Weather, weather, weather

2-24-10 Still on a mooring in Little Farmers Cay, Exuma. The weather is blowing up again and we have an anchor dropped as well as the mooring for tonight's blow out of the Northwest. Ken and Bill have gone fishing. They now have the inside knowledge that they should simplify their technique and use a hand line with some conch as bait. Soooo, we'll see. Francie and I took Skipper and explored the island yesterday while Bill was watering the boats and Ken and Chris had made the 4 mile trip to Cave Cay for gas. There is no gasoline here. During our exploration we found JR's Carvings. He had various island mementos including Bahama Papa, Bahama Mama, a Peel Owl and the native parrot. They were all carved from green Wild (sounds like) Tamerin wood (is that right Geoff??). It is the same wood they use for the ribs of boat hulls. Once it dries JR says it is very hard, but does not split. It also gets lighter in color. JR also is the public works department for the island roads (3). We also checked out the island school - one room for all grades through high school. However, when talking with the natives, they will tell you most of the children go to Nassau for high school and higher education. They usually live with relatives or friends. Bil and Ken found us shelling on the beach and treated us to lunch at the yacht club. There were no boats at the yacht club and no diners in the restaurant. Not a very booming place. However, the crack conch was yummy and as I hadn't seen anything green for awhile so was the salad. We continue to hope to continue North along the Exuma Bank side of the Exumas, weather permitting. The storms are blowing up from the Northwest every couple of days and there is no protection for us for a ways for storms in that direction, so we continue to wait for our window. Fortunately, it is a beautiful place to be




2-25-10 As expected, it was a wild night, high winds and hard rains. Today is still very windy, but sunny. The morning was spent by all checking moorings, anchors, etc. There was some shifting and right now our anchor is bearing the burden of Snow Goose. Bill and Ken caught one fish yesterday and ended up throwing it back since there was only one. I stayed onboard with the boat and was entertained by watching all the other cruisers come in and try to anchor. Dana was in his dinghy trying to help My Whim catch. Bill and Ken came in and helped Amity (from Brunswick, ME) untangle his anchor and mooring lines pushing his boat around in circles with the dinghy. Then they dropped Release's anchor 80 ft. NW and Snow Goose's anchor in the same direction. Terry Bain who owns our mooring and others around was out making sure all was well. Little Jeff, also a mooring owner, sent out a diver to check anchors. We use the looky pail to check ours. I did get off the boat with Francie and Skipper and met Bill and Ken to show them the carver's shed. We made some purchases. Also picked up a bag of ice and rode back in the dinghy against the sea getting very wet.



2-26-10 Bill's eyes are bothering him today - swollen - and he needs to see about his prescriptions. So he will stay aboard and see the doctor at the clinic who is supposed to arrive between 2 and 3 today. I went exploring with Release in their dinghy in very shallow areas around Musha Cay and Cave Cay. We hit a number of beaches and did some conch hunting. I found a beautifu Queen Helmet conch shell. The day was fun. However, the doctor never showed and Bill's eyes are very bad.



2-27-10 Today we are sitting here at the clinic again waiting for the nurse to show up. Island time!! There is another weather system coming tomorrow so here we sit.The supply ship that was due in Thursday still has not shown up, and provisions for all are becoming scarce. Hopefully it arrives today before the storm. Release made bread, fresh food is gone and we are into the canned goods again.
 
Bill saw the nurse at the clinic and got all but one of his prescriptions filled and got medication and attention for his head and eye allergy.  We now are at the yacht club having lunch and taking advantage of the free wifi here.