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American Spirit II - Day 264; Laundry on Direction Island, the Dingy Drifts Away & a Visit to Home Island; Friday, September 26, 2014



Up at 6:54 AM. Sunny. The wind was out of the east and the wind speed was down from previous days. Because the wind overnight was blowing too hard our wind turbine did not charge up the batteries like we'd hoped.



As I started to cook breakfast our propane tank hit 'empty'; so we switched to another one. Later, Jeremy smelled propane and after checking the hose and valve we determined that we did have a small leak. So henceforth, we'll have to turn off the propane at the tank after using the stove. This is irritating but until we stop the leak we'll have to do so.



Breakfast at 9:20 AM consisted of scrambled eggs; potato; chilled mango slices; and bread. Brian from Folie a Deux joined us for breakfast and then went to work on 'enhancing' our fishing equipment. We have been having a hard time bringing fish in and Brian put on some stronger leader wire and made some other changes to our rigs so that we will hopefully catch more fish. Brian is a 16 year old boy from Folie a Deux and the best fisherman in the fleet.



Around 10:00 AM Joel was picked up by Russ from Nexus and they went to Merlyn of Poole to try to fix their generator. Right after that I proceeded to Direction Island to do laundry. There is 'free' water there and what I was washing today were my sheets and pillow cases. While I was doing this Jeremy called me on the VHF radio and told me that our dingy had drifted away. Once I saw this I emptied my pockets, jumped into the water and swam after the dingy. Once I had it back on shore I proceeded to break the piece of plastic that extends beneath the propeller. We have a spare on the boat; and the 'broken' piece I believe can be glued back together. I then found a piece of bamboo that we'll use henceforth so that when the dingy is beached the shaft can be maintained far enough in the up position so that the propeller is out of the sand.



I returned to the boat around 11:15 AM and hung the 3 sheets and pillow cases out to dry. I took them down around 1:25 PM as we were going to go to Home Island shortly.



Around 2:00 PM Russ, Laurie and Jeanine from Nexus picked us up and we headed to Home Island 1 1/2 miles away. Once there we went shopping in the super market there and I was able to buy everything on my list: steak; chicken; butter; hamburger; and olive oil. I was hoping to fill our propane tank but the marine center said that the propane was in a container on the dock and hadn't been delivered yet. We also went to a sporting goods store and bought three dry bags. While there we also visited a masque. Home Island has about 350 people living on it and is a Muslim community.



We arrived back at Direction Island around 4:30 PM, then went to a sun downer party on the beach at 6:00 PM.



Back on the boat again at 7:30 PM we had blackened porterhouse steaks; corn on the cob; garlic bread; and chilled fruit cocktail for dinner. For dessert we had some more Eierlikor liqueur and some chocolate.



Joel and Jeremy went to bed at 10:00 PM and I followed at 10:40 PM.



Brian Fox


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