The "Man in the Grey Suit"

Nassau passed into the rear view and we were on a beautiful sail to Allen's cay, our first overnight in the Exumas. We were warned by a couple the night before to not leave too early because their is a field of coral heads that has to be navigated by sight and the sun angle has to be right to see them. Well here comes the coral heads, they were everywhere. Lorrie was on the bow pointing which way to steer as we slipped by, between, but not over them. It was quite hectic but finally we got through and Allen's cay was in sight. We ended up staying about a week in Allens and weathered a big blow here along with eight or so others, four of which were from New Bern NC. All members of The Blackbeard Sailing club, Our Freedom, Non Linear, Delphenis, and Windfall have been allot of fun as we continually find ourselves sharing anchorages. We found several conchs while in Allen's and made conch fritters- yum yum. My valentine had a Cracked conch dinner on V-day along with a big group of cruisers on Norman's Cay. Then we woprked our way to Staniel Cay where we visited the wild pigs, What a hoot, they swam out to the blond as we approached with "No Fear" We fed them some scraps and wished them well. Down the islands we went at will.
Farmers key found us hiding from yet another big blow, we had a pleasant surprise one evening when O'Canada was anchored beside us. These two young men just finished thier bachelors degrees and are sailing the Carib. several times we have shared anchorages with them and this time proved to be a doozy. We Had breakfast on Godspeed with O'Canada and Paragon when I mention to them that while spearfishing earlier, I had found a large grouper hiding in a cave, they eagerly signed up for the hunt. First we speared some smaller reef fish for bait then we went to his cave for a date with the big boy. To our amazement, within minutes we had a hook in him but he ran into his cave and wrapped the line around the rocks and enjoyed his free fish breakfast. We moped off and had lunch, a siesta, and headed for the next spot. A large snapper for four joined us for dinner that night as we made plans for an all out assault on this newly discovered fishery. Armed with some newly speared reef fish we were skunked again. Then suddenly we had two fish on and the 100 lb. leaders were cut almost instantly. Sean said "shark" and that is when I first saw the "Man in the Grey Suit" We were had! so off we moped again. Hey wait a minute, shark taste good! This time we came back with steel leaders, more fish and armed for bear, or sharks maybe. We hooked a big one and he quickly made off with Sean's line. My leader was shortened by a couple of feet the same way. The next hour or so was a blast. We got very selective trying to hook a smaller (less than 5 feet) "Grey Suit". They "Men in Grey" were everywhere now, one even had an orange suit. We were pulling the bait fish right in front of them as they were trashing with fins above the water, trying to steal our bait. Lorrie got some great video and finally Mr. Right was spotted. I put the bait fish in front of him and with a lighting fast grey thrash, FISH ON! 200+ yards of line was headed to sea. I kept the rod as bent as possible without breaking and kept dialing more drag on the reel until I dared tighten it anymore. The equipment was at the breaking point with the reel whizzing, the rod in a "u turn" and the line all but gone! Our prayers were answered and the fish let up, I looked at the line spool and could see the other end of the line, not good! As the fish took a breather I got some line on him, he ran again but not as far. "We will need the gaff, I think we can land him!" Sean & Jamie hopped into the blond and took off to Godspeed, returned in record time, Lorrie did cheer leading, gasping, screaming, and even told me I was going to die!. I worked the now tired "Grey Suit" to the rock bank and they gaffed and dragged the trashing fish into a large hole in the rock and now he became the "MEAL in the Grey Suit"
We ate like pigs and O'Canada left the next day with all they could eat, a fine time was had by all! We spent the next few days island hopping to Georgetown, hiding from a big blow with our good friends aboard the Paragon.
We slipped into Elizabeth Harbor and there was the Blackbeard sailing club, O'Canada, Paragon, Heck everybody was there. The annual regatta is on so we are racing the Paragon tomorrow. We have never been in a sailboat race but I think it is allot like racing turtles, We will let you know!

