25th April 2009

Well things are winding down with a vengeance and we are slowly assimilating ourselves into a land based world once again !!! We now have a car, courtesy of Mr. Avis!! Since Catherine last blogged we have had a very peaceful and unexciting (thank goodness) trip back up the ICW with no alarms or excursions – "Solitaire 1" has behaved impeccably, doing all that was asked of her. We have tried to spend time at different spots on this northward trip. When we last blogged we were in Amelia Island (home of the cats Port and Starboard) and from there we by passed Jekyll and stayed at Lanier Island. We stayed there an extra day, wonderfully served by Melissa, the dock master, since the wind blew like stink and it just seemed to be too uncomfortable to venture into the Georgia marshes. We were able to use the courtesy car to explore a little and to do some last minute shopping. Courtesy cars are something that several of the marinas here have. You sign up for an hour or two hours and they are completely FREE !!! If you wish to do some shopping or just explore a little they are a wonderful way of getting around and seeing a little bit of the area that you are travelling through. On the 21st however we left and had a splendid leisurely cruise through the marshes in gentle breezes and warm weather to Kilkenny Creek, a quaint area of Georgia with nothing there except an old fishing pier and hundreds of egrets which return in the evening to perch in the trees for the night. A final four hour trip on the 22nd took us through the notorious Hell’s Gate – which we passed about two hours after high tide. At low water the reported depth is four feet, which would not be enough for us but the tide was another four feet so we thought we would be safe with six feet or so. Fortunately we were passed by a couple of power boats shortly before we arrived there and they reported the depths that they saw back to us so we carefully kept to the channel and had no trouble at all, the lowest depth that we saw being six and half feet. In fact just after we cleared the area a large inland passenger boat "American Glory" came by the opposite way and went through at full speed….. glad that we didn’t meet her in the middle, that might have been a little troublesome as the channel is not very wide and it shallows extremely quickly at the edges. So, we were back in Thunderbolt (it really does seem like home) and tied to the gas dock. Fill up the diesel tank and add additives to prevent the diesel oil from deteriorating over the summer and then pump out the holding tank. Finnicky couple that we are, we washed that tank through four times before we were satisfied that it was once again clean and would not be a smelly mess when we return in November. Fortunately there was no one waiting so we were able to take our time and do the job properly and unhurriedly. From now on we will be using shore side conveniences !! Then it was out of the marina and onto the Thunderbolt Marine dock to await haul out which is scheduled for Monday (27th) morning. Since the weather was calm we took the opportunity to take the sails off the boat and pack them in their sail bags and they have now gone off to our friendly local canvas shop for storage until they are once again needed for the next adventure. No arrival at Thunderbolt is complete without a celebratory dinner at Tubby’s and this was where we headed that first evening – for me a couple of pints of Bass Ale on draught with grilled shrimp and for Catherine the same with wine followed by sharing a Pecan pie . Absolutely delicious!!!!! Since then Catherine has worked like mad to take stock of what food (mainly cans) we have left aboard, what we will keep for another time and what we will give away as their expiry (or dead ) dates are over the summer. Some bags are packed and awaiting the car’s trunk to come home with us but there is still much to do…every locker is emptied and disinfected…. we are determined that we will not find any pesky little critters in the boat upon our return, they would not find a crumb to nibble on! We cleaned out all the water filters yesterday and even found a small fish in the raw water filter, quite dead I am pleased to say. Today was the engine’s turn so after heating the oil well we changed the oil and the oil filter – actually we are getting quite slick at this job and it is not nearly as messy as when we first did it. We also changed the air filters on the engine, which considering that, according to the records, had not been changed in four years were remarkably clean. We also changed our Racor fuel filter, which was quite dirty. Having changed everything we then, in trepidation, restarted the engine and our faithful Westerbeke, purred as happily as ever. Great sighs of relief and absolutely no oil or fuel leaks, for we are but amateurs at things mechanical, although gathering more confidence as we go along as Catherine has mentioned in her last posting. Then it was a long shower and off in a taxi to see Mr.Avis, who has graciously loaned us a motor car, something called a Dodge Caliber. We went for a drive to Tybee Island for lunch to a small restaurant for a bowl of their delicious crab chowder (yes we had been there before) and both had shrimp Po boys, a sort of sandwich with shrimp lettuce, tomato and onion in it. A drive along the beach front – it was about 85* today , a clear blue sky and little wind so the beach was a busy place with much to see and not all of it too inviting!!! Tomorrow, Sunday, we shall be doing more packing and re arranging I dare say, all in preparation for our haul out and eventual departure for points north. If possible we would like to leave here on Wednesday and maybe get into Montreal on Thursday evening, but we shall have to leave that for a later posting. G’d night y’all!

