12-1-02 through 12-11-02
I thought I'd have the boat in the water after a week but as most know
the amount of work always seems less before you start it. The boat
needed bottom paint since it hadn't been painted for almost two years.
Ken and I worked our butts off sanding some nasty black bottom paint
that made us look like we worked in the coalmines. We put two gallons
of bottom paint on at $130 a gallon. It's expensive since it's designed
to slowly come off over time to keep the critters from growing on your
hull. It's called ablative bottom paint. Seems like it would be cheaper
since it doesn't stay on good. We scrapped quite a few barnacles off
before we sanded. We went ahead and painted the boat above the waterline
also since it would be easier while it's out of the water. I had the
previous owner Coy come over and help us take my mast down. One of the
spreaders broke when we took it down so I spent a day making a new one.
Coy let use all his tools at his house. Kenny drank beers, chatted with
Coy, and enjoyed the view while I made the spreader. I took the spreader
to the RV to dry so we could put it on as soon as possible. Before we
left I asked Bill to bring his drill just in case. I'm glad I did. We
had to replace some other parts and check everything to get ready to put
the boat back into the water. It was all a nasty job and quite a bit of
work. I'm glad my brother was there to help. There's a lot of guys here
working on their boats with no help and it's slow going for them.
I think the owner has problems with people helping since he has guys who
need something to do. Hopefully it'll be another two years before I have
to deal with it again. Painting the deck is next but we can do that while
it's in the water. 

12-12-02
I finally got the boat in the water today. Coy and Judy came down and
helped me make sure we didn't screw anything up after we raised the mast.
He helped me tune my rigging since I wasn't sure how tight to make
everything. I had the forestay on the wrong connector. Bill took
pictures of the boat in the sling going in the water. After they put me
in he told me to go check all my thru hulls to be sure no water was
coming in. I had trouble remembering where they all were but no water
was pouring in so I was safe.

12-13-02
I went out and sailed for the first time since I bought the boat with a
guy named Steve. He's from Illinois and here to work on a boat he bought
for 32K. It's a Taiwanese boat. It's nice but needs LOTS of work. He
pulled all his tanks out the other day. A very nasty job. He's a good guy.
He's planning on working for a couple of more years and saving so he can
cruise for a while. We stayed in the bay and used my mainsail only.
I haven't gone through all my other sails yet. I used the boom vang for
the main sheet since I'd forgotten about the main sheet in storage.
Steve enjoyed getting out since he's been working the whole time.
It was a good chance for me to work the engine and start getting docking
experience. Backing up the boat is extremely difficult since it doesn't
want to turn while going backwards. I'd read that a lot of boats had that
tendency but now I was getting to live it with everyone at snug harbor
watching the fiasco. 

12-14-02
Sailed the bay with Ken and Steve using various foresails. We had
difficulty not luffing the foresails; don't know what the answer is
to it yet. Moving the sheets to inside the safety lines helped.
I need to figure out some better sail combinations. We went to the
pump out at the city marina and it was out of order. I lost power to
my tachometer and temp gauge also. Looks like a have a short somewhere.
For dinner Ken and I tried one of the ready-made meals Robert got me
at the army navy surplus. It was thai chix and didn't get hot enough
with the little heater pack. The hot chocolate was good though.

12-15-02
We took Steve to the RV to have dinner with Barb and Bill. We had lobster,
yummy. We took the engine cover off and ran the engine for heat after
we got back. It's too cold for Florida. 

12-16-02
I got up and put the dinghy together on deck. It's a little cumbersome
due to the size, 12 ft. I'm sure it was entertaining to see me wrestling
with a 12-foot folding boat on a small deck. Ken and I fought it, and
each other, while trying to get it over the side without tearing anything
up. We towed the dinghy to St. Andrew state park to anchor for the first
time. We used the smaller foresail with the mainsail combination and it
worked well. I need to add a length of downhaul piece to the foresail.
We had to motorsail to get to the anchorage before dark. We drank beers
on the hook (anchor) and had spaghetti and boiled eggs for dinner.
I need to remember to take the lat and long when I anchor. It was a
peaceful and beautiful first night for anchoring.

12-17-02
I woke up several times in the night to check on the anchor. I woke up
early and heard water lapping against the hull but it didn't seem the
boat was moving. I could hear the dinghy banging the back of the boat.
I got up and went off the check and saw the VERY shallow water under
the rudder. I thought we were aground. I ran forward and pulled on the
anchor rode. The boat moved slowly forward. I retied the anchor rode
after reducing the scope. We had just backed up to the drop from the
shallow part to the deep part, glad it was steep. My rudder was holding
us off the shallow part. Ken and I left to go have lunch with mom and
Bill at magnolia beach. We had some difficulty navigating the shallow
water and reading the nav map. We passed magnolia beach because we
couldn't see it due to the fog. We turned around and found it and headed
into the small cove to anchor. We sailed in at idle and checked the depth
to about six feet. I sent Ken up to drop the anchor and he told me he
could see the ground clearly. I then noticed two dashed lines on my
depth sounder and shoved it into reverse, not good. It took a second to
back off and I continued backing to eight and a half feet. We set the
smaller anchor and I didn't feel comfortable until we also set the larger
Bruce anchor. Ken and I tried to set the set the anchors at 120 degrees
apart but we had some difficulty. It's easier reading about it than
doing it, of course. We finally got both anchors set and I got the dinghy
up to put the engine on. I had neglected to tie the bitter end of the
dinghy rode and looked up to see my $450 dinghy floating away. I hollered
for Ken to get the boat hook and then to maybe pull up the anchors.
I realized that trying to pull up two well-set anchors would take some
work and that the dinghy would be far away by th            


         he wanted me to. I used my Cajun spice from Louisiana and cooked
shrimp, potatoes and corn on the cob for the party. The food was spicy,
tasted great and the party went well. Mom and Bill came back for the party
and mom videotaped it. There were some interesting characters there.
There's a guy with a shaved head that works at the yard and carries his
best fishing lure around in his pocket. He brought a rough blonde with a
Harley demeanor. Ken clashed with her after she told him he didn't know
what the f*** he was talking about concerning fishing. Another guy from
the yard and his girlfriend live on a sailboat that has a lot of tie-died
stuff. He's been to something like 65 grateful dead concerts. Another
guy that lives in a small sailboat and just visits from time to time
and was thankful for the free food and beer. Dean drank two big bottles
of wine with Mr. Selby and got pretty smashed. Mr. Selby is older and
reminds me of a cross between W.C Fields and Mr. Magoo. He has diabetes
and cancer, which are both in check for now. He kept teasing Dean but
she could hardly talk by then. Wes finally came and took her back to the
boat. I don't think we'll see her until the afternoon tomorrow.

12-19-02
Ken and I went out with 25 kt winds and more in the bay. I had a little
trouble figuring out the reefing system. Coy said he never had reefed
the mainsail. I have to take the slides out of the sail track to get
the sail down to the tack ring. I need to work on the boom and maybe
lift it up a little more. We went out and decided to raise the staysail
first. Even with Kenny motoring into the wind I had trouble getting the
sail attached to the club in the high winds. I need to change the system.
Wes suggested tying a downhaul piece onto it. We sailed with the foresail
only and the sail definitely seemed over powered. The bow stayed pointed
up and we drifted slowly to leeward without making much ground forward,
kind of like being hove to. We lowered the foresail and raised the mainsail.
I couldn't get the downhaul pulled tight to raise the back of the boom and
the boom kept swinging over and banging on the rooftop as we tacked.
I took the helm and had Ken go out and pull on the downhaul while I lifted
the boom from the back. We sailed back and forth and then came around a
corner where the wind was VERY strong. My boom vane shackle broke and my
boom sprang upward in the backstays. It sounded like a gunshot. It was very
loud and scared both of us. We started the engine and turned into the wind
were I looked up to see the boom caught in the backstay. It finally came
off the wires. I'm just glad the back stays weren't damages. I went forward
and rigged a shackle where the one that broke was. We sailed back and took
the sails down to go into snug harbor. There are tornado warnings tonight
and it started raining hard after we got back. We had left over red beans
and rice with chicken wings and doritos for dinner.

12-20-02
We didn't go out today. I needed a break after our excitement yesterday.
We went and had burritos with mom and Bill. It's cold tonight. We can
already see our breath. I should have brought a little heater for when
I'm plugged in at the marina. We met the guys who own the boat next to me.
They're from Georgia and they're brothers also. The owner brother is a cop
and the other one is a painter. He said he's been working on his boat since
his childhood but really for only 2.5 years. He has to womanize it more for
the wives of the family. He added a complete enclosure for the cockpit,
a water heater, and a $2200 water maker. He pulled out all his water tanks
for more storage since he's putting in the water maker. I don't know if that's
such a good idea. What if the water maker quits and they're a while out?
He told us to come over tomorrow after he gets the boat clean and look around.
I invited him to come look at my boat. Everyone that comes and looks at it
likes it a lot. Maybe it's just like someone with a new baby; even if it's
ugly you say it's cute regardless.

12-21-02
Ken and I went and looked at the boat next to me. It was build it Taiwan.
It's nice but it has less headroom than mine. Maybe because the Taiwanese
are shorter? The cop can't stand upright in his boat, he's about 6'2",
not good. It's about 37 feet with a 4.5 foot draft. He's done tons of
upgrades and I'm sure had spent tons of money with them. We decided to
go out into the Gulf of Mexico today for the first time. I need to pump
out my lav so I have to go offshore to do it. There were a bunch of sailboats
out so Ken and I went over the rules of the road for boats, port tack gives
way to starboard tack and a boat to windward gives way to a boat to leeward.
I had to call Coy and ask about the pump out since I couldn't get it to work.
There was a valve under the floor that I needed to turn. It's a thru hull that
I didn't know about, not good. After that all worked well and I emptied my tank.
We came back and went over to magnolia beach where mom and bill are. We
anchored out in about 10 feet of water. This whole area is very shallow so we
have be careful since we're still newbies. We put the motor on the dinghy and
went in. Getting the dinghy ready this time was a lot easier that last. Practice,
practice. We had pot roast, potatoes, carrots, corn and cookies and milk for
dessert. I have to come out about every 20 minutes and check on boat with my
binoculars. I had to buy a new pair since the cheapies I had weren't going to
cut it. You need to be able to read the numbers on the buoys to compare with
the map. At 8:00 I headed back to the boat and left Kenny to sleep at the RV.
It's a little scary in the dinghy at night with the waves and my heavy engine
on the back. I need to get a smaller engine or a different dinghy. The wind is
kicking up and my boat is rocking pretty good. I went and made sure everything
was secure on deck and I put some chafe protection on my anchor rode. I used a
piece of old rubber boots I cut up just for that. I'm going to try and sleep
with all the rocking and noises from the motion. I'll have to wake up regularly
and pop my head out the hatch like a prairie dog to look around and make sure
all's well.

12-22-02
I went in at 8:00 to have breakfast, fried potatoes, bacon and eggs. Ken was
still sleeping on the couch. I went back to the boat around noon and cleaned
for a couple of hours. I put a fishing line out with a small jig on it to see
if anything would bit, it didn't. I went back in and went to eat raw oysters
and drink beer with bill and ken. They were great. We got hamburger meat for
dinner, grilled burgers. The burgers were great and I ate too much. Ken and I
went back to the boat around 8:00. The wind has died completely and it's very
calm on the bay. We argued over the differences in diesel engines for a while.
We slept sound due to the calm water and warm weather.

12-23-02
I checked the bilge after getting up and there's a small amount of water in it.
I got Kenny to help me pump it out. My phone rang while we were dumping the
water and Kenny ran down to get the phone, not realizing the floor cover was
off. His foot went slamming into the bilge and his big toe nail got bent back,
it's going to hurt later. It was mom calling to ask what we were waiting for
to come in. Kenny was frustrated at her. We went in and had eggs, bacon and
pancakes. We pulled up the anchor with about 10 kt winds and sailed all the
way back to snug harbor. Ken was heeling us over too far and I was complaining.
Ken docked the boat and did a good job, or should I say he didn't hit anything.
We tied up and went and got some beer. We had left over roast beef made into
burritos for dinner.

12-24-02
It rained hard all night and was still pounding and blowing this morning.
I decided I needed to go to the library so I put on my rain gear and headed
that way on the bike. It started pounding me as soon as I left. I made it to
the library and realized it was Christmas eve and, of course, the library was
closed. I headed back and got pounded the whole way home. I'm glad its 70 degrees
today. We were reading about my pressure cooker and decided to make a chix recipe
we found in the back of the book. I rode to the store and got the food and some
red wine. I went and asked a guy named Tim if he wanted to come over and make a
plate. He's lived on a boat for 15 years and has been working his butt off sanding
his boat for the last several weeks. He came over and ate and sat around and
talked about sailing in the keys. He's a nice guy. He said his boat was well known
in the area because some locally famous guy had previously owned it. I had noticed
he was sanding several colors off and I asked him about it. He said the boat was
red when he bought it and was named "Panama Red". The name is associated with a
type of marijuana from panama. He said the Coast Guard had a tendency to stop him
due to the name of his boat. He commented on how smart that would be, to take a
boat named Panama Red and load it with pot. He changed the name and painted it
black. He's going to paint it white this time. He said black was too menacing.

12-25-02
Had to get up in the middle of the night and adjust the fender and the clanking
halyards due to strong winds. The forward fender was gone when I got up.
Fortunately it was across the way so I didn't lose it, I just had to go fish
it out.

12-26-02
Got up and cooked omelets for everyone at the RV. Bill brought us back to the
boat and we stopped at a fruit stand to get fruit for the boat. I went to the
library and did email and checked my accounts. When I got backed I tuned my
rigging and moved the gin pole and the club pole. We sat inside with the heater
we got from mom. It was the bird heater but I'm sure he'll be ok since she keeps
it about 80 degrees in the RV. It's supposed to get down into the low 30's so
I'm glad we have a heater. It's not supposed to be this cold in Florida.

12-27-02
I went and talked to Mr. Selby. He's an older gentleman with a very nice Westsail
boat similar to mine. I had heard he had a self-steering wind vane for sale.
He had an Aries wind vane he had been given by a friend of his. He has one on his
boat already so he's selling it. He wants $900 for it. I told him I was interested
so I went to the library to print off a bunch of stuff on them. Aries made several
different ones and I couldn't fine a name on the one he had. I think it's a
circumnavigator. I'll have to read all the info tonight and see if I can decide
how it would go on my boat. He had me carry it over and keep it on my boat. It's
heavy and awkward to tote around. Ken and I went and got shrimp and grouper for
dinner. It was good but I wish I had grilled the grouper instead of steaming it.
The wind was about 5 kt today so we didn't go out Maybe tomorrow.

12-28-02
I drove around with Mr. Selby today see if we could find some boats at the other
marinas with an aries wind vane. We didn't fine one. It seems all the real cruiser
are south where it's warmer. We decided to go anchor after listening to the weather.
It's supposed to be very calm tonight and tomorrow night. We were ready to leave
in about 15-20 minutes. I had Ken setting up all the sails this time since I've
been doing it when we go out. He got the mainsail up OK but hanked on the headsail
backwards. He went to clip the sail at the clew and dropped the shackle into the
water, oh well. We motor sailed to magnolia beach in light breezes and anchored
in 8 feet of water. We had beans cornbread and fried taters at the RV.
Good okie meal. I'm back to sleep on the boat and left Kenny at the RV.
I just can't seem to leave the boat all night at anchor without me on it, yet.

12-29-02
I slept in until 8:00 this morning. I got up earlier and checked the depth meter.
It was so calm I thought I might be on the ground. I was at a safe 8 feet.
I need to get comfortable anchoring in shallow water if I'm going to the Bahamas.
I just think back at all the picture in my magazines of sailboats on their side
on the ground. Wind is practically absent today. I went in and had eggs, sausage
and biscuits at the RV. Ken and I came out to the boat and I put some fuel cleaner
in the dinghy engine and drove around magnolia beach to try and get it working better.
It seemed to help. We went and had dinner at montego bay. They usually have great
raw oysters but they we out. I was disappointed. We're planning on getting up early
and sailing the gulf since the winds are expected to be 10 to 15 kts. Ken is sleeping
in the RV again tonight so I'll get to sleep undisturbed again, as long as I stay off
the bottom of the beach. Mom and bill are leaving in a couple of days and Ken is
going back with them to get more supplies and take care of his personal business.
Bill said he'd bring him back down in a week or so. We're planning on sailing to
Pensacola with wes and dean on the 10th. I'm not sure I want to go there but it
would be good experience to go with another boat and more experienced person.
I want to just head south where it's warm. I need to buy charts wherever I end up
going.

12-30-02
I got up early and drank coffee since the rocking motion woke me up, the wind
had kicked up. I went in and had french toast at the RV. We headed out at about
10:00 in winds of about 15 to 20 kts. Once we started going we headed to the gulf.
The swells were about 4 to 5 feet. I was showing Ken how to pump out the lav when
he said he was hot and not feeling too well. He's been seasick before so he knew
what he was feeling. He was OK once he got back out in the fresh air. We decided
to practice how to hove to. It's a tactic that you use when the weather is rough
and you need to rest. You set up the sails and the rudder so that the boat just
stops in the water and it calms things down. We dropped the foresail and set the
main and tied the rudder over. I checked the GPS and it said we weren't moving.
We tried several variation of sail and rudder angle to see what worked best.
We headed back in and Ken got close to the jetty on our lee side. I started the
engine and got up away. We lost our attachment on the middle of our sheets so I
had to rig it so we could use our foresail the rest of the way in. We sailed to
the city marina and then headed into the wind to snug harbor. We took down the
sails and motored the rest of the way since we were going straight into the wind.
We got in and put all the sails and lines up and went to get beers. We sat outside
and drank beers while enjoying the calm water and good weather. We had tuna
casserole for dinner and crashed early.

12-31-02
It started raining pretty good this morning. We heard there was a tornado not far
from where mom and bill are staying. It poured for most of the day. Mom, bill and
Kenny are leaving tomorrow so bill came and picked us up to have dinner. We had
enchilada casserole with guacamole. I've kind of got use to mom and bill being
there; I'm going to miss them. Bill brought me back to the boat at 9:00.
I keep hearing fireworks going off and almost forgot it was a new year.
It's going to be weird now since everyone is gone. I'm planning on going out
when the winds are light and practicing some more by myself. I'm going to ask
wes if he want to go out with me this week. When I first got the idea to go I
thought I might be sailing by myself but after seeing how involved it is I'm
glad Kenny's going with me. I don't know how long it would be before I felt
comfortable going south on my own. 

1-1-03
First day of a new year. It's going to be a very good year full of adventure
and new experiences. I did piddley work on the boat all day. I've got the
jack lines ready for when I go out by myself. I went for a bike ride and bought
munchies. I sat around and read while listening to the football games.
It's quiet without Kenny around.

1-2-03
Went to the library and forgot to bring my log disk. They were giving an
internet class and I had to wander around and wait for a computer.
I emailed a company for a quote about a solar panel. I also checked on an
autopilot, they're about $500. I came back and worked on my tach and temp
gauges. While I was checking them I noticed my alternator belt was loose
so I decided to tighten it. I spent the rest of the day attempting to loosen
the ONE screw that adjusts the belt. I couldn't get to the adjustment screw
and it was partly stripped. I noticed the belt was slightly worn so I just
cut it. I still couldn't get the screw so I took several things off.
I still couldn't get to the screw without a pair of needle nose vise grips.
I'll have to wait until tomorrow and go get some tools and another belt.
I went and talked with Wes about putting a topping lift on. He gave me a
block to do it with so I gave him some nylon rope I had for a jack line.
I need to have someone send me up the mast to hook it in. 

1-3-03
I left for the library early today. I got my log out and checked my accounts.
I headed to the mall several miles away to get the necessary tools.
I stopped at the auto parts store for a belt and they also had a pair of
needle nose vise grips for sale. I went back to the boat and got the stuck
screw off and had to go buy a new one. I got the belt on and the alternator
adjusted but the tach and temp gauges still didn't work. I pulled and cleaned
all connections                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ked prices on autopilots also. Looks like I'll end up spending about $700. I pulled all my sails out and lubricated my hanks. I raised all of them and noted what type of connections they need. The guy from Cambrinus also suggested I get a spare halyard and since I was going to have a extra spot on the block after I put up the topping lift that will work. I talked with Jim who doesn't live on his boat but is here most of the time. He wears a neck brace and walks with a cane. He sat around with me and gave me sailing advice. His best advice was not to listen to most the advice you're given. I invited him on board to look at the boat. He told me that my boat would last me a lifetime. He gave me a dorade scoop since I kicked mine over the side. His wife came down and looked at the boat also. She wanted to see how my stove worked since they're changing theirs. I ran my water tanks empty tonight. It's good to run several tanks through to clean them out. We'll have to be much more conservative when we get to the Bahamas. 

1-5-03
I went and chit chatted with Mr. Selby this morning. I went to the store for
fruit and ended up getting taco stuff. I made a bunch so I made a couple for
Mr. Selby but he wasn't there. I took them over to Jim and his wife. They
invited me to look at their boat. It's an Erwin, I think it's about 30 feet.
It's a well-built boat. It looks bigger on the outside than on the inside or
maybe it's just crowded with lots of stuff like a full grown 10 year old
Labrador on the settee. Black hair everywhere. Reminds me of living with my
brother. Jim is an ex Harley guy. I can see a very large tattoo with a pair
of wings barely exposed on his chest. He was injured in a motorcycle wreck
I believe. He told me the story of how he went in on the boat with a couple
of other guys who ended up in prison for murder and so they're son and his
wife became the partners but one of the relatives tore the boat up and ...
I ended up getting lost. Somehow he ended up getting the boat given to him and
became the sole owner.  While we were visiting in his cockpit Mr. Selby decided
to go somewhere. I had not seen his boat move since I've been here.  Jim said
he's only gone out twice that he's ever known. Jim and his wife got nervous
when they saw the big heavy Westsail backing towards their boat. Mr. Selby
wouldn't turn his tiller and his boat went in a straight line backwards.
He did the forward backward thing a couple of times and ended up with his
bow pointing the wrong way due to the wind pushing him. I know how he feels.
He ended up going backwards out of the harbor all the way to the little bay.
Jim told me to be careful about getting too friendly with Mr. Selby due to
his illness. He said he may end up wanting to go with us to the Caribbean
and that we wouldn't want to be stuck with him. I thought they were better
friends than that.   

1-6-03
I left on the bike early to go get parts to work on the rigging, radio and
woodwork. After riding all the way to west marine they didn't have what I needed.
I continued to explore Panama City by bike. I stopped at all the stores and
looked around. I got an adapter for my SSB radio so I'll mess with that tonight.
I rode until my legs hurt and stopped by the library to email. When I got back
Dale and his son were on his boat next to me. He's down for a week to work on
his boat. He has that serious cop demeanor. I brought his boy over to look at
my boat. He told me when he gets older he's going to get a good basic boat like
mine. I asked him why he wasn't in in school and he said he's home schooled.
I had leftover taco salad when I got home and then ate the other half of my
leftover sub, piggy. My halyards were clanking last night so I messed with them
twice tonight. I still haven't found the perfect place to hook them.

1-7-03
I went to the library and ordered a autopilot for the boat. It was $800.
I figured if I get that I'll pass on Mr. Selbys' Aries wind vane. I need a new
deep cycle battery and parts and I'll be done with my so-called major purchases.
I talked with Wes again about going to Pensacola. He said that if Kenny wasn't
back Mr. Selby would go with me. I called the coast guard about my paperwork
and they said it was in the mail. It's only been almost five months. Dale sent
me up my mast in my bosons chair. I needed to put the topping lift block on.
It's quite an experience hanging off the top of a mast in a little chair with
some guy controlling your line, and life, below you. I twisted my ankle again
and it looks like someone put a golf ball in my sock. I have to quit doing that.
I broke down and ate some of the potted meat Kenny brought. I had it with
cheese and crackers and was surprised that it was pretty good.

1-8-03
I went with Mr. Selby to get parts for my radio and diesel in my jerry can.
We had a big sub for lunch at a New York deli style place. I invited him to
go to Pensacola with us. I think he wants to go. He's 70 and told me a story
of getting a girl pregnant and he has a 10-year-old son. He said he doesn't
get to see him. I'm sure I'll hear more of the story later. I took my batteries
and battery box out to modify. It took me 30 minutes to tear one side of the
box off. I don't know what Coy used but it was bullet proof. I read on what
all I needed for my new battery bank so I'll get some prices tomorrow.
Dales son said he was going to come over and play a game of chess with me.
I think I'll try to teach him how to play farkle instead.

1-9-03
Bill and Kenny came down.

1-10-03
Wes decided to go tomorrow. Wes and Dean have a new crewmember.
He's very quiet and just sits there while everyone else chats.

1-11-03
We had to get up at 5:30 a.m. this morning to pull out. We got up early
so there would be enough tide for Wes to get out of snug. A cold front
blew through and it's quite chilly. It's forecasted to last the whole trip,
cold and blustery. Bill was planning on hanging around for a couple of hours 
and going to get lobster and shrimp to take home to Oklahoma. We got the
boat ready, said goodbye to Bill and were on our way to Pensacola.
This is our first real trip in the boat so it's exciting. We went out
St. Andrews bay under a large bridge and motor sailed across another
large bay. We entered what Wes called the ditch.  It's the
Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) from West bay to the Choctawatchee bay.
It's a combination of natural waterway and dug out sections. We tried to
use the sail while motoring but the winds are fluky in the canal so we
ended up taking it down. We kept adding layers of clothes since it was freezing.
I noticed my engine temperature gauge wasn't working so I went below and
pulled all the covers off and found a plug that had came off. After I plugged
it back I noticed a very high temp reading and we reduced power to see if it
came down. The gauge was fluctuating and the engine sounded and felt fine so
we concluded it was something else. I spoke with Wes on the VHF about it and
he agreed that it was probably a bad connection or gauge. It still made me nervous.
It's like having your check engine light on while your driving even though
nothing is wrong you just keep looking at it and waiting for your engine to
cough to a stop. The trip through the ditch was about three hours with minimal
scenery. We came into the Choctawatchee bay and headed to a anchorage with
shelter from the 15 knot north wind. Wes anchored a little farther out that
I thought we were going to and we were rocking pretty good, oh well.
We got on the radio and made plans to head over for beers. We put together
the portaboat on deck with a little struggle and got it in the water.
We rowed over for beers and dinner. We got Wes all riled up by talking about
Michael Savage and his politics. Wes doesn't like him. Wes and Dean have a
little heater that uses charcoal. It's nice and cozy in their cabin.
We had steak and salad around the big table so Dean told me I could feed
them tomorrow night. When we got back to the boat it wasn't that cold yet.
I had to get up in the middle of the night and tame a clanking halyard.
I put bungee cords on all of them before we went to bed but the wind blew
hard all night and rope wouldn't stop beating against my mast. I gave it
it's own bungee cord and it stopped. Kenny snored the whole time and didn't
even know I went out. Wes suggested we leave around 8 so we set the alarm.

1-12-03
Kenny and I were up at 7:00 to be ready to leave at 8:00. We got everything
prepared but couldn't see Wes and his team doing anything. At 8:00 I stood
out and waved to show we were ready. Wes called me on the radio at 8:30
and said they'd be ready in 20 minutes. Wish I'd known, we would have slept
longer. We had a little trouble getting the anchor up so I went up front
and worked it while Kenny drove. It's hard work pulling up a large heavy
anchor with chain and mud on it, plus it's very cold. We headed out under
another bridge with the wind howling from the North. I went up front and
put up the sails and left the motor on for a while but there was plenty of
wind to turn it off. I put up my two foresails and we heeled over and tooled
right along at 6 to 7 kts. We only have about 25 miles to go today before
we anchor again. We don't have a map of the bay because Wes told me he had
two sets and would let me use one, he didn't have two so we just followed him.
After we caught up to Wes we went under another bridge and stayed side by
side most of the way. I was proud of Mañana to keep up. We followed Wes into
a bayou that was well protected from the North wind. It started raining lightly.
We anchored in a calm area and rowed the dinghy to shore where we met Wes and Tim.
We walked to the store for stuff for dinner. Wes told me to just bring
everything over and cook on his boat. That was fine with me so I wouldn't
have to do dishes. We rowed over with the pressure cooker and spices.
We sat in Wes's cockpit and drank wine and talked boat talk. I told Wes
that we really weren't interested in going all the way to Pensacola.
The next day was a motor sail planned through a area called the narrows 40 miles
long the Pensacola bay. This wasn't sailing as I had envisioned it. I saw myself
on the ocean with wide-open spaces surrounded by blue water, not brown channels.
I also wanted to get back to put my solar panel on and get my coast guard
paperwork my mom had sent me. Wes was concerned about us navigating out the
Destin pass since it was tricky and shallow. We sat down and I made my own
little nav map with all the buoys listed and shoal areas. The bridge out was
only 50 ft. so Wes couldn't make it under if he wanted to. He kept teasing us
saying better sailors than him would not attempt the pass out to the gulf.
He also told up we wouldn't make it to St.Andrew bay until midnight. The trip
home to the bay entrance would be over 40 miles along the coast in the gulf
with predicted winds from the north-to-north east. 

1-12-03
I kept thinking about the trip back all night and couldn't get to sleep.
I woke up at 4:30 and couldn't go back to sleep so I got up and worked on
planning the trip back. We pulled up the anchor at daybreak and headed out
towards the Destin Bridge. We followed the bearings Wes had given up from
buoy to buoy. We weaved our way around the buoys while watching the depth meter.
We successfully made it under the bridge and had the gulf in sight.
We're surrounded by white ashtray sand with hotels but not a soul anywhere.
It's cold. We followed the buoys out and noticed only six feet of water just
before you hit the gulf. Kenny got nervous but we kept six feet the rest of
the way out. That would have made Wes very nervous since his draft is almost
six feet. We made it to the last buoy and headed east. We called Wes on the
VHF to let them know we were in the gulf and headed home. I entered the
lat and long for the waypoint for the St.Andrew buoy and got a bearing on
what we needed to steer. We turned to 112 degrees. We had the wind at
10-15 knots from the NW instead of the NE, which was good. We were on a
broad reach with all the canvas up. We heeled over and were showing
6 to 6.5 kts on the GPS. We were really sailing now. The north wind was cold
but bearable since we were headed to a warm night. Kenny made us some
hot coffee and I sat in the cockpit and read my sailing boat trader book
I'd bought. It took very little to steer the boat. If you have a good boat
it's easy to balance it with the sails. It will practically steer itself.
We took turns at the helm with the other going below to warm up out of the cold.
I made some hot oatmeal with peaches for breakfast. I kept taking bearings
and tweaking the sails to get as much speed as we could muster. We were making
good time and clicking off the miles. We turned up the radio, drank more coffee,
and checked out the coast with the binoculars along the way. Mañana was getting
us home in great time. I felt good about my boat. We had to keep messing with
the foresail but I'm going to fix that when I get back. I started warming up
the engine about two miles from the St.Andrew buoy, it was 4:30. Wes had
misjudged what our speed would be. We motor sailed in and headed to snug just
as it was getting dark. We noticed a bright light towards us as we made our way.
I went up to take the foresail down and it was a huge barge coming toward us.
Kenny gave him plenty of room and passed him. It's nerve-wracking navigating
at night. We made it to snug, tied up, plugged in the heater, took showers,
ate pasta, and slept very very good. 


