Greetings from the island.

Hola,

How is everyone doing?   Bob and I have been on Clarks Cay for a full two weeks now.   We're finally adjusting well.   I should say I'm finally adjusting and getting more sleep.   I'll admit the first week was a little tough for me.   Bob, well you know Bob...sleeps like a baby; no worries.  

We had some strong northerns come through a few times while being here.  We had gust of winds up to 45-50 mph and there's not too much protection living on a small island such as this one.   I was worried all night about the boats.   We have 3 in our care right now.  Two of them are under a boat house while the other is tied up to a dock.   The one out by the dock is monsterous and doesn't have a canopy or slings to get it out of the water so needless to say,  I worried that the waves were going to sink it.   Or that the boat was flooded due to the heavy rains.   Of course neither happened but, this "responsibility" thing took its toll on me and caused some sleepless nights.   We hadn't been responsible for a single thing in 2 years.   Now I see these boats can take a beating and remain afloat; I'm good.  

The owners of the island, Bill and Martha are expected to arrive today around 3:00 p.m. and we've had the gardeners, the accountant and cleaning crew out here for the past 4 days trying to get things in order for their arrival.   Bob has been up early every morning (i mean actually needing to set an alarm) to pick up this crew by 7:00 a.m. each day.    The gardener lives furtherest away at the airport (15 mins by boat) while the others live in Savannah Bight which is about 5 mins away.  They all put in a full days work before Bob drops them back off.   You see, there's an advantage to me not driving a boat.  I get to sleep in.   I'm sure when Bob gets more comfortable with boat manuevering he'll be showing me.   Bob is learning too.   We've never owned a boat so this is a whole new game for him.   He's done well in my opinion.

I plan to host a little Happy Hour for Bill and Martha and have some margaritas ready with some chips, dips and appetizers followed by a dinner.   We told them to come hungry. 

The two weeks we've been here has been really nice.   We've been out kayaking a few times.  There's an amazing reef all around this island and lots of fish to see.  I love the swing on the patio and I'm able to read a few chapters and catch some zzzz's.   Bob's been helping the gardener, tinkering with some tools and putting together a water heater.   The hot water in our apartment went out and Bob is handling the situation (something about the heating element). 

I hung out Hummingbird feeders the other day and forgot to take them down before dusk.   Anybody guess what happened?   We had lots of fruit bats drinking the sugar nectar.   I freaked out; I saw something flying around in the house and was cussing.   "Bob, there's a f-ing bat flying around".   When it finally stopped it was only a huge moth.   We had a nice laugh.  Bob got the opportunity to take the feeders down, brought them in the house and put them on the kitchen island.  Within minutes we definitely had bats flying around.  Now, I was really screaming..."Bob!"   Bob got the feeders once again and took them to another area of the island.   It didn't take long to get the bats out of the house.  Whew!  I won't make that mistake twice.

We still haven't bought our own boat yet.   We've looked at a few but since this is the first time for us we're not sure what to purchase.   Now, that we have two boats at our disposal, we can take our time and figure out what we want.      We're thinking a 18-20 ft long panga.   We can have one built on the island within 2 weeks.   We're trying to educate ourselves as much as possible.  So many different size engines, 2 stroke vs 4 stroke, and diesel is an option.   We think a 40 - 4 stroke will work for our needs.  We've learned 4 stroke gets better gas mileage at $4.50/gal something to seriously consider.  We've been told not to buy a used motor.   Do you think any of these used boats come with maintenence records, titles, or any kind of paperwork?  No they don't which is why I want to buy new.  We'll figure it out eventually and buy one.  

We just got the phone call that Bill and Martha are enroute from Roatan.  That gives me about 40 mins till they arrive here.  Time to go and get things on the table.

Take care!
Bonnie and Bob