Fantasy Fest 2010

Sophia Gerry Jean

Group shot Friday

Group shot Saturday

Queenly

Great paint

More great paint

Sexy trio, well some of us are sexy.

October 26, 2010 The Shopping

Chris thought she was coming for a vacation, not a marathon shopping spree.

Packed in with the groceries

Stuffing groceries under V-berth

no caption needed here

October 24, 2010 - The Crossing

Finally set sail for Fort Lauderdale, winds 16 – 20 knots, waves 6 – 8 feet, yikes it's going to be a fast uncomfortable ride.

We left the dock later than usual, around 7 p.m., because the bow light wasn't working – it still wasn't but Gerry taped a spare he had to the front hatch and off we went. I wasn't crazy about sailing in these conditions, I have been seasick once or twice but Chris was arriving Monday and we had tons of shopping to do so we didn't have much choice. Just past the reef, all was going well, the jib sail (only) was up and I was feeling fine when all of a sudden there was this horrendous noise! The anchor had decided to abandon ship and let itself out. When Gerry was attempting to fix the bow light he didn't refasten the anchor chain. So down comes the jib, out comes the winch handle and up comes the anchor – slowly, ever so slowly and without the jib to stabilize us the boat was a-rocking. I took it as an omen to turn back but I was outranked.

Still wasn't seasick but for some reason Gerry felt the need to refresh the minutes on his Bahamian phone and guess who got to read the code out to him – not once but 4 times. And then guess who started to feel seasick. The only position I was comfortable was flat on my back, in the cockpit and that's where I was when a giant wave struck – thoroughly drenching us. I wasn't pleased. I eventually dried out – didn't have the ambition to change and was trying to get some sleep down below on the couch when the boat encountered a very large wave. The boat went up, I went up but when I came back down a split second after the boat the couch wasn't where I left it. I hit the edge of it and was unceremoniously dumped onto the floor – ouch! Have a couple of lovely bruises to show for it. What with sea water coming in the front hatch (couldn't close it tightly due to a broken latch) and soaking the interior and even sometimes hitting me on the couch and feeling like crap, it was a very very long night and I was glad to see the sunrise.











Surprisingly I didn't throw up until we were entering the channel in Fort Lauderdale but didn't have to clean it up because a few minutes later it started to just pour, once again thoroughly soaked but rain water is nicer to be soaked in than salt. Pulled into our dock around 1 p.m. - took 2 days until I felt normal what with lack of sleep and seasickness. I'm not going back across until I get some drugs – good drugs!

Saturday, October 19-23 Hauling Ramblynn

Saturday, October 23

Hurrah, Ramblynn's back in the water with a nice coat of black antifouling paint on her bottom. She'll probably break all speed records now! Winds today 15 - 20 - should make Florida in record time - keep your fingers crossed.

Prop with shiny new zinc on it.

Friday October 22

This morning Ramblynn was washed and primed. Antifouling paint this afternoon and we can finally leave on Saturday!!

Washed

Primed

Thursday October 21

So this is what was found - blisters and holes.  The next day they were busy patching and then the day after, sanding - I wouldn't want that job!

Sanding

 So now she sits so forlorn in the boat yard, waiting, waiting to go back into the water.

 

Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - Death of a floating reef

On our way to the boatyard, into the hands of the infamous Charleton. Ramblynn has become a floating reef and unbeknowst to her we're taking her to get cleaned and painted.

hmmm, did she know something was up? Why else would she have run aground within sight of the boatyard.

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 Call me crazy but I swear I could feel Ramblynn start to panic when she realized she was coming out of the water.

getting slings under

Looks pretty grungy

 

 

 

No wonder she's so slow!

After power washing

 

Monday, Thanksgiving/Discovery Day

Thankfully it was a holiday and Roy could take us back to the jeep, with proper tools. He had that lug nut off in under 30 seconds, and the guys changed the tire in record time - check out the flat - we should ask the garage to patch it LOL. Despite not having a spare and being hours away from home off we went, getting even further away, to McLeans Town and the conch fest. Alas we were there too early most of the festivities hadn't started yet but there was food - had cold lobster salad and hot conch fritters. We bought some seagrape jam and hot pepper jelly and started for home.

