Sun, sailboats, an iguana, and stuff like that.

It actually looks like we will be able to fit another blog installment or two into this month. And I just noticed that this is the 223rd post ! Gosh, if I had started out to write a book instead of being talked into doing a blog, I would have been done a long time ago. (hmmm.... anyone know any desperate publishers?)

I do still feel a bit guilty about recent long lapses between posts. Pure laziness. Procrastination. I promised to try to do a little better. I justified my laziness by assuming that most people were probably not that interested in looking at tropical photos online during their own summer activities. I mean, why look at photos of this place when you have your own sunny places?. But some of the comments and emails we've gotten say that at least some of you still do like the pix of the water here. Even when it is high summer in your own back yard. So, since we are snapping photos just about everywhere we go anyhow, it's not a lot of trouble to upload some here. The positive feedback keeps us going.

We haven't been up to any of the fun and exciting stuff I keep promising, yet. There is a series of things that need to happen in order and it takes time. But in the meantime we haven't been totally idle, either.

For example, on Saturday we stopped by the beach to check out what was going on at the 2010 "Fools Regatta" here on Providenciales. This year was the 20th one of these regattas. It was originally just a few local multihull sailors racing for rum and t-shirts on April Fool's Day. And that's where the name came from. (And as is very typical of island style developments, a race originally started in early April now takes place in late June. If you are interested in the background of this event, I found a good writeup on it and here's a link to Fool's Regatta.)

This day of sun and fun is now a yearly tradition here, and the windy weather we have been experiencing here for the last week was absolutely perfect for sailing on Saturday. I'll try not to get too wordy on this, and let the photos and colorful boats, people and water photos stand on their own. If I can restrain myself.

This was the scene coming over the boardwalk at Childrens' Park in the Bight section of Grace Bay:



The weather was just about perfect, and people were setting up with coolers and umbrellas and sunscreen and kids all set to make a day of watching boats race and enjoying the beach.



There were several concessions selling food and beverages and the smell of smoked ribs grabbed us as soon as we stepped on the sand.



These local race events are geared mostly for the people here, not so much an event to attract tourism. Since a lot of work goes into organizing anything of this nature and most vacationers are only here for a week.... well... as I said this is more of a local event than a Chamber of Commerce style attraction. It is for a good cause, as all proceeds from the event go to benefit the TCIFA program. Or as they spell it here, 'programme'. (Sounds the same either way. A two syllable word.)

There are several classes of boats entered in different races. Some of them are probably stretching the definition of 'boats', and there were some colorful examples in what might be called the 'wide open' end of things. Admittedly, at the lower end...



There were oil drums, water jugs, styrofoam blocks... just about anything that would float and hold together in these local 'Plastiki' entries.



I'm no expert on these things, but some of them looked a little bit more seaworthy than others.



And there was obviously a lot of love and effort put into some of the entries:


Handmade paddles, signed by the artists!

We only spent a couple of hours at the Regatta and we were in the middle of the afternoon so we missed some of the earlier events. But with tents set up cooking barbecue, selling drinks, t-shirts and plenty of boats to look at everyone seemed to be having a pretty good time.

The Marine Police were there patrolling in one of their pangas:



There were traditional Caicos sloops there and even a few multihulls. The trimaran was built by its owner and is probably one of the fastest sailboats in the country. The Corsair 28R I posted a photo of some time back would probably give it a good run but the Corsair wasn't there that day:



The start of the big boat races was fun to watch as the crews scrambled to get their canvas up and filled after the starting horn blew:



And it didn't take them long to get going, either.



The Hobie catamaran classes are some of the most popular races here since these boats are accessible to a lot more people than the bigger sloops with their own crews.



The beach cats, appropriately enough, start from the beach. This was the scene as the Hobie sailors got their course briefing before their event:



And this was the mad scramble to start once the horn blew:



These were all Hobie "Bravo"s, with three crew per boat, and the performance in 20+ knot winds was pretty lively:



(how am I doing on keeping the word count down?)