1-13-02
We slept in and enjoyed the warmth of the little heater. After we got up
Mr. Selby offered his car for us to go eat breakfast. We ended up with
big cheeseburgers for breakfast. I have to work on putting in new batteries
and modify the box holding them, I have to build a wood support to keep my
boom off my solar panel. I have to install, wire, and set up my solar panel
on my hard top, install a regulator, and put hawse pipes in my v-berth,
lots of drilling and expoxy. 

1-14-03
Mr. Selby took me to the library and we met Lamar for coffee, well, we had
coffee he had beer. Bill called after noon and said he was on his way back
to FL with tools to help us with the remaining projects on the boat.
We met a couple that came in same night we did. He's a optometrist and
she was his receptionist. His nickname is Lizard. His boat is named Lagarta,
it means Lizard in Spanish. He got his nickname because when he first started
sailing with his buddy he didn't know what to do so his buddy told him to
just go up front and kick back. So he was always laying at the front of the boat
in the sun and they told him he looked like a Lizard. He has a baby face and
looks about 17. She's very sweet and reminds me of a friend and another very
sweet person Connie Cosey. They've been planning on going the Caribbean for
almost two years. He quit his job that long ago and I guess they've just been
doing stuff on the boat to get it ready. He's done everything he can to it.
It's about 32 feet and the deck is covered with cans and a large dinghy.
He has all the electronics of a new boat with all kinds of fancy meters and
gizmos. More stuff to break as they say. He has two of everything. I worked
on my boat again today.

1-15-03
Bill got in at 6:20 a.m. There was a wreck in Shreveport and he sat for a
couple of hours in the traffic. We tried to let him sleep in but it's hard
on a boat. There's not much space to get away from the sleeping party.
My solar panel and autopilot came in at the office. They forgot to ship part
of my solar panel so now I'll have to wait for the rest. We all began
working on the boat projects. Holes for the hawse pipes first.

1-16-03 to 1-22-03
Kenny, Bill, and I worked on the boat this whole period. We had heated
arguments about how to modify the battery box, where to drill the hawse
pipe holes, and who was the last one with the orange screwdriver and pencil.
One thing about a boat that I had read is that the projects are always ongoing.
There's always something that needs to be painted, filled, sanded, finished,
modified, installed, checked, changed and bought for the boat. I had
previously read this statement and now fully understand it. I lost count
of the number of trips to the hardware store, boat store, and electrical store.
Bill brought all the tools we needed along with his experience and ingenuity.
It was a week of three guys working hard and getting a lot done. It was also
like three guys camping on the water. 
 
1-23-03
Bill got up early and headed home after checking his lottery ticket numbers.
The arctic cold front blew in last night and it's cold. I got sick yesterday
from a stomach virus or something I ate and wasn't much good for the last
half of the day. I spent today recovering and taking it easy. We had planned
on possibly leaving for the keys on Sat. but the overnight low is going to
be 22 and we weren't in a hurry to anchor with no heat in this. Kenny got
sick tonight, looks like the same thing I had. It's supposed to be warmer by
Monday so I think we're going to now leave Monday morning. We'll see. It all
depends on the weather. Lizard and Judy are planning on leaving Monday also.
I think we're going to go together.

1-24-03
I went with Lizard and Mr. Selby today to get supplies and fuel for the trip.
Kenny laid around and recovered from his bout with the stomach virus.
I worked on running my wires for the autopilot and solar panel tonight.

1-25-03
Kenny and I worked on the boat again today. I got the oil changed, installed
a new impeller, and finished wiring my solar panel. We pumped the bilge and
cleaned it and Kenny cleaned the bathroom finally. We studied navigation tonight.
We're going to be ready to head south by Monday.

1-26-03 to 1-27-03
We've been finishing small jobs and watching the weather with Lizard to
determine when to leave. He's got a ham radio license and with a modem for
it he gets weather on his laptop. A cold front blew through and the seas in
the gulf were 6-12 feet. I don't think so. Looks like they're going to calm
down and we can go the ICW to Appalachicola the first day and then out from
there.

1-28-03
We got up early as we redid to leave snug. We had to go to appalachia via the
ICW and had to get there before dark since we were unfamiliar with the area.
I went and knocked on Lizards boat at 6 a.m. They got up and got around and
we were leaving just before 7. We pulled out and waited on Lizard. He was going
forward and backwards trying to get out of the slip area he pulled into the
night before. He moved out of his slip so he'd have deeper water but obviously
it wasn't helping much. After about ten or fifteen minutes he got to the middle
of the little channel and started following us out. He stopped just short of
the end of the channel and wasn't going any further. He was on the bottom again.
He tried to go left and right and couldn't get out. By then we had the snug
family all watching and not offering much helpful advice. We decided to throw
them a line and see if we could pull them through since the bottom was just
mud and muck. We got tied off and pulled them easily through the pass and were
finally on our way to Appalachiacola. Just the fact that we were on our way
was a shining moment. Mr. Selby was taking pictures. We headed west and the
strong north wind chill was numbing my nose and cheeks despite my several layers
with full foul weather gear. We worked our way into the waterway where we had
some shelter from the north wind. The scenery began to improve along with the
temperature. We motor sailed happily along while enjoying the foliage, boats,
and houses along the way. After about five hours in the waterway we hit
Lake Wimico, the lake from hell. Earlier I had shown Kenny the lake on the map
and we commented on how shallow the whole lake was. It was no deeper than eight
or nine feet anywhere. We had to cross the lake to get the last part of the
waterway. We were making good time and would be to the anchorage with plenty
of daylight. The buoys in the lake were extremely far apart and we motored
along trying to line them up. As we were motoring I noticed a reading on the
depth meter of 5.6 feet as it bounced up and down. We decided to call Lizard
on the radio since his draft was 5.6 feet of water. As we were talking about
the scenery we had just passed, and his depth, he said they were good with
7 feet and then he said "wait a minute, we've stopped". They had gone aground
just off center of the channel. The depths on the lake were shallow but he was
very close to the channel so we couldn't tell why he went aground. The wind
was howling from the north and that was pushing both of us towards shallower
water, not good. We turned around to try and help and there was very shallow
water all around us. We were going to try and throw him a line and pull him to
deeper water in the middle of the channel. We got close and threw him the line
but we were being pulled fast to shallow water and due to our speed Kenny
couldn't get the line tied off. We realized we were now not moving. We had
also gone aground. Kenny was running up and down the deck saying "oh god"
and trying to figure out what to do. This was our first good grounding.
Kenny bounced on the bow as I cranked over the tiller and got on the power.
We slowly moved off and into deeper water. As we tried to stay close Lizard
in the middle of the channel we went aground again. I kept seeing two dashed
lines on the depth meter. Lizard tried to put up his sails to heel over and
sail off but the north wind just pushed him further onto shallow ground.
He was very grounded now and I could see most of his bottom. We were in the
middle of the channel sideways and not moving again. The middle of the channel
is supposed to be deep. We were obviously there at a bad time, low tide and a
strong north wind blowing the water out of the channel. We got off again and
headed back the way we came. We saw a boat coming. One of the few we had seen
all day. Kenny steered as I got on the radio to hail them for help.
"Vessel entering Lake Wimico, this is saling vessel Mañana". A very strong
southern accent came over the radio and answered the call. It was a large
fishing boat from Alabama. I told him the sailing vessel ahead was aground
and was there a chance for assistance. He said he drew five feet and wasn't
sure if he could get the him but he'd try. Just then we stopped moving again.
I told him we just went aground again and and we'd be attempting to get
ourselves off without assistance. Kenny was ranting and raving about staying
in the middle of the channel and how could he have gone aground again.
With Kenny bouncing on the bow we cranked the tiller over again and powered
off towards Lizards grounded boat. We watched as the big fishing boat from
Alabama pulled up behind Lagarta. It looked like the fishing boat was stuck
also but we couldn't tell from our angle. We saw the fishing boat backing off
and Lizard slowly moving also. The big boat was pulling him off backwards
toward deeper water. It took quite a bit to get Lizards 9-ton boat off the
sand bar but they finally got him back. We watched him line up with the middle
of the channel and we both putted along being very careful to stay deep.
We were behind schedule now and would have to find anchorage in the dark in
a strange place. Another learning experience. We studied the charts and the
lights and the number of seconds in between flashes. Kenny led the way as
I sat up front with the spot light and found the red number 2 day marker.
We began to motor in circles checking the depths and strong current for
anchoring. We found what looked like a good spot and dropped the anchor.
After a long day of being stuck and trying to help Lizard it was good to
be anchored. We crashed early.

1-29-03
I woke up early and all the sudden couldn't remember getting the transom
for our dinghy. I woke Kenny up and asked him if he got it since he had
gotten the seats. He said he didn't. It looked like we had left without
a vital part of my dinghy. I contemplated my options as I sat and watched
the sun come up at Appalachicola. It was beautiful. There was a little
town with fishing boats along the river. I figured I could have Corliss
at snug harbor send my part to me somewhere along the way but that would
mean not having a dinghy until them. I radioed Lizard and told him the
dilemma. He suggested we call Mr. Selby and try to bribe him to bring it
to me. It was about an hour and a half away from Panama City. Lizard had
talked to Rick earlier from snug and he said that if Mr. Selby didn't want
to bring it that he would. I waited a while and them called Mr. Selby.
There was no answer. I called Rick next and he told me they were about
fifteen minutes away with my transom. Mr. Selby was with him and they went
ahead and decided to bring it. So far the people we've met and other sailors
have been some of the nicest, most helpful I've come to know. I had read
that but now I was living it. We took Lizards dinghy in and met them for
lunch, my treat of course. I tried to give Rick some gas money but he
wouldn't take it. Lunch was great and we wondered around and explored the
town afterwards. Tragedy averted. We planned to head out the next day for
our gulf crossing and first all nighter.

1-29-03 to 1-30-03
We didn't have to get up early so we slept in and slowly go around to
leaving before noon. We pulled up the anchor and headed towards government
cut, the pass out to the gulf. It took a bit to get there and the current
coming in was fierce. We were following Lizard when we saw him list sideways.
Kenny said, "Oh no, is he aground". Lagarta was aground once again in the
middle of the cut. We could see the waves breaking on the shallow sand bar
besides him. He tried to motor off to no avail. A large fishing trawler
was passing by and I heard Lizard ask them if they could pull him off.
They said they were concerned about the shallow water but they could call
a vessel assist company. Just then another little boat came by and went
to help Lizard. Lizard gave them one of his halyards and they pulled his
mast down sideways and as he heeled over he gave it powered. He was
practically sideways as he spun off the sand to deeper water. He thanked
the fishing boat and headed out of the channel. As Kenny and I watched him
behind us he went sideways yet again and was aground again. We sighed and
heard him call the fishing boat back for help. Just them he powered up and
came free of the bar on his own. We headed out the little cut with the
current so strong against us that I didn't thing I was moving. I kept
giving it more power and we were barely crawling out the cut. As we finally
broke free into the gulf it was like a large leap forward. We were really
headed south now in the big water. We kept teasing Lizard about his many
groundings and how being in the gulf was a relief for everyone involved.
We got Lizards bearing and took our own then put up the sails. The seas were
around five feet and we were bouncing pretty good. It reminds me of a ride
at the fair. After several hours Kenny started feeling the effects of the
movement and started to turn a little green. I got some seasickness patches
from the med kit and gave him one. It didn't help him as he lost his breakfast.
I noticed my batteries weren't charging and started testing the alternator
with the meter. It wasn't putting out any volts so I had another situation.
Without battery power we couldn't run the autopilot and all our lights at night.
I started feeling queasy also after having my head in the hot engine for
30 minutes sniffing diesel fuel. I went and got a patch for myself. The
directions say to put it on the day before leaving so of course it wasn't
working to well for either of us. Kenny kept losing the little bit of liquid
he was consuming over the side and I was ok as long as I didn't have my head
in the engine. I kept trying to get Kenny to sip more fluids as he kept losing
them. As we got to night we decided to burn only one small light and get in
behind Lizard and follow him throughout the night. I took the first watch
until midnight while Kenny fell asleep in the middle berth. I woke him up at
midnight and he felt better. I set the alarm for 3 a.m. and fell fast asleep.
I was up drinking coffee at 3 as Kenny attempted to set the alarm for 6 a.m.
The time went by fairly fast as we followed Lizards large white light on top
his mast. It was still cold so I laid as low as I could while steering with a
rope tied to the tiller. I started seeing daylight and began to wonder what
time it was. I finally went below to check and it was 6:50. Kenny had screwed
up the time and didn't get the alarm set. I was slightly frustrated and woke
him up and went to sleep. I slept for a couple of hours and got up to a sunny,
much warmer day. We ran the autopilot since the solar panel gave us electricity.
We followed Lizard and decided to go to Tarpon Springs to get the alternator
checked out. We headed to anchor off Anclote Key. My depth sounder started
flashing off and on all the sudden, a bad time. We were in shallow water now
headed to anchor. Kenny steered as I went below, pulled the panel off and
checked the depth sounder wires. I found a loose connection and tried to rig
it to hold for another 15 minutes. After I put the transmission in neutral
and tried to go forward I noticed that it seemed like we weren't moving.
I kept trying but I had no forward power so I went in reverse to anchor with
the depth meter reading 9 feet and then going completely off again. We finally
got anchored late that afternoon and decided to crash early. I had an alternator,
transmission, and depth sounder to deal with tomorrow. The anchorage was a
little rough but we slept hard.

1-31-03
We got up early to pull the alternator and then put the dinghy together on
the deck. I went over to Lizards boat and we headed in together. It was a good
20 minutes in the dinghy to get in. We stopped at the first big marina and
began asking around about my alternator. I got the name of a guy in town named
Michael Brock. I called him and he said he was just going to get a burger and
he would come by and get the alternator. I told him I'd buy him a burger if
he came to the restaurant at the marina so he said ok. We loaded his
cheeseburger and my alternator in his truck and headed to his shop. He did
a little work on it and told me it didn't need to be rebuilt but needed some 
brush work. He fixed it in no time and his son brought me back to the marina
so I gave him a ten. I went back and put it on the boat and it was charging
in no time. I was relieved and it was only a twenty-dollar hit. One project
down. Jim had taken Judy into town to shop and look around. He came back to
the boat and came over to talk to us. After about ten minutes I looked out
the hatch and was amazed to see nothing but a super thick fog. I couldn't
even see Lizards boat. He freaked out and said he had to go get Judy.
We were worried because you couldn't see 20 feet in front of you. We kept
the radio on and listened as call after call came in to the coast guard of
people grounded and stranded not knowing where they were. One older guy had
just bought a big chris craft twin engine and was on the ground with his wife
and cousin and said he thought he'd broken both props and that his engine was
overheating. He sounded pretty desperate. It got later and later and we didn't
hear from Lizard. We were getting worried. We finally heard a call on the radio
from the coast guard to Mañana. I answered and the coast guard told me that
Lagarta was in safe water and requested we meet them at the sponge docks the
next morning. We weren't sure what had happened. If they needed us to meet
them then something happened. The thick fog stayed all night as the cold front
blew through.

2-1-03
I headed to the sponge docks the next morning and saw Lizard and Judy standing
and waiting for me. Lizard told me the story. He had found one of the red buoys
in the fog and was ready to follow it in when a big vessel assist boat came
speeding by and threw a wake that slung his dinghy up and slammed it down.
He heard a loud crack and his outboard starting bucking around. He couldn't
control it so he shut it down and started rowing in the direction he thought
was correct. He finally hit shallow water and dragged his heavy dinghy a
couple of hundred yard over mud. He said his feet sank every step and his feet
would come out of his boots. He acquired several blisters through his thick
gloves pulling the dinghy. He finally made landfall at some mangroves and
looked for any lights. He followed the beach and found a house. He also
realized that in getting everything ready he had forgotten his wallet.
He went up and told the guy his story so the guy took him into town to meet
Judy and gave him a ten. They went to try and get a hotel to call his sister
and use her credit card but none of the hotels would give them any help.
They found another guy that let them use his phone to call the coast guard
and he ended up letting them sleep in his office for the night. They slept
on rolls of paper towels on the office floor. They got up and walked to a
restaurant and ate breakfast with the ten before walking to the sponge docks
to meet me. The little bay was rough so we took a wet Judy back to boat and
then went to find his dinghy. It was quite a ways away in a mangrove surrounded
by shallow water. We went as far in as I could and then we pushed the boat
the rest of the way with the paddles. We tied his dinghy to mine and slowly
motored in to the marina. We got to the marina and on a Saturday there was
no mechanics to work on it. The guys there were shady looking and they wanted
us to leave it so they could fix it Monday. We decided against it. Lizard went
and tried to mess with it and got it running good enough to idle back to his boat.
I got Kenny a cheeseburger and followed Lizard back. I got some transmission
fluid him and added it to mine. We warmed the engine and tried it out.
Kenny was on the bow as I motored forward and he said we were moving forward.
Since I couldn't really tell I took his word for it. We talked about the
weather with Lizard and decided to leave at midnight so we could make tampa
by morning to be able to see the ship traffic. We set the alarm for 11 p.m.
and crashed. We all got up at 11 and prepared everything to go. Lizard pulled
up his anchor and we did the same only we weren't moving after we did.
I couldn't move forward but I still had good reverse. We threw the anchor out
again, pulled the engine cover off, and tried to manually shift the tranny
to get it to work. It wouldn't. I had something definitely wrong with my
transmission. Lizard anchored and we all went back to bed. I was felling a
little low about this time.

2-2-03
I got up and started messing with my transmission again in the hopes that it
wasn't as bad as it seemed. I tried to go through all the scenarios of what
I'd have to do to get it fixed. Maybe I'd have to pay for a haul out or a
mechanic to come to the boat. I called everyone that might have an answer
to the problem. I called Coy the previous owner and the Perkins guy in
Panama City. He said it was most likely the transmission itself and it
would have to be pulled and repaired. Not what I wanted to hear.
Lizard suggested we try and move the boats to a small anchorage close
to the marinas. We discussed all and decided to have Lizard pull me into
the marina while we also used the dinghy to push and position Mañana.
It was Sunday and there were a thousand boats flying through the narrow
channel he had to tow me through. We finally made it and anchored without
too much trouble. We had to put a bow and stern anchor out to keep the boat
from swinging around in the strong current. It felt good just to be in a
safer spot. Since Lizard had to get his outboard fixed we took it to the
first marina so he could get a taxi to the place everyone told him to go.
The marina guys all had their own ideas of gouging us both. One of the
marina guys called someone who said he had a tranny like mine for $550.
I called a guy named John that the alternator guy suggested to me.
John came down and met us to talk with us. When he heard the tranny would
only be $550 he told me that I wouldn't be able to beat it. I called the
Perkins guy and he said the same thing so I made plans to go to an ATM.
John took Lizard to the outboard shop and I went back to the boat to attempt
to remove the old tranny. I had real doubts about being able to do the work
ourselves but John said it wasn't that bad. I looked over the engine and
tranny and wondered where to start unbolting things. I went and looked
at Lizards diagrams of his engine and called my Perkins guy to ask.
Ken and I dug in. We unscrewed and unbolted and unscrewed some more.
I hung upsides down and worked from the outside and Kenny worked from the
inside. We finally got the old tranny off and I was off to get the replacement.
I paid the cash and we dug in again. We fought with it and finally, just before
dark got all put back together. Lizard showed up with his outboard and was
elated to find out his hit was only $100 to fix it. He was surprised and
impressed that we were done. We had both fixed our problems in one day,
amazing. I didn't want to test it that night and spoil my feeling of
accomplishment in case it didn't work. We celebrated the day's work with beers.

2-3-03
I got up and warmed the engine up and started getting ready to pull up the
anchors and test the new tranny. Lizard was zooming around in his dinghy
with his newly repaired outboard and was going to follow me in case things
didn't go as planned. We pulled forward, brought up the anchor and motored
into the waterway. The engine felt strong and I was doing 5 knots with no
problem. We motored along and tested different RPM settings and all worked
flawlessly. It seemed like I had more power than previously. The gearing ratio
was slightly different than the old tranny and it gave me more power.
We turned around and set our anchors again. Things were looking up.
We were ready to go south once again. We started checking the weather for
a good window. We were both ready to leave Tarpon Springs behind.

2-4-03
I woke up this morning and looked out my hatch to see a 40-foot sailboat
almost on top of me. It belonged to an older couple who had been there a
week or so and was leaving for Mexico in another week. His stern anchor
had dragged in the night and he had swung around and would have been banging
against me any time. I fended his big boat off with my boat hook and banged
on his hull to try and wake him up. He finally stuck his head out with his
hair sticking up and sleepy eyed. I told him I thought his stern anchor had
dragged and he agreed. He got out his dinghy and took his stern back again
and pulled his boat around away from me. This are the kind of people you
read about who bang into you in the middle of the night because they haven't
confirmed that their anchors are set correctly. I was in the cabin today
while Kenny was cleaning something in the cockpit when I heard a loud thump.
I ran out to see only a leg and a arm as he hung over the side of the boat.
I wish I had had a picture. I had to help him get up. He said the knot on
canvas bucket came off and the bucket fell into the water and he went after
it barely hanging onto the boat. He hurt his arm and hit his face on the side
of the hull but he saved the bucket. Lizard took his sail in to get some
sewing done on it. We have a weather window for midnight. We went to sleep
at 7 p.m. and got up at 11 p.m. We followed all the flashing buoys through
the pass successfully but couldn't see the very last one. It's important
because it's the narrow exit to the gulf. The light was burned out so
Lizard got in front of us and used his radar to lead us out. I'm not sure
what we would have done otherwise. Something to definitely think about.

2-5-03
We motor sailed all night and into the day. We were planning on going to
Longboat Key. When we were almost there Lizard heard the coast guard
letting everyone know that the bridge wasn't working and couldn't open
to let us in. We immediately began looking for an alternative route and
decided on Venice another three or four hours away. We were making time
on Lizard and had to keep slowing down with our new tranny. We joked about
making a hot rod out of Mañana. We made it to the Venice entrance and heard
a clack clack from the engine. Kenny and I just gave each other that look.
I shut it down and pulled the cover. We had broken the fairly new alternator
belt. We called Lizard and told him. He asked if my engine was getting hot
and it was. He let me know I needed the alternator belt to run to water pump.
I immediately shut the engine down. We were drifting towards the shore so we
put up the foresail and pointed Mañana out to sea to get some sea room.
I tore into the alternator bolts and within 15 minutes we had the new belt on.
I had a little experience now with the alternator stuff. Lizard had gone into
the pass to explore the anchorage and give us the scoop. We proceeded in
through a small pass with a large number of people on both sides watching
us intently. We weren't real sure what the story was on that but later found
out that was just one of the things they do there for entertainment.
I guess there's not much happening. We found the anchorage and had trouble
finding a place between all the moored boats there. We anchored but didn't
feel too safe. If the wind switched around I could swing into one of the boats.
We later found out that we could tie up to a dock for free so we both went
and tied up. Lizard tied up on the end since it seemed a little shallow for
his deep draft. It was nice little park area with bathrooms but no shower.
I decided on a shower anyway so I took my soap and our little canvas bucket
and poured cold water on me and got a good bucket shower. It felt wonderful
since the temp outside was now in the mid 70's. We had a beer and went to bed
early to catch up. I slept hard for a good 10 hours.

2-6-03
Ken and I got up to a warm and foggy morning. We decided to walk to the store
several blocks away. As we walked we passed condo after condo with lots of
older people out walking for exercise. We got a few things at the little
convenience store and went back to boat. Lizard and Judy got up and did the
same. As I was sitting in the cockpit reading the paper a couple of guys
were walking along the dock looking at our boat so we started chatting.
We told them of our adventures so far and our plans to go south. We asked
about how far the grocery store was and one guy named Bob asked us if we
wanted a ride. We accepted and headed off to load up on groceries. We helped
Bob get his small sailboat into the water later and then I gave him a tour
of my boat. He went and got a tour from Lizard after mine. He came back a
while later with his wife and we showed her around also. They invited all
of us over to their house for drinks later. They only lived a couple of
blocks away. They were from Michigan and spent half the year there and half
here. We got burrito stuff at the store and I cook up a bunch of fried
burritos for everyone when we got back. A couple pulled up to the dock as
we were cooking. They, and their boat looked a little rough. They had just
came non-stop from the keys. They had a little dog on board who couldn't
wait to get off to land. He said his engine went out on him and spoiled his
plans for the Bahamas. We gave them a couple of burritos. They were extremely
thankful. The girl said they were starving. We went over the Bobs for drinks
after stuffing ourselves on burritos and red wine. They were the ultimate
older yuppie couple and extremely nice. Their house was on a small canal
with boats behind each one of them. Their private neighborhood had a pool
right in the middle of the area, it looked strange. We sat, drank and talked
about where we've all traveled to and where we all wanted to travel. We had
a nice time. After we got back to the boats we decided to leave early the
next morning and head for Charlotte Harbor.

2-7-03
The wind picked up and one of my halyards clanked all night. My dinghy was
also banging on the side of the boat so I got up around 5:30 and began
piddling. I called Lizard on the radio around 6 to check on the weather
again. He said it looked good so we go ready to pull out. We pulled around
and waited on Lizard but he couldn't move. He was stuck on the bottom once
again. An all too familar situation by now. We decided to throw him a line
and try to pull him off backwards. I pulled at 3000 rpm and couldn't budge him.
We tried to pull his mast over and heel him off but the wind kept blowing me
in all directions. Finally with Kenny pushing also all three of them began
rocking the boat back and forth and it slowly came loose of the mud.
He backed out and we followed him out to the gulf. The seas were from behind
us and had us rolling pretty good. We got some sea room and headed south once
again. After a couple of hours Kenny started getting that green feeling so
he took a pill and concentrated on not barfing. I decided to give the holding
tank a good cleaning so I sat on the side of the boat with a bucket and filled
the holding tank with clean seawater for about 40 minutes. It was very hard to
hit the holding tank hole while we were rolling. After filling it up I pumped
it all out and the head was immediately fresher. Kenny was going to help but
he kept feeling sick. He gets to do it next time. We made to the entrance of
Charlotte Harbor. It's a wide deep channel with very shallow water to one side.
The sea was so rough I thought we were going to lose something. Dishes were
getting thrown around out of their holding places. We made it to the harbor
and found the little anchorage protected by little islands. There were several
boats there of all sizes. We putted around in a circle and found a good spot
and dropped the hook. Lizard followed us in and set right behind us. We were
successfully anchored once again but without any major or minor tragedies this
day. Kenny and I drank a cold beer and watched the drill as various size boats
showed up to look for a spot in the fairly crowded anchorage. Lizard and Judy
made curry and rice and had us over. We ate our fill and sat in the cockpit
and enjoyed the warmer weather and mangroves. We plan to stay here a couple
of days since Lizard needs to get his wind generator parts here. Lizard wants
me to go in with him so I'm going to try and find a library or computer to
send my log and check my email. We had a good nights sleep in the mangrove
anchorage.

2-7-03
We woke up to a thick fog with everything wet outside and everything damp
feeling inside. We couldn't see cabbage key just a short distance away.
Lizard decided to head in at 9 instead of 8 like we'd planned. The fog was
going from thick to thin and looked like it was burning off so Lizard and I
decided to head into the marina. He and Judy had gone in the day before so
he knew where we were going. We headed out and the little mangrove island
faded slowly into the fog. Lizard said there was some buoys ahead of us so
keep an eye out. As we got further away the fog got thicker. Before long we
had no vision of anything and wasn't sure where the wind had blown us.
We found a red #6 day marker and circled it while waiting for the fog to burn
off long enough to see our way to the pass. We decided to shut to engine down
to save gas and tie off to the buoy. We sat there and joked for around
30 minutes and the fog never let up. We decided to go back to the boats and
get some waypoints and a GPS. We followed a tourist boat for a while and then
saw the north end of the island we were anchored off of. We headed back,
found the boats, and got the needed navigation equipment along with a candy
bar. This time we followed the GPS and made it to the buoy with no problem.
The entrance to the marina was very narrow with rocks on both sides.
It looked like two medium size boats couldn't pass in it. It was the narrowest
I had seen to date. We made it to the marina and Lizard went looking for some
guy he had talked to the day before that he thought could help. I asked the
girls in the little store if they knew of someone who might want to take us
and make some extra money, they didn't. I went to the office and told another
woman our dilemma. She said he daughter was sick today or she probably would
have taken us. She called the only taxi company on Pine Island to get a quote.
It would be $100 round trip to Punta Gorda. She also told me that if we tried
to hitch hike it would be eight miles to the main road. When I went outside
Lizard was asking some La Te Da blonde lady with a big black poodle for a ride.
She declined but nicely said, "If I was going that way I'd take you".
Lizard was ready to start walking so we set off. We figured we were both fairly
clean cut looking so we might get lucky. It was warm and the scenery was tropical.
Coconut trees and beautiful greenery with colorful flowers. A few cars came by
with elderly snow birds in them and they tried not to make eye contact as Lizard
and I stuck out our thumbs. We had walked for less than a mile when a van came
by with a young couple and pulled over. They asked where we were going.
His name was Chip she was Tina. He had just moved there from Panama City and
had work laying tile. He wasn't sure how far Punta Gorda was but said he'd
take us. She had family here and a job on one of the islands. They were in her
sisters van driving around since they were both off work today. It looked like
they were just looking for something to do and we got very lucky when they
stopped. Lizard told them he'd fill up the van and I told them I'd buy some
beer. The drive to Punta Gorda took about 40 minutes. We would have never
made it hitching a ride. One of the roads was narrow with cars speeding down
it at 60 and nowhere to pull over. Instead we were tooling along with the
gen x'er music blaring on the stereo. We got to the little shop and Lizard
went in not to be seen for about 20 minutes. The plan was for him to jump in
and grab the part and we'd head back so we wouldn't keep our much appreciated
ride waiting. I finally went in the try and save Lizard and the old guy
selling him the part was telling him how he needed to put it on. Lizard already
knew this and was just trying to get away. The older white haired guy started
telling me what I needed on my boat and how he had cruised 30,000 miles.
He was obviously one of those "know it alls" who would have you know that if
you're not doing it his way your doing it the wrong way. We knew this already
since Lizard had had trouble getting them to help at all on the part. Lizard
said his wife was even worse. You'd think that if they were cruisers they'd
know how hard it is to get anywhere and offer to help get the part to where
you are. He basically told Lizard he didn't have time and that he'd have to
come get it. One of the few "not so nice" boating people we have met. I told
Chip and Tina he was on his way and we continued to wait. I finally went back
on last time to tell Lizard we had to leave and he was already on his way out.
We headed back and stopped for gas and beer. They turned the music up and we
drank a cold beer and rocked out all the way back to Pine Island. We told them
about my brothers' cheeseburger problem so they stopped at dairy queen where
I got cheeseburgers for everyone. We thanked them again and told them they'd
be in our logs. Lizard kicked up the power on his dinghy and we flew back to
the boats with the still warm cheeseburgers. Just as we got back the wind
picked up, the sky turned dark, and it began to rain. We made it back just
in time, lucky again. Lizard brought over popcorn a while later and said it
looks like the day after tomorrow is best to head out. We sat around listening
to NPR radio and reading cruising magazine before going to bed. We could hear
a vibrating noise that was unfamiliar. Kenny couldn't stand it so he went
outside and messed with the halyards and bungee cords trying to find it.
He couldn't. He covered his head and was snoring in no time anyway.

