Baking in the Bay

June 27-29, 2010

The Treasure Chest Keeps Growing

Actually a moderate breeze has helped stave off the oppressing heat that we had been having down in White Sound. We've moved farther north to a place called Baker's Bay, which occupies the northern end of Guana Cay. I've only had to spritz a couple of times. Wayne made some of his delicious English muffins, thus the title.

Baker's Bay has had quite a history. Having a huge, beautiful beach on its western, protected side, a cruise ship company bought most of the property in the 1980s to use as one of its out island adventure stops. To the chagrin of the environmentalists, the government (for the benefit of local jobs) permitted the cruise line to do some extensive dredging, creating a deepwater channel in from the ocean cut and a turning basin large enough to accommodate the cruise ships. So much dredging had to be done on the sea bottom such that there was enough fill material to create a fairly good sized island that now has its own growth of permanent vegetation. Well, even the cruise line with all its money couldn't deal with King Neptune when it came to Whale Cay Passage, the only entry point into the Bay. When the King is kicking up the seas from the north and east, huge swells are created that prohibit even the largest of ships from transiting in or out of Whale Cay Passage. Even cruisers like us have to worry about the passage conditions, and we can be forced into staying north or south of Whale Cay if the weather is bad. So, the cruise ships had so much trouble using Baker's Bay as a stop, they abandoned their land and sea facilities and went on to ravage other small Bahamian islands that had more reliable access. Of course, the new facilities were all created in the name of “jobs for Bahamians” too. There are no palm tree huggers in the Bahamian government!

So, after about 10 years of remaining idle, someone else came up with a new business idea for Baker's Bay (more jobs for Bahamians!). In order to top the environmental plundering undertaken by the cruise line, the new business plan would include three very controversial projects: dredging another mile long deepwater channel from the old cruise line turning basin all the way to shore, where a huge marina facility would be blasted and dug right out of the island (where no inland water existed); removing the native vegetation and constructing a golf course; and developing the rest of the land for various types of private residences. Palm tree huggers from near and afar came out in droves to fight the permitting, but to no avail, the Baker's Bay Golf and Ocean Club project was approved and opened for business in 2009. We took a dinghy tour of the marina basin. The dockage is extensive, but mostly empty, and there are only a handful of homes built The bar and restaurant are open, but are somewhat remote to make their use just a day stop (Cracker P's is more our speed!). We are deriving some benefit: their WiFi is unsecured, so if a cruiser has a powerful enough antenna, like we have, you can pick up their signal at anchor. It will be very interesting to see how this facility weathers these tough economic times.

Our $50 Million Neighbor

Gallant Lady is the 168' ship in this photo. The “small” boat tied alongside her is 65' long and is her day boat, used for daily island hopping, like going to buy bread or key lime pies from the locals or schmoozing with commoners at Cracker P's. There is a sportfishing boat, about the same size as the day boat, that is anchored nearby. In addition, tied up at the Baker's Bay marina dock, is her reef fishing boat. Times must be tough though, because Gallant Lady is for sale. That figure doesn't include those big toys I've mentioned, but then again, everything is negotiable. I wonder how those people feel having to share the same sea vistas with Ghetto Lady, duh, I mean FLUKE!

(For those of you not familiar with Gallant Lady this is the 8th one, all built by Feadship for Jim Moran who is now deceased. He made his money as the distributor for all Toyotas in the Southeast US.)

On the Other Side of the Channel

Andrea Cay is on the same side of the channel as we are, opposite that of Gallant Lady. In 2007, Andrea Cay was for sale for $14 million. She's only 108' long, so what do you expect?!!Despite her price and size, we saw that she can run aground as easily as we can since when she came into anchor, on a falling tide, she ran aground right behind us and had to wait for the tide to change and rise before moving out farther and re-anchoring.

Eddie and I took a “cruise” in the dinghy out to that spoil island I mentioned at the beginning of this post, about a mile from where we're anchored. Eddie was trying to be nice to me all day so that I would fix taco salad for dinner, as we had managed to buy a head of lettuce. Thus, he agreed to go to the spoil island for a shelling session. Winds were blowing 10-15 KTS, so it was kind of a wet ride over the open water. We've stopped there in the past, and have gotten some good finds. We're always on the lookout for interesting pieces of driftwood, but Eddie happened upon a drift tree that he just couldn't pass up. I had to admit, it had a lot of possibilities as a nice piece of yard art, but since it was bigger than the dinghy I asked Eddie if he had thought what “Dad” would say if we took it back to FLUKE. We discussed that, and how we would get in on the dinghy. Then, we had to walk all the way back to the other side of the island, take the dinghy through the windward waters off the island, and find a safe landing place where we could haul the tree aboard the dinghy. This is what Wayne saw when we were headed back to FLUKE.

Dinghy Jousting?

Now, the tree is strapped securely to the upper aft deck. I just hope that we're not boarded by Bahamian or U.S. officials who may say we are in some violation for carrying this tree trunk back to the states.

Contrary to the norm, our social calendar is filled for the end of the week. On Thursday we are going to a pot luck dinner at Pirates Cove, a bit farther south on Guana. On Friday, we are going to the Stranded Naked party, a.k.a. Cheeseburgers in Paradise, on Fiddle Cay (we will have to move north and transit Whale Cay Passage). Then, on Saturday, we will be going to the Regatta Time in Abaco party on Green Turtle Cay. Life can be so stressful here in these little out islands! However, Eddie never lets the stress get to him.

