A grayscale week

This will be a short post. Or at least that is my intention. Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to shorten up the posts here. I generally just sort of try to scale them to the number of new photos we have. Then I try to write captions to explain the photos, and of course (me being a mouthy son-of-a-gun) sometimes my enthusiasm runs away with me and I end up typing more than I should. Probably. Last week, for example, I was pretty excited about the new boat. Still am, but I am trying very hard to keep a tight rein on it. I mean a 'caption' shouldn't really run into several paragraphs. Well, anyhow back to the subject of short posts, and after that explanation of sorts, the truth is that we have not been taking many photos lately. Whew. See what I mean? Mouthy. (And this isn't even a caption.)

The weather has been weird. We have had a week alternating with gray rainy days, and then gray days without rain. Mostly the latter, but enough rain that the cisterns remain full. We are keeping an eye on the late season Tropical Storm Paloma, which is just forming SW of here. We have had quite enough storm excitement for one year. Maybe enough for several years. A lifetime even.

We have been keeping an eye out for some good sunrise/sunset photos of course, but this week all I could come up with was this one:



The good news about this weather is that the sea is very calm. It could almost be a huge clear blue swimming pool, stretching out as far as the eye can see. With binoculars, even. There has been almost no wind for several days. That sunrise was not even typical, because the sky was fairly clear that particular morning. The average day this week has looked more like a big gray scale. Sometimes we cannot even tell where the horizon is:



That's the kind of day that used to drive me nuts flying small airplanes up in the Cape Cod area. Low time VFR pilots like to see horizons. It makes it so much easier to keep the airplane right side up when you can tell which way is up. Now one big difference between here and Cape Cod in November is the temperature. Last night, for example, it was 81 degrees at 7:00 PM, according to the little thermometer I finally unboxed and attached to a post in the house.



And all the windows are open, so that's the same temperature as outside. This is going to sound a little funny to people at high latitudes, but when it drops down into the mid 70's we feel a bit on the chilled side and start closing windows. Well, partially closing them. The only time in 2008 that all of our windows were cranked shut was during the hurricanes.

I put the (badly flashed) thermometer photo in there because I know the ocean photos are misleading with all that gray. It makes it look cold, and it's not. It's still tropical. The calm water does make for some nice reflected light if we get a cloud or something just right. This one was looking good, but by the time I noticed and then found a camera with a charged battery it was fading back to gray:



And of course that water really makes one think about skipping over the top of it in a boat. And hopping over the side with some snorkelling gear. I haven't checked the ocean temperature lately, but I suspect on this side of the island it will still be near 80, about the same as the air. The lowest we saw the ocean temp last winter was 74.

There have been a few little DIY things going on, but nothing much. I put the lizard-shaped thermometer up on the post primarily to aggravate Dooley the Delinquent Dog. He loves chasing lizards. Every now and then he catches one although we do try to discourage him. He's pretty tough on things he catches, including (but not limited to) rats, lizards, and tennis balls.

I cut a piece of the plastic that used to be part of our boat Cay Lime's console hatch and made a little spacer for the spare tire mount on the Land Rover. It was rattling against the tail gate and driving us nuts and denting the aluminum tailgate. I suppose I should spell it 'aluminium' if it's part of an English 4x4.



And some of the strong nylon lacing that once held canvas to the top of our T-top is now a set of boot laces that work better than the frayed originals:



(am I stretching for blog photos or what??)

We think we may have decided on a new home for Cay Lime, because with the new boat on the way it simply can't stay here taking up space. But there will be parts of it still around for a while. It's a good boat, trashed through no fault of its own. And it needs a new owner to fix it up and put it back to work. And I don't like looking at it in its present state. We need to put that ugly chapter behind us and move on. But in the meantime, we may as well cannibalize the boat parts that are done for.

Speaking of the boat, I was down at the marina yesterday looking for our friend Preacher. I wanted to ask him for some advice on what to do with this busted up hull. While there I looked over to the spot where Cay Lime ended up on the shore, and saw a familiar looking piece of aluminum. Sure enough,it was the rest of the t-top. The missing piece whose very absence was making me start to mentally haul the whole thing to the dump. I threw it into the truck and brought it home.



This is a bad habit of mine, this junk collecting. I can't help it. When I lived up North I had a weakness for found wood on the side of the road. I still do, but these days the glint of shiny aluminum or stainless steel also grabs my attention. This is some useful stuff!! Eventually. Or so I tell myself.

Now I have every piece of that T-top. I suppose it would be possible for someone with the expertise and equipment to actually repair it. Meanwhile, it's just more aluminum in the yard. Lot of head scratching going on here these days.

