Back to Chalk Sound

We woke up to a fresh tropical mango colored dawn last Saturday. It could be called a papaya colored dawn too, I suppose. I'm not too good with some colors, but I definitely know a mango when I see one. And since our sister-in-law recently brought us a nifty new mango coring tool, we've been going through a few of them. Just shy of a number that would make the rain forest activists nervous.

The sky was clear, the wind was brisk and we decided the time had come to take the new kayak for a sail around Chalk Sound to do some more exploring.



The wind is usually calmest at dawn, with 'calmest' being a relative term. We'd been saving Chalk Sound for a day when the forecast was for more wind than we like on the open ocean. We've had the Hobie Tandem Island out in 22 kts of wind and it's a bit exhilarating to be zipping along at 10 knots with your hip pockets at sea level. Especially when the sea thinks your eyes should be at sea level. We like exhilarating, usually. But it helps to be in the mood for exhilarating. Unplanned exhilaration can be daunting. We like daunting, usually.... well... I need to get off this and on to the subject at hand. Sailing Chalk Sound in a kayak.

Chalk Sound is a shallow, protected and completely enclosed little bay on the south side of Providenciales. It's under the approach for the Provo airport and the planes coming in on short final are directly overhead. It's a great spot for small boats like sailboats and kayaks. There is very little power boat traffic and because of all the little islets and rocks, there is always a place to duck out of the wind and weather.

We had been at the Las Brisas restaurant on the shore of Chalk Sound for dinner the night before and that's when we decided to make our second kayak excursion. If you're ever on Provo looking for a good, out-of-the-mainstream restaurant and have transportation (important) we would highly recommend Las Brisas.

And for the cruisers who anchor in Sapodilla Bay, La Brisas is just a short walk from the beach you are looking at. Do it. You won't be sorry.

The water here in Chalk Sound is the most amazing shade of turquoise when the sun is high overhead. We were hoping for some startlingly good pictures. (Aren't we always? )Well, we didn't get them. We had a series of squalls blow through. Made for great sailing but not so good photography. But we did manage to get enough for a blog post.

Dooley the Diligent assumed his rightful position as master of the ship, waterways and life on this planet in general. And any particular place he happens to be specifically. Striking out for new lands, in unmarked waters teeming with treacherous shoals, uncharted islands,



and as we found out over two years ago when we last kayaked here, even some aircraft wreckage.

Dooley the Disturbed was really interested in that broken rock as we went downwind of it. Since this was primarily a 'checking things out' sort of cruise anyhow, we decided to sail over and take a look. Might have a stranded cat or something interesting. You probably wouldn't believe some of the stories we have heard of things that wash ashore on little islands. (We're planning a future blog post on a place we know as "Trash Beach". It's going to be a fun blog to do.)

Now back to last Saturday, we were in an enclosed sound. We managed to zig zag our way all the way across and back this time. The new Hobie Tandem Island sails circles around the inflatable.



To be fair, though, the Mirage inflatable kayak is probably easier to maneuver around and might be faster under pedal power alone. The Tandem Island shines under sail. The inflatable has its other good points, but sailing is marginal.

We ran by the rock Dooley the Disappointed was so interested in. We suspected it was some odor he found interesting. It may have even been that Little Blue Heron standing there just to the right of the bushes:



Dooley's eyesight is not always reliable. He really believes he can see thunder coming, for example. And he challenges buoys. But his senses of hearing and smell are remarkable. He can hear the crinkle of the cellophane on a block of cheese from over a mile away and his nose would certainly alert to any relative of the fried chicken family standing on a rock.

There are dozens of these cool little islands and rocks scattered in bands down the length of Chalk Sound. Many of them are just literally rocks with vegetation growing on them.



We'd hoped for sunny weather (makes the water so nice) and we got some of that. But we also had a string of squalls and strong gusts of wind blowing through . We took a sailing break behind some of the larger groups of islands to dry off a bit. We saw several islands that we thought would be great spots for a picnic or overnight camp. Lots of places where it would be easy to pull kayaks or kayaks into narrow protected micro-harbours between the islands.



