Still Here On Saturday

Yup. We are still in Tobago Keys. It is one of those decisions made by not making a decision. Chances are good we'll haul anchor even before this is posted, and follow Moody Blues to another anchorage. They're a nice couple of people, and we enjoy their company. Susea has some minor claims to fame: she has credit for a cover shot for a Steve Miller album ("Fly Like an Eagle"), numerous articles and covers for Latts and Atts, co-written a book called "Red Sky in the Mourning" - a true story of the other co-writer who loses her husband during a storm, and a few other endeavours. We passed a couple of our scanned copies of my articles from Multihulls Magazine, and she said enough nice things that if my head can still get around the boat, I may go back to writing.

Some minor corrections from past posts: The turtles don't seem to be hawksbill, and are much more likely large green turtles. The sucker-fish we spotted on a turtle's back is more likely a remoray fish, with a unique suction device on it's forehead. It doesn't have the capability to clean the turtle's shell, but seems to only hang on. It's almost as long as the turtle, and annoys him/her greatly; but what is a turtle going to do?

The turtles' lack of concern with humans in the water, coupled with Dawn and I hitting the books resulted in the improved identifications. How the turtles keep their shells clean is still a mystery; and we'll work on it.

Yesterday, it rained like stink and we caught ~10 gallons of rainwater; so today we wash the sheets and some other small items. Rain is forecasted for today as well, so drying is an iffy proposition. Dawn is being kept busy right now both with the laundry and chasing those black 'banana pecker' birds away from the boat. She is doing a great job with the birds - who needs a dog?

Sincere thanks to all those people who work to keep us informed of what is going on in the world: Hugh and Ron for their regular postings; Mike and Anne O'Brien and Arnold Morehouse for civic news, Gary Parks, Claire MacFarlane, and Brenda MacDonald for the Education Dept. updates; Paul and Lita, Ken and Linda, Mike and Anne, Lolly, Brian and Lorna, Mike and Nancy, and Ken and Jean for family news updates. We enjoy hearing the changes, trials, successes, and celebrations in your lives, as well as the general news. We are spending long periods of time these days without any internet connections, potentially leaving us in the dark about any news without your emails. To answer some questions posed to us:

We will end our wanderings this year with Cat Tales coming out of the water on June 1st in Chaguaramas, Trinidad. We will stay to do some of the major boat maintenance while we are still acclimatized, and will fly home on June 6th. We are investigating storage options for next year, including two locations in Grenada, and possibly even one in St Lucia. The St. Lucian one requires some negotiations with our insurers. The reasons for such shopping include the storage costs, some safety considerations, climate improvements from one area to the next, and convenience. We have been wounded by the economic situation, but we expect to pull through until Laurie's pension starts in one year. We do not anticipate returning to work unless an offer comes up that we can't refuse. Worst case, we'll be lying low all summer, and will continue with being annoyingly frugal when traveling in the Caribbean next year. Certainly, we intend to return to the boat before December of 2009. It'll be fall of 2010 before these poor boat vendors get much real business out of us.

We are especially thankful to all of you for your good wishes, and greatly anticipate seeing you all soon.