Another small project was hooking up a web cam outside La Gringa's office. She did all that herself, to be honest about it. She is the software lady here. I am kinda limited to hardware issues. It works out well, though. I did help position the camera on a convenient louvre facing the sunsets:



You can also see that there is no glass in the windows here. We just crank the louvers down when it's blowing rain. (Or when that chilly North wind brings the temp down to under 80 degrees.)

I was hoping for a decent sunset tonight to end this post with. I did not get one. The cosmic grayscale continues. Looking to the west I was reminded of something that has been rattling around in my head for some time now. As a result of this blog we get emails from time to time from people who are thinking of building a home in the tropics and know we just went through the whole process. So maybe this will be useful info for someone, somewhere.

What generated this little departure was this view that we see from our front door every day:



(That is also pretty much the view from La Gringa's sunset web cam too by the way.)

When we were looking at house designs we wanted something sturdy enough to withstand hurricanes. I guess I was looking for the tropical equivalent of a log cabin. You know, something solid. I knew that we would be building in steel reinforced concrete. I don't think a real log home would last three years here, unless it was some kind of wood that bugs, sun, salt and hurricanes refuse to eat. Not practical.

But in researching it I came across this design called monolithic dome construction. It fascinated me for a number of reasons, and I still think it is one example of an ideal construction technique for places like this. It's a very rugged building technique, and incredibly energy efficient as well.

I found some good examples on the internet, and am going to stick my neck out here and post one I lifted from a realtor's website online:

This one is famous in some circles. It was the only home on that stretch of Pensacola Beach to survive a hurricane. It has been featured on various television programs about cool architecture, etc. Here's another view:



(I DID try to email the owners for permission to use their photos, by the way. Undeliverable email address.)

Now that one is huge, three floors and a garage. One of the nice things about this design is that you can make it any size you want for practical purposes.

In any case, what keeps me thinking about this is that little hill right there in the photo looking west. I expanded that part of the image to show you what I am talking about:



Now see where I am going with this? Can't you just imagine finding a piece of property on the water like that, shaving the top of that little hill flat, and putting a dome house on it? One you designed specifically for the site? You have to use your imagination a little here, but it could look something like this:



If you painted it to match the terrain, I think it would be a really cool, solid, house. Just me thinking, and that's what happens down here without a boat to play with. But if anyone is interested in these dome houses just send us an email and I will link you up with what I have found during my own searches.

Okay, well...I started out saying I was going to keep this post short and then started rambling on again. Must be the excitement of knowing our boat should be leaving Florida tomorrow. Through Tropical Storm Paloma and down here Tuesday morning. And in anticipation of some fun trips, we have just ordered a new underwater camera to replace our last new underwater camera that we dare not get wet anymore. This will be our fourth underwater camera setup. Ah, but THIS time we also ordered an underwater housing to put the waterproof camera into. I think that's what the Brits call wearing 'braces and belt', meaning a backup plan to keep your pants from falling down.

I wish I had a fresh sunset photo for you, but we gotta wait out this gray period.

At least its warm. And the boat is on it's way.

Best news in a long time...

This week we have a whole lot of not-much news to report. Interspersed with some really big news that I almost hesitate to report. Big news for us, anyway. And news that should help improve the quality of this blog again in the not too distant future. But first, the now traditional sunrise photo. And the usual drivel before I get to the good stuff...



We get up before dawn. We really don't have to, but we are much more the kind of people who want to maximize the day than we are into the nighttime party scene. Oh, don't get me wrong we enjoy a late evening that runs into morning laughing and talking with friends..but most of the people we know down here tend to be early risers. With the exception of a couple of professional party animals whom shall remain unnamed at this time. YOU know who you are...

I think it's because most houses here are set up to maximize the breezes. A lot of open louvers and sliding doors and windows. And not many curtains. Because curtains block the breezes, they billow in them. So the standard seems to be light curtains that are pushed to the side. This means when the sun comes up, the room lights up right along with it.

On the subject of houses, there is not much new to report. Oh, finally the replacements for the aluminum roof caps arrived.



And we were treated to the wonderful sound of the pitter-patter of booted feet on the roof, repairing a big part of the minimal hurricane damage.



I just noticed I caught the reflection of the shoreline in the photo. I suppose I should pretend that I did it on purpose to add some character to the photo, but I didn't. Pure coincidence.

We still have a dump load of broken outside lights to deal with, but that will come in time. I also notice that with the aluminum roofing, the mangled sat dish, and the piece of ugly art Hurricane Hanna made of our boat's T-top..



...we are accumulating quite a bit of aluminum here. I have been looking into what it takes to weld aluminum. This strikes me as a good skill to have here. But so far, the TIG and MIG welding machines I am finding online are 'cost prohibitive', as the saying goes.

I might be limited to my imagination on projects I can bolt together to make use of this stuff.

