Author Archives: Matt

Baggage. Lots of baggage

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Sometimes 2 bags per person just ain’t enough when traveling. Good thing the planes have large wings.

Why is it that the good stuff weighs the most? Well, okay it’s the boat parts that are the heavy cargo. So much so that we had to enlist another traveler to bring some gear.

This is a big mule run. St Marten is a duty free island so there are no extra import or duty fees on items brought in for boats. Some places have an exemption for vessel in transit but there is a bit of paper work to go through so this trip we are dragging lots of spares and some improvements along. It all equates to 200+ lbs of gear. New shifting cable as a spare, new macerator as the starboard side hasn’t worked in years, and a new sound system to make the lake boys proud. Tho, will have to bring the subwoofers on another trip, probably when the solar panels get upgraded to play the deep base notes. The interior speakers deteriorated on the last trip and the outside speakers from the canaries were just about the only thing they had on the island to make the trip across the Atlantic. Not a necessity but we will also have some bow speakers for lounging on the trampoline. Should be a fun install.

Course some other odds and ends to do some routine maintenance, so looking forward to some water time and chilaxing on the hook in some bays on the way south to avoid the hurricane zone.

Arriving Dallas where the other 1/3 of the boat luggage comes on board. Sure hope that our taxi driver brings a van.

Breakfast….

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At SXM airport waiting

Waiting to return to the Texas frozen tundra.

Still in flip flops and shorts. Air conditioning is a threat to the tan. Yikes flakes already.

Boat is all clean and hopefully be safely attached to the dock while we are gone. More details in next post, while bored in an tube flying through the sky.

Motivation and winding down

Great day. Nothing too exciting. Slow motor out around SXM. Not early. Not late. No fishing. No hurries.

Yup we are winding down, just as the groove gets started.

One more reef to negotiate. Or really three. And then we start the clean up process. Laundry. Boat. Taking down a sail and making sure the sun won’t bake every thing on board while we are gone.

Little sad but its the life we live. Back to work till the next adventure. We need as much vacations as the Europeans. Summers off or something would make getting into a groove a bit easier. This was a big trip. We covered most of the windward and leeward islands in a couple if weeks. Not nearly enough time to enjoy any one spot but some new stomping grounds we haven’t been to in years. Fun times even if our foul weather gear is still drying.

Tomorrow we head to oyster pond. Crazy enterence with breaking waves and reefs to negotiate. Then 2 days to dry stuff out and put it all away. Not the livers, don’t be silly. Put one line(rope) away. One beer as a reward. See how this goes. Hence why it might take 2 days to stash all the working sheets(ropes).

Almost out of food. Much better planning than years past. When the freezer quit it taught us a plan food better given fresh fish and the trips a shore. Right now we have lunches, 3 pizza and a meal of tuna. And lots of snacks. Looking good to wind if on down.

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Finally starting to get some color and learning how this panorama thing works.

Happy first Friday of the year y’all.