2-8-02
I went and helped Lizard with his wind generator. We checked the weather
and it didn't look good for a couple of days. We did piddley work around
the boat. A couple came in to the anchorage and dropped the anchor with
the woman at the helm. She picked up speed at a good pace with the anchor
rode going out and the guy on the bow began yelling, "stop, stop", at her
as she headed straight for another power boat. She finally stopped just
short of the other boat and we could hear her yelling back something about
not being able to hear. It looked like a close call. It's always interesting
to watch other people and their anchoring techniques.

2-9-03
I went and checked the weather with Lizard and it looked like we might get
to leave tomorrow with seas at 4 feet and east winds which would carry us
on a beam reach south. We spent the day getting all the little things ready
for the trip. The weather is warm and the sun is shining. We sat around in
the sun and enjoyed the peaceful anchorage for the last time.

2-10-03
We had a short weather window that was going to last just one day so we
decided to just go to Ft.Myers beach. It's not far but every little bit
of southing we can do gets us closer. We made it out of the harbor without
Lizard going aground which is always a notable occasion. We turned south
and had a following sea of 3-4 feet and winds around 10-15 kts. We put up
our sails and began tooling along at 5 knots. Lizard did the same and nobody
got seasick. We pulled into the large bay of Ft.Myers and it took a while to
get to the entrance. There was a note on the chart that pointed out an area
that was shallow out to the marker so Lizard was being extra attentive.
We could see the beach and all the pale northerners covering it. This bay
didn't look quite as clean as Charlotte harbor and we weren't too sure why not.
It looked like there was a cloud of smog over the city also. Ahh, back to
civilization. The pass was crowded with power boaters and we stayed to the
middle and led Lizard in. We found the shallow spot and immediately made a
90 degree turn to avoid it. We weaved our way through the markers and under
the bridge where we could see about 50 boats anchored. It looked like there
was no space left but we threaded through them and found a sorta kinda empty
spot. Lizard found a deeper spot closer to the channel and we both set our
anchors. Everyone at the anchorage had two anchors out set at 120 degrees
apart. I got the engine on the dinghy and took the other anchor out and set
it also. Lizard has all chain so he just set one and was hoping he didn't
drag into someone. Ken and I went and got Lizard and Judy and we all went
into to explore. There's a little white house off the anchorage where an
older gentleman lives and lets everyone tie their dinghy's up at his dock.
All you have to do is go and sign his guest book. If you get water you leave
him 10 cents a gallon to cover his cost. We parked the dinghy and signed in.
We couldn't see the old guy in the other room but could hear the TV and we
heard him ask if someone was there. We told him that we were just signing
his book and he quietly replied,"OK". We headed for the main strip, which
was easy to find, only one way to go. It was packed with tourist stuff and
lots of snowbirds. We wondered to the end of the street and looked at all
the restaurants trying to decide what to eat. We ended up getting a large
size order of nachos and a pitcher of beer. We ate and headed back to the
boats to call it a night.

2-11-03
We all got up and went our different ways. Someone had told us that we
could get showers at the beach so we headed there to see where.
There was an outdoor shower only and we ended up running into Lizard and
Judy looking for the same thing. We all went to the library and I finally
got to email my log and catch up on my mail. Ken took advantage of the
library bathroom and took a mini bath in the sink. We went to the grocery
store where we all ended up getting so much stuff we could hardly carry
it all back to the boat. I cooked up a big batch of tuna casserole and
we had that with red wine and french bread. Lizard ate more than I thought
a 140 pounder ever could. We sat in the cockpit and enjoyed the warm night
before they headed off and we all slept soundly.

2-12-03
Ken and I went back to the fruit stand and the library. I got to take my
mini bath at the library and check email again. We got our fruit and
headed back to the boat. Lizard came over and we dingied around and
checked out the anchorage. The boats there were quite entertaining.
There was a huge old steel boat almost completely rusted out. It looked
like an old pirate ship. There were quite a few derelict boats with rough
looking live aboards there. A lot of the boats looked like they hadn't
moved in a year or more. The water was a murky brown and we didn't dare
use it for anything. I'm sure everyone there pumped their waste over and
didn't bother going to a pump out station.

2-13-03
Ken and I decided to go to the store and west marine for supplies. We took
the bus into the little square and found a good store where we stocked up
on toilet paper and beef jerky. It's always a whole day affair to go 
somewhere so we didn't get back to late. We put things up and went and
visited with Lizard and Judy and had drinks at their boat. We made fresh
guacamole and took it over to have with chips and dip. I kept spilling my
drink in his cockpit because his cushions slid out from under you every
time you moved. After spilling two of them he said we'd have to go to my
boat from now on to drink. Lizard wanted us to make fresh guacamole again.

2-14-03
Ken and I went in and had breakfast at a little restaurant. It was good.
We went to the store again and got bread and cheese and more beer.
Everyone on the trolly looks at you funny when you get on carrying two
cases of beer. We saw Lizard and Judy later heading to try and get some
fish from the fishing boat that just came in. They had a cold twelve pack.
We saw them later and they had a large bag of fresh fish. It cost them
the twelve pack and $15 bucks. I told Lizard I'd cook if he brought it
over. It took me a while to cook the fish Lizard brought but it was
delicious. It must have been 5-6 pounds of fresh grouper and mahi mahi.
We cooked it several different ways. I fried some with cajun spice, we
fried some with Lizards special spice, and I blackened most of it.
We had saffron rice and red wine with it. We all ate until we couldn't
eat any more and Lizard and Judy took a large bag of leftovers back to
their boat. Lizard said they'd serve it for lunch tomorrow.

2-15-03 to 2-17-03
It seems like we've been in Ft.Myers a long time now. We've filled the
water tanks and fuel tanks and all the jerry cans are full and ready to
go. We've explored several times and been to the grocery store at least
every other day. We ride the trolley to get to the other side of the strip
and explore there. Days are starting to meld into one another now. It
reminds me of living in a neighborhood and getting familiar with all your
neighbors and their houses. Every now and then a new one shows up and you
might visit and get acquainted and then they move on. We're ready to leave
and get south to a new warmer neighborhood. 
 
2-18-03
Kenny was going to attempt to complete his passport application today
and Lizard and I decided to brave the public transport system and try
and find a Wal-Mart so we could load up on propane one last time. We
headed out fairly early and made it there by changing buses three times.
The trip back was harder due to the massive amounts of propane in our
backpacks. We didn't make it back until after 5 and I saw my dinghy tied
up to the dock. We initially figured Kenny was at the bar eating a
cheeseburger and drinking beer but he wasn't there so we assumed he had
to go elsewhere to get his application processed. Lizard kept
unsuccessfully attempting to get the weather and I listened to the report
on the radio. It looks like tomorrow is going to be our only shot out of
here for a week so I told him we wanted to go for it. He said he'd get up
early and pull the weather and be ready to go by 7 a.m. Kenny still
wasn't back and it was dark so I started to wonder if he was going to
show up at midnight with some wild story. Since we were leaving early I
was wishing he'd hurry so we could crash and get a good nights sleep.
Just then I heard the distant buzz of a familiar Yamaha motor. Ken was on
his way in. He said he made the courthouse with about ten minutes to spare
and got his application in. We were good to go.

2-19-03
I gave Lizard his 6 a.m. wake up call on channel 17 and he began to pull
the weather. We got the boat tidied up and pulled the engine off the dinghy.
Lizard said this was our only shot so we pulled up our anchors and headed
out as the sun came up. It's always nice leaving at sunrise because all the
powerboats and tourist boats aren't out yet. We slowly led Lizard out and
into the gulf. We had a nice brisk east wind so we put up all the sails and
started south once again. Kenny and I sat on the front of the boat in the
sun remarking on how warm it already was and we were going to where it's
even warmer. The wind died later and we cranked up the diesel and motored
into the night. Around midnight we stopped with a thud. I put the engine
into neutral and looked over the back to see a crap trap rope leading to
my rudder. Kenny had just got up from his sleep shift and came back to help
and shut down the engine for me. I radioed Lizard and told him we'd caught
a crab trap and would be stopped for a bit. I took my pants off and climbed
down to the latter with the waves slapping up my legs. I couldn't see if the
rope was caught in the prop or not but from the sound of the engine it didn't
seem like it. I cut the rope and was wondering if I would be going underwater
to get the line untangled. After we cut the rope the little crab floatie came
floating out from under Mañana. We were relieved since it wasn't wrapped
around the prop. I finally got a chance to catch up on the log but had a hard
time accounting for the number of days that had passed since I've written.

2-20-03
We motored into marathon around noon with the sun beaming strong and the
temp around 80 and the water temp 76. It was easy to find following the
buoys in. We led the way for Lizard and checked for shallow water. There
was a large drawbridge at the entrance to the boot key harbor so we called
and they opened up for Lizard and us. We found an anchoring spot soon after
we got through the bridge. We motored over and checked the depth and gave
the spot to Lizard. We motored over a bit and Ken went up to drop anchor.
After we dropped it we were close to a mooring so we decided to move over.
We pulled up and dropped again in another spot. We had a little trouble the
second time since the anchor rode got tangled up. I remembered when Rick said
everyone at the anchorage would be judging you by how you anchor when you come
in. Fortunately we didn't see a large number of people watching us as we
anchored. We looked pretty unorganized this time but we finally got the
rode untangled and were successfully anchored once again. We had our usual
celebration beer for the arrival and asked Lizard if he wanted to go explore.
We dingied through the anchorage and was amazed at the number of boats there.
There was a quarter of a mile of anchored and moored boats. All kinds from
a purple boat with pink trim to a large wooden boat with a big peace sign
hanging off of it to a large steel boat with a sign that said "church services
Sunday at 10:00". We found the Publix grocery store and the Sombrero lounge.
At the lounge you can get drinks, food, mail, showers, laundry, and Internet
access for $5 an hour. We went back to the boats and I was down for the count
due to the lack of sleep the night before. We crashed just after dark and
slept a good 11 hours.

2-21-03
We rode in to town with Lizard and Judy and walked to a little restaurant
called Herbies. It was suggested to us by one of the locals. Three of us had
cheeseburgers and conch fritter and Lizard had a mahi mahi sandwich. It was
one of the best places we've found yet. Everything they brought us was wonderful.
Maybe it's just because we've been away from most of civilization for a bit.
We went to the publix and got wine and munchies. Lizard and Judy got rum and
we planned to meet later for rum night. We all sat in the cockpit and had rum,
sprite and coconut pineapple on ice. Later I spilled my drink on my top step
and it all went into my toolbox. Kenny told me I had to write about it in my
log since I've told on him several times and don't always tell on myself.
I don't believe that's true but you know how things are from various perspectives. 


2-22-03
There was a breakfast buffet at the dockside lounge so we decided to go in
with Lizard and Judy and have at it. It was pretty good and it wasn't like
the usual on the water restaurants that charge $8.00 for a hamburger. Kenny
and I decided to go explore. There was a south wind blowing at 15-20 knots
today so as we headed out one end of the harbor but the waves were too much
for the dinghy. We turned around and followed a little canal out to the other
exit to the gulf. It was lined with million dollar homes and large boats on
each one of them. We found a nice little beach at the exit to the gulf and
pulled the dinghy up and scrubbed the slime off the bottom with a little brush.
We saw Lizard and Judy putting along after we were done and they came in to
check out the beach. Kenny and I went back and had a long solar shower and beers.
Lizard and Judy came and got us to go check out the blues band at the dockside
lounge. The band was good and Kenny met a fellow brother from Texas. They drank
heavily and bs'd for a few hours while the rest of us sat and enjoyed the blues.
Kenny spilled his drink on me on the way back and we argued about it and other
stuff until we crashed. The wind picked up in the middle of the night and the
rain pounded us. I had to get up twice and check to make sure we were staying
put. Kenny snored through the whole thing again.

2-23-03
Lizard came and got me for a trek to the boat store and home depot. The front blew in last night so it's cloudy and cool today. We hit the stores and then taco bell for lunch, what a treat. Kenny stayed on the boat to recover from his fun. We hit the grocery store and I came back and cooked red beans and rice for dinner. 

2-24-03 to 2-26-03
We spent these three days going shopping, eating at Herbies, doing laundry, and having drinks on the boat. Ken and I took one day and dingied over to the beach and scrubbed green off the dinghy again. There was more growing on it within a day or two. We visited with various people from all over and did a lot of boat watching in our new neighborhood. The one thing I don't like about these anchorages is the fact that you just can't jump in the water and swim around like you can in the islands. There are so many boats and people pumping their waste out that you would probably get hepatitis or something. It's illegal but we know people do it. They have a little pump out boat that you can call and make an appointment with. Even though the water looks pretty we didn't swim until we got to the beach on the far south of the key. It was full of various people from up north and local. The water was cool and it felt great.

2-27-03 to 2-28-03
We got up early and listened to the weather for the Bahamas. We thought it was going to blow from the south for a couple of days but the weather report said it was only going to last a day and a night. I noticed a large number of sailboats leaving marathon also which was indicative of a good weather window for the Bahamas. I dingied over to Lizards boat and told him I thought we should leave before lunch and he agreed. I went and topped off our jerry cans with fuel and water and Ken and I pulled the dinghy up and took it apart for the trip. The Gulf Stream is unpredictable and you don't want to be pulling a dinghy when you cross. We had the engine warmed up by 11:00 and waiting on Lizard to do some computer navigation calculations. I did some by hand on the paper charts and got close to his calculations. The Gulf Stream is a ocean river that runs south at 1.5 to 2.5 knots. When you get into it it carries you north very quickly so you need to plot your course carefully. By leaving before lunch we would get to the great Bahamas bank at sunrise and be able to see any obstructions. We headed out and after an hour or so started the much-needed work on cleaning our holding tank. That's one of the things that require constant upkeep. We pumped it out and then poured sea water into it and pumped it out twice. It takes a while to fill a 35-gallon tank through a little hole. Pumping it takes some muscle and about 20 minutes. I was sweating like a pig and Kenny used the excuse that he'd get seasick if he had to pump so he got to fill it. We got on the edge of the Gulf Stream around dark and Lizard said the water temp jumped to 82. I noticed we were also going over 8 knots all of the sudden. Ken and I got the solar shower out and got clean for the overnighter. We steered east to go northeast and Kenny went below to sleep on the 7-10 shift. I laid on the cockpit cushions and starred at the million stars you can see out here. The Gulf Stream is busy with traffic so we had to keep a constant eye on all the ships around us. Lizards' radar helped since it's almost impossible to judge distances at night. The ships all look closer than they are and those few stories I've read about the sailboats getting plowed over by them kept me vigilant. We swapped our shifts and was on schedule to get the bank at daylight so I got up at 6:15. Kenny went and crashed again and Lizard and I talked our way onto the bank and around some rocks we couldn't identify on the charts. Lizard asked me if I'd looked at the water and when I did it scared me. It looked like I was on the bottom but the depth finder assured me it was 25 feet deep. The water was beautiful I wanted to jump in. Lizard told me it was still at 82 degrees. The wind was blowing a little so I decided to put my foresails up without Kennys help. Just as I got them up the wind died to nothing. Kenny go up and we took them down and kept motoring towards the northwest channel light. I put a fishing line out with a little buck tail jig and something ate the hook off it. I told Lizard so he put a line out and caught a large barracuda that we couldn't eat. I put another line out with a bigger hook and Kenny told me it was screwed up. When I reeled it in there was a small fish with lots of sharp teeth on it. My first catch of the trip and it's 5 inches long. We continued to motor across the bank in an effort to get as close to chub cay as we could before stopping. We got to within 25 miles of chub and steered a course to get us away from the main shipping channel nearby. The shallowest water I could find was 15 feet to anchor in. Kenny and I decided to practice putting out two anchors by dropping one and turning 90 degrees for over a hundred feet, dropping the second anchor and turning 90 degrees the other way for 100 feet. This puts the anchors at 120 degrees apart, hopefully, and gives you more security. We will need the extra security since were in the middle of open water with no land in sight. We got our anchors set and I jumped in as soon as we were set. It felt great. We put the dinghy together and rowed over to Lizards boat in calm water. As it got dark we could see several other boats anchored a mile or two away on the banks with us. Lizard and Judy cooked up some beans and rice and we brought the wine. We sat out in the cockpit afterwards and cooled off as the wind started to pick up a bit. We headed back to the boat fairly early and hit the sack. Kenny was snoring in no time but I was kept awake by the ever increasing wind, waves, and various noises because of them. It seemed like the wind just kept getting stronger and stronger. The dinghy was banging so hard on the side of the boat that I had to put fenders out to keep it off. The halyards were all banging despite the bungee cords on them. There was banging going on everywhere and I was up at least 25 times trying to keep everything snug and quite. Once I lied down and heard rope pulling out at my feet. I jumped up and ran to the front of the boat to see that Kenny's job of tying the anchor rode off had come undone. He got up and helped me put things in order while he let me know that he told me to look at it earlier. That could have been a worse event if we would have had only one anchor out and were sound asleep. I didn't sleep very sound at all that night and would wake up every time a large wave would loudly slap the side of Mañana. It sounds like someone outside the boat hitting it with something like a board. It happens when the current makes the boat point one way but the wind has the waves coming on your broad side.

3-1-03
I got up early since the wind was still howling and the noises were constant. We took our time getting around and hollered at Lizard about getting going. We got underway to strong winds and big waves on our noses. We were doing the rocking horse thing again. As we went from shallow water of 15 feet to a deep spot of several thousand the waves kicked up. Lizard called once and said he thought he'd lost his forward gear. We think his back end just came out of the water and caused something to miss as his back end went deep under water and sucked some sea water into his engine for a second. After a short time he was moving forward again. We caught one big wave that almost swamped the dinghy. That was a first. After we got out the waves calmed a little down to 4 to 5 feet. Lizard was unable to go faster than 3.5-4 knots so we kept slowing down for him. Due to our speed we became worried about making it to chub in time to clear in. We eventually made it there around 4 and decided to spend the extra 20 to stay in a slip for the night instead of trying to hurry and clear in, get fuel, and find another anchorage. We followed the narrow path of 10 feet of water into the narrow entrance to the chub marina. Lizard was concerned as always about the depth. He couldn't understand the accent from the marina guy so we went looking for our slips. We got to our slips only turning around once and were met by the chub workers who helped us tie off and gave us the required paperwork to fill out. Lizard and I filled out the paperwork and went to clear in at the office. The gentleman showed up and in no time we had all our paperwork and was legally cleared into the Bahamas without even a visit to our boats. We went and got a cold beer from Lizard and took a minute to unwind. It was nice being secure. There were huge boats there from all over. We watched as a large sailboat came in from Boston and banged its way into the slip. They were quit the "la te dah" type if you know what I mean. I don't think they were too happy being across from those common sailboats. I was waiting for the guy to come out and call his wife "lovey" as Thurston Howel did. It was interesting looking at all the boats from the various locations. These were boats with people that were on the move. Not like the anchorages at Ft.Myers or Marathon where many of them are just planted there. It's a completely different environment. We could see people coming from the showers and taking trash in. All the necessities. Lizard and I went and visited the little store that had resort prices. I invited Lizard and Judy over for tuna casserole. We had a good dinner but had to turn the fan on due to the heat. After dinner we went and got a shower, which did me in. I had to crash due to the previous nights entertainment. Kenny stayed up a while and watched all the going ons of the marina. I slept very soundly.

3-2-03
I woke up and could see the stars from the hatch but couldn't go back to sleep. I figured out later it was because I fell asleep about 7:30 so I was awake too early. We got up and enjoyed coffee and a lazy morning before having to get prepared to leave. I had to change the oil and we had to fuel up, get a Bahamas flag, and check out around noon. Kenny kept disappearing after I changed the oil so I went ahead and added the two jerry cans of fuel. I waiting for him to go fill the cans and told the workers if they saw a white boy with a belly to tell him his brother said to come work. Kenny showed up and said the workers informed him that his brother said time to work and commented on how he can't sneak away on a small island. We filled the jerry cans and got 30lbs of ice for the road. Fuel was $2.5 a gallon and ice was $8.00. If you used water it was $.35 a gallon. Not too bad considering what we've been told. We decided to go to Fraziers Hog Cay to anchor until we leave towards Nassau. It was a short pleasant trip and took us less than an hour to get there. We were following the chart and had trouble finding deep water. I got down to 4.6 feet and we both turned around. A guy on the beach with a hand held VHF radio called us to let us know where the channel was. We hugged the shore about 30 feet off and found deeper water. We made it to the anchorage and set anchor without a problem. I got the snorkeling gear out and hit the water. We went over to Lizards boat so I could see his bottom and tell him the condition. He only had a little slim on it. Not bad for two years since his last bottom job. We took Lizard and Judy to the deserted beach and explored. There were a bunch of empty conch shells. Ken and I had beans, rice, and wine for dinner and slept good.

3-3-03
Lizard came over and wanted to go exploring so we putted along in the shallow water and could see a variety of small and large fish. We brought fishing poles so we were trolling while we went along. Something hit my lure and took it off the line. Of course it felt big. We made it to the beach and Lizard was trying to catch some of the fish just off the beach. We saw a nurse shark and a variety of other stuff. The nurse shark came back when I was standing in the water getting Lizards lure unstuck and caused me to do a little jig getting away. On the way back Lizard was trolling and got a good strike. He reeled it in and had another big ugly barracuda on the line. We drug it back to the boat and gave Kenny the pole and told him to reel it in. We finally got it off the lure and Lizard had another chewed up lure. Kenny and I decided to go snorkel a while. We explored the beach while Lizard took Judy exploring in the dinghy. After Lizard and Judy came back the guys decided to go and try to spear some fish or get some conch. We found some good spots with small fish but using a pole spear takes some practice and we weren't too efficient at it yet. We decided to start looking for conch as we putted along. Every time we would see one we'd circle around and lose it. I decided to put the snorkeling gear on and let Kenny pull me from a rope off the back of the dinghy while I looked for conch. The technique was immediately effective and we started finding mature conch right away. We hit one spot where they seemed to be everywhere. We ended up with two buckets full of conch for dinner. We went back to boat and got the book out on how to clean them. I cleaned one on Lizards boat and that told us we needed to go ashore to clean the rest. It was a messy endeavor. We dingied to the beach and cleaned the rest. A drunken guy named Jim came by and invited us to his boat for rum. He was celebrating his 51st birthday. We had a good amount of conch and headed to the boat to clean up and start preparing dinner. I had a metal mallet that Judy and Coy had left me and started beating the conch. We made a dip for chips that had thinly sliced conch, tomato, onion, garlic, lemon juice, and a few jalapenos. For the main meal we had blackened conch with saffron rice. Lizard and Judy brought candy bars for desert. It was all very good. Our first meal using what we got from the sea. The wind kicked up and we had a rough night. I was concerned about our anchor holding us but we did fine. I checked it several times throughout the night.

3-4-03
Ken and I sat around and did piddly stuff all day. I cleaned a little and Ken did all the dishes. We put up the hammock and tested it. I still need to figure out where it needs to go. We played with the wind scoop that fits on my front hatch but it was so windy we couldn't really see how it went. We went with Lizard up to the Berry Island Yacht Club, which consist of one house and three people. We visited with one of guys who own it. He said he and his brother bought it several years ago. We talked about catching fish so he got out his photo book and showed us a huge mahi mahi he had caught off the island. We bought 10lbs of ice for $4.00 and went back to the boat in rough water to ice down the beer. Ken and I sat and enjoyed the deserted beach and cool sea breeze while drinking ice-cold beers. Lizard called about getting together but we declined and opted to drink a beer and watch the sunset.

3-5-03
We decided to go with Lizard and get some more conchs for dinner. Ken, Lizard and I went out in Lizards inflatable dinghy. I was being pulled behind the dinghy and finding conch faster than Ken and Lizard could get them in the boat. Lizard and Ken were trying to put a hole in the shell and string them together. They were having trouble since Lizard was trying to keep the conch shells off the dinghy. I had a shell and was trying to give it to Kenny and they were drifting so I tossed it up to him. Kenny had one hand holding the string and tried to catch the conch shell with the other. There was a sharp point on the shell and it gouged Kenny pretty good. He could have used a couple of stitches. After a while Ken wanted to go back and doctor the cut so we took Ken back and headed out for the conch. Lizard and I collected two buckets full and went back to get the cleaning gear. Judy came with us to the beach to clean the conch while Kenny killed his pain with the last of his Wild Turkey bourbon. We saw him later dancing on deck while listening to my "Hits of the 70's" tapes. We cleaned the conch and gave them to Lizard and Judy to prepare. We headed over later and had more of the conch dip, fried conch and rice for dinner. Of course I think my conch was better because I beat the crap out of it before I cooked it.

3-6-03
We got up this morning and put fishing lines out after hearing one of the sailboats on the radio talk about catching a triggerfish. We kept some guts and parts from the conch to use as bait but it stunk so bad I was almost about to puke trying to put it on the hook. I noticed a large sailboat come in with a broken mast. I was curious what had happened and we watched them as they anchored. There was an older guy with a younger girl. We always wonder what the story is on that. I was entertained with the binoculars for a while as I watched them go explore the beach. After they were on the beach they couldn't get their engine started. I decided to go help and pulled them back to their boat and could hear their strong French accent. The guy invited me in for a beer and I told him I'd come back after the weather. I headed back later and went aboard and was met by his wife. The young girl was his daughter and was quite attractive. We sat and drank beers and talked about sailing, places to visit and politics. He had been sailing for two years and broke his mast two weeks ago going to Nassau with moderate conditions. He said a part on his boat that was made in china gave way. His wife and daughter were going back to France in a week and he was going on the South Carolina to get a new mast. I told them my brother was hurt and they informed me their daughter was a nurse. I told them that if I told Ken that he'd be moaning all night saying he needed to go get treatment. I stopped by birthday boy Jims boat on the way back for a rum and coke. Lizard came over later and we sat and talked about sailing and boats. His boat was called a Indies Western Heritage. It was a nice boat with tons of room inside. He showed us around and bragged about his boat. He was kind of a blow hard but he'd been sailing for 20 years. He told us where to go get lobster tomorrow if we move over the bird cay. I got back to boat and decided to keep the line in the water and told Ken how to set the drag. I crashed right away due to my beer and rum nightcap.

3-7-03
As soon as I got up Kenny started telling me the story. He said soon after I fell asleep the reel started buzzing the line out. He ran out and was trying to yell at me to get me up since he was handicapped with was wounded. He started working the fish in and said whatever it was it was huge. He said he yelled several times at me and I was dead to the world. He said he finally got it close and was going to put the pole in the lock and go and get me. As soon as he did he said the pole bent over as far as it could and the line snapped. Kenny now has the story of the big one that got away.

3-8-03
The weather still looked good for an early morning crossing on Saturday so we decided to move anchorages a short way to bird cay for a easy night escape. Birthday boy told us we could get lobster near there off the shore. We headed out at high tide so Lizard could feel comfortable and the current would be negligible. We came out the way we came in and cut across to bird and anchored in 8 feet of water with Lizard in 10. I dove on the anchors and dug them in by hand. I told Lizard to drop me off by shore with his pole spear and I'd try to find some lobster. I was in the water for about five minutes when I saw some antenna sticking out from under a rock. I got close and could see dinner underneath staring back at me. I tightened the band on the spear and pointed it between his eyes and made a direct hit when I let go. I came up and gave a good okie whoohoo with the lobster on the spear. Lizard took him off and went back to the boat to drop him off and get a picture while I went looking for three more. I found the next three the same way and had to chase one for a bit after he got off the spear. We ended up with four nice lobsters. We tore the tails off when I got back and went right to work on looking for the best cooking directions. We decided to steam them in about a quarter inch of seasoned saltwater. Lizard made rice and peas and brought over the rest of dinner to go with the lobster. After fifteen minutes of steaming all was ready. I dished out the tails and took the big one for myself as reward for hunting them. They were the best lobster I've ever had, fresh from the sea. Ken and I kept saying our mama might even get on the boat if she could have tasted them. Lizard said it was the first time he'd ever eaten lobster. We didn't know what was up with that. We all scarfed them down and got the boat prepared for leaving at 3:00 a.m. It was a great way to say goodbye to our first beautiful anchorage in the Bahamas.

