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The two days before Dave arrived, I had a frustrating time dealing with my stolen dinghy gas tank and hose. But once that was straightened out, I was feeling pretty good. Daniel the taxi driver met me at the corner under the tree where I was passing time learning to play dominoes, and we went to the airport. Dave's plane was late, but eventually arrived. We got back to the dink after six, and it was blowing like stink. We loaded Dave and his gear into the dink and putted over. The motor worked great with the new tank and hose, but it was a wet ride. I was soaked by the time we got to Malakii and the dink had a fair amount of water in it. We transferred Dave and his gear, raised and drained the dink, made dinner, hung up clothes to dry, and bounced around all night.
We headed out at 07:30 the next morning. Dave had slept well, and not gotten seasick, which had been a worry for me. We had two reefs in the main and the storm jib up. It was blowing pretty good, and we had to tack up the channel to get to open water. We barely got two tacks in when we lost the jib. The halyard shackle had popped open and became an orphan at the masthead.
I grabbed the spare jib halyard, put it on, raised the jib back up, and we continued on. Three or four more tacks, we were still in the channel going south from Moho/Peter's Bluff, and the spare jib shackle popped.
I was starting to get nervous at this point, but we had one more, the spinnaker halyard. I had installed it two years ago, and it had a different kind of shackle. We ran the jib back up on that, and I silently said something about if there are sea gods I hope they are looking after us.
We beat our way out into the bay, and from there we had mostly straight legs to get to Colson Cays, where I wanted to spend the night. We would be well sheltered there, and could enjoy messing around the next day, doing some R & R and fixing a few things like retrieving the halyards. We had force 6 winds most of the way, occasional 5' seas; not really big, but enough to be impressive if you aren't used to them. It was fun sailing; Malakii handled it well, as did Dave, which was cool. At one point he let me know there was a bunch of water pouring into the cockpit. He wasn't jumping up and down, but hey, there was a bunch of water running into the cockpit... It runs in there when we get a lot of water on the windward deck (bad design). But it's ok, it drains out the cockpit drain. Many people not used to sailing would have been pretty nervous, what with the water coming over the bow, the wind and waves, the occasional water in the cockpit, and all the movement of the boat, but Dave didn't have any problems. Yea! I wish I had had the brains to take some pictures. The one time I have some excitement when someone else is on board and I actually can take some pictures, I forget.
When we got to Colson I started the engine, thinking I might want it as a backup. That was my insecurity showing, as it is an easy anchorage to deal with. But I wanted to be in relatively close because of the high winds, and thought I might get myself in a pickle somehow. Anyway, the engine wasn't pumping water, so I had to shut it off and we sailed in and anchored just fine without it. I still get nervous when I want to sneak in slowly, as a sailboat sailing has no real brake. You can luff up, but you still have to wait for the boat to stop of her own accord; and then it's not always easy to get going again. Anyway, that's my insecurity, lack of confidence, whatever, showing. It was fortunate that I tried to start the engine, since I now knew I had a problem with the raw water system.
I dove the anchor to make sure it was well set, as it's a grass bottom. Then we straightened up the boat, put out a clothes line, and made dinner. The wind was howling pretty good, but we seemed to be in a good spot -- no big waves, no current to fight, and Malakii wasn't bucking like a pony on a short tether.
Oh, yeah... somewhere in there, one of the temples on my new glasses broke. Fortunately, I keep a spare pair of glasses on the boat.
I had been confused a few nights before about a star I was shooting with the sextant, so I took some more sights and figured out that the one causing me trouble was actually Mars. Aaaaaaaaaa....
The next day we did a few odd jobs on the boat, then took the dink and went exploring and snorkling. It wasn't great but Dave got a chance to get wet and see a few things. We took the dink into the lagoon in the southern cay and discovered the past few hurricanes had cut it in two, so the lagoon now has a (too shallow) bar on the windward side, and there are actually three cays now instead of two.
We saw gazillions of fish in there, and Pelicans hunting them.
In the afternoon we diagnosed and replaced the raw water pump impeller. I don't know why that thing goes out as often as it does, but it is definitely a pain in the neck. It seems to last about 50 hours, which is ridiculous. The old one was synthetic, and I had to take the pump off to get it out. The flat on the shaft was only half way mated with the flat on the impeller.
