December 1, 2009

THE STORM AT CHUB CAY, BAHAMAS

11/25/09  11:30 woken by the sound of wind howling all around us Romeo looks out the window GETLOST  the PROUT CATARAMAN has done a 180 degree turn and we are getting blown towards the rocks to the north of us. Bahamas Nassua 005 For now our two Anchors are holding. The 25 plus knot winds and  pounding ocean water, all around us loud  sounds, John Doe is asking Triple A, WHAT WAS THAT??? OVER AND OVER   Bahamas Nassua 001AGAIN!!! 

We get the life jackets on and try then on for fit.Bahamas Nassua 006 Then  our tennis shoes  in case we have to jump, John Doe’s decision.  Juliette cleans up the rain that is coming in from the mast blowing inside any crack the water can find to get in . Water can be evil and your best friend. The  Anchors are holding  and the storm is starting to calm down, winds at 15 knots, rain stopped. Juliette went to bed.  Bahamas Nassua 007Romeo stayed up to keep watch for a few hours.

11/26/09  THANKSGIVNG  Triple A wake up at 4:30 am to flat seas, very excited to get under way to Nassau, make coffee and check weather on internet all looks good. John Doe wakes, gets coffee takes his time to look at the morning weather reports that Triple A found, and decides  we will go. Departing 8:00 am another motor boat decides to join us .  The weather was perfect Juliet cooked Thanksgiving dinner in the galley the whole cruise to Nassau with not even a spill. Juliette invites Gab  the captain of the other boat  for dinner, and we plan a trip to Nassau the next day. 

Arrival to the Bahamas, Gun Cay

11/22/09 After a great crossing of the Atlantic Ocean we arrived at 2:30 pm set our anchor and decided to celebrate our accomplishment. With a couple of margaritas  and a few calls home. Were still not sure of the cost of the phone calls so we are trying to keep them to only emergencies.  E-MAIL is best, but very hard because it seems in a boat on the water we are always moving. The internet  signal is in and out. We have to type each letter 5 or 6 times then when we think we have the e-mail  answered we  lose the entire message we just  typed and have start over again. NOT FUN!!!! Triple A COMES OUT!!! 

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11/23/09 The  next morning we had coffee and motored across the Great Bahamas Bank, hot and sunny the whole way we left at 5:00 am and arrived  in Chub Cay (key) at 5:30 pm long day. Anchored at a nice private beach with villas. Chub Cay is  a very small fishing and lobster diving town.  After a  nice night sleep, John doe  went to customs and he was gone about 3 hours. Triple A swam and cleaned the bottom of  GETLOST with a hand held brush for two hours, good work out.  When Romeo returned some people approached us in their dingy and they  join us for a beer, they were  from CANADA. We  filled their 3  of water jugs from the  water maker, which is  now working well after $2,500.00 in new parts a labor in Miami.

 spectra Water 112 11/20/09 The water maker story, TJ came on GETLOST the boat at 9:00 pm at night left at 1:00 am Romeo was driving him back and forth in the middle of the night after sailing all day from Long Key arriving in Miami at 7:00 pm in the dark, putting down the anchor and then driving a mile plus in the dingy  to the beach in the dark not knowing were he was going and the motor kept dying and Romeo would have to pull to start over and over again, and  after picking up TJ, they took turns pulling over and over again  to start the engine.  Not to much fun!!!  TJ  was not able to fix the Spectra water maker that  night. So Romeo dropped him back to his car and  got back to GETLOST around 3:00am.  What a night !!!!   And we were looking forward to another visit from TJ  the next night also. 

11/21/09 We got lucky and all the parts were close to Miami, so the water maker was fixed the next night,  after a few beers with TJ, Romeo dropped him off back to the beach. On the phone, Dad help earlier with the dingy motor, new spark plug and the carburetor checked for problems, no more pulling 20 times to start engine, and so dingy is for now  good to go!!! Thanks Dad!!!!  Misc 2009 Pics 042

11/24/09 After our guest left with their water in Chub Cay a storm  started late  at night not too bad 15 to 17 knot winds. That morning  Triple A had her first melt down,  she had not stepped foot off the GETLOST since leaving Snead Boat Works just south of  Tampa Bay FL. in Palmetto, were we stored her and had work done on her. What nice people and very good at what they do, 2 thumbs up on Snead Boat Works, Thank You all.

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Romeo suggested a swim to the beach after we fueled up and reset our Anchors Romeo decided to put out two Anchors because  we are in  a sandy bottom, sounds good to me. When we went to top off are fuel in Chub Cay we had to wait an hour for the guy to get back from lunch we meet a lot of guys also waiting,  you don’t see the in the USA.

Meeks Patch, Eleuthera 005

 

Later  we went  for swimming we just jumped off GETLOST and start heading to the beach, the whole time Triple A is swimming she is thinking, with her yellow fins and  in her blue swim suit, she looks a lot like the Dolphin fish we caught the other day, SCARY!!!!  SHARK FOOD!!!!Made it to the beach, it was a  short beach and we had a short walk. It started to thunder and lighting, so we quickly swam back to GETLOST.

Meeks Patch, Eleuthera 008

Getting The Boat Ready

10/25/09 Romeo  arrived  in Tampa Bay, Florida. After getting off the plane I rented a car and headed to the boat yard. The boat was in the water and the cabin area was filled with all the boxes that we had shipped down. In the boxes were our clothes and other personal items that we need to make our boat our new home. We also had some items shipped to us that we needed to install, such as an Ice maker (install and works great, no warm drinks here) also we had two portable freezers that I had to find a place to put (they work incredible well), also a washer/dryer that I’m installing today. Also there is no internet connection here at the boat yard so I’ll update this site when I get near the net.

spectra Water 097    NEW WASHER INSTALLED

spectra Water 084 VIEW AT SNEAD BOAT WORK GETTIG WORK DONE WAITING FOR TRIPLE Aspectra Water 104FOOD FOR THE CRUISERS  AFTER TRIPLE A  ARRIVIL TEN  DAYS OF SHOPPING LATERspectra Water 086 MR.FIX IT