Wishing Upon a Star

A comment on comments.
We enjoy reading the comments some of you leave on the blog. Just one thing, if you don't sign it we have no idea who left it. But is it nice to know that people do read and enjoy it.

Trying to be Civilized

June 19-24, 2010

Seeing the Light

I'm going to try to do this entry after spending the afternoon on a bar stool at Cracker P's, where Eddie ordered an additional special rum drink of the house, that I didn't need (he didn't need one either!). Our first toast was to “freedom” since we didn't have Captain Wayne around to give us the evil eye about drinking the rum punches. We don't get out on our own very much, for obvious reasons! I'm under a tight time schedule since the internet service that we bought for $35/week will run out tomorrow morning, and we want to get another post done before that.

Since we had to go by Tilloo Bank to get to Marsh Harbor, we decided to drop the hook near the Bank for a couple of nights. Every cruiser should stop at Tilloo Bank, preferably at low tide. It may be the largest sand bank in the Abacos, and I think they have declared it one of their national treasures. It is visible from the Space Station. Vacationers come from all the nearby cays to wallow in the crystal clear, shallow water with the purest of white sandy bottom. It is so bright, you need to wear sun glasses under the water!

Tilloo's Bar

You would have to wonder what is so great about this wallowing I'm speaking of. Well, it is a good way to cool off. You can get some exercise by trying to swim against the current as is spills over the underwater sand dunes. I wear my snorkel and look for natural treasures on the bottom and sea life, which is abundant.

There are lots of small flounder. You have to look carefully to see the first one, but once you do, you are hooked. They are so flat against the sandy bottom, and they change color to blend in with the sand. If you don't startle them, you can see small circles of little blue dots on them that actually make they look pretty. However, their most remarkable feature are their eyes, both of which are on the upside of their flat body. You can see them rotate in their sockets, like with a ratcheting motion which is very comical when they are looking at you.

The other interesting inhabitants are the razorfish, from the wrasse family. These fish, usually under 8” long, are oddly shaped, with a wide head (in the up and down position) with a body that tapers down to the tail. They have long fins that run along the top of their backs that are always moving, so I think they look like they would be slippery. You can get really close to them to the point where you think you can reach out and touch one. However, when they finally get spooked, in the blink of an eye, they are gone, under the sand. I've watched so many of them, trying to see the hole they go in, but it just isn't visible. They are an undersea magic act in their own class.

The biggest attraction to the Bank are the sand dollars. Everyone knows you can never have too many dollars, so I'm not sure anyone ever visits the Bank without picking up more dollars. They range in size from smaller than a dime to larger than a baseball. You should only take home the white, dead ones, not the olive green live ones. If you break that rule, King Neptune will punish you in unpleasant ways.

Dollars and Cents

Another reason for anchoring at Tilloo Bank is that it provides easy access to Sandy Cay, an area that is a designated park (even has small boat moorings to tie up to), most noted for its excellent snorkeling and diving opportunities. I delighted in snorkeling Sandy Cay reef because it is a beautiful, vibrant reef with a variety of colorful underwater plants and animals. People feed the fish, so when you first jump in the water, hundreds of sergeant majors and yellow-tail snappers surround you hoping for a handout. There are a lot of large fish that hang out in the deeper drop off area, waiting to eat the smaller fish. Preserve areas like this are so wonderful in that they allow even novice water enthusiasts the opportunity to easily view sea creatures they may not get to see any where else.

The W & E Marine Maintenance Co. cleaned FLUKE's heat exchanger. The engine has been running a bit too hot, and we are still trying to figure out what may be the problem. See all that grass blocking half the cooling tubes? It isn't supposed to be there, and the tubes had a lot of residue in them. Each tube had to be cleaned using a rifle barrel cleaning brush.

FLUKE's Dirty Radiator

After leaving Tilloo Bank, we headed over to Marsh Harbor area, anchoring in the outskirts of the harbor at a place called Fanny Bay. We thought we would be cooler here, and we didn't relish the idea of having to anchor in the more confined conditions of the busy harbor. Fanny Bay proved to be too exposed to the wakes of the passing boats that were going in and out of the harbor, but fortunately we weren't aboard for most of the one day we spent there anyway.

Our trip into town got off on somewhat of a disconcerting state. When we pulled up to the public dock, a local came running over to “help” us tie up to the dock. Well, we really didn't need any help, but what are you supposed to do when you know that you are going to be gone for a few hours, and there are several of these “helpers” left behind with your dinghy? Having not been into town for a few years, we didn't know if they were part of the New Way or what. So, reluctantly we gave the guy $2 and our bag of garbage to deposit in the nearby dumpster and went into town.

It took the W & E Refer Maintenance Co. 7 trips into several stores to get the freon and fittings that they thought they needed in case our refer takes another nose dive and we aren't within reach of Donnie. Ursa and I waited for them under a tree while the guys went to most of the stores, and I laughed as I looked down the street and could see Wayne walking back and forth across the street, with Eddie-san trailing about 30 ft. behind all the time.

We were sharing the solitary roadside tree with a native lady farmer who was selling water melons and okra from her farm. The melons ranged in price from $5-20, depending on the size. I bought a $5 one, thinking it was small enough to get in the refrigerator. Besides the farmer lady, there were 5 other people (2 adults and 3 kids) that rode into town in the melonmobile. You can see in the photo that the trunk is full, but there were also melons in the back seat, so I think a couple of the kids must have had to sit on top of some of the melons. They were eating, authentic island fare, Kentucky Fried Chicken and fries, the whole time I was standing there. Ursa was drooling at the smell of the chicken.