3-9-03
We got up a 3 and gave Lizard and Judy their wake up call. We motored forward and headed to Nassau in flat seas. There were a million stars of course so Ken and I sat in the cockpit and tried to identify some with a chart Coy and Judy left me. We watched the beautiful sunrise and put out a lure in hoped of catching our first mahi mahi still. We made it to Nassau around 10:30 and watched one of huge cruise ships go in ahead of us. Nassau has a large harbor with the big boys coming in all the time so you have to call them on the radio and get permission to come in. We got our clearance and headed to the anchorage off crocodiles bar and grill. There was supposed to be a large shallow area in the middle of the anchorage so we swung around all the boats and came in from the end checking depts for Lizard. We found a spot and Ken led us and I went up front to work the anchor. After we let our rode out we decided we needed to move up so I pulled the anchor up and we got right in the middle the empty spot. We set the anchor and went to work on getting the dinghy motor on. I took our second anchor out at 120 degrees and set it also. I helped Lizard with his and Ken and I headed in for ice to get the beer cold. We got our beer cold and Lizard came over with a dying dinghy motor. A part on the fuel system broke so I let him use our dinghy to take Judy in to explore. Ken and I sat on the boat and watched the continual flow of tourist packed boats pass by. It was quite entertaining. A seaplane came in and landed in the crowded harbor while dodging boats. Locals come by doing about 35 mph weaving in between the sailboats. We had invited an English guy and his wife over for a beer so they showed up shortly after Lizard and Judy got back. He said our Budweiser was like gold here and cost about $6.00 a can. We gave him and his wife a couple and they were happy. His name was Mike and she was an attractive Indian woman named Bali. Ken and I were a little buzzed but decided to go explore just before dark and headed down the street. The streets were packed with locals and about every 50 people you'd see a white person standing out in the crowd. Some scruffy guy started talking to Ken and Ken asked him where we could get a Cuban cigar. He said to follow hime and he led us a ways down the street with me shaking my head at Ken not sure if we should be following. He led us into a little bar with cigars and Ken gave him a dollar for his help. He wanted two. Ken and I had a couple of rum and cokes and started playing pool with some locals. The lady at the bar said no tourist usually came in at night. She said they'd stick their heads in and see all the black people and leave. The jukebox kept blaring out abba songs with me and Ken playing crappy pool due to our buzz. We both smoked a large Cuban and mingled with the locals. We headed back to the boat and laughed the whole way home after both of us took a little unexpected swim while trying to get into the dinghy. Mike and Bali came over later and, with all us really buzzed, continued to get loud in the cockpit talking about the English and Americans.

3-10-03
Ken and I decided to take it easy today after our little night out. It was really our first cut loose experience since we've left so we were due I guess. We went in and looked for a place to eat but since it was Sunday there wasn't anything open. We finally found a Chinese restaurant and ate like pigs. I was due a good Chinese pig out and it was great food and worth it despite the small dent in the cruising kitty. We wondered the streets a little and checked out all the tourist on the bit ships in port. They're quite easy to spot. I don't think we look as touristy since our cloths aren't all pressed and starched. We also don't wear black socks with Bermuda shorts. It seems my nice bathing suit and a t-shirt are the wardrobe of choice among cruisers, or should I say cruiser with boats less than 45 feet long. We made it back to the boat and checked the anchors again and were ready to crash as soon as it was dark. We listened to some Dominican station a while and crashed soon after.

3-11-03 to 3-14-03
We started looking for a weather window out of here after two days. It's not that it's that bad but there's loud traffic on and off the water all the time and you can smell the diesel and gas fumes like any bigger city. It's not the cleanest place and there's quite a bit of trash as you walk around. The Bahamian boats come flying right next to your sailboat all the time and create a big wake that keeps your boat rolling fairly constantly. It's a far cry from our peaceful little anchorages at Fraziers Hog Cay and Bird Cay. We met a guy named Bob from a large boat that came in called a Hylas. I heard the boats were about a million bucks. He invited us over for a beer so we went and checked it our. It was nice but not a million bucks nice. He had a big generator he kicked on and his AC blew out cold. Quite a weird feeling for us at this point feeling AC blowing out on a boat. He gave us some pointers on where we were headed. We met a boat with two couples on it that are traveling in our same direction. They have a nice Hallberg Rassy. It's known as quite a fancy boat but the one they're on is 25 years old so it's more like the rest of ours. The couples are fairly young in their mid 20's and they're from the Rhode Island area. The girls with them are quite attractive so we tried our best not to stare, too much. We invited them over for a beer and they came over with Lizard and Judy and we all sat around and told stories and laughed. They're making a documentary of their trip but didn't put any of us in it. What's up with that? I think we're just too loud for them. I decided to get a Hawaiian sling to hunt fish and lobster. It's like a bit slingshot that shoots a spear. Spear guns aren't allowed in the Bahamas so you have to get a sling or a pole spear. I'm ready to hunt now. Lizard bought another pole spear. We went to the grocery store and, of course, were disgusted with the prices. Every thing is about double from the states. Oats are five bucks, lays chips eight bucks, apples are $.85 apiece and oranges a dollar a piece. We didn't get much. Lizard went and said he was crying when he saw the prices. He didn't get much either. Ken and I went and explored one day and walked about 8-10 miles. We went to an old fort on the west side of the island and wondered around off the beaten path for a bit. We went to the beach were all the spring breakers were sunning and drinking and acting like the spoiled Americans they are. One girl came over to us when we were talking with a Bahamian guy we'd met the first night playing pool. Her first question was where she could find the nearest bathroom. The Bahamian guy told her the whole ocean was right in front of her and she said she didn't do that. Of course after living on a boat you find that attitude kind of strange. My mama calls it nasty nice. She went on the tell us how she's in law school and this whole spring break thing's getting old any way. She asked where we were from and we told her Oklahoma. She said she felt sorry for us. I told her I felt sorry for her because she had to go back and we were going to where it's just going to get more and more beautiful. She didn't have a real response to that. We went over to English Mike and Balis boat and watched a DVD called Black Adder. It was with the guy who does the bean movies and it was great. It's the first thing we've watched since Mom, Bill, and the RV left. Lizard and Judy came by also and brought some rum from Trinidad or somewhere to let everyone try. English Mike and Bali started asking us if they could follow us through the Bahamas. They started telling us of how they have assburgers syndrome but English Mike said he was more HFA (high functioning Autism). They said they're were socially challenged and quite different from other people. They said they needed some people they could be themselves around and they thought that it was us. They also said since we had UK boats that it was meant for them to come with us. We didn't really know what to say and Lizard and I had a little pow wow on the front of his boat. It's hard enough just keeping up with each other and these guys seem lost on a lot of issues. Even though we're new we've done enough homework to not be too stupid and do things like go out when it's blowing hard from the wrong directions. They were out in some crap and got beat up pretty bad and are kind of hesitant to go again. They said that since we've got conch and lobster they'd like us to show them so they can fend for themselves. English Mike asked me to take him with me the next day for water and we talked about it. I told him we were just concerned about having anyone dependent on us and that we'd all be going our separate ways as soon as one wanted. Lizard and I agreed to tell him when we were leaving so we let him know what time and what anchorage we planned to go to. We're trying to get off the beaten path a little and we're planning on anchoring by a spot that's supposed to have lobster and good fishing. We spend the day getting the fishing gear rigged up for our crossing tomorrow. We have to go over some coral heads so we have to time our departure so the sun will be high enough to see them. English Mike and Bali have been back and forth twice and he said he just put the autopilot on and didn't look for them. We told him he'd gotten lucky twice. We've heard from several people that you have to dodge a few of them. I took Judy in with me today to get the last few provisions. I bought some cookies, bread, rice, and macaroni and cheese. Hopefully we'll be eating fresh from the sea soon. Nassau harbor is starting to get on all our nerves with the boats anchoring right on you, helicopters and planes in the harbor and all the fumes.

3-15-03
Today was overcast and gloomy and there was a lot of boats coming in and anchoring around us. We just stayed on the boat and avoided going in to Nassau for anything since we were sick of the traffic and crowds now. Lizard and Judy decided to go in with their dinghy. They had taken the engine off so they were rowing. We looked out our window a time later and noticed another dinghy pulling them to the dinghy dock. English Mike said Lizard broke one of his oars and was heading the wrong way with the current. We didn't have our motor on either so we wouldn't have been much help. A while later the rain started to come down pretty good so I watched from the hatch and Kenny stood out in it and cleaned off with a sponge. About that time the wind kicked up and we noticed that the boat that had anchored the day before looked too close now that the wind was swinging everyone around. English Mike and Bali called and asked us if we could see the guy in front of him and that he looked too close. Just them we say the guy in his dinghy trying to pull his boat forward away from English Mike when his boat started picking up speed in the wrong direction. I told English Mike they needed to get to the front of their boat with boat hooks now. They ran to the front and the guys boat was right on them now. They pushed him with boat hooks while he jumped in and started his motor and finally pulled away. When he drug his anchor caught English Mikes and he pulled Mikes anchor loose so now Mike and Bali are trying to re-anchor. Just then we saw a boat heading backwards at a good clip towards the two boats next to us. A lady in a dinghy motored over and banged on the boat and told them there was a boat dragging into them. I had been trying to call them on the radio but they had their radio off and were napping. They jumped out on deck with sleepy eyes to see a 40 footer coming right at them. The lady in the dinghy put the inflatable between the dragging boat and they others. Now there was a guy on the dragging boat running around frantically trying to get the engine started. They finally got the engine started and pulled forward as they pulled anchors up. He got the anchors up and motored to where the boat originally was and re-anchored. We originally thought the people on the dragging boat were the owners but later found out they were just on the boat next to it. They did a hell of a job since they didn't even know the boat. The owner had left the keys in it and the lady got in and steered while he husband pulled the anchors in. The dragging boat caught a catamarans anchor and pulled them out also so now the catamaran was looking for a place to anchor. At this time everyone was out on their boats ready to act in case someone else or themselves began to drag. A Canadian boat anchored next to us for a little while them must have dragged a little because they moved also. It continued to rain and we kept a close watch the rest of the night.

3-16-03
We got up at 6:00 a.m. and Lizard checked the weather. It was supposed to be variable winds at 10 knots or less so we got ready to pull up the anchors. We headed out and everyone else had the same idea. As we got out of the harbor and into the deeper water the wind started to look like it was kicking up from the SE, not good. The waves got a little bigger but noting too bad yet. The wind started turning more south and everyone started putting up sails. I got my covers off and started getting ready to put up the sails. I had a bad sail day because every time I put up a sail it would get hung on the jack lines or a few slides would fall out of the track. It took me four tries to get the mainsail up. I got the foresail ready and raised it to notice I had fed the sheet through wrong so I fixed that and got the foresail up. We started going six or more knots now and making good time. We caught up with English Mike later and he said he was impressed with our speed. We told him it was that British boat of ours. We cruised from there and made it to the pass at our destination. I couldn't tell where the entrance was and that's always my most stressful time coming into a spot. We slowed down and putted in the direction the chart book indicated. We didn't see the range markers until we were pretty close so I was getting more stressed by then and Kenny reminded me of how I always do that. It's just that I want to know where I'm going before I get right up to it. We went through the little pass with the water churning all around us. It looked shallow but we couldn't really tell. We were the first ones in so we were the guinny pigs. We made it through the pass but English Mike and Bali went to the beach instead of going through the pass. English Mike said Bali wanted to stay there but I think they were just worried about the little pass. We putted around the area and found a spot and dropped the anchor. I immediately put the snorkeling gear on and dove to make sure the anchor what burying correctly. We got it buried and dropped the second out of the dinghy. I dove on it and buried it also. We were anchored in about 13 feet of water and my lungs need some exercise on diving. I could get down and wiggle the anchor and had to come up pretty quick. Lizard made it in just after us and anchored so I swam over and checked his anchor for a cold beer. He was dug in good. We cleaned up and went over to have a beer with Lizard. We were finally set. That night the mosquitoes came out and the wind started kicking up pretty good but we still slept pretty good since we had two anchors set well.

3-17-03
Early in the morning the wind really started to kick up to 25-30 knots with it gusting higher. Lizard and me were both out at the bow checking the anchors and making sure we weren't dragging. It was getting stressful since the wind kept getting worse. We stayed on our toes and couldn't relax until later when the wind started to die. I threw the snorkeling gear on and headed out to do a recon mission on the coral near our boat. The tide in the area is extremely strong you have to swim north to go east. The little coral area wasn't far so I was good to go. I swam around and took in the multitude of brightly colored fish while keeping an eye out for lobster. I didn't see any lobster but saw lots of fish that looked like they'd taste good. Ken and I decided to go over to a little island and look for lobster before the wind kicked back up. We putted around going slow due to the wave and current. We anchored the dinghy right off a huge rock and snorkeled around a bit. I swam out from the rock and saw what looked like a large parrotfish or something around 15 feet. I dove down and the fish came towards me. It was quite beautiful and good size. I asked Ken if parrotfish was good eating and he said he thought so. I swam down again and took my very first shot with my new Hawaiian sling. It was a direct hit. The fish fluttered to the bottom where I swam and grabbed the spear and headed quickly to shore. I'm paranoid about having a dying bleeding fish on my spear and some other bigger fish decides to come have a bite. We threw the fish in the dinghy and decided to take it back to Lizard to fillet. I catch em you clean and cook em type thing. Lizard got his book out and identified the fish as a queen trigger. Ken and I headed to the little reef near the boat to look for others. I found a small red fish with big eyes and decided to get that one also. I shot it and Ken took it to Lizard also. After chasing the elusive yellow tail snapper I decided to come back to the boat. I was swimming near the boat in deeper water when I dove to look closer at a couple fish on the bottom. They shot over to a rock where I noticed two long blank antennae sticking out. I immediately recognized the spiny lobster. I dove down and nailed him between the eyes. He was huge so I called to Ken to come over and help me. The lobster was under the surface so Ken couldn't really see it. I handed him the spear with the lobster and his eyes got big and he let out a few whoops. We measured the lobster as three feet from the antennae back. I called Lizard and told him to go ahead and eat the fish for lunch and we'd have the lobster. We immediately began getting it ready for cooking. We made yellow rice and cooked the whole thing instead of just the tail. It was so big I under cooked it and had to throw it back in. We cut the tail in half and dug in. It was a little tougher than the smaller ones but it was delicious and it was lobster. We thoroughly enjoyed it and then sat around with our bellies full. The wind started kicking up again after I got back. This time it was even stronger. The VHF radio started buzzing with people concerned about the wind. Then as the wind continued to build people started dragging. We listened to the soap opera on the radio while being constantly concerned about our own anchor. You just can't relax when your hearing constant dragging issues being delt with on the radio. A high dollar prout catamaran lost one anchor and wrapped the other in their prop so they were drifting out toward the shallow and the woman on board was asking for help. The highborn marina said nobody there wanted to get out in it. Everyone kept telling them to put up a sail and just sail away but I think they were dragging an anchor behind them. They tried to work the boat with their dinghy to no avail. Finally some other boaters helped them get the anchor rode out of the prop and they started the engine and were ok. English Mike and Bali started dragging and later we saw them far offshore anchored. This was not good since offshore the waves and wind where worse than where we were. I couldn't imagine what it was like out there but we just watched their boat wildly hobby horsing all day. The boat Alcyone followed Lizard in from Nassau and was anchored near us. The wind had his 42 footer heeled over at 20 degrees. Reports on the radio were saying 30 knots constant gusting higher. We were all on edge the whole day.

3-18-03
The night brought us no relief and I was up and down all night checking my chafe protection and position. Ken and I were up at 3:30 a.m. putting more chafe protection on the anchor rode. The wind was still howling. The weather report said there where three low-pressure systems from Mexico to the east coast causing unsettled weather in the Bahamas. It was definitely unsettled. The VHF buzzed with everyone's horror stories of the night before and everyone's concerns about doing it again today. We sat through the whole day with the wind getting up in the 30's and then dying off a little and then up again with intermittent rain. It was another day that kept everyone on edge watching the anchor lines. English Mike and Bali stayed offshore for another night of pounding. We felt sorry for them again.

3-19-03
We finally got a day of relief and were able to get out and enjoy the anchorage. English Mike decided to come in at daybreak and had some trouble since the sun was in his eyes. We gave him guidance on getting through the narrow pass and they finally made it and anchored. I dove on their anchor and they dragged so they moved and I went down and set their anchor in a big hole. We set a second anchor also and they went in and immediately fell asleep. Later I was out snorkeling and was trying to help English Mike. He saw a fairly large fish called a big eye. He told me to show him how to shoot it so I nailed it and gave it to him to take back and eat. Bali cooked it up and they ate it. I don't think they had had a good meal for a while.

3-20 We went to the island and headed for the local store. They had a large walk in freezer that everyone hung out in to cool off. It was freezing so you could only stay in it a while. I didn't want to stay in it long because then it would be even harder to walk back. I bought a couple of things to make tortillas with. After I got back one of the Alcyone group named Brian asked me if he could go hunting with me. We got in the dinghy and went a short distance away and dove in. We found a coral area fairly quickly and Brian began shooting at fish with his homemade Hawaiian sling. I didn't see too much there so I swam a ways down and found some rocks in deeper water. After diving down and peeking under a few I finally saw Mr. Lobster staring back at me. I dove and had one for the table. I swam back to the boat trying to hold him out of the water to avoid putting out a chum trail for some larger predator. That's the hardest part since now you're a ways from your boat and have to swim back as quickly as possible. Brian saw the lobster and waved. I headed back to the same spot and chased the ever-elusive yellow tail snapper to no avail. I found the other lobster near the first one and he was quite large. I speared him and began my pilgrimage back to the dinghy. After Brian saw my second lobster he wanted to go with me. We took the dinghy to the other spot and began diving again. I saw Brian shooting at various fish and not getting anything. He told me later he had hit several things but his homemade spear would not stay in so they all got off. I decided to get some fish with the lobster so I nailed a couple of parrot fish to add to the table. The locals told us they were ok to eat. Some of the books warned about ciguatera poisoning. We headed back to Alcyone to drop Brian off. Just then his girlfriend, Ainsley, came to the deck with a excited look on her face. I saw the disappointment in Brians eyes since he was going to have to tell her he didn't get anything. She excitedly said, "Did you get us some lobsters?", to Brian. He just shook his head and she asked what that was in my bucket. I held up the large lobster and she just looked at Brian. I felt sorry for him. I told them to take one since John had been such a good host the night before with rum and tortillas. I went by and showed English Mike and Bali the lobster and called Lizard over so we could go clean the fish. We took them to the shore and there were a million mosquitoes in a matter of minutes since it was dusk. We kept spraying with off and continued filleting as fast as we could while fighting them off. Lizard and Judy cooked the fish and we did the lobster. We all had fish, lobster, saffron rice, and homemade bread for dinner. We were content. I called Alcyone on the radio and they were having their lobster with cheese and wine. Everyone was happy.

3-21-03
The wind had kicked up again and everyone is ready to get the hell out of here. We've all decided to head out and make a short hop to Normans Cay. The wind isn't great but we're all willing to go into it to get to a calmer anchorage. The current and wind combination here will make you crazy. Everyone started pulling up anchors and heading out while Kenny and I did our usual prep work. My anchor lines were a little tangled but nothing too bad. Alcyone had spent quite a bit of time untangling themselves the day earlier but I thought we were ok. We went to pull up the anchors and they were dug in so deep they didn't want to come out. We had to do a little maneuvering and had trouble at getting them up. By this time everyone was out the pass and I was straining my you know what's to get the anchor up so everyone would be leaving us and making Mañana look slow. You know it's that pride in your boat thing. I finally got both anchors up and was breathing like I'd just ran a couple of miles and was thinking it's too early for this. We headed out not too far behind Lizard. English Mike was in the lead with Alcyone second, Lizard and us. The wind was good to get some sail up so everyone started hurrying to get them up. Alcyone got theirs up first then Lizard put his foresail up. We put up our big mainsail then English Mike had his up. The wind was blowing pretty good and we all started heeling and plowing through the waves. We cut the corner as Alcyone did and so that put us just behind Mike and ahead of Lizard. We all had the wind now and headed south at 5 knots. Alcyone had english Mike in his sights and was bearing down on him. Mike cranked up the RPMs in an effort to avoid being passed but his American Irwin but he was no match for the Swedish Hallberg Rassy. We made slow progress on Mike and watched Lizard slowly fall farther and farther behind. Lizard needed to clean his bottom and get some weight out of his boat to compete. We all settled in there for the next several hours as we made out way south. We followed English Mike into the harbor and looked for our spot. We dropped our anchor and had a French lady out on her boat several yards away telling us we were to close. We hadn't even let out our line yet so she could even tell where we were going to end up. I informed her we were no closer than the boat next to her and I asked he how much rode she had out. She said they had a hundred feet of chain out. She was anchored in shallow water so we knew she didn't need a hundred feet out. I decided to move slightly back and dropped anchor in 9 feet. We let out 80 feet of rope rode. We settled in and English Mike called asking if he could show us around. He came over and we went into the island to look around. The island was previously a drug lords island so there are empty houses and places scattered around. There's a crashed plane in the water near where we're anchored also. Supposedly it was running drugs and crashed. The story is the Americans raided the island with the Bahamians in order to slow the drug flow. After they caught him he escaped on his was to Nassau due to a large bribe. There's a little club/restaurant that has the usual $10 hamburger and $4 beers. We opted to pass. We went to a creek area where Mike was told to go to get conch. We got a backpack full and headed back. Mike then wanted to go hunting. We loaded up the dinghy and went with Mike and Bali to check and see if there was any available lobster. We could only find very small lobster and few fish. There were people all over in wet suits and gear so it looked like the spot was quite fished out. Ken and I went to the beach and cleaned the conch and added it to the tuna helper substituting the conch. It was good. We noticed later at low tide that we were bouncing along the bottom so I tried to move up to no avail. The tide brought us back up nicely so I'll have to move up a little tomorrow to keep from rubbing my bottom paint off.

3-22-03
After my coffee I put the snorkeling gear on and decided to carry the anchors up instead of doing the whole engine thing. As soon as I jumped in I noticed a five-foot barracuda right next to my boat. It looked like we scared each other equally. I had a good work out pulling the anchors forward with Kenny feeding me line. After we got set I headed back to the boat and noticed Mr.Barracuda hanging out under by boat. Barracudas are quite menacing looking and they make me nervous when they're around. He wasn't going to move so I had Kenny throw me a spear just in case. I went around the boat and he eyed me the whole way. He moved ever so slowly to the other side of the boat allowing me to climb up the swim ladder. I think our scraps from the night before kept him near. Everyone headed out hunting later. A couple from a boat named Jockey Holla called and asked if they could tag along. They're from California. He's a surfer named John and the girl, Gillian, doesn't shave and sings. We all headed out and hit a few spots with not much around. We went around a big rock where it was very rough and anchored the dinghy off a rock. It was about 20 feet so diving was strenuous. Gillian was snorkeling on top and just looking. I saw her waving me over saying they saw lobster. I was skeptic but went over to see. There was a huge lobster on the bottom out in the open just waiting to go to dinner. Gillian asked me to get it for her so I dove down and put him on my spear. Everyone decided to get together for a bond fire. There's a tiny island just off the anchorage with one lonely palm tree and everyone said that's where it should be. They hauled a bunch of firewood out to it and we cleaned up and headed out at dark. The fire was already going and engligh Mike and Bali were there with the four from Alcyone and John and Gillian. We all sat around the fire and talked about how beautiful the little island was and how the stars and anchor lights made the scene. Lizard and Judy showed up and we were all there in paradise soaking it up. Gillian and Brian started playing the guitars and singing. She was quite a bit better than everyone expected and sang like a bird. A small group of three guys showed up that Alcyone had invited. They were on a six day voyage on one of their parents boat so they lacked the camaraderie that us living the actual sailing life had. They didn't know what to think about us. They just hung out and watched. The party went on til midnight and everyone decided to head in in case we leave in the morning. English Mike fell backwards into his dinghy so Bali had to help him to get home. It was a beautiful night.

3-23-03
I woke up this morning and could hear Gillian playing her ukulele, twang, twang. We thought we were going to have a light SE wind but it started blowing SW. This was not good since the anchorage we were going to had no SW protection. English Mike, Bali, Gillian, John, and Lizard all where at our boat talking weather. Everyone just hung out and John took Mike and I over to see his trimaran. It was a 25 footer that looked big in the inside since it had the wings. We looked around and I thought about how I'd feel in it if the seas were big and the wind was howling, not good. We all hung out on Mañana and watched the flock of dingies go out with the guys in their wet suits. There was about five of them traveling together. I like the other places where we're the only ones hunting. Lizard came over with weather maps and the offshore report. Looks like we'll be stuck here in paradise a couple of more days.

3-24-03
It rained all day and everyone just kind of holed up. A front blew through and it felt cold to me. We collected some rainwater and pow wowed about leaving tomorrow. We decided we're all ready to get to a new anchorage. One good thing about cruising is there's always just another anchorage around the corner. I tried to read my weather book and it made me fall asleep. It was just one of those rainy days where you wanted to sleep the whole day. We decided to get up around 6 a.m. tomorrow and head south to staniel cay.

3-25-03
We were all up and ready to go by 7 a.m. We were the first ones out this time with Alcyone, Lizard, jockey holla, and then English Mike following. We had our mainsail up pretty quick and the wind was from the north so things were good. We sailed through some small islands following the waypoints, which there were too many this time. We would head one way for a couple of miles and then change course and adjust the sails on another tack for a couple of miles. We finally got to a stretch where we could just relax and let the autopilot take us. It was a beautiful day and there were a bunch of sailboats going ways, north and south. It's the time of year when all the northerners are heading back home from the winter in the Bahamas. Mañana lead the way the whole time and nobody every got close to over taking us. We were miles ahead and making great time. We relaxed and enjoyed the sail. We hit the last waypoint and headed into the anchorage. We got the mainsail down and Kenny took us into some of the most beautiful water we've been in yet. We anchored in 12 feet of crystal clear water with nothing but sand below us. I immediately jumped in to check on the anchor and enjoy the water. It was just like swimming pool water. Our anchor was buried deep in the sand so we only put one out. The rest of the armada followed in behind us and we all anchored without any issues. We had made the anchorage by 1:00 p.m. We had planned on it taking a whole day just in case of adverse winds. We all got into our dingies and headed into shore. There are a couple of small grocery stores and a yacht club on the island. We walked to the store where we bought cold coke and wandered around. The prices were about as high as everywhere else so we bought very little. We sucked down our cold drinks and all headed back to check out the other little store. This one had fresh baked bread for $5.00 a loaf and I couldn't resist. Ken and I had stroganoff and fresh bread for dinner. Gillian from jockey holla came by and visited for a while and we crashed early.

3-26-03
We got up and I went to Lizards boat to talk weather and Ken went with English Mike and Bali to check out the grotto. It was used in the filming of a james bond movie. I went with John and Gillian after a while to see it also. It was like swimming in a big aquarium. There were tons of colorful fish swimming around you waiting for food. There's no fishing so the ever elusive yellow tail snapper was mocking me. He was huge and I just kept thinking about him on my grill. John took us to look for some lobster in the exuma sound on the Atlantic side. We snorkeled in some water almost too deep to dive in. I found a lobster and took a shot. He was buried deep under a rock and I missed him. I shot a leg off but he got away. It's the first one I've missed yet, oh well. I came back and worked on the boat. I found a little caved in spot and dug out the wood around it that was wet. I filled it with epoxy and used the leftover to fix my flip-flops, leather sandals, and my dinghy wood.

3-27-03
Our little armada of four boats decided to leave staniel cay and move over to blackpoint cay. It was only about 10 miles away but it would give us some southing before the front. All of us but Lizard left around 9 a.m. Judy was feeling sick for the last couple of days and they went to the nurse at staniel. She said she thought it might be due to wearing the seasickness patch so much. She's been wearing it all the time, even when on land so it looks like it might have built up in her system. She's had headaches every day and mood changes. She was thinking about flying home from staniel. We told Lizard he could leave his boat and come with us is he wanted. The wind was strong on our nose and we motored making only 3.5 to 4 knots into the seas. The 10 mile trip felt like an all day one. We made it to blackpoint early and all went in for some chow and sightseeing. All the restaurants would have their food choices on a board with no prices. What's up with that? The prices ranged from 6 to 12 dollars so it was fairly typical for the area. Most of us had cheeseburgers. We stopped at another little spot and bought some fresh coconut bread. It was wonderful and I couldn't keep my hands out of it. Bali was having some problems of unknown origin also so she went to the nurse down the street. We all sat under a big shade tree visiting with one of the locals who had a radio blaring out rush limbaugh. He said it was his office. We all enjoyed the shade and ate coconut bread. The local guys wife came out after a while and we asked her about the coconut trees in her yard. She said we could have some so I climbed up the ladder and got enough for everyone. She brought out some machetes and we chopped them up, drank the milk, and got the meat out. After that we all went for a hike that was about three hours long. Gillian was a big hiker and kept telling everyone the pass was right over the hill. It wasn't. We made it back and settled in for the night. The anchorage had turned rolly so we spent the evening trying to keep all the dished, hardware, halyards, and cabinets from clanking.

3-28-03
We had a squall that kicked early in the morning with winds about 35 knots. The rain poured and howled and we just waited for someone to drag. Everyone in the anchorage stayed put and someone came on the radio and told everyone at blackpoint what a good job all had done anchoring. As the squalls passed we all starting thinking about leaving for little farmers cay. It looked like it had good protection from the north in case we were stuck there for the front. We had little sleep from the night before and Ken and I were both grumpy. We headed out and had good wind so I went to work on getting the sails up. I have a short foresail halyard but I tied it off and went to put it on the sail. When I turned around it had came untied and fallen down. I cursed a little and pulled it down. I'd have no foresail until someone went up the mast to put it back in. I went ahead and put up the staysail and we kept up with everyone regardless. We made it to our next destination and when I dove in and another big barracuda greeted me. I think they hand around boats since people throw food off. Either that or this one's just following me. He watched me watch him and I dove on the anchor. I called Mike and Bali to see if they wanted to go hunting. They came and got me but the place was pretty barren. We found a little rocky spot and speared a couple of red big eye fish for dinner. I invited Lizard and Judy over. I made some homemade tortillas and fish quesadillas. The bugs were bad so we had to cover with off. We had a good time but there was no wind so it got hot cooking in the cabin. Lizard and Judy later found out that the cay we had anchored off of was named dildo cay. They neglected to put the name of it on our explorer charts but it was on their guidebook. He said it was named after the dildo cactus. I'm still curious what that cactus looks like. We decided to leave this barren place at daybreak the next morning.

