Spent all sunday liming the day away.  Christine read, Wayne finished all his magazines, we talked about going snorkeling.  The only goal was to go ashore for a little bit of internet since we are still unable to connect from the boat.  Got word that its Flooding down in Texas, Lake Travis rose 7 feet over night, it needed the rain its the most full its been in 3 years, and its still got lots to go to get to normal levels.

Down here its not been raining much at all, just warm and breezy.  I cut the hole for the second new speaker, completing that install.  Promptly rocked out to Lonely Island’s “I’m on a boat” song.  Finally 5 years later and the sound system is starting to be respectable.  Still have bow speakers and an amp to install, just not sure how to run all the wires all the way to the bow.   

Ashore late afternoon for some over priced drinks and internet then back to the boat to watch sunset from the bow before cooking some dinner.   Watched a lagoon 380 come into the bay from St Thomas and the rolling furler on the jib broke/jammed or something they finally ended up dropping the Jib on deck to get it under control.  We dingy’d over after they were on anchor and offered to lend a hand, but they said they got it.   They were just tired after the long sail over.

Perroggi’s for dinner a couple of hands of cards and we are nearing the end of the last beer run.   Trying to decide on when to leave and where to go next.  Maybe today, Maybe tomorrow.  Thinking about meeting Tranquility in St George, Grenada on Wednesday – but other than that no real plans.

Boat project box is pretty empty, most everything is working, haven’t fired up the water maker, we normally make 2 weeks before needing water, dunno if we’ll make this 2 week trip or not.

Christine and I at sunset 

Christine Hanging out at Chatham Bay Resort. Keep in mind no rooms just a bar and restaurant. But “Vanilla” our hostess is nice and has a heavy pour.

Funny bird all over the island with a Mohawk. Reminds Christine of her mom’s crazy critter birds.

Arrived here on Wednesday, after a brief fuel stop in Clifton – on the other side of the island, Changed some flights flights for Thursday instead of Friday, then headed on around to Chatham for the night.

The fuel stop, was dropping off our empty bottles and getting them refueled for the next few days, Clifton could be a nice place, but the anchorage is deep in most spots so boats are close together and the constant badgering to use a ball or buy ice/fish/etc takes its toll so basically we do our business be polite and and searched and destroyed for some local Hairoun beer.  First place was out, 72ec per case, second fancy french  store with all kinds of delicacies, had 2 for 99ec per case, gave it one more shot, we know the ‘mitchells’ grocery is just up the street, they had 1 case but when we inquired, they had more in the back, 3 cases were ours for 79ec.  Mind you these are 250ml bottles with holes in them, so they disappear quit quickly.   Also picked up some oranges and potatoes to round out the diet.

Few last min attempts at the internet and we motored with the jib out since the 5 mile trip was in 3 different wind directions around the island and it took 45mins get settled in for the night.

Chatham is our favorite, big open shallow, no resorts (well besides one – er sorta) and just some beach bars.  12 boats in here on Wednesday, we dingy’d over to the ‘resort’ that has no rooms just a nice bar/pool and restaurant, we went for drinks as they normally have wifi.  They had changed their code from last trip, as the devices were new too.  Some frozen pina-coladas and beers and wifi only after the generator was started up.   

Met some retiring attorneys from Pennsylvaina who are living in Ireland doing property law remotely via Skype.  Very endowed with the gift of the gab he was.  Offered to help us with our mooring or bring us ice for 5ec a few times – pretending he was a local.

Good we now have internet code for the boat, we get back fire up the internet and it won’t connect can’t understand whats up.  Tear apart all my connections its like the cable is coming undone every few seconds.  Oh well, internet isn’t that important on to dinner.

A free ver fall, nachos and chicken wings on board after a lazy day.  No Vanessa and Seke to cook for us tonight on the beach bar.

Thursday, up early have to be at the airport at 9:30 am so planned on leaving at 8am, and made that happen, back to Clifton, same characters ask if we want a ball / ice / fresh fish / etc.  I ask one how much for a ball, he asks how long we’d be there, i said 3 hrs.  40ec, I say no thanks we use the anchor, comes back with 30ec, we still used the anchor – we know whats on the end of our chain vs whats on the end of that floating milk jug marking the line.  Wind is howling we drop the hook float back closely to other boats, but no contact, ended up on top of the German boat behind us, right over his anchor, he comes out and says he is leaving in 30mins, we say no problem.  We’ll leave Wayne onboard to move forward out of his way and continue on to the airport to check Jamie off the boat and out of the country.

Boat paperwork updated, Jamie cleared on the plane – tho it hadn’t landed yet.  We take off to get a fresh baguette for lunch sandwiches.  Lots of places but no bagette to be had.  Spotted one sign as we were walking, and down an ally behind the fruit stands a lady was making fresh bread.  Score!  And a 1/2 a loaf of banana bread too.   The best part was on the way, found a wholesale Hairoun distributor for next time we need to refuel.  Tho I checked his display stock and it was a lot of flavored beverages – so we will see.

