March 1, 2006 Wednesday

We arrived at South Cat Cay in the Bahamas at 4:11 a.m. in the morning. We are very close to Bimini. We went to bed a little after 5:00 a.m. and we slept till 9:00 a.m. Kay was up earlier than that. He is much more of a morning person than Denny and I. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shinning and the temperature was in the high 70’s.

We ate breakfast about 9:30, then pulled up our anchor to go into Bimini to clear through customs and immigrations. We found the pink Customs building easily and we were able to tie up right behind it at the government dock. Immigrations was right next door to the customs building. We filled out all the paper work for both Customs and Immigrations and after 20 or so rubber stamps and $150.00 we were cleared into the Bahamas. Everything seemed to be going so smooth. Then we left the government dock , headed up the channel further and ran aground. I guess in this part of the world you would say we ran “acoral”. After that we headed back for known waters. We motored back to our anchorage we left that morning. We ate supper on our sail back. Denny said he would go under the boat in the morning and check the damage.

March 2, 2006 Thursday

Denny dove under the boat this morning to check on the damage. He came up and reported that we had really boogered up the front of the starboard keel. We still wanted to go into Bimini to do laundry, go to the grocery store, and get on line to send and read or e-mail. Denny also wanted to get some charts of the Bahamas that he could not find in the states and he wanted to find a place to pull the boat and repair the keel.

Bimini is a skinny island with one skinny main street running through the town. It defiantly is not a tourist trap. They don’t even make it easy to anchor close to the town in a boat. Hurricane Wilma had done a lot of damage to the southern end of the island. There is only one entrance to the harbor and there was a big dredging barge blocking that entrance and making it hard for us to find deep enough water to get in. It was a calm day, so we anchored outside the entrance to the harbor and took the dinghy in.

We first did laundry at Henzey’s Coined Laundromat. Kay and I got the laundry started while Denny went to find the phone company to get a phone book to look for a place to fix the boat. Kay stayed with the laundry while I found a liquor store to buy Rum. When Denny came back , I stayed with the laundry and Kay and Denny went to find a place to send and get e-mail. When the laundry was done, Denny came back and waited with it while I went to Roberts grocery store. They were out of bread so the lady in the store suggested I go to an individuals house who bakes bread. It was down the street on the left hand side next to the Elks Club. I don’t think these island towns are zoned business and residential. The homes, the restaurants, the grocery stores, liquor stores and the bars are all mixed together. I went to the house and knocked on the door. A lady came to the door. I ask if she sold bread. She said “Yes, White , whole wheat, or raisin”. I bought a loaf of white and a loaf of wheat for $5.50 total. I went back to the grocery store, picked up my groceries, met Denny with the laundry and we walked back toward the dingy. We had left the dinghy tied up at the “Bimini Big Game Resort and Marina and of course we found Kay waiting for us at the bar. We all had a drink before we left for the dinghy ride back to the boat.

We decided to just spend the night where we were outside the entrance of the harbor. We had two anchors out , it was real calm with a light breeze from the east. As usual, good things never last. In the night the wind shifted to the west, the rollers moved in and things got ruff. Denny and Kay got up around 4:00 a.m. to reset the anchors. Have I mentioned how glad I am that Kay (aka Anchor Boy) is with us.

March 3, 2006 Friday

When I got up Kay was at the table looking at the charts and Denny is trying to get weather on the radio. We decided to leave the anchorage . We had cold cereal for breakfast . We headed for the Hen and Chicks or the Great Isaac light house. At that time I did not realize there were no anchorages at either of these places.

I decided to fish in the morning. I didn’t catch anything. Kay accidentally knocked my yoyo in the water but I had my line around a cleat. We lost the yoyo but not my lure or line. Kay wrapped my line around a coke bottle so I could still fish. He said he would buy me a new yoyo when we found some place that sold them.

I made brownies and rice pudding in the afternoon. We also sailed past the Great Isaac Light House and the Hens and Chicks without stopping. I knew then we were in for another overnighter. From then on I took more interest in the charts before we left to sail to another place.

It was a nice night to sail. The wind wasn’t cold, the moon was full, we saw lots of other boats. I went to bed around 9:00p.m. I got up several times in the night to set with whoever was at the helm.

We weren’t running the engines and we weren’t sailing very fast. We weren’t in a hurry to get there because we wanted to enter the next harbor in the day light.

March 4, 2006 Saturday

When I woke up around 9:00 a.m. the wind was howling and the boat was slamming down on the waves. I went up on deck and they told me the wind had started coming from the North about an hour earlier. It was so ruff they were unsure about getting safely through the entrance of the Old Bahama Bay Yacht Club harbor at the west end of Grand Bahama Island. The other option was the free anchorage but it was out in the open. After some deliberation, we decided to go into the harbor. We called them on the VHF radio and they had room for us. While they were deciding what to do, I made French Toast with the white bread I had bought in Bimini. I fried up a little Spam to go with it.

The entrance to the harbor was good and so was the harbor. It was very clean and modern. We were assigned a spot on the wall which was easy for us to get into. The first thing we all did was head right for the showers. We cleaned up and walked around the Club. We looked at all the big beautiful boats in the harbor. This place has a beach, a two level pool, a pool bar, a work out room, an upscale restaurant and a regular restaurant, plus a gift shop. Since it was Saturday, there was a Caribbean band playing at the pool bar. This place is really nice.

I fixed spaghetti and a salad for supper. Everyone was tired from the over night sail but we also had free internet access in the boat. We stayed up for a while to get caught up on our mail and find out what was happening at home and in the rest of the world. We also paid extra to get electric so we charged the computers and every other chargeable battery we had on the boat. I was also able to use my microwave to make hot tea.

