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This morning we are moving stuff around (reorganizing) the boat, again.  Putting all my tools in the starboard stern was not a good idea for boat balance.  We moved some of the heavier tool boxes and spare nuts and bolts back where they were.  I feel sure the water incursion problem (leaking around the rudder seals) was made worse by all the weight on the sterns.

Today our intent is to place our beach fodder (shipwreck wood, gnarly driftwood, shells and sea glass) in the port bow, currently it’s stacked up under our bed in the hallway.   We here on SYL are known for a fully packed (overloaded) boat, somehow she still sails pretty good though.  We so enjoy having all the junk we find on the beaches back home in Texas.  Here in the Bahamas, gnarly bark less driftwood is something you burn in a bonfire, it’s everywhere.  In deep East Texas our beach treasures are in such a stark contrast to the indigenous flora and fauna we always wish we had brought more home.

Linda and I work well in short bursts……  We made our first attack early, right after coffee, now Linda is playing solitaire and I’m blogging.  I think I’ll get up and make a quick run at it again, move my rigging box forward and start settling  some beach fodder.

OK the second wave of our effort to reorganize the boat is complete.  Linda made breakfast while I made headway in both hulls.

At the end of the day the boat is balanced and all our treasures are stored, I cleaned the toilet and replaced the compost so even though it was a busy work day, we got a lot done.

SYL  Rusty

Today was “Cheeseburger in Paradise” day, the whole day was planned around having cheeseburgers at Staniel Cay Yacht Club.  We starved ourselves getting ready to pig out on food other people cooked, it was great.

We also “discovered” Island General store today, they filled our propane, I restocked my Coke supply, Linda got everything she wanted except fresh milk (they were sold out).  I checked he pink store, no milk….. But the blue store had 3 half gallons, so I paid $7 a half gallon for two of them (that’s all that would fit in the fridge).

Earlier we had topped off our water tank and filled the last 3 gas cans,,..,, so we are fully serviced and ready to move about the country again.

We need to decide where we want to go next, North or South…..  We intend to stay in the Exumas and feel we adequately studied the Staniel area so it’s time to move on.  I found one very accessible sea glass beach very close to Thunderball, and another’s on the outside of Pipe Creek.  The pipe creek beach has massive wave action so the glass is well rounded and buffed, I got some nice pieces there. It takes a lot of “want to” to land on this big wave beach.  Getting on the beach was not as big a problem as launching the dinghy into the big surf to get off it.  By the time I got away from the beach my boat had 6″ of water in it.  The pieces I got off that beach were very mature….. You have to go for the big waves to get the best pieces!

Evening is upon us, Linda has had her bath so it’s time for mine.

Sea Yawl Later !!   Rusty

Got up early to listen to the weather this morning…… Looks calm & clear for the next couple days.  Yesterday we parked on a new beach, it’s next to pig beach at Fowl Cay.  Cruisers have donated (left) chairs, benches even a BBQ pit on this little beach and named it “Pirate Beach”.  There is a fire pit, good shade and games to play like bean bag toss all available first come first serve to whoever wants it.

About 5:30 in the evening the barnyard animals come thru to see if humans left anything for them, yesterday 3 small goats showed up first, then 2 pairs of chickens, two roosters sporting good looking hens.  The day before only one pair of chickens came down.  I scattered a sleeve of saltine crackers for them yesterday.

I’ve been waiting on a calm day to check out the sea glass beach on the ocean side of big major.  I have tried the cut twice but the waves were just too big, if it doesn’t lay today I think we may move on.  All the good beach stuff is found on the big water ocean side, as it gets warmer it usually gets calmer as well, so I’ll get my chance.

We have already found some nice wood and sea glass but there is always room for more.  He crooked islands yielded our first sea glass, but little farmers cay was our biggest haul.  I’m excited that I might be able to get outside here today and check out a sea glass location I was told about when we were at Rum Cay.

Today  I may sail my RC sailboat, the weather looks perfect for it.  I find the big mega yachts care less about seeing it, but other sailboats enjoy watching it.  I think I’m going to make an early run at the sea glass beach.  catch you later.

