Emerald Bay Interlude

There are some interesting boat name pairings here in George Town. Bojangles and Troubadour, a musical pair; Rocinante and Dulcinea, a Quixotic pair. Troubadour actually did hail Bojangles once on the VHF radio. Not much pairs with Ziveli.

We got back from town on Tuesday very wet. There were a couple of inches of water in the dinghy, some of which got into the (allegedly) water proof bag in which the computer was stored. By luck, or by plan, all the computer gear was also in big zip-lock bags so no damage was done. The fuel/water separator was leaking gas into the dinghy and may be the cause of a new O/B motor issue: it didn't run with much power or high end RPM's on the trip back. Of course, the trip back was not a good candidate for a Bonneville Flats like performance test, since we probably had a few hundred pounds of water in the boat. If Sir Isaac Newton had owned a boat his 3d law of motion would have been: for every problem you fix you also create an equal, but different problem. I think that I can deal with the leak which may also deal with the power issue ..... or not!

The winds arrived yesterday, Tuesday, afternoon. Carol wanted to stay in town for lunch, which I proposed we do; she also did not want to be on the open water in the dinghy when the winds came. In this case lunch lost out over concerns about the weather, and a good thing too. A brutal ride back would have been magnified even more. So, we, and most other boaters, are marooned on our boats. Not a bad thing since there is a water taxi which can be hailed on VHF 16.

For all the very obvious reasons, weather is a big deal on a small boat. As we have searched for sources of forecasts we have found that there is no perfect Bahamas solution for us, anyway. The internet actually has the best source of specific information, scalable to very small, very specific areas. On the other hand, there is no great overview of weather macro-dynamics other than Chris Parker who seems to spend about half of each morning broadcast talking about troughs and ridges in such far away places as Bermuda and Nova Scotia. Combining Chris Parker with the internet seems to present a fairly good picture of both cause and effect. I dislike being in a place where internet weather is not available and have, to some extent, tailored most of our anchorages based on BaTelCo phone towers to get internet access; probably wimpy but I really don't care.

There has been an aspect about the weather here that has been quite different from our previous experience. Typically, when weather frontal systems move through we have been used to having a day or two of heavy, complete cloud cover and periods of rain lasting for hours, frequently longer. Here the clouds always seem to be mixed with sun; rain only seems to come in squalls, lasting a few minutes, rarely longer. This may be because we are so far south that weather systems just break up naturally. I think that we have seen more rainbows in the past few weeks than in the past few decades. Most have been only a partial arc; this one was only the second complete arc that we have seen. It's not much captured in the photo but these colors were especially bright and vibrant.

In the strange world of 12vDC systems: when trying to listen to Chris Parker's weather on the SSB radio we noticed that there was a high level of interference which we assumed was atmospheric. Then when tuning the antenna to the frequency we noticed that an LED reading light flashed off then back on. Turned off the light and the static disappeared. No other light on that wiring run did the same thing. The lights are all the same and go through the electrical panel; the SSB is directly wired to the batteries so I don't know how there could be any electrical connectivity between the two. Fortunately there is no fix required; we just keep that light off when the SSB radio is on, but inquiring minds still want to know.

For electrical power we have been doing very well. There's been enough sun for the solar panels to contribute and the winds, of course, have been constant, almost eternal. In fact, we have been shutting the wind generator off at night for concerns about over charging the batteries; more importantly, the sound of the generator has become the pea to Carol's princess-like lack of sound sleep. There have been many worry points this trip but power has not been one of them. That's a good thing because, while we are frugal in our use of power, the number of things on board that demand recharging continues to grow: two Bahamas cell phones, one a smart phone; two laptop computers; an iPad; a Kindle; a satellite phone; a camera; a VHF hand held radio. The other two cell phones, USA numbered, will swap for the Bahamas ones on our return.

Carol is a communal, social person and likes to listen to the cruisers' net in the morning. There is a boaters general section in which boaters ask for assistance, beg for parts and barter pieces. We asked for help when the O/B motor was having its first problems and received a tentative offer from another boat. There is a certain misery loves company aspect to this as we have realized that our problems may be unique but that having problems in absolutely not unique. The litany just seems to go on: electronics, electrical, O/B motors, canvas, etc. Many of these make our issues seem like small beer.

In all the diddling with the motor, repeatedly taking the cowl on and off, the gasket that seals the edge of the cowl to the motor came loose. I had not checked to see how the gasket was affixed; I assumed glue. When in town I asked at a store if they had any double sided tape and, surprisingly, they did. A great product and quite well suited for mounting 4th grade science fair exhibits; I'm not so sure about motor repairs. Turns out that the gasket was originally set with double sided tape. It took a while, and some acetone, a product I dislike using, to clean the old glue and foam from the gasket. We are now water proof again, at least for a minute. The new tape cannot be much less reliable than the old tape, I hope. The problem with projects like this is not having access to Ben's infinitely equipped workshop: not the right tools, not the right work spaces and not the right work surfaces.

Carol seems to be, if not intimidated by the new motor, very chary of it. She was generally competent and capable with the 4-hp motor but reluctant to use it by herself, doing so only in confined areas such as the Vero Beach or Boot Key Harbor mooring fields; the logic of that was, I suppose, that there would always be someone around to help her if she needed it. She has never even started this motor and the recent spate of issues will not encourage her to do so.

We have been rethinking our plans. We had wanted to head to Long Island, south and east of George town. But next week the wind will shift to the north meaning no sailing going or coming. I had wanted to go to Cat Island, about 40~50 nm east of here and maybe we yet will; but the numbers are daunting, for the trip west anyway, and I don't want to write nautical checks that our seamanship and stamina cannot cover.

So, in lieu of an actual plan, we headed back to Emerald Bay for access to the internet so that we can deal with the IRS' claim to all that we own. Carol hauled two huge bags of clothing, towels, sheets, etc. to the laundry, none having been done since we were here last. Her rough calculation was that we saved enough money with free laundry to pay for one night at the marina. As an side benefit, I got to watch Florida play Louisville in the NCAA round of eight; Florida lost, bummer! On the plus side, Carol talked Doug, the dockmaster/GM for the marina to carry our IRS stuff back to the states and to mail it when he travels on Tuesday. This will make something that was getting pretty complicated much easier.

The most likely outcome is that we will stay here until the weather settles and the wind becomes easterly again and then head back up the Exumas to Nassua, a trip of two or three days depending on how hard we push. Carol is very keen on spending time in the Abacos, the northern islands in the archipelago. That area gets more and worse weather than where we are now. We have been told that things settle down in April so we would plan about a month there; the north/south distances there are shorter than in the Exumas so that should allow us plenty of time to explore before heading home.

For about an hour this Saturday we had this section of the marina to ourselves. Wendy and Burry had left on the Seahawk; no other boats had people on them. The the big white boat arrived followed by the blue hulled boat. What struck me about that boat was its size, looking to me, after all of these 40 years, larger than the USS Alacrity. I checked the numbers: it is 170-ft. long lacking 20-ft. of being the same size. But, USS naval warship v. private vessel: it's a contender.

On Saturday evening, 03/24 Carol got taken out to dinner for her birthday, her 66th. We met David and Alice at the marina and David, in a very generous state of being, treated us to dinner, an unexpected but very pleasant evening. We saw them off this morning as they headed north; we expect to meet again in the Abacos.

Carol on Her special Day!