Fabulous Friday

Friday, December 3, 2010

Fabulous Friday

The dolphin encounter was quite a bit 0' fun. We made reservations for snorkeling with the dolphins, but the last two days have had rain and lots of wind. The water was too murky for the snorkeling since it is only in 20 ft of water.....but I'm ahead of myself.

Today we had Edgar, Dennis' taxi cab driver, pick us up around 9:30a. We stopped at the Deck Cafe for breakfast. Gary, the owner and chef, was also just arriving, but made both of us the menu item of our choice licketty split. It was very fresh and good. On to Anthony's Key Resort.

There is a dolphin study happening in conjunction with this particular resort. We were only able to do the "encounter", but as you can see Dennis couldn't wipe the smile off his face once again! From ziplines to dolphins. In water to our waist, the trainer lined us up shoulder to shoulder so he could have our dolphin, Ken, swim right past our group to show us his ear and pet him and again just to give Ken the petting/secondary reinforcement for training. Dolphins are very tactial animals. The trainer told us different things about dolphins, the institute and had Ken do different tricks for us. Then we were positioned with Ken for kisses and hugs that you see in the pictures. It was amazing the speed at which Ken could swim, turn and stop on a dime! There were three "boys at the beach" doing the encounter and up to 14 other dolphins in the same huge lagoon pen being entertained by their trainers. Our trainer commented that the other trainers had a more difficult job because most of the dolphins like doing the people encounters for the attention. However none of the other dolphins tried to come over and steal the show. Ken's skin felt very rubbery and smooth. Here was a "teenager" at only 7 ft and 350 pounds and was a very docile diplomat. The "dolphin encounter" was really cool!

After saying good-bye to Ken, we headed down to West End which is a more dangerous tourist area. The main road is dirt and barely two vehicles can pass each other in the street. It is on the ocean side of the island so the surf and wind were a lot stronger there. Edgar, our taxi chauffer, drove down the main street, turned around and took us to West Bay. This is the nicest beach on the island and has the big resorts stacked side by side with each of their beach lounges in front. Dennis took me to the Mayan Princess for lunch.

Much to Dennis' disgust, Edgar ALWAYS takes the scenic (read LONG) way back from West Bay. It was a nice drive along the shoreline, but did add 30 minutes maybe to the ride. Remember that Edgar is a taxi driver --- more time more money.

We didn't get back until 5:30p and Dennis looked like he was going to fall asleep walking. I went to the hotel room that is reserved for "cruisers" to take a long hot shower and it was available! OOOOOO wa la! After my soak, I stopped over where the majority of the cruisers are docked and said good-bye to Ann and Jerry. Jerry is the Dock Master. He organizes the cruisers as they come and go and while they are here.

I reunited with Dennis, Skip and Will at the bar of the resort. A diving couple who joined our group last night joined our foursome again. I'm telling you all that Dennis and Skip are like a comedy duo and Mark and Halley just ate it up. Dennis had obviously found his second wind and the six of us closed down the bar at 10:30p.

The cruisers are a very eclectic group with many different stories, personalities that share love of cruising. It amazes me how many people truly live their dream of sailing wherever the wind takes them. The majority of these people are like Dennis in that they left nothing behind. Left careers of being teachers, lawyers, vascular surgeons....and to think I know people who wont even retire for 'fear' of what to do next. A very dynamic group, who welcomed me at their Saturday potluck, sang happy birthday to me and have all been pleasant throughout the week. Genuine folk.

I fly home tomorrow so let me tell y'all that even with the swollen eyes and gazillions of itchy bug bites, it has been a great, fast week. If any of you have said, "some day I'll come visit you Dennis", don't let the opportunity pass by. You will enjoy the VERY relaxed pace, the cruisers you meet, the local sites and opportunities and be glad you came. Dennis' niece, Denise, and her husband are coming within weeks of my leaving. Their trip will fly by and I'm sure they will have a BLAST. I hope you have been able to follow my ramblings this past week and since it is now December I can wish you all a very Blessed Christmas.

