Back on the blue.

We got the use of a boat today, and we immediately took the first opportunity to get out on the water. And in the water. And under it. It's been over a week. Withdrawal was setting in. It was getting serious. We did have to find a ride over to Pine Cay to get the boat.

We caught a ride on one of the Pine Cay Meridian Club's new Parkers.



They tie up at Sherlock's Marina now, as well. It's becoming a popular place.

Now that we are spending more time in the Leeward area again we are seeing people we havent seen for weeks in some cases, months in others. This is how it used to be when we would spend a few hours every few days at the marina. Working on the boat, or just grabbing lunch. It became a small social center for us, without us realizing it. We first met many of the people we now consider friends at the marina. We fell out of touch with some when we changed marinas. It's nice to be back on this end of the island.

Since we were bumming a ride on a freight run, we got to hang around the new marina for a couple hours waiting for deliveries. We ran into our old friend Duran, last seen (in this blog) drinking vino at the Gilleys goodbye party, newly unemployed. Well, Duran has a new job with Walkin Marina, which coincides quite nicely with losing his job when they demolished Leeward Marina. He's a pretty happy guy.



I didn't know what to caption this. I thought "Passports and Immigration Cards, Please!" And then I thought, "and HOW big was this snapper?" and even considered writing that we yelled, "Police!" and this is the way he turned around slowly..

I think the truth is that he was coming over to pet the dog. They're long time buddies.

We got caught up with Trish, of Catch the Wave Charters, while she was washing down one of their World Cats.



She says she's caught three decent wahoo in the last few days. Gave us some hints on what's working. Of course we can't wait to go fishing again.

Trish also told us that Ed is selling this World Cat, because they've got a new boat on the way. Anyone was a very well equipped fishing/diving catamaran located in the TCI?



We picked up the Boston Whaler Dauntless 180 at Pine Cay. Gave it a pretty good checkout, it's been sitting on a trailer for six months and it was a good time to launch it and check that everything is functioning. Make sure the gasoline hasn't turned to varnish in the injectors, make sure rats haven't chewed the insulation off the wiring. T'ings lak dat.

So, now we have a boat to use while ours is in the hospital. It fits our slip at Sherlock's a lot better than our own boat does. Being four foot shorter might have something to do with it. But hey, we ain't complaining! Nossir. I didn't realize how much we count on our boat. Even when we havent't used it for a while, it's a comfort to know it's there, ready to go. There's always that feeling of freedom just around the corner. We might be on a small island, but a boat opens up the horizons. We could take that boat to the Bahamas. We could take that boat to Haiti, or the Dominican Republic. We have enough range to make Cuba. We could island hop our way all the way to Florida.



Boats cure Island Fever. Or maybe it's the other way around, and they cause it.