Day 257, Thursday March 6th – A day on the hook

Day 257, Thursday March 6^th – A day on the hook

We spent a quiet night on the hook, little wind and what there was out of the South East.  The day starts out with a coffee, supplies are still good for about a week (if we forego the evening coffee), followed by some chores around the boat.  We then put in some time reading as we wait for the Tide to turn to snorkel the Aquarium. It is best to snorkel at slack water (no currents) which occurs as the tide changes.

Around noon we head over, but on the way stop to chat to a couple from Kingston on a boat called Wyvern III, which is anchored astern of us.  The reason for our visit is to comment on the fact that another boat had just pulled in which was also called Wyvern, pretty strange we thought.  Turns out Wyvern is Welsh for dragon.  Both are Canadian boats.

After a quick yap we head over to the Aquarium, we had snorkeled here before but it was is definitely worth a second visit, the sunken plane is not so we speed by it on the way.  Turns out we are a little off on our timing as the tide has already turned and is running fairly fast.  The dive is still excellent with just limited on how far you stray from the dinghy.  It is still amazing to see all the fish swim up to you for food, this spot is popular for the tourist operators who give their guests food to feed the fish.

Ipad getting hoisted up the mast

We head back to the boat to change out of the snorkel gear and plan to head over to Cambridge Cay for a hike to the hill top to pick up our emails.  There is a large bank of black clouds to the north so we make the decision to stay with the boat.  The forecast has the potential of squalls for the next 36 hours.  Instead we hoist the IPAD up the mast to improve our cell tower reception.  It works and when we lower it 30 minutes later we have new emails.  Unfortunately the sent box did not work but we will try it again tomorrow.
  We enjoy some games of Dominos which are mostly won by Julie, Julie cleans some of the stainless and fibreglass on the hull while Dawson cleans all the strainers on the boat which there are about 6 of them and checks transmission fluids etc.  We while away the rest of the afternoon reading and playing games. 

There will be no sundowners on the beach as weather is calling for higher winds and potential squalls so all boaters are sitting on their boats.  Dawson does respond to a report of a runaway dinghy but upon further investigation the dinghy does have people in it.  This incident does lead to some “interesting” radio traffic as a boat had recently lost a dinghy south of here.  Interesting is a relative term, as the vhf is the main means of communication and peoples conversation become something to listen to, with everybody following the conversation up and down as people switch from channel 16 which is the hailing channel to a working channel.   You don’t use the VHF for private communication.

Soon it is time for sundowners, followed by an excellent dinner of Mahi Mahi.  We have given up doing the fish any way but grilled with Julie’s special marinade.   Julie puts out a call on the VHF for any bridge players in Bell Harbour but we get no response and are down to playing Boggle, not a very exciting evening.  All evening we are waiting for the rain to come to wash the boat, and have rigged a tarp to improve our capture of rain water but no rains come.  We all settle in for night with the possibility of a squall or two passing through.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie