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American Spirit II - Day 101; Laundry, Drift Snorkel in Passe de Tiputa , How to Climb Back into a Dingy and French Dinner Ashore; Monday, April 14, 2014



Steve up at 6:30 AM. I got up 7:00 AM. Early breakfast because Stephen, whose handle is 'The Diver,' had an 8:00 AM dive today.



After dropping Stephen off in the dingy at Top Dive, I dingied over to Folie a Deux and then Nexus; planning today's activities. Made a run to the grocery store on Folie a Deux's dingy, where I bought beer and junk food; and filled up 2 five gallon clear plastic containers with 'cistern' water from a hose at the grocery store. An employee in the store drove our beer and some groceries to the dingy dock located about a block away. The 10 gallons of water I got was not going to be used for drinking but for doing laundry.



From 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM Joel and I did laundry. The process, as now refined, is as follows. Remember, we're at an anchorage so we have little water to spare, since we don't make water in an anchorage, due to unknown water quality. It takes 6 quarts of water to wash a load, 4 tablespoons of Tide and a little bleach,depending on what you're washing. You then turn the handle on the 'washing machine' for 2 minutes. Turning creates pressure, which forces the detergent through the clothes, cleaning them. We usually churn the laundry for double that time. Once done with the wash, then we put the laundry in the electric centrifuge dryer to spin the dirty water out. Then we fill the washing machine up with 6 more quarts of water, put the clothes back in and rinse. The instructions say to rinse the clothes for 30 seconds. We usually rinse for 2 minutes. Then back in the centrifuge dryer again. Once out of the dryer, we hand the clothes up on a life line. The water that is expelled after the rinse cycle is collected in a bucket and used to 'pre-wash' especially dirty items, such as 'floor towels.' Floor towels are used to mop up the floor in the shower, head and cabin when water collects there after a shower or due to bringing water down below after swimming or if some rain made it down the hatch. The whole process of washing one, 4.5 pound load of clothes takes about 30 minutes. With non-cotton clothes you can fit more into the washer, and they dry much quicker than cotton when hung up outside to dry.



From 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM we drift snorkeled the pass in Follie a Deux's dingy. First we snorkeled the east side of Passe de Tiputa, then the west side. While snorkeling the east side I saw one barracuda, my first on the circumnavigation. About 3 feet long. Joel saw one black tipped shark. A group of 6 divers doing a float dive thru the pass scooted by under us. The water was clear and I was able to get some pretty good video footage of them floating along the bottom. They sere moving at at least 2 knots. Fast.



The challenge in snorkeling out of a dingy is how to get back in the dingy. Few people can do so without some sort of ladder, stirrup or looped rope. Follie a Deux has a rope ladder with plastic rungs on it. However, when you step on the ladder, your body weight pushes the rope ladder all the way under the dingy. So, either someone else has to hold the bottom rung down with their foot, or you have to grab a rope topside and pull yourself up over the gunwale. Somewhat challenging until you get the hang of it. We made up a similar method on our dingy, but we use a single stirrup instead of a ladder. It seems to work equally well; maybe even a little better, actually.



We're still seeing 'new fish.' Fish that we've never seen before snorkeling, diving or even on TV. There is an amazing variety of fish in the Pacific. And many of these are 'exotic.' Shapes and colors that almost defy description.



The west side of the pass was a better drift snorkel, with more fish and coral visible. Unfortunately, an approaching rain squall ended our outing prematurely.



We ate dinner at Josephine's, an open air French restaurant on the west side of Passe de Tiputa; with the crew of II Audeacious, Follie a Deux and us. Eleven in all. From 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. The meal was a 'set' meal, meaning that we didn't order off the menu, but ate what was provided. The main course was curried mahi mahi. A four course meal in all. The cost, including 3 or 4 bottles of wine, was $73.00 apiece.



Once back on the boat, no movie tonight. Lights out at 10:30 PM.



Brian Fox


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