We had a new toy to try out on this trip. We picked up one of the little GoPro Hero HD video/time lapse still cameras on our recent trip to Texas. Our experiences with "waterproof" (how does one make a quotation mark drip sarcasm?) point-and-shoot cameras has led us to the point where we are starting to think underwater housings with 0-ring seals are really the only way to keep a camera long enough to learn the menu structure. We expect some nice new videos from this one. I need to fabricate a mount for the top of the mast though. Three hours of the view from this position just wasn't very good. Like driving through a rain storm with a plastic shower curtain over your head.



And here's Dooley the Drenched after being deluged by yet another little squall that had passed a few minutes earlier. I know there are some kayak fans that check this blog from time to time. I had read of people having troubles with breaking rudders on the Tandem Islands. Hobie is coming out with a fix for that. Sailing home goes enormously more smoothly if you have something you can use to replace a broken rudder. The little kayak paddles Hobie supplies with the boat have curved, flexible blades. I replaced one of our paddles with an extensible pole that accepts various fittings on the end. A scrub brush, a gaff and a paddle. The paddle is a lot bigger than the standard Hobie kayak paddle. The blade is straight, meaning it will make a much better rudder in an emergency. And the blade doesn't bend. This is also a good thing.



The pole extends out to about 8 ft. I am hoping this will work as a boat hook to fend off rocks and docks (we have no easily accessible reverse gear) and also as a 'whisker pole' to hold the sail out when running downwind. This was not a day for leisurely downwind experimentation.

After a couple of hours of exploring around, we discovered that if we stayed in the lee of the small island groups the water was much smoother. We tended to use that to our advantage on the trip back to the boat ramp.

We saw even more great picnic spots. We were getting pressed for time, so we didn't go in and explore all of these. We would have had to fold the amas in tight to the boat to do it. We would have to pull the Mirage drives up and use the paddles to get through the shallow spots.

This little area was particularly attractive as a potential picnic site. It's in the group of islands nearest the launch area off of Five Cays Road, making it easy to get to. This area has some water depth, so we did poke our nose in a little to look around.



There's a nice protected cove here. Just right for tying up a boat out of the wind.



Access to the island is fairly easy from this side without much wave action to complicate things.



I was going to explain the name of this cactus, but then I thought it would make more sense to post a link to someone who knows what they are talking about: cactus expert.

If I told you what it's called you might not believe me. I've been known to be unreliable when it comes to humorous names.

Dooley the Distended has a different perspective on plants. Especially when it comes to small trees.



Here's another narrow passage between adjacent islands. The northern edge of Chalk Sound is in the distance:



We did investigate a few of these passages. They are typically shallow with some rocky areas scattered around the soft sand bottom:



If we had gone through far enough, we would see the shallow water deepen again and then turn back into the clear turquoise that the Sound is known for. I took this photo with the zoom cranked up, so it's a bit grainy. I was trying to show you the whitecaps of the breaking waves just a short distance out of the shelter of the rocks.



We heard a roar, and looked up to see the American Airlines flight from Dallas about to land. We know this flight. We were on it ourselves the previous Saturday. If you visit the Turks and Caicos Islands, chances are good that your flight will come right over Chalk Sound right after the wheels come down. It's easy to spot from the air.



Seeing the 2:40 flight landing reminded us that we were running low on time, and still needed to get back to the boat ramp. Dooley was more than happy to call it a day and head for home. So we pointed our little yellow boat east and put the cameras away for a while. We concentrated on sailing. And of course once we were officially done for the day the sun came out and the water was beautiful again.



Back at the ramp I waded ashore to back the trailer up while La Gringa Suprema and Dooley the Distracted kept the boat off the rocks. The ramp experiences are the most worrisome parts of this whole operation. The ramps here..... well.... they vary widely, to the point where some of them are unrecognizable as boat ramps, to the untrained eye. This one is actually pretty good except that its exposed to the wind. There is another more protected ramp just a few hundred feet away but it's a lot steeper, runs over submerged boulders and it was already being used when we returned.



