17 and Counting

Dave added two more Hope Town Sailing Club glasses to our collection yesterday. For the final cruising boat race, he and his crew won third place. Then when the points for the season were tallied, Sunrise received 2nd place honors for Boat of the Year! Now we have 9 third place glasses, 4 second place glasses, and 4 first place glasses, all displayed on our kitchen shelves.

Congratulations Dave on a fantastic year of sailing!

Surprise!

Dave has really been working hard at getting the last minute projects taken care of. I went down to his work area in the boatyard and was talking with him this afternoon, when I noticed a curly tail lizard hanging out on the concrete.

Dave said that it hangs out there a lot, but as I watched it, it didn't move much and when it did, it dragged its back legs and its tail was flat on the ground. Dave and I continued talking and when I looked down again, the lizard had laid an egg...surprise!

By the time I got my camera to take a photo, the egg had started to wither. That's a bummer, but we certainly couldn't keep it in an incubator, and from what I read, it would be June when it hatched. Oh well, it was still a rare occurrence.

Back To The Wild Side

Light winds made for a quick trip back to the shores of Great Abaco Island today. We went south further than the last time and ended up in the spot where a sailboat was washed up on the rocks a few years ago. We anchored but didn't see any trace of  the boat.

That was until we launched the kayaks and headed into the shallows. This is all that is left of the hull...

Further away was the remainder of the deckhouse.

It still had its winches and a sandpiper living on it (I think it's a plover).

We continued on and were really surprised to see an osprey up in the Casuarina trees. It is a pretty rare sighting in Abaco.

We thought this was the remains of a dock to nowhere...

Until we looked really hard and found an abandoned house all overgrown with foliage.

The tiny rock out islands gave us some lee from a bit of a northeast breeze and the ocean swell, and I found a bunch of old conch shells high and dry.

This queen conch had the biggest 'bell' I have ever seen. That is a good sign because the younger conch called 'rollers' shouldn't be taken until they are mature and grow that bell.

Neither one of us was sure what this structure once was on the island. Perhaps it was part of a range marker leading into North Bar Channel from the ocean.

It's hard to tell in the photo, but when we got back to Walkabout, it was starting to jump around in the building wind.

 The hitchhiker that we discovered when we launched the kayaks was hanging on for dear life.

We raised anchor and headed across the Sea of Abaco, skirting the northern shore of Tilloo sandbank, and entered Tilloo Pond where it was flat calm with lots of turtles swimming around.

Serenity now...

Dave cleaned the bottom of the boat, scraping off all the hard growth. What a great way to end this season's adventures. Walkabout will be hauled out of the water and stored sometime in the next couple of days. I would say that we definitely "went out on a high note."

Mother Nature's Whims

Thanks to Ted and Claire on Another Life, we now have a couple of photos of us sailing Suja! I think the first photo was taken the day the wind (which was predicted to be 8-10 mph) actually died when we made it out to Porgy Rock past Parrot Cays. It took us four hours to get home in very light winds. We were really glad to get back in the harbor. As a comparison, in the women's Sunfish race, it took them 45 minutes to round all of the Parrot Cays and get back to the beach outside Hope Town.

The second photo was taken on a much nicer sailing day. We were even heeling over with the wind.

Oh well, some days it is perfect, but other days Mother Nature has a different idea.

Situational Un-awareness

Dave is always saying that we need to have situational awareness which, with our lifestyle and in this day and age, is a good idea. However, we were apparently not paying attention for the past few weeks, since we just discovered a nest with baby birds in the trees right next to our porch. In all fairness though, we hardly ever look that way, since the bushes to the north block the view and our main view is out front. How could we have missed the little tobacco doves (also known as common ground doves) flying in and out though? Must be because they, including the two babies, have been silent, unlike the cooing mourning doves that we are all used to. The nest has been there so long that the babies have feathers and look to be ready to take flight. We first noticed all the wing flapping in the trees a couple of days ago, which got our attention.

They are really laying low and hanging on today with gale force winds. At least we can watch them for awhile before they take off for good.

Ladies Turn

Yesterday was the annual Di Hunter Women's Sunfish Race off Nathan's Beach. The ladies have been having lessons for several weeks and you can tell it boosted their confidence and skill. Eleven sailors turned out to compete for this prestigious award and the comradery that goes with it.

Dave helped run the race and then we went out in our skiff to start the race, follow them around the course around Parrot Cays and back, finishing them with a horn back at the beach.

These women are tenacious. One of them flipped their boat, got back up and finished the race. Another one not only flipped, but her sail had problems and couldn't be hoisted all the way up, and yet she finished the race in 8th place. The flipping part is why I stay as chase boat and photographer!

Another fun activity we help with...and as a footnote: wow the water is warm!

Definitely Spring

We certainly can tell that spring is officially here. Many of our friends on boats are heading back across the Gulf Stream and there has been a mass exodus the past couple of days. In their place are the powerboaters from Florida that can race over here quickly with 3 or 4 outboards. The water is warming up nicely, the trees are blooming (as well as my allergies), the woodpecker is driving us crazy 😉 and even the laughing gulls have their summer plumage.

Of course springtime makes us think about our departure date, which is rapidly approaching. In the next few days we will start slowly putting away the 'toys' since the weather prediction is for lots of wind until at least April 1st. I sure hope the snow is starting to melt up home! Time for us to get into summer mode too.