March 5, 2006 Sunday

We woke up about 7:30a.m. and busied ourselves with checking the oil and getting the boat ready to leave. The water was included in the fee here so we filled our tanks . We moved over to the fuel dock and filled up with diesel. We paid $60.00 to keep our boat here for the night. It was an extra $16.00 for the electric and $55.00 for the diesel. The water and internet access were included in the price of the slip. The total was $131.00.

When we left we were headed for Mangrove Cay in the Little Bahama Bank. We were also running the engines so we made more drinking water and turned on the ice maker. It was a nice afternoon so I decided to fish. The water wasn’t as deep as it had been when we were in the Ocean but I thought I would try it anyway. It wasn’t long before I caught a 30 inch Barracuda. We threw it back because we weren’t sure you could eat Barracuda. I got the book out and it warned about some sort of fish poison that they might carry. I put the hook back in the water and within 10 minutes I caught another Barracuda. This one was 36 inches long. It was fun catching these fish but I wanted to catch something we could eat. Besides we didn’t have a gaff and we were using a boat hook. I thought that was a little hard on the fish if we were going to throw it back. I stopped fishing for the day. I think Kay was amazed I caught anything at all considering my fishing gear.

We arrived at Mangrove Cay around 6:15p.m. For supper I fixed a Mexican dish, I found the recipe on the back of a Dinty More Chicken and Dumpling can. It tasted a lot like chili or taco soup. I served it with grated cheese and some fried tortillas. For desert we had fruit cocktail with graham crackers and caramel coated walnuts. We went to bed early because we wanted to get an early start in the morning. I finished another book “The Perfect Victim” by Elizabeth Southall and Megan Norris. Creepy

March 6, 2006 Monday

We raised the anchor around 9:12 a.m. The water was really smooth, almost no wind. We had cold cereal for breakfast . I tried to fish again. Kay helped me change my lure but I didn’t have any luck.

We arrived at Great Sail Cay at 2:15 p.m. We put down our anchor and were all settled in. This island and Mangrove Cay are nothing but weed patches. There was no reason to even try to go to shore. I took a shower and washed my hair. We had lots of hot water because we had ran the engines.

While I was preparing supper, the boat began to rock and the wind was coming up. This was a good anchorage but the wind was really beginning to blow from the west. After supper we all stayed up late listening to the weather, looking at charts and reading. Kay and Gerry Haller gave us their notes from their trip they had taken to the Bahamas. We are going to some of the same places. We hang on the descriptions in these notes and other books about the water depth, the anchorages, and the suggested anchorages in different wind conditions.

In the night the wind switched to the north. It was still rocky.

March 7, 2006 Tuesday

I heard Denny up at 5:30 a.m. He was listening to the weather on the single side band radio. He records it on a Dictaphone so he can listen to it over again. We all were up at 7:30 a.m. It was really rocking and a rolling and the wind was strong from the North. It seems like every time we have a couple of real nice light air days, it brings in some real blows from the north. The weather prediction didn’t sound good. It looked like we would be here another day. We all ate breakfast. I took another Dramamine because of all the rocking. I went back to bed and took a nap. In the afternoon we played cards or read. I made a batch of cole slaw from the big head of cabbage I bought in Bimini. I only uses half of the head of cabbage and wrapped the other half back up in the newspaper and put it back in the lower part of the boat. We’ll see how it keeps.

One of the things I noticed about the two sailor on our boat is that they are very aware of their surroundings. Either that or they are nosey. When we have a lay over in an anchorage like this they will sometimes stare at the other boats in the anchorage with the binoculars. They look at the dinghies and how they are attached to the boats. They look at the rigging. They read the names on the back of the boats to see where they are from. They check out equipment that the other boats are carrying. We listen to them chat on the VHF and try to figure out if they are traveling together. This is just an observation of the two people I am traveling with.

We ate supper and we all went to bed early.

March 8, 2006 Wednesday

We debated about staying at this anchorage at Great Sale Cay another day. The weather just wasn’t what everyone liked NE. A couple other boats from our anchorage had left. One of them was very small, so we decided we should leave. We pulled up our anchor at 9:20 a.m. and headed for Foxtown.

For lunch we ate the last of the lunch meat and the last of the bread I bought in Bimini. We also ate the last of the potato chips that I had bought in Marathon, Florida.

We arrived at Foxtown on Little Abaco Island at 2:57 p.m. and put the dinghy in the water to go to town. The Hallers said in their notes that there was a good bar/restaurant here called the Boom-Boom room and we were on a mission to find it.

There are a lot of rocks sticking up out of the water between our anchorage and the Hopetown dinghy dock. The rocks have short grass growing on top of them and to me they look like beaver houses. We go slow in the dinghy because we don’t know if there are more of these rocks just under the surface of the water.

We found the Boom-Boom room but it was under repair. We found another nice bar/restaurant called DeValley. Ronald and Judy and their adopted son Gregory are the nice people who run the place. We had a few drinks and a nice Grouper dinner.

We went back to the boat and went to bed.

March 9, 2006 Thursday

We woke up about 7:00 a.m. and checked the oil in the engines. Denny took the dinghy back to Foxtown to call the boat yard in Marsh Harbor to make an appointment to get our boat pulled. This is the first chance he has had to get to a phone since we left Bimini. He came back and told us he had made an appointment for March 21^st.

We left Foxtown harbor a little after 9:00a.m. and headed for Green Turtle Cay. We motor sailed. I fished. I caught another Barracuda but it was only about 12 inches long so we threw it back. The people in Foxtown said it was O.K. to eat the barracuda (local knowledge) but this time it wasn’t big enough to make it worth while.

