Thursday, July 22, 2010

Mid Summertime

Yes we do realize that it's the second half of July and that we have sadly done absolutely nothing noteworthy in almost a month. Well, not noteworthy in terms of posting photos of new and exciting things. But since several people have pointed out that we are overdue for another update we will just soldier along here with the photos we do have. La Gringa continues to keep her eye out for colorful sunrises to photograph:



We managed to get in a much-needed trip up North to the USA for the first half of July. From our perspective, the July 4th celebrations down here in the British West Indies are a bit more subdued than they are in someplace like Texas where fireworks and ammunition are available to the general flag-waving citizenry. While the small American groups here in the TCI do quietly celebrate the US Independence Day, this year we opted for the full blown Texas approach. I think we had a great time. Reports are still filtering in.

Then after we visited most of the Texas family, we shopped til we maxed out our duty free allowance on goodies to bring home. I tripled my own wardrobe for about $ 150. (That's a good thing about living in the tropics: shorts, flip-flops, and t-shirts are cheap) I bought yet another underwater camera setup to bring back along with a small spotting scope for long distance shots. We are trying to find ways to get more interesting photos for the blog, of course. Then we flew back to the TCI all fired up to hop on the boat and go take some new photos... and ever since we got back the weather has been very windy and the ocean has become very lumpy.





Erosion from passing tropical downpours has turned the road we live on into a scale model of the Grand Canyon. So while wondering if we dared put the boat in the water knowing we cannot push it back up the driveway again, we just got hit with our first Tropical Depression yesterday. And this morning I see that it has now become Tropical Storm Bonnie.

Those of you who have read our blog posts from September 2008 will understand why we are a little shy of having the boat in the water when tropical storms are going by. One of them turned into Hurricane Hanna while we were not watching and whose storm surge stranded us for four days without power or communications. It also smashed our favorite boat. We survived all of that okay but we've been real leery of "tropical storms" since then. We know firsthand how quickly they can turn mean.

But all excuses aside, we do have some newer tropical photos if you don't mind some of the same old subject matter.

In late June we decided to pack up the dog and cooler and kayak over to find some cool place to have another picnic. We started this trip at Heaving Down Rock as we do so many of them. Our boat was launched and I was just about to park the truck out of the way when I stopped to take a photo of one of the crew of a local tugboat. He was taking advantage of the falling tide to paint the hull of his beached landing craft.



But notice in the photo the blue "conch boat' that is full of water with the gas can floating around the deck. This is one of the boats that was made with a fiberglass mold taken from a Boston Whaler hull. They are very, very common here. I suspect this one got tied up over a steeply sloped bottom and got swamped by waves and boat wakes as the falling tide left it sitting at a steep angle. Or not. Could be a hole in it. Or someone left out a plug. See what this tropical life has done to me? I could stare at this boat for half an hour and speculate about what happened. Maybe talk about it with other observers all afternoon.

But in this case, the owner drove up while we were still there and he got quite excited. He tried to bail the boat out with a coffee can but the waves were coming back in and filling it up faster than he could bail. We stuck around to see what happened.

First he got two guys from a tugboat to help him pull on the bow line. The boat didn't move. I would guess the total weight with motor and several hundred gallons of water would be around two tons. Don't let the looks fool you, this is no real Boston Whaler. They are unsinkable. This one is obviously not. So, anyhow, we had this truck and volunteered to help.

He tied his heaviest line from the boat to the rear of the Defender:



We only wanted to pull it high enough so that he could bail it out, without pulling the bow out if it. Of course that little 4x4 in low gear could have pulled up a telephone pole if it could get traction.



