SAMPSON CAY EXUMAS, BAHAMAS
Lets catch up shall we:
Sunday the owner wanted to try some fishing. We got a hold of one of the locals that offered to take us out in to the Exuma Sound and try our luck. The owner decided that we would take the big boat. We got out about a mile offshore and the depth sounder was reading 1,800 ft. We motored up to Compass Cay, the start of the land and sea park, turned around and motored back. We kept our depth between 1,800 ft. and 60 ft. (all within a quarter mile path) and caught.......nothing.
Once back at the dock the owner advised us to just do a wash down. He likes using a PTFE non-skid cleaner on the aft deck so while the owners son was on the bow rinsing the owner and I started washing the aft deck with the non-skid cleaner. About mid-way through the owner decided that it was best just to do a full wash. That consumed the remainder of my day. That's alright though because I really enjoy washing the boat. It took me a few hours but I took pride in making it perfect. I even snuck a comment from one of the boats across the marina "Man, that guy really can make a boat look good." I put a smile on my face and kept scrubbing like I never heard them. I had to re-do the aft deck because the non-skid soaked in to our deck and made the stainless look horrible. It was O.K. with me, I wanted to make everything look good, it just took a lot more water to get the suds out of the deck than what I wanted.
While washing the deck I made friends with the crew of a 62' catamaran next to me. They were just finishing up a charter with some French guests. The owner was from Israel the stew was from Scotland and the captain was from Portugal. The boats hailing port was Belize, but they had just recently brought her over from Spain........phewww. I hung out with them that night and it felt really good to hang out with some new people and talk yachting a bit.
Monday I got up and began preparing the inside of the boat for the arrival of the owners brother and his wife. I was sidetracked however when the garbage compactor decided it wasn't going to work anymore. Thankfully the owner, his son and the son's girlfriend took the responsibility to get the guest room ready while I tore apart the compactor. I checked this, looked at that, punched one thing, and tweaked another...nothing. I checked the power at the source and to my surprise I had 110V. hmmmm...... I plugged the unit back in and ...it worked. I told the owner I fixed it and when he asked what was wrong I said "Well the chromium go-faster blew a fuse and the widget producer wobbled loose." He gave me a confused look and I answered his blank stare with "I don't know, I think the plug just came loose." So it took me awhile to track that down but at least it was an easy fix and we didn't have to fly parts in from the U.S.
The owners brother arrived and the remainder of the evening was spent with them. The owner of a 160' Trinity has gotten to know the owner and he is a riot:
"You like the master suite?" Says the Trinity owner
"Yeah wow this is great, what are these twelve foot ceilings?" says my boss
"I have no idea, you like wine? Wanna see the pool?"
"Wow this is huge what is it a 500 gallon pool?"
"I have no idea. Lets go for a boat ride"
He was so hyper, quick sentences, and ...weird haha. We got some good laughs out of it.
Tuesday,
The owner took his brother out fishing on the big boat and while I charted a magnificent grid pattern over the shelf we still came up empty handed. I don't think my grid pattern had anything to do with it but oh well. I guess no one is catching a dang thing right now. We took the boat up to Sampson Cay for the night. I was eager to give the boat a rinse right away and get the dinghy in the water while everyone was up at lunch. They insisted that I go to lunch with them. It took so long. The bahamas are slow but this was crazy. It took forever to get a drink, to get our food, and it even came down to the point where I said "Listen I have a lot to do can you just bring the bill to the boat when you are ready." About an hour and a half later the bill came. haha. We bought some fresh lobster and grouper and cooked it up on the grill that night, and after I was done with dishes and dinner clean up I went straight to bed.
Wednesday we got up and prepared the boat the head for the snorkeling place known as the aquarium. The V-berth AC has been out and after a brief inspection and some complex "wire wiggling" I somehow managed to fix the unit. Again...I have no idea. :-)
We motored up to the aquarium and I had everything ready to go for when we got there. They had a quick lunch on the grill up on the fly bridge and took the dinghy in to snorkel. Only three people went in and it was a quick trip.
I gave the boat a rinse when we got back and the owners son and his girlfriend went out with our new friend, Joe to catch some conch. They came back with six and as I sit here and write my eyes are watering as they cut up onion for a conch salad.
Sorry for the quick and poor blog, I just wanted to get all caught up.......
Sound Waves Out
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