As with just about everything on this polyglot island, different nationalities were here to enjoy the races. We had Turks Islanders, Americans, Canadians, Haitians, Dominican Republicans (Republicans?), a lot of Brits of course. I spotted a few Australians, a couple Kiwi's, heard some French... South Africans, and that's just the ones I picked up on while I was there for a couple hours. We know many of the expats from living here, of course. Spending time in a place like this sure exposes one to a lot of different cultures all mixed together in one little batch of islands. These guys from the Philippines were really into cheering the Hobie contestants on:



And the minute they noticed La Gringa was snapping photos, a bunch of them piled on the boat and hammed it up for her:



Now, I am only going to put this photo in to illustrate one of the things we really appreciate about this little country; it's extremely informal and laissez-faire attitude. For example, a lot of boaters in the USA well know how their local marine police would react if they saw them with a beer in their hand, riding in a boat, at an event like this at a public park. You'd be showing identification and get a lecture as a minimum. More than that in many places.

Here, as long as you don't create problems you can pretty much enjoy yourself to your heart's content. There is still a large reliance on personal responsibility here, as opposed to government control. The police here would not give you a hard time about enjoying a cold beverage on a sunny day. In fact, if you were out of said beverage, they might even be able to spare one for you.



Yes, the man with the beer is a police officer, but I hope you also notice that he is not driving. Ya gotta love this place. A nation that does not even own a breathalyzer machine. The 40 mph speed limit is probably a good thing.

This country constantly amazes us. It's still a small island attitude and many things are still done in traditional ways. But the country embraces modern conveniences and technology as well. It's a good mix. Speaking of technology, we had to snap a photo of one of the new fire trucks here. It was nice to have these guys standing by at the beach, just in case.



(I mean, there WAS beer, rum, charcoal starter, and propane all on a public beach at the same time. And both the Marine Police and the Fire and Rescue Department were well represented.)


Other than the Fool's Regatta it was a fairly quiet week. La Gringa, Dooley the Disturbed, and I took our little kayak out several times. We were just getting some sunshine, exercise, and enjoying the ocean. And the Mirage Drives are still a fantastic way to rehab an artificial knee. I know, I know...some people thing I get plenty of exercise by jumping to conclusions, chasing my tail, and skating on thin ice. Oh well.

On a glossy, sunny day, I stuck our little Pentax waterproof point-and-shoot under the surface and got what we think is a really cool video of the refraction of the sunlight filtering down and drawing patterns on the sand.

Now we don't normally push the videos very much here. We know most people probably don't even bother to watch them. But if you like to meditate, or could use about a half a minute of some real peaceful scenery, turn your sound on and check this out. And tell us what you think, please. Should we do more of this kind of stuff? We have some ideas for more of these :

(Now is that mellow, or what? Makes me wanna stop typing and go snorkelling.)

We sailed the rubber boat over to a nice spot in a grove of Casuarinas trees and took a break in the shade:




Great spot not far from Providenciales, no crowds, a nice beach. Just the sound of the waves, and the breeze sighing through the shady branches. Not another soul in sight....

As I am sure you can see, this is a pretty good spot to take a break from the bright tropical sun.



And then we were surprised when one of the local denizens strolled up to us looking for a handout. Can you see the iguana there, just this side of the little campfire site?



This guy strolled right up like he knew us. Well, he obviously knows very little about Jack Russell Terriers.



And we were astonished that Dooley the Disruptor was totally unaware of the iguana for several minutes. I was leaning over, making sure I had a grip on Dooley's collar and trying to get a photo of the moment when he first noticed the iguana. The reasons for collaring the little booger will be apparent in a moment. Trust me.

I know a lot of people think that we call him Dooley the Demented as a term of endearment. I think the following videos are going to change your mind. After watching these maybe you will agree that the little dervish has earned the sobriquet. He doesn't just need a life jacket. This dog needs a canvas jacket with long buckles on the end of the sleeves, if you know what I mean.

First, before he lost his mind, Here's the steely-eyed boat dog, fresh ashore from a harrowing sea voyage, keeping a keen watch on his newly claimed, uninhabited island...

Nothing gets by Capt. Doolance, right?