We left the 'FauxTauk' captain happily bailing away and headed out through Leeward channel until we cleared Little Water Cay where we turned right to find a picnic spot. It was a nice day to be on the water, and a lot of people were out boating. This is a group making a rendezvous offshore to throw a beach party involving all these boats..... and more:



We inadvertently got into a near collision with the Wharram design catamaran when they decided to dash from the rendezvous spot to the beach. Which was basically directly on the other side of where we were at the time. We were not sure that they saw us directly ahead of them, as they made no signs of seeing us and did not alter their course to keep from running down the little inflatable kayak. In the sudden sharp moves we made to avoid being run over, our mast sprung loose from the boat and both it and the sail landed in the water. It was an exciting few minutes. The good people in the yellow sportfishing boat saw the whole thing and came over to make sure we were okay.

After re-rigging the mast and sail, we decided to grab the first spot that looked good, preferably with some shade and no neighbors.

Fortunately for us, around here that kind of spot is relatively easy to find. This place is a beach lover's dream.



The nearest other beach visitors are about a mile in that direction:



Dooley the Dangerous is always up for some fresh beach exploring. Look at all that clean sand that needs to be investigated.



And the little limestone cliffs are full of potential hiding places and ledges:



And we found a nice little spot out of the sun to set up for a little lunch.




No picnic table or iguanas on this beach, but all in all, not a bad little spot:



Nothing in this direction, either:



The little seaside cliffs here are full of small caves. We know several species of birds, such as the Tropic Birds, nest in these caves in the spring time.



Of course this guy feels like he has to personally inspect every one of them:



And he carefully inspects the higher ledges that he can't easily reach from ground level:



I'm not sure what he would do if he spotted something worth chasing. And I'm not sure I want to know.

After storms this area is ripe for beach combing. On this day the beach was pretty clean. We did find a piece of seemingly ancient rudder post jammed hard into a crevice. This has a solid iron post surrounded by what I believe was a wooden rudder.



After lunch we went for a swim. Dooley the Desultory was left on the shore watching us swim away...



But not for long.....



Of course he loves to swim. He has turned into an excellent dog to have in a place like this. (Don't tell him I told you that, he'll never let me forget it.) He could swim for hours:





Before we left to head home I spotted an Osprey sitting on a rock down the beach a short distance. It's in this photo although you probably won't be able to see it yet.



I am just sticking these photos in mainly because they are nicely blue and I thought people in places without clear water might like to see that. I continued to ease my way up along the beach closer to the sea eagle Osprey. Maybe you can see it in this photo. It's sitting on top of the flat ledge exactly in the middle of the photo:



At this point I was really moving along quite slowly, keeping behind rocks where I could, making no sudden moves....freeze for a few minutes...then creep up a foot or two. Just hoping to get a photo of it from a few yards away..



And then this thundering set of little feet came barrelling by me on the left, headed straight for where the bird was sitting, and totally ruined all my careful sneaking. I managed to snap this photo right as the dog blasted blithely by and before the Osprey took off.



I was curious as to whether or not I would get some award winning photo of an Osprey flying away with a Jack Russell Terrieriest clutched in its talons and trying to climb its leg.. But no. They only eat fish and show very little interest in being in close proximity to obnoxious little yapping dogs. Obviously intelligent birds. Next time I'll smear the little booger with tuna and see what happens.

Well after Dooley the Delinquent ruined my Osprey photo, we packed up and headed back to Leeward.

We do look for photo ops, still, when we are out. For example we cruised by Children's Park down on the edge of Grace Bay and when we first came over the wooden boardwalk we thought we had a disaster on our hands..



But as it turns out this was the Provo Sailing Club teaching young sailors how to right an overturned Hobie catamaran. Did manage to pick up some of the different colors of the ocean around here, but that's not all of them. There is a gin clear color that looks like no water at all, and an iridescent blue in Chalk Sound. The water over the reef is different again yet, and it's out where the line of breakers are in that photo. It was a good test photo for the new Olympus Tough 8010 camera, too.

Some shoes maker it further than others...




But only the newest of seasonal arrivals wears them on the beach for long.

And Dooley the Delighted was glad to have someone to chase HIM for a change.



