Long Island to George Town, Exumas, Bahamas 4-21-10 and Regatta Week

When we left you, we were safely at anchor, still without internet
connection, in the same place we started in Long Island weeks ago. Due to
our desire (well, Lydia's obsession, by this time) for internet
connectivity, and the presumed weather window from Chris Parker's previous
forecast, we went to bed expecting to leave the next morning, to George
Town, where we knew we'd find internet available to us aboard.

Getting up early to tune into his 6:30 forecast, Chris forecast weather
which looked ideal for a spinnaker run to George Town. After a leisurely
breakfast, we had the anchor up by 9:30, and were off to our first waypoint,
the one at the entrance to the harbor. As we'd be flying the spinnaker, we
luxuriated in the use of Perky, our main propulsion engine (after the sails,
of course!!) on our 271*T course for just a few minutes.

While Lydia drove, I got the spinnaker ready, and by 9:40, we were ready to
have Ray (our chartplotter) make our first turn, instructing Otto (the
autopilot) in his duties. That would put us on a course of 300*T, and, once
we made the corner, up went the spinnaker on a starboard tack against the
slightly southwest breeze.

It was very nearly directly behind us, not the most efficient for our
asymmetrical spinnaker (with a true spinnaker, you adjust to the wind
direction by using a pole to hold out the tack - the windward portion of the
bottom of the sail - but this had a sleeve which went over the furled genoa,
keeping the tack centered, which is better for wind less fully behind us.

Indeed, the sail billowed a bit, blowing the luff (the part closest to the
wind) over the genoa frequently, but by playing with the sheet, we were able
to minimize that, and we were making 3.7 knots in 0 knots of apparent wind
at 160-180* behind us. The seas were pretty calm, so it was a very quiet
sail, on a brilliant day.

Just before we left, a sistership (a Morgan 462) hailed us from
Clarencetown, a harbor on the southeast side of Long Island. They, too,
were heading to George Town, but they had much further to go, and were
motorsailing in the very light airs. We'd probably arrive about the same
time, as we had a head start on them by about 30 miles, but we were going
much more slowly.

With the very light air, we were wondering if we'd have to motor, too, but
the wind filled in a bit as we moved out of the wind shadow of Long Island.
Oops... The wind died at 11:30, and by noon we'd made the reluctant
decision to turn on the engine again. The spinnaker came down without
incident, was stowed, and we motored along at 2200RPM, rolling a bit in the
very light seas.

As is our practice, for the infrequent times we have to
motor, as long as we're making all that electricity, we run the fuel
polisher. Our first Racor (the fuel filter immediately after the tank)
filter replacment, happening at a known (it may well have been more, as it
was the same one we got with the boat, 6 years ago) 1000 hours plus proved
that the polishing system worked, so we take advantage of it!

Just after we struck the spinnaker, we noticed a prominent foam line in the
water, extending as far as the eye could see in either direction. There were
no notable features in the bottom to suggest a current striking a line, but,
none the less, apparently there was a current differential, as we dropped a
full half knot as we crossed it. We'd later cross that line, which
meandered, several times along the same rhumb line, and each time, our speed
would rise or fall depending on which side of the line we were on at the
time.

Suddenly, at 12:40, we had a vicious strike on the single pole we had out.
(The sheet for the spinnaker crosses over where the port fishing pole is
mounted, making it really nervous-making - recall the loss of the reel
recently during a spinnaker jybe - to use that one!) As quickly as I had
the pole in my hand, it went slack. Did the fish throw the lure? Reeling it
in proved that it simply snapped the 30# line! OY!! Another contribution
to Davey Jones, a new cedar plug, this time! No biggie, I have more lures
and fittings, and, better yet another pole ready to put in the holder...

Ready to go, and the old maxim of "Where there's one, there's likely to be
another" proving true by another strike at 1PM, on our painted cedar plug.
It turned out to be a very big barracuda, which we released, not wanting to
take chances with ciguatera poisoning. Regular readers here will recall
that we normally don't keep any larger than 30 inches...