The repairs to the roof came just in time. This being late fall, this is our rainy season and we do get the passing storm. Yesterday we had a real storm, with winds gusting to over 30 mph, and rain blowing horizontally. Yesterdays sunrise was ominous to begin with:



And then it got worse. Glad the roof doesn't leak any more.

Heres another view of a recent sunrise. I know its pretty much redundant, but I also figure you guys just starting into a Northern winter will appreciate it. We sure would have ..when we lived up North and dreamed of tropical islands.



So we have fallen into the habit of watching the sun come up with a fresh cup of coffee in hand.
We feel we are becoming connoisseurs of tropical sunrises, and sunsets. Lately our morning coffee sessions have been shared by some of the 'locals'. For example, this morning an American Kestrel stopped by to share it with us:



They have gotten to the point where they are accustomed to us, and don't fly away as long as we don't make any sudden or threatening moves. They sit on the little wall surrounding our patio, shredding the things they eat, as messy as a teenaged son. And they are just assuming we are okay with that. Raptors seem to have a bit of an attitude. I guess that's understandable when one is at the top of the food chain as one knows it. The kestrels are now almost daily visitors to the house. They act like we built it for their enjoyment. And watching them gives us some enjoyment as well. It's a good trade. From a practical standpoint, I guess it's a whole lot more comfortable sitting on a roof than on a cactus, when one is watching for stuff to kill. I know it would a no-brainer if it was me sitting on the cactus.

We have not seen the Ospreys yet this winter, but it's early in the season yet. They'll be here. We can see their nest from the patio. It's high on a telephone pole in a deserted part of the boatyard.

The DIY projects continue. I don't even keep a list of all the little things I have to fix, but it seems there is a new one almost every day. This week, for example, La Gringa finally hit the roof over something as silly as water pressure. We have had a problem with it fluctuating from weak to non-existent. This has been going on since the house was built, just one more thing in a long list. Over the past 8 months, I had gotten accustomed to taking the three minute shower. This week La Gringa informed me that she had just upped the priority on fixing the water pressure. I think it had something to do with the water stopping entirely when she was standing in the shower with a head covered in shampoo. Women are funny that way. I guess I don't get the shampoo thing, takes me all of three seconds, but anyhow I had called a plumber to come sort this out....three or four weeks ago. He hasn't shown up, and rather than restart the clock with another plumber I decided it was time to educate myself about water pressure. Seems like one of those things a homeowner should know about I guess. So I got onto the internet and found a site all about plumbing and pumps, and pressure switches. "Aha!" (thought I) "Pressure switch!!"

SO after reading up on pressure switches, I located that sucker and promptly tore it apart.



Of course, the intelligent thing to do would have been to take the photo BEFORE I disconnected all the wires. But hey, it's only five wires. Not rocket science. At least I remembered the important part: Turn the electricity off before you start.

Sure enough, the contacts were burnt on the relay, there was silt in the little pressure port hole, and the adjustment was all wrong. I tried to just buy a replacement, but none of the stores I visited had any in stock. Par for the course. Could order one for, say, three weeks from now. I didn't get the impression La Gringa wanted to go another three weeks without water pressure.. So of course the answer is to just rebuild the one we have.



I took the opportunity to add a pressure gauge to the plumbing, and once I got everything hooked back up I used my new knowledge of pressure switches to adjust the pressure cut-off upwards from 40 to 60 psi. And wow, did that make a difference. Not only in La Gringa's shower, but the washing machine, dishwasher, and these high-tech toilets are all suddenly working better as well. Must be related. Thank goodness for the internet. Arms me with the info I need time after time.

Okay, now the good news. Actually it's fantastic news. Almost unbelievable news.
So fantastic a bit of news that I have hesitated to even mention it here because I did not want to jinx it. But I cannot stand it any longer! I have to tell someone.

It started a couple of weeks after our posts on the hurricanes, and the photos of our smashed up boat, "Cay Lime". You have to understand that Cay Lime was our first boat. We had studied boat hull designs, we looked at where we live, we specified every part of that boat. It was built for us, equipped just as we requested. And we loved it. It was like a member of the family. Only more reliable. We were not looking to replace it. We had a lot of plans and dreams involving Cay Lime. Hanna put an end to all that. We were left high and dry, literally. We really missed the boat, so to speak.

After I posted the photos of our barely 18 month old boat smashed upside down on the rocks, La Gringa received an email from someone who has been following the story of our life down here. He goes by the screen name 'Marlinsix' on one of the boating forums. He wrote us that he was a long time boater and fishing fanatic and that he likes the blog. He has ordered a new custom built, 35-foot Calyber sportfishing boat. We are familiar with these beautiful boats, as a friend and neighbor on Pine Cay has been running one down here for a couple of years now.