Today we had burgers at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club with fellow cruisers and showed the new folks Thunderball Grotto.  Thunderball is one of those do not miss attractions if you ever get to the Bahamas….. check out Thunderball.

I put my rc sailboat together again today….. All the mega yachts had their toys out playing so I played with mine too.  It’s funny, even the sailboat folks ask if it has a little motor that makes it go, I always say no… It’s just a sailboat.  It’s still on it’s stand and ready to go, If it’s nice tomorrow I’ll sail it again.  Speaking of which, I need to put the batteries on the charger so they will be fresh tomorrow.

Linda posted lots of pictures on Facebook so if you have that link, she’s got some pictures up, I haven’t even looked at them myself yet.  Not much else to report, it’s still raining a bit but not interrupt the day much….. It comes and goes, you can see rain coming almost an hour away.

Our friends are leaving for the Northern Exumas tomorrow, I think Linda is going to the store with them here at Staniel in the morning before they pull out.

Last night it was still with intermittent rain so we closed up and turned on the AC.  It was a great decision first because we slept dry and cool…. but this morning I woke up, Linda brought me coffee in bed and I read my book for a while.  As I was reading I noticed the second good reason to be closed up.  It was absolutely still outside and I could see mosquitoes hovering outside the overhead hatch.  They didn’t hang around long, but it was an excellent choice to close the boat for the night.

Well, it’s almost 9pm, I think I’ll read a while and call it a night.

SYL !!

We have been traveling / hanging out with our good friends on Cat’s Meow.  Lately we have been hovering between Staniel and Little Farmers swapping stories, looking for sea glass and catching up.  Today we are at “Big Major’s Spot” with about 20 other boats……. We normally don’t see that many boats here.  Most of the boats are over 60′ long, some are double that.

Big Major is where the pigs are, we fed them from the dink today, they swam out to meet us.  We got some nice pictures of the pigs and piglets……  There are lots of pig babies this year.

Linda made fresh bread today,  it was awesome as usual.  Earlier in the day we filled up with fuel and water at Staniel so the boat is serviced again.  Gas is cheaper than expected, only $6.05 a gallon so I filled several 5 gallon cans as well…  The mega yachts all have multiple jet skis on each boat so those are running around everywhere.

There have been some squalls coming thru the past few days, today was no exception.  There is not much wind in the showers though, so a bit of rain is welcome enough… It washes the boat off nicely and doesn’t last long enough to spoil the day.

Staniel has spent some money On infrastructure…. Lots of upgrades, new sidewalks and paint everywhere.  They added some new cabanas along the waterfront, it looks really nice.  Apparently the mega yachts have deposited enough money here locally to make a difference.  Staniel has made good use of the influx.

My intent is to spend several days in this area, I already found a great new beach…. and have heard about a good beach for sea glass locally so I will certainly discover that beach in the next couple days.  Little Farmers beach turned out to be productive for sea glass early this week.  I’m waiting for calm low winds to make my way to the ocean side of the islands.  That’s where you find all the good stuff!

Currently it’s 7:00 pm, skies are clear and the wind is light.  If that holds tomorrow I may try the outside in my dinghy.  Cats Meow is doing Thunderball tomorrow, then heading North, I probably won’t follow them.  We haven’t really discovered all there is in this area….. So now is the time to do that.

We are bobbing under the boat, eating well and visiting with fellow cruisers…. Hard to complain about that kind of day.

Sea Yawl Later !!    Rusty

Today was both a work day and a fun day.   A couple days ago at Cat Island we noticed the bedroom floor was wet in the port hull……  Upon removing the viewing port in the floorboard, we found water, lots of it.  I pumped it out and for then next couple days it stayed dry…. Until we sailed to the Exumas yesterday.  The port bilge wasn’t full as before, but we definitely had salt water coming in somewhere so I pumped it out again and put my mind to solving the issue.

