A road much much less traveled

We've been exploring the island, looking for new beaches, new roads. We found a great beach and here's the road, and I use the word road, loosely, that we traveled down.

and here's the beach

January 2012

January 25 The Glam Side of Yachting

Try kneeling in a confined space (the bilge), lean to your left and rest your ribcage on a spare anchor, reach your arms up and forward and try to fasten bolts to the underside of the floor, bearing in mind that the holes are just big enough. Remain in this position for an hour as your leg falls asleep. Gerry's knee was acting up and he claimed he couldn't do it so he remained in the bathroom issuing orders as I sweated in the bilge trying to line bolts up and ratchet them into place. A good time was had and we managed to cross another item off the list of 32 - raise the toilet.

My view of the toilet when I was allowed to finally
sit up in the bilge.

4 out of the 6 bolts, the other 2 are under the pipes etc,
really handy to get to - not.

 January 10 Dinghy Time

I got to paint the bottom of yet another boat – check it out – great job if I do say so myself. Gerry installed a fin to stop the porpoising, Richard came along to help launch the dinghy (and drive jeep back). Of course nothing goes smoothly, despite having worked to raise the motor up, when we tried to put it back down it was dead. Richard discovered the battery cable was hanging on by a thread (literally) and needed a knife to cut the plastic back. We didn't have one, so now what? Gerry believes that whatever you need will eventually come along and would you believe Richard found a knife on the sea wall just a few feet away!

fin

knife

 Motor fixed, we were on our way for some beach time.

 It is official – I am not a fan of motorboats, I much prefer the serenity of sailing. I hate bouncing along, the water was not as calm as it appears in this photo. I have a video to prove it.

On the way back we tried to find where the ship had scraped up the sea floor but couldn't find it.

We did find that the sea buoy had been moved out to deeper water and one of the markers was being repaired. Talk about closing the barn door...........   That's the way we do it in the Bahamas.







January 9   Oops

So how does one run a cruise ship aground? Blame is being thrown around but we still don't know for sure. Part of the problem may have been the outer marker that was moved to shallower water a while back.  There was a local pilot on board so this sort of thing shouldn't happen. She ran aground around 7 a.m., close to high tide so they had to wait till evening to try to get her off. This was Poesia's inaugural voyage to Port Lucaya. Not a good first impression. Cruise ships usually dock at Freeport and tourists get bussed over to Port Lucaya etc.  Anchoring right outside Port Lucaya was supposed to make things easier, just ferry the tourists in, something that used to be done years ago.

We decided to take Dirty Girl out and check it out ourselves (dinghy was still on the trailer).  Was my first ride, pretty nice but I could just envision $$$$$ as we moved through the water.

Tugs waiting for the tide to rise.

Bill and Gerry at the helm

Gisela and Rudiger enjoying the view.

Betty, Gerry, Bill, Richard, Jonie

Thanks to Johanne for this great shot.

Later at Coral Beach hotel waiting, waiting...

We left the beach, well past high tide thinking she's stuck till morning. Right after we left they did wriggle her off by having tugs pushing near the front starboard, tugs pulling on the back and her engines running full out in reverse.

Back to the Boat January 2012

A long-winded tale of traveling from north to south, probably not worth reading unless you have nothing better to do.

Mankind has made a lot of progress in the last few years. Amazing electronic inventions that 4 year olds can master faster than some adults, miraculous cures of illnesses that would have killed you years ago. So why have we not yet invented a better way to get from place to place? Faster and more comfortable than rushing off to an airport so one can stand in line to check in because you can't print a boarding pass at home if it's an international flight, rushing to security because we stood in line so long checking in that we might miss our flight, rushing to the gate because security took so long because one has to take off shoes, coats, hats, empty one's pockets, haul out computers, which must occupy a tray all on their own, and of course your tidy zip lock bag of liquids, and then finally rush to the gate because now you're really going to miss the plane, then fight your way down the narrow aisle to your narrow seat and hope there is enough space to store your carryon because most airlines now charge for luggage, then get to your first stop and realize your plane has arrived at the gate farthest away from your connecting flight.