We arrived in White Sound off of Green Turtle Cay around 4:30p.m. To get into this harbor we had to follow plastic jugs that mark the channel. Keep the Mazola Oil bottles to starboard and the Clorox bottles to port. At first this appeared to be just someone’s jug fishing jugs (River knowledge) but then we noticed the pattern. We anchored in the harbor with several other boats. The nice thing about this time of year is that the anchorages are not crowded.

We did not leave the boat. We had made ice while the engines were running so we had drinks, ate supper, played on the computers till we ran the computer batteries down and went to bed. I finished another book: “Hark” by Ed McBain---Good story if you like cryptic messages and anagrams.

March 10, 2006 Friday

When we woke up, we cleaned and straightened the inside of the boat. We all put on our “go to shore cloths” , ate breakfast, and took the dinghy to the Bluff House Beach Hotel dinghy dock. I went for a long walk to stretch my sea legs and burn some calories. I found Kay and Denny at the bar at the Bluff House when I came back from my walk. The beers were $5.75 there so we went back to the boat for some lunch.

In the afternoon Denny and I both took the dinghy to the Bluff House dinghy dock to take another walk while Kay rested his healing foot. We walked around to the Ocean Beach which was quite spectacular. We came back by the Marine Turtle Cay Club to check out their laundry area. We also went into the quick shop and found out they had ice cream. Both the Bluff House Beach Hotel and the Marine Turtle Cay Club are in the White Sound harbor where we are anchored. Both are really nice places.

We went back to the boat and made drinks from some ice I had managed to save in our freezer. I fixed supper, We messed around on the computers for a while, read a little, and went to bed.

March 11, 2006 Saturday

We all woke up, got dressed, ate breakfast, and organized ourselves for our trip to town. We had decided to rent a golf cart and go into the town of New Plymouth on Green Turtle Cay. This island is not very big and it appears that most of the people get around here in golf carts. The houses even have little garages just the size for a golf cart.

We took the dinghy back to the dinghy dock at the Bluff House and rented a cart real close. It was $50.00 a day. We all piled in and headed for New Plymouth which was only a couple miles away. We were able to take Kay by the Ocean Beach where Denny and I had walked the day before.

The town of New Plymouth was a neat place. The streets are just wide enough for one car and it is questionable if two golf carts would have room to pass each other. The houses are small and some have little white picket fences around them. The town has a library, a bank that is only open on Monday and Thursday, three or more small grocery stores, and several bars and restaurants. All the buildings are painted in the bright pastel colors found on most of the buildings in the Bahamas.

We parked the golf cart and just walked around town for a while checking out the grocery stores , the bars, and other shops on the streets. Kay found a small general store that had a yoyo. He bought it to replace the one he accidentally knocked in the water. All of this walking and shopping made us thirsty. We stopped into a place called Blue Bees. A lady named Miss Emily opened this place years ago and and invented a drink called the Goomby Smash. Miss Emily’s daughter, Violet, runs the place now. Our daughter Tobi and her husband Dan had been to this place last January and they suggested we stop here. It was close to noon and Denny wanted some conk fritters. Violet called across the street to Roberta’s Faith Grocery Store and Roberta made a batch for him and had her grand daughter bring them over. She only charged $5.00 for the whole plate of fritters.

We also went to a bar called Pineapples. It was a little off the beaten path but we took the golf cart and it was well worth the ride. This bar even has a pool.

We went to Sids and Lows grocery store and loaded up on some groceries and then headed back to where we began our day. We transferred all the groceries from the golf cart to the dinghy and then Denny and I delivered them to the boat. Kay stayed behind to return the golf cart. We took the dinghy back to the Bluff House bar, where we met Kay, and we had Rum and Cokes while we watched the sunset. Kay and Denny met the owner of the Bluff House Beach Hotel. His name is Roger and he said the place is for sale.

We took the dinghy back to the boat and I fixed supper. It was a full day for us and we really enjoyed it.

March 12, 2005 Sunday

I woke up around 9:00 a.m. Denny and Kay are already up. We had cold cereal for breakfast. We all enjoyed the fresh milk we bought yesterday. Kay and Denny spend time with the binoculars looking at the other boats in the harbor or working on little projects they have on the boat. I read some, stripped my bed and gathered up all my dirty cloths in a large bag. We had decided to go to the Green Turtle Club Resort to do laundry. Denny and I had checked it out when we were walking a couple days before. They told us that the boats at anchor could do laundry there. We just had to buy some tokens for the machines at the main desk.

It was about 2:00 p.m. when we headed over to the Green Turtle Club with all of our laundry in our dinghy. When Denny and I had checked it before, there was no one in the laundry room. Well surprise, today there was a line to get in. We had 5 loads. We managed to get it all done by 6:00 p.m. Denny took some of the nylon things back to the boat and hung them on the jack lines so we didn’t have as much to dry as we did to wash. It took us 11 tokens at $3.50 a token. We had not done laundry since Bimini. At these prices we may rethink about the bucket and the wringer.

We went back to the boat and had a nice dinner. We grilled chicken breast, made a salad and I baked potatoes in my pressure cooker.

March 13, 2006 Monday

The bank in New Plymouth is only open on Monday and Thursday. We needed some cash so we decided to go back to town in the dinghy. It was a beautiful day. Flat water and a lot of sunshine. We left the boat about 10:00 a.m. We tied the dinghy up at the dinghy dock just off of Black Sound and real close to town. By 10:40 a.m. we were at the bank.