By this time, I'd redone the other pole with another leader and lure, this
one a blue skirted "squid" looking thing, and we got another large strike at
1:45. This one felt really big, too, and he'd taken a lot of line out
before I got him stopped. Lydia throttled back to reduce the pressure and I
proceeded to reel him in.

Another big barracuda, this one taking a very long time to land. Too big,
another release, and we were powered up again by 2:15, still on our original
course line. By now, with the sun nearly directly overhead (this area uses
Daylight Saving Time, and is near the western side of the time zone, so the
"sun" time was close to noon), and the only breeze coming from our forward
progress, it was very hot aboard. Fortunately, of course, the solar panels
loved it, putting out 25 amps of power, supplementing our alternator's input
to the batteries..

Hallelujah, a breeze came up at 2:05, and by 2:10 we had our genoa up. The
wind had clocked, as forecast, and we were at 60* apparent wind, but only 4
knots - which resulted in not much forward speed! However, we were still on
track for arrival well before dark, and would beat our sistership by an hour
or so at this rate.

Drifting along, we eventually made the various corners in the entrance to
the channel leading to Elizabeth Harbour. Like the last time we went
through here, though, on the way out to Long Island, our chartplotter and
GPS went crazy, going off and/or misdirecting. After a dozen or so panic
corrections and circular movements by our power steering, we finally made it
through the cut.

Sure enough, as soon as we were headed into the harbor, we had a fish
strike. This one didn't take any energy, however, as it was just a small
jack - about right for a sandwich for us, later. Rather than deal with it,
as light as it was, I just left it on the pole, in the holder, hanging out
to the side :{))

As soon as we made the first marker, we saw that the beginning day of the
Family Island Regatta was in full swing, with the harbour full of boats.
This is a REALLY big deal with the Bahamians, with boats being shipped in
from all the various surrounding islands, and the 3 classes being fiercely
fought over a 3-day race schedule. We were concerned for where we might
have to go to elude the pack, and/or not interfere with the racing, so a
call on the VHF soon put us straight. We could go to any of the usual
anchoring beaches and not be in the way.

So, by 5:45, we were anchored in Sand Dollar beach, and I quickly filleted
our jack, putting the filets into some marinade in the refrigerator, for
eating later. Of course, one of the reasons for "hurrying" (you can hardly
call our trip a hurry) back to George Town was for the internet. Where we
were, we connected to the VERY sporadic internet. It turns out that the
huge visitor population for Regatta Week was severely taxing Batelco, the
state-run telephone system, and internet connectivity suffered. We crossed
our fingers that it would improve by the time the regatta was over, but in
the immediate term, I resorted to winlink, my Ham email interface to my Ham
radio. Unfortunately, for Lydia, that's VERY brief text messages, not the
extended conversations and Skype video calls she was looking for...

Regatta week is an annual event - this one being the 57th - featuring wooden
boats built to the style and substance of the fishing boats which used to be
the chief means of commerce for the fishermen in the Bahamas. People come
from all over the Bahamas, and it's PARTY TIME!!!

We'd originally thought to anchor close to town, the better to reprovision
our water and fuel, both of which have to be jugged in our dinghy. As we'd
JUST run out of our main tank (averaging a little under 3 gallons of water
consumed/used per a day), we knew that would be a major undertaking.

We'd also not refilled our diesel since we left Marsh Harbour, months ago,
so that would take an unknown amount, too, this being the first fill with
our new injectors, and being close to the little inlet on which the gas
station, to which we carried our jugs, was located, would cut down on the
ferrying time considerably.

However, we were advised that it would be very noisy, all night, over there,
so we parked on the other side. Not finding any satisfaction for internet
there, we moved up to Volleyball Beach, where we'd anchored last year. That
wasn't any better, but we found that everyone was having the same problem,
regardless of their connection source - paid, walk-in, or open-site. Just a
Batelco problem, it likely would go away at the end of the regatta.

While we waited, we enjoyed the racing from a front row seat, including, on
Saturday, the final day. when the winds dictated, the boats tacking through
the anchorage, threading their way between the anchored boats. However,
Saturday also included Volleyball beach being swarmed by the locals and the
visiting power boats. Unfortunately, most of them had no regard for the
anchored boats, and blasted through, including one wakeboarder, of all
things, creating very large wakes.

