Itsy the Silver Argiope on the beach at Pipe Cay.  Do you feel a tickle on the back of your neck?

We threw out our jib like an offering to the blue sky who gratefully filled it with the kind of wind sailors dream of.  We returned to the same anchorage spot we spent a week at and had the inlet all to ourselves this time.  We dinghied in to pick up our solar regulator and to do a load of laundry with Ruth’s company at the laundry/liquor store.  It really is the best bar in town with its three bar stools and counter next to the washing machines.  The tourist tour boats don’t go there and sailors and locals are frequently dropping in for a cold one and to bask in Ruth’s comical boldness. She told Captain Methismatch when he was teasing her to hurry up and get him a beer, Sit small until you’re called.

Itsy         many pictures courtesy of Soul Divers Photography

In order for Captain Ohboyabigproject to do any kind of work on the boat he needs to empty every crevice, settee, cupboard, underwear drawer, medicine cabinet, fridge and tool box.  The boat looked like a hurricane hit it as the solar regulator was installed, a battery system control monitor put in and some shunting of batteries went on.  I sunned in the cockpit, sipped umbrella drinks and ate bon bons.  It was a big project that went well and now I can have my fan at night and even some lights on without any lectures about it.  Captain Myhero is really quite a remarkable fixer guy and I thank his mother, Caryl, for buying him that erector set when he was just a wee little trouble maker with bright blue eyes.

We provisioned with an $8.00 package of frozen, sliced, water injected, yuck deli ham, a $7.00 bag of Fritos, a $7.00 box of Wheat Thins, a $9.00 bunch of asparagus, a $75.00 case of Heineken and because I was starting to talk backwards and my left leg was doing a nervous jig, one bottle of $35.00 Josh Sauvignon Blanc.  I could not and would not spend $28.00 for the bottle of Barefoot.  Forgive me if I told you this already, but back in February a kind marina employee gave us a lift to a liquor store and grocery.  I bought sixteen bottles of wine.  I bought them in a hurry.  I later found the whites to be dated 2012 to 2014.  What should have been pale yellow was dark gold.  The wine was most likely sold cheap because it was old in the first place and then it sat in a two hundred degree freight car on a baking ship for three weeks.  Three bottles we used to stun and kill fish with or I simply dumped.  The others I drank with sparkling water to cut the vinegar taste.  Even the shit wine was gone.  I drank Soul Divers out of their wine.  The wineless princess was whining.

A LOT!

Project completed, boat stocked, we headed off for Pipe Cay with Soul Divers on our way back to the Exumas Land and Sea park.  I don’t even mention our diesel/water stops anymore as Captain Toocooltobumpdockswhilegettingfuel has become one with Echoes.  It is a thing of beauty.  My digestive tract is most grateful.  Captain Scoringbigpoints is also really good at filling our water tanks with rain water saving us the fifty cents a gallon for water and affording me longer showers.

Pipe Cay is a quiet cay with a beauty all of its own.

We walked around the ruins of a US Navy Decca station and followed a path to the west side of the island.  We came upon a vast expanse of sea floor at low tide.  It was like stepping on to a beached moon .  We walked for a mile on rippled sand to the slim Pipe River where boats were anchored in the river but appeared to be sitting on the sand.  Conch shells littered the vast and vacant sand floor.

Happily worn out we settled in for a quiet night of reading and star gazing.