Red Shanks, Bahamas
23.28.894N
75.44.111W

A funny thing about boats: Part 2. Have you ever noticed that if something is broken, you can't live until its fixed? It's not that you have ever used the dang thing on a regular basis, its just that now that you know that its broken, it has to be fixed right now or it grinds on you until it is fixed. Well, that's what happened to Dale. He woke up during the night thinking about the generator and finally decided to bypass the starting switch so that he could start the generator when he wanted to use it. He said that he got the idea from something I had done. Really! Since I have a hard enough time trying to figure out an electric diagram with the components in front of me, this boggled my mind too. Then the truth emerged. I had wanted some rubber buttons for the start/stop stitches for the engine as the red ones disintegrate in the sun's UV rays, so when I saw the switches on sale (I couldn't buy just the little rubber buttons) I picked up several. He took one of those switches and made a bypass. Of course, he had to tear the inside of the boat apart again but once he had decided what to do, it was just a matter of doing it. Boom! It was done. While the boat was apart, he replaced a float switch on a sump pump we never use and turned the knot meter around (it hasn't been working either but we have another within the chartplotter, so it wasn't missed). A very productive day.

Our meeting with all of the boats heading to Luperon and points south that I had mentioned in an earlier posting, was rescheduled to today; it wasn't bad at all. The guy who had just come back had already departed the scene and the guy organizing the meeting didn't dominate the discussion as I thought he might. (I might have to give him another chance.) There was another couple there that had done the trip before (although its been several years) who said that there wasn't anything to it. Follow Van Sants' guide and you'll be good to go.

We met another couple there who asked if we were the boat hailing Rainbow Rider and if it was owned by Linda and . . . "Yes" I was eager to tell them, Linda & Gary, it's the same. "Do you know them?" Sure enough, they are onboard another catamaran named CopyKat and had met Gary and Linda in the Chesapeake area about 6 months ago. Although they plan on heading south as well, they don't plan on leaving until around March. They were great people. I told Dale that this cruising thing is turning out to be a lot like the Navy; after you're in it for a while, you start to get to know people who know the same people you know and it turns into a small community. Anyway, now that we've met them, they are looking out for Rainbow Rider and will pass along our message that we're looking for them as well. Particularly if we leave before they get here. Peter has been to the Dominican Republic before and encouraged me not to try to avoid it as it is beautiful. I asked him if there was ever a problem with the language barrier. He replied: No, they speak Spanish very well. He also said that the younger people also speak English and generally, the gist of the conversation is conveyed regardless of the subject.

Right now, we're looking at perhaps taking off this coming week. The weather's been beautiful for a couple of days and the fronts are dissipating by the time they reach us. It will be hard to leave this peaceful and beautiful anchorage. Tonight we have been serenaded with accordion/constantia from one of the German boats that pulled in yesterday. Where else would we be able to sit and watch the sunset and enjoy our dinner listening to song after song after song being played by a German accordionist who not once played a polka or a Christmas tune?