That was a morning photo back in December, and it didn't come out all that great, but you can see what a nice boat Calyber builds. (Besides, it's the only photo of it that I can find)

These are Carolina boats, built by people who understand the ocean, and combine style, class and function into some of the finest boats you will ever see. Marlinsix's new boat is bigger than the one in the above photo, and he has sent us photos of it being put together:





The Calyber is a big step forward from our kind of small boating. From an open deck, single outboard, day-boat, Marlinsix is going to a twin engine inboard. A Calyber is a mini-ship. From spending the day with food and drinks from a cooler full of ice, he has graduated to a boat in which people can go below to take a nap. Or brew a pot of coffee. Or open the fridge for a Coke. Or fry up breakfast. This is a boat where you step down from the deck into the cabin.

You could live on that boat. This is a different animal from the open deck fishing boat setups we are accustomed to. Its the next step all serious boaters aspire to. Marlinsix has made that leap, and somehow in the grand cosmic scheme of things....we have gotten attached to his good fortune. He is expecting delivery of his new boat later this month. Now here comes the good part of all of this, Marlinsix told us...

If we wanted it, we could have his "old" boat: a Contender 25. It was that simple and direct. He told us that he needed to either retire it or sell it to make room for his new boat. He knew of our misfortune, and said that he would rather see his Contender with someone who appreciated it and would be posting photos of it exploring the TCI than to just sell it to some stranger in Florida. Wow. This kind of luck just doesn't happen very often. And you sure do not run into people this generous and thoughtful on a regular basis, either. At least, not in our experience.

When La Gringa read me Marlinsix's email, I thought about it for about sixteen or seventeen milliseconds, looked at La Gringa and said "yeah, right. Whats the catch?"

But we were soon assured that there really was no 'catch'. It was just someone being incredibly nice to us.

Thats pretty much a bombshell in our little world. The Contender is set up for just the kind of boating we do here. The owner sent us some photos of it tied up to his dock in Florida.



The Contender is a nominal 25 feet long, but that is a little bit misleading. With the way the outboard is mounted on a bracket outside the enclosed transom, the length is actually 28.5 feet. This makes it six and a half feet longer than our "Cay Lime" panga. It also has a newer Yamaha (our favorite brand, too!) 300 hp. outboard on it. That is twice the horsepower on Cay Lime:



But it gets even better. The Contender already has a good GPS, a sound system, a VHF radio and a pair of outriggers for some serious fishing. In fact, the name of the boat is "Wahoo Serious", and it's set up ready to go do exactly that. Serious wahoo fishing time in the TCI! (can you tell I am moderately excited about this? If I suscribed to that old cliche about pinching myself to be sure I am not dreaming, I would be a walking bruise by now)

The console is laid out similar to what we are used to running, with Yamaha gauges, and the same type of hydraulic steering and controls that we have been using on our boat. I basically already know a lot about the systems on the boat, without ever having seen it.



This boat differs from "Cay Lime" in a lot of ways. "Wahoo Serious" is more of a 'deep-v' style hull. This is a heavier constructed boat, with the center of gravity lower in the water than "Cay Lime". It needs a little deeper water than "Cay Lime", but should run fast offshore in heavier seas. It also has a lot more range than Cay Lime. Another nice features of a deeper hull is that there is room under the deck for plenty of storage:



As if the gift of the boat itself is not enough, Marlinsix is sending it down with one of the best boat trailers around. Its made of aluminum, and has three axles.



This is going to be perfect for trailering the boat over these rough roads, and make it easier for us to launch it at some of the unimproved boat ramps around here. And I guarantee you, no matter where we end up keeping the boat, it will be on this trailer and secured if a tropical storm gets within a few hundred miles of us. Oh yeah, we learned that one. Yessiree Bob, we did.

Here's another view of "Wahoo Serious", being inspected by it's former crew and Marlinsix's best friend Mickey:



Knowing our little furball Dooley, I think it is going to be fun watching him go crazy sniffing around our "new" boat looking for the dog who was last on board.

Okay, well this post basically turned into my doing mental cartwheels about us getting back on the water again. This should be in about a week and a half, or as soon as we can arrange to ship the boat. Oh, I wanted to mention something about that, too. When I called the shipping company with the dimensions of the Contender, they quoted me $13,000. to ship it down from Florida! Ouch. When we heard that, La Gringa and I decided that we would fly up to Miami and drive it down ourselves. I spent days mapping out our trip, making lists of what we would need to run a 25 foot open boat almost 700 miles down through the Bahamas. We were looking at a fifty mile crossing across the Gulf Stream from Florida to Bimini, clearing customs and immigration there, and then island hopping all the way down the Bahamas to the TCI. The trip was planned to go something like this:



I picked a route that would let us stay protected from most storms. And an alternate route, just in case. I researched hotels, and marinas all the way. The plan was for us to try to travel 100-150 miles per day, and pull into the next port well before dark. This is easy in the northern part of the islands, but it gets a little more sparse in the Southern Bahamas.

