Crouching Ferret, Hidden Lobster

March 1, 2006

Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - Nassau Yacht Haven, Nassau, New Providence
By Tom

The wicked witch of the west has left! Ha, just kidding Fran. We really do miss you.

The Buddy Fred and Fran did depart this morning. They had a 1 pm flight back state side. Amy and I felt kind of alone after they left, but for some reason Milo and Mila pranced around and pretty much rubbed themselves up against any thing Fran touched during the two weeks she was on board.

They either miss her already, or they are trying to rid the boat of her smell. I leave it to you, dear reader to decide which.

Around noon, we set out on the town to reprovision the boat before we depart tomorrow to return to the Exumas and points south. It took several hours of walking, debating, and browsing to get through our list, but in the end the deed was completed and the boat is now stocked up and ready to go.

We celebrated by returning to the Outback, but this time just for a beer and a chicken wing. Around 6 or so, we headed back to the mother ship for showers and an early bed time in anticipation of our departure tomorrow at sun up.

On the road again..... Did I ever mention that Mila was a roady for Willy (Nelson)? They were pretty tight.

Thursday, February 23, 2006 - Normans Key, South Anchorage, Exumas
By Amy

Now that we've been moving more regularly, Thomas says it's my turn to contribute to the logs. As he has been battling the head without help, I suppose I should humor him.

It was a day of continued bad luck. After a week of breaking everything on the boat--the head, umpteen glasses, my last 2 coffee mugs, our oil lamp, etc., I didn't think there was much left. But we found it about two hours out from Nassau when we stopped to dive on some of the heads on the Yellow Banks. Thomas and I suited up and looked mega-cool, then jumped overboard. Thomas breathed normally; I sucked water.

Shitty death! My snorkel has been stepped on.

I left Thomas in the water to procure seafood dinner while I threw myself a little pity party. He returned with a small fish, tried to fillet it, and promptly broke our only fillet knife.

By the end of the day, though, I was on top. The knife was a write-off, but Thomas came to the rescue for my snorkel with a soda bottle cap and some epoxy. Hopefully it will make it to morning without becoming permanently attached to a curious ferret.

However the day went, it is still good to be back in the Exumas.

Friday, February 24, 2006 - Normans Key, South Anchorage, Exumas
By Tom

We awoke to flat calm seas. Chris, the weather dude, says this is only temporary and an evil cold front is coming, so we intended to enjoy it while it lasts. We were dressed in our hunting attire and ready to go by 10 A.M..

We started hunting on the ocean side, but after 15 minutes we still hadn't found our spot from last year. We gave up and opted to go to the banks side where we were much more successful in finding coral. We saw several large rays, a few small sharks and lots of barracuda's, but edible fish seemed to be something of a rarity.

We moved several times and spent the better part of 3 hours looking for dinner, but to no avail. As we were getting cold and about to call it a day, I found a hole with two or three lobsters in it and at least one looked pretty large.

Normally, its not such an event to capture a lobster, but this guy was barely visible and I wasn't sure if we really had a shot or not. After repeated dives down to examine the situation and several minutes of consultation with Amy, I finally went down and took a shot.

YAHOO !! Lobsters fear me. You will notice our dinner companion at right. He turned out to be about four and a half pounds and was most welcome for dinner. Unfortunately, his friends in his little cave house decided something was amiss and quickly closed the doors and bolted the windows shut, so they will not be joining us this evening.

Back on board, we cleaned our catch and just hung out the rest of the afternoon. For dinner we ended up having pizza because the crust was already made and we seem to have a surplus of mozzarella cheese. The lobster will keep.

Saturday, February 25, 2006 - Cambridge Cay, , Exumas
By Amy

It was a glorious trip from Norman's Cay to Cambridge Cay today. That is if you like plowing into 25 knots of wind and 3-foot seas and making a whopping 3 knots. Our goal was to make it to Pipe Creek to weather the coming front, but by 3 PM we had rattled ourselves to death and were down to 2 knots. Suddenly, finishing this 25-mile trek seemed impossible, so we turned in to Cambridge Cay. We haven't been here before, but it looks like it will offer reasonable protection. If not, we can make the last few miles tomorrow morning.

All in all, I'm really starting to believe God is against us. I might need a refresher from my buddy, Pastor John of G'Town Beach Church, who assured me at various points during our volleyball season that just because the wind was being contrary, it didn't mean God hated us. (I have a bad habit of making mildly sacrilegious comments when playing sports.)

True to our current streak of luck, the on board breakage continued. This time it was one bottle of two-part epoxy that has stained the deck. It's a beautiful mustard yellow we're not quite sure how to remove. Soap, bleach, toxic hull cleaner, and elbow grease have so far been useless. If anyone has any suggestions on this front, we're all ears.

I don't know about you, but I need a drink

Sunday, February 26, 2006 - Cambridge Cay, , Exumas
By Tom

We woke up this morning with no intentions of moving anywhere. The weather is suppose to deteriorate around sundown this evening and as we are reasonably well protected, we will not be moving.

I worked on various boat projects today without making much progress. Amy did yoga things on the fore deck and seemed to accomplish a lot more than I did.

There are about 6 other boats anchored here with us, some of which we saw in Nassau about a week ago, but we haven't really made friends with any of them yet.

For dinner we had the lobster that I shot the other day along with spaghetti alfredo. I think we should have just eaten the lobster, but you didn't hear that from me.

After dinner, I listened to the Nascar race from California. It was boring and we went to bed around sundown in anticipation of the arriving front

Monday, February 27, 2006 - Cambridge Cay, , Exumas
By Amy

Today has been totally uneventful! I love that!

I believe that nothing new has broken today (knock on wood, fingers triple crossed, God please stop hating us!!)

Last night, on the other hand, was stormy. The current in the anchorage made all the neighboring boats doe loop-di-loos all night. At about 9 PM, we came within about 30 feet of Lonestar. That was enough to shake us up a bit, so Thomas mounted an all-night anchor watch (and wouldn't let me relieve him).

That left one of us tired and one of us well rested this morning. Thomas read books and watched movies. I headed to the fore deck for more yoga exhibitions and then busied myself at my computer.

Chicken quesadillas are on the menu for dinner, and they might just be the highlight of my day. That or Milo running off with the wooden spoon, only to find himself unable to stash it in his super-secret hiding place as it was too big. That was pretty cool, too

Tuesday, February 28, 2006 - Staniel Cay Harbour, Staniel Key, Exumas
By Tom

We slept in and had a nice waffle breakfast before picking up the anchor and sailing a whopping 15 miles down to Staniel Cay. We started out with enough wind to sail, but after 30 minutes it lightened and went right on the nose, so we ended up motoring the rest of the way.

We anchored in 4 feet of water and assembled the dinghy. We took a bag of trash and our lap tops into the Yacht Club. They have a trash collection point behind the bar. Your suppose to pay $5 for a large bag of trash, but I figure we have spent enough money at the bar to get away with a freebie now and then.

We spent about 2 hours surfing the net (it's free at the Yacht Club if you bring your own computer) before retiring to the mother ship for a pizza dinner.

I may have failed to mention the other day, but a new oven mit showed up on board the other day. I have no idea how it showed up here, but you can see from the pictures at right that the Woo-Tang Pineapple Clan Oven Mit has met a fate very similar to that of Betty Crockers. It goes without saying, I had a lot of free time on my hands today.