Tuesday 15th April 2013
So my pet hates for the day.
No 1, Crab pots.
No 2, Tug boats pulling barges
And
No 3, big arse ships.
Well the day started out lovely blue skies, pretty area and so calm, hardly a breezes at all.
We got a phone call from the local boat yard to come around for him to have a look at our outboard motor,
So off we went tied up to their dock with no dramas, the guy comes aboard and within 5 minutes has it all fixed easy as.
So we get charged for half an hours work which sucked but what can you do, pay up and shut up.
So the decision is then do we head out or stay put, the weather forecast is for strong winds in the afternoon, we want to get to a little area in the bay called, Solomon's island, it has a safe anchorage and a few stores where we can get a few parts for the boat.
So against Tom's judgement the Captain makes the decision to just go, and it turned out to be the right decision, just.
So going back to my little rant to start with about the 3 things I hate.
As we are not doing proper watches at the moment we are still trying to do as best we can.
Tom was on watch in the afternoon the wind had picked up a bit, the Captain was down stairs trying to fix one of the navigation things on the computer, and I was reading for a little while, than Tom got a phone call from his new lady friend, so I decided to lay down on the daybed in the cockpit and have a little sleep, my watch was in an hour or so.
Well I just drifted off to sleep and this huge wave hit us man I almost fell off the bed, I jumped up so fast heart racing again, Tom laughing as it was just a wake from a big tanker that went past.
That was the hate for big ships, so I settle down and come down to help the captain fix the computer, he goes up on deck and all of a sudden, a huge tug boat goes flying past the window, than a second later the barge it was pulling goes flying past, what the hell, up I jump again race up the stairs and ask the guys what is happening, apparently, the tug decided to change coarse right in front of us, Tom grabs the radio and calls him to ask what his intentions are, that's very polite boatie talk, man if it was me I would have been using a lot of pirate language, anyway he answers with two whistles, what the hell, so they tell me this is more boatie stuff it means passing on the starboard side, far out why don't they just say we are passing on your right....is that too hard. Man I have so much to learn, so that was the tug boat and barge hate.
And number one hate is wait for it CRAB POTS....these things drive me nuts, not to mention putting my stress levels way into overdrive, I'm on watch standing at the top of the stairs, hitting buttons on the auto pilot to go left than right the back and forth as the guys are on the lookout Tom on the left, no port, gotta be boatie, The Captain on the starboard, (right), why they can't just call it left and right is way beyond me.
Anyway there is a land mind of these little bastards, they are calling out 10° port, 5° starboard, I'm hitting button like crazy and it goes on for ages, I just wanna get a huge machete and cut all the floats off as we go past or better yet grab my gaff and have a huge crab meal for dinner.
Anyway we finally get through them all and are now safe in our new little anchorage for a few days now, then we should have a really good weather window and finally get out of the bay and into open water, the Caribbean is calling us.
Well tomorrow is another Day.