And just as we were about to call the airline and start that hassle you get these days when you try to buy a one-way air fare, the gods smiled upon us once again. The phone rang, and our contact at the shipping company had come up with a way to ship the boat, and trailer, for less than half of their previous quote! As exciting as the idea was of us two old fogeys (well, one old fogey and a young chick) running an open boat down through the Bahamas for a week, the new quote made it actually cheaper to ship everything. And of course the risk factor goes way down.



One good thing came out of the planning, once we had made our minds up that we were going to make the trip. I got online with various resorts and hotels in the Bahamas, and have now struck up an email correspondence with a fellow named Shorty. He runs the only lodging (that I can find online, anyway) on the island of Mayaguana. We are not making the trip down the Bahamas chain this time, but we are planning to run up to Mayaguana to meet Shorty one of these days. It's only 45 miles Northeast of Providenciales. This Contender should do that.

SO, back to Plan A...and Marlinsix kindly arranged to have the boat put on the trailer, and shrink wrapped for the trip:



As I write this, our new boat is already at the freight terminal in Florida waiting for boat space. It's most likely to be on a freighter this coming Friday, which will put it in Customs here around the following Wednesday, November 12th. Want to hear something weird, and somewhat too cool to be totally coincidental? Ok.. I figure we should be able to clear the boat and haul it home on Thursday November 13th. We will have to buy some lifejackets, fenders, get it registered, that sort of thing. But I am betting that we can get it launched and fired up some time during the day on Friday, November 14th.

Did I ever mention that La Gringa and I have our birthdays on the same date? It's true, we have the same birthday. What's more, we decided to get married on 'our' birthday, so that date is also our wedding anniversary. Guessed the weird part yet? That date is November the 14th.

I think a celebration may be in order.

And finally, we should once again start having some interesting photos to post here other than these boring sunsets.

Fine tuning

Life here is starting to resemble 'normal' again. Or maybe 'normal ' is again starting to resemble life here. I'm not sure which description is more accurate, they've both changed. A few more days have slipped in between us and the last hurricane, thickening that hard padding that time seems to provide in thin layers. It's kind of like building a temporary mattress using one sheet of paper at a time. It takes a while before it starts becoming comfortable. And it's all temporary.

We know that there is some day in the future when talk of Hanna and Ike will start to sound like history. We are not quite there yet. We are falling back into some of our interrupted habits. We again take time to watch the sunrises over a non-threatening sea. We have a new appreciation for an ocean that behaves itself. And another upgrade on our respect for Mother Nature.



The shock of seeing the damage around the island has mostly worn off. The daily sight of ripped up trees, bare roof rafters, and downed power and telephone lines no longer grabs our attention. It's hard to remember when the sight of a startingly blue tarp would catch our immediate attention. They used to look out of place up on a roof. Not any more.

Driving into town for groceries today we did notice that the power company had sent another team out to secure some of the downed power lines.on the rough little road we live on.



I would have used a clove-hitch, but whatever knot they tied seems to be doing the job. One less thing to dodge in the Land Rover.

We finally managed to get our hands on a new satellite dish. We have been without tv since Hurricane Hanna...which seems like both long ago and just yesterday all at the same time, if that makes any sense. It's not that we normally watch a lot of television. We tend to check in with things like the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and sometimes the History Channel. We appreciate a good movie on Friday nights, with the pizza we order from the little shop just three miles down this limestone, sand, and saltwater road.

We get back into the aftermath repair stuff in fits and starts. Some things have to be done right away, and many have to wait until the island is restocked with materials. La Gringa and I have been moving from one little project to another, until they all seem to blend together. Someone could write 'Aftermath Blues"...

....Went down dis mawning....(guitar riff)
To the hardware sto'...(little harmonica here)
they all out of screen wire,
and we got to wait fo' mo'...

I sees my problem.
I knows, just what it is.
You know I got to muddle through
dis Pri-or-ity Par-al-y-sis...

Personally, I was disappointed that the old sat dish isn't working. I whacked the heck out of it with a hammer and a 2x4 block. I managed to get all the dents reduced to fist size. I got the concaves and the convexes mostly on their respective sides. I guess a smooth and focused surface is more critical than I realized.



After a couple hours of trying to get it to work, the experts here pronounced it finito. Malo. Kaput. Late yesterday they managed to get a new, smaller, fiberglass dish installed on the same pole where the 8 foot aluminum dish finally met Golgotha.