I do believe I said it wouldn't be a good time to go off the main highway - something would happen and seeing 2 vultures sitting in a tree wasn't a good omen. But since we had most of the afternoon left Gerry thought a trip to the beach would be a good idea, so, off the highway onto the old Freetown road we go.


We passed under a huge spider web hanging just inches above the roof of the jeep. Unfortunately further down the road, an overhanging branch was not hanging high enough and - you guessed it - tore the roof off the jeep! Gerry's comment, "Well, it's a nice day for a drive with the roof down." Fortunately it didn't rip the canvas, just tore off the plastic piece that holds it down which we couldn't find.

Sunday, October 10 Fishing North Riding Point

Discovery Day in Bahamas. What better way to spend a beautiful Sunday than fishing - yep you heard me - fishing - something neither Gerry nor I do, normally. Reena invited us along and since it was a part of the island Gerry has never been to (hard to believe) we went along for the ride - well, we took the jeep so if (when) fishing got boring we could leave. Kara (Gerry's 6 yr old goddaughter) wanted to ride with us and we were such great company she promptly fell asleep. North Riding Point (an abandoned harbour) is at least an hour and a half drive and the last 5 miles are on an abandoned road, very very rough. Once we hit that road Kara came to life - how can one sleep being thrown around in the back of a jeep?

The ride was worth it - the place was serene, peaceful, completely deserted, not another soul for miles and so amazingly quiet. Reena showed us one spot they always catch fish and sure enough you could see tons of them, but they started out in another spot, trying to catch sharks! By the time they got back to the first spot the fish had gone out deeper and weren't the least bit interested in being caught. There were lots of other places where you could see the fish and even when you cast the bait right in the middle, they didn't bite (see trio photo).
Gerry, Kara and I caught nothing, Reena and Roy about 3 or 4 each. Good thing we brought chicken for lunch - only 3 fish were caught before lunch and there were 6 adults and 2 kids to feed.

About 6 we decided to head back. We joked that if they ran into trouble Gerry's cell phone was dead so we couldn't come back to help. That'll teach us to tempt fate,  just a short way down the road I heard a very strange whooshing sound - it was a flat! Great place for that to happen, no CAA here. We tried to get the wheel off but one lug nut refused to budge - even after I jumped on the tire iron. I don't recommend doing that unless you're wearing steel toed boots. The stupid thing flew off and landed squarely on my big toe, words were said.

So there we were, stranded, and we weren't even sure if they were going back to town - they've been known to spend the night out here. So off we trudge, all the way back, limping, getting eaten alive by no-see-ums. 
Roy (a mechanic) also could not get the tire off (nut had a cap on it and when the cap broke off our tools would no longer fit), and recommended that we drive it all the way to the highway in hopes of it breaking off - of course it didn't. Would you believe on this deserted road we ran into 2 fishermen and when we asked if they had a tire iron that might fit they discovered they didn't have one at all!
After a lovely, who knows how long a ride on a flat tire, and a full bladder, we reached the highway, removed the battery from the jeep along with our other possessions, and made a silent, sleepy ride back home. If you want to check out where this place is on Google Earth, here's the lat and long: lat 26 degrees 43'48" long 78 degrees 9'36"

Back to Bahamas October 7, 2010

For a change we took the day cruise ship Discovery over to Freeport. You get a buffet breakfast and free drinks (no lunch). The free drinks didn't impress me - how many people drink in the morning? And Gerry, being a little hung over (Lerry's fault I hear) didn't imbibe either - I'm sure he won't like this photo LOL. 

Richard and Betty picked us up in Richard's fancy new (to him) car, complete with AC and the steering wheel on the right side! Wonder if the fancy car had anything to do with the police, instead of giving him a ticket for DUI and no seatbelt, not only let him off but actually drove him home the other night!!

Things are much the same here, Betty has kept the property looking great. A number of restaurant/bars have closed but 2 new grocery stores are opening soon. Ricky has gotten bigger, Brent has expanded his garden.

Before we left Gerry arranged a dock with Frank in Fort Lauderdale so we have a place end of October.