2018 /2019

A lot has changed since my last post but we had the best year ever in the Bahamas in spite of the pitfalls of life.
This update is being written through a new Occulus Quest virtual reality device which is really cool but I have to figure out how to upload to it by casting from my phone.  I shall return.

Bored In Paradise

 

A Cuttlefish under Daruma while at Yacht Haven

                                         A Barracuda that was on the camera from a couple years ago

January 29, 2016
A couple years since I've updated and I don't know where to begin.  We've been a little stagnant in the cruising department due to a couple issues, one with USCIS while trying to get green cards and the other was a lightning strike on the shore power at our dock in Florida while we were in Canada when our grandson was born.  Resolution of the first was to just kick us out of the US and the other has taken a few years  and a small fortune to resolve but I'm happy to say that it all works better than ever. 
I lost my phone overboard while trying to rush to an airport so many pictures I wanted to post are gone and the replacement as of yet won't let me up load from it  so until I figure that out we are not in chronological order.
It has been a couple bad years in a row and I wonder it could possibly get worse and then it somehow does so surely we are near the point of nowhere to go but up.
I have 3 and half months off this year and have spent a good deal of them without Traci here as she had to fly home for a family medical emergency, part of the "yes it can get worse" and it did.  She is due back Sunday evening, the 31st. :)  In the meantime I tried to carry on as normal and had the Patricks down for 2 weeks.

Shawn and I both celebrated birthdays while they were here so we drank some Crown Royal that Traci had bought us for the occasion and we picked our way south towards Thunderball Grotto.

The weather this year totally sucks, front after front sweeping in from Florida.  We got to fish for a few hours on one day which was limited as my new Navionics charts don't show the Exuma Park boundaries and Shawn hooked into a Barracuda but no Mahi.  On the way back up it was too rough to go into the deep water so no fishing.  As we approached Allens Cay on the same track that we lay on the way down I hit some coral and put a hole in the boat on the port side keel.  Seems the full moon had something to do with the tide being much lower than usual and I didn't know enough to account for it.  My bad.  The bildge pump kept up nicely but we were still pumping out about 30 gallons an hour.  On our return to Nassau the good folks on Ubuntu had some miracle epoxy that sets up under water and I applied that and slowed it down by 90% or so.
Before heading this way from Florida we had to change the sail drives as the lightning had blown the aluminum housing to bits as it seeked ground to the water.  The motors had to be unbolted and moved ahead a few inches and the drives removed and replaced while the beached and the tide was low.  Soon as I can get pics off the phone I'll post them.

A ray inside Thunderball

Leslee

I'd like one of these!

Damaged keel with epoxy repair

                                           Well set anchor with a floaty on it in case we lose it

Merry Christmas everyone

 I travel an awful lot for work and run across some interesting things, some "Americano" some just interesting and I wish I had taken time to take pics of them all but don't.
Above is a sign that caught my eye in Bloomington, Il. right next to a sight I work at.  Kinda tells it like it is.

It would seem Batman rides a motorcycle in Naples during his downtime!

A few images around us from up the mast last week as I spent a fair amount of time up there pulling new wires, removing a toasted radar and lights and pulling a new wind instrument wire and device all blasted by the lightning strike.

 When it rains here it POURS enough to seemingly overwhelm some bilge pumps or over-tax some batteries and there have been a couple sinkings.  The lower one is the vessel the FDEP uses sometimes and their vehicle has a bumper sticker on it asking everyone to report environmental crimes and a phone number.  When their boat sunk it was full of gas which of course all leaked out and made a slick all the way across to the fuel dock that burned your eyes as we scooped their junk out of the water and put it on the seawall where they could find it.  It was getting dark so next morning all the fuel evidence had washed out with the tide.  I'm pretty sure no one was charged for that but don't you dare P in the water!

A decorated boat playing Christmas music made the rounds last night.

And lastly, with the new Baynham boat, Time Out, in the backround, I bid you adieu and wish you Merry Christmas.

2 days in a row!!!!

Call me crazy but I thought I'd put up some pics I downloaded off of my phone before I sat around long enough for the urge to go away.

 Remember the post about the daughter giving this guy her "Best Look"

Resulting in a union of marriage..

Then something didn't feel quite right.......

Resulting in this profile......

That upon farther investigation revealed the above photo.....

Resulted in this large little guy, Maksim Alexander or Max for short.

New roof going on the other boat.  The one that floats on the St Lawrence River.

A sample of the results of lightning strike discovered when we returned to Florida

Dealing with this at the same time....

But quite confident that it'll all work out in the end.

The type of work I do often results in little cuts and minor infections but this one got hold of the tiniest cut and ran rampant in such a short time that I was worried myself which is unusual.
They put me on some antibiotics that buckled my knees for awhile after taking it and warned me of potential tendon ruptures for up to 6 months, lesser of 2 evils I guess.  All better now, looks like a cat chewed on it for awhile but otherwise healed.
The doctor explained that we're running out of antibiotics as we ingest so much of it in food, scary stuff.  We are heading back to a time when you could easily die from a small cut.
Maybe soon we'll be back on the water and I can post about new adventures and places newly discovered but for now this is what you get.
Later....