While Denny and Kay were in the bank, I walked down to Sids grocery store to buy a CD by the Barefoot Man. The Hallers had told us about his music and I thought I would like to have one of his CD’s. I also went in the general store and bought another yoyo. Now I can fish off both sides of the back of the boat. We all met back at the Plymouth Rock Liquor/ Café. We heard at the laundry yesterday, that this was a good place to eat lunch. Kay had a BLT and Denny had fried conk and a cucumber salad. We headed back to the boat about 1:00 p.m.

When we arrived back at our boat, Denny and Kay took the two big yellow cans to the gas dock and filled them up with diesel. When they came back to the boat, we all changed into out bathing suits. We set around in the sun and listened to the new CD by the Barefoot Man.

Later in the afternoon we went into the Bluff House Beach Hotel to have a drink and take showers. We were having our drink in some chairs close to the bar when the cook brought out some free fried shrimp. He left plates of shrimp setting around for everyone who was having a drink. They were very good. We ask the bartender if she knew what time the convenience store closed at the Green Turtle Club closed across the harbor. She said it closed at 5:00p.m. but if we needed something we could just go to the main desk and they would open it up for us. That’s what I call service.

When we were all showered and full of drinks and shrimp, we left in the dinghy. Kay and Denny dropped me off at the boat to fix something light for supper. They were headed for that quick shop to get some ice cream. They came back with a half gallon and a quart of ice cream. I think this was a case of their eyes being bigger than their stomachs and our freezer. I made some chocolate syrup with some coco, milk and powdered sugar. We divided the half gallon three ways and ate it all. I cleaned out the freezer enough to get the quart in there to be eaten another night. We all went to bed with very full stomachs.

March 14, 2006 Tuesday

I didn’t get up till 8:30 a.m. Kay and Denny were already up. They are messing with projects on the boat or looking at things with the binoculars. It is another beautiful sunny day. The temperature is in the high 70’s.

I made some potato salad to have with the fish we are having tonight. I bought some frozen grouper when we were in New Plymouth the other day and I had to take it out of the freezer last night to make room for the ice cream.

About 3:00 p.m. we took the dinghy back into the bluff house to take showers, have a drink and charge the computers. We met a nice guy named Napoleon “Polie”. He was from the Bahamas and he was related to almost everyone we met in New Plymouth.

We went back to the boat about 6:30 p.m. I cooked the fish (blackened grouper). We split the quart of ice cream with some cookies and cream liquor on top of it. We wrote or read in our computers till the batteries went low again and then we went to bed.

March 15, 2006 Wednesday

We are leaving White Sound at Green Turtle Cay today. We are going to Great Guana Cay.

We woke up about 7:00a.m. Kay checked the oil in both engines, Denny put the way points in the Ray Marine and we ate breakfast. We headed back out between the Clorox and the Mazola oil bottles on our way to Great Guana Cay.

When we cleared the entrance to the harbor we put up the sail, turned on the water maker and plugged in the lap tops to recharge them. We left Green Turtle Cay at 8:35a.m. and arrived at Great Guana Cay at 12:05 p.m. We took a mooring. The harbor was so small we could not anchor without obstructing another mooring.

We ate lunch. Denny and Kay took the Dinghy to shore to look around. I took a nap. This short sail didn’t justify my taking the Dramamine this morning but I did and now I am paying the sleepy price.

They came back in a couple of hours with a bag of ice. We all had drinks while I fixed supper. We ate, then messed around with the computers for a while and went to bed.

March 16, 2006 Thursday

We are at a mooring that cost $15.00 a night . The man in a boat showed up to collect the money at 8:00a.m. sharp. We ate breakfast and listened to Pattie on the VHF. She reads her husband Bobs weather, makes community announcements, reads news of interest, and my favorite is the trivia question. We listen to this show almost every morning that we have been in the Abacos. Since we don’t have a television, this radio show has taken the place of “Good Morning America.

The bilge pump on Kays side of the boat is not working. He was able to solder some wires and get it working again. If you know anyone who ever wants to try a trip like this. Be sure to tell them to bring every tool they ever used on a boat and one spare of anything that might break.

We took the dinghy into the dingy dock . We have to put an anchor off the stern of our dinghy and tie the bow to the dock. The rungs of the ladder up the dock from the dinghy are about 3 feet apart and their stability is questionable. After we all made it safely on the dock we walked up to Nippers and had a couple of drinks. We met a couple of nice men named Angus and Mike. They were married to sisters. They had about 6 kids between the ages of 7 and 11 with them. They were on vacation and they were giving their wives the day off. They took a boat here from Hopetown to set and drink while they watched the kids play on the beach. I bought another Barefoot Man CD at Nippers . The Barefoot Man was at Nippers two weeks before we came there. It is a shame we missed it. But then maybe it was good we did miss it. They said there were 2000 people there. The harbors all around were packed.

Next to Nippers there are about 6 or 8 log cabins. Yes ,I said log cabins. They are stained in the pastel pinks, greens, blues, and yellows like the other colored houses in the islands. There is a song about these log cabins on the Barefoot Man CD I bought on Green Turtle Cay. I didn’t know what he was singing about till I saw them.

After we finished our drink at Nippers we walked back down the hill to a little grocery store. We bought some milk and some lettuce. It was almost 4:30 p.m. We walked back to the dinghy, went back to the boat and had supper.

We have noticed that a lot of the people, on other boats in the harbors, blow conk shells at sundown. I don’t know if this is just an Abaco custom or a Bahama custom. I had never been any place where I noticed them doing this before.

We can get on line in the harbor. We looked at pictures we had taken, read e-mail and sent e-mails and went to bed.