Back to boat, bit of WiFi, back around to Chatham Bay.   Anchored in same spot, wind still swirling, Wayne had talkd to Seke while holding down the fort, they were having car troubles thats why they haven’t been at the beach bar,  They finally did come out but we still have lots of food on board and couldn’t make up our mind.  Probably a good thing, not many lights on that night on shore.

Back to the Resort, for a little wifi since the boat’s version was not cooperating with their wifi, it would connect but then disconnect, so needed to pay closer attention to the setting when we got to the bar, Only ones there were us, one other couple came by snorkle for a couple of beers and dip in the pool.  We had 1 drink and headed back to the boat, newly armed with more details on the connection problem from the boat.  Thinking our IP ranges were colliding, I changed the boats back to a different set I used to use on the boat, fingers crossed when they fired up the generator we’d have internet.  No Dice.  Still flakey behavior.

On to other projects, replaced a raymarine gauge that wasn’t working with a new fancy version.  Of course the old one was held in place with 5200 which is the worlds strongest glue.  Not having the solvent, but from years for thinking on Ruthless, knew that a fishing line and a sawing action will cut the stuff slowly.  Broke 3 fishing lines, 2 strong threads and finally got the gauge off.  Next hour was cleaning the glue off the boat so that new gauge could be installed, chopped the wires, and stuck it in place, and it actually works.. Awesome.  Now I have one more I could do at the helm.. but might save that for next year.

Swapped out a faulty macerator, thats been on the list for a while.  Normally it could be a ‘shitty’ job as the macerator is what pumps out holding tanks overboard, ours wasn’t full enough to be an issue, could raise the hose high enough and put the new pump in without the tank trying to empty.  That project has been on the list for a while.

Pasta with Italian sausage and grilled veggies for dinner with some garlic bread left over from that baguette we had for lunch.

Saturday, still here lots less boats, including us its 5, DinDin stopped by see how we are doing and asked about dinner on shore or drinks with wifi at the resort.    No Vanessa or Seke today either.

Lazy day.

Futzed with this electronic gizmo that is supposed to convert sea talk data to wifi and broadcast so that our iThinys can pick it up.  After many hours, the device is working when i plug into the helm stations but now when I plug into the interior gauges where I want that device to live.  Still more investigation to come.

Tried the other 3 routers I have on board to solve the mystery with connecting the resort Apple Airport Express routers, no dice, no internet today.

We went for a long long long swim.  Basically swam from the boat to shore up the shore, then out to the peak, lots of fish, lots of squid, lots more fish, and even some more fish.    Didn’t realize that the shore is a reef, only about 5 feed deep.  No wonder its rocky and very few places to get out  in sand.  Lots of huge urchins waiting there for you to step on when you try.  Took lots of underwater video, hope it comes out.   Swam back to the boat, rinsed off, had some beverages and watched the boats leave and Pleasure the fisherman and his crew drag the nets in some of the places we were just swimming in.   

Grilled pork chops, grilled brussles, and corn on the cob with Smashed tatters for dinner.

Note: We started keeping the rum in the freezer, so it does’t melt the ice so fast.. 🙂

 Christine and Jamie at Chatham Bay Reaort with Sugar Shack in the background 

Jamie feeling good after a Piña Colada;

Wifi was connected, in Salt Whistle bay.  Christine checked her Facebook and holy crap, other Austin natives were in the neighborhood.  So Facebook messages were sent, and we heard our name over the VHF radio.  Tho our handheld, we tried but couldn’t get back in touch with them, we hung out. We had no real plans / destination.  They were coming to Salt Whistle for lunch.. We waited.

SV Tranquility www.charterbrochure.com/tranquility rolled around the corner, and at first they didn’t spot us, but then worked their way right up behind us.  We shouted, just raft up, like Lake Austin.  .. They dropped anchor behind us,   Awesome.  So.. rafting up like we would do on Lake Austin, probably wouldn’t work, they are almost 2x our size, tho also a catamaran, only draws 5 feet, but sleeps 12 in immaculate luxury.   We had talked with Matt and Catherine when they were putting that boat together, plus all the other boat shows and Austin parties where our paths crossed.   

Perfect lazy day, woke up late, hung out, didn’t do much, heard our name on the radio, chilled out, had an awesome lunch aboard nice boat, great conversation.   They had to go north, a charter boat came in next to us, we decided to go see the turtles at the keys.    

We came out here, got anchored, was a bit bouncy so decided to hide behind the island, boat load of kiteboarder took the mooring we tried to be too close to.  But they might keep it down?!?!

Chicken / Rice and Spinach salad for dinner.

Watching the neighbors chase a turtle in the water at night.. they might end up at the next island..