Mar 11-13, 2017
After doing a major crossing (for us), one would think that we would sit back, relax, and enjoy the scenery. That did not happen. The boat was filthy, covered in black dust and rust spots from boatyard life. Uno Mas was in need of a cleaning before friends come on board. Uno Mas was in need of offloading cargo onto our friend’s boat, Sognare.
We were hoping to see a significant raise in our waterline from being relieved of all of that weight. That did not happen either. However, the now vacant guest bathroom’s open space was filled immediately with our things that are normally stored there. (Foldable bicycles, 2 huge bean bag chairs, ditch bag, salon seating cushions, and going to shore shopping bags.) Angie also wanted to wrap the hooks for our jack line tethers, so they do not chunk out the deck when they hit while we are moving around on deck.
While sailing in to meet us at Shroud, Sognare caught a whopper of a Mahi. Unfortunately, while the fish was thrashing on the deck after being landed, the triple barbed lure sunk one of the hooks into Craig’s foot! So, that evening, Mark and I were able to observe, up close and personal, how to install sutures without Lidocaine. This is something we hope never to have to do, especially to one’s self. Craig is the Man! Afterwards, we had a delicious Mahi dinner!
Mark installed a 4 inch PVC pipe dinghy anchor sleeve, to keep the anchor from chunking out our fiberglass flooring in the Dink. That little cabinet rehab finally got completed.
We needed BUG SCREENS in a very bad way! We needed to redo the storage configuration under the helm. Our snackage ends up falling through the floor grates, getting stuck in the storage bins. So, we are installing a thin PVC board diverter. And, much to Angie’s dismay, we needed to toss the cilantro (Her favorite herb). It was infested with 3 different types of bugs. Aphids, white flies, and little ghost ants. THOSE cannot be on the boat. It seems that the shower curtain “tarp” we put over the little “garden” to keep the salt water off of the plants during passage making, created a very nice, hot, moist, greenhouse effect, and the bugs “bloomed.” (What is it with Bugs and the Bahamas???) We seriously need to look at hydroponics again. We needed to be boat gypsies and do laundry (ie: hanging our laundry out on our life lines). And, unfortunately, Mark broke our beverage/snack tray. Angie, in her distraught state, equated it somehow to our marriage. If it gets broke, you better fix it, not throw it away, or she is going to be royally pissed. Now it is a mosaic tray, and quite a bit stronger. (Mark is still a keeper!)
All work and no play, makes us very sarcastic. We actually did take some time off, and dinghy drift snorkeled (DDS – our favorite way to snorkel) the cut North of Shroud. This is one of our favorite shallow coral areas in the Bahamas. We also snorkeled a few coral clusters in the anchorage. The coral in the anchorage was ugly and dead, but the fish life was great! The school of 10 Atlantic Spadefish were still there, and so was the lionfish. We saw a giant puffer, schools of snapper, grunts, and a couple of groupers. In the cut, we saw 3 nurse sharks, 2 large barracuda, a turtle, angelfish, snappers, parrotfish, and schools and schools of colorful, tropical fish. The sea fans and coral colors were glorious!
We also dink’d to the Atlantic beach through the mangroves and body surfed the East entrance, riding the outgoing current, with our friends from Sognare.
Life Is Good Today !
All pictures with date stamps on them were provided by Nancy Meyers on Sognare . Thank goodness, because Angie forgot to take her camera anywhere 🙂