3-29-03
We got up and headed out at 6 a.m. We got hit with some squalls as soon as we left the pass. I went below to make my coffee and Ken took a shower in the cockpit. After the first squall had passed we put the sails up and caught the wind. We headed south at 5 to 6 knots. The winds died later and we motored along to georgetown. English Mike and john and Gillian made it to geogetown first and headed to redshanks anchorage. Lizard and us got in later and decided not to go as far in as the others since it would leave us about 3 miles from town. We anchored at duck bay just across from town. I dove and set two anchors good in preparation for the front. Lizard came by and we set two anchors for him and then we all headed to town. We saw Mike and Bali as soon as we got there. We all went into town and ate cheeseburgers and walked around town. Everyone was toasting the fact that we had made it to georgetown. I bought half a phone card from john and Gillian. We hit the grocery store afterwards and got ice and came back to the boat for drinks and hot dogs. John and Gillian came by before heading back and then Lizard and Judy came over. We all sat around, had drinks, ate hot dogs, and laughed and joked. The bugs were bad but we just sprayed down with off. Lizard had told us that he'd been keeping track of our mileage on his pc. Ken and I have successfully traveled 1000 miles on Mañana. 

3-30-03
Since it's Sunday everyone decided to stay on their boats since everything is closed around here. I swam to the little island we're anchored off of and went to the top of a cliff. It was a beautiful view. I started talking with a guy named kevin from New Bruinswick Canada. He'd been here for 8 months working. He said he was ready to get back. I told him to swim out and visit if he wanted to after he went snorkeling. He said he only had one day a week off so he hit the beach as soon as he could. The little island has trails all over it and you can easily get disoriented walking them since your in a small jungle and can't see out. I swam around the whole day and got a little too much sun. Lizard and Judy invited us over to have curry for dinner. Ken and I went over at dark and Lizard served up curry, rice, cold coke, and chocolate for desert. It was quite a treat. The front is supposed to pass early morning so we hunkered down for it back at the boat.

3-31-03
The squalls hit at 1 a.m. so I was up checking on everything. We got a good pounding of rain so I opened the water inlets and tried to get it directed to our tanks. They say the water in georgetown is not too good for drinking. Unfortunately the rain stopped too soon and the wind just slowly increased from there. By early morning it was howling at 25 to 30 knots from the NW. We had good protection and even though the wind was howling we rocked very little due to our good spot. We talked about how much nicer it was than when it hit us at highbourne. Lizard and Judy called and were heading into town and asked if we wanted to go. I said yes but later decided to stay on the boat and let Ken go in with them so someone could watch the boats. The wind was still blowing 25 to 30 and I could just see all of us in town and something happening to one of the boats. With everyone gone I sat in the cockpit and dug into a good book. The wind felt cool enough so I had to go put a shirt and slippers on. I checked the temp and it was a chilly 75 degrees. I enjoyed the solitude. When Ken, Lizard, and Judy got back they were soaked. They said the trip over was good but the ride back into the waves got them. Ken had brought back some deserts to have with coffee tomorrow morning. Judy had stopped by the nurse and she her blood pressure was down and she was doing better. Ken called home and gave Bill the address where he needs to send his passport. I told ken to leave me half of the minutes since I have to call home and check in with my mommy. 

4-01-03
After getting to georgetown you realize it's one of those places that kind of grow on you and time passes by quickly while your enjoying the things it has to offer. Town offers everything one might need such as bread, rum, email, phone, banks, hamburgers, and good groceries, albeit at a price. English Mike, Bali, John and Gillian are still over at the redshanks anchorage quite a ways from us so we're not our usual close group. Lizard and Judy are right next to us so we've been going in to town together and eating some dinners together. I've been making tortillas a lot and Lizard and Judy make a special effort to head over for them and eat them while they're hot with butter. Everyone at the anchorage is staying on their boats since it's still blowin like stink and the ride over to town can be quite wet and rough. 

4-02-03
Ken rode into town with Lizard and Judy so he could call and give bill the address to send his passport. One of the main markets in town accepts mail for cruisers and announces on the radio every morning if they have any packages for the boaters. At 8:00 someone comes on the radio and ask if there are announcements. They have categories like business, community, thought for the day, and boaters general. You tell the guy the category and the name of your boat. After everyone had called in he starts calling them off one by one for the announcement. You hear everything from moms bread to people looking for parts to fix a toilet. I called in and asked for books, charts, or general information on the Dominican Republic. Two boaters called me and told me how they just loved it and the people where great. One guy on a trawler called me and said they didn't like it and thought it was dirty. I think they were a little la te dah. One guy had some charts and Lizard and I went to look at them. He was with his wife and two boys who were getting home schooled when we showed up. They had a huge 42-foot island packet boat that was beautiful and expensive. It had to cost quite a few hundred thousand dollars. They were really nice and I always wonder what people like those do for money. They were planning on going to the DR but due to a death in the family they had to go back to the states. He had three large charts of the area so I bought them from him at a good deal. You can never have too many charts I'm learning. When Ken showed back up after going into town with Lizard all three of them were soaking wet. Coming back across the harbor in big waves is such fun. Lizard made a batch of curry and had us over. He broke out the cold coke, rum, and chocolate for desert. 

4-03-02
Ken and I rode into town with Lizard and Judy. Lizard needed to check on his radio and Judy was going to stop by the nurses and check her blood pressure. Ken did some laundry while Lizard and I went by to check with a guy who was selling 100 feet of chain. He was from Kentucky and had a big catamaran. His wife had just flown back and he was going to sail it back by himself. We discussed the price and he said he'd take a $100 for it, which is a good deal. Now I just need to get the 300 lbs. worth in the porta boat and get it back to Mañana. We went back to get ken and Judy and Judy had disappeared. We walked around looking for her for about 30 minutes. Ken and I went digging through a work site looking for something to use as a bracket on the porta boat. I found a strong piece of pvc pipe and thought it would be a good fit. Judy finally showed up and her and Lizard went to check on his radio while ken and I got a beer and sat under the palm tree watching all the people. It was one of those times you just sit back, look around at the crystal blue water, enjoy the warm breeze blowin on your face, and realize just how lucky you are to be there. I always think of that commercial where the guys beeper goes off while he's on his little island paradise and he chunks it in the water, except I don't even have to worry about a beeper.

4-04-03
I went into town with Lizard to drop Judy off and we hit moms bread van. She makes a whole truckload of various goodies and parks in a designated spot every other day of the workweek. She gives you a big hug after you buy something from her. I got coconut bread and tarts. Lizard bought a turks and caicos cruising guide from some guy and it had some dominican republic maps in it. We came back and I worked on putting a bracket together for the porta boat. I cut the pvc pipe, put a slot for the seat in it, and riveted it in place. It worked like a charm. Ken and I headed into town to get some refreshments. We saw English Mike waving from a club so we went over after we got some rum. They invited us over to watch some black adder. We couldn't refuse that. We went over and were just getting ready to watch it when Gillian and john crashed the party. They wanted to know if we were planning on watching black adder without them. We said no way but the disk on the table gave us away so we all watched it and got a good laugh from it. It was fairly late when ken and I headed back so it was very dark and quite a ways in the porta boat. We had plenty of time to try and decided which mast light belonged to Mañana. We headed for the large la te dah boat that was lit up like a gambling boat. It was easy to find our way home since they were right by us. It was a nice ride back and we both enjoyed it.

4-05-03
Ken and I decided to let everyone else go run around while we took a day off. We laid around the boat, ate, napped, and read. English Mike gave me a new book to read called "worlds in collision". It's deep but I'm enjoying it. We gave him our 12th planet book and he can't stop talking about it. I finally got a hold of the guy from Kentucky and took Lizards dinghy to get the chain. He gave me an added bonus of 100 feet of line with it so it was a good deal. We loaded it in the vberth so were set for heavy weather with 300 pounds of chain now. 

4-06-03
Alcyone pulled in today and anchored in the middle of us all. We all stood out on our bows and hollered "your too close" in our best English accent. Alcyones John dove on their anchor and them swam over to Mañana for a visit. We all planned to have another big fire on the beach again tonight. They all went into the little island exploring and Ken and I started collecting wood. We saw some French Canadian women with a bucket of snails and started asking about how they were going to cook them. They said they were just going to put them all in a big pan and throw them on the fire but they had never tried them. They said they'd heard we were going to have a fire so they would probably be joining us. Later we met the men of the group. They were two burly Canadian brothers. Mark was was larger with a full beard. He had flown in with his girlfriend and had been here almost two weeks. The other brother, Martin, was the one with the sailboat and was with his wife, daughter, and son. They were all staying on his 30 foot defour (french built) sailboat. They men had showed up with a 17-pound mutton snapper that mark had killed off his boat. They cleaned and gutted while Kenny I were dragging wood over. Mark showed up with a machete and a beer and started carving his way up the trail. We drug wood down and had a nice pile in preparation for the fire. Mark started giving beer to Kenny and me and telling us how it was. We ended up drinking beers and talking with them until after dark. Everyone started showing up and mark sparked up the fire with some gasoline. He was the reckless one you could tell. Everyone showed up and before long we were all laughing and visiting and Ken and I were relating with the brothers. Gillian tried to sing but the brothers had jimmy buffet playing on the boom box and we all started singing with it so Gillian ended up not trying to compete with four drunk brothers singing and chugging Kalik gold beer, Bahamas finest domestic product. We went back to the boat and later found out that John of Alcyone said something to mark about burning all the wood. Mark made a comment about not seeing him getting any wood. They said everyone just got quite. Mark them continued to go throw a huge stump on his shoulder and carry it to the fire and throw it in. Earlier that day Ken and I messed with the stump a bit and decided we'd need another person to move it easily. Everyone got along the rest of the night and we all had a good time.

4-07-03
Mark and martin were planning on hunting fish today so I told them I was going to join them. I snorkeled over when I saw them out getting ready to go. There were big long barrel looking things under their boat and they told me that's were they speared the big mutton snapper. Someone said you're not supposed to hunt in the harbor but we all want fresh fish. We dove around and chased some big snapper but they were far and few between. We decided to go check out some reefs in marks rented Boston whaler boat. You could just fly in it and pound yourself to death. We hit the reefs and they speared a large grouper. I saw a large lobster and asked mark what he thought since lobster season is over. He said it wasn't a female so lets get it. I had to get it for dinner so I did. We ended up hunting the whole day until I was beat. They had shown me some good tricks since they had been doing it since they were eight. We headed back and mark stopped off at the local place called chat and chills and bought some cold beers. We went and cleaned the fish and I cooked ours up later that night and mixed it with some yellow saffron rice and pigged out on that with lobster. We had tons of leftovers for the next day. It was the first time I can remember eating so much lobster I couldn't eat any more. I thought of my mom.

4-08-03
Ken and I went over first thing this morning and gave Mike and Bali some leftover lobster meat with two tortillas. We invited Lizard and Judy over for lunch. I made fresh tortillas and we used the rice with lobster and snapper for filling. Lizard and Judy brought a large jar of salsa. We all ate until we were stuffed. Gillian came by afterwards and we fed her the rest of the rice mix and she wouldn't shut up about how great it was. It's amazing what a little lobster and snapper can do for saffron rice. Alcyone invited everyone over to play games. Ken was lying on his bed with a pillow over his head so I took the hint and went over without him. We decided to play a game of farkle after I showed everyone how to play. Unfortunately farkle goes real slow when there's nine people playing but we finished and all went our ways to crash.

4-09-03
Today is Kenny's birthday so this morning Gillian announced it on the VHF net that everyone tunes into every morning. Kenny just sighed and said "oh great". He was pretty chipper today since he slept about 12 hours. I had to go into town to cancel my debit card that's disappeared. I took Judy with me and we also needed to check on Lizards engine. I called Ken on the radio and asked him what he wanted to drink for his birthday. He said he wanted some Kalik gold Bahamian beer. I got a case and when we got back Lizard and everyone was gone. I took the dinghy to chat and chill to get ice and the whole gang was there buying Kenny beers for his birthday. We iced down the case and visited with everyone at the outside club/bar. We headed back and went and visited with English Mike and Bali. Afterwards everyone went to jockey holla and gave Gillian and john their turn at entertaining the gang. We came back to Mañana and ate and then I got the great idea of cooking up some fried potatoes and eggs okie style. I did and we ate again until we were stuffed. The wind died down and it was hard to sleep with no breeze.

4-10-03
Lizard and I had to run into town today to check on his engine and then go by another boat that had an inflatable dinghy for sale. The other guy we talked to wanted $450, which is out of my range. After we ran into town and checked to see if kens passport had made it we ran by a boat named "walk about" to check out the dinghy. It wasn't too bad and he only wanted a couple of hundred so I went back to town and got some more money and went by and picked it up. Lizards engine would have to wait another day since the guy practically yelled at him when we went back to ask about it. He said in his heavy Bahamian accent, "I said dis afternoon mon!". We saw Gillian and john on the way back since they had moved over by town. They said they might leave with Alcyone tomorrow if the weather is good. I told them we couldn't leave until ken got his passport so they said they'd check on it later that afternoon after the mail boat dropped off all the mail. We pulled my new inflatable back to Mañana and talked about what we needed to do to fix her up. Kenny was on English Mikes boat drinking beer and visiting so I went over to visit. We looked at old pictures of Mike and Bali. He looked real young. He's got a belly in all the pictures of him after he got to America. He said when he got to Texas he couldn't believe how big the plates of food were. He said he was also taken buy the club where the girl wore little shorts and a big had and had liquor strapped on like a six-shooter. Lizard and Judy called and wanted to know if we all wanted to come over for rum and cokes later. I decided to feed Mike and Bali since she had made curry for us last time. I cooked up a big pan of tuna casserole with lots of fresh garlic and onion. We loaded Mike up with a plate full so he could get his English belly full. He said Bali hadn't been feeding him too much and he was getting skinny. When we were done with him he was bloated. We all went over to Lizards and had rum cake with rum and coke. Mike couldn't even look at the rum cake. Gillian called and said she had Kenny's passport so things are good to go. The wind picked up and it was a nice cool evening and we slept good with our bellies full.

4-11-03
We're all taking about leaving tomorrow so I got up and started getting chores done. I cleaned the boat, topped off the battery water, painted the repairs and various cracks, and have to go up the mast and run the halyard through when ken gets back. Mike and Bali moved over near town so they could do last minute provisioning and fueling. John and Gillian called and they're leaving tomorrow also so it looks like our little armada is in tact. Ken came back from grocery shopping and went up the mast and got the halyard in. I cranked him up to the top with the wind fairly strong. It's scary up there with nothing under your butt but a little board. Mike and Bali came back to the anchorage with john and Gillian. Everyone has agreed to leave in the morning for Conception Island. It's a good day sail away and is supposed to be one of the best places to see. I went to bed early to get a good nights sleep for the trip and early departure.

4-12-03
We were all up at 6:15 and readying to go. We all filed out of the anchorage and followed Mike and Bali. We were all watching for shallow coral heads despite the rising sun. We all did fine until we got to the tricky exit at the north rocks. There are several small reefs and you have to thread the needle. Mike and Bali did a sharp turn and everyone wasn't sure what was up. They were trying to take a different route due to all the coral and we convinced them to follow us out. We all made it successfully out the pass without ramming any coral. We all got our sails up with 15 knots of wind and were on our way. It was a nice day for sailing. We sailed a while until the wind died and we had to motor sail the rest of the way. We hit conception around 2:30 and decided to go to the east side of the island due to expected NW winds. We heard some guys on the radio talking about the wind shifting and going NE and that they were going to the west side of the island. We all started questioning our decision and decided to stick with the plan. We pulled into the anchorage and some of the most beautiful water I've seen yet. I thought staniel cay had pretty water but it's no comparison to this. In 20 feet of water you could count the sand ripples on the bottom from your boat. You can clearly see the dark coral heads spotting the water throughout the anchorage. We all set our anchors without a hitch. We all had a race to see who could get their engines on their dinghy first. Mañana won so I did victory laps around the other boats saying the porta boat was champion. We decided to get to hunting right away so Mike and Bali came over and we headed to some coral. Some guys came by with a bag of lobster and a large amber jack and told us where to go. We all headed over and dove on a large reef. There were fish everywhere and Gillian spotted another lobster just walking along the bottom. Even though lobster season is over I don't believe anyone feels that way when your out in the middle of nowhere and trying to supplement your food supply. I went down and had him on the spear with one shot. Mike got a triggerfish next and Kenny shot one that got away. It was getting late so we all headed in. Gillian told us to take the lobster since it was my birthday tomorrow. Ken and I cooked it up and ate it with curry Bali had made. Mike gave us beers to go with it all. I got up in the middle of the night to pee off the side of the boat and was amazed that I could still clearly see the bottom of the anchorage in the moonlight and hear the waves slightly crashing on the shore. It's truly beautiful here. It was a good day.

4-13-03
Lizard came over and we were talking about moving to the west side of the island in preparation for the wind shift to the NE later today. We took his dinghy to the other side and checked out the anchorage. Things looked good so we beat it back and everyone pulled up anchors and away the armada went. We all hit the anchorage and two boats had fallen in behind us. We picked our spots and were all dug in a matter of minutes. Ken and I got the porta boat and gear ready and went on the hunt. Mike and Bali were close by. Lizard and Judy went exploring down a little river leading into the mangroves with john and Gillian. Since Bali was making curry again we needed fish to put in it so we all started nailing them as soon as we could. We had two buckets of various fish in a short time. I got a grouper and a rock hind, which I'd never shot before. Ken and I went with Mike and Bali and cleaned the fish on the beach. Bali headed in to start working the curry. There's a reef that goes for two and a half miles from the island and is absolutely beautiful. John and Gillian came over and asked me if I wanted to go farther out and check it out. The three of us went a ways out and when I jumped in it was breath taking. It was like nothing I've ever seen in pictures or on tv. It was one of the most beautifully surreal things I've ever seen. We were in about 25 feet of water and the whole area was nothing but massive coral designs. It was almost erie. Huge yellow fingers shooting up from 25 feet from the bottom, surrounded by tons of other kinds of coral. Huge fish everywhere with schools of small purple ones surrounding you. You would just float around and try to take it all in. Your in awe at it the whole time you in it. I'll never forget it since it gave me what we call memory burn. We came back and told everyone about it so everyone said they were going tomorrow. Lizard started giving me beers for my birthday so we all sat around on Lagarta a while and talked. Judy went to help Bali so we got cleaned up and headed over to Mikes boat. We all sat around laughing, telling jokes, eating curry, drinking wine, and having a great time. Bali made some indian bread that was like wheat tortillas. The food and company was wonderful. Mike was exhausted from his day and went to bed early while the rest of us stayed up and talked. We made it back to the boat around 9:30 and slept great.

4-14-03
The sky is cloudy and dark and Lizard and English Mike are discussing weather. Mike had gotten into the weather since he's able to get his weather faxes on his computer. He runs over to Lizards boat to compare notes. He says aspies (assbergers) like stuff like the weather. It started to rain pretty hard so I went outside and opened my water drains and set up a little dam to direct the water into the tanks. We also set up the roof water catchers and filled all our five-gallon holders and several pitchers. We were all going to go see the reef today but just after john and Gillian came by to get us we saw a large waterspout form from under a big ominous cloud. We decided we best stay put. We all watched as another one sprung down from the same cloud. It reminded me of sitting in Oklahoma watching funnel clouds dip down and back up. After the rain let up Mike came by and asked if we were going hunting. We decided to go over to the creek through the middle of the island. The books say you can see sea turtles cavorting there. We had other plans like collecting conch. We made it part of the way but the porta boat was getting beat up so we beached it and walked the rest of the way. It was low tide so most of the creek was out. The rest was covered with emerald green water. We weaved our way down and started seeing conch right off the bat. We started putting them in a little pile and Kenny guarded them since he didn't have shoes on. Mike and I went and walked across the waist deep water the other side and collected some fairly big ones. When we got back Kenny had also found some large ones. We loaded our arms up and headed back to the boat. We got pounded going back while dodging coral heads coming out of the water. We got the cleaning board and knives from the boat and headed to the beach. Mike had previously caught and cleaned conch but he had a whole different style. Conch has a very tough skin that reminds me of walrus skin. He said that when they cleaned it they left the skin on. Ken and me couldn't believe it. We showed him how we had learned to clean it and we pounded several of them out to blacken in the skillet. I told Mike I'd fix them up when Bali came back. Bali went with Lizard and Judy to explore the creek. While we were all waiting I gave Mike some of the blackened conch. He was quite taken by it and said it was the best he'd ever had. I gave Gillian a piece and she wanted john to take her to get some after she had tasted it. I cut up the other conch and make conch salad with garlic, onion, limejuice, and tomato. Mike got all excited when he tasted that also. He's a conch freak. We like it but he absolutely loves it. Some people say it's an aphrodisiac. I can eat it about once a week. Bali came back and I blacked the rest and cooked some saffron rice with it. We all ate it up and decided to go over to Mike and Bali's for an episode of the prisoner on DVD. Lizard was waving a bottle of rum at us as we were getting ready so we stopped by and had a drink and told him to come over to Mike and Bali's. We all watched the first episode of the prisoner and then Mike played the first two episodes of the black adder since Lizard and Judy hadn't seen them. It was a good ay and nice night. We slept good.

4-15-03
We're still surrounded by clouds so it looks like were not going out to see the reef again. Ken and I decided to go explore the island by foot. We got around and headed into the beach. After you walk to the end of the beach there's a little yellow brick road made of yellow pieces of large foam. Obviously someone spent a little time making it. It lead us over to another beach and then to a large rock with ropes hanging down. You climb the rock and get a beautiful view of the coral along with a small shipwreck. The front of the boat is sticking out of the water and the broken off back end is submerged. You follow a trail and it leads to another rock with rope that will take you right over the ship. Off in the distance the other way is a small tropical jungle with thick green growth the length of the island. It's a beautiful spot. We headed back and went by Lizards boat. I promised Judy I'd make her some tuna casserole if they brought their last bottle of red wine over to have with it. They agreed so I cooked up tuna casserole with fresh garlic, onion, and spices. I wanted to put fresh grouper in it but since we couldn't go hunting tuna would have to do. I loaded Lizard up with a huge plate full and he ate until he couldn't move. They brought chocolate for dessert. It was all great. We slept good again.

4-16-03
We woke up to dark clouds again. It seems were right in the middle of a low-pressure system. We all decided it would be another day of rain so we'd stay put. The sky began to clear so we decided to head to the reef. Ken and I rode out with john and Gillian. Everyone else was going to follow us out and tie onto johns boat. We got out a ways and the swells were large. We were looking for the beautiful spot we'd found the other day but couldn't find it again. The coral was still beautiful but we couldn't find the long yellow fingers of coral shooting up from 25 feet below. We all snorkeled around a bit and then the others showed up. We kept looking for the spot for a while and then decided it must have just been a birthday present for me that day. We decided to move closer to shore and smoother water to try and find some good coral heads for hunting. We all started snorkeling around. I tried to be in stealth mode but Kenny was splashing about shooting at a school of small yellow tail snapper. I doubt a grouper would come out with all the commotion. I snorkeled away from him and found a spot where I saw a decent size grouper slide back into a hole. I dove down and peeked into the hole where I could see his back end. I came back up and got a good breath and shot him while he was in the hole. I pulled him out and took him up to the bucket on john and gills boat. Lizard asked me if I wanted him to pull me so I let him pull me along while I looked for good spots. I noticed a much larger grouper backing into a rock so I let go of the rope and floated overhead. He came out for a second and noticed me and went back into the rock. He was 10-12 pounds. I dove down and peeked into the rock and saw his tail slowly wagging back and forth. He didn't see me. I took a good breath and dove down and shot him in the back with my sling. He took off into the rock with my spear and I couldn't hold on. I watched as my grouper and my spear disappeared. I went up and told Lizard to give me his pole spear. I dove back down and could see the sand stirred up near the rock where I'd shot him. I saw him swim out limping so I followed him quickly and got him with the pole spear. I took him up the Lizard and he took him to the bucket and showed everyone the kill. It was be big enough to feed most of us with both of them. I went in search for my spear and found it sticking conveniently out of the rock. All I had to do was slowly pull it out and I was good to go. I continued to search for more grouper or snapper but couldn't find anything else. We all headed back and Lizard and I went to clean the catch. It made for huge grouper fillets. We all decided to go to john and gills boat for potluck. Mike and Bali brought conch salad. Lizard and Judy brought beans and rice. We brought the grouper and gill cooked a huge bowl of pasta. We mixed the grouper with the pasta and all chowed down. It was great. We all watched the sunset along with the full moon rising while there was lighting in the distance. It was beautiful. After we got back to the boat Kenny noticed a huge dark cloud moving our way. We kept hoping it would go the other way but it didn't. It hit us but only gave us moderate winds and rain for about 20 minutes. We went to bed and slept good again.

4-17-03
We all got up and readied to leave for rum cay. We hated to leave conception since we all really liked it there. Everyone took their time since rum is only a short hop away. The wind was very light so there'd be no sailing it though. We all filed out through the deep coral heads and headed towards rum. We arrived in rum and we all took different routes in. Ken and I cut across the shallower water and everyone else stayed farther out. Jockey holla was already anchored as usual when we all got in. Ken and I got frustrated with each other since we were having communication problems dodging the coral. There were only two other boats there so the anchorage was fairly un-crowded. John and Gillian asked me if I wanted to ride in and get fuel with them so I did. As soon as we got to the fuel dock the noseeums and mosquitoes started in on us. The bugs were bad here. The guy at the dock called the local fuel guy and said there were some blow boaters here needing fuel. We went into the new restaurant to wait. There was a guy from California at the bar so john and gill started talking about that. It seems there's some decent surfing in the area. The guy said there's one little store and no liquor stores but you can get liquor from tobys. The fuel guy showed up and we got our $2.75 a gallon diesel. The gas pump was broke so he had to fill a gallon container from the large tank and pour it into the tank for gasoline. Lizard and Judy were out in the channel and one of the guys mentioned the sand bank. Just about then we saw Lizard hit the sand bank in his dinghy and start pulling up the engine. I told the guys at the place that he had a knack for finding shallow water. They pulled up and started slapping at the bugs and getting fuel. I left with john and gill and we stopped by the government dock and walked to the little grocery store. The lady had religious music playing loud on the radio and was sitting at a desk covered with papers. The mail boat had just came in and stocked her up with groceries and paperwork. I bought a loaf of roman meal bread for $3.15 and two packages of cookies and some snickers. My total came to around $10. Mike and Bali showed up and said they were going to tobys so I told them to pick us up some rum. We headed back to the boat. I guess rum cay would be neat for many people but after being at conception we weren't real impressed with it. The water was covered with tiny jellyfish so I really didn't want to get in it. It looked kind of brown coming in also, which I took as sewage or something. We all met and pow wowed about leaving in the morning. We decided we'd leave around 7:30 and head for mayaguana (may-GUAH-nah). It's out there in the middle of nowhere. The guidebook says you can maybe get fuel. There's water from a local well. We decided we'd go to the anchorage with nothing around and use it as a stopover to rest up for the trip to the Turks and Caicos. Kenny decided to make tortillas while we were gone that day so he also made some burrito mix from the hamburger meat Lizard and Judy still had. Mike and Bali showed up with a bottle of rum. They said the guy looked like he'd been sleeping for a couple of days and that it was quite an experience to get rum there. Ken was happy to see the rum. Lizard and Judy came over later and we all pigged out on burritos. The swell is noticeable here and you roll pretty well. We slept pretty well regardless.

4-18-03 to 4-19-03
We got up and started getting ready for the long trip to mayaguana. We pulled the porta boat up and stuck in on deck. I tied everything down I could. The wind was out of the north and was supposed to stay that way for days. That is very out of the norm here this time of year since the trade winds blow from the SE. We all put up our mainsail before we left and then pulled up anchors and headed out. We got all the sails up and the wind was 15-20 knots so everyone was sailing well. We turned off the engines and enjoyed the sail. I spent the first couple of hours tweaking the sails and trying to figure out the best configuration. I have some problems with my foresail and think I need to put a block closer to the bow. We were moving along at 4-5 knots with no problems. Lizard told us we needed to make 4.5 knots to get to mayaguana by late afternoon the next day. Ken napped throughout the day and was not feeling too well due to the roll (and the rum?). He took a seasick pill and held it in until he felt better. Everyone had a lot more sail area than me and it started to show after a while. They all started to pull slowly ahead of Mañana. Mike called and said Bali had gotten a mahi mahi on the line but it broke when she tried to reel it in. I asked them if they turned into the wind to slow the boat when he got on and they said no. A while later Gillian called and was excited since she had gotten a 4-foot mahi mahi and said we'd all have Easter dinner with them. The wind let up and everyone motor sailed into the night. I took our foresail down since it was loudly flapping around and left the main and staysail up. Ken took the first watch and I tried to crash around 8:00 p.m. The boat was rolling heavily so I put the lee cloth up so I wouldn't roll out of bed. I had trouble sleeping with the rocking and rolling of the boat, Kenny trying to tune the radio with static, and Lizard calling on the VHF to tell everyone how close the cruise ship was. I didn't sleep much and it was midnight before long. I got up and checked on our position and could barely see Lizard in the distance in front of us. Ken went to crash and I had to get my leather jacket to keep cool. I'm sure it was in the low 70's. I got in my usual reclined position and watched the clouds, moon, and stars as the hours clicked by. I'd get up regularly and check around for lights and check our position on the gps. Times goes by fairly fast for me when I'm on watch in the middle of the night. I went and checked the clock and it was 4:49 a.m. I got ken up and told him I needed some sleep. I hit the berth and slept on and off until around 8 a.m. I got up and the wind had picked up so I put up the foresail and tweaked the other. We were moving along at 6.5 knots but we heard Judy had cranked up the engine on Lagarta all night so they had made around 7 knots throughout the night. Mike and Bali decided to go a slightly different route to try and make better time. Jockey holla was in the lead again with their fast little trimaran. Ken drank some water, took a seasick pill and tried to lie down inside. He came out of the cabin moments later with his cheeks full and spewed over the side. He laid outside in the cockpit and fell soundly asleep. I put out my fishing line and hoped for a tuna or dolphin fish. The wind had picked up quite a bit and we were healing at 20-25 degrees. I was dying for some coffee so I tried to make it but had a lot of trouble. Everything is difficult when you heeling over. It's hard just to walk or get out of the cabin. I finally got about a half a cup of coffee and went to the cockpit with cookies. I took an aspirin and half a seasick pill with it all and felt pretty good afterwards. The lack of sleep combined with all the motion gets to you after a while. Ken slept until 1 p.m. in the cockpit so he got caught up. We sailed with the motor on throughout the day to make good time. We saw the island and headed to the reef on the east side. The reef off mayaguana is huge. It's five miles so you have to go way out to go around it. There's a large shipwreck with large parts sticking out of the water on the edge of it. I wondered what the story on that was. We headed around the reef and down to the anchorage and had a following sea. It feels like you just went to flat water. The swells slowly lift you and push you forward and it's a wonderful point of sail. It felt like we weren't moving but the gps was telling us 6.5 knots. We let the main out and tied it down and sat back and enjoyed the peaceful ride to the anchorage. We dropped sail and pulled into the anchorage with the other three boats of our armada being the only ones there. We had the anchorage all to ourselves. We were all tired after the day-night-day of sailing with good wind on our beam. The boat was a mess and we went to tidying up. I dove on the anchor and it was lying on rock. The whole bottom of this place is rock. I found a hole and carried the anchor over to it and dropped it in. Just as I dropped my anchor I noticed a 5-foot shark slowly patrolling the area. He startled me and looked my way only briefly before gliding off. I had ken throw me the brush and I cleaned the bottom of the boat a little. I snorkeled over towards Mike and Bali's boat and noticed a beautiful reef right under them. There were tons of yellow tail snapper, schoolmasters, and a couple of eatin size grouper. I was met on the way by several barracuda. Before long there were four of them. I've never seen them in gangs like that. I had ken give john my sling and bring it to me. I went down and took a shot at the grouper but was off target. I think my lack of sleep and state of mind had me that way. I decided to just snorkel around and enjoy the beauty of it all. It was beautiful with tons of fish. It seems they're not as skitty as elsewhere due to the lack of people around. John asked me to check on his anchor so he pulled me over. His anchor was on rock also. We carried his to some sand and set him in. I swam over to Lizards anchor and it was on its side. I dove down and tried to set it but there was rock a half inch under the sand. Lizard thought he'd found the nice sandy spot. I moved his anchor and found some sand to bury it in. I swam over to Mike and Bali's anchor and it was on rock also. I put his in some sand for him. Lizard came over later with a cold beer for ken and me. We sat around and talked about things we did in our younger days. Ken and I had a shower and then some rice with butter and sugar for dinner. We hit the sack and slept like babies. It is a calm and beautiful night. 

