Thursday February 24, 2011

I woke up early again as is my custom and made a pot of coffee. Jerry does not drink coffee normally but on this trip he would drink a cup of black coffee in the morning.

We needed a few grocery items so we jumped into the dingy. I fired up “Old Joe” and we headed for the settlement called New Plymouth. A charming seaside settlement of about 450 people. It took about ninety minutes to tour and photograph the area. We wandered into an old cemetery. The ground is so hard that many of the old graves are built above ground. The newer graves that are dug with mechanized equipment are in the ground.

We purchased a loaf of raisin bread at McIntyre’s Restaurant and Bakery. Then we were able to find a half dozen eggs at Lowe’s Grocery. With that tour of New Plymouth concluded, we jumped into the dingy and headed back to the boat.

We tossed off the dock lines at 11:45am and set sail for Spanish Cay. The winds were stiff and blowing a good 15 to 20 out of the SSE. I raised the mainsail while Jerry steared the boat. I then put up the head sail. Since the winds were so stiff, I flew the Genoa 110. I was plenty of sail. We were moving along at 6 knots while dragging “Old Joe” behind us.

We pulled into Spanish Cay Marina at 3:30pm. We covered a distance of 25 miles on our trip from Green Turtle to Spanish.

Spanish is a beautiful place when your first see it from the water. It is a private Cay owned by a guy from Texas called Don Davis. Don has a huge house and a 5000 foot runway so that he can land his jet. He also built a hanger for his airplane.

Don hired an American couple named Dan and Sue Keever from Cleveland Ohio to manage the marina and hotel. Since the economy has gone south the real estate developer and mega yacht builder Don is rarely seen on the island. You can see that the resort that he built is in the first stages of neglect. They do not get very many visitors to the cay.

Dan the manager of the establishment told us that his brother was involved with the NASA space program. The last shuttle was scheduled to launch at 4:45pm. Dan told Jerry and me that there was a launch party in the bar. We had a beer on the boat and then headed into the bar to watch the launch. The launch party was great fun. Dan had a lot of inside information about the space program and kept the folks watching he launch informed and entertained.

While at the launch party Jerry and I were invited to join a cruising couple named Stew and Diana for dinner aboard their 42 foot Endeavor names Casual Class. They asked up to bring something so we brought a fresh loaf of raisin bread. The main course was crab cakes, with Bahamas rice and beans. Another cruising couple from England also joined us for dinner.

Stew and Diana have lived aboard Casual Class for 16 years! The boat was absolutely beautiful. Stew has become my hero. Sixteen years living on a boat. They lived on the boat in Virginia while he and his wife worked. They retired a year ago and are now cruising the Bahamas and plan to head to the Caribbean.

After dinner, I got my guitar and played a few songs.

I stayed up late and did not get to bed until almost 10pm.