Day 40 – 2/10/11

Sitting on a mooring is a relaxing experience, knowing that there is little chance that you will end up drifting several hundred yards away in the middle of the night.  The day dawned sunny and breezy, and Dennis and I are looking at the weather charts to determine if we can make the crossing tomorrow to Eleuthera.  Apparently, while the winds may calm down, the seas will l still be running about 3 to 4 feet, and we have had our share of bumpy rides for this trip.  It appears that we will be here for at least four more days, maybe longer depending on when this latest front moves on. 

Here is one more thing about cruising life, at one point you will be forced to help with an item that you never have done before.  Yes, here I am helping Beth color her hair in the cockpit, since a marina is several days away.  As I am applying the “tint” via a brush, this is the touch up version, two guys dingy by and just looked at me with that strange “are you kidding me” expression.  After it was done, Beth suggested that I make a sign “Hair color by Richard”; after she noted that the results were much better than hers.  After my hair coloring experience, I shuttled Beth to the beach and set up her umbrella and chair, while I went back to some “more manly” boat maintenance items.  My Bananaquit helpers showed up looking for a handout, but soon left finding no crumbs on the deck. 

In the afternoon, we again tried snorkeling, but with little luck due to the winds and current.  We swam around near some of the rocks, seeing very little, and then ventured down to Emerald Rock.  There was a bit of a swell running and I got the dingy surfing down some waves and did a couple of off the tops until the admiral reined me in.  We stopped at Rendezvous Beach and wandered along the sand, admiring the wonderful views.  On the way back to the boat, we stopped by the park headquarters to get another wifi card, and captured a hermit crab crawling down off of the walk way; not your tiny hermit crab that you find at the beach shops. 

Back at the boat, Dennis stopped by and we compared notes on our conch horns that we have been working on.  I have the mouth piece finished and have to close the hole where the conch divers crack it to remove the conch.  Dennis commented that I was probably the only boat with masonry bits on board, but I noted that they came with the “kit”.  We drilled a hole in the top of his conch so that he could then finish shaping the mouth piece with his dremel tool.  Yes, we both carry those tools as they are indispensible for cutting and other projects.  We covered the hole and tried mine, which has a decent sound.