Teaser Blog

Well Hello:  We've not blogged in some time as we've not moved far in the same amount of time due to a bunch of imigration red tape, birth of a grandson, lightning strike on Daruma, Traci got a job and the type of life that I'm trying to avoid just keeps getting in the way.
Red tape -  We have applied for a green card as 99% of my work is in the USA, I'm getting old and don't like the cold and the sailing from the state of Florida is enough to keep me interested for years.  Last year at holiday time we were awaiting a grandson any day and holidays were approaching, I was asked to go to Chile for a month long job that would take place in January when I'm usually on holidays so I was chomping at the bit to do something, anything really and we could do nothing as we couldn't leave the US.  My visa had expired and the card had been applied for but for the meantime we were in limbo.  The lawyer eventually got us advanced parole cards that enable us to leave and return with just a little hassel but they never arrived until March or there a bouts so as soon as they arrived in the mail we were on a plane to Ottawa to be there for the birth of Maksim Alexander.  Traci was happy and that's all that really matters to me when it comes down to it.
I do need to talk to Byron, (Gringos blog) and see what the requirements are to live in the Turks as now the Bahamas are supposedly coming out with a 7.5% tax that is new to them.  Corruption has to have fuel and I can only assume that it got them in this state or will soon have them there.

Removed the old, little refridgerator.

 Jammed a clothes washer in there.

Hid it away.

Moved the stove-top, cut into the counter, added a new 3-way fridge and microwave.

Had installed the above as well as a new course computer, battery monitor, got the SSB radio fixed for round the world weather, had installed two new 1100 gallon per hour automatic bilge pumps, another new toilet in our bedroom bath, a new 105 amp alternator and smart regulator on the starbord engine and numerous other gadgets to go on holidays with last year.  We couldn't go due to the green card thing so we were ready for this year and adding more toys.  We got the chance to go to Canada for a month to 6 weeks as I had to work out of the office so we shut down all the breakers except the fridge, freezer and lights as they had food in them.  When we returned to the boat, around 2 a.m., it smelled as though someone had died in here a few weeks earlier and there was no lights.  Turns out the shore power utilities had been hit by lightning and the current travelled through the ground, through the on-board battery charger in which all the solder was melted away and throughout the whole 12V ground system of the boat and fried pretty much everything except a few led lights, 1 of the new bilge pumps, the windless although it fried the new remote I had put on it and the VHF radio but it did melt the antenna for it right off mast.  I'm still finding ruined stuff every day as I test this and that and the costs are enormous.  Insurance for such a thing is between 4 and 5 thousand a year so I don't know which is the lesser of the 2 evils seeing as we are living in the lightning capital of the world in the summer months.  I will without a doubt invest in a good surge protector and am going to install 2 gang breakers so that when they off, they are switching off the ground as well as the power supply to various trinkets.  There is a huge fuse on the ground buss right near the batteries that may do the same thing but I will need to leave some things on I'm sure.

Traci's motivational spirit keeps me slogging forward!  What can I say?

I'll update sooner, promise.

Expanding Family

:(  Kara won't be travelling to the Bahamas to see us this year and it saddens me at first but the reasoning makes up for it.  You see, I'm going to tell you a story in pictures.

Kara, our loving daughter gave some fellow her BEST look:

This resulted in the union we told you about in a previous post:

Then, a short time later, something didn't feel quite right:

And now this:

Soon to be our new Grandson (checked today), resides in here for now:

And this has made some folks real happy!:

And now all is right with the world.

The end.  (just beginning really)

Catch up post

"A rose by any other name...."  I know, it's an Orchid and Traci hasn't managed to kill it yet!
It was looking pretty sad, leaves all fell off, there was nothing but a stem and 2 little buds and voila, 2 beautiful flowers popped out.  I had to apologize to Traci.

The Hamrick vessel as it sits on the T dock behind us, in front of us really as we face that way.  You can see the anchor hanging back in the middle of the tunnel and it sits back from the bow about 8 or 10 feet and is really hard to see from the deck.  They left on Friday to head out to the Gulf to do a little relaxing, a little sailing and whatever and when they arrived and went to drop the above anchor it seemed to have other ideas as it wasn't there.  I guess the shiny stainless swivel had corroded in two and parted ways with the rest of the vessel.  I have a feeling it may be right below the water line in this picture.

Ever since we got the boat a few years back, the admiral said she could smell mould when we got in bed.  She has proven her nose in the past in stunning ways so I have no right to even question her smelling ability, you can't get away with nothing around her if ya know what I mean.  Well I finally ripped everything apart and found the mould behind the headboard and 1 job always leads to 10 more on a boat so I expect we'll have a nearly new room soon enough. 

Our new hypalon dingy sitting under it's cover on the dock.  We were in need of a new one but figured it would be another year or so before that happened but a couple weeks ago I was reading the classifieds on the cruisers forum and came across an add that had been posted in July for this brand new, in the box West Marine dingy and he reposted a few weeks ago as not one person had replied to the add and it was at least $400. to $600. less than you can buy it for new at the store for.  Seems a tour boat ran into and damaged their dingy while in the Bahamas and the insurance company purchased this one and had it sent to the marina they were heading to upon their return.  They had patched up their damaged one and used it for the rest of the trip and this one was waiting for them on their return to the U.S.  It was a little large for their boat and they were selling out and returning to "the real world" after a 2 year intermission anyway so I made an offer, picked it up the next day and saved over a thousand dollars, still get warranty, got it all registered and titled and we're ready to go.  If I could only find a 15 hp 2 stroke now we'd be all set.  I want the 2 stroke as they are 40 or so pounds lighter than the new 4 strokes and we have to lift it daily at the back of the boat.

It's getting to be the time of year when it's great to be in south Florida, not so hot you can't go outside and cools a little at night and the wildlife seems to return in force.
Normally the manatee munch on any floating weeds that come over the levee and as a rule only have 1 baby.  Today I watched as the mother, above, left the 2 young ones to play and roll around in the slip next to us while she seemed to be rooting something up off the bottom for some time.  When she finally came up they swam along beside her and seemed to be taking something from her mouth as they took turns sidling up to her like in the picture.

We got and I've installed a new 3 way fridge and a new clothes washer but I have no pics of those as yet so I'll put them in a future blog.
Thanks for reading and bye for now,
Dave