Happy holidays to those of you who are enjoying a respite from paid quotidian labours. (You all with jobs.) Now you have time to cook, clean, shop, decorate, wrap, party, clean up, cook, shop, party, and shovel. I'm just being this way because I can't believe how much I'm missing Christmas. This is festive season #6 on board, and I'm craving everything Christmas. I may be an atheist, but right now I want carols and family traditions (charlie brown tree, where's the scotch tape? The Christmas Story movie, Terry's orange chocolate balls, everybody home), a jolly good round of gift-giving round the tree, fresh gravy stains on the tablecloth, the kids reading their new books and Gus the dog chasing squirrels. Are there squirrels in Lake Annis in the wintertime? I'd love to know. And turkey sandwiches on Boxing Day, with cranberry sauce.
There's lots of food here, still treats aboard from our shopping orgy in St. Martin. There's still mahi mahi in the freezer from the monster we caught on the passage from St.M to the BVI. We left Marigot Bay at about 3:30am, and followed Mi Amante's stern light until dawn. Fishing gear went out about 7am, and at 8, I was below, wedged in the galley trying to peel hard-boiled eggs when Randy let loose with that joyful cry: "FISH!"
Big fish, zooming all over the place. Quickly, quickly, I hauled it alongside, and Randy made one attempt with the gaff that the fish dodged, and just then I noticed that the SWIVEL WAS OPEN. There's a special chemical that gets going in the body when you see something like that, and allows you, fairly reliably, to grab the steel leader and deposit the fish into the cockpit. Some bandaids involved in the mopping up procedure. And when I got back to preparing breakfast, the hard-boiled eggs were still sculling around on the countertop. I was sure they'd be in the bilge.
This time, we weighed and measured: 52" (that's 4 feet, 4 inches long, or about 1.3 metres, whichever is longer), and 23 pounds. Bull mahi, caught with the new green and yellow squid, biggest one I've ever used, about 6" long, with a single hook, and a recycled swivel that nearly ruined the day. Give thanks to the fish, who provided 12 hefty portions of delicious fillets.
We were anchored in Leverick Bay by 4:30 (13 hour crossing, with about one hour of really great sailing, lots of motor sailing, and a tolerable long swell), and the next day Randy and Charlie took a taxi to Spanish Town to check in, and I scrubbed the rest of the fishy bits and rum agricole smell out of the cockpit. Bleah. Then laundry (clean sheets! yay!), and a visit to Pusser's to pick up six bottles of rum for less than 50 bucks. Such a good deal. Post-laundry, Michelle and I indulged in a frozen lime daquiri at the bar, and discovered after the fact that they were 8 bucks each. Could have shared a whole bottle for that....sheesh.
We spent a few days in the bay, admiring "Destiny" and getting to know Rick and Chrissie. One of the prettiest boats we've seen, anywhere, anytime. Rick does beautiful work with beautiful wood. She outshone ND for sure, but then it's a new boat, so it's missing the patina (now there's a good word) that makes ND such a beauty too.
Now we're in behind Buck Island, waiting out a north swell. Not much going on here (excellent paint and varnish anchorage, it turns out), but there's no point moving from here to go somewhere that will be barfy. Saw a fair bit of the eclipse of the moon our first night here, while we were reanchoring after a major wind shift in the middle of the night. Just when you start to get bored, voila, the boat drags in the dark, AND there's an eclipse.
Everybody have an eggnog for me. It would be good with Pusser's, I'll bet. I'll try to post photos very soon, but we have a very weak signal.
There's lots of food here, still treats aboard from our shopping orgy in St. Martin. There's still mahi mahi in the freezer from the monster we caught on the passage from St.M to the BVI. We left Marigot Bay at about 3:30am, and followed Mi Amante's stern light until dawn. Fishing gear went out about 7am, and at 8, I was below, wedged in the galley trying to peel hard-boiled eggs when Randy let loose with that joyful cry: "FISH!"
Big fish, zooming all over the place. Quickly, quickly, I hauled it alongside, and Randy made one attempt with the gaff that the fish dodged, and just then I noticed that the SWIVEL WAS OPEN. There's a special chemical that gets going in the body when you see something like that, and allows you, fairly reliably, to grab the steel leader and deposit the fish into the cockpit. Some bandaids involved in the mopping up procedure. And when I got back to preparing breakfast, the hard-boiled eggs were still sculling around on the countertop. I was sure they'd be in the bilge.
This time, we weighed and measured: 52" (that's 4 feet, 4 inches long, or about 1.3 metres, whichever is longer), and 23 pounds. Bull mahi, caught with the new green and yellow squid, biggest one I've ever used, about 6" long, with a single hook, and a recycled swivel that nearly ruined the day. Give thanks to the fish, who provided 12 hefty portions of delicious fillets.
We were anchored in Leverick Bay by 4:30 (13 hour crossing, with about one hour of really great sailing, lots of motor sailing, and a tolerable long swell), and the next day Randy and Charlie took a taxi to Spanish Town to check in, and I scrubbed the rest of the fishy bits and rum agricole smell out of the cockpit. Bleah. Then laundry (clean sheets! yay!), and a visit to Pusser's to pick up six bottles of rum for less than 50 bucks. Such a good deal. Post-laundry, Michelle and I indulged in a frozen lime daquiri at the bar, and discovered after the fact that they were 8 bucks each. Could have shared a whole bottle for that....sheesh.
We spent a few days in the bay, admiring "Destiny" and getting to know Rick and Chrissie. One of the prettiest boats we've seen, anywhere, anytime. Rick does beautiful work with beautiful wood. She outshone ND for sure, but then it's a new boat, so it's missing the patina (now there's a good word) that makes ND such a beauty too.
Now we're in behind Buck Island, waiting out a north swell. Not much going on here (excellent paint and varnish anchorage, it turns out), but there's no point moving from here to go somewhere that will be barfy. Saw a fair bit of the eclipse of the moon our first night here, while we were reanchoring after a major wind shift in the middle of the night. Just when you start to get bored, voila, the boat drags in the dark, AND there's an eclipse.
Everybody have an eggnog for me. It would be good with Pusser's, I'll bet. I'll try to post photos very soon, but we have a very weak signal.
posted by Susan at 2:50 PM
1 Comments:
Oh Susan,, We wish you were here for a Christmas blow out. Next year me dear. All the fixings and gravy on the tablecloth I'm sure. Take care and we'll pull a Christmas cracker or two for you and Randy.
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