March 17, 2006 Friday

Happy St. Pats Day. The collector came about 8:00a.m. to get his $15.00 for the mooring. I made French Toast for breakfast. I wish I had thought to bring some green food coloring.

About 10:00a.m. we gathered up our beach bags, snorkels, fins, food for lunch, cooler with drinks. We packed all of this in the dinghy and headed for the beach in front of Nippers.

After manuvering all our things up onto the dock from the dinghy, we bought a bag of ice at the liquor store at the end of the dock and we put it in our cooler. We walked through Nippers and down to the beach. It was in the 80’s and there was only a light breeze. A perfect day for the beach.

I wished we had a beach umbrella to put our cooler and our beach bags under. However, if we did have an umbrella I don’t know who would have carried it. Denny rigged up a lean too with some boards he found on the beach and a 4x5 yellow tarp he brought with him. It wasn’t pretty and It was a little rickity but it worked great.

Denny and Kay put on their wet suits, snorkels and fins and went in the water to look around. They say the third largest reef in the world is right off of this beach. They snorkeled for a while and I watched from a towel on the beach. The tempature is 80 degrees or higher and the sand is cozy warm from the bright sun. However, the tempature of the water is only 76 degrees this time of the year and I didn’t want any part of it ,wet suit or not.

We all walked on the beach, drank rum and cokes, ate lunch and had a very nice time.

It was about 3:00 p.m. so we packed up our things and went back up to Nippers to rinse off in the pool. We found out that the shower and the pool at Nippers are both salt water. We did get a lot of the sand off though. The pool was also a little chilly. It was 87 degrees and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky so we didn’t freeze when we got out of the pool. I went in the gift shop and bought a big container of black pepper that they had on sale (we all love pepper and I know I will not run out now) and a Nippers insulated glass.

We picked up our things and headed back for the boat. I made corned beef and cabbage and mashed potatoes for supper. I still wish I had remembered to bring green food coloring.

Denny pulled up the weather on Baromator Bob’s web site and we discused leaving this harbor in the morning.

This was a fun and different St. Pats day.

March 18, 2006 Saturday

The mooring fee collector was there right at 8:00a.m. We ate breakfast and listened to Pattie read the weather etc. on the VHF. At 8:24 a.m. Kay (aka anchor boy) pulled up the anchor and we headed for Marsh Harbor on Great Abaco Island. We circle slashed going to Man of War when we heard it was a dry island. We also checked the notes the Hallers gave us from their trip and they said their wasn’t much there.

We arrived in Marsh Harbor and Kay put out an anchor at 11:15a.m. This motor sail today was so short that I decided to forgo the Dramamine. I found these wrist bands that I had for sea sickness and decided to give them a try. They worked good. Of course the water was real flat so I am not sure if this day was a good test for their performance. At least I was awake when we arrived. Kay tried to get on line but he didn’t have any luck. We were so lucky in the last two harbors to be able to use the Internet on the boat.

About 2:30 p.m. Denny and I decided to take the dinghy to town to check things out. Denny was looking for a hardware store and a marine supply store, as usual. I was looking for the grocery stores. There were several hardware stores and a marine store but they all closed at noon on Saturday and didn’t open again till Monday morning. We did find two big grocery stores (Solomon’s and Price Right ). When I say big. I mean big for the Abaco islands. These are no Schnucks or Dierburgs. We went into the Solomon‘s and bought almost a gallon of ice cream. We went straight to the dinghy and back to the boat. I had a few thing in our freezer and a small bag of ice. I took all of that out of the freezer and put it in the cooler. I put the ice cream in the freezer. It was almost 5:00p.m. so we made rum and cokes with the ice. I made supper and then we ate 3 pints of the ice cream. I could then put the other things back in the freezer and we still had a half gallon of ice cream to eat tomorrow night. We were all so full that we just read some and went to bed.

March 19, 2005 Sunday

We woke up around 7:00a.m. Denny fixed himself some grits and coffee for breakfast. I spent some time on the computer. Kay and I didn’t eat breakfast right away. We were still full from all the ice cream the night before. We listened to Pattie on the VHF. My favorite part is the trivia question.

Around 11:30 we all decided to get in the dinghy and go to town. We took the dinghy up to Snappa’s resturant/bar. I left Denny and Kay at the bar while I went to the Price Right grocery store. I picked up a few things and came back to join them at the bar. We met a man named Gary Scott . He is in the harbor on a boat named Barefoot. He had lived by himself on his Saber 36 for the last 2 years. He had some neat stories. About 3:00 p.m. we went back to the boat and had rum and cokes and chips and salsa. I had marinated some pork chops before we went to town so I baked some potatoes in my pressure cooker, I made a salad, we grilled the pork chops and had a nice supper. I must not forget that we ate the half gallon of ice cream with chocolate sauce for desert.

March 20, 2005 Monday

Today we decided to make a major run to town. Everything should be open. I ate breakfast and made some potato salad with some extra potatoes I cooked for supper last night. About 10:00a.m we all piled into the dinghy and headed for the public dinghy dock. When we got there, there were about 20 dinghys tied up to a small floating platform they called a dinghy dock. It was really crowded. I guess it was Monday and everyone had decided to go to town.

We decided to take our walkie talkies. We have 3 so we all had one to use. Denny took off and went to the hardware store. Kay went to the Liquor store and I headed for the grocery store. After I bought some groceries from Solomon’s I pushed the grocery cart down to where Kay was at one of the liquor stores. We bought 2 cases of diet Coke at one Liquor store ($14.00 a case) and then we went to another liquor store and bought 6 litter bottles of Bacardi Light Rum ($9.15 each less 20% because we bought 6 bottles) and a bottle of Bacardi Anejo. We put all this in the grocery cart and pushed it down to the dinghy. We walkie talkied Denny and said we were going to take our purchases to the boat.