Sunday, 19th April 2009 I’m baaaaaaaaaack!!! Not that I have anything exciting to report but I think we have had enough of that for now, don’t you? Running a boat is never without a dull moment though….David and I were talking last night and remembering... when we first acquired Soli, how so much more sophisticated her systems were than our previous boat…it was actually quite bit intimidating. Now a few years down the road we are intimately acquainted with all of her and although we do not have the expertise to handle and fix all her “issues” we have learned to do quite a bit by ourselves… Do you remember I said “ it’s always something” ….first the auto pilot did not want to work because the knot meter was not operating and they are all linked …the knot meter is like the speedometer in your car, except it is a small wheel with paddles on the bottom of Soli’s hull and little aquatic critters love to lodge in there and prevent it from turning…we cleaned it as well as we could without actually diving on it, but to no avail…so David found a way around it so the pilot would work…it actually cleared itself as we were crossing…guess all the marine life in the cavity were dislodged or jumped ship…is it any wonder! Then a couple of mornings ago as we were ready to get underway…no instruments at all!!!! I had removed the cover of the network tack display and the whole thing came out with the cover…David replaced it but some connection was loose, so out it came again... D had a fiddle with the wires and voila fixed!!!! Then yesterday morning as I went to do the breakfast dishes , no fresh water anywhere on board , since we had already changed the water pump (ourselves!!!) in Hope Town …it was very disheartening. David was driving, as usual, and said we would look at it when we arrived at the marina….I then by chance opened the locker that hold our water heater and saw that everything in there was wet, after investigating I found the culprit, one of the hoses from the rat’s nest of hoses that live there had come loose from the T fitting and of course we had lost all pressure in the system…I reconnected the two and tightened what my husband loves to refer to as a “jubilee clip” just to confuse everyone at Home Depot and is merely an adjusting clamp. The system was then able to repressurize itself after much spitting out all the air that had gone in….and I could do my dishes… One of the most loved gadget on board is a head lamp…I use it constantly when working in cramped dark areas where I need both hands….we actually have 2 , one was given to us by Andre and Louise and the other one we brought back from Joan’s house, probably a thoughtful Xmas gift to her from a smart member of the family….thank you whoever you might be!!! We spent a couple of days in St. Augustine, as there was a refrigeration technician who had come highly recommended …he changed a couple of parts in our Sea Frost, the pressure valve and the dryer…I had been doing battle with it all winter, it was having to choose between draining our batteries with our amps guzzling fridge or loosing our food as it would have gone bad….it seems to be working well now and we have decided to install a digital thermostat for next season so I will keep my hands off the calibrating screw…it will no longer be there!!!Last evening we stayed at a different marina, Amelia Island Yacht Basin, we are trying new places all along the way just to give David a little more challenge and so far not succeeding, he has been docking like the pro he is…although I always tell him “This is not the Queen Mary!!!” Today is our grandson Jack’s birthday….Master Jack is a very grownup seven years old and although I have tried to call him several times I cannot get to talk to him …So herego Jack cyber wishes and hugs …we’ll see you soon!! Tonight we are staying at Golden Isles Marina instead of Jekkyl Island…another thing which I have had to master is working with tide tables…today for instance we had to leave early in order to get through the channel back to the ICW without going aground and we will have to kill a couple of hours before we go through the very shallow channel, north of Jekkyl Marina…we will probably fuel there and have lunch while we wait for the water to come back up to a more hull friendly level. I still remember last year, David leading the way at a very cautious speed and Heinz fuming behind us as he wanted to plow through it all, as he could have….Ah the difference between fin and wing keels!!!! There you are up to date…we are now passing Cumberland island, which is famous for its wild horses…David always promises me that we will stop and anchor there “next” time….this is our sixth time passing it ….seven times lucky!!! We saw “For Pete Sake” anchored by the island and had a chat with Robert over the radio….maybe I need to jump ship if I want to explore! Sorry if this posting was not as exciting as the last one….we’ll try and do better next time….NOT!!! Oh, I forgot to tell you, last evening as we were having a chat after dinner below in the cabin, David interrupted me with “oh a grey cat just went by on its way to the v-berth”…could not believe it…we had been boarded by a cat (better than a rat, as L’Equipe had experienced in Westend) …anyhow after investigating with our dock neighbours we were told that her name was Port and she was one of the two marina cats…you guessed it …the other one was called Starboard And they board your boat, inspect and leave…I guess we passed as she left without chewing on anything!!!! She was back on deck this morning as we were preparing to cast off and it was all we could do to invite her to step off as we did not want a stowaway cat However cute she might be …bye Port!!! By the way I have a horrible cold, the works, red nose running non stop, eyes tearing, sinus headache and cough….just hope D does not catch it… I keep washing my hands with Purell …don’t know where I picked it up..guess it’s time to return to the Abacos!!!!

2009.04.16

16th April 2009  

Hello, my name is Catherine Allin, you may remember me, I once, a long time ago, promised I would be a prolific contributor to Soli’s blog this year ….I LIED…well, actually I did not exactly mean to lie, for one thing there was not much to report but that never stopped me babbling away in the past …the main "bad" reason is that when my Baby Dell crashed on Xmas day, I lost my blogging companion and when David had it resurrected in February, WORD was not loaded on and I could not tuck it on my tummy while cocooning in my bunk to come and chat with you…I am now using D’s computer which works brilliantly outside in the sun, it has a non reflective screen …but it’s not my BD….enough of that! I had a quick look at our files and it looks like D’s last posting was one month ago today…I cannot and won’t try to recap the past month but give you a few highlights. As David said we had a very social time with old and new friends, we had Susan and Rolf over for dinner a couple of times when they were "boat people" and spent a wonderful day at their house…our dink engine died and Rolf graciously towed it back home at the end of the day….always something !!!! We attended a couple of talks at the lodge, Rolf talked about indigenous vegetation on the Cays and how people should try to preserve it and restore it…a lot of foreign plants and trees have been introduced which are harmful….Susan gave an inspiring and passionate talk about her carrier as a talented architect…they are both so "green" it is just great to see them live what they preach in their own house. Such as collecting rain water. We saw quite a bit of Mary Helen and Harvey, although "Gone Away" had been moved to Man-O-War Cay for repairs after she went aground on the reef outside Hope Town.
We also spent a lot of happy hours with John and Jerrie ("Trinity"), Val and Reg ("Aquabella"), John and Jo ("Heartbeat"), David and Hannya ("Dovolena"), Steve & Karen ("Sea Echo") and Gail and Bruce on board their new trawler "Orient Express2". The last week in Hope Town was busy socializing every night as all the cruisers saw the season come to an end ..Altogether too much to remember and to bore you with….
We also met Robert, a Montreal policeman, who had similar ideas about the crossing so we made plans to meet up further along the way…always good to have a buddy boat!

On April 3rd, we said a fond farewell to Hope Town and her people and cast off our beloved mooring buoy….we sailed to Man-O-War (very short sail) and picked up a mooring in the East harbour….the next day was great festivities as "Sojers" (natives of the cay and the name of a type of crab David just informed me) celebrated their heritage.
We met up with lots of friends visited Mary Helen and Harvey in their little tree house.

Harvey fancied himself helming the "William Albury" very similar to "Gone Away" ...

While I fell in love with some flowers...

David fell in love with this piece of real estate on Man-O-War... I though it was a bit of a fixer uper but you know what they say...location...location...location!

After a couple of days it was time to continue making our way back slowly, and the next Cay on our island hopping was Green Turtle….we took a dock at the Green Turtle Club and met up with Val and Reg and went for a couple of gorgeous beach walks on David’s birthday….it was quite windy and we were quite happy of the big pontoons on our dink as we crashed through the waves …Val & I still did get quite wet, our husbands being protected behind us!!!!!

We were treated to this special (aren't they all) sunset on Green Turtle Cay and this magnificent frigate bird flew over Soli...I had quite the job getting his pic.

Then it was time to plan "the crossing"…we spoke to Chris Parker who predicted SE 10 to 15 knots winds, which was great as we were still planning on going to Cape Canaveral, and the wind would give us a nice push up along with the Gulf Stream.
Robert was in a bit in a catch 22 situation as, one the one hand he wanted to give his daughter Tiffany a few days in the Bahamas and on the other hand still come with us during this "favorable weather window" of Easter weekend as a the couple more fronts that were expected by Monday were now being expected on Sunday.
We had in the meantime made radio contact with a few other boats who were also crossing on that day, Kokopelli, Scaramouche, Russ2 and Blue Blazer…amazing how at the very last minute boats connect to cross!...Robert, in the meantime had gone to Manjack and was still undecided as to what to do so we started off at 0830 on Good Friday, pretty much on our own….around Little Sale Cay we caught up with Scaramouche and Russ2, a couple of CS36 traveling together and kept in radio contact with them though the whole adventure…
We passed Great Sale (our jumping off point in past years) at 1600 and were motor sailing…we decided not to stop and continue and make the crossing, but at that point noone was planning on going to Cape Canaveral, so we decided to go along to Fort Pierce, in the meantime the wind was freshening up more and more and the 10-15 was becoming 15-20 knots….Soli had to slow down some to keep pace with our slower moving traveling companions ….and the wind was freshening up some more…20-25 knots with very confused and quartering seas on our port quarter…so we were rocking and rolling and pounding…not a very comfortable sail for Soli or her crew….David was afraid that James, the auto pilot, would be overworked (we heard someone say he had blown the fuse on his) so he ended up manually helming the boat pretty much the whole way…at that point we were wearing our PFDs (personal floating device) and David had the tether hanked on to the jackline …..and the wind was freshening up some more still 25-30.
We had fortunately at the beginning singled reefed the main, as Scaramouche and Russ2 were reefing and we thought that would be a good idea….by now we had rolled up the genny completely and were doing 7 knots under reefed main alone!!!! Quite the ride.

