Day 49 - Soloman's Island

Day 49 - Oct. 3

My Oh My! What a day!  We got up at our normal time, around 7:30 and had a casual breakfast. Plan to stay here on anchor so no rush to do stuff.  There was no pressure in our deck hose and a lot of bilge water whenever we used it, so Greg decided today was the day to track down the problem. Turns out there was a crack in the copper pipe that runs through the anchor locker and the water was rushing in like a waterfall.  This certainly explains the wet sheets and mattress at the foot of the bed.  I thought it was from water coming over the bow and into the anchor locker. Got that fixed and then went to the Holiday Inn to do laundry.  While we were waiting we took a stroll out into the parking lot where several of the cigarette boats were parked prior to the races this weekend.  We thought we'ed grab a couple of pictures, but then started talking to Eric "Monster".  What an interesting fellow and loved talking about his sport. In his class boat, which includes a driver and a throttle man, they must not exceed 85 mph or they are disqualified.  The larger boats in class 1 have no restriction on speed. The canopy you see in the picture is from an F-16 fighter.
Then we talked to the owner of the Class 1 boat.  It's been refurbished so to buy it would be about $1 million.  A new boat would be $1.2 million.  All these boats have major sponsors and these races are done for the pure love of the sport.  The first place prize is... get this... $2,500.
That was part one of our exciting day.  We get back to the boat and planes are flying by every 5-10 minutes.  We knew we were coming in near an airforce testing base and the planes we are seeing are the F-35's.  They are fast, and they are loud. Today has been a real treat to see and learn about cigarette boat racing and to see those fighter jets. WOW!
(Sure glad I don't live here though. LOL)