We all have a different perspective. (mine is skewed)

Godfrey Minns, age 84, was in the grocery store Friday afternoon and it was my first time to see him.  (You cant carry your backpack through the grocery, so you wont steal green beans or ham, or something.  So i always put mine - which i always carry - behind the door in the office.)  On this Friday i see Godfrey sitting at a little desk in the office.   I said hi to Godfrey when i dropped my bag and wondered WHY he was in the office?  Wondered 'who is that guy'...

An hour or two later I was leaving a local "b.a.r." after a Super Friday Happy Hour and Godfrey was standing on the dinghy dock drinking coffee from a Styrofoam cup.  I took a ‘sunset photo’ and he informed me “you cant take a picture toward the sun.”  I laughed and told him, 'I know', 'but it was pretty and it would be OK.'  We started visiting and he told me he was just there waiting for 7p when the store closed to get a ride home.  His family owns lots of land and a few businesses in town.  He lives about a mile north near the hotels.  “My house is between two hotels on the water West of here.”  He laughed about me living on a boat.  He wishes he was back in Canada.

Godfrey and his brother built the store.  Godfrey was born in George Town, then went to Canada for College.  He stayed for 40 years and still misses it, a lot.  Misses the snowskiing.  “I miss the winters with the snow and skiing.”  My brother got the idea to build this grocery store and asked me to come back and help him…   (Godfrey studied and worked in electrical engineering in Canada.)

THE Sunset photo, with Godfrey on the dock

Godfrey Minns

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Segue to a new thought.

Greg Gotcher  / circa: 12/2017

 Danielle Gotcher March 2019

  Gypsea III, the Gotcher's boat.  I was drinking coffee in the cockpit the other morning and saw a boat go by.  Turns out it was Gypsea III and the Gotchers.  I knew them from when i was in Stuart winter of 2017.  They saw me with my leg torn up and walking on crutches back then.  I ran into them here, in George Town walking down the main street.  Their first words, "Hey Skip, how's the leg?"  I visited them aboard their boat late one afternoon for Sundowners and a nice visit and they have since departed for other islands.  I'm still here trying to get my jib fixed before taking off.  

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How ' the other half ' live.

I recently sat aboard Prodigal looking over at a very large Yacht and wondered how the other half live.  What would it be like to have a crew and space for lots of storage and how massive was their fuel bill?  How much money does all that cost?  Then i was reminded of something Greg Gotcher said when he was visiting me on Prodigal.  Greg said, "Nobody else lives on here with you?  It's so big with so much space.  Wow!"  I didn't think it was so big, it was my usual space, my perspective.  I've had LANDLUBBERS visit and comment how small and confined it is below deck.  "Oh, i could never live on a boat, it's just too small."  I've had Landlubbers ask, "how do you go to the bathroom"  and "how do you eat?  Can you cook on board?"  Greg mentioned that on Gypsea III they dont have a freezer.  NO ice.  None.

Step back from where you are and look around.  Somebody nearby is looking at you and wondering how you do it, and why.  Some days i wonder too.  Today with a high of 77 and a nice cool breeze from the North, sitting down below in the shade with a good book from the local G.T. library, I have no questions about why I'm here.  I just wonder what to take out of my freezer to thaw for dinner....

- the Skipper

I cleaned the bottom of Prodigal last week. Finally!

Fun is NOT what i had this week cleaning the boat bottom.  I have greatly improved my system.  I bought a used 'hooka rig' (or snooba) from Roland, a gentleman who is quitting boating.  $300, it is a 50' hose with a pressure gauge on one end and a mouthpiece on the other.  so i can just jump in and leave the airtank on the boat. (i also got 2 tanks from Roland included)  its easier to scrub the bottom with this setup.  It still took me two tanks and about 5hrs underwater scrubbing to finish it.  *PHOTO; 3' barracuda.  on the second day i was down there scrubbing and looked over and a Barracuda was sitting perfectly still like they do, about 5 ft from me just watching me.  He hung around all afternoon never leaving my side.  EXCEPT when a 4ft reef shark swam through and chased him.  It gave me a little start!  I see the fish dart off and immediately he's pursued by this shark which flies past me and under the boat - gone.  I looked around then in a 360, to confirm i was alone.  After about ten minutes the barracuda returned to watch me.  The shark stayed gone.

