Mutton Master Bozo Deluxe or Going Racial

November 6, 2006

Sunday, October 29, 2006 - Manatee Pocket, Stuart, FL
By Tom

I was up and after the broke down, piece of crap, hot water heater first thing this morning. It gave up without much of a fight, but it did manage to cut me in three different places. Bastard !

With the heater in hand, I disconnected his propane hose and measured to make sure it would fit the grill. After some shuffling and re-organizing, we were in! With the assorted pieces I have been collecting since we got the grill in June, I was able to complete the operation. We are now able to operate said grill off our main propane supply! Sweet.

While some people will undoubtedly think this arrangement will lead to shortages of propane for the stove, all I can say is we use our grill 3 times as often as our inside stove, so I'd rather have the two 10 pounders also feeding the grill than to have to use those little one pound throw away jobbies.

Remember, your mileage may vary, objects in the rear view.....

Monday, October 30, 2006 - Lake Worth, Palm Beach, FL
By Tom

We got an early start as there are a whopping 7 bridges that must open for us to get the 25 miles down to Lake Worth (Palm Beach). It was a boring and dull day, but we got the hook down by 2:30 pm and all was good.

For those of you who have never had to go through a drawbridge before, suffice it to say that it sucks the big one. First you have to call the operator, then schedule when you can go through, then wait for your time, then wait for the bridge to go up, then wait your turn to go through the bridge.

Mostly it's a lot of waiting.

Anyway, in the early afternoon, we assembled the dinghy and zoomed in to the dinghy beach area. We just kind of ride up on to the beach and tie off to a fence here. Not the most elegant solution, but it's effective.

We hiked up to the local Publix grocery store two blocks away and got some fresh stuff including bread and veggies. Amy said to mention that there might have been some beers purchased too, but I have no recollection of that event, Senator.

Back on board, we hung out and played with the ferrets and I updated our web site. Tomorrow we plan on going back in to Publix and buying 30 - 2 liter bottles of 7 Up to complement my 40 bottles of whiskey already on board. Final provisioning will also take place at that time.

It appears that a brief window might be opening for a crossing Wednesday or Thursday. If it's at all doable, we'll jump because otherwise it sounds like we'll be stuck here for at least another week.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - Vero Beach Municipal Marina, Vero Beach, FL
By Tom

Hello and happy Halloween!

We are still in Lake Worth and it looks like our window to cross over to the Bahamas opens around noon tomorrow. I gathered available weather information this morning and Amy and I looked it over and we have agreed that we'll attempt the crossing.

Well, I should stay that at least we'll stick our nose outside and see what it looks like. If it's real bad, we'll come back and re-anchor and just resign ourselves to spending another week here in Lake Worth. We're both anxious to go, but neither one of us wants to cross the gulf stream in bad weather.

We spent the majority of the morning in at Publix stocking up on last minute provisions. We managed to fill two full shopping carts with stuff, but the good news was it only cost $200. Mostly we had bulky things like paper towels and 2 liter soda bottles.

It took two trips in the dinghy to get everything back to the boat with us and then about two hours to put it all away. Our boat is pretty light weight and as such we have to kind of stack supplies evenly throughout the boat, otherwise we end up leaning to one side or the other.

By moving Milo around we were pretty much able to even out the load and by 3 pm all was well. We took the dinghy back in to town and went to happy hour at McDuff's Sports Bar to celebrate. For those interested, McDuff's not only has 35 big screen tv's and 45 different kind of beers on tap, it now boasts free wi-fi. I tried to convince Amy that we should just stay at McDuff's for the winter, but she wouldn't have it.

Back on board, we stowed the dinghy and got things put away for going offshore. We'll check the weather again in the morning, but it looks like we're heading out.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006 - Underway, Ocean, Ocean
By Tom

We upped anchor around 9 am and by 10 we were out Lake Worth inlet and in to blue water.

The seas are kind of confused, but less than 3 feet. I have a full arsenal of fish whackers deployed and I am hopeful that we will see some mega fish whacking action.

The weather is calling for showers and possible thunderstorms, but the wind is supposed to stay below 15 knots through the night. At our current speed, we'll cross through the gulf stream and be on the Little Bahamas Bank by midnight.

P.S. - Milo says if we get killed because of a shitty weather forecast, somebody should go kick that NOAA fella square in the balls. Remember, respect Milo's authoritay!

Thursday, November 02, 2006 - White Sound, Green Turtle Cay, Abacos
By Tom

We're finally here!

It took us 36 hours to cover 160 miles, but the anchor finally went down just after 4 pm. We are now safely tucked in to White Sound on Greene Turtle in the Abacos. The trip was long but fairly uneventful. I managed to catch my first gulf stream fish, but it was just a crummy barracuda. Damn you Barry! I hate you so much. Needless to say, he was returned to the wild.

We crossed on to the banks around 9 pm last night and continued to alternately motor and sail until around 6 am when the sun came up and we were just off of Great Sale Cay. In years past, we usually anchored at Great Sale to catch up on sleep, but the weather is forecast to break down really bad tomorrow for several days, so rather than be stuck in Great Sale for a week with nothing to do, we decided to push on another 60 miles to Greene Turtle.

During the night we actively dodged several large squalls and managed to stay fairly dry. This morning, however, was a different story. It pretty much rained the entire day.

We would have had a pretty good sail down here, but someone sent the halyard for the mainsail to the top of the mast and now we are unable to raise the mainsail. Amy is trying to convince Milo or Mila to go get it, but Milo exceeds the weight limit of our bosun's chair and Mila says she is afraid of heights.