4-20-03
We heard Mike telling Lizard he wanted to come over and see his weather pictures this morning. We called them and told Lizard to come get us so we could join the pow wow also. Lizard came and got us and john and Gillian joined in. We were all on valleta (Mikes boat) so Bali made a pot of tea and we all sucked one down. We all decided we'd leave early in the morning and get to the turks and caicos around noon. There's a tricky entrance several miles long through a large reef. We wanted the sun over us to see. The guidebook said to get there before nine due to strong winds but Lizards forecast is calling for light north winds. We all decided to go to the island and walk the beach and then go looking for lobster. We rode in with john and gill. The part of the island we were on is completely uninhabited. There's nobody anywhere. We walked inland a bit and admired the cactus (perhaps dildo cactus?) and some orange vines that are on everything. It was a distinctive landscape with small rolling hills. We came back to the beach and started walking it and looking at all the stuff washed up on it. There was a ton of booze bottles and various plastic containers. The day before Gillian said she had found a washed up blow up doll so we had to check that out! There were old ship parts lying all over and tons of shells and brain coral. Ken found an odd shaped bottle with an anchor on the bottom and decided to keep it. Judy was collection sea beans and shells with gill. We found long poles with radar reflectors on them and strange large plastic containers that looked like something off the space shuttle. Lizard found some Portuguese glass fishing balls. Lizard said they sell for a hundred bucks back home on ebay. Ken found a little container that said Valentines Day 1994 on the SS Norway. It had a little money in it. We wondered what the story on that one was. We figured some woman probably got mad and chunked it overboard. After we got back we headed out to look for lobster. As soon as we got in I started seeing large conch. I told john to let Mike know so he went back and Lizard and Mike were on the way shortly. I showed Mike where they were and he collected them with Lizard. We snorkeled around and ken was showing me the grouper he found. He wanted to get one but we had so much fish from john and gills mahi mahi we didn't need any more. It was all he could do to let them go since they were practically taunting him. Gillian had a spear gun for protection and barracuda was constantly meeting us as we entered their territory. The reefs were beautiful and we all swam over them diving and looking for the spiny tentacles of Mr. Lobster. I dove down trying for a grouper and noticed a large lobster in a huge crack in the coral looking at me. I gave ken my sling and took Lizard's pole spear and got him on it. We put him in a bucket and had something for dinner. Later I brought my blackening seasoning and sliced up the conch on Mike and Bali's boat and cooked it up. We had a ton of food and everyone pigged out to their hearts content. The jambalaya was great. Mike was feeling no pain from alcohol and cranked up the stereo so loud nobody could talk. John was getting irritated and it was getting late so they decided to head back. We all had to get up at 4:30 a.m. so we all headed back and crashed. The moon wasn't up yet and there were a million stars that seemed brighter than usual. We all drifted for a bit in johns dinghy and just starred up at it all. It was beautiful.

4-21-03
Ken and I were up at 4:30 a.m. and gave Lizard his wake up call. Jockey holla was already up and moving along with Mike and Bali. I started readying the anchor and got my killet stuck on some coral. Ken and I fought with it and I finally cut the line and got it up. We pulled up anchor and headed out through the coral in the dark with the moon guiding the way. Everyone filed out and we headed to the Turks and Caicos. We'll have to fly the Q flag and stay on the boat today since it's a British holiday there. We figured it would be good to go ahead and get there so we could all go in first thing in the morning and clear in and sightsee. Mike says he's ready for a good English beer. We've heard the horror stories about the prices so I guess we'll be finding out soon enough. The sail over was nice and we have the wind from the north. We've had north wind for over a week now and it seems really odd since the guide books all assume you'll have SE. I think we're all very lucky to have it and it's made the trip very nice. Ken started felling a little sick and took a pill. I'm below as I write this and he's reading so it looks like there'll be no puking today. We found the channel entrance through the miles of coral reef and easily made it the 10 other miles to the anchorage while dodging black spots in the water. We dropped our anchor in 10 feet near a red boat named oktober. We all got settle in and ken and I had a rum and juice to celebrate the successful anchoring experience. Lizard called everyone and invited them over for cold beers. We all went over and sat around in his cockpit laughing and chatting. Everyone left except ken and I so Lizard got out the beef jerky, chocolate, and spicy slim jims. We pigged out on his snack food while laughing and talking about the trip. Ken and I stayed until 10, which is pretty late for all of us.

4-22-03
Lizard came and got me, john, and Mike to go clear in with immigrations. We dingied over to a green building by the ship dock and took turns going in. It was fairly painless and took about an hour for all of us. We went back to the boat and john from Alcyone was there with a cold beer for everyone. They had gotten there a week earlier and were staying at the marina. The other couple on his boat jumped ship and was heading off to the Virgin Islands. We're still not sure what the story is on that one. His girlfriend's parents had flown in to see her and they were off diving the reef. John's brother comes in tonight so they'll be hanging around for a while longer. They want to go to the DR with us when we leave. He rented a car so he offered to take everyone into town. There were too many of us so ken and I decided to stay on the boat and let everyone else go. It's Judy's birthday today so Lizard is taking her somewhere nice to eat. She said all she wanted was a pina colada. Ken and I relaxed and enjoyed the peaceful anchorage. After everyone got back we all went to Valetta to watch the second episode of the prisoner. It was kind of quite since Mike didn't have any rum or beer.

4-23-03
I got up and went around to all the boats with a big trash bag gill and john had given us. We heard a guy on a big boat over here would take a large bag for a dollar. I went over to check with him and he was out. Mike and Bali were going into town so I told him I wanted to go. They went and got Judy and came by to get me. Lizard is going to try and get fuel. We headed in and headed down the dirt road. After we got on a paved road a guy in a pickup picked us up and took us to the main street. It was quite a ways and I'm glad we didn't have to walk the whole way. We headed off to the grocery store. I stalked up on what would hold us over for another week or so and loaded it into my backpack. We went to the little deli in the store and got peas and rice with pepper steak. It was very good. Mike wanted to go to the computer store so we started walking for another quarter mile or so. Provo is a very new town so everything looks freshly built. There's construction going on everywhere and the traffic is bad. There are a lot of people from Haiti here. I guess they didn't have the local population to do the work and made it easy for people to come here from Haiti. A guy stopped and asked us if we wanted a ride so we all got in only to find our a minute later that he was a taxi. He was also from Haiti and couldn't understand us or we him. We got him to let us our and I gave him a dollar. He just kind of looked at it and smiled. We hit the electronics store and I got a cord so I can try to get weather faxes on my pc. I just need a pc battery now. We're all thinking we can get what we need in the DR. We've all started talking about how we're going to make money there. A guy came by who had just gotten back and was giving us advice on it. He said they were there six weeks, too long for him. He told us about how the agriculture guys who will come out to your boat to check you in will expect a tip. He said he gave them two bucks apiece. He also said they'd try and over charge you for clearing in if you don't check their math. We were planning on leaving tomorrow but after a little pow wow and a look at the weather we didn't see much of a hurry. We finally have the trade winds from the SE again so it would be on our nose if we head out. Our freak north winds have probably left us for good so we're going to have to go into it at some point. The guy that came by said they crossed the turk and caicos banks and it was horrible. He said you need someone on the bow the whole way to check for coral heads. He said they were exhausted after they crashed and it took them a couple of days to recover. We were planning on breaking up the trip and heading to ambergris first. I was looking at Lizards guidebook and it's going to be tricky getting in and out of ambergris due to the coral. From there we plan to go the big sand cay and wait on weather before heading to Luperon. The guy that came by said he'd just bypass the bank and gave us a round about way he said he'd go. You'd need really good winds to go that way so I don't think we'll be using his route. He said he saw whales on the way back from Luperon. When we got back to the boat Kenny was making tortillas. We told Lizard and Judy we'd made burritos from the leftover mix in their fridge. Ken and I were entertained for an hour or so when several beautiful girls in small bikinis showed up on the beach with five large black dogs. They slowly strolled up the beach swimming and posing for all the boaters. I had to go for a swim after that. Lizard and Judy came over and we sat in the cockpit with the lantern on and enjoyed the evening.

4-24-03
Lizard called and said they were going into town again so I told Kenny he should go the check it out. I could use a day by myself on the boat to get things done also. Kenny went in with Lizard, Judy, Mike and Bali. I went to work on changing my oil, fuel filter, and tightening my alternator belt. Afterwards I filled the holding several times to clean it out. I cleaned while the covers were off the engine and finished last night's dishes. For some reason I wanted to eat all day so it was snack time after every task. After I had finished everything I scanned the beach with my binoculars and got hours worth of entertainment from three topless girls posing for each other with the digital camera. Everyone made it back and we all met on Mañana and talked into the night. Everyone was awful mellow and that's how the night went.

4-25-03
We've all decided that we're ready to go. Mike came by and gave us all copies of the current weather pictures. It looks like we might be here a few days before leaving. Ken and I decided to just kick back and read a little. Everyone has decided to stay onboard and wait on a good weather window.

4-26-03 
A few of the group decided to go into town but ken and I are done with it. We hung out on the boat and did piddley work and read. Lizard came by and got us to go check out some carving on rocks at the top of the hill overlooking sapodilla bay. It was a very short hike and there are name and initials with dates as old as 1786 or around there. There was one with the carving PALESTINE and a date around 1800. Someone said that that was the name of a ship that had wrecked here. After we checked out the hill we went and checked out the abandoned hotel below the hill. The place looked like it had been built too early and was here before the people to fill it. It was nice and had a lot of potential but needed some tlc. Alcyone invited everyone over for drinks so we headed over at dark. It's Bali's birthday so they had already been to Lizards boat having drinks and were at Alcyone having a good time. We sucked down some rum and cokes and everyone visited and chatted. It was a good time and ken and I were the last to leave.

4-27-03
Ken and I slept in later than usual and then I just took it easy and read a while. Everyone is supposed to go to the large boat called Island Diver tonight for drinks and a movie. We're all kind of mellow since we stayed up late and played on Alcyone. Lizard took the guy from the island diver in to get beer, ice and supplies. His boat is a large trawler. He uses it to live on and take large groups of people snorkeling and sight seeing. The girl and guy from Norway were staying with him while the boat they were on is having engine work done. She's quite attractive and gave us some distraction from the normal group. Everyone kept telling us that she's looking for a ride to the DR. I think that would cause quite a bit of tension on Mañana. We all sat around and visited. Another group of boats traveling in the same direction as us showed up also. There are three boats and they're heading to the DR. We all talked about our plans and how best to do the trip. The guy showed a video of him and others with a famous dolphin named jojo. It seems he's taken to humans and likes to interact with them. It was neat to watch him and added to the already attraction we humans have to dolphins. We all headed back early and had a pleasant evening.

4-28-03
Lizard came by at 8:45 with Mike to give us a ride to the dock so we could all walk down to immigrations and clear out. John of jockey holla was with john of Alcyone. We all got cleared out and stopped by the abandoned aquatic center and bought bread. I went with john of Alcyone to the top of the hill to look at the rock carvings and film them. He blew out a flip-flop. Ken and I changed the fuel filter and then the oil on the dinghy. We pulled up anchor and headed to French cay. We all made it there easily with no coral and enjoyed the trip. We all anchored and started diving on our anchors. Nobody was set. There was rock and shallow sand everywhere. It took me a while to get us set and I set our other anchor also. I went and dove on Lizards and couldn't find anywhere to set him so he took me in the dinghy and I dove and found a spot for him to set. Alcyone and jockey holla both went out to where he was and re-anchored. I snorkeled around and got several big conchs and cleaned them on the boat. Ken pounded them and we had blackened conch and saffron rice with peas. It was good. We stayed put and enjoyed the pleasant evening and slept well.

4-29-03
We got up and left French cay around 9:00. We probably should have left a little later so we'd have better sun to see the coral. We began by having Mike and Bali lead the way and tell us about coral they would spot but that didn't work too well. Since everyone is concerned about their own boats you're going to be out on the bow looking for coral heads regardless. So we all headed across in light winds doing about 5 kts. The wind picked up a little and everyone put some sail out. I was monkeying with a light wind technique that I had read about and it worked pretty well. You lift your boom up with your topping lift and create a large blouse in the sail and tie the sheet over to the opposite side of the tack. We were up to around 5.5 kts and getting ready to pass Lagarta. He had his huge jib out with no mainsail. He was sitting on top of his rat lines with his autopilot on remote control dodging coral. At one point I went below to help ken with the head valves and came out to see Lagarta barreling down at us about 50 feet away. I hollered for Judy to bear off and she shut down the autopilot. Lizard couldn't see us for his big sail. We'll tell everyone later how he tried to kill us. The last quarter mile of the trip had numerous coral heads poking just below the water. We weaved through and set our hook once and then moved because we were too close to some coral. Ken and I snorkeled around the coral and pointed at all the large snapper we'd see. Lizard and Judy came over later with our hot dogs they'd been keeping in their ice box and we all had chili dogs. John and Gillian went to Alcyone to eat with them and I wondered if Mike and Bali felt left out. They had been eating conch since breakfast and had just finished some more. Everyone was invited to Alcyone to watch black adder so we all headed over there at dark thirty. We watched three episodes and everyone was kind of quite. I think everyone was just in a mood. We headed back and the breeze was light but it picked up later and we slept well.

4-30-03
Soon after we got up Mike asked if he could come over and visit. He came over and asked us if it was just him or did we feel that there was tension on Alcyone when we were all there last night. We told him we just thought it was everyone's mood. We also told him we were concerned that him and Bali would feel left out because everyone was paired up but them. He said they did. We told him that it was nothing personal on our part and that he shouldn't feel that way. We talked to Lizard about the six of us getting together and having a big spaghetti dinner. We told Bali not to cook and everything was set. The wind kicked up pretty good and it started getting rougher. Ken and I took Mike and Bali and went to look for a good spot to snorkel. We ended up back near our boat and got our slings out. Ken and I had discussed snapper for a lunch snack before the big dinner. We all snorkeled and hunted for hours. Mike speared a snapper but it was in the soft part of its belly so when I tried to get it to the boat it got off and swam away. After several hours I got a decent size lobster and Kenny suggested we barter with it. I had another one not to long after that so Kenny made a deal with Alcyone to trade two lobsters for a bottle of rum. We figured it'd be nice to have with the big dinner. I finally got a decent size snapper and after about three hours in the water came back to the boat and cooked it up. Ken and I ate it and then started getting ready to made spaghetti sauce. We had a bunch of cans of meatballs ken had got from work so we were ready to contribute. The wind really kicked up so we decided to eat on Mikes boat since he didn't have a motor on and it would be very hard to get to Lagarta. We made our part and all met on Valetta to eat. It was a great meal and we all sat and visited for hours. When we were ready leave tragedy struck. Porta boat and my engine were not where I had left them. I was freaking out. I had tied it as securely as I always did, I thought. It was pitch black and the wind was howling at 25 knots away from the island. We had the big light out trying to spot the little boat among the vast space and white caps. It was nowhere to be seen. I got a sick feeling in my stomach, you know the kind. We had heard about other people losing their dinghy but I never thought I'd be one of them. Lizard offered to go out and look a little but this place is covered with shallow coral heads and with the wind and white caps it would have been foolish to go out. I had him bring us back to Mañana and I lay there and went through all the, I should haves, and what ifs. I figured my only hope was if the rope or the engine would hang up on some coral nearby and we would be able to see it in the morning light. The prospects were not good and I knew it. I didn't sleep very well.

5-01-03
I was up before the sun with my binoculars looking for some trace of porta boat. It seemed a dreary windy day. The wind had even picked up more and it was hard to focus with the wind howling and the boat moving so much. I sat on top of my hard top and scanned the horizon as the sun was coming up. I couldn't see anything but white caps and space. It didn't look good and my hopes started fading rapidly while the depression set in further. Lizard called early and asked me if I wanted him to take me looking. I told him I couldn't see anything with the binoculars and that going out in this weather wasn't going to help much. I had hoped the wind would die down and we'd have at least some sort of chance. The wind was blowing the wrong direction all night also away from any land. The boat was probably to French cay by then. Gill and john came by later to give condolences and talk about karma and all that crap. Ken and I shared our depression over it and I'm sure mine is worse since I'm the one who tied it off. Lizard said it was like losing a friend. You grow a little attached to your dinghy out here. It's your little lifeline to shore and everywhere else and has its own personality. Lizard and Judy went into the island and tried to ask the couple of people on the island if they could ask the pilot flying in on the little plane to keep an eye out. Fat chance but it's something and he's trying to help any way he can. We got on the radio again and asked anyone who could hear that there was a reward for returning it. If some fishermen find it they'll just take the engine and probably sell it and toss the boat. I don't have much hope at this point. I'll have to try and find a cheap outboard in Luperon and chalk it up to a costly personal lesson learned. I have to also remember that the trip has been awesome and we've had very little tragedy involved. It's just a material loss and I will try not to dwell on it, but its hard not to.

5-02-03
Everyone is still waiting for a good weather window to get us to big sand cay. Every time we thing we're going to have it it goes away and we get strong SE wind. We all meet on the radio and get the various reports on the faxes everyone has received. We decided to start on the new dinghy and repaired a patch in an effort to start getting it ready. We need to put the rub rail back on now and we'll be ready to use it. It came with paddles so we'll be able to get around at least. I called Lizard this morning and asked him if he wanted to go hunting. It helps if there's someone in a dinghy there for you when you kill a fish. I thought it would also help me keep my dinghy loss off my mind. Ken pulled a muscle in his back or something and has been sighing all day so I know he doesn't want to go. Gillian came by and gave him some muscle relaxers or something to help. Lizard came and got me and took me to some heavy-duty coral. It was quite impressive. I saw a reef shark as soon as I was in but there were tons of fish and I wanted some for dinner. Once I get out there I could just stay all day admiring the scenery and chasing and shooting at fish. We were out there for several hours and Lizard got burned but we came back with a hogfish, grouper, and several small lobsters. I saw a huge mutton snapper that had to have weighed 50 pounds. There would have been no way to get him in the dinghy and he would have probably drug me all over reef. I got a little beat up on the reef and ended up with several new chunks of skin donated to the reef. I need some good gloves. I kept thinking about my hands bleeding and the sharks swimming around but they never seemed too interested in getting too close. I also worried when I'd spear a fish and he'd get away. I felt like I was chumming so I'd head off to a new spot if there were any bleeding fish around. When I did get one I'd head up fast and hold him out of the water and yell for Lizard. Ken was feeling better when I got back and was up to dinner with Lizard and Judy. I gave my grouper to john and gill. They're going to fillet it and share it with the Alcyone guys. I gave a freshly steamed lobster to Mike and Bali and we took the rest to Lizard and Judy's boat. Lizard made some Creole stuff we put all the lobster in and we had the hogfish as an appetizer. The hogfish was one of the best fish I've tasted yet. The meat is very white with a good consistency. It was delicious. The Creole was great also and we had a nice time eating it and having rum punch. Everyone else was on Alcyone just chatting and visiting. We were planning on leaving tomorrow so we headed home fairly early. I'm starting to feel better about my dinghy but it still bothers me quite a bit.

5-03-03
We didn't have the weather window we'd hoped for so we're all here for another day at least. Mike, Lizard, john, and gill all came over and we discussed the weather and learning Spanish for the DR. I listened to some of my Spanish tape after I got up and did a little studying. I have a little notebook where I'm writing all the phrases I think I'll need. It looks like we might be here tomorrow and leave the day after. The weather is kind of fluky and it's been changing quite a bit every day. There's a trough over us and causing some unsettled stuff. We just have to check it several times a day and wait for the right time. Later gill came and got me, Mike, and Bali to go hunting. We found the reef and gill got a lobster right off the bat. I got two hogfish not long after. We all saw a small shark but nobody was too worried. I showed Mike where a lobster was so he could go and get it. He went down and poked his spear at it and it retreated. I told him not to do that because they'd go and hide he needed to just shoot it. I ended up getting it and it was a little one. I got four hogfish and a little lobster. I saw Mike shoot a grouper and it got away and Bali shot at a couple of fish but didn't get them. All of the sudden I saw a large shark around eight feet and looking hungry. Mike was diving down and I caught his leg and pointed at it. Mike, Bali, and I slowly swam away towards the boat and about then gill saw it. She spazed out and jerked around and swam frantically towards the dinghy. Of course this caught Mr. sharks attention and drew him closer to her. Mike, Bali and I swam slowly to the dinghy while keeping our spears out to fend him off if he decided to get too close. We all made it safely to gills dinghy and she was white as a sheep. We hit some smaller rocks and I shot at an amberjack, which I've been unable to get as of yet. I hit him in the jaw but the spear only went in a little sideways and he swam off with my spear before leaving it shortly there after. I saw Mr. shark cruising the shallows and was cautious. I got another shot at a large amberjack and hit him perfectly. He shot off with the spear in him and gave me quite a chase. I was looking around for Mr. shark while I chased him. I finally got hold of my spear with him on it and was amazed at how strong he was. He was pulling me around with my spear in him. He was about an 8-10 pounder. We got Mike and Bali, who had each got a lobster, and we headed back, gill still looking pale. I filleted the fish and took some of the hogfish and amberjack to Lizard and Judy and Mike and Bali. I gave Gillian a hogfish for taking me so they had that and some lobster. I cooked up the fish in some olive oil and seasoning and it was great. Mike and Bali came by later and helped me set up my weather fax and finish the large plate of fish ken and I couldn't eat. It looks like there might be a weather window in a day or two. It was a good day and evening.

5-04-03 to 5-5-03
I got up at 8 and started trying to get the weather fax. It wouldn't come in clear but I could manage to get the part of the map we were in. It looked like the winds would lighten up a little tomorrow and the next day so we all talked about going to big sand cay that day. We all decided we were ready to get out of there so we'd take the shot and head there today. Everyone readied their boat for the day trip and before long we were pulling out of ambergris cays heading SE again. The wind was blowing more east this time so we all got our sails up and sailed up and around the fish cays before heading SE. After we rounded the corner the wind was around 20 knots and right on our nose if we headed to big sand. Lizard called on the radio and said he was playing around with the Luperon waypoint and if he headed at 158 degrees straight for Luperon the wind was good to sail. We all started contemplating just going for it. I threw my vote in along with Mike and Bali and in a matter of moments the decision had been, we were off to Luperon. If we could average 4.5 to 5 knots we'd get in around 8 a.m. The seas were fairly large but with our angle they weren't too bad. We just hoped our wind east of south would hold out. After a while the rough ride made us take a seasick pill just to be safe. Ken took two and concentrated on not puking. We watched Lagarta start burying her bow into the waves. The day was fairly easy and we just kicked back and talked about getting to Luperon. The ride was bumpy and I knew sleeping was going to be difficult. As we got into the night the wind kicked up to 25 gusting higher and the seas came up with it. We started getting a wind a little more south and started taking lots of spray over the boat. Then we started taking a wave every now and then. Ken and I had to dress up in our foul weather gear to stay dry. As the night went on the seas and the wind were not kind to us. I had to go to the bow and arrange everything all my anchors and rode so they wouldn't get thrown off the side. I was strapped to my jack line with my harness on and was getting tossed around pretty good. Everything in the cabin had been thrown on the floor at some point. Ken napped off and on until around midnight. The one good thing on that leg of the trip was I saw the southern cross for the first time. I was lying there getting sprayed constantly and could see it low in the southern sky. I kept staring at it and couldn't ever remember seeing it before and thinking about how neat it looked. Ken woke up for a bit and I asked him if that was it. He said he thought you couldn't see it until you get further south. We asked later and that was it. I tried to go lay down on the floor, since I was covered with salt water, to get some sleep. I was getting lifted and thrown down on the hard wood so I was not going to be able to sleep. I got back up and went and tried to lie down in the cockpit. We were heeling over and getting bounced, sails were flapping, and waves would loudly slap the side of the boat before covering us with the spray. It looked like it was going to be a long night. As we got closer to Luperon the wind went more against us. I kept adjusting the sails and autopilot to keep on course. We could see Lagarta and jockey holla throughout the night but Valetta and Alcyone were far ahead. As the day began to get light we could see the mountains of the Dominican Republic. After sailing all night just getting some daylight always makes you feel better, and being able to see your destination. The wind and waves pounded us all the way to the final waypoint. We kept waiting for that island calm we had read about in the guide but it never materialized. We watched the boat in front of us go in and ken and I argued about the best way to approach the anchorage. We were both short with our lack of sleep. We got into the anchorage and it looked crowded. We anchored once and felt too close to the boat behind us. We got the anchor up and it was covered with some of the muckiest crap I've seen yet. We anchored again and someone came and told us we'd be aground if we stayed there. John from jockey holla came by and told us there were some good spot by the dinghy dock since we'd be rowing in. We headed over and finally got anchored. I was exhausted. We went through our usual put everything up process. I took the foresail off and saw that we had blown out two of the hanks that hold it on. We faired better than jockey holla since his whole mainsail got shredded on the trip. Lizard had a leaking solar vent over their vberth and soaked all Judy's cloths and bedding. A local guy came by and asked if we needed any fuel. Ken said no but we needed cerveza and a flag. He came back with a DR flag and two large ice-cold Presidente beers. A couple of more guys came by and inspected the boat and asked about agriculture stuff. After my beer I took a kettle shower and decided it was time to get some much needed sleep. While I napped the immigration guy came by and ken took care of that. The cost of clearing in total was around $90. I slept from around noon until 4 and felt much better. We all decided to meet for dinner. Ken and Mike had gone in to town and got some cigars and another beer while I slept. We all met at the dock for dinner and headed to town. As we walked I had my first taste of the DR. The people were sitting outside their modest places. I could see some with dirt floors and of course there were chickens. The road was narrow with lots of moto conchos, little motor bikes. Most of the people are an african-european-indian mix which give a large variety in looks. It was very interesting walking along the street and looking into the shops and houses that were all sparsely done. We all exchanged some money and went to aqui lucas for dinner. We all ate like pigs. We had rice and chicken, salad, beans, fries, and large beers. Our whole dinner ended up costing us around $7.00 a piece. We were all amazed. English Mike said we were rich. We stopped in a little grocery store on the way and oohed and ahhed at the cheap prices. Ken got a bottle of local rum for $3.00. The exchange rate is 24 of theirs to one of ours, oh yea. We came back and smoked a cigar and slept like the dead until the next morning.

5-6-03
We got up and headed in for breakfast at bahia Luperon. A Belgium guy named Patrick owns it. It seems to be one of the hangouts for boaters. Lizard and Judy came by and got us since we're still dinghyless. Ken was celebrating and had a large Presidente beer with breakfast. I had fried eggs, potatoes, bacon, coffee, and juice for around $4.00. It was wonderful. I headed to the Internet cafe after breakfast and spent and hour or more catching up with everyone. It was nice being able to take my time and not be charged half a dollar or more per minute to be online. After that we ran into Mike and Bali and he let us know the lady at the port office was looking for us since we still had to pay the $11.00 fee to use the anchorage. We needed to get copies of the boat documentation also for her so we sent Bali with ken and Mike and I went to take care of business. I'm sure Mike didn't want to take long since ken was well on his way to a party day in town. We spent several hours getting that done and I kept talking with the lady about Spanish and buying a moto concho and Mike was getting mad because he said we'd be done if I'd quite talking to her. I figured I might as well make as many friends as I can right up front. We finished up and walked down the main street looking for ken and Bali. We found them in a little corner place drinking beers, listening to music, and talking with Sammy, a guy they had met who spoke good English. Sammy sold his goods at the resort nearby. He made necklaces out of shells and amber and stuff. He seemed like a nice guy and was offering his scooter to us if we needed to borrow it. Ken bought a necklace from him. He also gave us a bunch of local info on where to go and what to see. We walked back toward the bay and I stopped and talked with some kids at a little worn out building with a sign that said centrol americano spanish-english-french and something else on it. It was a small language school. The teacher came out while I was there and heard me trying to talk with one of the kids. She asked me if I wanted to come inside and talk English with her class. Her name was Libby. I said sure and headed into class. I sat in class and talked with Libby a bit while all the kids looked on and stared at the gringo in class. She said that she needed to speak more English but I could understand her. She only taught younger students because of her need to improve her English. I was there for quite a while and enjoyed it. The kids laughed and asked me questions like, "what is you mothers name" and "what is your favorite fruit". Libby asked me if I wanted to come back tomorrow and I said sure. Lizard wanted pizza so we found went to the star restaurant and ordered up. One on the little boys from the class named Jacksuer found us and we waved him over. I introduced him to everyone and we all started practicing our Spanish with him. He was a great kid and sat there with us for at least an hour and talked with us while waving his hands wildly while trying to communicate. The pizza was great and we headed back, ken with a final beer in hand doing the Presidente shuffle. I think he'd had his limit. We made it back to the boat and slept good again.

