They'r here

Hey Meghan !Proof enough???

Dinner at Peace and Plenty

Lunch at Driftwood cafe

jan 7

Sunset looking south in Elizabeth Harbour

Awesome clouds full of lightning

Towering cumulus should have been a clue!

Sunrise today

Greydays on Jan 5 forecasting the approaching system

Overlooking Georgetown from Immigration office

Jan 6-7

Jan 6 - Wed

So it rained hard yesterday all afternoon and night. We had a lot of lightning as well.  The boat was pretty bouncy all night so it took me awhile to get to sleep.

Today is sunnier and the batteries are charging again.

We will head over to pick up the laundry today. I need to go swimming just to get off the boat. Yesterday was a long day.

Laundry was picked up; immigration visited to confirm Quentin's return questions; I talked to the principal at the public school and I can start after next week teaching art to the kids.

We had a good long walk and then came back to the boat for supper.  We were just watching the clouds pile up in the sky. Stephane and Bicher had stopped to say hello on their way back to town for dinner. Rick decided to put out another 25 feet of anchor chain, and I was taking sunset shots. It was gorgeous! (See shots!) The lightning was amazing!

OH MY GOD!  At 7 pm the wind started up and built very quickly!  The temperature dropped to 20 [trust me that's cold]. We locked up the dinghy, and Rick took off the motor and gas cans, the seat and the oars as well as the anchor.  The wind kept blowing out the front snaps so we couldn't keep the windows closed and the rain pelted in for a bit.

We read 49 knots on the wind vane, but others were reading higher. Of course the taller the mast the more into the wind they are.  Someone called and said the wind hit 100 in one of the hurricane holes but that not possible. If the wind was that high in a protected hole it should have been a lot higher in the open. Either that or it's NOT a hurricane hole!

On the other side of the harbour boats were dragging and hitting each other. There was a LONG conversation between Bamboo and another boat comparing damage. Apparently Bamboo lost the front of her boat [bow] and was taking on water; her side had been beaten in by another 40,000 lb. Boat [no names were spoken]

Rick put out another anchor and we never moved!  Jasmine City either dragged or put out another 100 feet of chain because they were far away from us later. [Most likely, since the last time was in this kind of weather we got much closer to Jasmine City than was comfortable!!]

Boats were reported on the rocks and losing dinghies, solar panels, pulpits... it went on for 3 hours.  And magically at 10:30 as predicted the winds dropped to 8-10 knots and it was very quiet. So we went to bed!

Jan 7.

This morning it is calm and quiet. It was clear all night - the stars were intense and the bay was still.

This morning there are clouds all around us but the sun is up and it is warming up nicely!

We will clean up some more [I defrosted the fridge last night] and see if anyone needs help, then wait with bated breath [no pun intended - Mal and my siblings are the only ones who will get that! LOL] for Sue and Les to arrive!

Ttyl - there'll be lots of pics when they get here!

Monday Tuesday jan 4-5

Jan 3 Afternoon

|The electrical seminar was very interesting and as many women as men attended.  The guy giving it was a very good teacher .Only a few of us glazed over at times.   We found out there were a few things we should change but for the most part we are competent.

We met lots of new boaters and amazingly enough there are even are boats here from Canada. Of the 4 that came in today 3 are from Ontario.

We hung out at the beach talking and finally came back to the boat at 3 for lunch!  Sunday is always a BBQ at the Chat n' Chill and it smelled so good but we are saving ourselves for when Sue & Les get here.

We tried to watch Gallavant at 8 pm but it's too silly and just not up to the quality of some of the other musicals we've seen, so we turned back to the Blacklist marathon.

Jan 4 Monday

Today was a mass convergence on the ton today. Everyone was looking for groceries.  We managed to pick up most of the fruit and veggies we needed but there was no bread or bananas in the stores yet.  The meat van didn't show up on time and apparently people stood around for over an hour waiting for it. Luckily, not us but Friday we need to go get some, so I hope it's not another epic wait.

We took some books to the library, some odds and ends to the Straw Market Ladies; the laundry to the dry cleaner h does laundry too [my time is more valuable than standing in a hot sweaty Laundromat feeding quarters into a machine that doesn't always work, especially when it costs the same getting someone else to do it.  It's dry and clean when it comes back and FOLDED! We can pick it up tomorrow!

We went to see some of the people we knew from last year. It was gratifying to be recognized and called by name! 

We were in town so long we ended up going to the Two Turtles for lunch. Eddie's is closed for some reason. That means no "Rake and Scrape" on Mondays for awhile until it re-opens.  The Two Turtles had BBQ ribs and chicken for lunch. I had the ribs but should have had the chicken. T came with rice 'n peas, and two of corn, coleslaw or Mac and cheese. It was so filling that we couldn't finish the rice 'n peas so we brought it home for supper.  But we were so full still at supper that we just ate crackers and cheese and veggies for supper!   We finally finished the Blacklist marathon. Oh, no, now what will we watch. The TV antenna as fixed on the boat and for some reason when we are turned away from the shore it doesn't pick up as well. There's nothing more annoying than missing the critical line of dialogue when the villain is revealed or the punch line of a joke.  GRRR

Jan 5 Tuesday

We didn't get the laundry today. It wasn't going to be ready until afternoon and we needed to get across the harbour to secure a good spot for the storm coming through.  Winds were predicted to 35-45 knots with squalls, so everyone is moving around to make enough room between boats. We are at the south end of sand Dollar Beach. [That was another "discussion] where we are away from anyone else and have lots of chain out to prevent dragging.