The Melonmobile

We got up at sunrise to exit Fanny Bay before the morning “rush” hour began when the boat wakes would be constant for a couple of hours. Even though we couldn't read the water colors very well in the poor morning light, we didn't worry much because we were only going over to Elbow Cay, about 7 miles, where we have been many times before. We dropped the hook between the Parrot Cays and Elbow Cay with a perfect view of the lighthouse.

We decided to take a stroll around Hope Town, the little community located on Elbow Cay. It is very picturesque and colorful, with friendly people. We ran into a couple of little girls around 10 years old who wanted to pet Ursa. One of the them was blind and was being led by her companion who exclaimed what a cute dog Ursa was. The vivacious, bubbly, blind girl, Annie, got all excited and exclaimed “let me see her” and held out her hand for me to guide it down to pet Ursa. We ended up running into Annie two more times that morning, and each time she would want to pet Ursa and would say what a cute dog she was. It was touching to see what a joie de vivre outlook Annie seemed to have despite her handicap.

Our land visit was primarily focused on food: eating lunch, buying some tomatoes, and buying a key lime pie from Vernon's Grocery, which seems to have made key lime pies ever since the first key limes were ever harvested. There were no tomatoes (the food barge wasn't arriving for another day), but Vernon said the pies should be out at 1:00. On our previous visits they were usually out by 11:00. So, we decided to go have lunch and then go back for the pie.

Island Color

We sat down at an outside table at Harbour's Edge overlooking the harbor and ordered our traditional island meal: conch burgers and fries. The servings were generous to say the least, so we wouldn't be cooking any dinner later that night; a piece of the key lime pie would be enough to top off the day.

However, when we got back to Vernon's, the 1:00 pie time had been moved to 2:00. We decided not to wait, thinking we may stop by another day and try our luck again. We went back to FLUKE and made brownies instead.

After two nights we moved 2 miles south along Elbow Cay to an area called White Sound. It is most noted for Tahiti Beach, a beautiful beach and sand bar area right at the southernmost tip of the cay. The homes that are along the waterfront are newer: modern, large, and sprawling. I like the older, quaint homes in town proper better. Cracker P's is across the waterway, located on Lubbers Quarters, so it is an easy dinghy ride for us to get there, and more importantly, to be safely able to get back to FLUKE after our “visit”.

Chillin' Out in the South: Lynyard Cay

June 16-19, 2010

Our Lynyard Cay Anchorage

Lynyard Cay marks the southernmost point in the Abacos that we will travel this year. It isn't known for much other than being across from Little Harbor, location of the most visited bar in this region, Pete's Pub. If there were waterway signage around here, like we see along the U.S. highways, a sign for Pete's would read “Last Chance to Get Wasted”. Every cruiser should go there at least once, just to see the laid back, casual, unique island bar, whose floor is beach sand, and visit the artist's gallery and foundry started by Pete's father. Eddie can tell you a good story about one of his late night adventures at Pete's on one of our former cruises.

This is one of my favorite anchorages in the southern part of the Abacos. The area is so sparsely populated, the ocean access is easy, the holding is good, the beaches are beautiful and peaceful, and the water is clear and cool with the ocean being so near. The opening picture was taken during a hike on Lynyard and shows the island to the west of us. You will really get the “picture” when you see the view from FLUKE in the following photos.

View to the South

View to the East

Notice that the ocean is visible (see the boat?). The land is very narrow in this section. See the beautiful beach. There is good shelling along this part of the island, but the most shells can be gotten at low tide down on the southern tip of the island, in the sandy areas that are on the western side of the rocks that jut out the end. It is best to snorkel the area and pick them off the bottom. The water is as clear as a bathtub's, so it is easy to see things. Eddie and I collected lots of “treasures” during our expedition. In contrast, here is what it looks like right on the other side of that beautiful beach. You wouldn't want to get washed up here!

Oceanside Shore

The northern view is also pretty, having some taller trees, higher elevation, and some rocky outcroppings with even longer expanses of beachfront. A popular day beach, for the locals and tourists with rental boats, has a path from the west side over to the east where there is a pretty, sandy ocean side beach.

View to the North

When we dropped the hook here at 5:30 p.m. on the 16th, the sun was beating directly into the cockpit, where we have a remote temperature sensor, and it read 119 degrees! We acted quickly to get up our “deflection” shield, a piece of screening fabric we hang up across the back of the boat to help keep the sun off the main salon when we are at anchor. Once we opened the boat and got the air blowing through everywhere things cooled down to around 98. Thankfully our refrigerator continued to hold its proper temperature, getting some relief from Donnie's last gas fix and the much cooler water we were floating in. Overall, we have had two weeks of great weather, but we know that can change quickly in these little islands.

The temperature also heats up when we work on our “chores”. We try to brainstorm to solve some of the problems, and we all have different ideas about how things should be done, so we raise our voices (if you know what I mean!) to try to promote our own points. W & E Marine Maintenance Inc. usually do a good job keeping up with making repairs, but they tend to slack off on the routine stuff. I have to give you an example.