Did you spot what's standing just about 8 feet on the other side of him? Yep, it's Iggy:



Then the iguana moved a few steps, and SOMEone spotted the motion out of the corner of his vision. The head swivelled, the ears perked up.... I don't think he could believe his eyes:



Yep, it moved again, and this photo was taken about one millisecond before the dog went into complete meltdown:



Now, still photos of the next few minutes would not convey what happens to this dog when he thinks something needs to be run down and bitten repeatedly. In a rare moment of klutz-lucky, I managed to switch the camera to movie mode. First, Dooley tried complaining and escaping and twisting and turning, attacking anything in reach. He started by shredding a piece of innocent sea fan lying under the table. No, the sea fan did not annoy him in any way. It was a nice piece of sea fan. Innocent bystander. Inert.

It just happened to be in the wrong shade at the wrong time.

Of course the iguana was clueless. Maybe he thought Dooley was going to share lunch with him. Dooley had other ideas about lunch.

Since he could not seem to get loose by twisting, cajoling, begging or threatening... he decided to see if perhaps he could drag the iguana over to him kinda like someone chained to a table would pull a rug toward them to get to a goodie on the other end. Or maybe he felt confined and remembered something he had once read about tunnelling. Or maybe it was just his breeding kicking in, as these dogs were originally designed to ferret out foxes from burrows. They think nothing of taking on animals bigger than they are.

Did you notice him making a complete 360 degree turn trying to get his collar loose from my grip? He's never even come close to biting me but boy I bet the thought crossed his furry little mind a couple times.

He tried, oh how he tried, to talk me into letting him go.
Finally, in total frustration, he went into some anti-Zen psychopathic state that we could only describe as mental. All he knew was that SOMEthing was gonna get bitten here, one way or another.

I think this was his 'Great White Shark' imitation. His eyes were glazing over and his front feet were actually coming completely off the ground. It was a bit scary, actually. This is the Dooley version of the 'Thousand Yard Stare'. And now I think you can better understand why we refer to him as Dooley the Demented.

The iguana? He might have realized that this dog was restrained, but somehow I don't think so. I don't think the iguanas are mentally equipped to deal with a dog like this. He seemed clueless, and possibly deaf. Dooley would have shredded him if I had let him go. We have had similar encounters in the past, and if the iguana is close to the bush he can get away. But this guy had no close cover, and he would have lost his tail. (Did we tell you how they shed their tails? It's an escape mechanism, I hope. It's bizarre to watch, that's for sure.)

Well, that's basically it for the iguana photos. I had to carry Dooley back to the kayak so the lizard could make a clean getaway. If I had a sedative I would have given it to him. And the next time we go to picnic at this spot I am taking a leash along for the dog. Maybe 2" braided dacron would do it. And maybe I should force him to watch the peaceful video of the sea bottom drifting by....mellow him out a bit. Nah. He'd just look for a crab to bite.

Back at the house things have been pretty quiet. We are still waiting for the powers-in-charge to get our road graded so that we can get the Contender out of the driveway. "Ruts?" you might ask?

Yep, ruts. I should have put something in this photo for scale, but these ruts are deep, and filled with loose rocks. That section of gray PVC carries the securely buried electric and phone lines for the homes on this road. Great. No wonder our internet is out for days at a time after some of these storms.

I am obviously not going to be able to push the 4,000 lb. Contender up and over this stuff. It's as bad as it's ever been, even after the hurricanes of 2008.

And we have had a lot of internet issues after rain storms like this. We have our routines down. La Gringa can take her laptop down to the closest spot with a public WiFi setup at the South Side Marina. How's this for a temporary office setup, until the internet at the house gets up and running?



It's hardship, for sure. But I also bet some would prefer it to a cubicle in NJ. I know La Gringa never had the experience of waking up to find a live gecko strolling across her laptop in New Jersey..



And no, that's not software. The computer is turned off. Is 2010 the Year of the Lizard or something?

Speaking of hurricanes (or maybe I was just thinking of hurricanes...) we just added a weather station to the house so we should be able to get some data from some of the storms that go through this year. This is made by a company called Davis and we had wanted to have some local weather info for some time now.



This gives us all kinds of info, not only on the wind speed and direction, but a barometer (very important), inside and outside temperature, dew point, phases of the moon, how much rain is falling... all kinds of neat info. One of the things I really liked about it is that it's wireless. We can read it anywhere within (supposedly) about 300 meters from the sensor package. Makes the installation incredibly easy. And the sensor package is up on the roof about 60-70 ft above sea level. Oh, and the sensor package is solar powered making it ideal for this place.



