R.I.P. P.T.

Farewell PeTite Cruiser. It was a short but glorious life. We knew you were brittle, but didn't realize it would turn fatal so fast. It is true that the sun is brutal on your skin. Luckily, when the whole seat gave out, you didn't take Jim to Davy Jones Locker. Now all we can do is return you to Grove-Mart. I wonder if we will be given a refund?

Sunday

Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, and even more so here in the Bahamas. However that didn't apply to us today.

Dave, Bill and Jim spent the morning helping Chris with a Hope Town Volunteer Fire and Rescue project. They cleared land and prepared a pad for the large tent building that will provide shelter for "Sherlock", the fire truck at the north end of Elbow Cay.



I grabbed the PeTite Cruiser kayak and paddled up to see how the project was coming along.




How many people does it take to rake the sand fill? Apparently three 'hams', and one to take their picture!



A Bahamas wheelbarrow. When the hardware that holds the handles on rusts away, just add more wood to brace it up.




The guys had a 45 minute break for lunch before we jumped in our skiffs and headed to Pelican Cays National Park Preserve for some snorkeling on the reef. The water was bit stirred up, but there were plenty of fish to see and several turtles and small southern stingrays. Then we all had a treat when a huge spotted eagle ray cruised through. After we all got out of the water, Jim decided to stay in for awhile and saw 7 of the rays swimming underneath him.

After a quick stop to warm up on Tilloo Bank, we headed home at sunset. To top off this perfect day, the full moon made a spectacular entrance when it rose over Hope Town.

Note To Self:

Be sure the anchor is up before water skiing!



I wish I could have been underwater watching when Dave yelled "HIT IT!" and I gave it full throttle to pull him out of the water on his slalom ski. No wonder he couldn't get up. What a racket the outboard made when I throttled back and then the engine stalled. At first we couldn't figure out what had happened and then Jim said, "It looks like there is a chain wrapped around the prop!"



When we realized what we had done, boy did we ever laugh....once we got it untangled and made sure the engine still ran and shifted. Luckily all that had to be done was to file the edges of the propeller. It will be awhile before we live this one down, that's for sure.

Once we got back to business, Jim flew on two skis as Dave drives.


Where did Jim go? Oops, big splash, no Jim.



Then it was Bill's turn to try, with a little (?) help from Jim.



Rocky was on shore and waded out for a shot at it too.



Time for some experimental fun on the "Billy-board", Interim Bill's invention.




Not only was this one of the most fun days we've had in the middle of winter, but it was also one of the funniest!

Grove-Mart Revisited

What a great 'purchase' we made at Grove-Mart! Our mangrove shopping spree produced a damaged kayak, washed up on shore during Hurricane Irene.




The large hole in it didn't deter Dave though, and he repaired it with West System G-Flex Epoxy.

Voila! New 'wheels' for me! I now have a Bahamas style PT Cruiser convertible.



Thanks Dave!

Bank Deposits

Tilloo Bank is one of our favorite places to visit in Abaco. The only 'money' deposits found here are sand dollars though! That's because Tilloo Bank is a sandbank. Its shallow waters extend from Tilloo Cay on the ocean to almost halfway across the Sea of Abaco. All the built up sand makes for a great little beach on the island itself.



Dave found some great 'deposits' in the sand while snorkeling at high tide. He made some temporary withdrawals so I could take some photos.

An unusual sight was this horse conch which was the first we had seen in the Bahamas.



Plus the queen helmet shells were gorgeous.




Since these shells still had live animals in them, Dave took them back out and deposited them back underwater, past where the low tide would not uncover them.

Above the high tide line I found a resident hermit crab and several curly tail lizards as 'bank tellers'.




Our banking business was complete, so as the sun started to set and the tide ebbed lower, we needed to get into deeper water. We didn't want to get stuck on Tilloo for the night when the bank closed.

Harbour Rats To The Rescue

It's blowing a hoolie today. The cold front that is plaguing the whole east coast arrived here this morning, bringing gale force winds. Thank goodness that the warm gulf stream current moderates the temperature, although it is only about 60 degrees out at 3 PM.

The wind makes it really noisy on board and throughout the harbor with sailboat halyards banging, waves slapping on hulls, and wind whining through the sailboat rigging. New Horizon sets up a resonation as the wind howls past the flybridge.

As we were working on inside projects, I heard someone calling us on the VHF radio. It was our neighbor Chris from Sunday, who asked if Dave was available to help him rescue a small sailboat that broke its mooring line, and was now aground. Always up for adventure, Dave jumped at the chance and off the guys went. Ben from Belinda B was listening in on our conversation (a Harbour Rat must-do), and he joined in the rescue.

The guys managed to pull the boat off the shoal, tow it back to the mooring, and hook up a second line to it. After the boat was secure, Ben climbed on board to retrieve his line that he used and suddenly the owner came out to find out what was going on. He slept through the whole ordeal! Talk about a rude awakening. He was lucky that the Hope Town Harbour Rats are always at the ready.

Next came the man overboard drill, or more like the hat overboard drill. I wanted to get some good pictures of the rescue, but there was a boat between us and the happenings. I tried going up in the flybridge but still couldn't see. I climbed up onto the TOP of the sundeck...bad idea in 35 knot winds. Immediately my hat flew off. Bye, bye expensive sailing club hat.

Amazingly enough, we spotted it floating with the brim up, about half an hour later. Saved!

Later in the day, Ben also had to rescue one of the ferry boats, as it lost steering and was drifting through the harbor at a fast pace. Just another windy day in Hope Town!

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all the best for 2012!