Our kayak is great. I’m starting to think that I prefer kayaking to sailing. It’s cheaper and easier to buy and maintain a kayak, and it gets us where we’re going in a decent amount of time.

Yesterday, we had business to do in the early AM in Frederiksted. We stopped for breakfast on the way, met with a realtor friend in F’sted, and on the way back, stopped to help another friend load her kayak onto her sports car, so she could come to Buck with us. She hadn’t been kayaking in a year and a half!

When we got to the yacht club, there was a guy there getting his kayak loaded up. He had a “one person” pedal kayak, but his was equipped with small pontoons on either side. I wondered why, but quickly found out. He would be taking his two young sons with him! It’s kind of funny to try to imagine one kid on each pontoon, but in actuality, he sat one in front of him, facing him, and one right behind his seat, with the boy’s back against his. Very clever!

They started out a minute or two before we did, but we stopped to take pictures of a large wooden ketch anchored off the west end of the yacht club’s bay. It looked like a pirate ship because of it’s dark coloration and seems to be in great condition. We searched for a name on it, but only saw a golden eagle on the transom.

Anyway, the kayaker with the kids aboard was not ahead of us, but had gone toward Duggans, perhaps to adjust some gear or rigging. We pedaled away, down to the cut in the reef waving to Llewellyn as he passed on his way back to the yacht club ! He had a small group on board and we were thrilled to see him back at the helm of Charis+ where he belongs…

We got through the cut and the swells got bigger. Certainly not as big as we’ve seen, but it was a nice rolling ride through the deep blue. Since it is the height of sea turtle mating season, we were sure we’d spot at least one pair. And as we approached Buck Island, about half-way between the park boundary and the beach, we did see a pair of very large green turtles trying to situate themselves for mating. Well, he was trying, anyway. She seemed to want to keep facing him. Maybe she just wanted to chat a little before the big event . We got to within 20 yards of them and watched them struggle for a good 5-7 minutes until they saw us and dove down. We hope they were able to complete their mission!

The day was gorgeous, so there were a few boats already there. We pulled the kayaks up onto the south-facing side of the beach, had a little Monkey Bay Sauvignon blanc, and Michael and I went for a little snorkel. Here we are in pristine national park land, but some jerks are water-ski-boarding! We went into the water, and they (not paying attention, of course) almost plowed us over! We’ve noticed no jet skis out there (thank goodness!), so now I’ll have to call Joel Tutein and ask if water skiing is legal there. If it is not, I’ll let him know that they’ll need to get the word out or patrol the waters better. Or else, we will be calling in any violators we see. If it is actually allowed out there, they need to change the rules. A park is not for the sole entertainment of a few (I’m trying to word things without being offensive, so I’ll just call them idiots rather than assholes) in (and being dragged by) a motor boat.

Anyway, from where we were, the sand drops off steeply from the beach into the seagrass beds. Even though this is not considered a “primo” snorkeling spot, we saw lots of great stuff. Three active stingrays, a large black barracuda with a little french angel fish, and some uniquely camouflaged conchs. I could feel the energy of seagrass beds, knowing how much life is nourished and protected by them.

We got back on shore and had a bit of lunch. The guy with his kids had arrived and they were having a jolly good time on the beach and in the water. When we were finished solving all of the world’s problems, we packed up and pedaled back to the big island.

We did meet another turtle on the journey home and wished it well in it’s mating attempts. Even though it was Saturday, we could still say, “Happy ‘Hump Day’!”

We got an e-mail from our friend, Lisa, this morning:

Monday morning, April 21, 2008 walking down Company Street to check the mail and I see a familiar face - it’s Llew! Moving slow and careful but walking and talking. His wonderful low melodious voice seemed just fine. He says he’s not back to sailing yet but is hoping to be up to it soon. We discussed the wonders of modern technology and how miraculous the series of events were that saved his life. I asked if he got to see a bit of heaven and he said he doesn’t remember anything, even though people told him he was responding to them. I told him how my experience with an accident was the same. Dr. Griffth has a long list of dos and don’t that he will try to follow and he says he is taking care of himself.

Great news! Thanks, Lisa!

After weeks of engine swapping, tweaking, scrambling for parts, plugging leaks, and general trouble shooting, the Orange Rover, AKA The Great Pumpkin, is finally on the road again. Terry and I went for a little spin around the neighborhood, then I headed over the hill to the hardware store. Yeah

The Great Pumpkin Rides Again!
Tip: Click play, then pause for a sec to let it buffer a little, then play again. Otherwise it’ll play a little choppy the first time.

Thanks to Dave and Michelle for all their help getting this thing going!