I usually do all the vacuuming; it has to be done about once/week because of all the animal hair and how much sand we track in all the time. It takes 45-60 minutes to do a good job. Eddie is supposed to empty the vacuum and put it away. Well, the last time it was used, he didn't clean it out, but put it away anyway (that is not the first time for that either). I pulled out the vacuum (not knowing it was full) to use up in the pilothouse, and when I got to the top of the stairs, the front popped open. The filter, with all the hair and other debris fell out, missing the upper 3 steps, but hitting the other 5, knocking dust into the grooves in the steps and up the sides of the stairwell. It landed on the carpet at the bottom of the steps, and a huge cloud of dust rose up the stairwell, right into my face. It was just like something you would see in a cartoon! To say I was angry was an understatement, and it is a good thing we don't carry a gun aboard.

Making repairs on FLUKE is always made difficult by having to work in such confined spaces, whether it is above or below decks. Last year I wrote about our dinghy bilge pump becoming inoperable and that we had to hand pump the water all the time. Well, that problem just now got around to being fixed. It required removing the battery and practically crawling in under the seat to get to the bilge pump, fuse, and wiring that needed to be changed. People say the definition of cruising is working on the boat in exotic locations.

No Wake Please

Eddie and Carol Audubon have diversified from their inwater activities to scour the island beaches for weathered pieces of wood so that we can make some bird nesting boxes to put up in our oak trees when we get back to Vero. We have lots of woodpeckers and screech owls in the neighborhood, and they will be able to make good use of some nesting boxes since there aren't enough tree holes to go around for all the birds who need them. Eddie even found a piece of wood with an entry hole already in it!

Is This Big Enough?

Like last year, we have seen nesting nighthawks and least terns. The nighthawk eggs are already hatching, and we have seen the little puffs of chicks. The least terns are just now laying eggs. On one of our wood hunts we were near a tern nesting area. They keep the “nests” above the high water mark, but well below the dune line of vegetation, where predators may more easily be found. It is important to watch where you walk so you don't step on the eggs. The terns were very agitated when I was taking these photos and were dive bombing and pooping on me to try to get me away from their nests. The first photo shows a typical nest, just a small depression in the sand with a little pile of shells or rock fragments.

Two Eggs Are the Norm

This photo shows another type of nest arrangement. I wonder how the bird sits on this nest?
Maybe there was only room for one egg.

An Only Child

Here are two more eggs I spotted. The egg in the upper part of the photo is damaged (you can see a yellow spot on it and it had a fly on it), and I think it has been pushed away from the other one. However, the good egg doesn't even look like it is even in a nest, so maybe both eggs have been abandoned.

Homeless?

I'd be happy to stay here a while longer, but we need to move north and get closer to Marsh Harbor where we can try to buy some refrigerant in case the refer crashes again. I have a feeling that finding the gas and the fittings we need will be an island challenge for us.

Manjack and Green Turtle Cays: too hot to handle

June 12-15, 2010

Pretty in Pink

Judging by the title you should wonder why we are still in this area at the dates posted. Well, we might have an addiction to freon, and we didn't want to get too far away from Donnie and his gas. After 5 days of reasonable cooling our hopes were dashed as the refer temp began to creep up. Two more days, and we decided to go find Donnie again and get another fix. The problem is serious enough to generate a conversation about having to return to the states. It has certainly affected our plans to be able to get far from civilization.

We motored back over to Green Turtle and dropped the hook right before midday. Thinking Donnie would be at his house for lunch, we headed in and walked down the street. The school kids were out for lunch, and they were making fun of Ursa, commenting that she really didn't look like any dog they were used to seeing. I asked them if she looked like a pig, and they said yes, and one little girl said she should be called a hog dog.

Donnie wasn't home, so we went back to FLUKE, had lunch, and then went back into town to look for Donnie again. We left a note on his door, and decided to walk around town in hopes of running into him. We spotted him driving his white van and accosted him as he was motoring by on the main road along the waterfront. We told him our predicament, and he agreed to go out to the boat right away.

In addition to the gas and gauges, he also brought his leak detection device. W & E Refer Inc. had already soaped down all the lines and fittings and had been unable to detect a leak, but we figured Donnie may have better luck with his detection device. Our freon pressure wasn't as low as his first visit, but it was still below the norm, so that means we must be leaking from somewhere. Donnie and Wayne checked everything and couldn't find a leak. Wayne told Donnie that we wanted to stay over here, but we couldn't if we had to visit him every week for a freon fix. Donnie suggested that we try to purchase a small can of R134a gas in the Marsh Harbor area, the hub of the Abacos, and its largest “city”, a day's FLUKE ride from GTC. Donnie didn't want to be paid anything for his services that afternoon, pleasing Wayne to no end. However, I yelled to Wayne “that man has to be paid something for his work”, so we gave him $20, and then we were all happy.

Out to sea we headed, and that's where I'm writing this update.

We could have taken an “inside” route, but it has been so hot, we decided to head offshore where we hoped that it would be cooler, and we could get some trolling done and maybe get some decent fish. The inside shallow waters have been in the upper 80's, so we thought that was also putting a strain on the refrigerator system. The cooler ocean waters could give it a break, and ended up dropping the temperature another 3 degrees, down to 40, a number we could be happy with. The question will be how long we will be able to keep it that low.

As far as our fishing luck would have it, we didn't fare well. One hit bit through the leader line, another two came off before we even got them close to the boat, and only 1/3 of the yellow fin tuna we hooked made it back to the boat; something else bit off the other 2/3! That was for 7 hours of fishing. Good thing we weren't depending on getting anything for dinner.

