January 1, 2008. Happy New Year all.

It’s been about a week since my last update. Early in the week a large ketch that’s been tied to the sea wall in the marina decided to head out for the Dominican Republic.

The thing that stands out about this boat is the amount of stuff this guy has on deck. It’s a pretty big boat, somewhere in the 50 foot range. It is a center cockpit like ours, but with a much bigger aft deck. He’s got 2 outboards for his dinghy, exercise equipment, a chain saw and a full size Harley Davidson motorcycle. This stuff is all wadded together with about a hundred other things all over the boats deck.

As I was taking the dogs in for their morning walk I came across this guy just after he’d run aground while leaving the marina. There were already 3 dinghies acting as tugboats trying to push him off the shoal. After I got involved another 3 or 4 dinghies joined in as well. We tried leaning him way over using his main halyard tied to another long line to no avail. Finally the pump out boat jumped in and started to tow him while everyone else pushed and I took the line from the masthead out as far as I could to get him to heel as much as possible.

Finally he started to slide forward and back into the deeper water. As I rolled up his masthead line to throw back aboard he asked if I could call for a bridge opening for him as he doesn’t have a VHF radio. I said “Dude, I’m in my dinghy” The guy has an 800 pound motorcycle on board, but no radio. The pump out guy heard him and volunteered to call the bridge for him. Then he advised him to stay in the channel all the way to the end and not take the shortcut through the mooring field as it was low tide and his 7 ½ foot draft could be a problem.

After finishing my dog walking mission I was on my way back through the anchorage and who do I come across? That’s right; the overloaded ketch decided to take the shortcut anyway and he was stuck again. The pump out boat was already there and was able to get him off and out through the bridge he went. Until the next day that is……..

The next morning we’re sitting on the boat and heard a boat that’s just left the harbor call out to the bridge keeper. He said that there was an inbound sailboat that has been dismasted and has no radio. The wind has been more than a little brisk lately and we watched for the poor unfortunate to come through the bridge.

We’re a half mile from the bridge and as the boat came into view, guess who. At first we saw tons of crap on deck but it could be debris, it was to far away to really see yet. I thought that the overloaded boat from yesterday had been a ketch but this one appeared to have been a sloop with its mast broken at the lowest set of spreaders. As he got closer we realized that indeed it was the ketch from yesterday, but he was now missing both masts.

He got caught with too much sail up trying to get the heavy boat to make some speed. The wind was up and gusty and about 30 miles offshore it all blowed away.
(Blowed…. was an entry in the cruisers dictionary about a year ago) It took him all night to salvage what he could and limp back into port.

We spent New Years Eve day out on Makeitso. That’s our friends, Rick and Linda’s huge diesel hybrid catamaran. There were eight of us plus Molly and Tucker and the Makeitso’s dog Kirby.

We motored out to Sombrero Reef, a trip of about 5 miles or so. Out at the reef there are free moorings that you can pick up and spend the day snorkeling or diving the reef. The water was very warm and the visibility was good. We saw tons of fish, some we recognized and some we didn’t. We even saw a couple of 3-4 foot Barracudas before being run out of the water by an influx of jellyfish. After lunch some of us went back in while others opted to relax on the boat.

The trip home involved a lesson in flying an asymmetrical spinnaker. Tom and Deb have a spinnaker on board their boat, Hearts Desire so that made Tom defacto resident spinnaker expert. The Makeitso’s had a brand spankin new spinnaker and needed a lesson on how to fly it. Tom put up with all of our stupid questions and “ideas” of how to fly the big sail. Once the sail was up (in spite of our help) it took a little trial and error to get the sail trimmed properly as Toms only previously done this on a monohull. Finagling with the sails shape increased our boat speed from 1 knot to almost 4 knots in only 5 knots of breeze. Not bad for a twenty nine thousand pound boat. The lesson went well and I learned a lot as I’m sure Rick and Jim did as well.

After returning to our respective boats we cleaned up and headed out for the New Years Eve celebration at Docksides, an outdoor waterfront pub. With live music, food, spirits and ten friends sharing a table it was a fine way to end 2007.

When we got back to the boat we were in for an unnerving event. We’ve been leaving the dogs on top of the boat when we’re away during the day. This way its cooler for them, they can take care of business if they feel the need and Tucker likes to bark at any dinghy that ventures too close for his liking. If it’s blowing pretty good we put them below as we’re afraid one of them could slip off the deck.

The night was very dark and the water was dead calm, not a hint of breeze or a ripple so we decided to leave them in the cockpit. We rode to dinner with Rick and Linda in their dinghy leaving ours tied to the back of our boat. Upon our return, up pops Tuckers head and he makes his way from the cockpit to the aft deck to see who’s here. Molly is usually right there with him and she’s nowhere to be seen. Christy is already standing on our swim platform calling her when I just happen to glance down and see Molly sitting in our dinghy.

Molly is terrified of fireworks. At the first sign of fireworks she usually climbs up and sits in my lap and a few times she’s even jumped down the 6 feet from the cockpit to the cabin looking for some place to hide. She shakes uncontrollably and she even starts to sweat, I know, I know, dogs don’t sweat blah blah blah, bullshit, she sweats.

There must have been random fireworks during the evening and we never heard them with the loud music at Docksides. Usually the dinghy floats about 8 feet behind the boat but with the calm conditions it must have been close enough for her to make the jump. The poor thing was a sweaty mess, she must have been terrified and couldn’t find a place to hide from the noise so she figured that down in the dinghy might be better and made the jump. Luckily Christy and I are old and were home by 2200 hours. I can’t believe she made that jump, thank God she made that jump, she’d have been gone. I’m thinking that any luck we had left over from 2007 was used up right there.

Our paperwork for the dog’s entry into the Bahamas has arrived so we’re all set and ready to go. We’re still doing odd chores and refurbishing everything we can as we wait for the next available weather window to make our crossing.

One of the things on our “to-do” list was retaping the spreader ends.
It gave me a chance to try out our Top Climber, a device which allows you to climb the mast unassisted. It worked great and while I was doing that Christy used our vacuum bagger to vacuum bag all of our extra paper towels. It’s incredible how much space you can save and when you open them up later they resume their original shape.

The wind is blowing 25 to 30 knots out of the north as I write this and is supposed to continue blowing hard for a few more days. It looks as though we’ll be here through the weekend and we’ll have to see what next week brings.

The anchorage has really filled up and I’m pretty sure that when we set out it will be in the company of 15 to 20 other boats. We’re both ready to hit the road and can’t wait to get to the Bahamas!