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Every day we get a little more done towards receiving guests.  We could get it all done in a day or two….. But why… we have all the time we need.  Lately my main chore is to get our charging system and AC working acceptably.  I’ve found multiple electrical connections that needed cleaning or replacing.  I’ve taken almost the whole 110 volt system apart including the inverter/charger looking for Voltage leaks.  I’ve found several small ones but no magic bullet that would solve all my issues.  It’s come down to batteries, my batteries aren’t toast, in fact they are almost new…. but one of them is weak and 3 batteries aren’t enough juice to run the boat comfortably with all the appliances we use during the day.

I am running the generator quite often now to see if I can revive the one questionable battery and reinforce the others with a full charge.  No big issue.. But it’s what I have spent a lot of time on lately.  The ice maker quit working a while back… But I found if I hit it hard with a screwdriver it works well for a while so I keep a screwdriver next to it now.

The weather is looking pretty good for our first group of guest.  Their arrival is still 6 days away so forecasting that far out is risky…. But generally wind/weather patterns look good!  I’m looking forward to having friends on the boat… Its always fun to see new things… But when you can share them with friends it’s all that much better.

Today I filled back up with gas ($200) most of it thru the generator.  We are making water quite a bit each day so we will be full when they arrive.  It will be me and 4 ladies on the boat so water will become a precious commodity.  Linda is used to being frugal with water, but getting people to understand they need to turn off the water while they brush their teeth….  Things we never think about at home become pretty important with limited supplies.  In the past I’ve handed out one gallon jugs of water telling guests…. “here this is yours, either drink it or wash with it Today…. Your choice”. It’s not quite that bad since we got the watrermaker, but it can’t keep up with more than 2 people.  We will be buying water too, I think it’s .40 cents a gallon in Staniel Cay.  I remember when gas got to fourty cents a gallon…..  It was almost too much to pay for something that would propel your car…. But now we are glad to pay it to wash our hair…… Lol.

Today has been beautiful…. Sunny skies, just enough wind to keep you cool.  It’s been in the low to mid 80’s here and we are pretty acclimated.  Hopefully our guests don’t have their home thermostat set on 65 degrees.  It will be a shock to go off air conditioning if they are used to sleeping cold.  I do run the AC at night if there is absolutely no wind….. Or if it’s been rainy to dry out the boat, but generally we keep the boat open.  It costs about $20 bucks in gas a night to run the AC……. Some nights I’d pay $100 if it took it to sleep on crispy sheets.

Im going down the check the iceman… See if it needs a whack with the screwdriver…. Where is a Wal Mart when you really need one?

Laters…… Rusty

We slipped easily into GT  the day before yesterday as predicted, it was the driest and best day to make the short outside passage.  We have not seen the rain as we expected last night and today.  Clouds are broken and it’s a decent day. I have had a some issues with weak batteries here on SYL so yesterday I removed all 4 of my house batteries, cleaned connections and topped off liquid levels.  I also did a diagnostic on each cell.  One battery tested poorly, but I’m hoping it will revive itself with the added liquid.  I have two banks of batterles, so I isolated the questionable battery on a separate circuit so I can turn it off independently if it proves faulty.  Last night was a bit muggy so I decided to run the air conditioner but it would not run well.  Shortly after turning it on voltage dropped and it shut itself off.  After hours of feeling wires for heat and searching I found a burned butt splice connector near the inverter And replaced the splice.  The AC ran all night without a hitch.

All my electrical problems are not solved, but heading in the right direction.  I was up until almost 2AM piddling with it last night.  Not that I felt I had to get it all done last night, I just felt like pursuing it so I did.

We are anchored at sand dollar beach.  GT is pretty empty this time of year.  There are maybe 30 boats in the harbor, maybe not.  We have been to the supermarket and found a very acceptable Chinese diner in town.

We met a couple from Idaho yesterday.  We were bobbing under the boat at the beach when they walked by.  Interesting couple, quite accomplished, he’s built an airplane and climbed very tall mountains.  He told us about scaling “Denali”…. Apparently its 18,000 feet tall.  We had a nice dinner of peas and rice,    with Caesar salad, they brought home made bread and sliced oranges.  Their boat is a Hunter 45.

I have a couple projects in mind today, if I get to them fine…. If not I’ll take care of it tomorrow… or not.  There are always ways to improve a boat, plenty “opportunities” to keep from being bored.

We just ate lunch and I feel a nap coming on…….. More later, or not.

Rusty

Who is the one that made it rain…… In the Bahamas!   We have seen several days of rain, with more expected this week.  Hopefully it will all be over before our guests show up.  Generally it’s not a show stopper, but the water is so much prettier with full sun.

SYL currently sits at Children’s Cay, 15 miles from Georgetown.  With the rain and thunder showers we opted to head for GT early so we could pick our weather.  Today we did 32 miles, an easy day leaving Black Point about 10:AM.  Whoever owns Children’s Bay Cay is pouring in the money…. New construction is evident all over the island.  I can’t fathom how much it takes to run an island… Much less build one up from scratch like they do here in the Bahamas.

I’ve seen Buffets airplane here, the runway is right on the beach….. There is a concrete ramp so a seaplane can roll up onshore after water landings.  I’m not sure who owns the island, but he must be doing OK even in today’s economy.  I can hear the very large generator that powers the island running from the boat.  We met several new cruisers….. The last couple are both dentists who bought their 50′ Privelidge catamaran in Thailand.  They intend to sail around the world in stages, working the business in between cruises.  Nice couple.  Another new acquaintance from Staniel Cay is a couple from Ohio, we enjoyed their wonderful company last week.  They flew out Monday and left the Bahamas to us…..

I understand there are not many boats in GT, that might actually be nice.  Often when we show up for a regatta there can be 300 to 400 boats in the harbor.  I understand there are about 10 now.

I have been playing with my sea glass lately, I always use this best pieces first so I need to make a new search.  I’ve made about 20 new pieces.  Linda captures her favorites, I try to keep some available as gifts.  I completed a couple yesterday and worked on a few more, so I have enough for now.  I probably still have 200 pieces to work with.  This trip I found some excellent sources in the Exumas.  You want to know where I go?  Yeah I bet!   Lately the beaches I go to are hard to land on… Big surf, big waves so you need to go when it’s fairly calm.  I go when I get close no matter the waves.  Landing the dinghy is not the challenge…. It’s getting off the big beach into the surf…but that’s where you find the good stuff so that’s where I go.

I did find an easy beach that yields pretty nice glass.  I’m sure I’ll bring my guests to it so they can gather some jewelry grade pieces.  Maybe we can make it together while they are here.  I have all my tools on the boat.

Well, it’s almost sunset…..  Guess I’ll get off here and settle in for the night.  We are in an excellent anchorage with good protection.  6:30 in the morning we will check on the outside passage with Chris Parker.  I suspect we will be in GT noonish.

Sea Yawl Later !!   Rusty

Today is wash day, we filled up 7 of the 12 washing machines at the “Dockside Laundry”.  Ada is the hard working proprietor, she has basic hardware, washing supplies of course and a very select group of items every sailboat needs.

We now sit at a restaurant on Black Point waiting for our clothes to dry.  Instead of Lorraine’s we were told to try Deshamon’s, it’s straight across from Adderly’s grocery.  Our fish burgers are due out soon, here in the Bahamas, a fish burger has a fish in it… not a fish patty that contains various fish parts ground up and packed together, covered with some sort of frozen breading.  A fish burger here is quite a treat.

We met several new cruisers in the past few days, today one of those couples Bob and Ellen are drifting North to the next island today.  We really enjoyed talking to them and may move with them for a few days.  Last night “Ship O’ Fools” hosted a big pizza party, they provided the dough, just bring your ingredients….. it was great.  Before that, everyone was at our boat swimming so we had quite a good visiting day yesterday.  Charles and Hillary are on a nicely rigged Shuttleworth.  Bob and Ellen are on a Pacific Seacraft, it’s a true yawl where the aft mast is behind the rudder. and Julie and Matthew are on a big black pirate ship ketch.

Our food is here and I officially recommend Dashamon’s.  By the time we finish eating Ada will have our clothes dried and folded at the laundromat.  We got a shower earlier and the sun popped out so it’s pretty steamy on Black Point right now.

I talked to Van “Smashie” while Linda was at the laundry.  Van builds and races Bahamian sloops.  He’s been racing for years and brought home many trophies.  Last time we were here in 2011 he was working on a new “C” class boat for a customer.  The frame was complete and he was planking the hull.

Well, lunch is over so I’ll sign off and head back for Laundry and SYL.  Rusty

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.