The "Keys to Kids" and a "Ship in the Night"

Afton & Dylan flew into Key West early in January. The weather had us pinned down in Marathon so we took the bus fifty miles for $5 (that was for us both) to pick them up. Thier first day was nice, we went for a sail and they both swam and sunbathed. That evening the weather changed a bit. It began breaking records day after day and was just plain cold. I know 35 degrees is not that cold but when you are sitting on the water and surrounded by it, well it wears you down. Godspeed has no heater unless you are plugged into power (no way) so we made lots of cookies, baked bread, basically found any reason possible to use the oven which did a great job of warding off the cold. We made the best of it and played hearts, cribbage, watched movies, playoff games, and enjoyed other shore activities like walking in the freezing rain to keep spirits up. The last few days of their visit it started a slow warming trend and we set sail for Key West. The amount of dead fish due to the cold was astounding. We could fill the net in less than a minute while sailing along. Anyway we made Key West and their last couple of days turned out nice and we had a great time. We had to leave Godspeed at about 4:30 am to get them to the airport and it was something like this: Navy Seal team Bravo departs destroyer in 25 knots head wind with large seas in total darkness to make contact with dock 1 mile from departure point, no casualties reported but entire team wet, disoriented and wandering how they ended up at the destination and why. Anyway we said goodbyes and stayed there another day to eat conch fritters and watch the Minisoda Vikings beat the Dallas Cowgirls. The next morning we went to weigh anchor and I must say it weighed allot. I could only get about 20 feet of the 90 feet of chain we had out. Realizing we were snagged on something, we snugged up what chain we could get and maneuvered around attempting to break free. No dice! so we got a little more aggressive and realized whatever we had captured we were dragging about. That was good because it was no too heavy. We rigged some lines from the chain back to a big winch and cranked it up. It was down about 25 feet so it took a bit, Lorrie was on the bow waiting to see what it was. Suddenly, like a streak of lightening and only slightly louder, she headed to the Stearn "IT'S A BODY". Well it was a body of dead coral, about 300 to 400 lbs. just a wiggle of the chain and back to her watery grave she went. We were very glad to get that off because we did not want to leave our new anchor "Don" behind (a 45 lb Delta fastset named "Delta Don" I think he had a relative named "Delta Dawn"-she had her own song in the 70's) Then we set sail back to Marathon to capture Cody and Beth for round 2.
They flew into Miami and took the bus system all the way to Marathon for, you guessed it $5 (each). We hung out in Marathon for a few days waiting on weather and then we headed north. We stayed a night at Indian Key and the next day headed for Angelfish Cut. Great day, the wind was dead on the nose so we motored and "zinnnng" went the fishing reel. Spanish Mackerel, we filleted him and caught 2 more that day as well, that kept us eating well for a while. Then we crossed Biscayne Bay and enjoyed seeing Miami from the water. We anchored in South Beach and went provisioning (Mariner talk for groceries and such). The storm drainage system in South Beach is a Fantastic way to get around if you are equipped with a dinghy. We were able to drive the blond all over town without stoplights or traffic while cruising right beside both. Any stop in South Beach would not be complete without a visit to the home of Merrick Pratt. Seal Team Harris was able to penetrate the drainage system to within a few blocks of his home and he grilled the largest steaks this seal team has ever seen, made key lime pie, and sent us on our way with a packet of lures guaranteed to catch fish in the gulf steam and the Bahamas. Great evening Merrick!