The new Children's Park is very nice. They even have a shower just the exact right height for someone of Dooley's stature. He acts like he hates it, but he doesn't fight too hard to get away:



We have been experimenting with a spotting scope and digital camera setup. The optics are okay, but the camera is noisy. I guess it gives some photos like this a different quality, if that's the right word for crummy photo..



That makes me think of the kind of scene the sailors up standing lookout on Sapodilla Hill would have waited weeks to see. They had plenty of time to carve rocks.

By the best of my SWAG ability (Scientific Wild Ass-uming Guess?) I figure that boat to be about 6.2 miles away. I know where it left from, where it was going and the bearing to it when I took the photo. Can you imagine what a naval encounter on the high seas must have been like when boats this size were maneuvering at the speed of a brisk walk, could see each other miles away, and were each trying to get within cannon range without getting blasted? Or what it must have been like sailing on dark nights, neither knowing where the other one would be, exactly, at first light...

Anyone who reads much of this blog will know that we are very much into boats. We like them. Old, new, big, small, power and sail. And where we have built our home gives us a great view of the approaches to the marinas on this side of the island. Almost every day we get to see something new out on the water. A few weeks back we were treated to the sight of this beauty at the fuel dock of the nearby Caicos Marina and Boatyard:



This 130 ft. beauty dwarfed all the other boats in the marina, and underlined how small the scale is here. I am sure this boat would blend in just fine in Ft. Lauderdale or Nassau, but here on Provo they needed a pilot boat to lead them out to water deep enough to navigate safely:



We love being able to watch this stuff from the patio, and listen to it all over the VHF radio. La Gringa gave this captain a call and complimented them on the beautiful boat. It was nice to talk to them and to see a dream like this.

The fantastic water of the TCI makes just about any boat photo look like something from a sales brochure, doesn't it?:



Okay, now for a very brief DIY section. (This is also part of living on a tropical island. I would be remiss if I represented it all as one long Corona beer commercial) Not long after we got home from our USA trip we once again heard a hissing noise coming from under the bonnet of the Defender 110. La Gringa had heard it before but it stopped before we could identify the origin. This time we found it.

The arrow on the left is where the upper coolant hose of the D-110 rubs slightly on a metal bracket used to hold a heater hose off of a spinning pulley.



I removed that hose and lo and behold, a hole has been rubbed into it by the corner of that bracket.



I checked the other hoses, and found that the pulley itself rubs on the underside of that heater hose where the arrow on the right is pointed. I checked the other Defender, and the smaller hose is almost worn through. So, I need one of those, too.

I headed on down to NAPA, which is the best source for auto parts in this little nation. And ran into a problem. NAPA doesn't stock parts for THIS model Land Rover. Does not even cross reference it. Oh, they carry parts for the LRs sold in the USA but not the trusty old classic model. Well, I was in a kind of McGyver mode and asked the guy if he had any hoses that looked close. He got into the spirit of the thing and disappeared back into their warehouse area. I shopped around for a while, pinching my fingers in the Vise Grips (Mole grips in the UK), reading the fine print on the road flares... and then he came back with the closest hoses he could find to the ones I need to replace.



I will have to see if I can cut suitable pieces out of these two if I want the hoses any time soon. And by any time soon, I mean within the next month. The big one has to be replaced immediately. I have a few days to fix the smaller one. As I was picking up my 'close-enough' radiator and heater hoses I asked the man at NAPA what vehicles they were intended for. He told me that he thought they were for a Ford and a Nissan. Well, maybe so. But they are destined to be part of a Land Rover now.

We have found that we do not take quite the same laissez-faire attitude that we had before the hurricanes. Oh we don't freak out and lay in 200 cases of D-cell batteries and truck loads of military ration MRE's or anything like that. But we do pay attention to the vehicles running well, that we have fuel for the generator, some canned goods - things like that. The boat is strapped down to chains I buried in the ground.