In fact as we were loading our boat we heard a loud noise, and some shouting, and turned to look in time to see a little ramp incident here. Their boats had fallen off their trailer entirely.

There are some big smooth rocks under the water right where the ramp enters the water. That area was where we launched two years ago. It's also where the native sloop Ranger was kept year back. Ranger is the last photo in this post.



We've been really busy since the last post before this one. We've already got enough photos for another two posts at least with more stuff on the horizon. And if I tried to document all the DIY going on right now, that would be several full posts just in itself. So I decided to give everyone a break from the DIY stuff this week. La Gringa is looking into ways we could put the projects on a different site and let people who are interested in the nitty gritty realities of living here have a link. This would let us keep this blog site more uncluttered with photos of greasy axles, busted sat dishes and the never ending maintenance that goes with living in a tropical climate.

The Chalk Sound trip was Saturday. On Sunday we took the new skiff to explore some parts of Provo that we had never seen, including Taylor Bay and Turtle Rock. The weather was a little better and we got some decent photos. We'll most likely be posting that next unless something totally stupendous happens in the meantime.

And while we're in the meantime, here's another one of the La Gringa sunsets:

Loose Ends

I usually try to put a colorful, tropical sunrise photo here near the start of these posts. But in the past couple weeks most of our photos have included family who have been visiting us for the holidays. Late nights and sleep-in mornings mean not many sunrises or sunsets. Since there has been some howling at the moon, however, I decided to post one of the moon images La Gringa was taking last week when the lunar eclipse was occuring during the solstice. She got her camera set up just in case we happened to actually be awake at 03:15 in the morning and felt like taking photos. (We weren't. And we didn't. It was cloudy, anyhow)



There, that looks suitably cold and miserable, doesn't it? It's not all sunshine and clear turquoise water and white sand beaches here, you know. Oh no. Definitely not. Sometimes it's moonlight and clear turquoise water and white sand beaches instead. This is a great little country for people who like to walk deserted beaches in the moonlight.

We are into winter here, too. Last night the outside temperatue plummeted down to 67 deg.F. We were scrambling for warm clothes to put on. Winter days are typically a mix of clouds and sunshine. We are getting into the drier part of the year and windier. We start seeing more birds around now, as many of them winter down here in the lower latitudes. Some of our favorites to watch are the Ospreys. A couple of them usually have a nest just a few hundred yards from the house. They swoop down into the ocean in front of us and sometimes land upon the shore to eat. This guy has a fish on the rocks at his feet but was getting nervous at the attention he was getting from La Gringa. Can't imagine why a bird would be worried about a human pointing a dark cylinder with a lens at them. Perhaps he thought she wanted to steal his lunch.



So he picked it back up and swooped off to find someplace a little quieter and more peaceful than our house has been for the past week. Can't say as I blame him.



And away he goes, lunch firmly in hand. Or in talon, in this case.



I didn't really have much of a "theme" for this blog post. As I look through the photos we haven't posted yet I am finding I have little snippets of things. Not a nice long narrative that starts in one place and logically continues to another. This is more along the lines of cleaning up some small stories so that they don't get lost and forgotten once we get all enthusiastic about sailing. And I just know that's going to happen after the holidays. So I am going to take this opportunity on the last day of 2010 to say goodbye, for now, to a couple of the 'characters' that have passed through our lives recently.

We know quite a few people have been interested in the boat Treasure Seeker, which is the former ferry C.G. Richter. Capt. Ray Hixon has been stranded in the boatyard here on Providenciales since getting towed in back on November 18th.

Most of the repairs that could be done here in Provo have been done. Treasure Seeker's diesel is completely repaired. Ray tells us his engine room is clean and squared away, and he has gotten caught up on a number of other projects in the five weeks he spent here. We have a little news to report on that front. We had written quite a bit about this story a few weeks ago when we had a post with a lot of photos and the story of the "Treasure Seeker"

We got a call from Ray a few days before Christmas and he was finally leaving the dock on his way south. The decision had been made by Treasure Seeker's insurance company. An ocean-going tug boat was chartered to come to Providenciales, hook up to Treasure Seeker and to tow Ray the Pirate right on down to Puerto Rico for the next stage of his adventure. Here he is finally getting away from the dock after five weeks of 'standing by' waiting for parts, repairs and decisions.



