TILLOO CAY

That "cold front" was a bit of a disgrace in the end. It blew, then died, then blew again all day from the North and gave us a chance to leave Marsh Harbour. "Columbus" and his three ship convoy were on the way again. Before we could leave however, there was a matter of retrieving SVEA's "Lost Anchor". This beautiful 45lb (22Kg) stainless steel CQR anchor had come adrift from the chain during anchoring and hid itself in the muddy bottom. Two days of fruitless searching now required bigger guns. Going up to the local dive shop didn't exactly cut it......The conversation would probably go like this.... "O.K. $100.00 and we will look for it......... Sorry we can't find it..... Thanks for telling us where to look for it...... and when did you say you were leaving?....... So out came ARITA's new dive gear as in the dinghy photo. Compressor, two hoses, mouthpiece regulators, weightbelts, the works and find it we did. Joel was thrilled to be able to spot it and so were the rest of the crew. It would take near to a $1000.00 to replace it, so we certainly were not going to leave without it. It is now securely secured to the anchor chain.



Barely had we left when this huge tanker ship came barrelling by, doing at least 12 knots in only 9 ft of water depth. That's a little over two and a half meters deep. We ended up trying to see if he made a furrow in the sandy bottom but he must have been a little higher. "TROPIC something or other" loaded with diesel and gasoline and a couple of white tanks of LP gas on top of the deck, for good measure. Better than TNT. Registered in Belize City is all I remember, because the back of the ship was so good to look at.....We sat on the tail of SVEA, too, for a while. She looked good heading out in a following sea and soon had her genoa up as well. There hasn't been much chance for sailing. It's been blowing a storm and generally on the nose. Today was an exception with only 20 knots from behind and the sun that came out in full...time to get some sun.



YES, SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST. The sun out in full meant the Queen getting a sun-tan out on the "back porch". The last decent thing I've had on the back porch was that 8lb red snapper and he "got eaten". There may be further photos of a tanning Queen later, but this will do for now...............
Beneath the back porch are the gasoline (petrol) tanks used in filling up the outboard motor, the Honda generator and the dive compressor. They've been painted dark brown to prevent them being stolen. The nice red ones you normaly see, full of gas (petrol) are so attractive in the Islands when they sit on your aft deck........ right there for the taking....... WAIT A MINUTE.....Maybe that's why the tanker was doing twelve knots. Afraid we might have been "Somali type pirates" after his gas and diesel........ that explains it all.......