One of these wakes thoroughly drenched - over the top! - our Honda
generator, sitting on the platform at the stern, a wave height of more than
3 feet. Of course, that knocked it out - we'd been using it because we were
on the computers below, and Lydia was polishing her beans (more below) - but
were hopeful that simple drying would allow it to work again. That proved
accurate, we're glad to say. The pull start recoil mechanism misdesign
aside, they're nearly bulletproof little machines!

Meanwhile, to Lydia's beans...

We'd had great luck in finding sea beans in the Jumentos, and our bench
grinder, equipped with a buffing wheel, along with polishing rouge (a very
light abrasive in a wax medium), made very short work of changing ugly
ducklings into beautiful swans, so she's been spending a lot of time (back
at the old grind??) dressing up her beans. Between the computers and the
grinder, we've been using more amps than usual, thus the Honda generator...

Our sistership arrived in short order, and we got together with them for
dinner one night. While they were here, we bought their Caribbean charts
which they weren't able to use on this trip, their last for many years, and
the captain and I repaired a fishing reel which had been misbehaving.

That was the first of our 1-2-3's - the usual boat chores which accumulate
along the way. In the succeeding days, the internet would, indeed, return.
As usual, our conversations with other cruisers usually eventually include
their wondering if we'd had any luck with the internet.

Of course, regular readers here know that we ALWAYS have luck with our
internet, assuming there's any bandwidth to be had (none in Regatta Week).
As such, I wound up helping several folks figure out how to make it happen,
and, along the lines of my seminar on Wireless Communications For Cruisers,
delivered twice last year, and again this year, some of them had Ham/SSB
communication difficulties I was able to assist with.

Well, one cruiser was so overwhelmed with that assistance and (anyone who
knows more than you do on a subject is an expert or "guru") my presumed
infallibility that he put out on the morning net that I was the go-to guy
for WiFi answers, and had a means (the transcript of my seminar) to solve
their problems which wouldn't take much time to get.

Wouldn't you know, today most of the time I'd expected to have been ferrying
water and fuel, I had a half-dozen visitors who needed my "expertise" -
which, of course, led to my showing them what I had, a pictorial review of
my installation, a demonstration of how it worked, and so on. I could have
done another seminar in less time :{))

For the record, I have no financial interest or commercial connection to the
company who supplied my gear, but if you're a cruiser and want killer WiFi
internet aboard, visit www.islandtimepc.com, and/or drop
a line - Bob Stewart is the absolute king of
customer service; we met when I was having the trials of the damned
attempting to make some other vendor's product work as he'd promised it
would. It patently wouldn't, but Bob saw my thrashings on a usenet
newsgroup on wireless internet, sent me a PDF diagram of how I could make it
work (it did, but not what I wanted in the end). He later sent me the link
to buy the piece of gear which he sold as part of a full system which would
fix my problem, and then did another PDF of the setup for me. This without
my being a customer...

Needless to say, I was pretty high on him, so when his new setup came out, I
immediately got one and installed it. It was an improvement on my prior
setup; you can see screen scans of some of the places in the Bahamas I've
captured signals on his web site, on my sub-page there (run your mouse over
the WiFi section and click on Flying Pig). Note that I'm not the only one
featured; I've just got some more info useful to cruisers thinking of using
his solution...

Anyway, our time and new-friends-and-old meetings-and-greetings have
continued here, along with my chores. I've just finished the KISS wind
generator reinstallation, which involved reassembly of all the parts, a
fiddly job, and balancing the blades (a VERY critical step, as it assures
whisper-quiet operation). Unfortunately, as I was nearly finished, a squall
came up, so I had to put away my tools and wait before making the electrical
hookups.

However, we are now back in operation, and making amps, albeit not many with
the now-calm air. Earlier today we had a puff of wind and were rewarded
with lovely amps flowing into the battery. I look forward to the time when
we have some of what we seem to have had for the last 5 months, constant
15-20 knot winds, as we'd never run the Honda. Instead we'd run the
microwave! :{))

It's difficult to convey how much we love living our lives at sea.
Relatives and parents and friends' relatives and parents, and, at my age, my
classmates, are dying or becoming incapacitated. This life keeps us young,
healthy, and fit, not to mention ecstatic.

