On May 23, 8:43*am, Frogwatch wrote:
Due to running out of time after having to work on the engine, we took
Ragtime to Running Mon Marina near Freeport where she was hauled till
November. *However, we all managed o get in some good snorkelling and
Jared (my daughters bf) caught a good Mahi Mahi (Dolfin) while
trolling under sail along a weed line in 300' of water, great dinner
for two nights.
Wandered all over Grand Bahama Island and met a lot of people.
The trip will resume in November with a trip to the Berry Islands from
Freeport and then on to Nassau. Instead of flying back to Fort
Lauderdale, we caught the ship MV Discovery at Freeport for $140 each,
a 5 hour trip complete with free drinks, and very good food, *who
needs airplanes?

We had planned to go to Marsh HArbor via Great Sale Cay-Spanish Cay-
Green Turtle Cay on Wed but when we motored out the harbor of West End
the coolling water alarm came on. Eventually, I found the belt was
not moving but by the time i had freed it the belt had nearly worn
thru. I thought i had replacements but then found I had used them
last year to change out the old ones. This required a half day trip
to Freeport, 20 miles away via public bus in which I talked for a
couple of hours with the driver who took me all over and I even met
his family. The destruction from 3 back to back hurricanes several
years ago is still all over the place and the island has not
recovered.
When I got back late that afternoon and installed the belts, the two
guys on the large sailboat next to us who had sailed up from Havana
and were trying to sail on to Canada informed us of CHris Parkers
forecast of two developing low prresure systems that would give very
high N winds on Friday with possible development Saturday. They
decided they no longer had a weather window and were preparing to wait
a week and we decided being out on the north side of the banks with
high N wind and possible developing storm was not a good idea so with
that and the lost day from the broken belt, we decided to simply go to
Running Mon Marina 28 miles away near Freeport. At least Jared caught
his fish and we all got to do some snorkelling and to meet a lot of
people.