At 0100 on Saturday morning we jumped from the bank at the Little Bahama Bank waypoint into the abyss of the Atlantic ocean…. Hoping the depth would make the ride easier…we traded quartering, confused seas for six foot swells and force 5 winds…Soli was trucking but unfortunately not in the direction we wanted to go… the strong winds and current of the Gulf Stream were pushing us North and we needed to make a more westerly heading for Fort Pierce….Scaramouche, whose radio worked amazingly well, keeps us all in radio contact and relayed for Robert who had decided to go on to Cape Canaveral although Blue Blazer was trying to talk him out of it.
So, Soli was basically crabbing sideways with a west heading of 270 and still making a northerly course… we had to reduce speed to 4.5 knots to stay with our buddy boats and also not to get slammed to hard.

This is our sunrise.....things were looking up!
It was a long night, poor David was at the helm the whole time as I did not think I could keep her on course while doing battle with the wind and the seas…I was getting hammered below and going up and down the companionway stairs as I was plotting positions and logging it all and doing what I do best in stressful situations... that's right make tea...and that was pretty dangerous!.
Anyhow after 29hours we passed the Fort Pierce sea buoy on Saturday afternoon 1300 and made our way to the Fort Pierce marina…I had called them to reserve an "easy" dock please and I won’t go into too much detail as to going aground as they had skinny water due to full moon tides, to a dock without a ladder so I could not get off etc…not happy campers we!!!
Then it was the other fun part of this arrival, checking into the USA by phone first and then in person, our cell phones could not connect to US 800 numbers, although they did last year …so we went to a pay phone and checked in and a nice cab driver took us to the airport to see our friend Mr. Lopez (whose name is not Lopez at all) who was actually very nice and accommodating ( I suck up so well!!!) , then back to dear Soli who had worked so hard to bring us to a safe port.
The next morning we met Sue and Ian (Kokopelli) on the dock and hugged like long lost friends although we had just met…then three dinks came alongside Soli’s stern and there they were …the other warriors, Jim and Krys (Russ2), Maj-Lis and Don (Blue Blazer) and Alan & Marilyn (Scaramouche aka the voice in the night that kept us together) ….just as they came to us, our phone rang…it was Robert!!!!, we were so happy to hear from him as we had tried to raise him all night on the radio and had lost contact but heard through another relay that he was headed to Cape Canaveral and then nothing...he was in Cape Canaveral with a born again Christian daughter (she never prayer so much in her life as she did that night) .. leave it to the Montreal police!!!!

We left FP on Sunday morning and went to Melbourne, giving Vero a miss, we wanted to try a different place, very nice marina, we gave Soli a long well deserved fresh water shower so she did not look like an "old salt" anymore.
Monday morning saw us making tracks for Titusville and we docked at the marina next to a French flagged sailboat…they left France in 2005 and have had many wonderful adventures. They had just come back from a day at Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral and gave us their tickets which were good for 2 days. We booked a rental car from Mr. Enterprise, since the weather forecast for next day was pretty awful and we had decided to stay put for another night.
Tuesday morning we were off to KSC, which was an absolutely AWESOME experience…I wish that word was not so misused and abused as it looses all meaning when it is so suitable….I was so moved by the whole place and exhibits I wanted to cry, but most of all we so wished for our grand children to have been there…I do hope they get to see it soon. …We did and saw most of what they had….even went on the shuttle simulator….after that crossing I can handle any ride! We met astronaut Jon McBride who gave a great talk and slide presentation and saw an Imax film about the moon expeditions of the Apollos..did not realize the Americans went to the moon NINE times! Abolutely great…amazingly I had to keep David from nodding off .. I think he was having a delayed reaction to some 40 hours without sleep. It was a good thing we decided to stay put another day…2 tornadoes went through the centre while we were there!!!
That brings you up to date to the minute… David is driving us to our next port of call which is Daytona beach ….we are going through the heavy currents of New Smyrna beach (our dink flipped here last year) and maneuvering through the shoals of Ponce de Leon and I am sitting in the cockpit boring you all to death !!!!
I think I might have made up for my long months of silence…you might wish for me to repeat this silence again….will see!!!