The big dish was supposed to set us up for HDTV, should we ever want it. This is another example of my not paying close enough attention to details. I should have realized how vulnerable a large, thin metal dish would be to strong winds. We have read in the local paper that the wind velocities on Provo were measured at 150 mph. Well, heck. Flimsy just is not going to do in those circumstances. I should also have realized that we are not really interested in HDTV. We are just not the 'big-screen' kind of people, and we did not need a big-screen type of dish. Well, the new one should not only handle wind loads a little better, but it's small enough that La Gringa and I could lift it off and put it away if we needed to.

I wanted to hacksaw about two feet off that pole before the installers put the new dish up. They talked me out of it, saying the signal would be better this way. I suspect they didn't want to hang around listening to me grumble and lecture on installation improvements while sawing the post off. I still plan to cut it off and get the dish closer to the ground, but that can wait. There are a lot of other things going on around here with higher priorities. Like, for example, dismantling the old dish and storing the pieces so that it does not become the Mother of All Frisbees in the next storm to come by. (At a hundred miles an hour, I bet that thing could put your eye out.)

I think I am just going to cut it into two by two foot squares of aluminum sheet and stack it in the garage. I am sure it will be useful over the coming years. Same thing with the aluminum struts. In fact, I am germinating an idea of using those to toughen up our wimpy garage doors. They are made out of aluminum, and that's a good match.

Aluminum is a mixed blessing down here in the tropics. It's very useful when it is installed and used correctly. A lifetime of undersea operations left me with a basic understanding of what goes on when dissimilar metals get together in a high salt environment. It's a little like putting a pair of love-struck teenagers in a hot tub unsupervised in the dark. Eventually, unless you provide some insulation, electrons are going to start swapping places.

Okay, here's some advice on dissimilar metals, re-learned the hard way, for those contemplating building a vacation home in the tropics (this is the DIY section of the blog post). Windows ordered from the US tend to come with aluminum screens in them. I don't know why, but they do. A popular method of finishing off holes in the screen wire for window cranks seems to be putting a brass grommet in the hole:



I am sure some window design guy figured brass and aluminum are both good choices for materials exposed to the elements. And they are, generally, if you keep them apart. Now someone smarter than I am would take one look at that and say "Oh HO!" (or something to that effect) "Brass grommet, aluminum screen, add salt and some water and time, and abracadabra, presto chango..."



The aluminum disappears. This is usually the case with aluminum, it being softer than just about anything you put it in contact with. Of course after a few months, there is not enough left to support the brass grommet, which falls out next time you remove the screen to clean it leaving a situation remarkably like this:



Yep, a hole big enough for an entire squadron of mosquito commandos to fly formation through without any danger of touching wingtips.

Now take about 30 of these screens, let them corrode silently away by themselves for six months, and then shake them violently with 140+ mph winds for a day or so, and you get a house that is no longer off-limits to bugs. Sure, the answer is to go to the hardware store and buy several miles of the plastic or fiberglass screen and replace them all. Wouldn't you just know that somehow the entire island found the same problem at the same time? (As a side note, there is PLENTY of aluminum screen in stock at the hardware store..)

One more example and then I will leave the DIY stuff alone. This one is about the outside light fixtures. I could use a number of adjectives before the words 'light fixtures', but will just use 'poorly designed'. These were supposed to be brass. The manufacturers description of them was something like "weathered brass finish"..

Well, the truth is that they were brass plated aluminum. Then they drill holes through the sandwiched brass/aluminum/brass to expose the edges, and put a solid brass rod through it. Secure it with some hardware of yet another metallurgical nature, and, well, you can see where this is going:



Yes, the aluminum has taken this opportunity to fulfill it's lifelong ambition to turn into an AlkaSeltzer.

Add some serious wind and you end up hearing things like "Oh look, Gringo. Here's one that 's almost still intact over here in the corner... "



Twenty one outside light fixtures. Toast. And a lot of broken glass scattered from one end of the property to the other.

I could go on (of course) with a lot of these examples. But the basic lesson here, if you are building in the tropics, is that one needs to pay close attention to the construction of every little thing containing metal. Stainless steel is good. Brass is good. Bronze would be fine. Design your home like you were outfitting a ship and you should be okay.

The weather has been really good since Hurricane Week. Mostly clear days, balmy breezes as opposed to howling, life-threatening wind, and only the passing squall or thunderstorm to turn the dog into a burrowing mammal. The night before last we had a nice electrical show going on just to the South. It was so dark out that you literally could barely see your hand in front of your face, and then Zap and KaBOOM!!!



All the light in that photo came from above. I wanted to point out the splendor of a midnight thunderstorm to Dooley the Deranged Dog. Strangely enough, he was nowhere to be found. I eventually located him behind a toilet studying the plumbing.