I will be strengthening up that mount shortly. Right now it's just 1.25" aluminum tubing. The specs say I should use galvanized steel pipe. But I have discovered that 3/4" PVC pipe fits inside the aluminum tubing nicely and I am thinking that driving PVC inside the tubing should make it stiff, strong, and not-corroding. I'll let you know how it works. Of course if we get another 150 mph wind here like we did with Hurricane Ike in 2008 I suspect we won't see this sensor package again.

That's it for this post. We have plans to put the Contender back in a slip for the summer, finally! The convenience of having it on the trailer at the house has been overcome by the inconvenience of having it on the trailer at the house. So we plan to move it back to the Caicos Marina and Boatyard. And we will just run our typical frantic fire drill to get it back on the trailer and secured every time a storm threatens. Yes, this should result in some photo ops. Keystone Kops Kontender?

Oh, you might have noticed we didn't start this post with a sunrise. This is unusual for us. And La Gringa has been watching for a good sunrise, camera at the ready. It just seems that we haven't had a particularly memorable one lately. She is still snapping away, though. For example, a few days ago she was looking at the Fountain Grass that is growing all over the yard now. And while waiting and hoping for a colorful sunset she caught the color of the seeds in the fading light:



And in going through her photos from that day, I find we DO have a La Gringa sunset photo to close the post with, after all...

September Already???

Once again we find ourselves stupidly surprised to suddenly see that September sunrises have surreptitiously surrounded us once again.



Or maybe that photo just an example of the 'silver lining' cliche.

September is typically the warmest month of the summer here as the sun passes back overhead on its way to its winter stomping grounds down in the Tropic of Capricorn. We see the 'back-to-school' themes here and there in the advertising media and I got an email from a friend in Wisconsin who woke up to a 48 degree morning this week. And of course we are on maximum alert for storms. September is also historically the busiest time of hurricane season.

And this one is starting right out of the blocks with another named storm heading in our general direction:



We are watching this one even though it's forecast to be relatively small as it goes through here. So was what became Hurricane Hanna last year. And we are not likely to soon forget that little disturbance. We also see another tropical situation about a week behind this one and that too makes us feel like a replay of last years double whammy of Hanna and Ike. We are a little better prepared this year at least. Boat is out of the water and we have a generator for power outages. Not enough to run the whole house, but we should be able to keep food refrigerated and pump water for showers, etc.

I know this post is only a few days behind the last one but I thought I would put up some more photos anyhow. We have had a couple of our five sons visiting recently. One of them just left yesterday for his home on Cape Cod and on Monday he and I took a kayak trip around the Leeward area. I recently received an email from some good people who read this blog and who are planning to come down in October. They told me that one of the things they would like to do is rent a kayak and paddle around the Leeward area so I thought putting up a few more "kayaking Leeward" images might be timely. I also handed my camera to my son Jacob this time, and told him to just snap photos of anything he found interesting or photogenic. And these are Jacob's photographs. For the most part.

We left Heaving-Down-Rock and I thought I would shake him up a little by steering straight for a moored catamaran. By the time he figured out what I was up to and got the camera turned on we were already underneath the hull of the Sail Provo boat "Arielle"...



Of course I was chortling away back there having already given the boy a start..



We boated down past the Nikki Beach area with its seeming acres of floating docks. This is where we took photos of the actor Johnny Depp's boat a few months ago. Not much going on here this time of year. The big boats tend to stay out of this part of the world during the height of hurricane season. These floating concrete docks basically choke off most of Leeward-Going-Through. They changed the look, feel and community of Leeward in many ways when they ripped out what was here and put these things in. I will limit my comments to just that.



Gosh. How pretty.

Once you get past those floating hazards to navigation it's a pretty clear shot around the end of Mangrove Cay and out to the reef if you are going that way.



We were not headed offshore on this trip. The weather was definitely getting a bit spotty and with squalls and thunderstorms surrounding the area we decided to stay close to the islands.

Several times during the morning I would see him aiming the camera at the horizon and I asked him "WHAT are taking photos of?". He told me "Dad, this is some really nice water here in case you haven't noticed.." I couldn't argue with that. Guess I have gotten a little jaded.