We may stay here another week or more, waiting for our dearest and closest
cruising friends to make the passage up here from the west coast of Puerto
Rico, or we may head out for some of the islands between here and Abaco,
where we will be catching a plane to the states for the month of July. I'll
probably take advantage of the shallow location on the town side of the
harbor to let us go aground in the full-moon shallows and scrub the bottom
again, as we seem to have accumulated a slight fuzz.

We're halfway through our rewatering, which involves us taking our 8
collapsible camping 5-gallon water bags in to the free spigot at Exuma
Markets, filling them, returning to the boat and pourng them into the tank
fill, using a large funnel. As soon as the first 4 were emptied, I jumped
in the dinghy and sped in again. By the time I'd filled and returned, Lydia
had the other 4 empty, and we did that several times before taking a break
from that back-bending job (leaning over the funnel and pouring slowly
enough that most of it went in) to get our propane filled on the tanker's
regular Wednesday visit to the same little lake where I was getting the
water.

At the same time, I emptied our 4 diesel jugs into the fuel tank (exactly 5
gallons each, allowing us, at the end of the exercise, to have an accurate
measure of how much we put in) and took them along for filling at the local
filling station, with its convenient dinghy dock in the same lake. A couple
more of those runs and pouring them into the OTHER (not in the water tank!)
fill, and our diesel tank was also full. I'll take the empties in for
filling, along with our single empty (after all that time in the Jumentos)
dinghy can in for filling, tomorrow, as we finish our jug transfers.

I'm thrilled to say that our refueling showed that we averaged 0.83 gallons
per hour of running the diesel, nearly half what we had been seeing before
our new injectors went in. So, despite the annoyance of the treatment we got
at the hands of Foley Engines and Dr. Diesel (another thread in this log
series), it was very well that I installed the rebuilt units. At $4.10
(better here than in Long Island, and much better than in Abaco) a gallon,
saving half on our fuel costs quickly pays for the rebuilds!

I'll update you later, as we start moving again, but for now, I'm off to bed
:{))

Until next time, Stay Tuned!

L8R

Skip and crew, happy in George Town, Exuma Bahamas

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to
make it come true. You may have to work for it however."
(and)
"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in
its hand
(Richard Bach)

Well, I have to admire your narratives. One thing which always strikes
me is that you have more systems working aboard than I have ashore. I
was utterly unable to keep even a simpler and slightly smaller yacht's
systems working. In fact, I never got all systems working at the same
time. One was always down or weak.

I am curious about two things. First you say your PV panels were pumping
25 amps. That implies 300 watt capacity or more. Is that right? If so,
that strikes me as a lot of panel.

Second, how do you 'polish' a sea bean? That'd be like polishing green
beans or asparagus. What next - putting a shine on an artichoke?

Hiya...

"slide" wrote in message
...
Well, I have to admire your narratives. One thing which always strikes me
is that you have more systems working aboard than I have ashore. I was
utterly unable to keep even a simpler and slightly smaller yacht's systems
working. In fact, I never got all systems working at the same time. One
was always down or weak.

Heh. We MOSTLY have all our systems working at once, but one or more of
them need attention fairly frequently...


I am curious about two things. First you say your PV panels were pumping
25 amps. That implies 300 watt capacity or more. Is that right? If so,
that strikes me as a lot of panel.

370 watts, and, when we go to a hardtop, I'll add more. It's 3 120s, except
that when, before our wreck, in the storm that put us on the rock, the KISS
took off, and landed on the center one on the way to Davey Jones. Same size
now has 130w, so it's 370.

I wasn't thinking outside the box, unfortunately, when I designed it; I
could easily have had longer ones. I was constrained on the length, in a
box shape, by the whip antenna at the front, which I secured to the frame,
and by my antenna mounts on the ends of my davits, on the stern. I could
easily have hung over the center rear, and out the front sides; wish I
had...


Second, how do you 'polish' a sea bean? That'd be like polishing green
beans or asparagus. What next - putting a shine on an artichoke?