So that's what we are up to. Moving from one little project to another. The vegetation is bouncing back, with the Sea Grapes being the first to recover. Those splashes of bright green are the Sea Grapes.



A week ago they, like just about everything else, were bare, blasted sticks.

And speaking of blasted sticks, many of our new buttonwoods were literally broken and torn into pieces by Ike. We pretty much figured they were history. But we are happily amazed that they, too, are coming back to life in their own 'new' normal:



And even the thatch palms are showing fresh growth hidden down among the storm blasted remnants.



If you look behind the plants in those last two photos, you can see how gray and wasted the shore of the normally green salina is. That was under several feet of seawater during Hanna.

So, life moves on at it's own pace for the most part. And we are really looking forward to being able to get back on the water someday,and to once again being more concerned with such deep and serious issues as which sunset photos to post for our friends in high latitudes.



Hard to believe that most of that road right there was under three feet of raging seawater two weeks ago.

I am going to try to move this blog away from hurricane damage and back to clear tropical waters, fishing, and similar stuff. But there will be storm related issues everywhere we look for a long time to come. We send our best wishes to the people in Texas who are about a week behind us when storms come through. It does get better. Things do find a new normal.

And for those of you who are looking for more information and photos on some of the other islands here, you can find photos of Salt Cay at:

http://web.me.com/piratesofsaltcay/Site/ike1.html

And more photos (by other people) of the island we live on at:

http://stormcarib.com/reports/current/tci_terry.shtml

The house with the blue roof standing all alone is where our friends M&M rode out Hanna, while the water rose all the way to the deck. The submerged road is this one.

Dog Days of August

We are now into our favorite time of year here in the islands. The Trade Winds are not quite so strong in the summer. The water seems to be even clearer than usual. There are fewer rental cars on the wrong side of the road. We have not been seeing the brilliant sunsets we get so often in the winter, but the sunrises are still a great way to start the day:



That 'blob' in the sun is the old freighter wreck out on the bank. It lines up perfectly with the sunrise when viewed from our patio this time of year. We will get this angle on it for the next few weeks, and then the sunrise will be moving to the right as it transits the sky further and futher to the South.



Things at the house have settled down a bit as compared to the past six months. I am still looking for options on replacing the garage door that continues to have problems with the environment and suffers from initial installation errors.



It is looking like I will be building a 'barn' style door that slides to the side on rollers. Oh boy. Just what I needed; another major project. Right now the issue is finding stainless steel hardware for it. I am not going to waste the time and expense of putting anything less in. This place eats steel. At least the landscaping vegetation is starting to get established. It can't happen quick enough to suit us. Another few months and hopefully we can lose that 'construction site' look.

I finally did a site clean-up, and put together a couple vehicles full of junk to haul to the dump. Going to the dump these days has become quite an adventure. A lot of hard looking people who do not speak English come out of the bushes and start unloading your vehicle for you. Whether you want them to or not. They grabbed an old automobile battery and a bicycle seat from this load. It's a little bit of a nervous feeling, actually, to have people start rummaging through your trash while it is still in the vehicle. I don't go there totally unarmed anymore. I try not to go at all.



You can see that the mahogany and thatch palm trees on the windward side of the house are not doing as well as those in the lee. We are giving them some time to see if they recuperate. They went from a nice comfy nursery environment in Florida to life on a bleak, windy hillside overlooking the ocean. We added a whole lot of sun, salt, and wind to their lives. We keep upping the irrigation to them, and there's hope. New leaves forming and all that stuff. They are not dead, just battered.

We still spend a lot of time watching the entertainment of living near the ocean. In addition to the variety of sunrises:



We also get to watch a lot of boats. And we do enjoy watching boats. It's amazing how much you can learn about hull design, trim, and seamanship from observation. Even though we are in the middle of the official Hurricane Season, we still are seeing cruising sailors coming by:



And as has always been the case we keep thinking of what it would be like to have a decent sized sailboat to use to explore these and other islands. Something we could live on for a week or so at a time. With gasoline here at the marinas presently costing over $6 a gallon..wind power is looking better than ever.

But it's not just the sailboats that we watch. We see the Marine Police coming and going every day, along with the charter dive boats and a lot of private boats and local fishermen. Speaking of local fishermen, August 1 was the opening day of lobster season here. We knew that the TCI government was making efforts to step up their enforcement of laws to protect the local lobster fishery. We have seen an increase in the number of patrols they are running, and run into them in places where we had not normally seen any law enforcement on a regular basis.

