Wednesday 30 December 2015

December 29-30, 2015 .. sand dollars and wifi again


at anchor at Powell Cay
for the night


Modaki 


the cruisers make displays from the junk washed ashore
and sign their boat name to it




a hermit crab taking over an empty shell


the  Captain leading the way to the ocean beach


the beach was in a horseshoe shape, maybe a mile long … we where the only ones
walking it at low tide


it is hard to see, but it is a crab that walks sideways






there is lots of hardhats washed ashore


we have no idea what this is .. it looks like it was dropped from the sky and it was into the
sand about one foot .. we pulled it out of its home


I saw some sand dollar broken pieces on the sand and guess what there was hundreds of pieces
just off the shore line 


and I managed to collect five complete ones


a wreck


Joe fibre glassing the dinghy now


my sand dollars and a baby sea biscuit and a dead star fish that we returned to the water,
it was starting to smell a bit


a nice sunset behind Snowbird


the 30th, we are back in White Sound at anchor, getting rid of garbage, buying diesel, water, doing one load of laundry, Joe hung it on the lifelines to dry and I got caught up with the blog .. of yeah and we returned about 1/2 dozen emails


this aluminum boat is from France, what a sleek design


December 26-28, 2015 ….. Spotted Eagle Rays


at anchor between Crab Cay and Nunjack Cay




these bird prints where huge .. don't know what bird


cactus flowers .. just about ready to open


Snowbird, Dave and Janine examining a small crab in a water hole …. Mother Nature sure amazes us


the t-shirt I gave Joe for Christmas  .. 


removing our forward hatch


cleaning off the old chalking


my job was to scrape it clean
then we re-installed and the test was the following night and it did not leak


getting ready to do some snorkelling


to our surprise Janice and Cam, on Ta Amor arrived with 2 freshly caught lobster for us, what a
treat .. but of course they where not as good as Nova Scotia Lobster ..


the Spiny Lobsters here are very colourful


a male lobster


ready to eat


a nice sunset at Nunjack, also known as Manjack Cay


Joe doing some anti chafing repairs to a few lines


it was hard to get a picture, but we saw 3 Magnificent Frigatebirds,  they are quite large


a spotted Eagle Ray  .. a book picture to follow


the captain sitting on the bottom of the fast deflating dinghy


one of the many secluded beaches we walk


Joe found a float, maybe it will help with our dinghy issues




Modaki anchored with about 12 - 15 other cruisers



the spotted Eagle ray, they are so magnificent creatures


after lunch we headed off to another beach .. 


this is all private property, and the owners allow us to come ashore








Chantel, from Southern Cross a 28 ft sailboat … and from Halifax, Nova Scotia .. she
is here with husband John and Basset Hound Ben  we will be crossing the Whale together and hope to do some exploring with them




the captain cracking some coconuts with his machete

December 26-28, 2015
boxing day

The wind howled all night and it was quite choppy in the morning, we decided to not go to town, for one last time on wifi, instead we hauled anchor and our 100 feet of all chain.  We rolled out our foresail and at 3 knots we slowly made our way downwind to Crab Cay and Munjack Cay.  When we came to the ocean opening, Modaki soared at 5.5 - 6 knots ..but once around to the lee shore things calmed down … we anchored in 7 ft, and away from the swell coming around the point from the ocean ..

to our surprise we anchored in the midst of 7 Canadian boats and most where from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

We connected once again with Southern Cross, Nova Scotia boat, Chantel and John and Basset Hound Ben.  They where having an issue with their VHF radio .. we gave them an extra speaker that we had, and the next morning they said they are up and running again … we wanted nothing for the speaker, but gained a bottle of wine ..
we always feel that "what goes around, comes around"

Sunday, 27th

It started raining at 5am, and Joe had to vacate his side of the v-berth, and he replaced his body with a frying pan. (to collect the drips)

Well the rain was good cause it will continue to wash the salt off the decks, sailcloth, dodger, Bimini … and maybe now we will be able to collect some drinkable water.

So today was the day we opened up the forward hatch, we took it apart piece by piece, cleaned it and removed old chalking, re-chalked it, re-installed it .. everything went smoothly and it took us about 4 hours.

We then blew up the dinghy and went snorkelling with Snowbird on a few wrecks close by.  We saw lots of colourful fish, but didn't have our underwater camera charged, so no pictures.

When we got back to our boat Te Amor, Janice and Cam, came by and gave us two freshly caught lobster.  Janice caught 9 in total today.  What a treat for us. Supper tonight was fresh lobster with garlic butter, garlic mashed potatoes and salad.

It rained in the night and Joe stayed put in the V, no leaks.

We are still hoping to cross the Whale on Thursday, so many boaters are waiting also … 

Monday 28th

I defrosted the fridge and had everything back working by 10am.

Snowbird and Modaki went dinghy riding up a side creek and saw a few Spotted Eagle Rays and some turtles.  We had a look at the ocean and it looks like it is settling a bit.

We had to blow the dinghy up 1/2 way on our exploring .. Joe now is sitting on the bottom of the dinghy, so not to put pressure on the 2nd tube that is giving away.

I did a laundry and hung it out of t-shirts etc and then we headed off to another ocean beach for a walk.  We forgot to shut off the inverter that was charging the underwater camera, and our battery supply was only at 1/2 when we got back, 2 1/2 hours later.  At 6pm we ran the motor for 1 hour, we won't make that mistake again.

Sitting in the cockpit at about 7:30 we heard two blows, it sounded just like the manatees we had at the back of our boat in Fort Pierce, Florida.  It was too dark to see anything, but there are Manatees in the area.

Tomorrow we move to another anchorage and still looking at crossing the Whale on Thursday.