Getting the Weapons Ready

Jacquelyn Cousteau and Lloyd Bridges haven't been doing much better with their spearfishing endeavors. Decent spearable fish are few and far between in the GTC and MJC areas because the near shore reefs are close to human population centers and have been over fished. We have been out hunting a couple of times and did have some fun. I speared a strawberry grouper that made a nice lunch for us. The following day, Eddie speared a 9 pound black margate that merits its own story, and it is just another example of how we certainly don't know everything about this cruising life and that sometimes we ought to be called the Three Sea Stooges.

I saw Eddie stealthily creep up on the loner margate since I had spotted it too and was going to take a shot at it myself. Eddie shot at it, but it wasn't a solid hit, and the fish swam off, going a bit deeper, under a small ledge. Eddie still had his eye on it, and continued on after it. I was already “nervous” about the situation since the fish was wounded, and the neighborhood was beginning to come alive. I knew it wouldn't be long before a shark or barracuda showed up in hopes of getting an easy meal. So, I took a position where I could watch the action and make sure we were all going to be as safe as possible. Eddie shot the fish again, and the spear penetrated solidly enough for Eddie to try to get it up to the surface. Eddie was already struggling with the weight of the fish on the spear, and his flipper started coming off his foot (he likens it to having a broken prop!). He couldn't get the fish out of the water and both of them were flopping around just advertising themselves as being stressed to the whole reef. I yelled for Wayne to give us a pick up and swam over and grabbed the spear and fish away from Eddie so that I could get the fish out of the water. To hold it vertical, to get maximum height, I could not keep my head out of the water because the fish was weighing me down, so I had to just stay below the surface and breathe through my snorkel. At least I could look around for predators approaching, at which point I would have just given up the fish. Wayne came quickly and “saved” the 3 of us.

The trouble with the fish didn't end in the dinghy. Part 2 came when it was time to clean the thing. Its scales were so thick and large Eddie had a difficult time scraping them off so he could get to where he could cut the skin and make a fillet. Scales went flying everywhere, sticking to the cockpit walls and furniture. Most of them were the size of nickels, so they were at least easy to wipe off and pile up to throw overboard (however, it was another two days before we were able to get the rest of them out of the deck drain). Eddie nicked the colon, so fish poop was leaking out during the cleaning process, and boy, did it ever smell bad! I had to give Eddie credit for doing a fine job filleting the fish and just sticking with the whole mess.

Part 3 came when it was time to cook it. The meat certainly looked OK, and I marinated it with some grill spices that we had used on fish before. Eddie, a.k.a., the Grillmaster, put the fillets on the grill. My first thought that something wasn't quite right was when I peeked at the grilling fish and noticed that the fillets were curling up an awful lot. Eddie asked me to check to see if they were done enough, and when I tried to flake open the fish, it was like sticking the knife into a wad of rubber.

OK, so maybe it was going to be a little chewy, we could handle that.

Part 4 began when the grilled fish was served. It looked fine, was definitely chewy, but tasted absolutely wretched. It made me think I had marinated it in iodine. I swallowed a piece and said that it tasted awful and I wasn't eating any more. Eddie and Wayne promptly spit theirs out, because they think if I ever say something tastes bad it could mean that we will die from eating it (I hate to waste food!). Both of them looked at me and asked if we were going to be sick. I said I doubted it, and as time has since passed, we didn't suffer any physical maladies, just bruised egos.

Part 5, the happy ending, was seeing the whole plate of fillets get tossed overboard!! Maybe something got to make a meal of it.

TOMORROW COME SOON

Our State of Affairs

JUNE 8-10, 2010 GREEN TURTLE AND MANJACK CAYS

Well, we never did get to post like we had hoped. We're in the out islands of the Bahamas, where it is always today, and maybe never tomorrow.

Going for a walk on Green Turtle in the early evening, we saw a sign on a house that said Donnie's Electrical, Plumbing, and Refrigeration. Sounded like just the guy we needed to diagnose our refrigerator problem.

Early the following morning we were back on Donnie's doorstep and managed to catch him before he left the house for other jobs. He said he was available to go right out to FLUKE to look at the refrigeration unit. Turns out Donnie is a local native, born in Nassau, but moved to GTC at a young age, where he graduated from the local island school. His two daughters are still on the island, employed at a couple of the local businesses. Plus, he is a local politician, saying he isn't like the others who only care about themselves or owe people a favor. Donnie just calls it like he sees it: a spade is a spade. He said some times, no one seems to like him, but all the townspeople come to him to complain about problems they want him to solve, and they vote for him. We genuinely liked him and were happy to employ a real native.

Donnie diagnosed our problem as being low on freon in the refrigerant lines, based on the pressure gauge measurements after it took a second trip back to shore (in our dinghy) to get another set of gauges. However, not being familiar with our keel-cooled system, he wasn't sure what the real pressure should be; too much would cause the lines to freeze, and too little wouldn't give us enough cooling capacity. Donnie suggested he call the company in Stuart, FL that installed the unit and ask them. That meant another trip back to shore. After four trips back and forth and a $60 payment the refrigerator was cooling properly again. We were happy, but since we didn't know what caused the freon to be low in the first place, we decided we should stick close to GTC for a few days to see if the freon leaked out quickly. We tested the line for leaks, but we may have missed the spot if it is in an area we can't access. Donnie told us to get with him again if we were still having problems.