We have been looking at this red and black pirate boat for all these weeks, and we know Ray has been sitting there looking up at us for the exact same length of time. Finally getting the green light (with 'green' being the operative word here) to move on to Puerto Rico was such a momentous thing that La Gringa did a little video of Treasure Seeker actually leaving the dock. For a while there, we thought we might have to find a cutting torch to break her free.



The tug boat from Haiti was not coming into the boatyard to take Treasure Seeker under tow. I would assume that the tug probably draws more than six feet, which is about the maximum draft for any boat trying to get to a dock in this part of the islands. So Ray managed to finagle a pull from his new friends and recent neighbors for the past month, the Marine Police:



We had ringside seats for all this, of course and were able to follow Treasure Seeker's progress as this slow-motion handoff proceeded without a hitch. The tug boat waited offshore in slightly deeper water:



And of course the crew of the TCI Marine Police patrol boat Sea Defender has more than a little experience towing disabled vessels. In fact, dealing with seagoing pirates is a part of their very job description.



The reason Treasure Seeker is being towed to Puerto Rico is because the Turks and Caicos Islands just does not have the ability to haul out and repair the hull of a boat this size. I believe Ray told us everything was done except replacing the large steel rudder that was lost off Plana Cays. The nearest suitable shipyard that can do the work is in Puerto Rico. Under ideal conditions, that's a three day trip from here for that tugboat. I would think that to be a long three days at the end of a rope.

The Sea Defender and the Police RIB ('Rigid Inflatable Boat' call-sign Hurricane ) managed to ease Treasure Seeker out of the boatyard without a scratch. Not so simple when Ray the rudderless has no way to steer Treasure Seeker at all. He could put the boat in reverse to slow it down, but he still won't have any steering control. Just the drag of the propeller.... and that's the brakes.



The transfer of a suitable tow line from the tug to the Treasure Seeker all took place out where we couldn't really reach them with our cameras.

They certainly picked a good weather day to depart Providenciales and get clear of the reefs that surround these islands.



Finally, the boats were all hooked up and the last sight we had of Capt. Ray the Pirate and the Treasure Seeker, they were disappearing over yet another horizon headed roughly south east.



We found it slightly humorous that the Treasure Seeker found itself being escorted to the outskirts of town by the local sheriff. It seemed a fitting sendoff somehow. What else would you expect from a pirate ship that was just passing through?

La Gringa took those photos as Treasure Seeker departed for Puerto Rico on December 23. We just received an email from Capt. Ray (the Pirate) yesterday, December 29, from Puerto Rico after an "interesting trip". That's six days for a trip the tugboat crew estimated as three. Can't wait to hear this next chapter.

At this point, I think I will turn the story of the newest pirate in the Caribbean back over to Ray Hixon and family to keep up with. But I wanted to let everyone know that he made it safely away from the Turks and Caicos. Alas, the origin of Ray's next pizza is no longer under our control.

Now on to some more news from a different ship entirely. We very recently posted some photos of the Star of the Sea, along with a description of the humanitarian efforts of Capt. Bob Nichols. We knew when the ship left here bound for Gt. Inagua and we read that they were anchored off the Il D'Vache, an island on the southwest edge of Haiti. Then we didn't hear anything more.

Well, this weekend we got an email from Capt. Bob. The Star of the Sea made it home to SW Florida on Christmas Eve after an eight day, non-stop run from Haiti. Capt. Nichols writes us that the rampant cholera and violence on the main island had kept food and supplies from ever reaching Il D'Vache and he promises me a good story to tell once things settle down next week.

Capt. Bob did attach five photos to his email, and I am going to post them here. I didn't receive any explanation or captions along with the photos but as far as I know these were all taken during the offloading of food for the orphans in Haiti.

