Hung out here yesterday for some cold beverages and food and had a great time. Kendall served us with an amazing personality and humor so we decided to come back again today for a late afternoon snack. There is a man at the bar talking malpractice insurance with the bar tender (not in a good way) and I was tempted to intrude, but decided not to as he is loud and boisterous and not being “reasonable”–so I passed. But funny being so far from home and still wanting to pimp my company.

We have been busy today, the boys cleaned out both peaks, sealed some leaks, hung our tiller, removed some old hoses and teak. Managed to use lots of 5200, corrosion X, and Ospho on the stainless and chrome. We cleaned our life vests, passeralie (gang plank), and cleaned and labeled our fenders. While I cleaned out all of the cabinets, drawers, cubby holes with “Fantastic” and water/vinegar solution on the port side and galley. Reorganized all the cabinets, because that is what I do! It feels good to be organized, clean, and ready for the next trip. Yesterday we found an eco friendly laundry facility that took our 12 kilos of dirty laundry and hopefully it will be ready tomorrow at 10 where we will give them our last load. Still have the fridge and freezer to defrost and clean and of course the entire Starboard side. Good news is that the cabinets/drawers have been cleaned and organized and now it is just the exterior portion.

Tomorrow will be last minute cleaning, drying, and stowing of all items. We will need to reposition the boat as we are not comfortable with our current dockage. Hopefully, we will reset the mooring ball (so the anchor and mooring will not be in the same position), place chain around the cement dock pilings (instead of our line which will disintegrate if left in their current position), and add our springs to the chains to take some of the pressure off the lines. Maybe with the repositioning I will feel comfortable, but right now, not so much. We are thinking that we will hail a cab (not sure how that will go) and head over to Sunset beach bar by the airport tomorrow afternoon.

Even in this harbor we are blessed with a array of diamonds sparkling in the sky – it is hard not to be inspired!

The Hype of this Oyster Pond entry was worth it. For days and nights, I had been sweating and dreaming of all things that could go wrong on a surf around some reefs. We burned a hell of a lot of diesel on this trip, down to 1/4 tank, kept clearing the port engine fuel filter of grime. One engine tried to be an arc welder, the other running fine. The saildrives, propellers had been working fine, but you never know. Waves and winds just wanted to push us in.

This trip has been about rainbows, instead of sunsets. That means there are often showers, not always upon us, but in the same vicinity.

In the distance, not too distant, we see that RAIN is in the emminent future as we spot the first mark of the reefs. Rain looks aways away. We roll the jib, it was pulling us downwind faster than the motors were running over the big swells anyway. Spot the ‘safe water’ marker out in the sea, and slowly start to pick up the reef markers to stay within 30 feet of. Remind you that Sugar Shack is 25 feet wide, so how close do we really need to be?

Its all good, rolling on in, then a wave/roller picks us up and doubles our speed, and not in the correct direction, as its a roller, its only a few seconds but enough to make you think, PAY ATTENTION, recover and all is good, only a few more surfing down the waves toward the reefs, but with plenty of room to spare.

After the last reef marker, you are supposed to ‘shoot the gap’ but another catamaran was coming out, so if the channel was 30 feet wide, there might be an issue. We slowed for a minute, they kept coming and all was good, we stayed in deep water and they were local, so I’m assuming all was good.

Into a new and strange harbor with rain approaching, we did a slow circle to see what we could, then proceeded slowly into the anchorage. Looking to find a ball or fuel dock to call our contact to find our dock or mooring ball.

I picked an open ball, headed that direction, but there wasn’t anything to attach too, so heck lets drop anchor here, there are no balls in this path. Depth alarms started sounding, looking back we were stirring up mud and sand. You think thats why there are no balls or boats there?

Changed plans, an orange ball looked good. Some twerking and motorring, we picked it up. Tied off, seemed good. Wayne was adjusting the bridle, I was thinking about next steps. Looked up and the line was parting, what was normally 3 braid, was now 1. Engines still running, we go to plan B, pull up the ball till we get good rope, and use our normal bridle on the metal from the dingy. Lots of nasty line and wayne got it sorted out, stinky and dirty no less. Beers for breakfast as a celebration after we were secure, again.

Woke up to the water lapping on the side of the hull and turned to face the hatch to see the sunrise illuminate the small island that we hiked over yesterday (just outside of Orient Bay). It has been gorgeous, with a few squalls to wash off the boat but not enough to put a damper on anyone’s day. There were tons of tourists on shore, but they were all really nice. Today will be our last day moving the boat until May and it always brings a sense of melancholy for me. It has been an interesting trip with lots of travel on the big blue watery road, not our normal relaxing trip, but a good one. Will dream of the beautiful turquoise water, yellow bellied birds, warm sea air on my face, and the constant rolling of the boat! Off to Oyster Pond…..