I mean, one aspect of living on a small island is that you realize after a couple of these storms that you really don't have many places to run to. And that there is really no one outside your circle of nearby friends that you can call on for help. And by nearby, I mean within walking distance.

As we were driving home late yesterday afternoon we noticed that the tidal water of the salina is lapping up over the edge of the road, much higher than usual.



We knew we were still over an hour from high tide, and that this tropical storm would be blowing by us. But it still brought back memories of how Tropical Storm Hanna's change to hurricane status started the same way, with the water rising over the road.

A 'silver lining' aspect to tropical storms is that the cisterns are filled to maximum capacity.



Now we should have a few days of reasonably good weather, and hopefully can get out and enjoy the ocean for a change.

I mentioned earlier that we recently went up to the USA for a visit. We were not anywhere near the ocean and in fact were several hundred miles inland near Austin. I would guess the nearest salt water was probably underground. (That might not make much sense to people who didn't grow up around the 'oil patch', I suppose) But even there, in the middle of the Lone Star State, driving along enjoying the rural countryside... we were never far from thoughts of shallow draft, trailerable, coastal cruising catamarans. You know, a boat that we could use to explore inside the reefs and something the three of us could sleep on for a few days here and there. We even found one for sale:



Hey, I told ya we like boats.

But alas, the rental car did not have a trailer hitch. It's a little bit too far to sail this home, and I am sure American Airlines would have a problem with it as checked baggage. We will have to just keep looking.

Okay, I am about out of fresh photos for now, unless I upload all the Texas pictures. Now that we are back we plan to start using our new underwater camera setup and the spotting scope/camera combination to see if we cannot continue to find tropical images for your internet enjoyment. We hope.

This blog is meant to be about life in a small tropical island nation. It is not meant to be about our other travels or our families, so I try to refrain from getting too far away from the tropical topic too often. But I am going to make one more brief exception just to illustrate another aspect of this life: the commonplace things we do without. One of the many things we have traded for our life here is the variety of things that just do not exist within easy reach in a place like the TCI. Now, we easily learned to do without McDonalds, Wendy's, Burger King and the like. But I confess I do miss easy access to some of the food that one takes for granted in Texas. And good barbeque and Tex-Mex cooking are two of our favorite foods. And you cannot just easily get either one here. We looked into importing beef brisket to make our own barbeque, but it's just too much trouble. A three week wait for the brisket, for starters. And once you order it, you own it whether you like what gets shipped, or not. And while there are some mexican "style" items on a few menus around Providenciales, it's not Tex-Mex. I have nothing against the big Mexican food chains, and love their food when we are in the US, but those are not Tex-Mex either. Real Tex-Mex is more family style cooking. It does not involve a lot of lettuce, sour cream, or black olives, although that style of Mexican cooking is great, too. No, you have to find Tex-Mex where it lives, and these smiles from La Gringa and one of her stepsons should verify that we did indeed find something authentic in Marquez, Texas, just a few miles from my family's homestead.



In the meantime, back at our little island hilltop home we notice that the sun is rising and setting a little bit further to the south every day now. Amazing how much attention one pays to the weather living exposed like this. A few more months of Hurricane Season and we will be able to relax again.

27 comments:

literacylady said...

Loved the pictures of the limestone cliffs...made me totally nostalgic for Pine Cay! The photos are terrific and the movie of Dooley swimming underwater was too cool. Did you use the Olympus Tough 8010 for that one? It looks as if it is a pretty indestructible camera. I checked it out on the Olympus website and am lusting for it now. Did you buy the floating strap?

Anonymous said...

Rumor has it the monster boat in the background of the Children's Park pics was that of Sir Paul McCartney. If you saw that boat, you had to marvel at it's size. 4 rows of lights on the back at night. Huge.

Anonymous said...