I can tell you that I recognize a panga style hull when I see one:



And we've certainly seen enough hand built Haitian sloops to know what we are looking at here:



Baskets and donkeys and cardboard boxes marked "Kids Against Hunger". Seems pretty self explanatory so far.



Looks like a few kids are pretty excited about boxes of goodies from the USA.



And physically handicapped orphans will have a better life than they would have had for the next few weeks thanks to Capt. Bob and the Star of the Sea crew.



I would guess that these photos and more will be showing up at the ships blog for the Star of the Sea and you can follow that story straight from the source. As with the previous story of the Treasure Seeker, I am going to turn the narrative back over to the people involved at this point. (This is supposed to be a blog about living in the TCI, after all.) The Star of the Sea headed north. The Treasure Seeker headed south. If and when they ever pass back through our waters and our lives we'll probably be posting more about them. But for now all we can do is wish them fair winds.

In the meantime, we are already planning some trips for the new kayak. So far we have a couple easy ones in mind and two that are a little more challenging.

For the easy trips, of course we will be heading up to Pine Cay at the earliest opportunity. This has become somewhat of a benchmark kayak trip for us, and we are anxious to see how much time it will take for us to sail the new boat up and back.

Last week we were scrambling around for last minute Christmas gifts and one of those involved some gift certificates for a restaurant over on Chalk Sound. While there we looked around and realized that while we had made one trip to these irridescent turquoise waters back when we first got our inflatable almost two years ago, we never made it back to complete the exploration.



So another trip to more completely explore Chalk Sound is definitely on the agenda.



We had also taken the inflatable out to West Caicos. This was an ambitious little trip for us since we had to cross over six miles of open water between Providenciales and the nearest tip of West Caicos. We had hoped to be able to try to find the ruins of Yankee Town but had equipment problems on the way over and spent our time beachcombing for string to repair the kayak Mirage Drives. So we definitely want to go back to explore more of West Caicos. And I am very interested to see if we can find the little spot called Maravidi Cove.

And of course we have long wanted to return to French Cay after our plans to explore that little uninhabited island got interrupted by fuel problems on our one and only attempt way back in October of 2007. We got tied up getting the fuel tank of Cay Lime repaired and well.... we just never went back to finish up our exploration of all the wrecks that get washed up on the outside of that remote little cay.



The distance out to French Cay from where we launch on this side of Provo is a little over 18 miles and it's all open water. So I suspect we will get a few other trips under our belt before we decide whether or not to take on a journey like this. We'd have to go out there prepared to camp out on the beach overnight, for example. Should be quite an adventure if and when we can pull it off. It might make sense to wait until longer days are once again upon us. Then we might have a chance of making it out and back in the same day. We have sailed kayaks in the dark before but it's definitely not our idea of the best way to do it.

And as ambitious as a kayak trip to French Cay might seem to us at the moment, that's not the big goal. For some time we have been thinking about whether anyone has ever physically set foot on every single exposed island in the Turks and Caicos Islands. When we first had this idea, we had been reading about the "40 cays, 8 of which are inhabited" that is a pretty standard description of this little country.

Then I started going over the charts and Google Earth, and putting a mark on every exposed rock I could find. And guess what? Without even numbering the islands we have already walked upon, I came up with another hundred. No kidding.



Now to be precise, a lot of these little islands and cays I have marked are nothing more than an exposed bit of rock, but since they are exposed and surrounded by water, I am choosing to include them in our definition of island. Just as an arbitrary rule, I am going to include every island and cay I can find that is larger than the boat. That sets us up with about an 18 ft. diameter required for an island to qualify.

I wonder how long it would take for a couple people with an obnoxious little dog to actually stand on each and every 'standable' island in the Turks and Caicos. Interesting thought, isn't it? Certainly would be enough material for a few blog posts. And I would be genuinely surprised if anyone has ever done it. ever.

Well, that's all I have for this last post of 2010. It's been an interesting year for us. Much better than 2009 was, in many ways. Maybe it's the start of a trend.

We want to take the opportunity to wish all our readers, friends, families, and other correspondents a Happy and Prosperous New Year. Thanks for all the support and interest.