A sea bean is a very hard nut-like shell, smooth-ish. Do a google for sea
beans, and you'll have the picture. After months, or sometimes, probably,
years, in the ocean, and more on the beach, they get weathered and checked.

Hearts are neat for fan pulls, drawer pulls, or big necklaces. Hamburger
and purse beans are nice for earrings, small drawer pulls, and necklaces.
Mary beans, very rare, are nice for Christians, as there's a cross on the
front imprinted by the way they're formed in the pod.

We use a flap wheel sander in the drill, then a buffing wheel on the bench
grinder, with, first, tripoli rouge, then a wax-and-compound designed for
boats, finished with a boat wax. Takes a really grungy bean and makes it
glow.

L8R

Skip, still in Georgetown


--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

The Society for the Preservation of Tithesis commends your ebriated
and scrutible use of delible and defatigable, which are gainly, sipid
and couth. We are gruntled and consolate that you have the ertia and
eptitude to choose such putably pensible tithesis, which we parage.

Stamp out Sesquipedalianism

On May 1, 1:42*pm, "Flying Pig" wrote:


... when, before our wreck, in the storm that put us on the rock, the KISS
took off, and landed on the center .....


SKIP'S HISTORY REVISION ! !

Dear skip. you say a storm put you on the rocks.......
If I remember right by Lydias on words (post).... she was on watch
layed down and some how the boat ran onto the beach.

No storm put you on the rocks.
There was no lookout.
Your vessel was Not Under Command.....literly!
You were unable to stand a watch. Your beloved Lydia ****ed up, wimped
out and abandoned her post leaving everyone in peril of loosing their
life. You got lucky that time and simply rested on a beach/reef/rocks
or what ever ya wanna call it.

She should have been put in jail for attempted manslaughter

Bob

On 5/1/2010 12:42 PM, Flying Pig wrote:
Hey Skip:


Heh. We MOSTLY have all our systems working at once, but one or more of
them need attention fairly frequently...

I doubt I had 1/3 of your complexity and that defeated my attempts for
100% op so my hat is off to you for even coming close. Like I eventually
replaced all the parts (one by one) of the auto pilot yet it never
worked for more than a few hours. One single part was 2.5 boat units
too. Yikes.


A sea bean is a very hard nut-like shell, smooth-ish. Do a google for sea
beans, and you'll have the picture. After months, or sometimes, probably,
years, in the ocean, and more on the beach, they get weathered and checked.

Hearts are neat for fan pulls, drawer pulls, or big necklaces. Hamburger
and purse beans are nice for earrings, small drawer pulls, and necklaces.
Mary beans, very rare, are nice for Christians, as there's a cross on the
front imprinted by the way they're formed in the pod.

We use a flap wheel sander in the drill, then a buffing wheel on the bench
grinder, with, first, tripoli rouge, then a wax-and-compound designed for
boats, finished with a boat wax. Takes a really grungy bean and makes it
glow.

Gosb, you have lapidary power tools (bench grider??) aboard as well? I"m
surprised 47 or so feet do it for you. I think you have more power this
and that than I do onshore.

I am familiar with sea beans. Here they a

http://www.earthy.com/Fresh_Sea_Beans__8_oz_P1513.cfm

I did a search and I think there are two things which aren't at all
alike called the same thing or maybe let that sea bean float around
while and it becomes a hard thing. Beats me.

"slide" wrote in message
...
On 5/1/2010 12:42 PM, Flying Pig wrote:
Hey Skip:


Heh. We MOSTLY have all our systems working at once, but one or more of
them need attention fairly frequently...

I doubt I had 1/3 of your complexity and that defeated my attempts for
100% op so my hat is off to you for even coming close. Like I eventually
replaced all the parts (one by one) of the auto pilot yet it never worked
for more than a few hours. One single part was 2.5 boat units too. Yikes.

No kidding. We're sort of holding our breath on our ST6000, as we've heard
of other failures. OTOH, ours is hydraulic, and aside from the last time we
were in Charleston (see prior logs for that story) where the pump's bolts
had worked loose, allowing the hydraulic fluid to leak, thus bleeding off
the required pressure in the system, we've had no mechanical issues with it
(YET!)


