We left you as we'd put down the hook in Nurse Cay, and enjoyed our
first
self-caught fish dinner in longer than I can recall. It was
marvelous, and
lots of leftovers...

We were up and at'em again by 8:10. Unfortunately, there was little
to no
wind, but by 8:20, we had the main and genoa set for whatever we could
do.
Once out of the lee of Nurse Cay, the wind picked up to a usable 8-10
knots
on a very close reach on our 180*T course. Over the course of the
day, the
wind backed, as per forecast, and, in the sheltered waters inside the
cays,
we made 5.6- 6.1 knots on our short passage. We had the hook down in
Hog
Cay by 11 AM.

Imagine our surprise to find that there were well over 20 boats there,
already. Apparently, most of the folks had somewhat the same idea as
we -
we'd hurried down to be part of the Valentine's Day festivities,
which, it
would turn out, had more than 30 boats participating.

However, I get ahead of myself, as, that evening, there was a
meet-and-greet, hors d'oevres and garbage burning party. We made a
fish dip
from our remainders, took our drinks ashore, and left the burnable (no
bottles/jars or cans or other metal) stuff in the dinghy, uncertain of
what
we'd find.

It turns out that the "camp" where the big event would be held has a
burning
pit; we'd learn, in our time there, that it was a regular event for
someone
to call for munchies, drinks and - garbage! After having spent a lot
of
time in George Town, we somewhat expected this crowd would be a bit
like
that - some regulars, some newbies, and a bit of old-boy-ism.

We were correct, but we were surprised at the vituperation expressed
by some
of the folks we met in regard to George Town. Folks here like their
lives
entirely unstructured (as might be expected, as far away from
everything as
it is), but some of them were downright hostile toward the cameraderie
and
organized activities in George Town.

Ah, well, each to his own. We only knew 3 of the boats there, and the
usual
practice of handing around boat cards (like a business card, but with
your
boat information on them) was not observed, other than the ones we
passed
out. In the coming weeks, as folks drifted away after the party, some
of
them bolting the very next day, the crowds thinned out and we made
many new
friends.

Back to the party, however, if you're a cruiser, and can get to Hog
Cay in
the Raggeds (and can stand being a stranger), it's amazing. Maxine,
the
local grocer and supplies-contact (she'll order anything you want to
come in
on the next week's mail boat), puts on a veritable feast. A huge ham,
a
similarly large turkey, fried fish, Bahamian mac'n'cheese, salad,
potato
salad, peas and rice (a Bahamian staple), cole slaw, carrot salad,
fried
chicken and, I'm sure, some other goodies I've forgotten. All that
was
supplemented by plastic plates and utensils and paper napkins, all
courtesy
of Maxine. A collection is taken up in advance, along with all
signing the
Valentine's Card, both of which are given to Maxine after dinner.

The cruisers provide hors d'oevres and desserts. Not knowing that
Maxine
did it all for dinner, we brought stuffing. Apparently, it was a hit,
as
the pan looked like it had been licked clean. And, we also learned,
not only
did the cruisers do dessert, Maxine had brought three huge cakes!
What a
cornucopia...

Entertainment is provided by both cruisers and locals, who also
consider
this a social event, so Junkanoo, in all its finery, was the order of
the
day in the afternoon. A special auction was held to support the local
school, which was raising funds for a field trip. Those of you who
were
with us last year will recall that there's an all-grade school there,
with,
this year, 9 kids. They're hopeful of getting certified as a high
school,
because, now, if you want to go beyond the 8th grade, you have to go
to
Nassau to do it.

We got to know more locals on a close basis during that party than we
did
cruisers we'd not met before. As was our experience last year, the
locals
go out of their way to be helpful and friendly to cruisers. This
year's
special was getting to know the crew on the fishing boat which
anchored
among us after acting as a ferry for some of the enormous feast laid
out for
us.

During our time at Hog Cay, in addition to getting to know some of the
remainder cruisers, I picked up a couple of gems. First was that the
lead
developer - analogous to my son Michael, who wrote the most popular
Google
Chrome browser extension, AdBlock - for Open CPN. Open CPN is an
open-source, free navigation program which will accept all of the most
common electronic chart formats. Being able to speak with the author
made
my transition into the program a snap.