When we came back to town we went to Snappa’s bar dock and met Denny there. We had a drink and sat for a while and then we remembered we had forgot to buy beer. I guess Kay and I had gotten so excited about the deal on the rum that we forgot the beer. I left them at the bar and went to the Price Right and bought some more groceries. I pushed the Grocery cart down to the liquor store and bought a case of Kalik (a local beer-$34.50 a case). Bud Light is $45.00 a case. I called them on the walkie-talkie and they came down to the public dinghy dock to pick me up.

We had grilled chicken, potato salad, pork and beans and a small lettuce salad for supper. It is great when we first get groceries because we have meat to grill.

Denny and Kay went to bed about 9:00p.m. I stayed up till the battery went down on my computer.

I finished my book tonight. “The Kiss” by Danille Steel--not a good read. too much talk, not enough action.

March 21, 2006 Tuesday

We have an appointment to be at Marsh Harbor Boat Yard at 11:30 this morning to have the boat pulled out of the water and the keel repaired.

Kay pulled the anchor up at 8:05 a.m. We arrived at the boat yard at 10.05 a.m. The boat yard is just around the corner from Marsh Harbor. By 2:30p.m. we were out of the water and setting on blocks. We were hooked up to electric and water and overlooking the sea of Abaco.

It was 80 degrees and we had a lot of wind. We were in a boat yard but I have been in worst places. Since we have electric we all plugged in the computers and the ice maker. I made Popcorn in my Microwave.

The keel is fixable. I hoped they have us out of here by the end of the week.

We are using the sun shower for hot water to shower.

March 22, 2006 Wednesday

Today is our grandaughter Karley’s birthday. I hope she is having fun.

We are still in the boat yard. I am enjoying using my microwave to save on my stove gas. Today, I just messed with the computer and read. We still can’t get or send any e-mail. Denny and Kay are reparing things on the boat.

We met a nice couple from Anapolasm . Brian and Jeannie Snead and their twin five year old daughters Emma and Ali. They are on a large Lagoon Catamaran named “Miakoda”. They were having some repairs done to their boat in this boat yard. They are going to be sailing around the Bahamas for 3 months.

The weather here, this time of year, reminds me of northern Michigan in the summer. The days are warm and sunny but the nights cool off and you need a jacket and a blanket on your bed.

March 23, 2006 Thursday

We are still in the boatyard. Kay and Denny both have their projects and interest that they work on in the day. I mainly read or type in my computer. After lunch I decided to walk in Marsh Harbor. It was only a mile or so down the road and I could use the exercise. I put my lap top in my back pack and headed out. The road to town followed along the sea side for half the way and it was a pleasant walk.

The first place I stopped was the Outisland Internet Store. I found out they charge $10.00 for an unlimited amount of time, if you have your own lap top. I really wanted to see if I had any mail but thought I should wait and spend the $10.00 when Kay and Denny could get theirs also.

I went in a few of the shops and looked around just to see what kind of things they sold. Then I went to Solomon’s grocery store and bought some pork chops, spinach for a salad , some nice strawberries and a package of vanilla pudding mix. I saw other things I could use but I didn’t want to carry them over a mile back to the boat. I headed back to the boat to marinate the pork chops.

Since we have been in the boat yard, we have been putting water in the sun shower . The water on our boat only gets hot when the engine runs. We can’t run the engines when we are out of the water so we use the sun shower for our showers. IA hot shower is completely dependent on how much the sun shined in the day. Also it cools off a lot in the evening so if you wait, you have a cold shower.

It rained hard in the night. We hadn’t had hardly any rain since we left Punta Gorda. We had a few leaks around the windows in the galley but no leaks in our beds. Thank Goodness. The people down here say that the rain is Gods Blessing. They really needed this rain. They really depend on the rain for their fresh water. We take fresh water so much for granted in the U.S. I am glad the rain happened in the night. So it didn’t keep us cooped up inside the boat in the day.

March 24, 2006 Friday

We had more of a brunch today than breakfast. The sun was out and it was another beautiful day. We all got busy with things and didn’t eat till 11:00. I had a couple left over pork chops , so I cut them up in small pieces and made white gravy with them. I served the gravy over fried egg bread. I have to use the bread as fast as I can. The boat is hotter on the blocks than it was in the water and the bread is hard to keep. Things like to grow on it. I called this fried egg bread which is really almost like French toast.

I have made up different versions of French toast since I have been on this trip.

French toast is bread dipped in a mixture of eggs, milk, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar . It is then placed in a skillet with a little oil and browned on both sides. This is served, topped with maple syrup, powdered sugar, or fruit.

One of my versions is Mexican toast It is bread dipped in a mixture of eggs, milk, salt, pepper and chilli seasoning. It is placed in the skillet and browned on both sides. This is served , topped with a layer of refried beans, a layer of salsa, a layer of onions, and a layer of cheddar cheese. Denny and Kay like this one. They like Mexican food.

Another version is Italian toast. It is bread dipped in a mixture of eggs, milk, salt, Italian seasoning and garlic. It is placed in a skillet with a little olive oil and browned on both sides. This is served with a layer of canned Italian flavored tomatoes (drained) and a layer of Motzarella cheese.

German toast. I haven‘t tried this yet. I‘ve just thought about it. I think if I would incorporate bratwurst sausage, sauerkraut, and dill weed. I think I could make it work. Well , enough chatter about cooking..

