Gas @ Potatoes

Well I woke up in Royal Island and wasn’t in the best mood. I’ve come to the conclusion that I need an alarm clock. I thought I wouldn’t need one but there actually is a reason you might have to get up earlier than when your body tells you to even if you dont have a job. Any way last night I’m getting up every hour or so to check my watch. Why? Because the weather show comes on at 6:30am and I am addicted. Wind and waves matter a lot when you live on a boat. You might want to know when that next squall is predicted to come through your area at 3am. Any who……Juliette, please bring back a battery operated travel alarm clock. Why battery?, because no 110 volt at night.

I woke up tired and missed the first half of the general forecast show, but I was able to fill in the missing pieces by listening to individual reports that he gives to people who pay him a fee. After his general forecast he takes call ins on the radio from these customers who want more specific weather reports for the particular boating plans.

After the weather I decided to go to Spanish Wells to Fill up the fuel tanks. I left the protected anchorage and was heading directly into a 13 knot wind. It was only about 5 miles away which would normally take about a hour with the engines, but i decided to zig zag with the sails. Sailors call it tacking, but I am not a sailor, just a sailboat owner. I zig zagged with the fishing lines out….no luck!! Drat.

The 1 hour boat ride turned into a 3 hour zig zag ride. That was okay because I didn’t have anything else to do today. When I got to the gas station I got some help docking from the two fuel attendants. Both of them were very nice and after I was done fueling I went into the general store to pay, I picked up a bag of potatoes and a onion and paid for my 50 gallons of diesel.

I sailed down wind back to my anchorage that took about 2 hours. I just put out a small scrap of sail and coasted back at about 2 knots (I had a few hours to kill). Oh yeah, on the way there I was doing 5-6 knots Zig zagging.

On the way back a fishing boat towing 3 smaller boats is heading out to the fishing grounds. The smaller boats go collect lobster or conch and return them to the mother boat.