We weighed anchor in the pre-dawn darkness and motored towards Government Cut With Cody and Beth on the bow as lookouts as we picked our way to the busy harbour in the dark. As the light came, we found ourselves in our "little ship that could" pretty much the only thing moving in this busy harbor. After steaming by all the giant cruise ships and shipy ships the harbor ended and we were taking some nice size swells with a powerful current on the bow. High Drama! 50 nautical miles off the bow lies Bimini and the Bahamas, 2500 feet below Godspeed lies the bottom, we passed the outer marker and up went the sails and we set our course 15 degrees south of Bimini to counteract the northern flow of the stream and we were off for the Bahamas.
The sea state was confused and we were on a close reach which made kind of an annoying ride. At 23nm we lost sight of the Miami skyline and the good ship pushed on. Ten more nm and "Land Ho!" we could see Bimini-YaHOO!
As we approached from sudden rise from the deep, we were all quite exited to see the water color change from a deep blue to a light blue and spirits were high. "Zinnnng" there goes that fishing reel again. Cody grabbed it as I watched in horror as the line stripped of like mad. With only a few yards of 50 pound test left I tightened the drag on the reel until it stopped striping line and Cody held on. We were moving way to fast to fight this fish so we furled the head sail and pointed her into the wind to slow down. We just drug the fish awhile and tired it out and took turns getting line on it when we could. It is not the size of the fish in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the fish! We dined on Amber jack that evening after a great little battle. Merrick's lure was the hero of the day!
Once Godspeeds hull was slipping through the crystal clear water of the banks, the sea state vastly improved and spirits were high and wind speeds were low. We changed out the head sail to our light wind Genoa and were moving along smartly again. sunset found us watching starfish slip by on the bottom 20 feet below us. After a group vote, we decided to keep on truckin'. Pat gets the first watch, then Cody and Beth.
The moon came up at about 9:00 which greatly improved visibility. There were other boats making the same trip and they began passing us up with their sails up and motor running as well. We were sailing not motoring and it was very cool seeing the other boats in the moonlight with only the sound of the hull slipping through the water and the wind in the sails, I felt like a pirate on a "raid for the booty".
About 1:00 am Cody scampered on deck and took over, Beth joined him and I went below to be awakened shortly before daylight as we approached the "Tongue of the Ocean". 55 nm across deep water lies Nassau. The sea state was not great and Godspeed was on a close haul again with 15+ degrees of heel. We had some squalls visit us so we got a bit of reefing practice in and finally sailed into Nassau with 1 reef in the main and the Genoa furled way in. We took a slip in Nassau that evening as the immigrations and customs officers visited and cleared us in. When we were done we removed the yellow Quarantine flag from the mast and replaced it with the Bahamas courtesy flag- we made it!
Cody and Beth arranged for flights back to the states and we took Godspeed to the other side of the island for a night to a beautiful little bay and anchored. The next morning Cody and Beth took the blond exploring. We saw them go to shore and beach the blonde, funny thing was later we saw blondie headed back to Godspeed on her own! After a nice swim Cody rescued the wayward little vessel, picked up his damsel in distress and made it back to the mother ship. The next day we said goodbyes. They were a great help and it was fun to have them along on this journey.
We supperbowled in Nassau and set sail the next day to the Exumas and that's another story!