Saskatoon, December 31: arrive at airport 2 pm for 3:30 flight. Two attendants on duty each checking in a family. Waited, waited, waited, waited. I think they were taking most of all they owned, have never seen so many bags for so few people (I was mistaken). Security was a breeze, for a change. There was a family of 4 in the waiting room, 2 girls, one of which was rather undisciplined – what are the odds I would be seated any where near them? You guessed it, right behind me although the plane was not even close to being full. The 4 of them made more noise than the rest of the passengers put together – the parents speaking so loudly (and singing) one would almost think the children were deaf (they weren't) and the oldest child was watching a movie that clearly frightened her as she would scream unexpectedly from time to time. Of course someone is always late so we had to wait, then de-ice and I could feel the cushion of time between my flights dwindling.

Minneapolis/St. Paul: arrived late but thought I had enough time to get something to eat and make my gate on time until I got in the immigration line. It seems the line I picked had all the people who had visas in it and they all had to be photographed and had to be fingerprinted, twice (and even more than twice as the machine didn't always work). Then to everyone's dismay we had to go through security again because you had to claim your baggage and then recheck it and since having access to it, who knows what you pulled out of it to blow up your next flight. Of course my backpack was pulled out for closer inspection, the concourse my gate was in was under construction and there was absolutely nothing to eat. I am not having fun and I'm getting a migraine which got decidedly worse in the gate area which was illuminated by the worst fluorescent lights in the entire world. I needed to get out of that room but upon checking my boarding pass saw that the fates were against me – I was in Zone 3, the last to get on, horrors! Not only that but they were asking people to check their carryons because the plane was full and there wasn't enough room! Neither one of my bags can be checked without suffering irreparable damage. I threw myself on the mercy of the gate personnel, citing my migraine as just cause for getting on with Zone 1 and they graciously accommodated me, what a relief. Things were looking up, but wait, we're not leaving. Everyone is on board but we are going nowhere. They called the authorities – apparently someone on the plane was drunk, swore at one of the flight attendants and had to be escorted off. The delay however, was to our advantage. Just as the clock struck 12 we glided down over Fort Lauderdale as the New Year's Eve fireworks were set off all over the city. A grand sight.

Fort Lauderdale, January 1, 2012: Since I had to be at the airport at 5 for my plane to Freeport there wasn't much point in going to a hotel, spend $100 and not get any sleep so I opted for the bench (padded) between the luggage carousels along with 6 other travelers (they had their own benches). Despite wearing numerous layers of clothing (including slacks and a long skirt, sweater with hood, coat with hood) I froze the entire night and of course didn't sleep.

I wearily took the escalator up to the check in counter thinking I would be first in line – I was wrong, there were at least 50 people there and the counter had just opened. There was only one person on duty. Remember when I said I was wrong about the quantity of luggage in Saskatoon? There was only one person checking in Bahamians and their luggage. For those who don't know, Bahamians go to Florida to shop – they shop until they drop and then drag all their suitcases and boxes to the airport (or ferry). They have been known to take the ferry to Florida, disembarking (at night) and then spending the wee hours of the morning shopping at Walmart and then getting back on the boat the next morning to return home. So there we are, only 2 of us have carryon luggage only, surprisingly a finely dressed elderly Bahamian woman and we're both dismayed at how long this is taking. After 1.5 hours I'm finally at the head of the line after watching this poor man weighing, tagging, receiving money for checked bags (at one point he ran out of change) and listening to people complain about how long it was taking. Twice a person from another airline helped him out when he had no one in his line. Finally made it to security where I was patted down. Due to the many layers of clothing I was wearing I guess they thought I was hiding something. Got to the gate and walked right on to the plane and sat, and sat and sat. It seems that right after I got checked in the computer crashed and the 15-20 people left in line were nowhere in sight. Finally they and the manifest was delivered – 3 copies of the manifest and for some reason the flight attendant actually read them and discovered they didn't match. So we had to wait while she and the captain went down the list to see what was wrong. So once again, I am really not happy. I haven't eaten, and have have been up for 24 hours. We finally take off, the stewardess does her spiel of no electronics, we reach cruising altitude, she announces electronics are now OK, the captain immediately follows with the usual spiel, followed immediately by the stewardess banning electronics as we're landing shortly. If you were quick you had a 2 minute opportunity of firing up your electronic stuff – was pretty funny, as was the announcement that it was a non-stop flight. Plane landed an hour late. I was second person off, breezed through immigration, breezed through customs and found Betty patiently waiting for me with a “welcome home Sophie.”

And home I am.