Joe, the Horse, Trying to Make Friends

After we first found Donnie's house, we ran into Joe, the horse of New Plymouth. He has free reign of the community, but his favorite hangout is at the schoolyard where he gets the most handouts from the local children. He is the one who is most disappointed on holidays and summer vacation! Donnie said he can also be found in the shade of the sapodilla trees where he waits for the ripe fruit to drop so he can eat them to supplement his junk food addiction. I asked Donnie if Joe was ever used for any work, and Donnie laughed and told me “no, he be just a playboy”. Another local told me that Joe has recently been in a bit of trouble because he has figured out that many people carry loaves of bread on the golf carts used for island transportation, and leave them unattended. He helps himself to those easy pickings. We wondered if this sign kept Joe away!

Cheep Protection

The second evening after we met Joe, we went ashore again, this time to look for Joe and give him some carrot scraps left over from our dinner. I was carrying the bag of scraps heading up the crest of the hill, looking for Joe, when he just happened to be coming from the other side, at an intersecting angle. When he saw me holding a bag, and I held it up and said “Hey Joe, I have a treat for you”, his ears perked up, and he came clopping over PDQ to stand right in front of me nosing the bag. He kept trying to sniff Ursa, but she wasn't too social with him.

We continued our walk, enjoying some of the colorful and innovative architecture. These double doors, at the end of the short ramp from the street, are for the golf cart garage.

The Little Garage

The following morning, we motored a couple of miles over to Manjack Cay, previously known as WiFi land, where we hoped to be able to connect to the internet as in years past, courtesy of a lovely island couple who used to be cruisers themselves. Turns out they were asked by the local internet service provider to quit broadcasting their WiFi signal to the boats in the harbor because it was hampering sales to cruisers. Tomorrow come soon for posting!

We decided to take a morning walk on land over to the next cove. First, we ran into the island owner, Leslie, who gave us a tour of the “plantation”. We are always impressed with how many things they are able to grow, their chicken flock that supplies eggs, and how they live off the grid. Then we headed off for our walk.

An extended thunderstorm caught us on the trek. We ducked under some palm fronds in hopes of trying to keep the camera dry. It rained steady for over an hour. By the time we made it back to the dinghy, the tide had gone out to the point where the dinghy was too much out of the water for us to even move it. We would have to wait for 3 hours to get enough water to float the dinghy to get back to FLUKE! Plus, it was already past lunch time; tick tock, eat by the clock-what were we going to do?!

I went back up to the house to ask Leslie if we could borrow their kayak (it was on the beach) to take back to FLUKE until the tide came back up. Bill, her husband heard, and came out and said he had a solution to move us. He brought out 2 pieces of PVC pipe and said that we would put them under the dinghy and roll it to deeper water. It wasn't an easy job, but it worked, and we floated free. Island ingenuity!

Eddie and I went for a 3 hour “recreational” snorkel along the shore line of Crab Cay where there are the remnants of three wrecks . That means that we don't take our spears and we just look at the fish and habitat. We do practice phantom spearing, whereby we pretend we are holding a spear and sneak up on a fish, seeing how close we can get. Eddie always has the idea that he would be able to get all the fish he shadows, but it never turns out like that when we are really on the hunt.

When the tide was right, Wayne and I revisited the secret Sea Glass Beach. We weren't disappointed as we collected many pieces of varying sizes, shapes, and colors. Some of them were so small, just like jewelry store gems. I've placed a dime in part of the treasure pile so you can get a size perspective.

Sea Jewels

We invited Pete and Lil, from MERMAID LIL, a DeFever 49, over for grilled kielbasa. They had some interesting stories about cruising in Holland, Belgium, France, and Germany on a steel canal boat they own over there. They had left Vero Beach right behind us the same morning and traveled to Lake Worth, arriving right after us and then crossed over when we did. Too many seas to see and not enough time!

2010 OUT ISLANDS, BAHAMAS: ABACOS

Welcome Aboard

June 7, 2010 Green Turtle Cay

This afternoon has been declared a “free” time for all aboard. That means that you can pretty much do whatever you want to do until someone else decides they need you to “help” them do something else. Then there is no freedom left, taken away in a moment's notice! How can any of us complain though, since here we are, living the exciting life of cruising.

It's been suggested that I use my free time to start the new blog postings for this year's voyage. Is that really any free time for me? I might as well get going before I get further behind and then less motivated. I'm just hoping that the thermometer visible to my left doesn't turn over one more degree to 90 degrees; I just feel hotter than ever when the first number is a nine. I have a spritzer bottle by my side that I use to squirt water on my head and down the front of my shirt to try to keep cooler. OK, I'm in the groove now (until the lightning starts), and here's what we've been up to.

We were finally able to sell our house (and FLUKE's docking space!). We had a lot of work to do to be able to move out of the house before our Mar. 31 closing. We rented a POD and put it in the driveway a month ahead of closing time so that we could take our time packing things from the house and putting it in the POD at our convenience. That went very well and was economical.

Not fully willing to give up our land legs, and needing a place to keep all our stuff, we took advantage of the same recessed real estate market that cut our original selling (asking) price by 40% and bought a small home (half the size) about a mile from where we had been living and a block away from where we lived before we bought the waterfront home. So, we knew the neighborhood well and bought a little, lock and go barrier island home on a lot with beautiful oak trees. We feel it was a good value and a reasonable use for some of the money we got out of selling the big house.

Our New Crib

Since the new house isn't on the water, it necessitated that we move FLUKE to the Vero Beach City Marina, about a half mile away. Being pressed for time, we never bothered to move off of FLUKE or open most of the packed boxes at the new house. It was our first time living aboard at a dock for an extended period of time, and an odd feeling having a home we haven't slept in.