And until next year, here's a photo of the sunset here, taken by La Gringa night before last:

A new toy.

The previous blog post here ended with this photo of the arrival at the house of our new toy.



No, not the Land Rover.. That's now an old toy...the new toy is in the cardboard box. We waited two weeks for a kayak we ordered from a Hobie dealer in Florida.  Nautical Ventures, if you're looking for a really good Hobie dealer.  The kayak finally arrived late Monday on an ocean freighter. I was able to get it cleared through Customs in only about three hours total effort, involving two trips into Providenciales. The way this works is that we get a call from the freight company that our freight has arrived. They ask if we want them to clear it and deliver it. For $ 250. I decided that for about a half day's effort I could just save the money.

So, after the call that the freight is in, and the decision to clear it myself because I'm frugal, the first step is to drive to the freight office and pick up the paperwork, invoice, bill of lading, etc.  This is a sheaf of papers. Then I drive to the Customs House, and buy an "entrance form" for seventy five cents. This is the 'fun' part, filling out the entrance form. It has a lot of mysterious terms and acronyms to work through but fortunately the TCI Customs people are very helpful. They help with terms like 'C.P.C., Exporter Codes, Declarant Codes, Tariff Codes, Duty Bases', etc etc. Then I leave the form with them, along with all the paperwork from the freight company and exporter. If I get this all done before 11:00 AM I can pick up the clearance after 3:00 the same day. If I submit it after 11:00 I can pick it up the next day.  Or the next business day.  You can probably tell I have some experience at this.  Not much of it good.   I made the deadline, so  went to run some other errands while my paperwork worked through the system.

At 3:00 PM I returned to Customs, wait in line again, and then comes the part where they try to find the paperwork. This can take, in my experience, anything from five minutes to  an hour. Eventually they always seem to locate it sitting in one unfiled pile or another. This form tells   how much import duty is owed, and in the case of boats here in 2009, that works out to about 11% of the boat price. After this I go stand in another line to pay the duty, and then sit around the waiting area watching television.  For about a half an hour this time.  Not real busy.  Thenl an agent calls me over.  Interrupting Oprah. The agent strips out all the copies of the various forms they need, and leaves me with the receipt verifying that I paid the duty. I am now done with customs, and can drive back to the freight company. I pay them their freight charges,which is a totally different thing entirely from the customs duty.  After I have a receipt from their front office verifying that I have paid the freight charges, I take that and my customs duty receipt and wander into their warehouse and they then start the process of looking for my shipment. This can take from five minutes, to (in this case) about half an hour or so. The package was loaded in the Land Rover, and I was home with it by late afternoon.

Out of the box it's all buckled up in it's own rolling travel case. Neat.



Assembled and inflated, and yes, it was dark by this time. I get kinda carried away with assembling new toys.



These things have a zillion little pieces and parts. I guess that's what happens when you take a simple design like a kayak and turn enough engineers loose on it for long enough. Fortunately, I happen to like mechanical doodads. For example, this is one of the two Hobie "Mirage Drives" that came with the kayak:



The inventor of this contraption got the idea from watching how penguins use their flipper-like wings underwater. Of coure we have already removed the stock flippers and put longer "turbo" models on it. Before we even got it wet.

The next morning I grabbed my coffee and sat down to read some instruction manuals and out of the corner of my eye I saw this thing in the slanted morning sunlight:



Man, did that ever make me do a double take. While I am sure I didn't move or scream or any of that stuff, it got my attention I hesitate to tell you what I thought it was, but a big ugly bug was high on the list.  I could see it's evil little eyes.  Big ferocious fangs.  And some kind of scary looking stinging device dripping venom from it's tail.  I swear I could see all this with just this one glance. After I snuck up on it like a creaky old Ninja wannabe with a flip flop shoe  to smash it with, I realized what it was. A small scrap of cardboard box I had cut while opening the kayak accessories package in the house the night before had fallen to the floor and the sunlight was shining exactly through the corrugated parts...



