I woke up this morning and my back is feeling much better. It still hurts, so I planned to take it easy today. Mike decided he wanted to accomplish a few things. He dug out the electronics cable so he could hook up our DSC radio to our GPS. He also hooked our B&G equipment into the Capn. After we determined what wires get hooked where, Mike set about his work.
We heard Alvimar on the radio, so we called them. We met them two years ago at the East Port Yacht Club. More specifically, they did an open invitation to any cruisers left in Annapolis at the end of October to join them at the East Port Yacht Club for a party. We caught up with them and made plans to get together after we move to St. Anne.
Right after we finished talking with Alvimar, Lady M III called us. They are anchored at St. Anne. They are planning to be here for a bit so we will also try to get together with them. They asked us when we need to be where based on insurance. Since we hadn't reviewed our insurance (beyond knowing that we needed to be below the hurricane belt), we took the opportunity and took a break to check it out.
While Mike worked on the wiring, I wrote logs. We are both trying to be careful with my back.
Just as were finishing up, Tahoe called to let us know that they are moving to St. Anne. They don't like taking Spirit, their dog, ashore in Le Marin. He got clipped by a car, so they want to move out to St. Anne where they hope it will be better. Next, Sojourner called to let us know that they will be moving this way tomorrow. We will play tourist together.
On May 21, Sojourner brought their boat into Marin. Unfortunately, due to the crowded anchorage, Jan decided to stay on the boat while Dan cleared out of customs. Following their lead, we cleared out of customs in Martinique and moved the boat out to the anchorage at St. Anne near where Sojourner reanchored. It was during this move that we discovered exactly how bad the NMEA data collisions were! The Capn hiccuped and would not move the boat while we were navigating out to the outer anchorage! However, we made it safe and sound.
The first thing we did after dropping anchor was to disconnect the B&G feed. This cleared up both the problem with the VHF as well as the problem we experienced today with the Capn. We need to get a NEMA multixplexer, that allows all of the data to come and controls how it goes out so that the data stream from one device does land on top of another.
That evening, we accepted an invitation to cocktails on Tahoe. Sojourner, Pengallie, and Crystalee also gathered on Tahoe. It was a fun evening.
On May 22, we spent a relaxing day. We joined a bunch of other boats, for Bachi Ball (as it was named to us!) on the beach at St. Anne. There were 10 boats or so all told. I was on the winning team for the first two games! We chatted with folks about what all cruisers chat about, the weather, hurricane season, moving the boat and where to stay for hurricane season. A few of the boats were trying to put together a wine tasting for Friday and encouraged all of us 'newbies' to stay since it was 'blowing like stink and wouldn't be a comfortable ride anyway.'
We returned to the boat to discuss the wisdom imparted by the old timers and to spend a quiet afternoon and evening aboard the boat.