The second was being referred to a ham and High Frequency Radio
hobbyist.
I'd been having difficulty both being heard when trying to speak with
people
on both the SSB and Ham frequencies, and sending mail over the Ham
radio
link for email was excruciating. He refused any thought of
compensation,
mostly because what I needed was what he lived for. Should it have
required
removing some of the electronics for examination, he'd happily have
done
that too.

If you've been with me for a while, you may recall that I borrowed a
tool
from another cruiser in George Town in hopes of diagnosing my
challenges.
That instrument suggested a variety of things, all of which proved
baseless. The instruments and gadgets brought aboard Flying Pig for
troubleshooting quickly, one at a time, proved the integrity of all
but the
tuner. Before removing it for examination and repair, however, my
saviour
showed his intimate knowledge of the panapoly of tuners out there,
and,
after proving that it SOUNDED (there's a simple test you can do right
at the
tuner, listening for relays clicking) like it should be working, he
asked me
to trace the wiring before I took it out. Turns out there was a
connection
from a prior radio's installation (what we call an orphan - a wire
which is
no longer being used, but which remains in place) which had been
interfering
with proper operation. Without that specific knowledge of that tuner,
we'd
have chased our tails forever trying to figure it out! Cut that wire,
and
all is well.

Well, other than that the radio, a very high-draw item, was connected
to the
main circuit panel and thus at the mercy for amps being drawn by
nearly
anything original in the boat, as well as some new stuff which had
been
added, and sometimes went a bit hungry. The solution for that, one of
my
to-do projects when we get to shore, soon, is to run a new circuit
directly
from my massive battery bank, protect it with its own circuit breaker,
and
run the radio and tuner on that dedicated line. There are some other
geeky
tricks I'll do, but I'll not bore you with the details :{))

The remainder of the time there was spent walking the beaches on the
Atlantic side, making many new friends in the anchorage, and burning
garbage
:{)) Trash is a real issue in the Ragged Islands, as there's no place
to
dispose of it in any community (at least not without straining their
resources) - "any" meaning Duncan Town in Ragged Island, the only
Ragged
Island with more than one home (there are two other islands with a
single
home on them). So, the routine is to burn anything which WILL burn,
and pack
out those other things for disposal either fully at sea or in the
larger
communities from which nearly all cruisers come to get here.

A week after we arrived, we decamped to Double Breasted Cay, a
favorite spot
from last year. We'd hoped to learn more about fishing (well, hunting,
really), as there were numerous very skilled divers/spearfishers in
the
crowd. Joining two other boats' hunters, I didn't succeed in my foray
in
that area, but we were given three lobster by a prolific diver on a
boat
we'd gotten to know well, and we had our first grilled Bahamian
lobster that
night.

The next day, however, was surely the highlight of the trip. We were
within
dinghy distance, in clement weather, to visit Johnson Cay, home of our
first
sea bean finds last year. Despite it having been very well picked
over by
all the cruisers who'd been down here all winter (there are a hard-
core
group who spend several months in the Raggeds), that day saw us
continually
searching for larger containers and, in the end, carrying out a
full-to-overflowing 5-gallon bucket of heart beans, and nearly 2 dozen
of
the prized hamburger beans.

However, that bonanza was the product of walking the ocean-side beach,
reached by a path laid out by prior cruisers. The anchorage side is a
beautiful beach in its own regard, much longer than the sea-side
beach.
However, being sheltered, there are none of the castaway junk and
treasures
found sea-side. We started walking East, the longer leg of the
beach. As
we reached the end, we heard a very loud cry, repeated several times.

Much to our surprise, out wandered what we assumed was a young goat.
I
squatted down and, sure enough, it came over to inspect us. Unlike
last
year, when we'd seen an extremely skittish mother and a kid near the
"well,"
this kid had no fear of us. Accordingly, we skritched it under the
chin and
behind the ears, and, as it ambled around the area, gave it the full-
body
petting treatment.

Lydia would rather be with animals than people, so this was a special
treat
for her. After the kid wandered off into the brush again, we returned
over
the same ground we'd already searched but, as we've learned from prior
expeditions, not to our surprise, found nearly as many beans as we'd
found
on the way up.

However, the west end of the beach was simply amazing. It's the area
where
the most of the trash accumulates, and where trash can come ashore
(mostly
plastic and a stupendous amount of footwear, mostly sandals, many of
which
are picked up by cruisers and used to mark the trails between the
Atlantic
and interior beaches, all over the Bahamas), there will also be sea
beans.

The area of the pond, or well, where we'd seen the mother and kid last
year
was, as it was then, a mother lode of beans. Despite our having
offloaded
all we'd found at our backpack before coming to the west end, the
smaller
buckets we'd picked up were insufficient to hold all we found.
Wandering
sufficiently produced that bucket which we nearly overflowed before we
left.

I'd also picked up another bucket full of flip-flops and other
sandals, to
further mark the trail back to the anchorage. This walk is relatively
open,
with small flora rather than lots of trees, so the easy way through
wasn't
immediately evident. Our good deed for the day was to populate the
shrubbery along the trail with flipflops :{))

Best of all, however, just before we broke out into the anchorage
beach, we
heard a small bleat very close by. Immediately off the path (arm's
reach),
there was a VERY young kid, with its dried umbilical cord still
attached.
Like its sibling/cousin, this one had no fear of humans and
contentedly
submitted to being picked up and loved on. About the size of a cat,
she fit
easily into the crook of my arm, resting on my forearm while Lydia
nuzzled
and I petted. Set gently back on the sand, it wandered off into the
bush,
bleating softly. In both cases, we were rather surprised to see
nothing of
Mama, but blessed with the experience.

Walking the anchorage shore, completely alone, we improved our overall
tans
we'd been working on all day as we hunted the tiny shells Lydia's
become so
fond of, and soon headed back home to Flying Pig, burdened with masses
of
beans and shells. If you're scratching your head over the attraction
of sea
beans, do a search for that on Google, and you'll have an idea.

The bit about the shells was inspired by yet another cruiser. This
cruiser
makes "Sailor's Valentines" - extraordinarily detailed sea sculpture -
from
these tiny shells. I don't have the means to show you her work, but
you can
most likley find information about that art with a Google for the
topic.

We sailed back to Hog Cay, on yet another great day in the Bahamas, in
order
to pick up an order we'd left with Maxine before we went north. We'd
expected to stay for several weeks, so we stocked up heavily on eggs,
potatoes, veggies and greens. Unfortunately, while they'd been
bought,
NOBODY's (all the other cruisers were, pardon the expression, in the
same
boat) dairy products made it. Maxine's daughter, a Nassau resident,
does
the shopping there before it goes on the mail boat. Unfortunately,
somehow,
all the yogurt, cheese, milk, and any other dairy products, remained
in the
cooler when the boat departed.

More unfortunately, though Maxine offered to send it to wherever we
were, if
we weren't able to come get it the following week, we learned via
another
cruiser, her daughter suffered a stroke early in the week. Maxine
flew to
Nassau to be with her, and, as we were going to take advantage of an
unusal
weather window and departing before the next order could arrive, we
don't
even know if Maxine would have returned by that time. We're keeping
her
daughter, who we met at the party, and Maxine, in our prayers...

We'd come into Duncan Town to get access to the free internet provided
for
the entire area. Last year, we used a pavilion three men had directed
us
to, but the bandwidth wasn't very good there. As there had been a
fund-raising lunch the prior day to which we and our buddy boat's
folks had
not attended, we trekked up to the school to make a donation. Nobody
was
there, and the principal wasn't at home, either, but the available
electrical outlet and VERY good signals from two of the school's
routers
allowed us to complete our internet chores.

Right after that, the principal returned. We'd met him at the party
(just
another instance of the friendliness of the locals), so we recognized
each
other and warm greetings were exchanged. Without our asking, he
assumed that
we'd come to get access to internet. Not knowing we'd already done
our
internet, he opened the school and got out a power strip so we could
plug
in. He gave us the tour after appreciatively receiving our donations,
and
we left. From there we went to Maxine's and picked up our orders
(sans
dairy...) and headed back home to our respective boats.

Immediately after getting our supplies, we set out at 1:40PM on
another
fantastic daysail, this time up to Raccoon Cay. Starting out on a dead
downwind run, under genoa only, to get us out past the shoals off
Margaret
Cay, we soon tacked and headed north on a beam reach. We were soon at
anchor
in the main anchorage of Raccoon.

