February 10, 2018 - February 13, 2018
We woke up to beautiful weather once more on Saturday morning. Our intention was to explore Tilloo Cay and go to Lubber’s Cay (just north of Tilloo) and have lunch at Cracker P's Restaurant. Unfortunately, the wind was strong once we were away from the protection of Tilloo Cay and the choppy waves came over the sides of the dinghy and drenched us.
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| This schooner was anchored between Tilloo and Lubber’s Cay. |
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| This unusual structure was at the far north end of Tilloo Cay. Could there be a princess imprisoned there. |
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| You can see how the movement of the water eats away at the limestone islands. |
Back at the boat we decided to head over to Marsh Harbour. The trip took about 2 hours since we had to go around Lubber’s Bank.
Since Marsh Harbour is so familiar to us I probably won’t have many photos so I’m going to veer from my “travel log” style for some nautical information. In the past few years that I have been sailing with Bob on s/v Rainy Days I have learned quite a few nautical terms. Let’s start with rope. In the store it is called rope, but once you bring it aboard a boat it is called line. Once the line is put to it’s proper use it then has a new name. A halyard is a line that is used to haul things up or let them down. There is a halyard to raise the main sail, one to raise the Jib, several to raise flags, one to haul the dinghy onto the bow, and one to haul the dinghy motor onto the boat. A painter is a line connecting the dinghy to the boat. A sheet is a line used in controlling the sails when the boat is under sail. Spring lines help to keep the boat from moving forward or aft when docked. Of course, there are dock lines, but that’s self explanatory. I’m sure there are many more terms for lines, but those are the ones I know so far.
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| Halyard, thought to be a contraction of Haul Yard as Yard refers to sails. This halyard is used to hoist our flag. |
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| There's our painter, don’t ask me where that term comes from. It makes no sense at all to me. |
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| Jib sheet means the line that controls the forward sail called a Jib or Genoa. |
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| The dock lines are the black ones. They are 12 strand nylon. The nylon allows them to stretch if necessary. |
On Sunday I decided to get started on my Androsia batik quilt. I cut the templates for the squares and triangles from the cardboard on the back of a tablet. I don’t know how much I’ll work on it, but the colors are vibrant.
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I’ll have to sew by hand while on the boat,
but can complete the work by machine when
we get back to Baltimore.
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The weather has been perfect since we arrived at Marsh Harbour. On Monday we did some engine maintenance which means changing the oil and checking the transmission fluid and coolant. My part in the process is clearing the items from the 1/4 berth that we have stored there, handing bob what he needs while he is doing engine stuff, and putting everything right after the maintenance is complete. After lunch we did a few errands and then went to Mermaid Reef for some snorkeling. Again there were an abundance of beautiful colorful fish of all sizes. They liked the bread we brought this time better than the hot dogs. The water was a comfortable temperature and I swam and snorkeled until I was exhausted. Bob got some outstanding go pro shots of the fish.
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| This sergeant major was happy with the peas we fed the fish that day. |
Another perfect day dawned on Tuesday. We had breakfast at the Golden Grouper and then walked to Maxwell’s for some provisioning. We purchased so much we called a taxi to take us to Union Jack pier and our dinghy. There were a couple of guys there to help us unload and reload everything in the dinghy. I was sorry that I only had a couple of dollars to give them as their help was much appreciated. I have to remember to keep more ones on hand for these times. After lunch we motored back to Mermaid Reef, this time with frozen peas. The fish were even happier with the peas. I snorkeled even longer today. It was hard to stop. Snorkeling turns me into my “mermaid self”.
My next blog post will finish our stay at Marsh Harbour and continue with our visit to Hope Town, Man-o-war, and Corn Bay.
Thank you for reading my blog.