Sure got MY heart thumping... between the venomous centipedes, free roaming scorpions, and wasps as mean as they come , we have seen some serious bugs here. I was happy not to have discovered some new species this morning.

Okay, back to the topic...New Kayak..got it snugged up to the top of the Defender and went looking for someplace to launch it and start fine tuning all the little adjustments it needs.



So here we are, first time in an inflatable kayak with Mirage drives assembled, installed, and adjusted. They work!



We went pedalling out past the Little Five Cays, and found a moderate chop running. No problems, the inflatable is really solid.



One of the Little Five  Cays, near our house. Great snorkeling there.



We travelled about two and a half miles the first day, pedal drive power alone. We even went into a new marina here under construction and took a look at a little cottage being completed by one of our future neighbors. This is all one property:



A shame to have to settle for a hovel of a beach house like that, in this day and age.  I sure hope their full time homes have some room in them.  That place looks cramped.   This is sarcasm. Or my version of it.

Our legs were pretty tired after the first kayak outing, but we already knew we liked the boat. All boats are compromises, to some extent. Our panga, for example, was a calculated compromise for these waters from the very start. We were looking for a good all around boat that would handle moderate swells and handle moderately shallow water. It did both of those, but wasn't as good offshore as the Contender is, nor was it able to go as shallow as a flats boat. A compromise.

But now we have a different approach. The Contender is a far superior ocean boat than the panga. We have found ourselves in ten foot seas a couple of times now, and are constantly amazed at well it handles bigger waves and chop. But in gaining this superior ocean boat, we did have to give up the shallow water exploring. So our hopes with the kayak is to open up the shallow water stuff again, and be able to have a separate boat for each scenario. In fact one of the things we like about the inflatable is that we will be able to put this kayak on the Contender and take them both anywhere in the TCI.

We did feel guilty when we got home after that first days kayaking. Dooley the Disheartened took one look at our wet clothes and the sand stuck to our feet and got really miffed. He just KNEW we had been to a beach or boating without him. He retreated to his room and was humming along with "Hound Dog Blues" for a while. Sad.

The next day was a bit calmer, and we thought we would try the sail kit that we got with the kayak. A mistake.



There were still too many things that needed adjusting and the sail just complicated things to the point where we decided that until we get a feel for the rest of the boat we are going to leave the sail at home. We still managed to boat about 3 and a half miles in the ocean on our second day with the kayak.

We have gotten our method down for getting it on and off the Defender.



(I just knew that aluminum plate I put on the 'bonnet' would come in handy sooner or later)

This time when we got home Dooley the Disrespected was really in a funk. He was moping around the house grumbling and listening to Chris Isaak music. Two days in a row we went boating without him. Unforgiveable. We figured that on the next trip we would take him along and see if he was going to be able to adapt to the change from the Contender to a rubber kayak.

Finally, yesterday we felt comfortable enough with the boat to actually go explore someplace new. We picked Chalk Sound for our first little excursion. It was La Gringa' idea and since we were having 20 mph winds out of the East the protected water seemed like a good idea.

Chalk Sound is a National Park in the TCI. We had seen it many times, of course, and knew that no power boats are allowed there, and that it has dozens of small cays in it. This is a Google Earth image showing Chalk Sound. The line in the lower left is one mile, for scale:



You can just make out all the little islands in the sound, many of them not much more than rocks. We loaded up the rubber duckie and the dog this time, and headed over. We launched the boat in an area protected from the wind. La Gringa took some photos, including this view of Chalk Sound from the Eastern shore:



The water is a light turquoise, and very clear. When it isn't being stirred up by the wind. Didn't look too gnarly to us, so away we went:



"Hey, this is easy!" we thought, as we headed directly downwind toward the first set of islands. You can tell the wind direction by the line of foam (called spindrift) running straight in front of us.

Dooley the Drenched (he had been swimming) was not too crazy about being told he had to stay on the back of the kayak. He kept trying to re-negotiate a seat up in First Class. But letting him wander in and out of those two sets of moving pedals was not a good idea. His tail is short enough as it is.