Sunday 15th March 2009   

Well…… we really are great failures at blogging !!! Over a month and no new word from us, what a disgrace !!! This evening however I am moved to write since we saw something, even from a great distance that I would love to see up close and personal!! Yes, we saw the shuttle launch into the northern sky and although a long way away it was still an awesome sight …. We saw it disappear to the NNE and difficult to believe at the speed that it was travelling and that there were human beings on board. It left a con trail that could be seen well after it passed and also a most amazing bright cloud formation which hopefully your resident photographer managed to capture. So what have we done in the last months…??? Simply put. nothing too much !!!! We have continued to live a simple life .. I have tried to work as needs must, we have walked the beaches, had lunches with friends and spent a very relaxing time here in Hope Town, Hence the lack of blogging. We left Hope Town last week and spent the majority of last week in Fisher’s Bay , Guana Cay, more beach walking and one day at anchor and exploring Shell Cay which is a man made island from the dredge of the big ship channel past Whale Cay… lots of interesting shells and many live conch which we left to grow bigger, or be harvested by others. During our time in Guana I went up the mast to have a look at out wind instruments which are not turning as they should. They were frozen with the salt air, I did my best to release the cups but they are not working too well still. I think that they need to be disconnected and brought down in order to do a proper job, that’s not likely to happen before we get back to the USA. Whilst up there, swinging at 58 feet above the deck in the boatswain’s chair, I hope that I managed to get a couple of good unusual shots of the boat through my feet and behind my back !! We also tried to anchor in Man of War Cay, narrows, but to no avail. We could not get the anchor to bite in the hard sand. In heaving up the anchor for the fourth time, we got a chain link into the windlass the wrong way and the whole thing jammed tight. That was when we gave up and went to Fisher’s Bay in Guana, where we freed the anchor chain but in doing so damaged something in the windlass so now the chain has to be let out manually…. Fortunately we can still heave the anchor with the windlass so at least my back will not be broken in weighing anchor by hand.! There’s always something ! We had a grand sail back to Hope Town in 20 knots of wind … to made up for the frustration of the anchor windlass and allowed “Solitaire 1” to stretch her legs again. Now if we can have that sort of wind on the return trip from Great Sale Cay to Cape Canaveral, which where we would like to re enter the USA this time it would be golden !! Yes, return is starting to rear its ugly head and we are thinking that we will make a start in the early part of April aiming to be back in Montreal by the end of that month. We are still somewhat undecided as to where we are going to leave the boat although we do have a firm booking, once again in Thunderbolt, Savannah. It maybe that ‘Solitaire 1’ will spend her summer there and we will return to the Abacos next year…..stay tuned, nothing is decided!!! Beyond all this life continues very pleasantly….. we have had much more wind this year and the Kiss wind generator has really come into its own giving us a lot of power, which coupled with our solar panels has really helped to maintain our batteries. We have rarely had to run the engine, other than to run the engine driven refrigeration and our Honda generator has proven its worth in bringing the batteries up as and when needed,. So much so that we had not refueled since we left West End , way back in December of last year. We have just refueled and had used 34 gallons between December and March so feel that the additional expense of our various purchases, wind generator and solar panels, were well worth it !! One additional expense which we did not envisage was a four day trip to Montreal that I made in February in order to arrange things which could not be done at long distance. It snowed most of the time. Unfortunately I got sick from something that I ate the day before I was to come back but a restful day, mostly in bed, cured that and I was nearly as good as new to return to the boat. Catherine had done a great job of looking after things in my absence …never let it be said that the Admiral is helpless when the Captain us away, ‘cos she is not at all. It was wonderful to see her bring the dinghy to the dock to collect me from the ferry in order to return to the boat – she was handling like an absolute pro !! Unfortunately she got sick (in sympathy????) very soon after I returned , but was recovered after 24 hours or so. Today (15th March), we bade a sad farewell to David and Hannya, our friends from Bournemouth, who are taking their boat back into layup in Man of War Cay for the summer, before returning to the U K, where Hannya’s daughter is getting married in May in Salisbury. We shall miss them but will hope to see them over the summer should we be in that area. We have spent many pleasant hours with those two! So life goes on…… lunches, seminars, lectures from very interesting residents and visitors, and on Tuesday a concert in celebration of St Patrick’s Day….. quite the social life we have here but probably not the reason to blog about it. Why is there not a celebration of St David’s Day we ask ourselves????? That’s all for now and again our apologies for the long delay in this report. It took the shuttle and brave adventurers into space to get me up and running again… hopefully the pics that have been taken will add some spice to this. G’d night all !!! DA