I think most of the expatriots here who own boats, like ourselves, are pretty much accustomed to such things as boat registrations, safety equipment, and obtaining fishing licenses. A lot of the locals here, however, are having a hard time dealing with what must seem to them like new and unreasonable restrictions on their long-time fishing traditions. On opening day of lobster season I saw something I had never seen before; the Marine Police towing two local boats to the marina in custody:



Now I am making an assumption that they are in custody. They were being towed by the Police,and their outboards were in the up position. I guess it's possible that both of these boats had engine trouble and the police were helping them out. But I don't think so. The locals have no radios on their boats for the most part, and wouldn't call the police for a tow even if they did. Two outboards breaking down in the same area on the opening day of lobster season, with stronger enforcement being announced, well, it just seems like too much coincidence. I feel sorry for these guys. The fines are very harsh here, with each undersize or illegally caught lobster running thousands of dollars. And the worst part..the government confiscates the boat. OUCH! That's a man's livlihood here. And it's not all...two weeks ago four guys from the Dominican Republic who got caught taking lobster illegally here were arrested. They are now serving seven months in prison on Grand Turk. Then they get deported. Yep, I made sure our permits are all up to date. It would ruin my whole day to get arrested, get fined ten or twenty thousand dollars or go to jail, AND lose the boat.

We have been getting caught up with small projects around the house. And thinking ahead to some future projects. Last week La Gringa spotted a large Casurinas tree that had been cut down and was aging nicely. So we scooted over with a saw and I picked up some of the wood to play with on some future woodworking projects I have in mind:



The largest one of those is about a six inch diameter. That's the biggest size I can turn into 'lumber' using just a table saw. I am thinking of adding a bandsaw and a lathe to the shop. Then I could get into some serious sized projects, more than the little wooden box I made for LaGringa from the last casurinas branch we brought home.

We made a quick run out to Pine Cay yesterday to pick up our aerial photography 'stuff ' that we had left there back before we had a home to keep it in. Unlike Provo and the other islands here, Pine Cay doesn't really change all that much from year to year. I did notice that the pine trees that gave Pine Cay it's name seem to be making a comeback, finally:



The small pine forest that had been there for hundreds of years has been just blackened, dead stumps for the past few years. Some kind of infestation. But that seems to be over now.

I snapped a few photos of this and that while we were on our way back to the marina.
Like the tracks made by an iguana crossing the 'road':



The drag mark is made by the iguana's tail, and you can see the footprints on either side. Iguanas seem to be making a bit of a comeback on Pine Cay as well. Maybe they are coming over in response to all the development happening on other islands. Iguanas here can swim quite well, and cross between islands by inflating themselves with air and swimming across.

While I was wandering around looking for things to photograph, of course my 'driver' and 'bodyguard' were keeping an eye on me:



(note the dog hiding on the golf cart. Note the potential thunderstorms developing. I am sure you can put that together.)

The airport at Pine Cay now doubles as a cinema...and there's a new sign added to reflect the recent airport expansion:



The movie screen is two 4x8 foot sheets of plywood painted white. Makes one wonder "What next? An airport bar?" Probably not, since there are two bars at the Meridian Club just a few hundred yards away.

When we stopped off at the Meridian Club I managed to get a scanning electron microscope image of Dooley the Demented's brain during a thunderstorm. This is what it looks like with all his little synapses firing like the Fourth of July:



Just kidding..that's actually a large sponge someone dropped off as decoration in front of the club:



The local 'motor pool' seems to be in good shape:



and there must have been some rain since we were here last week. I noticed the bugs are out in force:



(Why does this make me start humming old "Iron Butterfly" songs?)

While we were on the little island we stopped by to see some old friends who have a vacation home there. They have been exploring these waters for about thirty years, and have picked up a pretty good collection of old stuff. They have a small 'rock garden' made from the ballast stones of an ancient wreck, and I wanted to show you what we are talking about when I mention our searches for them. This is what an old 'ballast pile' looks like underwater:



After several hundred undisturbed years on the bottom the stones pretty much blend into the background. They get cemented into lumps by marine growth. They get covered in silt and algae. They are not that easy to spot until you get the hang of what to look for.

Here is another view, different pile, from a different angle:



I had tied a rope with a float on it to the pile so I could get a GPS position for it on the surface.

Now, this is what the ballast stones look like after you clean them up:



You can probably tell that these are river rocks. Pieces of granite, some of slate.. but none of them the soft marine limestone that is the only native rock here. This is what the stones would have looked like when those sailors piled them into the hull of their ship in Europe back around 1650. I am guessing they realized that these stones were making a one-way trip to the tropics. And so were some of the sailors.

It's interesting what kinds of things get found in the ocean if you look for them in the right places:



I believe our friends the antique collectors just donated a huge part of their long time "treasure" to the local maritime museum. I'd give them our anchor, too, if they wanted it.

So that's the sort of stuff we have been up to over the past week since our guests went back to the Rocky Mountains. Just the same old stuff.