I suspect Amy will be doing some serious climbing soon.

On the fishing front, we snagged a nice 10 pound Mutton Snapper coming across the banks. We got 13 single servings off of Mr. Mutton, so I put the fish whackers to bed for the rest of the trip. It's kind of funny, we bought the freezer over the summer so that I could freeze some of the seafood we caught, but we filled it up so full with meat from the States that there is no room for the fish.

Hmmm. This could be a strategic planning failure.

By the time we got the boat cleaned up, it was too late to clear in with customs, so that will have to wait for tomorrow. For now though, we're both safe, if somewhat tired, but very happy to be back here.

Welcome to the Bahamas, mon.

Friday, November 03, 2006 - White Sound, Green Turtle Cay, Abacos
By Tom

We both slept like the dead last night. Something about multi-day passages seems to take it right out of you no matter how much you sleep underway. I did wake up before 6:30 am so I was able to get the weather from Chris Parker on the single sideband. It sounds like the front is gonna push through later today and it is going to get mega windy.

For those of you playing along at home, here are the frequencies and times that Chris is currently using:

I have probably said it before, but if you're coming out here cruising and you don't have an SSB rig, get a little World Band Receiver from Sony for $125. As we all know, I am cheap and therefore did not splurge mega bucks to go with a full SSB installation ($3500+), but our little Sony has worked great.

Of course, if you get one, I would recommend playing around with it BEFORE you get out here and have to rely on it for weather. It took me a week of trial and error to get myself familiar enough with the controls to reliably dial broadcasts in. Of course, if you can get someone to show you how to do it, you'd be that much ahead of the game.

After the ferrets finally chased Amy out of bed (around 10 am) I made breakfast tacos for the crew. Post breakfast clean up, we launched the dinghy and took our passports and documentation over to the customs office in New Plymouth. We arrived around 10:30 and only had to wait 50 minutes for someone to show up. Thats pretty good by island time.

The customs lady was the same one we helped hang up her wash last year. She was still just as friendly as ever. In fact, she seemed relieved that a boat had actually shown up. Apparently things have been really, really slow. I think a lot of boats are a little hurricane shy this year and haven't made the crossing yet.

CClearing customs went off without a hitch and afterwards we stopped by the little liquor store/breakfast bar for a celebratory bottle of Bahamian Rum. We went with the Don Lorenzo brand. I told Amy this was because it shared her last name, but really it was because it was the cheapest they had. Am I smooth or what? Rico and suave!

We dinghied back to our boat in White Sound and dropped our yellow quarantine flag and raised our Bahamian colors. God save the Queen, we're officially legal. Well, at least me and Amy are. The ferrets have once again entered stealth mode and will remain as such for the duration of our stay. Remember, if any one asks, they are actually just hamsters that are big for their size.

In the afternoon, we dinghied in to the dock at the Greene Turtle Club and then walked the mile or so over to the ocean side of the island. There is a nice beach there where we hung out, read books, drank rum and just sort of watched the day go by. Ambitious I know. Amy took these accompanying action shots side right.

When we ran out of rum, we returned to the boat and I cooked another meal of Italian style seared Snapper with sticky rice. Mutton Snapper may be one of my favorite fish. It's a little different than some of the other brands of fish we get here in that you have to cook it all the way through. Most fish, like say a Hogfish or a Mahi Mahi is best when the fillet is just flash seared and served with the center still cool, but the Mutton needs to be cooked all the way through. I have found that 4 minutes per inch of thickness is just about right, of course, this may be more than you wanted to know.

We still have 3 or 4 servings of Mr. Mutton in the refrigerator, so tomorrow night I may try Tequila Lime Snapper. I'm glad we put half of this guy into deep freeze. I mean don't get me wrong, I love fish, but after 4 or 5 nights in a row you begin to feel like you're in a rut.

Ok, that about wraps it up for today, see you tomorrow

Saturday, November 04, 2006 - White Sound, Green Turtle Cay, Abacos
By Tom

The wind howled all day with speeds staying above 20 knots and gusting to 30. It rained off and on, especially during the morning. Conditions were bad enough that we decided to pull our dinghy up out of the water rather than have it get beat around by the chop building in our anchorage (and the hourly Greene Turtle Ferry Nazis).

We resigned ourselves to staying on the boat today and mostly we passed the time reading or computing. Milo and I took turns trying to pilot a new AH-66 Comanche helicopter I built for one of my computer games. He is a surprisingly adept pilot for not having articulating thumbs. In one online encounter, he managed to blow up two Frenchmen that were sitting at a cafe near our airport. Nice work, Fatso! Viva la resistance!

I don't think I mentioned it, but we found a free wi-fi connection here and have been making full use of it. I updated our web site and answered a bunch of emails. Thanks to everyone for their letters and comments. Amy and I both enjoy hearing from you.

In a desperate attempt to prevent boredom, I made a loaf of bread in the early afternoon. Afterwards, the crew gathered for a showing of Lethal Weapon I. For those of you who have not seen it, this movie was made well before Mel Gibson and Danny Glover both went crazy, so no jews were hurt in the filming process.

Mel, buddy, why do you always have to go racial? That's just sad, man. How long til you figure he's a South Park episode?

Anyway, we munched on bread and pepperoni instead of dinner, but all in all it was a pretty boring day. Tomorrow and Monday promise more of the same high velocity wind, so I suspect we aren't going anywhere for a few days. Oh well, such is life in the fast lane.