By the time I got it dry again, I remembered that the rudder had been removed on that side during our recent haul out.  The rudder seals must be packed hard with good grease or water comes in around the rudder posts.  Knowing, or being 99 percent sure that was the problem, I took everything out of the area behind the bathroom so I could physically enter the space to work on the rudder seal.   Sure enough, they greased the seal, but it wasn’t packed solid with grease and as I sat there water was seeping in slowly with the boat at rest so my suspicion was confirmed.  Knowing for certain what the problem is, is always 99 percent of the cure.

Squeezing my 250 pound body past the water heater into this hull section was not without wide eyed wonder if I could make it Or not!  Would I be stuck in the passageway forever?  I wish I’d paid more attention to Erin’s yoga instruction about that time.  After contorting my body unnaturally I fell in the hole and I was IN!  The first problem I encountered was that the door to the next compartment (where the rudder is) was closed, I failed to open it before I got in the hole so the door to that section wouldn’t open past my body.  I balled up on the floor and had Linda try to push me down more so the door would pass over me….. yep, your right it didn’t work.  I had to crawl out of the hole again, open the next door then get back in.  By this time I was toast…… I was done.

My lovely wife brought me a fan that made the space bearable and the tools I didn’t know to bring the second time I went in.  The big grease gun wouldn’t physically fit in the place it needed to be to fill the rudder post,  I remembered a small one I had, Linda found it and the spare grease cartridge.  After getting this sticky blue grease on every wall around me and all over my sweaty arms and legs…… I got the rudder post packed.  A half a roll of paper towel later it was time to try to get out again.  I’d been in there 2 hours sitting on my legs.  After passing the tools out to Linda I managed to work my fat belly out of the narrow passageway…. Again.

I have full confidence in the solution, seeing the leak and knowing the remedy gave me great confidence that the problem has been successfully solved.  Linda advised that I take the dish washing liquid bottle and jump in the water before I touched anything outside the hole.  The swim/bath was quite cooling and at the same time just the ticket for removing the first layer of grease from my arms and legs.

So now with the boat 500 gallons of water lighter and re-entry of that water blocked…… I’m a happy boy.  The fun part of the day came next…. Lol.  Linda and I bobbed under the boat for quite some time…. The water temp is perfect now, no “cold shock” when you first get in.  After bobbing we went for a nice little dinghy ride, walked on the beach and came back to some of Linda’s wonderful Mahi and rice leftovers.

Being here in the Exumas on Castle Beach (we consider it the best beach in the Bahamas) we are happy campers tonight.  We enjoyed the wilderness feel of the out islands and of course the full freezer of fish, but the wonderful protection of the Exuma Cays is a very, very hard place to beat.

Batelco (bahamas telephone company) was down yesterday and part of today, but as you might guess… It’s back up this evening.  One of our reasons for coming on back to the Family Islands was to get internet service again.  Today we found out what the world was doing when we got internet service, solved important issues on the boat and had fun in the crystal clear waters behind Black Point at our favorite beach.  All in all we had a productive and satisfying day.

Coordinates for the best beach in the Bahamas: N 24-04.73. W 76-23.08.

What a wonderful Sunday…  We  sailed up the Southern coast of Cat Island, then decided to go to Staniel Cay the next day so we backtracked a bit.  I wasn’t aware.. But this is Memorial Day weekend….. The big event on Cat Island this weekend is a sport fishing tournament.  Maybe that’s why prices at Hawks Nest Marina are sky high… Maybe not.  Anyway, as we were heading back to our staging point for Staniel….. I decided to do some fishing since we are not always in the out islands… (The fishing grounds) And what do you know, I caught a bigger Mahi than we caught yesterday on the Tartar Banks.  This one was over 48″.

We now have more fresh meat on the boat than we brought from Texas, except we caught it instead of bought it. We are anchored for the night at the SW tip of Cat so Staniel is only 51.2 miles away.  Linda got her shower and is down in the kitchen making something wonderful with the fresh Mahi…..  This is what cruising is all about.  As remote as the Exumas are…….  You can’t catch fish like this (or we haven’t) so the early part of this 2014 trip has been quite special for us.  I can’t wait to see what Linda brings up from the kitchen….. It smells marvelous.

