It’s been awhile. We were outside of cell service and then took a little vacation. It’s funny how even when you’re not “working for the man” you feel the need to take a break. I felt the need, we took a break.
Well, we said goodbye to our friends on Fishers Hornpipe. And we resupplied. And we filled the water tanks. Now we’re sitting in Green Island. We’ll be heading to The Swimming Pool shortly – where we hope to put some fish onboard, get some boat maintenance done, and enjoy some cave diving.
Moving On
Andy and the crew onboard Fishers Hornpipe left Chichime three or four hours before we did – heading to Nargana (same as us). When we finally got everything tied down, I had resigned myself to not catching them. But the wind-gods were with us.
We motorsailed for about an hour, but other than that we sailed those 20-25 miles to Nargana. We lost wind a couple of times, and we never topped 6.5 knots – but shortly we overtook Fishers Hornpipe. We both wanted shots of our boats under full sail, so I eased up next to them and the cameras started flashing. Then the board shorts were removed and there were white asses across the whole deck of Fishers Hornpipe, pointed our direction. I’ll spare y’all that picture. Here’s my chariot, underway. She’s a pretty girl.
Luke and I motored into Nargana when we lost wind, but Fishers Hornpipe stuck it out and sailed all the way into anchor. By the time they arrived, Luke and I had concocted a plan: to buy the island out of rum, and sell it back to Fishers Hornpipe for a profit. As they anchored, I drove by in the dinghy to explain that it would be futile for them to go to shore in search of rum.
Onshore our plans were foiled by, surprisingly, a large stock of rum. Much more than I could afford. So we settled for veggies, beer, and a moderate amount of rum. Then we took the dinghy up Rio Diablo, which was tricky but scenic. Check it out:
When we made it back onboard NOMAD, Fishers Hornpipe had changed plans; originally they were going to sail with us to The Swimming Pool, but they decided to take advantage of a weather window and sail to Providencia ASAP. Which meant that we’d be parting ways forever. Which meant that we needed to have one last party. And party we did.
The whole crew from Fishers Hornpipe came onboard NOMAD, where we cooked, talked, drank, and lied about fish for several hours. At some point in the wee hours of the morning we hugged and shook hands – and the crew on Fishers Hornpipe retired. Luke and I were asleep immediately.
The next morning Andy woke me up pretty early. He had decided that he wanted the leftover solar panels I had replaced a few months ago. I dug through the boat, found them, and sent him off to Providencia with a little more solar capability. We were a little bummed to see them go, but stoked for their next voyage – which would take them from Porvenir (San Blas), to Providencia, to Isla Mujeres, to Louisiana.
Luke and I spent that day recovering and doing a bit of cleaning (funny how quickly a boat gets dirty during a party). The following day I went back to the island looking for some hard-to-find stuff: pancake syrup, parmesan cheese, olive oil, etc. I found exactly none of that.
Moving to Green Island
By this point we were both sick of being in Nargana, so we got things together and headed out for a super-quick sail to Green Island. We were there before we knew it, and both were itching to sail a little bit more. We dropped our anchor about 15 feet off the shore of a beautiful, deserted, island. Then we got hammocks, beer, and burnable trash together and headed ashore. We burned our trash, and drank beer in hammocks. It wasn’t a very stressful evening.
We came back, Luke made pizza (using a rum bottle to roll the dough), and we ate like kings.
Early the next morning we went for a dive, hoping to find lunch on the reef. We were very disappointed. This was my first time in Green Island, so it’s possible that we simply need to find other spots – but we dove multiple areas that looked very productive on the charts, and there was nothing home. I did take a small lobster, and we ate him for lunch; but it was hardly a full-meal dive.
Then boat-cleaning started in earnest. I enjoy having the boat clean, but honestly don’t get a kick out of cleaning it. That said, Luke cleaned decks while I cleaned inside and now we have a boat that looks less like two surf/dive bums are living in it. Bueno.
Shortly after our little cleaning adventure, Lisa, Corta, and Rafi showed up on two boats. They came by and invited us to have a beer on the beach. We happily joined them. Lisa had some time off, so we decided she’d jump onboard and sail to the Swimming Pool with us for a mini-vacation. With Luke, Lisa and I onboard – we were bound to have a bit of fun. And have fun we did.
Moving On
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