Once in a "Blue Moon"

Well It's like this, We had the choice to sit and write blogs or enjoy the great weather and blue clear water of the Florida keys. That is really the best reason that we came up with for this long dry spell.
Boot Key harbor in Marathon Key is where Godspeed lies tied to a mooring ball. There is over 200 moorings here and it is a community on the water complete with a cruiser's radio net in the morning that keeps us up on organized activities, buy sell trade, trivia, stuff like that.
Ok, ok so you want the dirt do you? I (Pat) got to meet this great Caribbean gal in North Palm Beach on a bicycle trip back from Home Depot. There she was in her rather crappy mini-van waiting to turn into the four lane highway. I was pedaling along down the sidewalk and made eye contact with her, slowed down and proceeded to pass in front of her when Louis Jean proceeded to pull into the highway. It wasn't so bad while I was on the wedge shaped hood, or while the bike slowly was sucked under the front end, the terror started when the bike pulled me along. Luckily I managed to get a bent leg and a good stiff arm on the bumper which prepared me for the journey ahead. I was kind of glad she decided to find the brake after a couple of lanes and her exceptionally slow reflexes allowed me to kind of get untangled before she put it into reverse and punched it. Well the good thing was I was free of the van, the bad thing was my bike and I were one now and the traffic light had just turned green. There was no time for self pity but a massive adrenaline rush and a rather interesting and athletic dive for the curb with the bike in tow. Louis Jean never got out of the mini van but sat there and told me that I ran into her and she had to go see Jerome and did not have time for this. I kept turning the conversation to -I need my bike fixed or we are calling the cops. No you ran into me mister! I calmly explained to her that all the damage to the bike was in the back so therefore I had to have been riding my bike at about 30 mph "BACKWARDS" to have got the job done. She finally got the bike fixed and even added a new kickstand for our trouble. When she dropped the bike off and I told her "God bless you, you did the right thing" she smiled and said "I still don't think it was my Fault!"
We rented a car and went to Fort Laurdadale to buy a head sail for stiffer wind conditions that we were in great need of. David Jenkins and Justin Sandner of Alpine Wyoming called us up and said we are in Port Everglades. Well, it was like 5 miles away, so we had a great lunch with them at Jack and Linda's place right on the inlet. It was quite obvious that they were there on business, Bare feet, flip flops, fruit drinks, subtle clues like that made it clear so we bid farewell and headed back to North Palm.
"Mon Ammie" I hollered to Lorrie as We watched Dave and Mary on "Mon Ammie" motor in and set their anchor. We enjoyed having them in the anchorage and got to watch Dave climb the mast in record time one morning to change a bulb. We met them in Oriental and they are professional cruisers. We learned a bunch from them!
Down the ditch we went, During the stay in North Palm we finished prepping Godspeed to hit the Ocean. As it worked out we could not get outside for one reason or the other and the next thing we know we are facing a 56 foot bridge. Now in our preparation for this possibility we had made several measurements and concluded that the mast is 54', maybe, We think,we hope. So there she stood like a great judge with the final word. I slowed Godspeed to a crawl and just wanted to be on the other side. We crept up and I realized the current was pulling us into it so we pulled a u turn and let mother nature take her course. This allowed us to inch up to the bridge in forward gear and have the ability to escape in forward if we made contact. Bam, just like that we were under it and high fiveing each other. Now all we had to do was take a left into Government Cut (one of the busyist ports on the east coast) drive past all the giant ships turn into a side channel and toss over Bruce, Right? It was really neat turning into this super busy harbor to find that we were the only ones moving. Godspeed seemed kind of small in that huge channel surrounded by cruise ships and big shipy ships. "No traffic Lorrie", this is great just us and a fast moving boat with flashing lights, loud speakers, and big guns! These kind gentlemen told us the harbor is closed turn around now, they were very convincing, so we did! Homeland security closes that harbor when certain ships transit it, so now we know! It is now about dark and we can't get to our anchorage, so into Biscayne Bay we turned and cruised by the rather impressive Miami skyline. Right at dark we spotted some masts in what looked like a cove so we felt our way in and tossed Bruce. In the morning we figured out that we slept in the middle of the Miami water speed way, there were grandstands around us with all the cool racing stuff, so we weighed Bruce and raced on outta there!
Before noon we Raised all sails in the Hawk Channel and "We Be Sailin" Since we left the mainland, using the engine only to charge batteries, tight maneuvering, and anchoring. Godspeed loves the open water and slips along swiftly in light winds, reaches hull speed quickly and have not seen her heel more than 15 degrees. We are getting used to it but it seems strange to see the bottom most of the time. When we dingy up we can see the rudder and keel underwater. Shortly after we arrived in Boot Key harbor we spotted Friends from Oriental, Randy and Ellen On "Bella" and have enjoyed thier company. This morning just before the Cruiser's net radio show Dennis on "Majic" dingyed up, Knocked on the hull and asked if we Knew Peter Hatcher from Wyoming, of course we did and he too lives in Alpine. Then we met a Game warden and school teacher from Thermopolis WY just leaving the harbor. For those of you back home shoveling snow, don't think you have to rush right down, Wyoming is well represented in the Keys and after all somebody has to move the snow or it would melt on its on without being noticed!
Pictures:
Dave up the mast
Miami speedway anchorage
Great white heron that lands on the blone each night
Happy new year!
The "Blue Moon" on New years morning in Boot Key Harbor