It was 7:30 or so by the time we got out of bed. It was “coffee time”. We are at the end of our 5 lb. bag of Mexican organic (we finished the French Vanilla a couple of weeks ago) and need to order more in the next few days (www.deansbeans.com). We also still have some mango puree in the freezer that we move to the fridge to thaw overnight. Mmmm, organic coffee and mango smoothies….and fistfuls of vitamins, since we got that shipment in from Swanson during the week. They have great prices on everything and they have some stuff (like a full-spectrum vitamin E) that I’ve never seen anywhere else.

We are trying to get even more healthy for baby-making and for our up coming extremely busy busy season. I AM the eternal optimist! And, for our new business venture, which will be blogged about as we get it rolling…..

After a yummy cup o’ joe, etc., we hauled ourselves into the green rover (my first time since the surgery, and ooops!, it was a little ouchy getting my leg and then the rest of me up into the monster) and headed to (my favorite) the Cotton Valley dumpster! Then we’d go to Chenay Bay where I would lounge in a shaded chaise while Michael and Goliath scoured the beach for turtle tracks and activities. Then, we’d hopefully meet up with Nikki and Peter for brunch.

I had called and left a message before we left to let them know where we’d be and that we’d love to hang out with them for a while. As we walked back to the parking lot after Michael’s patrol, he asked if I’d heard from them, and I said that I hadn’t. But when we were nearly back at the rover, who would come driving right up to us but, Nikki and Peter! They had swimsuits and towels and wanted to go for a swim. He wasn’t hungry, but she might have some fruit. We decided to stay put and patronize the Island House Restaurant, so we found a table for four and got comfortable. Good thing, because it took FOREVER to get food despite the fact that there was only one table of two ahead of us and they had ordered quite a bit earlier. It was good when it finally came, though. Peter (who wasn’t going to eat), had the same thing Nikki had - a fruit salad with granola and yogurt. He had a couple of Papis with that and she had a bloody Mary. Michael had a breakfast plate of scrambled eggs, ham and homefries with rye toast and coffee. I had pancakes and scrambled eggs. The food prices were not cheap, but it cost $7.00 for each dark and diet!!! Ouch!!

We had a nice visit telling stories about “the turtle ladies” and the Pickled Greek, and laughing about everyone’s antics. Then we paid our two part bill (the waitress brought two separate sheets of paper, one with food, one with drinks, that we had to add up ourselves - strange) and said farewell. They headed toward the sea, but quickly turned back deciding that they’d just rather go home to Peter’s and hang at the pool (they’d go broke if they had a couple more drinks there), and we headed for Schooner Bay Market to get fruits and veggies and cheese and a couple of bottles of wine to help us get through the rest of our lazy Sunday.

Well, MY lazy Sunday, anyway. Michael’s got one massage appointment this afternoon and he’ll probably work a little on trying to get the winch off the junk rover to get it ready for engine removal as soon as all the parts come in. Then the orange rover will get the engine and I’ll have my own little safari vehicle :).

It’s official! The green Land Rover is finally truly green. My ingenious husband has been working for months to get to this point. We’ve been collecting waste vegetable oil from our local restaurants. Michael has been researching formulas with which to obtain the optimum viscosity, and the day has finally arrived! How did he settle on this particular day to become THE auspicious day that the rover runs on yucky stinky rancid used cooking oil?

Let me tell you….Michael came home from work the other day. I came home a bit later to tell him that he would need to use the rover to get to a massage appointment IMMEDIATELY after work the following day. Unfortunately, he did not have enough fuel in the tank, and would not have time during the day to get any. I mentioned that we could just go get more that evening. Here was the glitch: The gas station with a diesel pump was ALL the way on the other side of town. So I said, “When were you going to try using the veggie oil formulas that you’ve been working on, since you know they have the proper viscosity?” And that was it! That provided the impetous for the BIG day!

Michael went out to the carport and started pumping filtered vegetable oil. He mixed it in the prescribed proportions with a small amount of unleaded gasoline and kerosene (okay, so it’s not TOTALLY green, but it’s a lot better than it was. Biodiesel uses methanol which is really difficult for us to get here, and not “green” either).
He mixed the concoction in a 15 gallon barrel, and he filled the rover’s fuel tank….Then…..he started the engine!

It worked!! Now the rover exhaust smells like it comes from a fryer rather than a stinky old diesel-guzzling engine! Mmmm mmmm, good! Yay, Michael!!

Its way past time to post about this adventure (experiment?) of ours.

In a nutshell, we’re working toward turning this:

…into this:

…to fuel these:

[tags]Biodiesel, WVO, SVO, Land Rover, Biofuels[/tags]