Tuesday, February 21, 2012 Berry Island Club Mooring field, The Berry Islands– Frazer’s Hog Cay

It was another sleepless night of coughing and hacking and the mooring ball dragging along the bottom of the boat. At times, it sounded like it was ripping the bottom apart as the fittings would drag against the hull. Then the mooring ball would explode to the surface with a big Woosh! Then it would resume beating on the side of the hull like it was a big drum…

Our control cable is supposed to be in this morning. … Mary Clare said something about Harry flying out today? I was sitting up top drinking coffee wondering if it was too early to call the Berry Island Club (it was 8:15am and I didn’t want to seem pushy) when Harry hailed us over the radio to tell us our part was in! Yay!

We dinghied over to settle up our bill – 4 nights moorings (including tonight); 20 gallons of diesel fuel; $25 taxi fare for the run to the airport to West Marine; Harry had tipped the guy and said if we wanted to go in on the tip with him that we could but he felt that he should tip the guy because he was helping out him. I said that Harry shouldn’t tip him and that we’d cover the tip too - $25. $288.00 total for the marina bill after showers/phone calls etc…

Harry is running over to the states today to pick up supplies, etc., and isn’t returning until Friday so we were glad to settle up. He told us that whatever we worked out with Howard was between us and Howard. Howard said he’d be back to our boat in a little while but that he needed our old parts so he could get the fittings off of them. We went back to the boat and grabbed the fittings to bring back to the club and I’d noticed a familiar name at the dock – Alcyone – from the boatyard. Chuck and Andre had checked in here last night after clearing in over at Chub Cay, paying $4.35/ft plus a $100 fee for the honor of clearing in over there. Wow. They’d asked if you could clear into customs here at the Berry Island Club and Chub Cay told them “no, mon. They are not a port of entry”. Weird because the day we got in, 3 other boats had come in here and Harry had run them over to the Customs/Immigration to clear in for $25. Hmmmm…



Mary Clare and Axel conching in the shallows



Back at the boat, I decided it seemed calm enough out to try my hand at the new outboard motor. I figured that with Wayne at the boat, someone would be here when Howard made it over and I could go do some much wanted exploring of the sand and marl flats for a while. Mary Clare & Axel were out on their kayak and I ran into them heading over there. It was approaching low tide and I couldn’t get the dinghy over some parts so anchored it in the sand and walked over to where they were conching. They’d picked up 12 conchs and were exchanging smaller ones for bigger ones whenever they found bigger ones. I heard Howard calling the boat while we were exploring various sand dollars, shells, and conch. He wanted us to come pick him up. Problem was – I had the dinghy, not Wayne. He said, no problem, I’ll bring the skiff over. I actually wanted to see how he was going to put it together, so headed back to the boat. By the time I got back there, he was zooming off. Duty calls…



I found a beautiful Star while we were conching (I let it go after snapping a picture)



A 134 ft boat had come into Chub Cay and wanted drinks. Unfortunately, Chub Cay had no drinks and sent them over to the Berry Island Club. Because Harry was gone, Howard was left defending the fort. Oops… I dinghied over to the Club to see if I could help out (hey I’m an ex-bartender) but Howard said no it was okay. He had help coming after 3pm. Okay.



Back side of the sea star

The boaters were enjoying the booze and I chatted with them briefly. The girls were from California and didn’t know exactly where they were right now (just that they were having fun). They wanted to know where I was from and I told them Michigan. Brrrr… glad we’re not from there…They were friendly and open but the one guy with them wasn’t so open or friendly. The guys outside sitting at the table were more amicable and also wanted to chat. They saw me leaving and wanted me to stay and have some drinks with them. No thanks guys, I have to get back to the boat.



Around 5pm I hailed the Berry Island Club to see if Howard was still playing bartender and if he was going to make it back out. I’ll be there sometime tonight. It will be done by sunrise. Oh oh… there’s no way he can get this done in the dark of night and possibly done right if he’s been up working all day.

I opened up a can of chicken noodle soup for Wayne (I’d make him some but he prefers Cambells so why bother). Buttered some bread for him and proceeded to wait. Truth be told I’m starting to feel a niggle in the back of my throat and I’m tired. 7pm. I think it’s time to hit the sack.

I think around 7:30pm I saw a light coming through the windows. First one then another. I assumed we were swinging around on the mooring then heard someone. It was Howard! Dang… We jumped outta bed but before I could get up the companionway, he was gone. I tried hailing him on the radio but he didn’t respond. Sigh…I yelled over to Hawke (the Gozzard 36 next to us) to see if he’d said anything to them. Howard had told them to tell us that he’d be back at 7am. Back to bed. I'm sure he'd much rather come back in the morning after having worked all day too :)