Goons Dropping In or Charters in the Mist

May 9 - 16, 2006

Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - White Sound, Green Turtle Cay, Abacos
By Tom

We left out of Marsh Harbour around 8 am. There wasn't much wind to start, so we motored out into the open ocean. Once we cleared the cut, the wind picked up and we were able to sail all the way up to Green Turtle Cay.

We ducked inside of White Sound and dropped the hook in 9 feet of water. There are only about 10 other boats here. Don and Sandi showed up about two hours behind us and ended up going hard aground at the entrance to the sound.

I went out with the dinghy to help push them off, but in the end we had to wait for the tide to pick them up. Two hours later, they were safely anchored next to us. We just hung out on the boat for the evening and then retired to bed early.

Oh, for the record, we didn't catch one damn fish today

Thursday, May 11, 2006 - White Sound, Green Turtle Cay, Abacos
By Tom

It rained off and on during most of the day, so we didn't stray far from the boat. In the afternoon Amy made banana muffins and I made bread. In between, I made the online universe safe for interstellar trucking in my computer game.

In the evening Don and Sandi came over for pizza and popcorn. We ended up hanging out til around 10 pm or so polishing off a bottle of rum in the process. I think we'll be here for several days as the weather isn't really good for our planned jump north to the states. More to follow

Friday, May 12, 2006 - White Sound, Green Turtle Cay, Abacos
By Tom

It rained most of the day and we hid inside the boat. During one of the dry spells, we dinghied over to the marina bar for a drink. Half way through, the rain returned and we had to race back to the boat to close up the hatches. We both got soaked along the way.

I did manage to make it to the phone to call my mom and wish here happy birthday. She told me I'm going to be an uncle again. Apparently, my little sister is working on child number three. I think we can safely assume she is a very fertile mammal.

We made cheese burgers for dinner. Afterwards I watched Hackers while Amy played with the ferrets. The weather dude is taking tomorrow off, so we are definitely here for at least two more days. Milo says this weather sucks ass.

Saturday, May 13, 2006 - White Sound, Green Turtle Cay, Abacos
By Tom

Another day of terrible weather. Around sunrise (6 am) a squall blew through and the wind went to 50 knots! Shitty death! Six boats in the harbour drug anchor, but I'm glad to say Team Dream Catcher and the Anam Cara's were not among those.

One of the boats that drug was a 48 foot charter cat from Florida Yacht Charters out of Marsh Harbour named Sloop-du-jour. In addition to having a dumb ass name, the charterers on board managed to smash a poor defenseless day sailor tied haplessly to its anchor.

It got so bad that Don and I dinghied over to try and rescue the little boat. In the end we got them off and they just motored out of the harbour without saying anything! Bastards!

I tried to find the owner of the little day sailor, but no one seems to know who's it is. Sometimes charterers piss me off.

As you've gathered, the weather was generally pissy all day. We had to hide inside for most of the day. I made a brief excursion over to the Greene Turtle Club Marina store to buy a six pack of diet Pepsi's, but other than that we just sat around.

In the evening, Don and Sandi came over for cocktails and appetizers. We made quesadillas and Sandi made pretzels. Everyone filled up on the snacks, so there was no dinner tonight. When will this rain end ?

Sunday, May 14, 2006 - White Sound, Green Turtle Cay, Abacos
By Tom

And the rain continues. It's rained so much lately that I think we might need to start gathering two of every animal.

Today was another day boat bound. I tried to find things to do to keep busy, but to no avail. Well, at least to no productive avail.

I tried to lubricate our shifter cables as they have become kind of stiff lately. Unfortunately, when said lubrication was being applied, I managed to get one of the retaining clips that holds the cables in place to break off. Shitty Death!

This means I spent the next three hours removing, rebuilding and replacing the entire shift unit. Suck ass shifter, I should have just left you stiff.

Tomorrow we're supposed to get a break from all this rain. And thats all I have to say about that (Forest Gump)

Monday, May 15, 2006 - White Sound, Elbow Cay, Abacos
By Tom

The weather was decent today. The Anam Cara's came by and gathered us up to go to the beach for the afternoon. I brought my spear, because you never know.

Don and Sandi made an impromptu beach shelter out of a tarp and some sticks and we all hung out underneath it reading and playing with their two dogs, Pebbles and Buddha. I wonder if you go to hell for naming your pet after a religious deity?

After a while, I decided to slip on my bozo deluxe hunting outfit and swim out from the beach. There was a near by reef not more than 100 feet out from shore, so I figured I'd take a look. There were lots of fish, almost all of whom were small, but I did see a couple of decent sized Pompano and a few ok sized School Master Snappers.

As I had no dinghy, I figured I'd only get one fish and have to swim back into shore, so I was extra picky. In the end I settled on a passing Cero Mackerel in the two foot size category. He swam by three times and then on the fourth, WHAMMO !

I waded ashore victorious. Since I hadn't brought a cooler or my cleaning knives with me, I borrowed on of Don and Sandi's foldable bikes and rode my fish and dive gear back to the dinghy dock, and then back to the mother ship.

On the ride back, the steering column on the bicycle unwound and I found myself careening downhill at warp factor three with a dead Mackerel, a seven foot spear, 30 pounds of dive gear and no steering.

Weak dude, weak.

I got to the bottom of the hill and barreled into the corner when out of no where a golf cart tried to pass me heading the other way. Well, the 92 year old lady driving said cart was oblivious to both my plight and more importantly my spear and thus she never saw what broke her windshield. Damned blue haired, senile drivers!

When I finished cleaning my fish, I returned to the beach and Don, Sandi, Amy and I played several games of Koob. Don and Sandi hadn't played before, but it's a pretty easy game to pick up. I was the big wiener for the day as I finished 5 - 0. Can you say Professional Koob League? I think you can.

We returned to our boats round about 5 pm. Amy and I had a steak on the grill with small side salad for dinner. Afterwards, we played with the ferrets and then went to bed. The rain is scheduled to return in the morning

Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - White Sound, Elbow Cay, Abacos
By Tom

The rain showed up with a vengeance this morning and it stayed until sundown. We didn't even attempt to get off the boat. Another three boats drug during the height of the storm. For those of you counting two were charter boats and one was a sport fish from the states.

The sport fish tried to come next to us and pick up a private mooring that we our anchored near. I dinghied over and told them that I saw a charter cat drag on that very mooring yesterday. That was enough to spook them away.

Milo says he hates it when goons try to drop in on our anchoring spot. For the record, Milo has been watching too many surfing movies of late.

Anyhow, I thought it was pretty funny that here we had a 50 foot Viking sport fisherman that probably cost over 600,000 dollars and they had a 35 pound anchor with 12 feet of chain and 200 feet of rope as their primary anchor. How lame is that?

In an effort to stave off boredom, we tried to do inside boat jobs today, but to no avail. At times the rain was coming down so hard you couldn't talk to one another inside the cabin. Fortunately we are tucked in snug and secure so other than boredom (and charterers) there is no real danger with these storms.

In a moment of deep insight, I decided that with all of these charter boats in the rain, I shall take a picture and call it Charters in the Mist after that Gorilla book. Pretty funny, huh?

Anyhow, the rain died off in time for us to have grilled garlic buttered mackerel for dinner. Another day in the books.