5-7-03
I heard ken getting up and down chugging water and taking aspirin in an effort to get rid of his fat head from the day before. I got up early so I could re-anchor before the wind came up. I pulled up the small anchor I had set and went to work attaching my new chain to the big bruce anchor. Ken finally got up and around and slowly began to give me hand knowing I needed it. We cranked up the engine and move a short distance away where I set my big anchor and chain. The other area was a little too shallow and even though we didn't go aground we were too close to the bottom for comfort. If the wind swung just right we'd be on it. After setting the anchor I went to work on getting the dinghy aired up. Ken and I spent some time trying to get the large dinghy in a spot on deck we could work with it. We finally aired it up and heaved it over the side with a halyard. Ken could hear air and sure enough there was a split in it at the front. We'd have to haul it out and patch it tomorrow. We were still dinghyless. Lizard came by and got us and took us into town. We went and had a much-needed cheeseburger at bahia Luperon. Patrick did it up right and it was wonderful. We had fries and I had raspberry pudding for desert. I was stuffed to the gills, we all were. We decided to walk some of it off and went off exploring. It was siesta so most of the places were closed. We went down a side street and saw a large very nice house with fighting cocks in the yard. Judy waved and the woman invited them in to look around. Ken and I sat on the corner. Lizard said the woman showed them every room in the house and then they sat around and visited. Ken and I went off to check other things out. We walked around and Lizard and Judy found us. We bought some coconut deserts that melted in your mouth from some locals on the street. I could have made myself sick on them. We checked out the bakery and saw some pan pizza that looked wonderful. We couldn't even think about food since we were still stuffed. We checked out the local marine store that is owned by a couple from South Africa. Ken and I like hearing her voice on the radio. It's tiny and the prices for used stuff were as much as for new in the states. We went back to the boats for a while and then Lizard told me he'd come get me for school. He came and got me and dropped me off and I walked down to the little school again. They welcomed me again and there were several new people around. Libby was there with another younger cute teacher. She could speak better English and she asked me all the, "are you singly" and "do you want to marry a Dominican girl", questions. She was sweet and we visited in class and I answered questions for everyone again. She was the other teacher and there was another class of different people. After talking with the teacher a while I asked her how old she was and she was only 17. I told her she was too young to be a teacher. After an hour or so Lizard, Judy, and ken showed up.

5-8-03
We went into town with Lizard and Judy again and headed to the star restaurant for a philly cheese steak sandwich. We visited with john while he made the sandwich and he continued to fill us in on local knowledge. The philly cheese steak was great but ken and I halved it so we decided to get a hamburger to half also. It was great too. Everything we eat here is great. We walked by the school and they invited me in and asked ken if he wanted to sit in and help the other class. I was in the class with the younger kids and could hear ken telling the class next door about being from Oklahoma and his name and his mothers' name. All the stuff they seem to ask is the same. After my class Libby asked me if I wanted to go to the other class and I said ok so I went and helped with another teacher. She was quite young and cute and it was more difficult to assist her for exactly that reason. She kept teasing me asking me if I wanted a girlfriend and if I liked her. That didn't make it any easier. After school ken and I went to the celebration at the park and sat around and had beers and watched all the people and visited with the kids we had met from school. I decided to try the chicken at the little booth in the park. There were strips of meat hanging from ropes and deep fried chicken on the table. She made me up a plate with yucca and onions. It came to 30 pesos or about $1.20. It was awesome and after ken tasted it he wanted some. We sat around for a while longer and enjoyed the scenery and the warm breeze in the park. Lizard and Judy showed up and Judy had to try the chicken. After she ate the plate she made Lizard go back and get another plate. She loves fried food. We headed back with our bellies full and slept great.

5-9-03
Ken and I rode in with Lizard around lunchtime. We spent most of the morning visiting since Mike, john from Alcyone, and Gillian were over on the boat most of the morning. I had to patch the dinghy again since the one from yesterday just fell off. I don't know what the problem was but I couldn't get the damn thing to stick. Some guys who use to work on dinghys said he hasn't found anything that would stick well here. Don't know what's up with that. Must be the hot sun or something. The special at the estralla restaurant was spaghetti with meat. Since the guys who own it are from philly they cook some good Italian. Lizard came by and we took him in and came back and got ready. We headed in to the chow. We had ordered and were enjoying a beer when some semi hooker looking girls made eye to eye with us. They came over and asked if they could sit by us. Not 30 seconds after that we got our big plates of spaghetti. Ken said he couldn't eat with them staring at us. One of them passed a coke bottle and knocked over kens beer all over him and his spaghetti. The glass broke and ken wasn't sure if there were any glass shards in his spaghetti. He just jumped backed and said Shit real loud. I think it startled them. They didn't speak any English. I asked the waitress to ask them to give us about 20 minutes to eat. They didn't understand too much but they moved over to the table next to us. It was kind of uncomfortable now but ken and I continued to try and enjoy our lunch with them looking any way. Ken saw Judy and ran after her and called her over to act like we were with American girls. Judy stayed a bit and they finally left. I asked the waitress if she thought it rude of us and she said they were tigers anyway and we should stay away from them. After that the younger guy named john at the restaurant talked about messing with local sleazy girls and said if we did everyone in the little town would know and we could kiss our chances with the good girls goodbye. He told us that if we wanted to do that we'd need to go to Puerto Plata or Santiago that way nobody knows you. He sounded like he was talking from experience. He said one of the girls that sat with us was working about five or six different guys at any given time. After lunch ken and I headed to the cock fights. Lizard was supposed to be there but when we got there, there wasn't any fighting going on and we couldn't see Lizard so we didn't go in. We headed to the little corner place where Kenny had drunk beers and met the guy named Sammy. The lady there is the one who fed him and was taking care of him. She's kind of like one of those psuedo mamas (mamasita). She welcomed us there and we had a beer. We met a guy named Carlos there who was a detective. He showed me his license from Miami but he spoke very little English. I guess you don't have to in Miami. He spoke with us a while and talked about his child in the school across the street. He's been back here for several months. He asked us if he could come to the boat to visit, we said sure. He asked if we would feed him, we said sure. He was warning us about the local women and said a lot of them are just gold diggers and that they'd clean you out. It's different here because you don't have to be rich for the money hungry girls to like you, you just have to be American and they think you are. Two girls pulled up on a moto conch and one was quite cute. Her name was Rosa. Carlos said what sounded like a warning to us about the girls. We started talking with her and even though she had a slightly rough quality to her ken and I liked her. She couldn't speak English but understanding is getting easier every day. She had been Maried to a French guy and had a one-year-old boy. She lived in a town about 20 kilometers away named Imber. She invited us to her house to visit. We told her we'd come visit her. I asked Carlos later why he said she was bad and he said he didn't mean that. He introduced me to his mother in law and little girl and invited me to his house. The people here are that way. They all seem happy go lucky and very welcoming if they like you. What's funny is there are people on boats here that never associate with the locals and spend all their time an the marina and with Americans. There are people who have been here over a year and don't speak any Spanish. What's up with that? They have no idea what they're missing. These people are great. Before we left mamasita introduced me to her daughters. One was older with a little boy and one was 16. They were both attractive and spoke no English. I tried to talk to them but the two large beers were making it more difficult to speak Spanish. As we were leaving mamasita asked us to come to lunch tomorrow. She said they were having rice, chicken, and beans, the national food. We said ok and headed to town. We went to the celebration in the park again and enjoyed the chicken, yucca, onions, and beer once again. Small children once again surrounded us, some from school some not. Our mamasitas daughter saw me and come over to say hi. She was kind of strange in that when I'd try to talk to her she'd kind of smile and nod but wouldn't try to talk Spanish back to me. She must have just been shy or socially inept. She hung around a while and then got called off. Later on a few of our flotilla showed up and there was a meringue contest to watch. They were very good dancers. Later one of the girls from class named Katharine took me over to introduce me to her cousins soon to be white husband. He looked like Robert Duvall. Her cousin was quite young and attractive. He said he'd lived on his boat for 18 years and was taking it back to the states soon to sell so he could buy a house here. I guess I can understand why. We headed back to the boat around 10 and I got up later that night to water the bay and could still hear music coming from the park.

5-10-03
Ken and I started working on attaching my rub rail to the dinghy early. I put the 5200 sealant all along the area and waiting a bit for it to get tacky. We started putting the rubber rub rail on and it wouldn't stick for anything plus we couldn't get it to stay without moving. We kept working with it for about an hour until us and the boat were both covered with white 5200. I was getting frustrated and about to throw the whole rub rail into the bay. I had to cut it in half to work with one side at a time. I just put it on the deck and had to wait for it to get tackier. After another hour or so Lizard and came by and they were going into town to rent a moto concho and drive around outside of town. I took them in and came back to work on the rub rail some more. After several hours and some pieces of rope we finally got it to stay but it didn't look very pretty and didn't seem like it would last long after we got it in the water. Ken and I had finally had enough and got cleaned up and headed in for dinner around 6. We decided to try a little place they call the chicken shack. It's a little blue shack with a few tables, a tv, and the older woman cooking over an open flame. We ordered up the chicken, yucca, rice and beans. We got two large plates full of food with a large bowl of beans. It was the best meal we've had since we've been here. The beans were wonderfully flavored and the chicken was fried to a golden crispy dark brown. KFC has nothing on this lady. We ate until we were about to pop. Ken went to pay and were amazed that it was only 40 pesos per person, under two dollars. We rolled back to the boat and lit up two nice dominican cigars and layed in the cockpit and talked about life and Luperon.

5-11-03
I slept in this morning and didn't get up until 9. Lizard showed up soon afterwards to take us to the swap meet they have at the marina every Sunday. He decided to take his folding bikes and see if he could unload them. They quite expensive in the states, usually several hundred dollars apiece. He's got the high dollar stainless steel ones and was asking $450 for both. We got there and there were all the local boaters but not much for sale. I think it's just a reason for the people here on boats to get together and start drinking beers early. I had coffee with Judy and watched one of the local boaters giving haircuts. She said she'd done hair for 33 years and asked ken if he wanted a haircut. He said he had someone to do it and she got a little defensive telling him about all her experience. Them hairstylist are so sensitive sometimes. One guy had a bunch of boat stuff and said he'd sold his boat and this was all the stuff he'd taken off of it. He was an older guy and had a young girl hanging around him the whole time. She was a brick house. We later found out that it was his wife. She was 15. The lady cutting hair made a comment about this being a place you can be a pedophile and get away with it. Someone said he'd know her since she was 13 and waited two years until she was old enough for him. I'm sure they have a lot in common. These old guys with these girls make me and ken look young. Ken made the comment to watch out because the young 40 year olds where checking them out. One of the ladies at the marina asked us about laundry so I went back to the boat and got all of ours for her to do. Her and her husband were Americans and had a house and some land outside of town. We sat around and watched some of the boater get tipsy and then headed into town. Ken and I tried to go to the chicken shack but she was closed so we headed to another local spot and had the staple of chicken, rice, beans, and salad. This time we had two kinds of rice, one brown with little beans that were green and the usual white rice with red beans, called habichuelas here. We visited with her in the restaurant for a while and headed to find the others. We found Lizard with Mike and Bali and went to the park to sit and relax. We got a couple of nice cigars for 3 pesos and kicked back and watched the locals. We'd done the park thing the last couple of nights so we all decided to head back early and call it a night.

5-12-03
Ken and I got up and made a cup of coffee with the Dominican coffee we'd bought. It was great and got me quite motivated. I started cleaning and before long we'd tore into the whole boat. It needed a deep cleaning so we had the bleach water out for the mold and clorox whipes for everything else. Lizard showed up around 9:30 and asked us if we wanted to go to Puerto Plata with them and Mike and Bali. We said that we had more to do and it was already fairly late to be heading off for a whole day of exploration so they went and we continued to scrub the boat. Now if we have company I won't feel bad about the boat being messy. We still have to clean the cushion covers. I'm having trouble getting the burners clean also. After we finished we did our little kettle shower and headed in. We wanted to find the bakery and get some stuff. We walked quite a bit and ended up just on the out skirts of town. The view and scenery here is breath taking. It's so lush and beautiful we just stood there and stared trying to take it all in. We never found the bakery and started talking about cheeseburgers so we headed to cafe bahia Luperon for one of Patricks burgers. His special for the day was beef bourgenogn(spelling?) and some rolled pork stuffed with mushrooms and onions smothered with a tomato sauce. He said we could get a cheeseburger any day and we needed to try the special so we did. It would have cost a lot in the states and it was the best non Dominican food we've had so far. Better than johns at the other restaurant. We ate that with several beers and paid around $10, expensive here. After that we found a little bakery and tried a sampler. We went by the school and visited with the teachers a bit and asked about taking Spanish lessons. A guy named David said we could go there or get someone to teach us individually, which would be cheaper. They asked us if we wanted to come in and talk and we weren't much in the mood to strain our brains. We went down to the little corner place and visited with our new mamasita. Ken told her I cut hair and she asked me to cut hers. I told her I would. Later we found Lizard and the gang and they told us about their trip to Puerto Plata. There's a lot of tourism there so Lizard said as soon as they off the bus the tour guides were on them. They finally let one guy show them a restaurant and they had a sandwich. Jim said they left the money and went on. Later the guy ran out and told them they hadn't paid enough. Lizard spoke the best Spanish so he went back and said the guy had over charged them on almost everything. He argued with him a bit and ended up paying more for gratuity and tax. He said after that they told the guy to get lost. He said they would have one after the other coming up to them hitting them up. They finally got away and took a tram ride up the top of a mountain nearby. He said it was beautiful and you could see the bay and miles around. He said there was a botanical garden that you could have spent half a day in. I told him ken and I would hit it later. They took a private car back for around $5 a person. That's a bit here. The public transportation is very good and cheap. It's 90 pesos for an air-conditioned bus all the way to Santa Domingo, or under $4.00. We all decided to go to the little chicken shack. The food was wonderful again and we all got stuffed. We decided to change our plans of going to Santiago until wed. We went back and slept great again.

5-13-03
After getting to town with Lizard ken and I were getting hungry and we all started talking about rosalinas pizza. Before long we all had to have it. Lizard and Judy had walked around and ate little things all day but he said he could handle some pizza. We headed to rosalinas house and ordered up while enjoying the siesta peacefulness on her porch. At that time of day everything slows down and the moto concho engines taper off a bit. The pizza was absolutely wonderful again and we did a little shopping afterwards. We introduced Lizard and Judy to mamasita and hung around for a beer. Lizard and Judy went to get their laundry and ken and I stayed and visited. One of the girls Katherine and her friend showed up and started helping me with my Spanish. She tried to put a stick on tattoo on my but I told her I was too white. I told her they must have made them for brown skin. We had planned to go watch black adder with Mike and Bali at six and we noticed it was six so we headed to find a way to the boat. When we got to the dock Lizards dinghy was there so ken got a ride back and I had to go find Lizard so he wasn't looking for us. I found the Alcyone/jockey holla gang at the park and hung around waiting to see Lizard. They showed up with Mike and Bali and we all sat around and visited. Brian and Ainsley are back now with Alcyone again. We told them we were planning a trip to Santiago tomorrow. They had gotten back that day and were excited to be there and said they might want to go. We only stayed a bit and headed back to the boat. Brian and Ainsley stopped by on their way to Alcyone and visited a while and wanted the entire scoop since they'd been gone. I had another peaceful night with a cool breeze and a fine Dominican cigar.

5-14-03
We got up early and got ready for Santiago. Lizard and Judy showed up thirty minutes late and got us for the ride. We all met up in the little square where to guaguas leave from. They're little vans that cram you in and take you to Imbert where you catch a bus. The guy asked us where were going and how many people. He told us the guy would take us straight to Santiago and anywhere there we wanted and back for $5.00 per person. It was too good to pass up so we all loaded in and headed off. The driver took a back way and we got to enjoy the countryside in all its glory. It was a very nice ride that took about an hour or so. We hit the metropolis of Santiago with its million people and crowded streets. We had the driver drop us off and we headed down on of the main streets calle de sol and went in search of sandals. We hit a few shoe stores and headed off in search of lunch. I asked a local and he said to go to the supermarket up the street. When we got there the food was fresh off the grill and we orded up. We had brown rice with pork, onions, beans, and salad. It was wonderful and usual. Mike and Bali and Lizard and Judy split one since the plates were loaded. Ken and I had to have our own and chow down. The bill for everyone was under $10. We all headed off to check it out and shop a little. Ken and I tried to fresh cold coconut milk on the street along with the fresh squeezed orange juice. Ken bought a hat and some rum cigars. I needed new sandals. We found what was like a local wal mart. It was huge. We got some avocados and sandals. My new sandals were $4.00. We helped a kid on a side street with his English and found a bakery. There was one piece of something left that said cozococo de quarte leche. It was something with four milks or something like that. We ordered it with some flan and coffee. It was one of the best deserts I'd ever tasted. The guy poured all the remaining creme over it before he gave it to us. I had to eat fast or Kenny was going to finish it. It was close to time to meet the van so we headed to the monument to meet up with everyone. We checked out all the street vendors and pretty girls on the way. It was like any big city I guess. Lots of car exaust, honking horns, people, and things for sale. We met up with the group and I sat up front. On the way back we went through a bunch or more little towns. I was talking with the driver who spoke no English. He would tell me the name of the little town and then I'd see the sign and try to repeat it. He knows a lot of people in the area and showed me his father's house. It was on a hill with a beautiful view and lots of breeze. He was Maried and had a five year old, his name was Bernie. He said when we wanted to go check everything out to come and get him and he'd take us around. He dropped us off at the park and we paid our $5.00 a piece for transportation the whole day. We hung around the park and drank a beer and relaxed a bit. We tried to hit the chicken shack but she was out of rice and beans so we ate at the little corner stand in the park. It was great as usual. We had our customary cigar and headed back.

5-15-03
As we were drinking coffee this morning we saw don, they guy I'd met the other night. He came onboard and we gave him some banana nut bread and talked about his life here. He said he pays $80 a month for his apartment. After our visit I went into town by myself, and left ken on the boat. Lizard and Judy went to find a bakery and I went to email and eat. I ended up at the chicken shack again and then hit the bakery afterwards. I was going to cut mamasitas hair today but she wasn't at the corner. Some young guy was running it for her. I headed back and decided to wait on Lizard and Judy at bahia Luperon and visit with Patrick and smoke a cigar. Lizard and Judy showed up soon afterwards and we headed back. Lizard was feeling under the weather and had a cold. I went back to his boat with him to get pictures to email. We talked with Mike and Bali and we all wanted to watch black adder and the prisoner tonight. We planned it for 7:00. When I got back to the boat ken and I headed in to get him some of johns lasagna and beers for the night. When we pulled up to the dock I was going a bit fast and ken jumped off and lost his balance and teeter tattered a few times before going into the water. He was all cleaned up with his clean cloths and fell into the nasty water of bahia Luperon. He was all pissed so we headed back to the boat and I poured fresh water over him as he shucked the now nasty cloths and rinsed off. He managed to keep his head above water, which was a consolation. We headed back into town and got his food and some beers and ice. We headed to Mike and Bali's and all sat down to watch a new episode of black adder. It was great since it the second part of the series. We all got laughs out of it and then watched the hour-long episode of the prisoner. Afterwards Lizard and Judy headed back to crash and ken and stayed to watch the eclipse of the moon. It was a beautiful night and we watched as the moon was slowly darkened. Ken started sharing Mike and Bali's whiskey with them and getting louder all the time. After a while I was ready to crash but ken wasn't. I left him on Valetta and headed back. It was 1:00 a.m. when I got back. That's the latest I've been up a while. I crashed with hopes of sleeping in.

5-16-03
Ken and I spent the morning on the boat in no big hurry to go into town. I think we just need a little break on the boat. We sat around and got hungry and started talking about cheeseburgers. After a while it was too much and we headed in to johns for a burger. After our burger we decided it would be good to walk so we thought we'd try and find dons apartment. We headed off into the country down the main road and enjoyed the scenery and little places along the way. After a while I thought we wouldn't find it so I started asking the locals if they knew where the gringo named don lived in the while two story house. They all knew and pointed us the way. We finally found him and hollered up. He came out on his balcony and invited us up. The apartment was nice but needed some furniture. He had a beautiful view out both windows. We sat out on his balcony and talked about the Dominican and the girls he knows. We sat and said hola to all the girls who walked by and got the scoop from don. Don goes to his fiancés house every day and eats. He said he give the moma 100 pesos($4.00) a day and she feeds the whole family that consist of 10 children. We went next door to talk to the owner of the building about renting an apartment for Bali's parents. We met his cute daughter but he wasn't there. She told us to come back in her best English while smiling beautifully the whole time. I saw Katharine and said hi and started visiting with her. Don told her to take us to her house and show us where they live. We walked and talked with Katharine towards her house and said hola to everyone along the way. We turned down a little dirt road lined with shanty houses. I was surprised because for some reason I thought the houses that she and dons fiancé lived in would be nicer. The little neighborhood we were in was pretty poor looking with lots of barefooted children running around. Katharine showed us her house, which was one of the nicer ones and had new wood. We went two houses down and found don sitting on the porch with his 18 year old fiancé and her mother. We went up and they pulled out more chairs for ken and I. We sat around and started conversing in our best Spanish. Everyone was talking and laughing after a while and I was having a good time. Katharine and dons fiancé were giving me personal Spanish lessons and writing things in my notebook. After a while I think don was feeling a little left out and I was feeling uneasy about it. The moma wanted to know how old we were and why we weren't Maried and how many kids we had. She was surprised that ken and I weren't Maried and that we were the age we are. We all got into a discussion about American women and don said that trying to explain the intricacies of the American women would be out of the question with our limited Spanish. We agreed and dropped the subject. Dons fiancé was writing how to romance women in my notebook. I'm sure it'll help me somewhere down the line. Katharine's mother came over and was speaking some English very well. She was as nice and sweet as all the others and laughed and joked with us the rest of the night. We started talking about dancing and learning to meringue. They said something to don and he said we'd get together tomorrow night for a party and dancing. We all agreed. We stayed until after 10:00 and Kenny started yawning so told everyone, me gusto conocer (nice to meet you) and headed back to the boat. It was a nice evening and a nice walk back. It's enjoyable meeting new people and learning so much every day. I can see why people stay here. 

5-17-03
Ken was going to go into town with Mike and Bali to get food to go and come back to the boat but he never made it. The little chicken shack had closed so they went and ate and had beers at the estralla. Mike and Bali came by to tell me that they left ken there and didn't bring me back any food, oh well. I hung out on the boat and did piddley work and went and picked up laundry and filled our jerry cans with water from the marina. We were supposed to go to dons for dancing and drinks at six so I headed in around five. I was to meet ken in town. I went to the park after getting there and didn't find ken but I found some fellow boaters we'd met that I sat with and chatted while waiting on ken. I decided to head to dons without him and don came by on his motorcycle. He said ken was at the restaurant waiting on me so he went back and got him. In the meantime I went and visited with the man next to don that owns dons apartment building. His cute daughter was sitting outside doing schoolwork and she took me in to meet him. He was a small dark older gentleman with a very pleasant smile. His name was Jose. He invited me in and I met his wife and someone's mother. We all sat in his very nice house and I did my best in Spanish. It's getting easier every day. He took me over to show me the downstairs apartment that's not really an apartment because there's no bathroom or kitchen. At that time don pulls up with ken on the back of the moto conch with a beer in hand and smile on his face. Jose takes me into the little apartment and ken and don come in to visit. I did my best to keep kens beer breath and loud tone away from the Jose. It was obvious he's had a few. I mean it was 6 and he'd been in town since 12. Jose decided he'd only rent it for a minimum of three month for a total of $180. We told him we'd talk to Bali and get back with him. They invited us over and don suggested he and ken not go, I agreed. I went over and they immediately brought me out a dessert that consisted of some kind of fruit in heavy syrup with cinnamon. It was very good and I told them I didn't know what it was. They took me to their yard and showed me on the tree. I'd never seen it but it was sweet and good. He then showed me several other fruit trees, some I knew, and some I didn't. They'd pull one off and give it to me to sample. I'm umm and umm and go to the next tree. We sat on his porch and visited for quite a while. I told them we were going to get dancing lessons. He said they didn't dance or drink due to their religion. We talked about how beautiful the area was and they asked a lot about my home. I told him my madre and padre lived in the country also and it was beautiful there too. They wanted to know if there was crime and I told them I thought there was everywhere. I finally got away and back to dons but there were no girls there. I found out later that don had broken up with his fiancé. He said he asked her how long until they were getting Maried and she said two months. He told her that that was too long for him to wait and he said they got into a big argument after that. Of course Kenny told the Alcyone gang that the reason they split was because last night she was flirting with me. So later that night when I ran into the Alcyone gang they said they'd heard I spit don and jasmine up. I knew where they'd heard that lie. After a while the girls finally showed up at dons and with the music blaring all the gringos tried to meringue. It's much harder that it looks and Katharine was trying to show me the steps and was saying uno dos tres but there was a lot more to it than that. After a while I was sweating like a pig since the wind was light and I wasn't getting any better at the dance. Jasmine had a full figured friend who had three kids and pink eye. She had the hots for Kenny. She hung around him a while but they ended up leaving and going to the park where there was going to be a popular live band at nine. Ken started talking to don about going to mangos. It's the little club outside of town where you drink beers, meet, and dance with a certain type of girl. The story is that you can meet them there but if you want to take them with you, you have to pay the manager so they can leave. After that it's up to you and them what you do. Dons old girlfriend worked there so he was all for it. Him and ken headed off on dons old moto concho with no headlight. He gave ken a flashlight and told him to shine it when anyone was coming. Off they went weaving down the road. I walked with Katharine to her house and sat around and visited with her mom and stepfather. I hadn't met him yet and he was very nice also. He drives for the resort and her mom works but I can't remember doing what. Everyone decided to head to the park so Katherine's dad drove me, her, and her brother, manuel de jesus, to the park. When we got there you could hardly walk. There were hundreds of people there and it was too crowded for me. We hung out and the band cranked up with music loud enough to hurt you. It was a group of several guys who did a lot of hunching and grinding for the girls. A few girls got up on stage and did some grinding for the crowd also. Manual was pointing and laughing. He was a quite and reserved kid. I saw him starting at a very cute young girl with a slight overbite. She was standing by the grilled hotdog stand so I gave him some money and told him to go buy one for her. There were several little boys hanging around her and she was getting frustrated with their advances. Manuel was standing back just watching. The guy told her he wanted to pay and she shook her head no and trotted off with her nose in the air. I told him we'd find another one. Ken and don showed up eventually and joined in the celebrations, as if they needed more. We all did our own things for a bit and wondered about and visited with various people. At around midnight emanuel tried to tell me something about my hermano and the policia. I understood it as the police had my brother for public drunk or something similar. I got nervous and started asking where the police station was. I found out that what he was trying to tell me was that the police start arresting people for being drunk when it gets late. We all set off to find Kenny. We found him shortly after near the corner. I told him to wait on me until we found Katherine's and emanuels cousins and I'd be back. He got some chicken and ate on the corner. Katherine and emanuel wanted me to take them and show them the boat. I told them it was too late so we made plans to do it Monday after school. I left them with their cousins and headed back and met up with ken to go to the boat. One the way we saw another drunk gringo yelling and whistling at some girl walking down the street. Of course we were in the not so good part of town then so I guess that was acceptable. We made it back to the boat safely and ken told me the story of their visit to mangos. He said there were three attractive girls there but he liked the manager. The girls job is to sell beers, dance, and keep you company. Ken and don had them all to themselves. Ken said don kept getting upset with his ex, her name is Yomida. Ken said he'd hug on her a while and then say "bullshit" real loud. Ken said one of the girls sat with him and rubbed as high up his leg as she could get. After a while don started fighting with his ex and said lets get the hell out of here so they left. Ken said they were all getting ready to go back to dons for more meringue. I said, "yea, I bet".

5-18-03
I got up and aired up the dinghy. It seemed like one side was low so it looks like I might have another small leak to find. Ken was recovering from the night before by sleeping on and off in the cockpit. I got ready and rowed into town. It's easy going with the wind, what's hard is rowing back. I was starving but no place was open. I hit the email only to realize that I was missing one of the files to send to everybody concerning the picture descriptions. I surfed a bit and followed a crowd who was watching the moto concho races. They were zooming down the street at what looked like 100 mph. Patrick told me some of them get up to 140. There was a small little moto concho that would fly. The guys on the bigger bikes would be rapping it out and this little thing would fly by them like they were sitting still. Then he'd wheely for a while. It was pretty impressive but I was surprised none of them had helmets on. I ended up getting some grilled beef, chicken, and yucca with onions. As usual it was wonderful. As I sat and ate a young kid came up to me and started talking with me about the dogs I was feeding. He sat with me and visited and soon his buddies where also there chatting with me. We talked about their girlfriends and how many they had and the United States. One little boy about 10 pointed to the girl he liked. He told me she was 25 with a big smile. Don showed up soon afterwards and told me I needed to come with him and meet Yomida. He wanted me to get ken and go have a beer with him at mangos. I tried to get him to stay in the park but he kept telling me to get on the moto concho and he'd take me to the dock. I eventually got on and he gave me a ride to the dock. I went back to the boat and told ken don wanted him to go have a beer at mangos. Ken was hungry so he put on some cloths and headed in. I have to admit I was curious about Yomida after hearing all about her from don. We headed to mangos for a beer. Of course, it's all for the sake of research for my log you know. When we got there a huge mango tree covered the place with a beautiful landscape around it. Yomida came over and and I shook her hand. She was rail thin with skintight pants and a sweet face. Don was already talking crap to her. I kept saying mas tranquila la noche (nice easy night or something like that). She started telling don that if he had a problem he needed to go home. I could understand quite a bit of what she was saying. It was obvious that don had a love hate relationship with her. One minute he'd be talking to her about coming over to his house and the next he'd be telling her @!*# off. She kept telling me that he was loco. It was obvious that she had that effect on him. He got up to leave several times and then sat back down. He finally left. Of course after that Yomida and the other girl were on us asking us to buy them beers and food. Ken and I fended them off and wandered out to the road and quietly headed towards town. It's close to town so we were there in a flash. We made it to the park and sat down for a beer. Jasmine showed up soon afterwards and sat down with us. She was talking to me about don and how he's too old for her and such. Just then guess who shows up, don. I felt awkward again since jasmine was leaning over close to me when don showed up and it looked bad again. Ken told don to sit down and he headed off to find a bathroom. Ken came back in a bit and told me he'd talked to tony. I can't remember if I've written about Tony but he's the local gay blade. He has bleached beaded hair and called us over to say hi the second day we were there. For some reason he liked me and stares and me every time we see him. Ken had told him I liked women only and he said he was sorry. Later more people showed up and we visited with yasmine and Katherine. I had to go to the bathroom later so I went with Kenny and Tony was happy to see us. I told him I wasn't gay and he said he understood but if I ever decided to change my mind. I headed back to the park and sat with katherine and her family and visited until late. I started looking for ken but couldn't find him. I looked at the little bar and all through the park but no ken. I went back to the boat by myself. Ken had gone off to play with some local girls and ended up sleeping on someone's floor. He said that when he went back to the park everyone was gone so he went back and slept on the cement floor. I'm sure there's more to the story but I don't know it.