Hi JH!
Thanks for the comment. Those photos were taken with the Pentax Optio W-80. I bought it after getting totally bummed about going through an Olympus SW a year. First the SW 700 series, then the SW 1030 I think it was. Both of them leaked, and leaked shallow. Less than ten ft. I could see the problems with the Olympus Stylus. I thought that they needed to consolidate their openings to one waterproof hatch instead of two, and to make it a more rugged hatch. They also had some issues with taking photos in max zoom mode, I never got a single good telephoto image from either Stylus. So I was sworn off Olympus...until I saw the new Tough 8010. It is a lot more rugged. They put the battery, memory chip, and USB ports all under one hatch, and it has a much more solid latch and a gland-seal 0-ring in addition to the rubber gasket face seal( you can probably tell my background is in underwater electronics). They missed an opportunity to make that hatch even better by putting two more dogs on it, but it's still miles better than the previous Stylus setups.

Olympus also improved the operation of the camera. It has a lot of new features, and so far is takin great shots. I have not used any of them in the blog yet. We are planning going out today to try it out in underwater mode. The weather has been really stormy.

Oh, one other thing, you asked about the floating strap. I did not buy it. Due to what happened to both my other "waterproof" Olympus cameras (R.I.P.) I bought the Olympus PT-048 underwater housing for this one. I am figuring that a waterproof camera inside another waterproof case ( good to 130 ft.) SHOULD do the trick this time. If the housing leaks, I still have a waterproof Olympus inside. And it shouldn't leak.


I think the Brits call this approach "belts and braces" or something similar. I feel doubly covered on the waterproof aspect.

The new camera also has a 'one button' movie mode, and some other cool goodies.

RumShopRyan said...

Great photos Gringos! The shots on the secluded beach with the cliff were magical.

Great work as always. Cheers!

Didier said...

Always a pleasure to find a new post on the blog... And a special award for Dooley the Diver...

Amitiés de France.

Anonymous said...

How large are your cisterns? Any idea what your "average" daily consumption is? I would imagine you don't have nearly as large a clothes washer load with shorts and tee shirts and no lost socks.

Ken (ergy) said...

We are pleased to see the sun setting further to the south every day in this part of the world.
As usual worth the wait.

Anonymous said...

Hi again! It's always a real treat to read the latest escapades, and to have a movie of Dooly the Indestructible is an added bonus! I too bought a Pentax Optio the same model as yours for when we ventured overseas to the Solomon Islands on a fishing jaunt. For some reason the darn thing leaked from the first use and it also tended to "steam up" all the time rendering a lot of my underwater shots pretty misty and useless. I did get a replacement from the place I bought it...no probs. Just haven't used it since and I would be really interested to know how your's is performing. The max zoom also tended to be pretty dissapointing in the quality of the image when viewed later on. How do you like your's?
Lovely water shots ...as usual...I think the colour is just so beautiful. My 84 year father is now a fan of your weblog after I told him about it. He said "What an interesting read this is!" ..and I have to agree. Keep up the good work, and I hope the hurricane season is a fizzer this year...meaning in Aussie slang...it doesn't happen!
Cheers from Jan O in Western Australia

Anonymous said...

Comments! Great! It is SO nice to get some feedback.

First, there are two cisterns totally about 18,000 gallons It was designed to be 20,000 gallons, but the builder screwed up. We have a bigger pump room as a result.
We had calculated cistern capacity based upon an average daily use total of 170 gallons a day. In actuality we don't seem to average that much. There were three of us living here when we were planning the house, and I was using water bills from the condo where we were living.

As far as the Optio, I like it. I have only had it maybe a couple feet underwater, though. Because of my experience with the two previous Olympus Styuls cameras, I consider the 'waterproof' term to really mean just 'splashproof'. So far I am really impressed with this third generation Olympus, though.

I am glad your father likes the blog. I sure liked Western Australia back when I was working out of Dampier and Karratha years ago. Spent time in Perth and Freemantle, too.

Bill said...