Full Moon 

George Town Sunset 

Tiny growth on the prop

I've seen worse, but sure wish i had done this weeks ago before it got so long and thick.  

(Lesson learned?  we will see next month!)

Before scrubbing, growth from waterline to bottom of keel (top-bottom)

 After first pass, standing on the sandy bottom reaching as high as I can

First pass along bottom done.  Note: Barracuda watching me.

 the Keel before cleaning

I was anchored in about 12 feet of water, so at high tide the bottom sits about 6 feet off the bottom - about eye level.  I stood on the sandy bottom and reached up with my scrub brush, on it's 5' handle, and cleaned what i could reach.  After i couldn't reach anymore, i went aboard for lunch and a nap.  i waited till low tide so the boat would be sitting near the bottom and i could reach the higher areas.  Then i would dive again and do the rest of it.  I did a side per day and then was plenty tired and sore.  It takes a lot of muscles to lift the tanks and then swim around down there scrubbing.  My scrub muscles have not been exercised much!

My scrub brush tied to the ladder at high tide.

the barracuda

the barracuda watching me

small fish watching the barracuda!

I motored over to the other side of the harbor and anchored in preparation for rain this week and strong winds from the North.  Upon arrival i swam out and checked my anchor to confirm it was well buried.  I saw neither the Barracuda nor the Shark.  Yet!

I hope your bottom is clean.  

IF NOT, dont wait too long before cleaning it.  

It's a lot of work!

- Cleaner Skip

All is well here!

I'm feeling too good for scurvy!  So if you are worried, dont be.  I'm working on cleaning the bottom of the boat for the next two days, so i'll be underwater with a scrub brush in my hand.  (photos later)

Doug wrote asking as to my health:

I know you are probably busy with retirement and the blog shouldn't be a job, but a brief post would let us know you are well and haven't succumbed to hoof and mouth disease.
-Doug Lester

Gotta run jump in!    -skip

Hodgepodge

It's windy and rainy with some pretty good gusts about 20 mph from the North East causing big waves out there, so i've been trapped aboard for two days now.  When it dies down this afternoon I'll venture out.  Till then, here are some photos i took earlier in the week, a hodgepodge of stuff.  One thing of note, I climbed up to the top of Monument Hill for photos of the boat names using my good camera and long lens.  Some of these must have taken a long time to construct.

Ribs, Mac-Cheese, Corn. from the Jerk Shop.  $10US

Stupid Skip Skinned knees from volleyball

I may be trapped aboard, but i aint starved yet!          -Skip

Toilet Seat needed?

During the transit from Marathon to Bimini I broke the toilet seat off.  (the cheap plastic hinge splintered)  I'm saying it was - must have been - defective?  After only ten years of use it "just broke off."  The fact that we were rolling in eight foot seas and i was bouncing off the wall when attempting my business should not have caused the seat to break.  Must have been defective!  After it broke, I duct taped it back on, in the down position.  That's how its been ever since.

 Yesterday I went to the local store in George Town about a block from the dinghy dock to buy a new toilet seat.  It was not quite that easy.  The only toilet seats were at the Darville Lumber Company 8 miles away.  As it turned out Jillian happened by and informed me, "its easy to travel just stick out your thumb.  Everybody hitches here."  So i walked about two blocks with my thumb stuck out before a guy stopped and gave me a lift to the Lumber Co.  After i left the lumber yard one of their workers was headed back to town to drop off some purchase and she gave me a ride back.  It was easy to hitch.  I definitely got lucky with my two rides after only about a minute of walking both times.  I was really dreading that eight mile walk back carrying a toilet seat...

Jillian and I at the local library

Words to live by.  Do unto others and all that...  $19 and Priceless!

I expect this seat to last longer than ten years.  It was made in India after all.

- take a seat.  Skipper