Paul on sv Cool Cat told us about a sea glass beach close to Staniel, so that’s where we are headed tomorrow.  Today I did some snorkeling, Linda was worried about sharks so she didn’t go,  I saw many different varieties of fish and picked up some sand dollars under the boat In about 7′ of water.  She’s anxious to get back inside the Exumas so she can “bob”under the boat without the fear of larger marine wildlife taking off a leg or two.  Today when I snorkeled I took my spear to ward off any unwanted guests…… But there weren’t any so all was well.

We have heard that the best trolling speed for big game fish is 8 to 14 knots.  Yesterday and today I caught Mahi at 4.5 to 5 knots.  Today when I reeled the big one in, there were two other Mahi following him to the boat…..  I have heard they congregate and often follow a caught fish to the boat, but this was my first time seeing that happen.

Well, Linda is clean and cooking something superb, I need to shower and change to be ready for the feast so I’m off…..  Sea Yawl Later !! Rusty

I have to say the evening meal was better than expected.  Fresh mahi only 3 hours from the ocean, 1 1/2 hours of that marinating in Linda’s special sauce.  We also had fried rice with sweet peppers and onions, Linda reduced the marinate to a glaze we put over the rice and fresh fish…….  Yeah…. We eat good.

Cleaning a big fish on deck is a messy ordeal, especially when your on the fishing grounds watching the line for another strike!  After watching the fellow on Rum clean his fish, I had a better idea of how to master “big fish” preparation so it didn’t take long.  Needless to say a shower was in order after cleaning the fish on the flat deck on my knees.  I know… Not a pretty thought…. But it was well worth the effort expended.  “Man stuff”

Our little corner of the ocean is calm tonight.  I’ve tucked in close behind Dolphin Head point.  The prevailing wave/wind is SE again, so we are barely sheltered by the small but convenient point.  This is the closest anchorage I could find to the store, we may go tomorrow….. The bottom is pure white sand that’s holding my anchor like a newborn babe…… carefully and sure.

Not knowing the lay of the land yet, there may be better options, but I liked this spot after studying my Explorer chart book and it did not disappoint me.  Sometimes a spot looks better on paper than it really is……. with a rocky bottom or unmarked coral heads but tonight I did good finding a nice anchorage for the evening.

We like to arrive at new locations with plenty of sun left overhead in case we need to move, and it makes it easier to pick our way in between the coral on shallow spots if we have good sun.

I called the “Hawks Nest” marina on the radio to inquire about dockage tomorrow, it was easy to make that decision……  It’s a sport fishing marina….. $2.50/ft for a slip, water cost .35 cents a gallon and I’m sure you have to pay for your electricity separately as well.  Nope… I’m not interested in spending over $100 dollars a night to park my boat…. It’s free right here behind my own anchor.

I thought about splurging if it was $50 bucks or so and free water……. But nope!

I have been reading books a lot, today I finished Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karinina.  I guess I’ll wrap up and go look at some new books below, see what I want to read next.  Night all…. R

Our refrigerated meat coffers are filled for a while anyway.  We have been eating fresh tuna since we caught so many in Rum Cay, then today I caught a nice Mahi Mahi on our way to Cat Island.  Actually I intentionally strayed off course to go over a rise in the ocean bottom where it goes from 9,000 feet deep to only 34 feet of water.  About a mile from the hump I caught the 38″ Mahi.  You know it’s a dolphin (Mahi) when he runs 90 miles per hour across the surface and jumps 6′ in the air.  It was an exciting catch.

We just put down the anchor on the South end of Cat Island.  Linda already has the first batch of Mahi marinating.  It’s got basalmic vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, honey and garlic in it.  I suspect out dinner will be sensational.  I tell you what……  This country boy has been converted, I love tuna sushimi….  (Raw tuna) with wasabi and soy sauce.  It’s pure protein and flavor!

