Day 3 – time to leave the marina!

We get up by 7, tho I am up at 6:30. We still have a lot to do before we leave. We have a big breakfast of eggs, sausage, and rye toast with OJ and coffee so that we don't need to stop work for lunch. Paul goes to take the car back, fill the fuel tank, and make one quick stop for 3 items that we missed the day before. While he is gone, I fill the 2 water tanks. While the tanks are filling I lay out the tarp that was covering the dinghy so that it dries before we put it away. The boat that had been next to us left sometime in the past 6 months and left behind their wooden dock box. We have now made claim to it and labeled it "Now, the Property of Cattitude" We are able to store the tarp, spare 100 ft. water hose, all the covers from the wet bar, cockpit table, and the bridge helm. We are able to also fit in the old charcoal BBQ grill that we have had in the aft storage compartment. Anything that we don't have to carry is a plus. We also start the daunting process of cleaning up the stuff in the basement. We carry it out onto the dock and brush or wipe it off, then it goes back into the basement onto cleaned surfaces. Paul repairs the fwd port head, drops all the anchor chain to hose the rust off and out of the compartment and sets up the dinghy. Paul also put the fender racks up along with the gas grill. Again, we get numerous showers. We have had more rain each day than I would have expected for February. Feb./Mar. are supposed to be drier months. All weather appears to be coming from the north, which is very unusual. The weather generally comes from the east down here. I guess maybe the weather that has been hammering the U.S. is making it way down here as rain. El Nino is at work.

By 2:30 we are ready to take off. We put the electric cable away, take water & electric meter readings. (you pay per gal. for water used and per KW for electric, so you want to be sure you know what your reading are when you leave. Don't want to be paying for someone else's use.) LuSea puts her lifejacket on and we head out with our first beer of the trip. Leaving the marina Paul has a problem with the stbd shift/throttle control. It stops working, then starts again, then stops once more and starts up. Seem to be working fine now, just tempermental, though they have been problematic for awhile.

We have a nice cruise over to Water Island. They rain stays away for the most part, but it is pouring over Charlotte Amalie and St. Thomas's south coast. Big black clouds and a perfect full rainbow. I think it is the most colorful rainbow that I have ever seen. So vivid.

Upon arrival at Honeymoon Beach, where we plan to spend the night, we find that it has no room in the anchorage for us. We decide to go to Lindberg Bay by the Best Western. It looks like a really nice anchorage (if you don't mind the planes flying low overhead. We just hope they stop flying early in the evening.

Best Western Carib Beach Best Western Emerald Beach
After a long 3 days, I vote that we should forego any additional work and have cocktail hour on the aft deck. Paul agrees and we watch the sunset with drinks and snacks. It has gotten pretty windy out and is darn right chilly. I have to keep reminding myself that it IS Feb. We haven't traveled in Feb/Mar in the last 5 years, so have forgotten the difference in temps. The kids definitely need to bring long pants and a long sleeve shirt.

After sunset I make the 2^nd half of our rotiserrie chicken with baked sweet & regular potatoes and vegetables Normandy. It is now 8pm and I decide to start the blog again. Paul heads down to bed with his Kindle and I type for an hour or so. The 2^nd blog has been typed and I loose my internet connection and loose the entire thing. Lesson learned, type in Word first and cut and paste into the blog.

By 9:30 I shower and off to bed. Tonite we will have no A/C so I am hoping with the cooler weather we will be comfortable. Tomorrow we have to be up early again to bring the boat to SubBase drydock to be hauled for bottom paint and a new stbd. shaft and bearings.