the last Supper and Thanksgiving

It's been awhile so there is another post right after this one. We spent 3 days in Fernandina Beach tied to a mooring ball and decided to make a hard run south to Melbourne Beach for thanksgiving dinner with nephew Tyler Gustafson and wife Jess. Things went great until we passed the Port Orange Bridge south of Daytona. As we slipped under the bridge I looked back and smiled as I remembered catching a very large Pompano from that spot in 1978-good times. Then came the weather. We have rigged the GPS/Chartplotter to be taken forward under the dodger along with the autopilot remote for times like this and it works great, you can drive with your fingertips anywhere on the boat while ducking for cover or whatever but we still stay close to the wheel. Yea, it was blowing and carrying on-so what, right?
Well, we entered a big sound area after New Smyrna Beach that was "yee haa". Nice rollers off the port quarter in rapid succession that made Otto(autopilot)get confused so it was hands on and very busy for about 2 hours. Then Lorrie tells me it is about time to duck out of this sound and into a man made cut to the next sound. Oh by the way, and there is a low bridge in the middle with 25 knots of wind on the Stearn and a wicked current with very little room to do anything but pray that the bridge operator would not be too slow today. We have never seen such a great concentration of dolphins as in this cut, I was glad they were there to take some of the pressure off as we transited the bridge just fine and now comes the fun!
As we slipped into the next sound it was quite apparent that the first was merly training for what was to come. A narrow channel in 2 feet of water with big rapid rollers moving at a fast pace to the starboard quarter. It got worse as we progressed and that is when Lorrie put on her foul weather gear and all the trimmings and prepared the "last Supper". Cheese and crackers were great at the moment and I was very busy keeping Godspeed off the shoals and water under the keel while mother nature did her thang. We stayed in Titusville that night and slipped under the bridge at first light Thanksgiving morning, At high noon we sent Bruce to the bottom in Melbourne. Later on Tyler picked us up at a park we dingyed to and what a treat we were in for!
Jess and her sister Melanie made their first Thanksgiving dinner and it was as good as we have ever had, complete wih pie and ice cream. It was a great time seeing these guys and meeting Drew (Melanie's boyfriend) and also Jess's grandfather. The next day Tyler and Jess rode their bikes over to the park and we dingyed them to godspeed for a look. We dropped them off, said goodbye, and took off in the Blonde(that is the name of the dinghy because she is full of hot air and "just a little dingy"). The indian river was smooth and the Blonde wanted to run so I gave her all the rein and off we went. Tyler & Jess had quite a look on their faces as they biked down the bridge 20 minutes later to see us walking in front of them.
Pictures:
1000 miles
Tyler and Jess

Three Passages in one!

After five days and 5 nights at the Mega Dock in Charleston, we set out once again for points South. As we left the dock and turned into the channel, I noticed there was very low oil pressure and we immediately turned into the anchorage and sent Bruce down. After a bit mechanicing and considering our safety in this particular situation, I determined we were OK to continue, not the best start but we were once again off. That night as we slipped into the anchorage of our choice, our new friends from Dreamer were the only boat there. Just as Bruce grabbed a hold, Pete dingyed over and invited us over for wine and cheese, a couple of local dolphins supplied the entertainment and we had a great evening on Dreamer!
We anchored in Beaufort SC that night(said like it sounds not to be confused with Bo-fert NC). The next few days we took on Georgia, We started out with an 80 mile day and into the big sounds and marshes we went. This leg of the journey was highlighted by the lack of man, the abundance of nature and marine life, and NO FUEL FOR 100 MILES!!!!!! We were sicking the diesel tank constantly watching it slowly disappear. The tidal change in this area is between 8 and 9 feet, so the currents scream to move this amount of water every 6 hours so there wasn't much chance of sailing. There was one boat that Godspeed just could not shake, the Fiscal Stray. We got to know Tod and Anne and shared anchorages for a couple of nights and we were sure glad they were near us. After explaining our situation, Tod offered a jerry jug of diesel to us and being the only way out, we excepted. Fiscal Stray adorned with fenders on her starboard, Godspeed on her port, Anne held Fiscal Stray at a steady true course and I maneuvered Godspeed alongside and Tod made the passage of jerry to Lorrie. We Fed the "Iron lady" and completed the passage again, waved goodbye to Fical Stray at Brunswick GA and into Florida we came. Three passages in one, Two jerry's and one Georgia!
Pictures:
Godspeed leads the pack
Dreamer
Sunrise at anchor
Fiscal Stray has our back
After much abuse, anyone can comment- have at it!

Hurricane Holeing

Just came in from setting all the ground tackle we have (anchors, chain, etc). Hurricane Ida is expected to mow us over. The Coast Guard rescue helicopter is circling overhead begging us to evacuate, but were not leaving Godspeed!
The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed, if it wasn't for the courage of the fearless crew, Godspeed would be lost!
OK, OK, we are actually tied to the City Marina "Mega Dock" in Charleston Harbor just livin' it up.
Backing up to Friday, we were making our cruise to the Isle of Palms area and I watched the depth sounder slowly count down, 8, 7, 7.5, 6, 5, 5.5, and down she went. In horror I slipped Godspeed into full reverse and slowed almost to a stop and slowly continued (wrong decision). For the first time we felt her bump bottom the the bow surged downward and we were officially aground. Clearly we were in the channel and "Christal clearly" we were on the bottom! After a holding the throttle at about half reverse and a sharp turn of the rudder we slowly slipped off. Then sheer terror set in! We inched our way into deeper water. As we continued we passed several abandoned boats sitting on the bottom, it had the Erie feeling of a graveyard. We made it to a nice anchorage at dusk, relaxed, and counted our blessings.
Saturday evening, my two sisters Melanie and Melinda, accompanied by adult supervision Norman (Melanie's hubby), boarded Godspeed at Isle Of Palms, SC. In the morning, after running aground again, we anchored at a remote spot and Melanie baked biscuits, made gravy, and all the fixins while I baited hooks and removed the catch of the day for perhaps the best "trash fisherman" man has ever encountered, Melinda. She was like a little kid starting with "I don't like to fish". Then came "here Melinda reel this one in", Sheer "Joy" (her middle name) followed and some of the finest trash fishin' the world has ever seen was witnessed by all aboard.
We made a very slow cruise to the Ben Sawyer swing bridge to hit the "on the hour opening" and then into Charleston Harbor. Out came the sails and we spent a fabulous day sailing around the harbor. After docking Godspeed's 35 feet in a 34 foot spot on the Mega Dock, Melanie did the "surf and Norm grilled the Turf" for a great evening meal on Godspeed. We giggled ourselves to sleep and said goodbyes in the morning. It was fun having them aboard, even for such a short time.
We had planned to move off the dock to an anchorage when some other cruisers told us that Ida's storm track had changed and could threaten us. After checking the weather, we walked to the dockmaster and asked if we could stay a few days, then the phone rang and someone else was turned away and we were told we could stay. Now that's cutting it close! Although this little stay will put a gouge in the kitty, "Safe than sorry" is the card we are playing as we watch the storm's progress, safely attached to this massive structure. It does not appear it will do much more than rain buckets here. Anyway, we took the courtesy van to the Charleston visitor center and spent the afternoon as "world class tourist" enjoying watching the horse and mule drawn carriages, eating boiled peanuts on a park swing, and enjoying the deep history of Charleston by foot, eventually walking all the way back to Godspeed.

The Backdoor/ Land of my people!

Godspeed motored out of Masonboro about 8:00am Monday morning into an overcast and dreary sky. We stopped at Carolina Beach for fuel and were pleasantly surprised to see Godspeed had only sipped 12 gallons of diesel in 24 hours of motoring. It was the next 2 days when we really began to appreciate our vessel, she is very nimble at the helm and has long swift legs that steadily will out distance most other vessels which is a great advantage when you arrive at an anchorage way ahead of the pack and have a place to send Bruce down for the night. Several times we have made timed bridge openings, slipped through when many others are far behind and have to wait for the next window as we head to the next anchorage early. Godspeed is the right name!
After the fuel stop, we found ourselves in a wide sound area which ia a major shipping lane. A dredge had all but a few feet of the channel blocked and a shoal on the other side. The good thing was there was a strong current and a 15 to 20 Knot wind sucking us into the shoal, It was very exiting for a few minutes as I held Godspeed at a 45 degree angle to the channel crabbed along and made only forward progress. We made it through ok and beside the big boats we went. After a 60 mile run we sent Bruce down and we stayed the night at Calabash, just a few feet inside South Carolina near the Little river Inlet. When we arrived, there was one nice spot left amongst 5 other cruisers. The sky cleared overnight and at dawn we were the first out and headed for the dreaded "Rock Cut".
'Rock Cut" is about 20 or so miles rated as the worst on the ICW. It is a man made cut through rock that is high walled with submerged trees, floating trees, rock ledges and much shoaling. Lorrie read all this to me as I was gleaming about our boat's speed. Suddenly I wanted to be in the back, are the other cruisers playing us like a fiddle or what? Anyway we picked our way through and were glad to see that several bridges we encountered opened on radio request which was great due to the stiff current pulling us into them.
The next section was a Cypress swamp which for the most part had deep black water which gave Godspeed a dark mustache for a while. we began to see palmetto plants and I realized as we passed the mouth of the Pee Dee river that this is where the "Barefoot clan" is from, my mother's people. Later we saw the Barefoot marina, several other business named Barefoot and even made the Barefoot Brige open. With another 60 mile leg behind us Godspeed motored into the Seaport of Georgetown SC at about 3:00pm. Bruce took a swim and I hoisted the dingy over the side and rowed the 100 feet to the shrimp docks. A few feet further and we docked at the town "dingy dock". It is really neat showing up at a new place, not by plane train or automoblie, but walking through the "Back Door". Banana sized shrimp still "wigglin" came to the galley for dinner!