Wayne spent a lot of time researching and designing a solar panel arrangement (4 - 210 Watt panels) for the pilothouse roof. Then, he had to find the best place to purchase all the parts since it is quite an expensive venture ($4000) and prices are varied for the same stuff depending on where you can get it. He and Eddie did the installation, probably better than if we had contracted it out. We are hoping to be able to generate up to 60 Amps into the batteries when the sun is at its peak. That will help reduce the amount of generator running time we need to charge the batteries. Each panel measures about 3' x 5'. The picture shows the two on the starboard side and there are 2 more on the port side. We also had to move the satellite TV antenna further forward to get it out of the way.

Living Off the Grid

Speaking of batteries, we had to replace all 8 of our house bank batteries. They weigh 125 pounds each, so moving the 1000 pounds of old lead off and new lead back on the boat was also quite a project. It is not an easy feat to lift a battery out of the lower machinery room to the middle deck. E & W rigged a pulley system to help lift them out from below decks.

Labeling is Important

When we were up on the locks in the Erie Canal we noticed that we had a small discharge of what looked like a petroleum product in our exhaust water. By the time we were at the home dock, it had worsened. W & E assumed it was a diesel fuel leak. However, when the engine was started and we took out FLUKE one day it was apparent that what they thought it was, really wasn't it. I had been harping (I'm good at that) to capture some of the discharge and make sure what it was, but the guys just thought they knew it had to be diesel. When Eddie finally got some of the stuff on a rag, it turned out to be oily, not diesel. Further investigation showed that we had a hydraulic oil leak in the heat exchanger for the system that runs FLUKE's bow thruster and stabilizers. That was a big project to pull the thing out and replace it with a new one and flush the system several times to make sure all the water was out of it.

Another big project, and the reason for our late departure to the Islands this year, was the purchase and installation of our new reverse osmosis watermaker. We had been talking about getting one for 4 years and said when we sold the house and had some extra money we would get one, so that time had finally come. Lots of research on what other cruisers had and liked, visits to boat shows, and just getting a good education about what would work best for us took a lot of time. It is a major purchase ($10K), so we needed to make sure we understood what we wanted and were getting. We finally decided on a 12 volt, 300 gallon/day Spectra Catalina system. It would enable us to make water without having to run the generator (like when we are underway), be quiet (the AC powered ones are noisy), and give us enough water to supplement our 500 gallon water tanks without having to have the added expense of a larger unit. We will still be frugal with our water use, but we will not have to worry about hoping to capture rain water or find some place to buy water. Down island, in the Caribbean, it can be difficult to even find a place to buy water. We have found that to be true in the Bahamas too, so now we will be even more independent.

Every Drop Counts

Over the last several months subsequent to our arrival back in Vero I was lucky to be able to go back to work part-time at the University of Florida's Florida Medical Entomology Lab. FMEL is a great place for me to work: there are a variety of projects to work on, so that my days are varied and interesting whether it be working in a lab or in the field; I get to work with different types of people from the professors to graduate students and everyone has something to say about the work or life's happenings; I like to be able to earn some money; there are no fashion police; and going to work gives me an opportunity to get away from my crew mates. From my perspective, the only negative to the last one is that it seems like when I'm not around the guys' levels of productivity are not at their maximums. When I get home I always expect more progress to have occurred than what does. Wayne says it's because I have unrealistic expectations on how long some of the work should take. Sure.

So now here is the real time, current (according to island time) cruising news.

After moving FLUKE off the dock and out to a mooring for a week (to test our new systems and repairs), we dropped off the mooring ball at 0600 on June 4 to head down to Ft. Pierce inlet, out into the Atlantic and then down to Lake Worth inlet, about 70 miles. Heading south like that instead of directly east over to the Bahamas would enable us to make sure we were running well while still within reach of land if we had a problem, and leaving out of Lake Worth would give us a more favorable angle to cross the Gulf Stream current that pushes northerly. Seas were only 1-2', but there was a constant choppy swell from the port bow side, so it was too rolly to be comfortable. Visitor threw up, and Eddie wasn't in a good sea state for most of the day either. Makes for a lon.....g day. To make matters even more boring, we were traveling close to shore (less than 3 miles out), to minimize the northerly current affect, so the water was only 50' deep at best, too shallow to fish.

Waters calmed as we got farther south, and we could enjoy watching some of the sights as we got closer to more populated areas. This two person colorful para-sailing rig caught my eye. If you've never done that yet, it should go on your list, because it is a lot of fun.

Parasailing Fun

The Lake Worth inlet is one of my favorites. It is so easy to navigate, day or night, and is just not cluttered. I am also amazed at what a great job they have done controlling sand erosion. They have this machine that moves sand building up on the north side over to the south side, so that it doesn't clog up the inlet and require dredging and doesn't take all the sand away from the south side beaches. That little machine has been there as long as I have ever seen the inlet, through all the storms and bad weather and just keeps on pumping.

Sand Pumper

At least we made it to the Lake Worth anchorage without incident. However, we had a huge oil slick around us as we were anchoring, making us think we had our problem back. Turns out the boat anchored up current from us, was having an oil problem and pumping oil over with its bilge water. We heard people talking about it when they came back to the boat after we had anchored. 3 thunderstorms passed through, packing 40 KT winds, but we held steady.

The next day, June 5, we started the engine at 0530, had an easy anchor up and headed out the inlet for our Gulf Stream crossing. Conditions were benign, all aboard were happy. We only caught 3 small schoolie dolphin and 1 huge (20#) jack and released them all. No fresh fish for our first night in the Bahamas! The day always has at bright spot when you get the first glimpse of the color change of the water that separates the deep sapphire blue of the Gulf Stream from the multi-hued lighter blues, greens, and almost white waters of the shallow Bahama Banks. The picture is a sea rainbow.