About 3:00 p.m. we all decided to call a cab and go to town. In Marsh Harbor you call a cab on the VHF radio. Denny took his computer so we could all get on line for the $10.00.

The cab dropped Denny off at the hardware store so he could buy a new shower bildge pump for our side of the boat. Kay was able to do some work on his and get it pumping. He also wanted to buy cauck for around the boat windows.

The cab dropped Kay and I off at the Outisland Internet Store. Denny had left his computer with us so we could get and send our e-mail before he joined us. Denny came in when we were finished, sent some pictures for the web site and read his mail.

We then all walked to Snappa’s for happy hour. We were there from 5:00p.m. till 7:00p.m. and took full advantage of their happy hour priced drinks. They also served free meat balls, small Sub Way sandwitches and little chocolate chip cookies. We each had more than one cocktail plate of food. We were full. When happy hour was over we called Cab #75 on Channel #6 on the VHF radio and went back to the boat in the boatyard.

The cab ride cost $10.00 each way. The internet store was $10.00. The bill at Snappa’s was $20.00 plus we left a $4.00 tip. Our entire Friday night only cost for the three of us was $54.00. I was pleased. Plus we were all full so I didn’t have to fix supper.

March 25, 2006 Saturday

Today is out grandaughter Hanna’s eleventh birthday. I hope she has a wonderful day.

Denny and Kay cauked the windows in the boat this morning. We had a few leaks the other night when it rained. Jeannie, the girl from the Lagoon 41, came by and loaned me a couple of her crusing cookbooks to look at. Denny helped me get the printer out and I made copies of some of the recipes.

One recipe is for baking bread in a pressure cooker. Another one I printed is for Sardine spaghetti. I thought these would be easy to make on the boat when we are out for a long time away from a grocery store. I bet I’ll have to be out a long time before I try the Sardine spaghetti but you never know.

I was reading a section on fish and fishing. It talked about the fish poison that has concerned me when I catch fish. It read that one way to tell if a fish is poison is to cut its liver out and touch the liver to your lips or tongue. If your lips or tongue tingle or go numb then the fish is suspect. I just can’t see this test happening on our boat.

Denny worked all afternoon on painting the bottom of the boat yellow. We ate supper, and went to bed.

March 26, 2006 Sunday

We are still in the Marsh Harbor Boat Yard. Denny started painting the bottom of the boat blue today.

In the afternoon I decided to walk to town to buy some milk and eggs. On my walk to town I noticed a lot of Conk shells on the side of the road beside the sea shore. I think people clean them for the meat and then just dump them back out here beside the water. I found a few I liked and set them aside to pick up on my way back from town.

I made it back from town with milk, eggs, lettuce, corn chips and one of my shells. I fixed spegetti and a salad for supper tonight.

March 27, 2006 Monday

We all cleaned the boat this morning. We are leaving the boat yard today and we wanted to take full advantage of the hose and fresh water that we can use here. Denny and Kay changed the oil in the engines. Denny had worked very hard on painting the bottom o the boat and we were all anxious to get back in the water.

While we were waiting on them to put us in, I took a little walk with Kay and Denny to show them where I found my conk shell. I also wanted to collect the other shell I had set aside the day before. Kay had found me a nice one earlier in the week. I figure you can’t have too many nice conk shells.

Around 1:45 p.m. they started putting our boat in the slings to put her back in the water. We started the engines, paid the bill, and headed back to Marsh Harbor. We put the anchor down in the harbor at 4:52.

We made ice and water on our trip from the boat yard to the harbor. It was another beautiful sunshiny day. We had drinks with the ice we made and we all took hot showers with the boat water. We ate supper and went to bed.

March 28, 2006 Tuesday

We went to town this morning to do laundry. We piled all the dirty laundry in the dinghy and took it to the dinghy dock. We found a grocery cart someone had left by the dock so we piled all the laundry in the cart and pushed it to the Classic Coin Wash. This was one of the better laundrymats we have been in. It wasn’t crowded and it was clean. We washed and dried 6 loads of wash for $22.00. We met a nice couple when we were drying the cloths. Their names were Mike and Trish McNaull. They were on a boat called “Absaroke“. They had already been down to the places we are going, so they gave us a few pointers on things to see.

When we came out of the laundry, our grocery cart was still there so we put all of our nice clean cloths in the cart and headed back toward the dinghy dock. As Denny was crossing the main street he commented that he felt like a homeless person. He was referring to the fact that he was pushing a grocery cart with all his cloths in it. We stopped at Bristals liquor store and bought three more cases of diet Coke . We thought we would get the coke while we had the cart. We put it all back in the dinghy and left to go to the boat.

When we were at the dock in the dinghy, we met a man on a Lagoon Cat anchored in the harbor. He was interested in our boat so we told him to come on by and take a look. About 15 minuites after we were back on our boat, he showed up in his dinghy. His name was Brad Gunn and his boats name is “Mothra”. He has a permanent mooring in Hopetown. He just came over for the day to do some shopping. He had a drink with us. We hadn’t had lunch and it was after 2:00p.m. so I made some grilled cheese sandwiches He told us what we should see when we went to Hopetown.

When he left we took the dinghy back to town and Kay bought ice. I went to the store and bought some milk, pork chops, onions and some ice cream. Denny went to the hard ware store. We took everything back to the boat had more drinks and a light supper. Had to save room for the ice cream.

March 29, 2006 Wednesday

Happy Birthday To Me. We are in Marsh Harbor.

This morning Denny gave me a birthday card. Kay went to town and bought me some fat free chocolate cookies and some cole slaw dressing. He knows I like the cookies and he knows I like cole slaw.