2009.02.05

Thursday 5th February 2009 

 Well it’s a few days since we last wrote anything and since today is freezing for this part of the world and we are inside, bundled up in jeans , turtle necks, and , in Catherine’s case, even socks it seems like a good day to bring you all up to date. Not that there has really been an awful lot happening here. We have walked and worked and then walked some more. Sunday 8th February 2009 Gee !!! I didn’t get very far with that one did I? The weather has been very poor over the past week and quite cold, no, very cold for this part of the Bahamas low fifties in the morning and only up to the upper fifties by Noon. Lots of cloud and little sunshine until today . Now I know that we should not be complaining when our nearest and dearest are mainly in Canada and (latterly the U K) and would probably consider our weather as a heat wave but still……….!!! We have had to break out our alcohol heater and have been wearing jeans for the past three days…. Catherine has even succumbed to wearing a pair of my socks. I haven’t gone quite that far. Perhaps all this cool weather is preparing me for my trip to Montreal on the 17th February. This is a trip that I am not willingly taking, but feel that I must in order to sort out a few things. I am going to be away from the boat (and Catherine) for four sleeps and there has been much discussion as to where she would prefer the boat….. should it remain on our mooring here in Hope Town or will she feel more comfortable at a dock in Marsh Harbour. I have told her it is her decision and she needs to tell me in time to move the boat if she wants to be in Marsh Harbour. So far no decision… stay tuned !! On the one hand, here in Hope Town she has a good support system with friends etc but she has to get herself around the harbour in the dinghy. The electricity must be monitored, generator started as necessary etc etc In Marsh Harbour she has no dinghy to worry about , electricity by the kilowatt, fresh water plus shops etc, but knows few people, although hopefully Mary Helen and ‘Gone Away’ would be there. Decisions, decisions!! I shall be away from the 17th afternoon to the 21st afternoon and shall fly Marsh Harbour to Fort Lauderdale by Twin Air Calypso and the Air Canada from Fort Lauderdale to Montreal, reversing the process on the 21st. Should be easy as I will not have any baggage to check but am intent on just travelling with a small back pack. Whilst there I shall hope to have a Dell techie repair Catherine’s computer which has been a paper weight since Christmas Day and will also try to get her pair of Maui Jim sunglasses repaired. The sea air rotted one of the arms which broke. Yesterday. we, David and Hannya from “Dovolena” went the Harbour Lodge for lunch as they were having a Louisiana shrimp and crawfish special. Delicious it was too washed down with a couple of Kalik beers !!! There was entertainment too in the form of the ever popular Brown Tip doing Rake and Scrape. Brown tip, for those of you who have followed the blog over past years is the man who scrubs our bottom for us once a season and replaces the zincs on the propeller and shaft. There are pictures of him here last year. He is also an accomplished performer singing, dancing (and boy does he have some moves) and playing a number of different saws, he bangs them and runs something like a plug up and down the teeth, hence the “rake and scrape” .

Catherine, despite having some back pain, has been busy making delicious bread and more recently about eight or ten jars of sour orange marmalade once again, and wonderful it is too! Had some on home made bread toasted for breakfast this morning… now if we could just grow our own tea and maybe churn our own butter we could be quite self sufficient at least for breakfast !! I think that supper is just about ready….. prosciutto e melone with home made bread and an Arugala salad grown locally here in Hope Town, can’t be bad can it? Bibi.

We are now at "The Edge" where D&D do their worse over a cup of soso coffee but excellent wifi!

In an effort to try to "live off the land" since we are not fishing and therefore not living off the sea we are doing different things such as picking coconuts....after we devoured the "killer" that tried to do me in but tasted delicious, we have picked another one which the skipper has attacked and low and behold came another sweet little face, but I was not allowed to keep a little brother for my "petit mousse" so we are eating it!

Deborah, this one is for you...

You always ask "where are the people?" when we post pictures of those deserted beaches...well I don't know but here are their foot prints!

Maybe they are ghosts!!!!