Great photos of the beach picnic! Always a pleasure to read your blog.

Anonymous said...

Ya know, a tuna-flavored terrierist just might get that osprey's attention. Let us know...

Great read, and beautiful pics, again. I'm sure I can speak for all of your readers when I say "thank you, and please keep 'em comin'."

gw

Ashworth said...

Hey guys, how are you doing? Miss the old regularity of your blog. But understand the life on Provo. We've been sailing 2 to 3 days a week up here in New Jersey. Can't wait to get back to Provo for a little fun and possibly meet you. Hoping to visit later this fall. You and La Gringa have a fine hurricane season and keep up the great blog. PS: Your input on the cistern design has been added into my design with a little more. Great ideas! Jim from New Jersey
www.ashworthsailing.com

Joy said...

Yeah, these pictures are wonderful. The water......never get tired of looking at it (okay, pictures of it), and it never fails to stun me anew with how beautiful it is.



Read back on the Hannah post you referenced here... man, those pictures of the ocean are downright scary! Hoping for a very calm season for you guys...

Something else, it looks like with some of the ads like you guys are hoping to make a few $ off of the blog, if possible (as well you should). Well, you might consider making a Facebook page for it... super-easy, people can "like" your blog, get the word out a bit more if you want to increase traffic.

I've already posted on my FB wall about your blog, just to share it with friends since I enjoy it so much. Think I'll do that again tonight.

Our next TCI trip (2nd) is starting to shape up. Looks like Spring 2011. Not soon enough, but at least we're getting closer to nailing down a date. We did the Sands Resort last time, but are considering Villa del Mar, just a bit off Grace Bay.

Anywho, thanks again for sharing with us.

Oh, by the way, never feel about about writing OT stuff like your trip to the States. Since we moved from OK to PA, we *really* miss the Tex-Mex. Oh well, it gives us something else to look forward to when we go back to visit. : )

Unknown said...

Warning. . .political question ahead!

". . .like Texas where fireworks and ammunition are available to the general flag-waving citizenry."

I know you've talked in previous posts about how laid back TCI is. I assume firearm ownership is strictly taboo down there, but outside of that, how does the political climate compare to Texas, which along with my home state of Oklahoma, is one of the reddest states in the Union? Is it "do what you want, when you want, and mind your own business" or more "Big Brother is watching?"

We're in the dog days of summer up here, so it's always nice to see y'all (and Dooley the Drenched) kicked back enjoying life.

Anonymous said...

Gringo, thanks for linking to your blog from your Multihulls4us post, lovely pics that bring back the amazing colors of the T&C to us... given that it will be many months before we have the chance to see them again for ourselves! :-)

Wasn't surprised that the megayacht needed a pilot to get out... we anchored off the S coast near customs and the megayachts could drop the hook there without guidance, but the north side is a whole 'nuther beast (but pretty and so close to everything!). Love your view! You should just line up a series of cruisers - or visitors from the States - to bring you the things you need, if you could plan the needs that far ahead :-) When we were there (on our boat), we had two sets of visitors from the States, everyone loved it. Probably as you say, "it's the water!"

~Catamariner

Shereen said...

Found your blog on Multihulls4us and have to say what amazing pictures of the beach and cliffs ....not to mention the beautiful colour of the ocean. Truly idyllic!!! Love the pic of Dooley swimming ....lucky dog!

Anonymous said...

wow, thanks for all the great comments. Sorry for the delay in responding, we have been up in the USA (again) for the past week, this time in Colorado and Wyoming.

There ARE gun permits in the TCI. We know people with guns, and by that I mean legally. We are not citizens of the TCI so we never bothered to look into the requirements.

With no land animals to hunt, and most islands only a mile or so wide, it's not the best place for recreational firearms. I think fishing meets the primal need to hunt and gather meat.