These were nice gifts. After all this, I made cole slaw. I had some red cabbage I added in with regular cabbage, red onion, carrots, and apples. When I finished , I put on my bathing suit and set on the front of the boat with Denny. We watched the other boats in the harbor and the other people come and go in their dinghys. It was another beautiful day.

About 3:30 p.m., Kay was in his bunk reading. Denny and I took the dinghy to the dinghy dock and went by an apolstery place to see about getting the main sail cover repaired. The UV had taken its toll on some of the stitching. The man told him to bring it in tomorrow and he would look at it. We then walked to Solomons grocery store and bought a few things. I wanted to go to the store before it was too late in the week. I think the stores get their replenishment deliverers on Sunday night. They seem to run low on bread, milk, produce and other short life items when it gets to the week end. We bought a few things and pushed the grocery cart back to the dinghy dock.

We grilled pork chops for supper. We had the pork chops with cole slaw, baked beans and a strange looking fried vegetable. I had bought this vegetable in Green Turtle Cay and it looked like a big brown carrot. They told me I should cook it like a potato. Tonight I sliced it real thin and fried it. It taste like a potato and we all liked it. When I find out what they call this vegetable I will let you know. I may buy another one.

There was another beautiful sunset tonight. It was a happy birthday.

March 30, 2006 Thursday

Denny took the canvas part of the main lazy jacks into the apolstry store to get them repaired. When he came back to the boat, we all climbed into the dinghy and headed for the other side of the harbor. We wanted to walk around on that side because we hadn’t seen what was there.

We tied our dinghy up at the Jib Room and walked through the bar/resturant to the road above it. It looked like it was mostly residential on this side of the harbor. There were some lots with fishing boats stored on them, and the Jib Room is on this side but that’s about it. The houses on the north side of the street are right on the Sea of Abaco. They have a beautiful view of the water. We also found a little beach with a sigh out in the water that said Mermaids Reef. A family was preparing to snorkle there and they said they had heard it was a good place. We are going there tomorrow with our snorkle gear.

After our walk we went back to the Jib Room and had a drink. We then climbed back in the dinghy and headed to the other side of the harbor to Georges place to buy a quart of conk salad. We pulled the dinghy right up to the back of his hut where he makes the salads. We climbed across his boat , with his permission, and ordered the salad. It was a little before noon and George was still chopping up the conk. We watched him chop and dice for a while. Denny noticed the tide was going out and our dinghy was in shallow water. He moved the dinghy over to Snappas dock which is a couple buildings down from Georges open air salad bar. He came back, we paid for the salad, went back to the dinghy and headed for the boat. We ate hot dogs and conk salad for lunch. Kay had hot dogs and cole slaw. I don’t think he likes raw conk.

After lunch we put all our computers in the dinghy and went to the Outisland Internet Store. We wanted to get on line to check our

e-mail and Denny wanted to check to see if he could pay for a week of their service and then we could get on line in most of the harbors in the Abacos.

After I read and answered my mail, I went down the street and bought an Abaco hat at the Iggy Biggy store. I really like this area of the Bahamas and I wanted a hat from here. I am sure the temp. here is very hot and uncomfortable in the summer, but it is real nice here this time of the year. I also walked to the Price Right and bought some more food. I am so afraid of getting away from here and not being able to buy more supplies. I am really trying to stock up. Denny picked up his repaired lazy jacks. We went back to the boat and Kay and Denny put the repaired lazy jack parts back on the boat. We had a drink and made supper. We looked at pictures we took during the day, wrote in our journals and went to bed.

March 31, 2006 Friday

Denny caucked some of the windows in the boat today. We haven’t had any more rain since we were in the boat yard, but you never know . I don’t really want it to rain but the people in these islands could use some. When it is so dry here, they hae trouble with grass fires. The fire starts in some grass and then travels underground and starts a fire in other places. At least that’s the way I understand it happens.

Kay and I spent the morning going back and forth from the Outisland Internet Store trying to get a set up where we can get on line on our boat here and in other Abaco harbors. Denny had checked on it yesterday but they said we had to be on the boat when we signed up to be sure our computers would pick up the signal from the boat. The service cost $40.00 a week. It was costing us $10.00 a setting to go into the store with our laptops. We just decided to pay for the week , so we could get on line any time we wanted, for the next seven days . I think we will still be in the Abacos till next Friday.

I also needed to print some documents, to sign, get notorized, and Fed-Ex to my brother in the states. We brought a printer/scanner with us on the boat and we have used it much more that I thought we would. After lunch, Denny and I took the dinghy back to town, found a notary, and sent off the papers.

About 2:00p.m. we decided to go over to Mermaid Reef to go snorkeling. Actually Kay and Denny are going in the water. I will set on the beach and take pictures. They both have full body wet suits and I just have a little short one. I was afraid the water would be a little to cold for me.

We piled all out gear into the dinghy, tied up at the Jib Room, walked about a block to mermaid beach. We took bread to feed the fish. Kay and Denny said the fish were beautiful and they really liked the bread. About 3:30p.m. we left the beach and went back to the boat. We showered, put on clean cloths and dinghied into Snappas Bar/Reaturant for Happy Hour. We wanted to be there at 5:00p.m. sharp . The drinks are a dollar off between 5 and 7p.m. and they have free food. The free food tonight was chicken wings and meat balls in barbecue sauce. We all ate and drank till we were stuffed. We left to go back to the boat about 7:30p.m. Our bill was $33.00 for 11 drinks. We gave them $40.00.

We still had a little ice in our freezer so we had another drink on the boat. We also got into the cookies and the chocolate candy. We were in bed by 9:30p.m.