Well the conch has to come from somewhere and then it winds up on the table getting cleaned. Standing at the bench I'm full into cleaning the day's catch. Cleaning conch is a chore because it has to be skinned. As a new buddy explained while demonstrating, the first person to eat conch had to be a hungry person because we spend almost as much energy hunting and then skinning them as we get from eating them. But it really is worth while. The delectible preparations of conch fritters, cracked conch and conch chowder far and away justify the expense.  A little tartar sauce or perhaps thousand island dressing and the treat is ready.

 Today we took a long walk to the Abaco Inn from Hopetown looking for shells and coconuts. We need more coconut because the recipe requires shredded coconut or it just doesn't work. The coconut milk also serves us well because it goes very well with rum.

 I've started a new GPS log file so there is a new link for GPS data. It was getting too large for slow connections. 

Dan vs. Tohatsu Take Three

 We went out yesterday looking for conch and lobster. Since I found a six foot sling while walking along the beach the other day, I had to try. I found it while walking in about two feet of water that had a rocky bottom. It was wedged into a tidal pool and all gummed up with sand and some sort of brown algae. Once cleaned up the spear looks great and the tips spread out again.
 With dive suit, goggles and look bucket off we went for Johnny's Cay. We looked around quite a bit and didn't see anything. So we set off on our ride back to Hopetown which was just about two miles back to the marina. We revved up the engine and away we went for about 25 yards. Pop poof it went and it died.
 I opened up the bonnet and there was gas everywhere. In retrospect I think the plate on top of the carb loosened up allowing gas to migrate into air passages with openings to the outside of the carb. Thinking I had it under control I restarted and it went pop and caught fire.
 Yes, the dink was on fire and we were a mile from shore. No one else around. So I did the unthinkable and sprayed the engine with sea water. Not the best idea for a gas fire but it worked. At this point given the tide was coming in and the wind was light we elected to row back. It took a while.
 As I mentioned I pulled the carb and checked it out again. Looking good I closed it up and remounted it. Today we went out again and managed to harvest some conch. Thinking about how our dink has been performing lately I called it quits early and half way back it decided to cut out at high speed again. More gunk! And this is with a very large separating filter installed as well! We idled back and cleaned the conch for later.
 This dink deal is getting old.

Finally, Johnny's Cay

 It took us four tries and a new fuel filter in between the tank and engine but we finally made our way from Hopetown to Johnny's Cay. Once we arrived we were disappointed to find that there is no beach of substance to walk along and comb. Given this development we landed near the dock and looked around for a few minutes but since there is a house on the cay we did not venture far from the shore because that would be impolite even though the shores are accessible to everyone.

 Once done looking around we moved off and started looking for conch. With Deb peeking towards the bottom with a look bucket we slowly picked our way into deeper water with a grassy bottom. When she located one, I would throw the anchor over the side and jump in to look for it while snorkeling. We had to work fast because we were looking for conch near the ocean and the outbound tidal current was strong. Deb indicated that at one point I was swimming strongly but not making any progress.  Under the circumstances is was fortunate the anchor we have for the dink was just large enough to hold it in position while I was free diving for the conch. It wasn't long before we had a few keepers that will make good cracked conch and conch chowder.

 Throughout the trip the dink engine performed well and at this point we're thinking we finally have a decent fix for the problems we've had. The GPS data has been updated with the paths associated with today's trip and some of the failed attempts.

Hopetown ramblings

 So the outboard has been acting up when we take a long ride. After a couple of minutes at a good clip of say 15 knots it would lose all power and sometimes it would die. There were a few times this happened while we were crossing inlets like South Man O War near Elbow Cay. While these outages were happening with good weather they cause quite a bit of concern given there are not that many people around to help in this area. This isn't the kind of sport one wants to engage in on a regular basis.
 The first time this happened I thought I had this figured out when I found a small amount of water in the tank. Along with the water there were several 'earwig' bugs laying in the bottom of the tank. After cleaning the carburetor out and reinstalling it the engine ran fine for about a month at which point it started cutting out again. Once again I pulled the carb and found all sorts of crud in there that was blocking the narrow passages off. This time I also drained out the fuel hose and found a bit more water in the tank. I realized that I had not gotten all of the water out after the first occurrence. There is a ridge in the bottom of the tank that prevented me from getting it all. So after leaning the tank up against a pole for a 1/2 hour yet more water made itself available for extraction. That and one more earwig.
 Hoping to avoid this sort of distraction in the future, I elected to shell out 104 bucks for a fuel water separating filter with a sight and drain that I could have bought in the States for 65 or 70 bucks. Hopefully this is the end of that issue. Given several dinks over here are suffering this affliction and they are paying about 180 bucks to have the carbs cleaned and adjusted, I think we got off easy.

 The cold front moved through last night with vengeance. Earlier this morning there was chatter on the radio about someone clocking the wind at 52 mph around 3 am. I believe it because the dock lines all stretched quite a bit. I know this because around 3 am I was out on the dock attending to a power cord that was about to be pulled out of the boat. Fortunately the noise it was making by rubbing against the hull alerted us.

 The sun is out now and tomorrow is another day. Since it's cool it was a good morning to spend some time waxing Freedom after the thorough rinsing by the rain that came with the front. Given the wind it was probably more like a good power-washing.

 It's going to be windy down here again and here is a site that we use to get a feeling for our weather forecast. This particular frame from the marine weather site  indicates we're going to have a gale warning. By the way they are issued when the winds are going to be 34 to 47 knots. With the wind out of the West we are well positioned to receive this even though that is by chance given this is the weather we are talking about.
 That being the case, we are going take the ferry over to Marsh Harbour for some parts and other supplies. Aulbury ferries are reliable and frequent to most of the larger Cays around Abaco and they offer frequent traveler rates. Even though Marsh Harbour is close by, if we were to take Freedom over to Marsh for some shopping every now and then we'd go broke fast.
 It should be an interesting ride because the Sea of Abaco has been a mess lately with 20k (+) winds on a regular basis and we know what that's like.

  Thankfully we had a new enclosure made up for Freedom before we took her South last year. After our ride across the Sea of Abaco in December we found salt water in many places aboard Freedom.

Time to haul anchor and move a bit

 And so the month of January slips away and with that we are now up in Hopetown at the Hopetown Hideaways marina. It's a really pleasant facility with a swimming pool and mature landscaping that is full of color. I'll have to get some photos of it into the blog and share them. At this point however, what we have here is a shot of the Gecko at the Abaco Inn. If you click on the photo you will see one of the Geckos pointing at the Conch Pearl. If you are playing chase the Gecko that's the drink that would be appropriate to order. We were not involved in the game so we stuck with the regular well drinks to keep the tab under control.

 But back on the topic of moving on, in leaving Sea Spray we left a number of pleasant memories behind as well as a number of folks we spent quite a bit of good time with. Certainly we'll miss them all, especially Ben.

 Ben weighs in at around 100 pounds. Once he gets to know you he'll run down the dock at you and you'll swear he's going to flatten you. But the worst this guy will do is lick your leg and step on your foot on the way by. It was always a welcome sight to see him laying by our door in the morning. But it wasn't because he was waiting for us. It was because it was shady there and he could see into his owner's boat as well as observe the two female golden retrievers basking in the sun not too far away on the dock. Always pleasant and a great buddy on the dock.

 By the way his owners were ok also. :)

 Good luck on the rest of the Winter folks! Hopefully we'll see you again before the crossing back to the States.