The following day saw more beach exploration and, very specifically,
scouting for a good place to ground Flying Pig, the better to finish
the
cleaning job so rudely interrupted in George Town. I also did some
research
for diving, but didn't see anything exciting on the lee side. As the
wind
was still up significantly, going around to the Atlantic side wasn't
an
attractive thought, even to the die-hard hunters. However, the
following
day was forecast to be nearly calm, and great preparations were made
for
diving the outside reefs. We'd have to content ourselves with diving
the
reef on the bottom of Flying Pig, the better to ease our passage to
Ft.
Pierce.

Well, it wasn't really a reef, but it was, as the folks on the boat to
which
we repaired that night, along with three other couples, referred to as
hauling a shag rug around with us. Vegetation which, fortunately,
yielded
readily to efforts to remove it, quickly lay on the ground the next
day.
We'd had a perfect tidal window, with low tide very near noon, so,
while I'd
have dearly loved to go dive with the rest of them, this was too
perfect to
pass up. With a low tide at noonish, we could drive the boat aground
at 10,
jump in the water and get to work. Even if it took us 4 hours, we'd
float
off again about 2PM.

As it turned out, it didn't take us all that time. Best yet (aside
from
that the job got completely done), while I was warming after the first
90 or
so minutes in the water, one of the great hunters came aside and
offered us
one very large, and one medium lobster, he having gotten not only a
huge one
but several fish in his hunt. To enhance the experience, he showed us
how
to clean the lobster (cleaning as in gettng the meat to where you
could use
it - how does one "clean" a fish or a lobster which spends its life in
the
water??). The way one does that with Bahamian (no claws) lobsters is
to
basically remove the tail and, if it's big enough, a portion of the
base of
the antennae, and toss the rest overboard.

Earlier, in the water, I'd noticed two large - well, one huge and one
large - sting rays cruising the area around the boat. These are the
same
species as are basically tame at Chat'n'Chill's Conch Salad stand in
George
Town, and I wasn't concerned with them in the least during my time in
the
water. However, they LOVE lobster...

So, right off the stern of Flying Pig, these rays glided over (their
mouths
are under their bodies) the lobster remains, and snacked while I baked
in
the sun. What beautiful creatures these are! I even got to see the 5'
barracuda which was cruising the area when I went back down to finish
off
the remains of the chore. I'm a sucker for underwater fauna, and feel
blessd every time I get to be up close and personal with them, so this
was a
real treat.

Chris Parker was on vacation in George Town, but we got to talk to his
replacement about the potential for a window to depart for Ft. Pierce
the
next morning. Pulling the weather gribs (visual depictions of wind
levels
and other information for a given area and time frame) over our
now-functional HF radio had suggested that the next day might be good
for
departure. That it was earlier than we had expected was of little
moment due
to the unusually good conditions (wind speed and direction in the
given time
frame). We abandoned our thoughts of further enjoying the Raggeds with
all
our new-found friends, accompanied by a couple of boats' worth we'd
met in
George Town, and made ready to leave.

And, on that note, I'll leave you here. Rays, kids, beans, shells,
lobster,
conch (oh, yah, I forgot to tell you about the two conch dinners
aboard a
friend's boat), sunshine, the beaches, the locals - what a treat.
Because
this is coming to you via relay from my son, or delayed if your're not
part
of my log distribution due to my being without internet, while you may
not
see all of our Jumentos (recall, that's really the Ragged Islands)
travels
on tinyurl.com/flyingpigspot, you probably will be able to see the
passage
to Ft. Pierce, if it's interesting to you.

If you missed it by being in a forum when you see this, posted when I
got
back to internet access, you can subscribe to my log by clicking on
the
yahoogroups list in my signature block; you'll get them either in real
time
when I'm in internet range, or very close to it courtesy of my son's
relay...

Until next time, Stay Tuned!

L8R

Skip, under way to Ft. Pierce

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

"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely nothing-
half so
much worth doing as simply messing, messing-about-in-boats; messing
about in
boats-or *with* boats.

In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter,
that's
the charm of it.

Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never
get
anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to
do, and
you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."