5-19-03
I went into town to email my pics and,of course, had trouble with the pc's there. I met Katherine and manuel at the park so they could come see the boat. Their mom couldn't make it so we headed out. We had to get permission from the commandante so they could come out to the boat. The story goes that some gringos had some locals on the boat and there were some problems and it was a mess. Someone said it was over some gringo who took one of them women out to his boat and she stole some stuff and he was drunk and she ended up in the water. But being that Luperon is a peyton place and all, you can only believe so much. Anyway, I had to go talk to the commandante and call their mom and then it was ok. We headed out and you could tell they were in awe by the looks on their faces. We raced around a bit in Lizards dinghy and I showed them different boats in the harbor. We made it to Mañana and once aboard it was like kids in a candy store. Everything was of interest and the binoculars were of special interest for them. They just sat and stared through them for quite a while. We came below and I tried to cook while they were asking about everything on board. We went through the pens and pencils, tape recorder, radio, dishes, food stores, on and on. They wanted to taste the potted meat and were unsure about it when I opened it. They both liked it and ate all of it with crackers. I cooked up some beef pasta and we had that with bread and butter. Afterwards emanuel fished while Katherine helped me with some Spanish. We took some pics of all of us and sat in the cockpit and talked. Ken was in town so the boat was un-crowded. I had a nice time showing them the boat and talking. Everyone else here is so friendly I felt like I'd given a little back. Time flew and we headed in since Katherine had English class. One of the teachers, David, saw me and pulled me into his class to talk to his students. We all discussed English and then I went to Katherine class and did a little more. After class I went and talked with the director of the school, Mr. Santiago. He just happened to be in David's class when I was there. I asked him about teaching English and he said he might have a position. He said they're doing testing right now and he could possible have a class for me in a month or so. I told him to let me know and that I was interested. He said the pay wasn't much and I told him I knew that. He laughed. I met up with Lizard and Judy and we went to estralla resturant. Lizard and Judy had been out all day taking pics of the area so I'll have to good one to send also. Once we got to the restaurant everyone in our little armada showed up except ken. He was recovering on the boat. Alcyone is leaving in a couple of days so it was a going away party of sorts. We all had pizza and beer and told stories. There was a little excitement when one of the local gringos came in blitzed and tosses a plastic chair over near his girlfriend. John's dad, Andy, went and grabbed the chair and put it back. The guy got in his face a little and Andy started getting a little fired up. Andy said, you want to *#$ with me. And the guy was in his face so andy grabbed a stick he had for those special occasions and repeated the question, you wanna *#$ with me. The guy left after that. The place was all quite for a bit and Sharon, Andy's wife, apologized. Soon after we were all back to our conversations. I was visiting with a guy named Kenny who had been in the DR for about 8 months. I'll call him Kenny and my brother ken for clarity in my logs. We were talking about making money here and the local politics. He went and looked at an old toyota truck that was for sale for $2000. He said he would try to go to the country with some locals and get plantains and stuff to sell in town. He's an enterprising kind of guy and always looking for ways to make money here. I'm going to eventually have to do something for money also so we discussed possible ways to make money. We visited until around 9 or 10 and headed back to the boat. Ken was fast asleep and I was the same soon after.

5-20-03
I went into town to cut mamasitas hair. I went to the corner but her daughter was there instead of her. I asked her daughter when she would be back and she said 2:00. It was 1:30 so I waited. I chatted a bit and shared a beer with a local lady sitting on the corner and then I played with the daughters little boy. The daughter sat on the corner and sang loudly with all the local Spanish songs. While I was sitting there Lizard and Judy passed by on a moto concho. Then Mike and Bali passed me with Mike not looking too comfortable on the bike. Then Brian and Ainsley putted by on little bitty scooters. After waiting until almost 3:00 I told her I had to go to the school and to tell her mom I'd cut her hair later. I did my English Spanish thing and after school went to check out the post office. Katherine came with me to the park and we sat and she helped me with my Spanish. Of course all the locals walk by and stare at the gingo with the local girl. She headed home and I headed in. I ran into Judy and she said Mike and Bali were missing in action and the moto concho guys wanted to know where their bikes were. Lizard went back to find them so they were all waiting. Mike and Bali had a blow out and had to get the tire fixed. The guy told them the wheel had a crack and that it was very dangerous also. Mike said it ended up costing more than they wanted to spend but what can you do. We headed in and spend a quite evening on the boat.

5-21-03
We listened to the local radio net this morning and when they asked for buy and sell I got on and told them Mañana was still looking for a dinghy motor. Kenny called me and told me the guy next to him had a motor. I called him and rowed over to check it out. It was an old mercury and we stuck it on my dinghy while he gave me the story of why he had it and what had been wrong with it. I cranked it up and it coughed black smoke and rattled to life. It was pretty rough. I circled a little and came back a little unsure of it. I told him I didn't haggle and asked him what his bottom dollar was. He said $300. I knew then it wasn't going to be mine. I was thinking it was worth 150 maybe 200 tops. I went to give it back and he told me to leave it on for a while. I came back to the boat and used it to get into town. I went to the institute and sat in on all the classes, visited, and spoke English and tried to understand all the Spanish. I called ken after and asked him if he needed anything. He said rum and beer. He said Alcyone had invited us over for drinks since they were leaving soon. When I got back to the boat ken was already on Alcyone having a party. I went over and had a beer and visited with everyone for a while. It started raining and gill and john wanted to go into town and eat. I had been in all day so we asked them to take us back to the boat. Ken and I had oriental noodles and tortillas before hitting the sack. Another day in Luperon.

5-22-03
Kenny from smidgeon came by for a visit and a tour of Mañana. Ron, the guy with the dinghy engine, came by and told me to leave it on until tomorrow mourning. Ken was making more tortillas when I went into town to school again. I sat through three classes until 6:00. Gillian was planning on singing tonight at the estralla restaurant. John from the restaurant got on the radio this morning and announced that they would have live music. I got a bite to eat at one of the little local places before heading over. The lady had some soupy looking stuff I tried but wasn't sure what kind of meat was in it. It was pretty funky and I didn't eat much. I think it was stomach meat. I finished the chicken and yucca with no problem though. I ran into don on the way to estralla and told him to come in and I'd buy him a beer. He said he was broke until the first of the month. I told him if he'd leave the girls alone for a bit he'd have money. He came in and we visited with gill and john and watched as the place slowly filled up. Before long the whole place was full. Ken and Kenny showed up later. They'd been playing pool down the road with some dominicans. Ken said that they had beaten them and they didn't like it much. They played for a beer. Gillian started singing and had everyone's attention. She sings very well and everyone was impressed. The restaurant was hopping and john and the other owners were working frantically to keep up with the crowd. They were dishing out spaghetti right and left with tons of Presidentes. They were cleaning up on the gringos. We met all the new boaters and visited with locals. The local gay guy Tony came in and visited with everyone and waved me over to say hi. It's nice to be wanted isn't it? Lizard and everyone laughed and gave me crap about it of course. Lizard took a picture and told me he'd bet me that wouldn't make it into the log. Mike and Bali ran into some people they had met in Florida, Gina and Jim. The story is, one night they were all together having quite a few drinks and Gina asked Mike to kiss her so he did. Well, Bali and jim didn't take to well to that and there was quite a bit of tension the next day. Gina and Jim left for the Bahamas the next day and Mike and Bali had some issues to work out. Mike was telling me some of the story and said that he thought she had fallen in love with him or something. He said Bali asked him why he kissed her and he said because she asked him to. She was quite attractive. I laughed to myself at Mike. She was very friendly with all the guys in the restaurant. John the owner pulled me over and warned me about how she'd hit on all the guys. I told him I was very aware of her situation. I'm sure it wasn't too comfortable for her boyfriend. He seems like a real nice guy. Lizard took pictures and then we headed back to the boat. Ken and I sat and ate some tortillas and talked about everyone at the restaurant before we went to bed. The new soap opera is "As Luperon turns".

5-23-03
I was ready for a personal day on the boat. I don't think I've been on it a whole day since we've gotten here. I had made plans to go help Gina from "chasing the moon too" with her hair. They came by and got me and I sat on their boat and listened to stories and helped gina. I invited them over to our boat for a drink so we headed over. A bit later Mike and Bali called and also came over. Now we have six on Mañana. A bit later another guy we'd met from a boat named "conch daddy" came by with his first mate. They came aboard and now we had eight. I was surprised we all fit on her. Several were down below visiting, listening to the radio, and laughing while Mañana would list from side to side depending on everyone's location. The rest of us were outside spread over the deck and cockpit. I sat on the back and watched for a while since I'd never had that many people on board. There goes my personal time on Mañana. Then one of the guys went and got his wife and we added one more. Fortunately the party didn't last long and everyone headed out after some backslapping. Conch daddy was trying to get us to go to karaoke. I passed and after a while we finally had peace on Mañana. I hit the sack soon after that.

5-24-03
I was talking to ken this morning and realized that sabado was today and that I'd made plans to have Katherine's mom and them over for lunch. I was rowing around this morning getting water so I was nice and sweaty. I showered quickly and headed in. I was supposed to meet them at 10 but didn't get there until closer to 11. Katherine and he brother were there but her mom wasn't so it was ok. We had to wait an hour and a half for the commandante to return to fill out the paperwork. We went shopping and sat in the shade by the office. We finally got our paper and headed to the boat. It was a nice afternoon with a cool breeze. I cooked instant lasagna with salad, bread and butter. For desert we had cake, chocolate, pineapple, and bananas. We basically ate all day while Katherine's brothers fished and played in the dinghy. Her mom kicked back in the cockpit and listened to my Spanish tapes with interest. It rained and we enjoyed the cool off. Katherine's mother said it was mas tranquilo aqui(more relaxing here). I asked her if it was tranquila at her house and she laughed and rolled her eyes. After everyone was through checking out the boat and all the strange products aboard we headed back. I ran into ken and Kenny, they were ready to go have some more beers. They'd been in town playing pool and partying a little. I can always tell when ken has been having beers because he comes up and puts his arm around me and calls me hermano. I told them I was going to walk Katherine and her mom home and I'd be back. Katherine's mom, Mari, invited me to dinner the next day. I told her it was mothers day and she said she knew but wanted me to come over anyway. I said ok. I caught a moto concho back and breathed the air and enjoyed to cool on my sweaty head. It was hot with no breeze. It had rained a bit earlier and the smells were amazing. We decided to go have a beer at the local club outside of town. I figured it wouldn't hurt to do a little more research for the logs on the clubs outside of town so.. We hopped on some moto conchos and got a ride to the local car wash. They call it that but they don't actually wash cars at most on them. There were a bunch of local guys there dancing with some of the girls. A girl came over and kissed Kenny's cheek, he obviously knew her from past experience. She was awful friendly and sat close to me and told Kenny she liked me. It's always nice to be liked. We had a few beers and after a bit she was asking Kenny some questions about me. Kenny leaned over and said she'd asked him if I wanted to sleep with her, maybe not in those exact words. He said it would cost me four to five hundred pesos plus the room. I laughed and told her possible mas tarde (maybe later). She shrugged her shoulders and asked me to buy her some food. Every time we have a beer somewhere some girl will ask you to buy her food. I acted a little dumb and told her I wasn't hungry. We left soon after and headed back to town. We stopped and had a beer at a place near the dock and was met by another girl Kenny knew. She was asking Kenny for money to buy food. Instead he went and bought some. I don't think that's what she had in mind but she ate a piece anyway. Then Yomida and her friend from mangos caught us and started offering the same services as the other girls. I guess we just had a look on our faces or something. Yomida is pretty and her friend looked almost more Mexican than Dominican and also quite attractive. I chatted and visited a while with them before we headed back to the boat and had some mas tranquilo.

5-25-03
We listened to the radio net this morning in hopes of getting a hold of the guy named jack with the dinghy motor for sale. I'm getting tired of rowing my flat dinghy and not having a motor. It's getting hotter here but I like it. It's like august in OK with a fresh breeze, until it dies, then it's like Florida with no breeze. Jack got on the radio to trying to sell a refrigerator and then said he wouldn't be at the little flea market since it's Dominican mothers day, he's the one with the 15-year-old wife. I tried to call him on the radio to set up a time to see the motor but he wasn't on after the net. I went into town to email and change money before going to visit Mari. I stopped off at a little store and bought a cookie jar for $2 for Mari and then went by the bakery to get some sweets for our other mamasita. I saw mamasitas daughter and told her I had some sweets for her mom. She wanted to know about her so I gave her some of her moms sweets. I went and gave mamasita the rest and she wanted me come by tomorrow and give her a haircut so we made plans for 2:00 Mañana. She gave me a kiss for the sweets. I headed off to Mari and katherines enjoying the country and view again. When I got there Mari and Katherine were dressed to the hilt except Katherine had rollers in her hair. I visited with everyone and gave Mari her gift and the rest of them my left over banana bread. I had been sure not to eat too much since I'd been invited to dinner. I had never really seen much of Katherine's house and now from my vantage point could see that it had no ceilings and only two rooms. There were loose wires rigged up for electricity. Katherine's grandmother was lounging in a chair so I got to visit with her for a while. She was quite a character and I enjoyed talking with her. She was telling me that she was pretty like Katherine when she was young but now she was missing several teeth. I liked her. Mari went into town for a function for moms and came back a bit later with another gift. She sat with everyone around and opened her three gifts. She had my cookie jar, a set of coffee cups, and a box with three small bottles of lotion and perfume from her husband. She went to make some dinner for us and had to come out and undo some wires and hook them up somewhere else. In a few minutes she came out and gave me a plate with a sandwich and some hot cocoa. The sandwich was made with a hotdog bun, butter, and melted cheese, like a grilled cheese but without the cheese very melted. It all hit home just how poor most people are here. Even though they're always dressed nicely, smelled very good, clean and coiffed. I figured that was what they could afford to feed me. Since I'd seen a big pig being butchered nearby I though they might get to eat pork. I asked Mari if she had pork today and she said no. I guess they don't share everything in the little neighborhood. I ate one sandwich and tore the other one in half and gave the rest to Katherine. It definitely made me think a little about how much we take for granted. Several of the little girls in the area came over to visit. One is half gringo and reminds me us of harpo marx. She's cute but these kids are wild. She came over with wet hair and I braided it for her. Another little girl has very very dark skin and the most petite features I've ever seen. She's absolutely beautiful and looks like a littl doll. They're all sweet. I sat around and talked to Katherine's dad, Umberto. We talked about land and houses for sale near his family. He asked me about the US and how much stuff was. He was telling me how pretty it was in la savanna where he's from nearby. He said he knew a friend who was selling a dirt bike for around $500. He said he'd take me over wed. to check it out. They wouldn't let me walk home since it was late so we all got in the van and headed to the dock. I saw a couple of the bad (malo) girls we were chatting with the night before and hoped they didn't start waving at me. I'm sure they would have wondered how I knew them. Ken was crashed when I got back at midnight.

5-26-03
I worked on patching the dinghy all morning before heading into town. I'm getting frustrated at having to patch it every other day. Ken and I headed to estralla where ken was planning on having a beer with his gringo buddies. I left at 2:00 to go give mamasita a haircut. I met an very attractive girl named Angelina while cutting mamasitas hair and she hung out a bit and visited. It's always nice to be distracted in that way. She had beautiful white teeth with a smile to match. After I finished mamasita asked me when I wanted her to cook for me. I told her ken and I would come next week to eat. I headed to the institute to meet up with libby and pick up a book she was loaning me. I stopped off and got a couple of cookies and a cake to take her for loaning it to me. I got a couple for Katherine also. When I got to class I gave Libby the sweets and she thanked me. Katherine hadn't got there so when she did class was in session. I gave it to Katherine and all the little girls laughed and giggled and asked me if she was my nobia (girlfriend). I told them all she was my buena amiga (good friend) and Libby took advantage of it to practice hot to say good friend in English with everyone. I headed back after class and took it easy the rest of the night.

5-27-03
I got up and got ready to go to Puerto Plata with Kenny today. He knows the city well and it'll be good for me to go with him and get the scoop. We headed in around 10:00 and caught a car to Imbert. The cars are tiny and they squeeze four in back and three in front. It's strange sitting on top of some stranger. You can only hope it's an attractive one, mine wasn't. I enjoyed the scenery for the 20 minute ride for 25 pesos. We caught another one to Puerto Plata, which was another 20-25 minutes for 20 pesos or $.80. We got into the city and it was not as crowded and bustling as Santiago. We headed to an alternator place first with was full of many Dominicans with lots of grease on them. We were looking for some brushes for a friend of Kenny's. We then headed to find the little shop with outboard motors. We looked around and found it and Kenny chatted with the guy for a while. His Spanish is better than most of the gringos here. We then wandered through town and ran into a little flea market. They had lots of shoes like nike and they even had new levis for pretty cheap. I wanted to shop a little more but Kenny was in a hurry to talk to a guy about an outboard motor. We made it to the guys place, it was named tommy fish. He had a fish market on one side and sold outboard motors on the other, probably to the fishermen he used. The place stunk pretty badly and I couldn't imagine working there for any length of time. We visited with him in his little office with a bed in it. I told him it looked like he worked too hard but Kenny let me know that he also had a cute young girl working for him. You never know. We went and had a couple of beers afterwards and headed to the bank. I'm looking at a moto concho tomorrow so I need some cash. The first bank wouldn't give me any on my visa card because I didn't have my passport. The second bank would but they only gave me 25 pesos for a dollar when the other exchange rates were 26 to 28 pesos per dollar. I was only out less than ten bucks so I swallowed it. Ten bucks here seems like quite a bit of money after a while. Now I had a lot of money in my pocket and it made me a tad nervous. Kenny and I went and had some chicken at a little restaurant where the waitress was cute and flirting a lot. Kenny asked her when she got off work and she said 5 and asked if we were coming back. He said possible in Spanish; she gave us a big smiled. We headed off and I had my film developed, it was about six bucks. After we ran around all day and enjoyed the scenery and the people of the city we headed back to the bus. I like Puerto Plata better than Santiago since it has a smaller city feel and the people seemed more accessible and friendly. We headed back on a larger air-conditioned bus to Imbert. The bus this time was only 10 pesos back and much much more comfortable. We decided to go have a beer at the car wash in Imbert since Kenny was acquainted with some people there. More research for the logs you know. We got there and the music was blaring as usual. One of the girls immediately recognized Kenny and came over and kissed his cheek. She came over with her two girlfriends and started chatting with us. One of the girls immediately sat close to me, which seems to be the norm at the car wash. A little later I was told that the girl now sitting much closer to me didn't work there and that she was Kenny's friends cousin. She was very cute and of course it's always nice to be liked. Or as Kenny always says, it might have been my peso-nality. We had a couple of beers and since one of the girls had a car Kenny asked them it they would take us back to Luperon instead of taking a moto concho. They wanted us to go to Puerto Plata with them instead and I told Kenny I had too much money to be going to strange places with strange girls. He understood so we asked them to take us home. They said sure and stopped at the gas station first where Kenny gave 200 pesos. Then they wanted 200 more from each of us for the trip there. Kenny got mad and they all started talking in spanish and Kenny said screw this and we got out. We caught a moto concho back for 150 pesos and were back in Luperon safe and sound in a 20-25 minutes. I talked the guy on the moto concho the whole way and really liked him. I gave him a big tip and thanked him. I got back to the boat and tried to call Lizard and ken got on the radio. He was with Jim, Gina, Mike and Bali eating and partying on chasing the moon II. He headed back and we visited with Mike and Bali a while and then hit the sack for a good nights sleep. Every day here is an adventure and I like that.

5-28-03
We heard them calling Mañana on the radio this morning and I was getting frustrated because the girl couldn't understand any English and their radio was screwed up. I decided to go to the marina and see what was up. There was a guy there who said he was Umbertos (katherines dad) friend. He asked me if I wanted to go look at the motorcycle and I said ok. I met him and we headed off on his bike. He said it wasn't too far. Next thing I know we're almost to Imbert and turning left on a dirt road. His bike died one time on us and it took about fifteen minutes to get it running again. I started worrying about having 15,000 pesos in my pocket going to the boonies with a guy I didn't really know. The dirt road was rough as hell and I thought the guys crappy bike was going to rattle apart. My butt was getting sore by this point by we just kept climbing over large rolling hills for another 20 minutes. The scenery was amazing. We finally came to the end and pulled into a small hacienda with a barn with a old dirt bike in it and an old man sitting in the shade. A minute later a very attractive young farmers daughter came out with her mom and started doing her hair while we all talked. She kept staring at me and making it difficult for me to negotiate. The six-year-old dirt bike needed a little work and the guy wanted 16,000 pesos. It was too much but I rode it a little and we talked about how we'd do the deal if it went down. I told him I'd talk to him Monday if I wanted it. I gave the farmers daughter one last smile and we headed off back to Luperon. I'd like to go back and visit sometime. My driver was a pretty cool guy and wanted to show me his house and meet his wife. We stopped off at a little shanty place where there was a cute little baby and a beautiful girl. He offered me a little rum and some bean stuff. The bean stuff was like blended beans with sugar and bananas. It was delicious. After visiting a bit we headed back. I stopped off and told don I'd talk to him later and headed back to the marina. Gillian was singing at 7 so I bathed and headed in. I sat around and drank a beer while waiting on everyone to show up. Ken showed up sweating and had been walking. We all sat around and visited while Gillian sang. Rafael showed up with his beautiful wife. She was cinnamon colored with petit features and was very sweet. Rafael is the local guy who delivers water and fuel for all the boaters here and like to play pool with ken. He's well liked by all the gringos. We had lasagna at the restaurant for dinner and afterwards two young very attractive girls Kenny knew came in and sat with us. Their names were daisy and Kenya. We all headed to the local pool place to shoot a little pool. The two girls followed us and sat quietly and stared at us while we played pool. When you weren't playing pool they were leaning close with a hand on your leg trying to talk with you. Later I was talking with Rafael's wife and she told me they weren't the kind of girls I'd probably want to get serious with but if I only wanted to be serious for one night that would work. Gillian's dad flew in today also and was with gill and john at the pool place. His name was gary and he was getting a kick out of everyone and everything going on there. I went over to visit with him and he was curious why I didn't want to stay with the attractive girls. I told him they weren't my type and that wasn't quite what I had in mind for a girlfriend. He understood but had a little trouble keeping his eyes off them. Ken and Kenny headed off for a beer with daisy and Kenya and I headed back to the boat with gill, john, and her dad. I wasn't awake when ken got home so I don't know the story and if I did I possibly couldn't write about it in the logs.

5-29-03
I went over and talked with Lizard about keeping an eye on his boat while he was gone. He was pissed off because Mike was talking about them going to Santo Domingo on the radio. Your not supposed to advertise that your leaving your boat for three days or someone could take advantage of the fact. We went over and gave Mike some hell about it and he had that whupped dog look. Lizard gave me the short and sweet on the boat and came by with Mike and Bali headed for their trip. I dropped them off so we'd have his dinghy for the three days. Ron came by and told us he was going to Colorado for three weeks and we could use his dinghy also so now we have another dinghy with an engine. I can take my time finding an engine now. I went into town while ken stayed on the boat and recovered from his fun with his new friends. I went into town and visited with Katherine's famila. Katherine cooked fried chicken, rice, and salad for everyone. Her grandma kept telling me what a good cook she was and that she learned it from her. We didn't eat until 9 in the evening so I was starving by then. It was good and I headed back fairly early. 

5-30-03
I hung around on the boat all morning getting water and working. I went into town in the afternoon to visit with don and get the scoop from don on our planned trip to dahabon. It's a little town on the Haiti boarder and they're supposed to have a great market. I also wanted to look for a motorcycle. Don said he was looking for a wife and if he found one he was bringing her back to marry her. Don said we had to meet at 7 at his place and then we'd do the 3 hour drive and decide that evening if we wanted to spend the night. The charge for the car and driver was $16 a piece. We paid half that morning and headed on our way. Don has a friend that went with us named bienvenidos. He looks like arsenio hall and had a diamond on one tooth. He seemed like a really nice guy. His ex-wife showed up with them and we had to take her to her house about two hours before dahabon. That put four guys in the back with her up front. It wasn't too comfortable so I leaned forward and practiced my Spanish with her and the driver. She kept looking at me and smiling and after an hour she said something to the driver and he asked me if I wanted to sleep with her. I was caught off guard, she definitely wasn't my type and her ex was sitting next to me. I thing she had five kids and possibly more. I stuttered through in my best Spanish trying to say thanks but no thanks. I guess I got the point across because they only asked me once. We dropped her off down a long dirt road with a woman and a yard full of kids. Bienvenidos got out with her and hugged a couple of the kids and pulled a little money out of his pocket. She grabbed it and said something not too kind to him. If looked could kill he would have been lying on the ground. We finally made it to dahabon. It was an arid area with not too much vegetation and lots of cactus. It was only 11 in the morning and the heat was almost unbearable. We went to the park in the center of town and walked around and got hounded by all the Haitians to buy their goods. Ken bought some Haitian rum and I bought some sunglasses. We strolled through town and ended up at a restaurant with stir-fry beef, rice, and beans. We all got the chow and sat around and took our time and enjoyed it all. We shopped some more and then don wanted to go by the local car wash for a beer and a wife. We went by and the music was blaring as usual with some girls and more guys sitting around in the heat. It was smolding by now. It was the hottest I've been since we've been here. There wasn't a hint of a breeze there. We sucked down several waters and a beer and decided to go look for motorcycle. We couldn't find anywhere in town with used ones so we headed down the road to a nearby town. We stopped at one place but all theirs were new and expensive. We headed to where there was supposed to be another one but couldn't find it. By this time don starts getting mad since he hadn't seen any potential wives and asked the driver to stop at another town. The driver was hesitant to go out of his way and was talking to bienvenidos about more money if we were going to do that. I told don I thought that was the case and he started on his little tantrum. He has this way of being fine and then all the sudden getting all irate. He started telling bienvenidos that he habla bullshit (spoke bullshit) and stuff like that. Bienvenidos asked me to talk to him and tell him it's early and the potential wives don't come out until it gets cooler. He huffed and puffed a while and then we headed back towards Luperon and stopped on the way at a car wash. They not only had music and dancing at this car wash but they actually were washing cars too. We sat and had a beer and don was eyeing a very tall girl. He went and talked to her while we all watched and then had bienvenidos dance with her. She seemed really nice and sweeter than most and don liked her. He went and had bienvenidos talk to her about don looking for a wife. She said she might be interested but she'd have to have her mom keep her two kids and she could come and live with him for three days as a trial run. Don seemed interested and it all seemed pretty strange to me. We told don we were ready to leave and he said ok. We made it home after one more car wash with the same old same old and got some chicken on the way for dinner. We paid our driver and was back before dark. I saw Katherine's cousin who lives in Santiago and he came over to let me know that he had a friend with a motorcycle for sale. I told him I'd try to meet him at 2 tomorrow to go look at it. Katherine showed up and they got into some deep conversation so I excused myself back to dons. We ate our chicken and had Haitian rum with coke. One of local guys came and said hi at dons and saw the rum. He was going on and on about it. He said it's voodoo rum but the best you can get here. I don't know, I guess it was good. We headed back to town and don wanted to walk with us so he could see if his girl, or whatever, was down by the dock. He had found her the night before and he had one of his love hate episodes with her. She comes over and they have fun then they fight about money and he runs her off. It seemed to be a regular thing. As we passed the police station that night the cop asked him where Yomida was. Ken and I got a pretty good laugh out of that. We sat and had a beer at the little club by the dock. Daisy, Kenya, and Jessica came over and sat with us soon after we got there. What's amazing is how beautiful all three of these girls are. I've been strong here but I can see how easy it would be to fall into their trap. The trick is to not stay too long drinking beer with them or else they wear you down with their attention, smiles, looks, and good smell. Since don didn't see Yomida he said he was heading back. Ken and I got away from the girls soon after that and headed to the boat completely exhausted from the long day.

6-1-03
I was in no hurry to go into town today and needed one of those lazy days on the boat. We lounged around in the morning sipping coffee and taking it easy. Rafael showed up a little later and come aboard to visit. Ken showed him around and he said there was a party today on the beach for one of the local guys. Ken was excited and ready to go. I told them I'd take them and that I'd have to check on Lizards boat and maybe leave to look at a motorcycle. We headed off and I went up and visited with a few of the gringos and then headed to check on Lizards boat. One of his alarms had gone off and I couldn't get it to go off. He said it would go off but his reset didn't work. I went back and got ken. Rafael was crashed on the beach under a big tree with head in some girls lap, not his wife. We headed back and I told ken I wanted to go hit the chicken shack. We decided we'd try to get into town without getting sucked into any of the local places, grab a bite, and head back. Luperon is the kind of town that when you go in you see people you know and end up going here for a beer to visit or going there to talk to someone else and their friends, etc.. You have to decide to go, do what you need to, and get back to the boat. When we got to the chicken shack she was closed so we had to head to the other side of town where it was twice the price and not as good. The one thing good about the place is it has air conditioning and a tv. We got there and were the only ones there. We ordered up our rice, beans, chicken and salad. It was great since I was starving. The waitress sat with us most of the time visiting and giving us a chance to practice our Spanish. She was sweet and pretty like most of girls here. When we got back near the dock we saw some action with some of the girls. There were two of them trying to go at each other with a couple more holding them back. Yomida was there with her friends and waved at me. We got back to the boat and kicked back in the cockpit and enjoyed the cool breeze, some music, and a fine Dominican cigar. Aint life grand.

6-1-03 to 3-1-04
Throughout this time in the Dominican Republic I bought a bar with Patrick, continued to study Spanish, traveled throughout the country, made many friends and many more memories that I will never forget.