Being more into boats and stuff, I steered us over toward a couple that have been anchored back in the sheltered water behind Mangrove Cay all summer. This one, the "Cyclura" has some lettering on the side that says "Zoological Society of San Diego" on it.



I just noticed for the first time that next to the name of the boat is a drawing of an iguana. Well, that makes some sense, actually. We are right off the beach of Little Water Cay, which is a national refuge for the iguanas here.

This is one of the other boats that is anchored back here. We have seen this one around for years, but have not met the owners. We did get a friendly wave as we pedalled past in our rubber boat. People show interest in the little Mirage kayak. These drive things are still unusual here I think. I need to get the name of the boat on the kayak. Not sure how to do that on an inflatable, but it needs to say "Low Cay" on it. Maybe a 'Magic Marker' pen would work. I don't think stick-on lettering would last.



We were talking about iguanas and I explained that the local ones swim really well. They inflate their stomachs with air, and use their long tails to swim from island to island. My son was interested and asked if there was a chance he could get some iguana photos. So, we started heading over toward Little Water Cay. Even though surrounded by 'iffy' weather, it was plenty clear enough to see some of the shallow areas we needed to avoid. Of course, son kept snapping photos.





"Hey, Jacob, what are you taking photos of now?" (the old man asks from the stern of the boat).

"It's the water, Dad. Look at the water."



Oh. Ok.

So, while paying attention to the water I spotted something moving on the distant beach and we boogied on over for a look. Sure enough, an iguana. It's not like they are particularly rare around here, but still it's neat to drift up close to one.

He was eating something on the beach when we interrupted him. I think it was seaweed.



Of course by now he had noticed us and he kept his beady eye on the two guys in the kayak after that. Maybe he was trying to tell us something...



Something like "Do you idiots realize you are about to run aground?"
Hey, it was nice to be the 'towee' for a change.



Well, now Jacob wanted some more iguana photos. We pedalled ourselves over to the little park headquarters. It was closed for the day, but he hopped out and wandered up to see if there might be any big lizards hanging around for a photo.



And there were.







While son waded ashore with camera for iguana photos I stayed with the boat. I had wanted to see how it steered and handled with just one person in the back, anyhow.



After leaving Little Water Cay we crossed back over Leeward-Going-Through and took a tour of the canals on the Provo side. This spot made me feel like grabbing a good book and taking a nap.



This spot did not quite do it for me, although I am sure the service is better.



Things like this tend to keep the larger boats off this part of the canal. Actually it was a nice spot to sit in the shade for a few moments.



We had been in the boat for several hours at this point, and needed to get back to the house because we had lunch plans. So we really didn't take a lot more photos after that. We did manage to drift up close to a pelican. The inflatable is really good for that, you can propel the boat without having to wave a paddle in the air and scaring the wildlife:



A morning on the boat and everyone was ready for some lunch. We headed over to the Blue Hills section of Provo for some conch fritters at 'da Conch Shack'



"& Rumbar"



Very nice place to spend an hour or two, and some of the best and freshest conch on the island.



Maybe a couple rum punches while waiting for the conch, and listening to tales of iguanas..



Maybe a third rumpunch and a pinch of salt for the brother's sea stories...



Out front of the Conch Shack is an old, small caicos sloop full of conch shells.



That was about it for a Monday. We have been having unsettled weather since Tuesday afternoon, and in fact, it has been raining off and on for two days now. The cisterns are full but it's been keeping me from working on the outboard motor so it's a mixed blessing.

The rain didn't stop a group of Filipino workers from coming by to take possession of our little Suzuki 4x4. With two Land Rovers we just really didn't need the Samurai any more. And sitting in the constant salt and sun was not doing it any good. Still, it started right up and they drove it home. I am sure we will be seeing it partially restored and becoming a menace on the streets of Provo very shortly.



I kinda hated to see it go, but it was becoming a whole new set of DIY issues that I really just don't have the time for.

And that's the end of this post. One son is still here visiting, and the other is back on Cape Cod. As I write this the dog is shivering against my feet from the constant thunder and rain as we watch another Tropical Storm headed our way.

Still, the cloudy days do make for a half decent sunset from time to time.