You can hopefully get an idea of what the water there is like. The photos really don't do it justice. It is almost iridescent. (Whoa! I just noticed from that photo that SOMEbody is overdue for a whisker trim. And it ain't Dooley.)

By the time we got about a mile out away from the protection of the shore the choppy waves were getting up there a bit. This is us approaching the near end of that first string of little cays.



Going this way was easy. But imagine coming back into those waves in that little boat later.
We were surprised to see quite a bit of vegetation on the cays. There is no source of fresh water here.



We got to the end of that first string of rocks and it was turning out to be a very pleasant trip running downwind. At this point we were deciding whether to go even further or to make our way over to the slightly protected shoreline to the North. Knowing we would be fighting the wind and waves all the way back we opted to keep this first excursion kinda short and come back on a calmer day to explore the rest of it in a more leisurely fashion.



All of these limestone cays have the typical undercut rock edges that are so common here. Still, we saw plenty of what looked like nice private picnic spots.



Chalk Sound is just off the approach end of Provo's International Airport. We just happened to be there when the US Air flight bringing down La Gringa' brother and sister-in-law was landing. We gave them a big wave, but I doubt they noticed the two people and little dog in a kayak below:



This is what happens when the wind and waves eventually dissolve the rock enough that it can no longer support the overhanging edge. It collapses into the water.



Not far from that last rock we spotted what looked like a piece of some kind of metal wreckage. At first we thought it must be a sunken boat, but it wasn't rusty, really. Just grungy. So it wasn't steel. We were asking ourselves if maybe it was an aluminum boat of some kind.



But after a closer look we discovered that it is what's left of the instrument panel, cowling, and firewall of a small airplane. I guess if you are not going to make the runway, ditching in the sound's shallow warm water would be a good option. Sure beats going down in the solid rock hills all around us. You might be able to walk away from this one.

Dooley still wasn't all that crazy about being forced to ride in the back, but after we told him it was actually Business Class he put up with it. He's easy to distract if you tell him to keep an eye out for monster barracuda.



After cruising down the shoreline, we decided we had better cut the trip short and start back. We had no idea how an inflatable kayak would handle going into the wind, which was actually picking up a bit at this point. You can see the path it was taking in this opening between cays:



Before leaving the shelter of the line of rocks out in the middle of the sound, we decided to stop for a rest break in the lee of one of the little cays. Dooley said he had some fresh water to drop off for the plants, or something to that effect:



The boat is really stable. We were able to relax for a few minutes before heading back directly into the wind.



Our Shore Patrol hopped onto the little cay to check for undocumented lizards. Or whatever else he could find.



"Hey, an entire island with nothing already marked! I claim this land in the name of Dooley!"

It's not exactly the kind of shoreline that makes you comfortable about hauling an inflatable boat onto it. Or walking on it barefooted for that matter.



Nice water, though.

This is the rudder control on the kayak. Nice feature. You can pretty much just set it and not touch it again until you need to make a change:



The pedals don't go around and around like on a paddlewheel type system. They just go back and forth. Sort of like a recumbent stairmaster machine. The paddles clip to the sides. Nice touch.



You'll notice the boat was wet in that photo. So were we. I wish I had thought to take some video during the worst of it, but we were almost back in the clear by the time I remembered that I had the capability.

You can still hear the wind noise in the video. So, turn on your speakers and....

Just Push Play

We were very impressed with the Mirage Drives. Two of these let us power through the waves and into the wind without any real problems. Other than getting totally soaked going back.

(We were also very impressed with Nautical Ventures, out of Ft. Lauderdale. If you are looking for a boat and kayak dealer in that area we would highly recommend their help and service.)

Now all loaded up and ready to head home. Dooley the Dehydrated is already in the truck and ready to go. Heck, if he had the keys and could reach the pedals he would be gone already..



Still nice and calm water up at this end. Sure doesn't look like that out in the middle a mile and a half away.

A last view of Chalk Sound before heading home with plans to return on a calmer day and spend a lot more time exploring some of the larger rocks.



It will nice to be able to see what's on the bottom,too. Once the water clears up.


And finally back at the little house on the hill, another day comes to an end.