We don’t normally cross paths with such good fishing grounds as you find here in the Bahamian outback.  Today as we approached Cat there were 4 sport fishing boats trolling just outside the harbor.  I felt like telling them to go 10 miles out to Tartar Banks…… The Mahi are running, but sport fishermen are not likely to take advice from a sailboat. They are a testosterone filled big money crowd.  If your not a “self proclaimed superman” who acts like an 8th grader, you won’t fit into that crowd.

Sport fishermen are cave men with money……   Hunter gatherers of the sea, not for meat but to prove that middle age hasn’t claimed their testicles.

Enough about that……   It’s just that when the sport fishermen move into a marina like Chubbs in the Berry islands, it’s ruined for cruisers.  Suddenly the marina is crude, expensive and has nothing to do with you if you don’t buy 1,000 gallons of diesel a day.

Anyway I have been finally catching fish!  The deal is…. We have been where the fish are lately…. In the outback.

Cat Island is pretty big.  It appears they have a supermarket and quite a few services.  Dave Calvert lives here on Cat as well.  Dave is my sail maker.  I called him earlier, and expect to meet up with him before we go.. Find out what there is to see here on Cat.  From here we will probably go to Staniel Cay, back inside the well protected and warm Exuma Chain.  I suspect the water is just about warm enough….. It’s lost the cold shock value when you first enter that it had when we came thru when we arrived.  My plan all along was to do the out islands, see new places then come back inside the comfortable Exumas and soak in the water under the boat.

In the out islands sharks are numerous so Linda hasn’t been interested in bobbing under the bow.  I suspect next week we will be back home in the protection of the near Bahamas islands.  Near meaning closer to the USA.  I’m ready for some lazy.. Less wild and remote locations myself.  The Exumas are not “crowded” but the frequency of cruisers that pass thru have pushed the wild creatures (sharks) out to more remote areas, like where we are now.

Linda is about to cook my catch of the day, I can hear the pots and pans rattling in the kitchen.  Today while underway in short following seas, I fixed our ice machine.  It’s been on the fritz for a while, it seems to be working OK for now.  Today started out with speeds of about 5 knots…. Then bumped 6 for an hour then the wind all but stopped.  If not for a following sea and 1.5 knots of current, we would have been sitting still.  I waited for a couple hours before starting a motor, but we didn’t get wind until we were 4 miles out.  We did get to sail in so that was nice.

Tomorrow we find out what there is to do on Cat Island.  Until then…

Sea Yawl Later!!  Rusty

We met a guy named Victor that came into the Rum Cay harbor yesterday.  He’s been coming here for years, originally from South Africa.  He told us about so many things on Rum we didn’t know about so we stayed another day.  I suspect it will take at least 3 more days to see everything he told us about… sea glass….. snorkeling….. fishing.  Speaking of fishing I went with Victor, Jeremy and his dad Bobby Little deep sea fishing today.  OMG…………..  we caught 3 blackfin tuna, 8 yellow fin tuna and two bonita.   yeah.. I know!  (I caught the most and the biggest fish)  I brought in a nice 20- 25 pounder.  We caught a lot of 15’s and had two big wahoo cut our line.  What a phenominal fishing trip!

After cleaning the fish we ended up with a 5 gallon bucket overflowing with pure tuna meat.  The two bonita were cleaned for Bobby’s animals.  He said they make fine cat food.  Luckily we have soy sauce and wasabi on onbard so tonight we had the freshest sushimi anybody ever ate!  My heavens it was good.   If we were at Tokyo’s Sushi restaurant in Beaumont….. the meat we ate would have cost us $100 bucks.  We ate until we absolutely had enough…. that’s never happened with tuna sushimi before because it was cost prohibitive.  You eat until your not hungry at a sushi bar… tonight we ate until we were full!

Tomorrow night Bobby is cooking us dinner, sushi, sashimi, some other words I’ve never heard before but they sound delicious.  Linda is making cookies and her wonderful cold slaw.  Suddenly Rum Cay is very attractive and we aren’t leaving soon!

Sea Ywal Later !!   Rusty