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About Annah Foster

Annah Foster is a 1980'ish Morgan 462. She is a USCG Documented vessel and the year on the document is 1979, which I believe is the year the keel was laid. She is known as a ketch, which means she has 2 masts, and the aft mast is forward of the rudder. She also is a center compartment boat, which means the helm is located between the 2 masts, which are, by the way, the main and the mizzen. She is equipped with roller furling on the jib/genoa sail which is the big triangular sail on the front. Her empty weight, or rather displacement, is 33,000 lbs, which is fat for her length. Mr. Morgan believed in thick fiberglas for strength and I am told that at places it is often found to be 2 inches of solid fiberglas. Her keel has encapsulated lead weighing 8,000 lbs.

She boasts 2 staterooms, - v-berth forward with separate head and twin beds aft with separate head, including the famous bathtub. The configuration of the aft stateroom could easily be changed with a change in the mattresses to an almost queen berth, port to starboard, but currently she has twins, running fore and aft, with 2 large mattress cushions separating them. There is also a ladder and sliding hatch aft for egress in an emergency, to the aft deck, which I call the back porch. I bought some director's chairs for it and have sat there many evenings enjoying a drink and sunset. The aft deck is also the location of the propane gas grill, storage for the 2 outboard motors, Yamaha 4hp 4cycle, and a Yamaha 15hp 2 cycle, which power a new Apex Lite 10'6 inflatable dinghy, which can hang from the installed davits.

The main sail has 2 reefing points on jiffy reefing and the mizzen has 1. No lines lead to the cockpit but the jib, main and mizzen sheets.

She has a Switlick 6 man life raft mounted aft the mizzen mast. And, an emergency tiller aboard.

She is equipped with a Perkins 4 cylinder diesel engine, powering a Hurth transmission and turning a 4 bladed Max Prop, which feathers when sailing, and reverses pitch in Reverse so that she has the same thrust as in Forward. One unique design flaw is that the propeller shaft exits the boat at 3 degrees off center, making the port prop walk in reverse, even worse. The engine is equipped with about a 90 amp alternator with a very good voltage regulator.

She also has a Westerbeke 5.7 kw diesel generator, which produces 110 v AC power, and charges the batteries thru a 40 amp charger. I also have a Honda 1000 watt gasoline powered generator for emergency 110v, and an automotive battery charger aboard.

She came with an old Windbugger wind generator, not quite perfectly mounted. Stowed in the V-berth, there is a replacement AirX marine wind generator and 8 foot mast waiting to be installed, along with the controller, and 2 solar panels, which are half the possible wattage the controller can handle.

She has 3 4-D AGM batteries for the house bank and a type 18 start battery - all are 12volt.

The 4 gallon water heater will heat with both engine cooling water and 110v AC power and is equipped with a mixing valve to prevent scalding.

Tankage - Water - 110 gallon port and 85 gallon center tanks
Fuel - 175 gallons
Range when new at 2250 RPM is almost 800 nm.

Currently, her refridgerator and freezer are 110 volt AC, with several holding plates each which must be manually started and stopped. She has waiting to be installed, 2 Cool Blue 12 volt systems, with automatic controls, but truthfully, I don't know where the new holding plates will fit.

Electronics -
She is equipped with 2 VHF marine band radios, one at the helm and the other at the nav station, with repeater at the helm, and a hand held low power VHF 'walkie talkie'. Also, at the nav station, she has a Single Side Band HF radio - SSB with a Pactor 2 modem making her capable of downloading NOAA weather fax and Sail Mail emails and Grb files. onto a dedicated IBM laptop. She has as primary a Raymarine E-80 Chartplotter at the helm and a smaller Garmin Chartplotter for back up at the helm, a handheld Garmin Chartplotter, and an older Furuno GPS at the nav station. She has an older Raytheon black and white 24 nm radar at the helm, with a repeater at the nav station. She has a RapidFix 406 EPIRB, emergency locator beacon, that is hand activated. She has a new Clarion AM FM CD player, with input for computer or MP3 player on 3 sets of individual speakers - cockpit, salon, and aft cabin.

For those who do not know me, I named her for my parents - Annah Margaret and George Foster Doak. It is through their beneficence that I am able to live this dream and I felt that I should dedicate my boat to honor their memories.