About 16:00 we went out snorkling again and saw a grouper and a lobster. Lobster were out of season, unfortunately.
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| Dave driving the dink at Colson |
The next day we headed to Southwater Cay. The wind was calming down a bit, and we had a good ride down, making good time with the #2 jib back up.
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| Dave at the helm |
We were there by noon, so we took the dink out and went snorkling at the cut in the reef. It's to the right in the second photo below.
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| Southwater Cay | Local fishing boat at Southwater |
Dave had a disposable underwater camera with him, so we got some photos there. I'll try to post some if he'll send them to me to scan. There were some nice coral heads inside on the point, with a great variety of fish. I saw a ray and a big barracuda, four or five grouper and some nice hogfish, plus all the regulars. I loved seeing the small schools of grunts and schoolmasters gathered on the leading edges of coral heads.
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| Carrie Bow Cay | Tobacco Cay |
We had a liesurely morning the next day. I made cinnamon rolls. I don't have an oven, but I'm learning to bake in the pressure cooker on the stove. I don't have a rolling pin either, but the back of my hand seems to work ok and it's one less thing to find a place for. Dave squeezed the O.J., and we went snorkling again.
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| Rolling cinnamon roll dough | Cinnamon and raisins and honey | Cutting them up |
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| Squeezing OJ | Breakfast |
When I dove to check the anchor when we first arrived, I found a conch with a crab in it, so I brought it back. We tried everything to entice her to leave the shell, but to no avail. We left her in a bucket of water, then tried lowering the shell overboard until it was a few inches off the bottom. Finally we just left the shell in the cockpit overnight, hoping she would crawl out. Unfortunately, the next morning she was dead, having crawled part way out. We discovered at least one reason why she was reluctant to leave -- she had kids. We found two little crabs further up the shell. I felt bad.
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| Momma crab in her conch shell | Baby crabs |
This time I lucked out and got just the right amount cut off the end of the shell. It's easy to blow, fits well in the hand, and it sounds great, and carries pretty far. It's a little large to hang around your neck for ready access, but hey, you can't have everything.
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| Finished conch horn |
I had two new shackles with me, and decided it was time to replace the jib halyard shackles that had caused us all the grief on our way out. But we discovered we couldn't do it unless we had a nicropress tool, as the wire halyard ends have a thimble on them secured with a nicropress sleeve, and the old shackle has a closed eye captured by the thimble. So that project will have to wait until I'm back on the Rio or anchored somewhere with a friend with a nicropress tool.
After our liesurely morning snorkling and doing odd repairs, we headed back north, a short hop to Tobacco Cay. Then we dug out the watermelon and made strawberry daiquiries and took it easy. Dave has way more discipline than I. Way more. He packs two cookies for lunch. I always eat one -- one stack, one column, one package.
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| Dave on deck | Watermelon time! |
Then we worked up to Columbus Cay and anchored on the west side. I went up the mast to check out a few things and take some photos of the reef on the other side of the cay. Look at how clear the water is under the boat! Those two things behind Dave on the deck are the conch horns. I need to figure out a good place to keep one; a place where it won't get busted, where I won't stub my toes on it, and where it's handy. I thought about wearing it around my neck but didn't think it would be too good for my posture...
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| Going up the mast | Looking down on Dave |
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| poor Columbus Cay panorama |
The next day we sailed up just inside the barrier reef to Bluefield Range. I was hoping we'd be accompanied by dolphins somewhere along the way, but no such luck. We stopped for lunch just east of Colson Cays by some big underwater mounds covered with coral and did some more snorkeling. We saw a good sized barracuda, some grouper and hogfish, a trumpet fish, and I can't remember what else. I forgot to take my camera with me when we took the dink over to go snorkeling, so I don't have any pictures. Pooey.
I've been sailing Malakii pretty hard the past few years, and it is starting to show in the sails, particularly the mainsail in the batten pockets. We took some time out at Bluefield and Dave helped me sew some patches on the ends of the pockets where they were pretty worn.
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| Sail repair |
The next day we sailed back to Belize City, and were able to get into Cucumber Beach marina. The next day I gave Dave a big hug and dropped him off at the airport.
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| Dave at helm |
After dropping off Dave, I did a whirlwind shopping trip to resupply with fruits and veggies; By 10:30 I was headed north.