Sunday 25th January 2009

It is now two weeks since we added to this narrative, so here goes ! Life on board the good sailing vessel “Solitaire I” continues to be very peaceful and quiet although work on and around the boat continues as ever. Recently we replaced the fresh water filter, which we thought would be a brief affair….. wrong !!! in order to get the filter out we had to remove it entirely and then found that it had been put in incorrectly so my trusty admiral read the instructions and we battled with it for two hours, finally getting it back, this time fitted correctly We had to trim one of the hoses and use slightly larger screws but once all was back together and the pressure pump switched on, it resumed working perfectly and no leaks. This was a major operation since without it we would have not had any running water. Last Thursday we took the boat across to Marsh Harbour, the “big” town, anchored in the bay and went ashore to do some shopping. We had gone across with our friends on “Dovelena” so Hannya and Catherine did some major grocery provisioning and then I met them and we restocked our wine and spirit cellar before returning to the boat. Once stored, we raised the anchor and went across to another small island named Man of War, one of the oldest settlements in the Abacos, dating back to 1753.It has a very narrow entrance channel and is very shallow so we entered close to high water , Hannya and David who had arrived earlier, came to greet us in their dinghy and escorted us to a mooring. We invited them on board for sun downers and guacamole and munchies and then spent a very quiet night. The next day we got into the two dinghies and explored the north end of the island, landing on a beach at the Narrows. This is so called because at that point the cay is only wide enough for one golf cart to pass down the road.. On the way, through the crystal clear and very shallow water we were able to observe numerous large star fish as well as many sea biscuits, etc. We walked up the road towards the north end of the island through some very beautiful and lovely gardens . No lack of cash here obviously!

After a pleasant walk it was back along the beach to the dinghies we went back to the settlement for lunch. I couldn’t resist the hamburger which was every bit as good as you can get in North America. With the tide rising we decided to leave for our base at Hope Town since we were invited for lunch this weekend with Susan and Rolf who have Jacqueline and Heinz staying with them. We have just come back from that lunch and what a spread they put on…. A delicious salad nicoise made with fresh asparagus rather than the usual beans and fresh baked focaccia .

This, by the way is the latest thing…. And Catherine has been making it as well, once we got fresh flour, since the flour that we had left on board was alive with tiny little weevils and could probably have walked off the boat if allowed!!

It is a focaccia type, flat with olive oil and rosemary and is just delicious, we have to thank Susan for this recipe. We will be eating this most of the time I fancy since the bread that we can buy in the stores here tends to be rather too sweet for our taste.

After lunch we all went "glassing" (pick up sea glass) on Rolph and Susan's beach..

Jacqueline and Heinz are old hands at it and we now have a couple of new afficionados, Catherine B and Clem. We have walked the beaches here on most days and still find it enjoyable and good exercise. We do not always walk fast but tend to wander and look for sea glass or other treasures, like my sea bean (I have not found any more I am sad to say, but shall keep looking). The acknowledged master is Hannya (Catherine call her “magpie”) who finds all kinds of interesting bits and pieces. She has found four bottles with messages in them including one dated in 2004 and tossed over the side of a sailing vessel somewhere between las Palmas in the Canary Islands and Barbados. Everything inside was in good condition including a picture of the boat and a message from each member of he crew with their e mail addresses. She has tried to contact them but I do not believe has had great success. On one of those walks Catherine had a very daunting experience on one of the windiest days that we have experienced here. On this occasion, after a long walk on the beach she was walking back down the road with a couple of girl friends when there was a loud crash maybe six inches from her as a coconut came crashing down from a great height. Doubtless she would have been severely injured (or worse) if it had landed on her head…. It gave her a great fright. Apparantly these coconuts alongside the road are supposed to be pruned to avoid just such things happening but this one clearly was not. Catherine, since this episode walks firmly in the middle if the road… not so dangerous since the main mode of transport here and on most islands are golf carts either gas powered or electric.

We do however have a pet coconut which I have not been allowed to break open, named “le Mousse (?)” and we have “the killer coconut” which is still in its shell and which I shall have go at opening tomorrow so that we can start feasting on fresh coconut flesh, which we enjoy. I think that this brings you all up to date with our life here in the beautiful Abacos. Before closing we would just like to wish my brother-in law, James a very happy birthday tomorrow. Many happy returns James … you are now the oldest member of the family, for at least three months!!! G’d night all !