Gosb, you have lapidary power tools (bench grider??) aboard as well? I"m
surprised 47 or so feet do it for you. I think you have more power this
and that than I do onshore.

Don't forget the rotary grinder with the cutoff wheel for making conch horns
(and many other uses, otherwise), the grinding stones for making the
mouthpiece, skilsaw, jigsaw, 1HP hand grinder, buffers and the like :{))

The Morgan 46 (actually a 45 hull, but with the bow roller cage, they named
it differently to differentiate between them, especially since the interior
and deck/house were redesigned by Moorings for their use - Beatrice
Foods/Morgan immediately saw the benefit and started marketing the retail
version - the 462s - simultaneously with the 461s which were bought/marketed
by Moorings) is universally described by those visiting as by far the
largest 46 (not really, as above) they'd ever been on.

The storage is prodigious. We carry lots of tools, a year or so of dry
goods/jarred goods (corralled in milk crates; we've seriously reconsidered
the horror stories of glass aboard, as, even in our wreck, we have had not
the first failure), and ample fuel and water.

To say we're thrilled with the boat is an understatement. Aside from the
usual 1-2-3s (regular maintenance to keep ahead of the curve for the times
when we may be on the hard), and my since-new dissatisfaction with the arch,
we have next to no issues.


I am familiar with sea beans. Here they a

http://www.earthy.com/Fresh_Sea_Beans__8_oz_P1513.cfm

I did a search and I think there are two things which aren't at all alike
called the same thing or maybe let that sea bean float around while and it
becomes a hard thing. Beats me.

Try this http://waynesword.palomar.edu/plmay97.htm for a better perspective
and knowledge...

L8R

Skip and Lydia, enjoying the wind and solar power which is keeping us up
during all her grinding/polishing and our dual simultaneous computer use -
she on Skype and Facebook, me on trip reports and stuff like this, today


--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

Hi, Boob,

Nice to hear from you in your usual fashion :{))

... when, before our wreck, in the storm that put us on the rock, the KISS
took off, and landed on the center .....

*****
SKIP'S HISTORY REVISION ! !

Dear skip. you say a storm put you on the rocks.......
If I remember right by Lydias on words (post).... she was on watch
layed down and some how the boat ran onto the beach.

No storm put you on the rocks.
There was no lookout.
Your vessel was Not Under Command.....literly!
You were unable to stand a watch. Your beloved Lydia ****ed up, wimped
out and abandoned her post leaving everyone in peril of loosing their
life. You got lucky that time and simply rested on a beach/reef/rocks
or what ever ya wanna call it.

She should have been put in jail for attempted manslaughter

Bob
*******

Heh. With our boat, attempted manslaughter would have been laughed out of
court. The only reason we were plucked from Flying Pig is that the TBUS guy
told the CG, when asked, that they should deploy an asset. Flying Pig is
literally bulletproof (well, any normal caliber; an RPG, tank round, or 16"
gun would make a mess and an elephant gun round might possibly penetrate).

So, you're correct, we rested there on the rocks (if you can call being
picked up, thrown another few inches inland, and crashed again, every 10
seconds or so "resting").

And, the storm was what caused the KISS to fly away; we were happily under
triple-reefed main, making 5.5 knots, not even very uncomfortable in the
large seas; its departure was about 8 hours before our encounter with the
flats of Content Key.

And, yes, as seen in the "I learned about sailing from that" thread of the
time, we had a cascading set of decisions, any of which done in the reverse,
could have caused that experience never to happen.

That I was asleep, comfortably, in the aft cabin, agreed, made me unable to
stand a watch :{))

For all that, as seen in other threads on that adventure, it was the best
thing which could have happened to us, in many ways that I'll not bother to
recount here. That we got back in the saddle and are out here doing it
(what are YOU doing which bears any resemblance to cruising - this being
rec.boats.CRUISING, not dot OilRig/DeckHand/OreShip/GettingMultitonQualified
or others?), managing not to kill anyone including ourselves, not bending or
scratching the boat or others', suggests that our learning curve has
flattened somewhat :{)) Not that we aren't continually learning - we like
to think that we'll never stop learning, but hope that our learning
experiences aren't quite so exciting!