IF the winds settle down tomorrow we will go get it; if not we'll get it Thursday when we g back over to Kidd Bay and park at Regatta Point.

We just need to hope that there is some sunshine during the day tomorrow to charge up the solar panels.

SO now it's dark and we're bouncing around the bay. Just before dark one of the crazy boaters had a windsurfer out and was screaming up and down the bay. He did have a crash boat following him.

In one of the hurricane holes here there is a series of houseboats that get rented out every year...at lest we think they are rentals. Last spring they were all occupied by French Canadians and this fall/winter seems to be the same. They are all named: Pineapple, Mango, Papaya, etc. and tonight over the radio we heard a caller looking for someone in "the Fruit Bowl".

So here's hoping that the storm mostly misses us and heads north. [Sorry, Joe and Yvonne and the rest of you up there in the Abacos or Eleuthera].  I have two days left to get the boat cleaned up before Sue and Les arrive and we are expecting Quentin to be back on Sunday. Can't wait to get him back here!

Ttyl

Some pics from our lazy days

Getting ready for the races

Sea Urchin or sea biscuit?

Soft and sticky...not sharp

little crab 

Saltshaker

live starfish

Jan 1-3

January 1, 2016

That's going to take some getting used to...2016.

 We didn't make it to the fireworks... lost it around 11:45 and don't even remember if we saw the last part of the Blacklist episode we were watching. I was hoping that the lights and noise would wake me up...nada!

So... New Year's resolutions...have not been too successful at thee for most of my life, so I'm wondering why I should bother now. On the other hand, I do have a few goals to accomplish before the end of the year. However, will stating them formally jinx me or put too much pressure on me? Hmmm...I'll think about that for awhile before committing...maybe a couple of months...how about you?

Sherick and Saltshaker left today, heading south to Long Island and then The Dominican Republic. Sherick is heading for Grenada and beyond. We hope to see Saltshaker again when they head back to the States if they come through the Bahamas. They may be able to do Cuba by that time, if the US business world can see a lucrative inroad there.

So we lazed around, swam, went to Monument Beach to check it out, talked to some people but didn't see anyone from last year, went back to the boat , read, lazed around,  swam...I need Quentin here so I make him work on his school and feel like I accomplished something...warped logic, I know, but works for me!

January 2

Today Rick checked all of the systems again, and moved down to Sand Dollar Beach, to see where we can find coral heads close to the beach for when Sue and Les get here. There are several here that are is less than 5 feet of water ...really easy to see and lots of fish!!

There was a "Beach party" around 5:30 last night where everyone met on the beach. We met Nomad again, who wants to teach us how to fish with a hand line, and Falcon's Nest [Canada] but there was no wind and the mosquitoes were so bad that every only lasted until 6:30.  We'll try again when there's some wind!

The boats down here in Sand Dollar are mostly Canadian.

January 3

Today we are moving down to Chat n' Chill because there is a seminar at noon for the boaters about electrical systems. You can never know too much about electricity and how the magic works!

There is a storm system moving through starting tonight and lasting until Tuesday or Wednesday so we will find a good spot and sit tight. We are good as long as we have lots of room around us.

Five boats came in yesterday. Agape from Barrie was one of them. We will go find out if he was a customer.

Later...unless you can't stand this boring stuff.

Exciting NY Eve!

December 31

This morning we got up at 6:30 [can't help it...sun up, we're up]. The boat gets too hot to stay inside.  We turned on GMA and watched while we ate breakfast and waited for the Cruiser's Net to begin. After breakfast [that lasted until around 10:30] Keri and Ben stopped by on their way to town to see f we needed anything and to say they would be back later in the day. When they left we went for a swim over to the beach and checked the anchor.

The weather predictions call for a wind shift to the north, which means we will swing 180 degrees on the anchor, and we needed to make sure we wouldn't go aground if we swung that far [or hit the rocks along the beach] By then it was lunch time so we didn't get to anything important until after lunch. I started going through the extra stuff that we brought down for various groups. Apparently the Red Cross here has nothing left after sending all of their collections to Long Island and Cat Island after the hurricane, so one of the boaters is collecting stuff for them. It's time to assess exactly what we have and need here o the boat. We still have to get rid of a lot of weight so we can manage to sail more efficiently. It seems to me the stuff I am sorting is insignificant in terms of weight but it makes sense in terms of space allotment. I can't think of a reason to keep 8 shades of red sewing thread, or four cloth measuring tapes or 12 pairs of scissors. They will rust whether or not they are being used, so someone else should make use of them before that happens.

Rick spent the afternoon checking all the systems and we are good. Now we have to get the nav. table organized and the Single-Side-band radio installed today. Sunday there is a lecture on the beach about balanced electrical systems in your boat so we are going to that.

Keri and Ben came back in the afternoon and we visited for a while. Rick showed them pictures of travelling the Great Lakes and they think that when they sell this boat they will get a boat t do that trip.

We went over to Hamburger Beach and spent the evening talking to boaters. We met Sherry and Rick [boat- Sherick] from St. Petersburg who are headed to Grenada. They will leave tomorrow, along with Saltshaker.

We met another guy Carl, and when he found out I had been a NL officer, he dragged his son over to see if I could "make him do stuff."  His son Paul was an air cadet from New Brunswick. He had aged out as a Chief warrant officer and was currently a Mechanical Engineering student at Lavalle University. We had a long talk about his cadet years and his current plans. The kid was at least 6'6"...I was thinking basketball!

So we got back to the boat we discovered it was 10:00 pm. We will watch TV until midnight and fireworks. Happy New Year's Eve!