Saturday, January 9, 2010

Dec. 31 Well, it’s not over till it’s over! After anchoring in our new spot and swirling in the current for several hours, our anchor chain was thoroughly twisted with the snubber line. The tide was rising but the light was fading. A joint decision to move was made and we slowly eased our way out through the shallow channel and out into open “deeper” water. Big Major’s Spot here we come! Because we were loosing the light, we anchored in the outer area of the anchorage for the night. Now, we could break out the champagne, play cards, have dinner, watch a movie and be in bed by 9:30pm.


Jan. 1 We moved in to our usual spot closer to the island. It was calm and wonderful to be back “home”. There was a race for cruising sailboats which we were able to watch from the boat. For this race, everyone had radios and the whole thing sounded very official. The larger Bahamian sloop ‘ Lady Muriel’ beat everyone! She is light and fast and there wasn’t a true upwind leg to the course which was to her advantage. The smallest boat was 12 feet long and the largest one was about 70 feet long. That night, a front came through with some stronger winds so John was up and down many times during the night. I basically slept.


Jan. 2 It was still windy so we worked on inside projects most of the day. Exciting news! We have our first cherry tomato on our plant and we are watching it grow like new parents. It feels a bit weird to think we are waiting to eat our tomato child.


Jan. 3 Finally, a beautifully sunny and calm day. I decided to launch the kayak and paddle around the harbor visiting some of the other boats and exploring along the shore. There are wild goats on the island and we always see them going into a cave on the shore in bad weather. I went over to it and could see that it was quite big with a dirt floor and would be nice and dry for them in a storm. In the afternoon, we took the dinghy over nearer to Staniel Cay and floated around with both our computers on doing our emails from the WIFI signal from land. We made a funny sight to the other boaters. Since we had moved further from Staniel, we had lost our WIFI signal on the boat. Another nice calm evening was a pleasure.


Jan. 4 It was windy again and we knew there was another front coming on the weekend, so we decided to move somewhere more protected. By the afternoon, the tide was high enough to get through the shallow bank by Staniel Cay. First we tried anchoring in several spots behind Thunderball Grotto but there were too many boats already in residence. Then we went around the corner to a cove behind Big Majors island and anchored there. We were protected from the wind but there was a small swell that came though there and made the boat rock. The chart said the holding was not good in that area but I swam out and looked at the anchor and we were fine. We stayed the night but rolled a bit and our “jury rigged” snubber didn’t keep the anchor chain from clunking back and forth over the roller.


Jan. 5 Some new friends, who happened to be anchored up ahead of us in a channel between Big and Little Majors, and suggested we move up there so we did and liked it. John had to fix our outboard motor first by taking the carburetor apart and blowing out a small piece of gunk that was causing problems. Our new home is very cozy and will be tested over the weekend.


Jan. 6 It was windy but we had errands to do at Staniel so we took the dinghy in to the new manmade lagoon near the docks. It really helps to have a protected place to come into to load and load the dinghy.


Jan. 7 Michael, my son, was arriving on the afternoon Flamingo Air flight, so we went in early to have lunch and find groceries and beer. The mail boat had brought lots of goodies so our search was fruitful, pardon the pun. Mike arrived safely and helped us get all of our groceries and his gear into the dinghy. He had never seen the boat and was impressed and settled in rapidly.


Jan. 8 It was a beautiful calm day! Mike took a nice long kayak trip around the area checking out snorkeling possibilities. One day earlier on, we had found a large gray inflatable king size mattress just abandoned on the beach and decided to take it back to the mother ship. Now, since we had help, we worked on getting the sand and water out of it, and inflating it. and getting it up to the flybridge. Luckily, there was only one small hole. Later, we all went to the little beach on Little Majors and shelled and swam. Cocktails on the fly bridge were in order as it was a calm and delightful evening. Dinner and a movie finished out the day.

No comments:

Post a Comment