Gringos in the TCI Photo Blog

[Gringo]

It looks that way in the photo, but it's actually got a lot of room. I just have stuff spread out in that half of it right now. There is a Land Rover parked in the other half, and in fifteen minutes I could fold up the table saw and get both of them in, and although I haven't measured, maybe all three vehicles if I stacked the suzuki right up behind the short LR.



It might be too tight for all three, but the Suzuki is going away, anyhow. We don't need it with the second LR.

Hey, isn't that door mounted tire carrier just screaming for a 2" trailer hitch?

[La Gringa]

I see you have one of those garages that you can't park cars in too.

That's where Gringo performs MacGyverish DIY miracles...!!!

[Gringo]

its gonna get worse when the compressor and sand blast stuff arrive. I gotta cut about three feet off a workbench to make a place for the compressor.

[Robja]

its gonna get worse when the compressor and sand blast stuff arrive. I gotta cut about three feet off a workbench to make a place for the compressor.

Your gonna waste money on a sandblaster. Can't you just wait till hurricane season gets there and go out and toss some sand into the 125mph wind and let nature do it for you.

[Gringo]

Your gonna waste money on a sandblaster. Can't you just wait till hurricane season gets there and go out and toss some sand into the 125mph wind and let nature do it for you.

Hurricane season IS here. Now.

hey, our neighbor has a wind measuring system. He measured 105 mph during Hannah, and 150 mph a week later during Ike. And his house is a little bit protected compared to ours. He is dug into the side of the hill, we are on the ridge. I reckon we got a few more mph than he did.

Anyhow, I ordered one of those cheapo plastic sandblast cabinets. Then while looking for a compressor I started realizing how many air powered tools there are around, and they are cheap compared to electric power tools. And it suddenly started making sense for me to start moving over to air tools going forward. They are going to be immune to the dust, and if I filter the air, they should last a lot longer than electric tools. It's kinda nuts to buy another electric motor here every time you buy a tool. Typical markup on them is also around 300%. People here tell me if you get two years out of a power tool, you are doing good.

I am thinking of setting it up like this:



and that colorful shelf thing I built is now safely installed in La Gringa's office. Getting that up the hill was a real adventure.

[Gringo]

Okay, back to Saturdays kayak trip...

We had left Osprey Rock and were pedalling North toward Frenchman's Creek. We didn't see anybody, or anything man made. Well, except for this one puzzling spot where we came around this little point of land (called Bonefish Point on the charts),



I steered between the rocks here, because we were pretty curious as to what the activity on the shore there was. This is pretty far from the nearest ( only) road. Also, it was getting a little choppy this far out, clearing the point. You can see it in the water a little, but if you have ever tried to take photos of waves you know that they always look flatter in photos. Until they get huge, of course. Still, this is an inflatable, it's flexible, and it gets wet in chop.

So, rounding the point we saw that a group of guys had come to this point to fish. They were spinning big weights around and around and letting them fly out into the water with baited hooks attached. We veered out away from the beach, just to not distrurb their fishing. A few friendly waves and we were on our way..



So we pedalled on, up a mile or so of totally untouched beach. Nothing there, but nature. We spotted this plant and went by to look, as it was in about four or five feet of water. This is a new mangrove just breaking the surface:



I had wondered how these things expanded. I didn't know if they kept sending out roots, or what. I think they do, but now I also know they can start up all on their own, from a seed or something.

Right about here, La Gringa spotted a dark shape about forty yards away, on a converging heading with ours. We headed over to intercept it, to see what kind of critter it was. We were expecting a ray, in this shallow water.



But it was about a six foot nurse shark. We played tag with it for about a half an hour, chasing it all over the place. I was trying to get some good photos. We did get some video, and a few pix. It stayed just out of good photo range, but we eventually tired it out. ( We are pretty quick in this Mirage) Finally, it headed up into very shallow water, too shallow for the Mirage Drives, so we unlimbered the (seldom used) paddles:



Of course, by this time, Dooley the Disbelieving had noticed that the dark shape that formerly meant nothing to him, actually was a big fish...he started paying attention big time:



The little weasel would have lept into the water on this thing if La Gringa had not had him by the collar at this point:



Then, of course, he started examining every single dark shadow in the water. The moving ones were easy for him to follow:



Of course the problem now is that he insists on personally inspecting every single dark blob in the water.


It's going to take a while for him to settle down on this. We were close enough at one point that I grabbed the tuckered out shark by the tail, and Dooley got a nose full and knows it's a fish. A big one. I think he wonders why the heck we spend hours trolling offshore for big fish when we can just kayak over and grab one by hand. We took a video of the shark, but I don't know how to post it here.

Once again we had gotten sidetracked from Plan A. First by the cave near Osprey Rock, and now by chasing this shark around for most of an hour. But we decided to head on up toward the Frenchman's Creek outlet.

More miles of deserted beach. Not a human footprint in sight:

[Robja]

Enjoyable read and pics Gringo. Ya'll sure have some pretty beaches down there with nobody on them either.

[whowantstoknow]

living the dream! great read and wonderful photos!!

[Bird Dog]

awesome pictures and nice read

[La Gringa]