At 5:25 p.m. we shut down the engine, having dropped the hook at Mangrove Cay. I always call it a spot of nothing in the middle of nowhere. Believe me, it is not what you would think of as an idyllic deserted island scene on a travel poster. The mangroves are barely above sea level and have never fully recovered from near annihilation from hurricanes so they still look brown and beat up. There's no white sandy beach, and even the surrounding shallow waters aren't very pretty, but at least they were cooler than the 91 degree air in the pilothouse.

We knew we had been getting poor fuel economy and couldn't wait to jump in and look under FLUKE and see how much growth we had accumulated from sitting idle at the dock. Wow, we couldn't believe how bad the barnacles were on the running gear and on the bottom of the keel. It was no surprise that the keel had growth since we had the grounding at Carolina Beach inlet and assumed we had scraped off the protective bottom paint. The surprise was how thick and large the barnacles were. Eddie and I got to work right away, Eddie cleaning off the prop, and I began cleaning the boot stripe at the water line. I had never seen it so dirty, and it even had some small barnacles that needed to be scraped off. We worked for a couple of hours, getting cooled off and working up an appetite. We had a favorite meal to celebrate our arrival in the Bahamas: taco salad and cold beer.

Chatting with another cruising boat we learned that it was a holiday weekend (Bahamas Labor Day), which meant that there was no hurry to try to get anywhere after we left Mangrove. We decided to travel most of the following day to Powell Cay where we could find some nice, shallow water with a fairly sandy bottom to give us good light to continue to work on cleaning the bottom of the boat.

We anchored off a rocky bluff area where a colony of tropic birds nest in the holes in the cliff. I always write about these beautiful, birds that circle through the air in the area of their nests trailing their long, graceful tails, so unique to these island birds. I think the tropic bird should be the national bird of the Bahamas, instead of some parrot that hardly anyone ever gets to see.

All three of us hopped into the water to cool off and work on the boat. Wayne reamed out the through hole for the sewer pump out because it had a lot of heavy growth and the breaker had popped when we were pumping out the holding tank at sea. He hopes that the pump out was impeded by the growth in the pump out line. It seems like we always have some problem with the sewer. We even had a problem with the sewer at the new house right before we left. Wayne plunged the toilet and up spewed a kid's blue toothbrush with a little red truck molded into the handle. Eddie said he didn't want it.

Eddie spent two hours underwater breathing with the compressed air line we operate from the engine room. He did a great job cleaning the running gear, keel, and other through hole areas. I finished up the entire boot stripe and began wiping some algae growth off the bottom. FLUKE will definitely need a new coat of bottom paint when we haul her out after we get back in August.

Eddie has finally realized one of his dreams to come true. He gets to take showers with the hose off the swim platform now that we have the watermaker. He combines that event with rinsing off our swimming and diving gear. I'm not sure what would be a “better” shot: him standing there in his birthing state or in his saggy underwear with the stains in various places.

Cleaning the Buff

My Powell Cay treat came at night when it was pitch black and I looked overboard. There were lots of bio-luminescent animals, mostly jellyfish, in the water emitting those silent, eerie blue-white flashes. Some were large enough to light up spots that reflected off the sandy bottom. When I dipped a black bucket into the water and swirled it, I got thousands of golden phosphorescent sparkles of light, like pixie dust drifting through the water. When I threw a full bucket of water overboard, the splash made a big ring of gold. It reminded me of how exciting it was as a kid to catch fire flies and have them glowing in a jar. Then we were awakened from midnight to 1 a.m. as a thunderstorm skirted the anchorage.

We slowly cruised over from Powell Cay this morning to clear customs at Green Turtle Cay before they took a midday break. It is apparent that they've had a good amount of rain since the vegetation is green, and the royal poinciana trees are fully ablaze. We even made some water while underway to test out the system. I got out of early helm duty because I said I wanted to make some chocolate chip cookies. The guys never mind taking over one of my shifts if I have a galley project like that to take care of. Some of the cookies were overcooked on the bottom, and I've had to endure the complaints about who has to eat those.

Royal Color

We launched our dinghy, and Wayne went ashore to clear us all in, since only the captain is permitted to walk on land until Customs says its OK. He came back with some big technological news. The Customs office had a copy machine and even a computer! That is a first for us. In past times we had to share carbon paper with each other to fill out our papers, and even having reliable electricity to run a computer was questionable. Wayne noticed that the screen saver on the computer was colorful autumn leaves, and he remarked to the woman that many people in the states have screen savers with enchanted island scenes. Everyone, everywhere, always wants to be somewhere else!

We may have one bad problem. Our refrigerator is not cooling as low as it should be. We have cleaned off the keel coolers and defrosted. It is packed and maybe the air circulation is poor, but we are going to have to do something about it, even if it means getting someone aboard to check the refrigerant level. It is very frustrating to try to trouble shoot this problem ourselves. The freezer, which works on the same principles is working fine, but we need a properly cooling refrigerator to have this cruise work right.

Well, the thermometer has held at the 89 degrees, my spritzer bottle is almost empty (I shared it with Ursa), and my free time is up because it is almost time to prepare the next meal.

We're optimistic in being able to get a connection to post this, maybe tomorrow.

(As you can see, we didn't get the connection we hoped for, finally signed up today Jun 18)