12th January 2009 

 It is now ten days since we last wrote anything so it’s about time we brought our readers up to date with what life has been like on board. In short quiet, peaceful, tranquil with a few days of intense activity. The weather in the main has been fine, sunny and warm, although today has been decidedly damp with this afternoon being very wet…. and just when we were coming back to the boat from an art show so we got back aboard like a pair of drowned rats! We have been for several walks along the beach and have found some nice sea glass and wonder of wonders I have now found my first heart sea bean. The vines which produce these beans are called “monkey ladders” and these vines cover the trees of the Costa Rican rain forest. They produce the longest bean pod (up to six feet) of any legume with about fifteen seeds to each pod. The sea heart is also called “Fava de Colom” or “Columbus Bean” by residents of the Azores since they believe that the floating sea hearts gave Columbus the inspiration to search for land to the west. Our friends from “L’Equipe” have now arrived for their stay on Elbow Cay, which gave us some excitement, since Jacqueline was carrying a large envelope of mail from home plus more pills for Catherine plus and most importantly the new Hard Drive for Catherine’s baby Dell. Now all we have to do is figure out how to take the old one out and replace it with the new !! I have no fear that my intrepid wife will figure it out! The 10th evening and Sunday the 11th was spent very happily reading Christmas cards and opening other mail from Montreal. Jacqueline and Heinz will be here until the end of the month. It must be a little strange for them not to have “L’Equipe” here in the harbour. “Solitaire 1” has not been neglected since we arrived here either. On the 8th we attacked the engine zincs, replacing both although only one really needed it. We also dismantled the heat exchanger and cleared all the crud from decomposing zincs out plus any small weed that had passed through the various filters. We made sure all the tubes were clean….. amazing what uses can be found for pipe cleaners and odd lengths of thin flexible wire !! We also checked the zinc in our engine driven Sea Frost refrigerator and amazingly it is still perfectly serviceable…. that has lasted almost a year which is remarkable. We cleaned the raw water filters and then came the real test, when we started the engine and checked for leaks, but all was good and the engine cooling system and zinc protection is in order. We had a very good flow of water out the back !! Sunday 11th was, I regret to say, not a day of rest for Catherine and I, since we decided to change the engine oil and filters. It’s a messy job but we are getting quite slick at it, if I do say so myself!!! It is also wonderful to have a partner in crime who doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty and oil under her finger nails…. The job gets done quite quickly. One secret…. we had been running the engine for about an hour before starting so the oil was very hot and very liquid and it siphoned out very easily….. I think that this is the first time that we have had the engine oil so hot and it certainly made all the difference. We checked the Racor fuel filter and all seemed fine, then it was start the engine and check for leaks …. none found thank goodness! Sunday 11th, however, was not all work and no play, since we had been invited to go to lunch with Steve and Karen Grant our mooring neighbours from “Sea Echo” of Halifax.. We went by dinghy down the coast a few miles ….. what a joy to have the dinghy planing at a good speed and stay completely dry and not worry about the air going out of the floor or the tubes. We planed down the coast for about half an hour and had a wonderful sea food salad with conch, lobster and fish followed up by a slice of key lime or chocolate pie, all washed down with a couple of Kalik beers or soft drinks for the ladies.

After lunch we took off again and went down to Tahiti Beach, a sand bar that was dry, as it was low tide, moored the dinghies off and waded ashore to explore.

We found many live sea biscuits, sand dollars and even a couple of small conchs, all of which were left alone after photos taken. Catherine and Karen “rescued” a few sea stars that were beached high and dry by putting them back in the water. After a nice walk to work off some of the lunch it was back into the dinghies and a fast run back to Hope Town harbour and the boats. Today, more work on “Solitaire1’. For several days the Admiral and occasionally I have been noticing an odd smell in the boat, which we finally traced to our bilge. We have no idea what it was but it smelled sulphorous and not very nice, so we filled the bilge with cleaner and detergent and then hot fresh water, sloshed it around and scrubbed as best we could, ’cos we can barely reach the bottom of the bilge.. Much messy black crud and stuff came up as we scrubbed until we finally pumped it dry and then rinsed it all out again. It is now dry and will hopefully remain sweet smelling. We have no idea what was the cause of the smell. By the way if you have a deep bilge and have difficulty in getting it dry, we have a special turkey baster which works very well at getting into the corners and sucking most of the liquid up. Note… this is a special one and not used for food preparation!! In addition to working on our bilges I also spent some time filling up our water tanks again. Five trips in the dinghy to shore with the two five gallon jerry cans did the trick. It is all fairly painless since we use the crane aft to lift the full cans out of the dinghy and then pour the contents into the appropriate filler. Ashore the marina has a new and highly efficient hose and tap system, thus we do not have to lift the cans from the dinghy. It is all done on the honour system and you mark down how much you have taken when finished. Since we have been here we have taken 85 gallons in roughly two weeks at twenty five cents per gallon. Catherine has also spent one entire afternoon in the dinghy with a bucket of fresh water with vinegar added and polished one side of our floating home, getting rid of the encrusted salt. This seems to work well, you wash a small area and then dry and polish to a nice shine. The port side is now pristine but the starboard side still needs to be done and Catherine’s arms and back suffered so much the following day after doing the port side that I understand that I am to do the starboard side. I am now being accused of writing a novel so will stop rambling on! Life on “Solitaire1” continues to be pretty good. We are thinking of going off for a couple of days soon, however there is another front coming through tomorrow so it will not be for a couple of days. That will be the start of another novel, or perhaps the official blog editor will put fingers to the keyboard next. G’d night and I hope that I haven’t bored you all too much.