spare props on the dock and generally made himself at home.

Sometimes we get an interesting boat or two passing through.  The following pictures of "Statement" are nothing if not interesting.  Whether you like this kind of statement is up to you.  Yes it's reptile patterned vinyl.  And it's called Statement and the boat brand is Statement.

Only three 300HP engines.  Why "only", you say?  Let's try four 300HP engines, also custom painted like Statement's three.

No, it's not a Photoshop..

They are travelling together of course.

Yesterday was a double celebration.  Not only was it my birthday but it also coincided with the start of my first pension.  A tiny one from Philips in the UK for whom I worked just 8 years before shipping out to Canada.  Every little helps.

Wet times

We have seen a lot of cloud and rain the last few days.  It started as late afternoon thunder storms and then the front came through and gave us a lot of much needed rain. It gave us a beautiful dawn sky the other morning though.

It is still cloudy and showery today and will be until Monday.

We set out to Marsh Harbour with our bikes Thursday and were actually on the ferry when the captain advised the bikes could only go one way.  This was to "protect" the interests of bike rental companies in Marsh Harbour.  So we decided to abort the mission and go on Monday, when the Sea of Abaco calms down, using Joe's 19 foot boat and with our bikes.

One of our crew had a bit of an accident yesterday.  She was climbing back on the boat when she slipped on the step and fell into the harbour.  She was able to climb onto one of the cross pieces until I grabbed here and hauled her back on to the dock.  A quick hose down to rinse off the harbour salt water and she began the clean up.

Happily her first swim ended well.  The barracuda was nowhere to be seen.

It's been ten days...

...since my last post and family has started complaining (=Jon).  So here goes with some of the activities going on around this part of the world.

After all the Ocean Reef boats left it has been a bit quiet on the main transient pier.  I have been waiting for a cloudy day to buff the forward deck.  It's looking faded and dull having sat in the sun and salt air.

Our days have been mostly spent reading, dunking in the pool to cool off and taking lunch at a local bar/restaurant.  It's a hard life.  We have also binged on Breaking Bad in the evening.  As of today we are at Season 5 Episode 7 so the end is, unfortunately, in sight.  We started watching it three weeks ago.

It has been windy and warm.  The wind has now been easterly for well over a week but a break is in store for the next few days.  This view of the sky from yesterday shows the wispy high level clouds which indicate some rain or storms approaching.

Those with an eye for detail might notice that the PDQ 44 foot catamaran "Blue" has gone.  It was there when we arrived and no one has been on it until three days ago.  They left yesterday to cruise back to the US but not before I got a guided tour of the boat from owner Christian.  Very impressive space and finish.

We have been giving Spooky a bit more freedom as the marina has thinned out.  She found that our boarding step offered a great shady spot to hang out.

We got some clouds so I was able to get the buffer and Buff Magic out to start shining the deck.  Add some polish and the shine was back!

This trawler would make us a great live-aboard AND be easy to maintain.

In the background you might recognize the 105 foot Hargrave  "Exit Strategy", which came in a couple of days ago with their fun crew.

Another yacht came in.  This time the new 110 foot Horizon "Andrea VI".  Launched last July.

Any idea who is aboard?

Both yachts look cool at night.

So that's the news for now.  Hoping for some rain!

Later.