Into the Water on Salt Cay

Yesterday was one of the last, lazy days. We are going to be leaving Salt Cay next Wednesday and like to spend a few days just relaxing. I was sitting in my hammock chair reading a book after lunch - well, I was reading and spending time just looking out at all the colors of the Sea and Sky. There was a bit of a breeze, but not bad. I took a break from taking a break...

And I went kayaking!

Just a short paddle down to the Lighthouse Cliff and back. It was wonderful. Just in front of the Salt Cay Harbor a turtle was swimming on the surface. She popped under the water as I came closer. I stopped for a bit to see if she would come back up, but she was off somewhere else so I continued my paddle North.

It was about a 45 minute paddle all together. A little bright in the middle of the day, but well worth the time. I'll be going out again this afternoon. Last year I was able to kayak around the entire island of Salt Cay (in a little over 2-1/2 hours) on a calm day, but we just haven't had any days calm enough to do it this year (and without Mike's boat in the water to check on my progress, I don't want to try it).

Ahhhhh, it was a great afternoon. Mike took pictures from the beach deck as I pulled in after my paddle. Then - into the water for a swim and float about. Wonderful.

Out of the Water on Salt Cay

On Wednesday, the last day of April, it was time to take Mike's boat out of the water. Mike's homemade Salt Cay Dump boat trailer made it's maiden road trip to the harbor. We were a little concerned that with the weight of the boat (approximately 700 pounds) and the weight of the trailer (approximately 400 pounds) our little buggy might not be able to pull the boat out.

A few years ago, Mike watched (and laughed) as Nathan Smith - aka Teddy - tried to pull a boat out of the harbor with his truck and the truck roll into the harbor. It's not a laughing matter - Mike and others jumped to Nathan's rescue that day. But this day, Mike was hoping that he wouldn't have that problem!

Our friend, Paul Corti, helped Mike move the boat around from the dock to load it onto the trailer. All was going smoothly! The seas are calm, the tide is high, the sun is out and there weren't alot of other people around...

Once the boat was pulled onto a little bit onto the trailer, Paul disconnected the rope, connected the wench line and started cranking. It was quick and easy. Mike jumped out of the boat the make the final adjustments to the boat and was ready to haul the boat and trailer out of the water.

Mike hopped into the buggy, I crossed my fingers hoping the boat, trailer and buggy did not go backwards into the harbor (Mike told me later that he wasn't really worried about that and knew it would be okay - hah, thanks!)

He didn't roll backwards into the water, but the buggy just wasn't heavy enough to pull the boat and trailer out. Barber Selver had been sitting by the dock in his white truck watching the whole thing and as Mike spun his wheels, Barber pulled the truck around to the boat launch and got ready to pull.

After hooking the rope on to the back of the truck, it was a breeze! It took about 2 minutes to pull the trailer and boat out of the harbor. What luck that Barber was there or we would have had to go find someone to help. And even though Mike said there was no chance of the buggy rolling backwards into the harbor, I was really relieved!


The buggy towed the boat and trailer home without a problem and Mike got ready to put the boat away. He knew there was a leak somewhere so he took all the floor boards out of the boat, washed the boat, found the leak and will be prepared to fix the leak and put in new floor boards when we return.

It took the rest of the day to get everything out of the boat and ready to "put away" until we return. We leave Salt Cay next week, I'm not ready. But then, I'm never ready to leave the island.

P.S. Did I mention that Mike decided to name the boat "the Tub" as in "rub-a-dub-dub-tub"? He just didn't think the boat felt like SalVage. :0)