L8R

Skip, enjoying the sun and breeze keeping us cool and powering us up


--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

The Society for the Preservation of Tithesis commends your ebriated
and scrutible use of delible and defatigable, which are gainly, sipid
and couth. We are gruntled and consolate that you have the ertia and
eptitude to choose such putably pensible tithesis, which we parage.

Stamp out Sesquipedalianism

"Flying Pig" wrote in message
...
Hi, Boob,

Nice to hear from you in your usual fashion :{))

... when, before our wreck, in the storm that put us on the rock, the KISS
took off, and landed on the center .....

*****
SKIP'S HISTORY REVISION ! !

Dear skip. you say a storm put you on the rocks.......
If I remember right by Lydias on words (post).... she was on watch
layed down and some how the boat ran onto the beach.

No storm put you on the rocks.
There was no lookout.
Your vessel was Not Under Command.....literly!
You were unable to stand a watch. Your beloved Lydia ****ed up, wimped
out and abandoned her post leaving everyone in peril of loosing their
life. You got lucky that time and simply rested on a beach/reef/rocks
or what ever ya wanna call it.

She should have been put in jail for attempted manslaughter

Bob
*******

Heh. With our boat, attempted manslaughter would have been laughed out of
court. The only reason we were plucked from Flying Pig is that the TBUS
guy told the CG, when asked, that they should deploy an asset. Flying Pig
is literally bulletproof (well, any normal caliber; an RPG, tank round, or
16" gun would make a mess and an elephant gun round might possibly
penetrate).

So, you're correct, we rested there on the rocks (if you can call being
picked up, thrown another few inches inland, and crashed again, every 10
seconds or so "resting").

And, the storm was what caused the KISS to fly away; we were happily under
triple-reefed main, making 5.5 knots, not even very uncomfortable in the
large seas; its departure was about 8 hours before our encounter with the
flats of Content Key.

And, yes, as seen in the "I learned about sailing from that" thread of the
time, we had a cascading set of decisions, any of which done in the
reverse, could have caused that experience never to happen.

That I was asleep, comfortably, in the aft cabin, agreed, made me unable
to stand a watch :{))

For all that, as seen in other threads on that adventure, it was the best
thing which could have happened to us, in many ways that I'll not bother
to recount here. That we got back in the saddle and are out here doing it
(what are YOU doing which bears any resemblance to cruising - this being
rec.boats.CRUISING, not dot
OilRig/DeckHand/OreShip/GettingMultitonQualified or others?), managing not
to kill anyone including ourselves, not bending or scratching the boat or
others', suggests that our learning curve has flattened somewhat :{)) Not
that we aren't continually learning - we like to think that we'll never
stop learning, but hope that our learning experiences aren't quite so
exciting!





The only trouble I see with your story, Skippy, is there are NO ROCKs at
Sprigger Bank and that's where you were aground, wasn't it?

Wilbur Hubbard

"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote in message
anews.com...


The only trouble I see with your story, Skippy, is there are NO ROCKs at
Sprigger Bank and that's where you were aground, wasn't it?

Wilbur Hubbard


Nope.

Pay attention :{)) You were around during that period, right? You
saw all
the traffic of the time, right (2-7/2-20-07, or thereabouts, if you
wish to
look at the archives...

Off Content Key. Here's the very specific Lat/Long:

24*47.910'N/081*280855'W, give or take a few thousandths of a minute.
Note
the 1/2' of water on the chart, jumping from 15-17' to nothing in a
few
feet...

You could look it up - and see the pix in our gallery, for that
matter,
courtesy of the Coast Guard, who did a training exercise during the
extraction (go to the "aloft-adventure begins" sub gallery)...

Then click on the subgallery "crash landing - chapter 1" the first 4
pix of
which are from the helo, taken about 2 hours after low tide. Note the
forward port corner of the solar panels where there's no longer a wind
generator :{))


L8R

Love from Skip and crew, still wondering when you're going to come
whip our
asses in your banana boat...

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to
make it come true. You may have to work for it however."
(and)
"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in
its hand. You seek problems because you need their gifts."

(Richard Bach, in Illusions - The Reluctant Messiah)