And it's definitely not a "Big Brother" type of society. Nothing like the USA, with video cameras on every traffic signal ( the TCI doesn't have a traffic signal. Nor does it own a breathalyzer.) It is a totally different environment than what we were accustomed to in the USA, which has the highest per-capita number of law enforcement officers in the world along with the greatest percentage of it's population behind bars.

The TCI has all the laws that any modern nation would have on the books. But our experience and observation has been that unless one is actively creating a problem that needs attention, one need not worry too much about the authorities intruding into your life or activities. It is definitely a "live and let live" attitude, across the board. Very easy to adapt to. The real key is to not be a jerk, isn't it.

The megayacht came back through last week, and didn't need the pilot boat. I suspect he laid down a GPS track the first time. We also saw boatyard folk dredging out the 'channel's' shallow spots. I got some photos with the new 45x spotting scope and will post them here.

Anonymous said...

That Mr. Dooley must sleep really well at night. Love ur blog, thanks for writing it.

Chris G.

Anonymous said...

Spent a rainy Sunday last month reading your blog from start to finish and loved it. As we are long-time Caribbean dreamers, living vicariously through your posts is a blast. I must admit I would not have the cojones to tear down a Yammie and try to fix it myself, though. I won't even mess with my carburetor-ed Johnson 200 for fear of killing it somehow. We'll be visiting TCI for the first time in April (wife and boys 13 & 15) and seeing pics of some of your favorite spots has my mind working overtime. Thanks for letting us all tag along on your adventure!!

thepiratedoc in NC

Anonymous said...

Oh, I had no wishes whatsoever to become this familiar with the insides of a Yammie HPDI. I had no real options. The local Yamaha guys wouldn't touch it, and of course shipping six hundred pounds of outboard back to the USA for service was pretty much out of the question. Hire a towtruck to get it from here to South Dock? Build a crate? The paperwork would have added another hundred pounds to that deal. So, I had to educate myself, and fix it. This is a common thread here.

We just returned from another week in the USA. This time, Boulder, Ft. Collins, Laramie, Centennial...a bunch of fun places in the Rockies. But we are back home now...smack dab in the middle of the hurricane belt and inside the triangle.

Our friend Preacher just told me he will run us out to an old sunken airplane wreck on the Caicos Bank that is loaded with the new invasive Lionfish species. So we might have some good underwater photos in the next week to post.

Please, keep those cards and letters rolling in! We love hearing from people.

Joy said...

Oh boy, be careful of those lyonfish! That should be very interesting. Can't wait to read about it and see the pics.

Anonymous said...

It's looking good to go check this out this coming weekend. Nice calm weather forecast, despite the tropical waves and depressions that keep going by us right and left.
Preacher says this airplane crashed and sank back when he was a boy, so we don't expect much to be left after 50 years. But it should be a good fish habitat. Anemones, that kind of thing. We just need a few calm days beforehand for the water to clear up.

We also returned from the USA into a world of DIY here, so I should be able to put together a post that is NOT about kayaking for a change.

La Gringa said...

Ahem, I like the kayaking posts! ;-)

Dooley said...

Arf!
Arf Arf, Arf-Arf-Arf-Arf!!!!!!


Arf arf.

La Gringa said...

That makes it 2-1. The kayak stays!

Anonymous said...

roflmao

Y'all're just plain great!

Kayak or no, I'm anxious for the lion-fish pics.


gw

Anonymous said...

Keep on blogging! We look forward to your next post. The randomness of it is great. We enjoy each of your posts as an adventure. The DIY stuff is part of the details of the adventure and wouldn’t be the same if you left it out. Dooley the Wonder Dog, wonder where he will show up next…..is great. For us mainlanders the scenery and sunsets do not get old….We have been viewing your blog with envy for a few years. Also enjoy the other stuff we like links at the bottom of the page. If you are looking for things to add to the blog….additional info about your recreational gear and boats would be awesome….but just keep doing what you are doing……letting us live the adventure through your blog……Thanks.