15 things I never thought I would do……

By First Mate Tamera

This is a list of things that we do as cruisers that in my wildest dreams I would never thought I would be doing…..but now I do them on a regular basis.
1.  Smell my clothes to determine if they are clean – we have all done it at one time or another. Now  everything gets the smell test (except underwear – I still have some civility) after all most clothes get worn for several days before washing.
2.  Put my cell phone in a bag and hoist it up the mast to get a signal or hold it up above my head until Facebook finally appears.
3.  Take a bath in the sea and rinse off with little (and I mean very little) fresh water
4. Use such a small amount of toilet paper after doing #2 – that’s all I’m going to say about that.
5.  Get excited when laundry only costs $2.00 to wash and $2.00 to dry – especially after doing #1 on this list for a few weeks.
6.  Let my dishes pile up in the sink and then use 2 gallons of water to wash & rinse  - My goal is to use only one gallon – one step at a time grass hopper
7.  Eat dinner out of the pan I cooked it in – that is what college boys, single men (married men too) and now I know cruisers do it too – I like using plates and bowls to eat out of but than it messes with #6 on this list.
8.  Be concerned about the 12 volt power usage – I often hear “Are you done with the stove” or “are you still using that fan?”
9.  Say – Oreo’s are only $8.00
10. Run the 50 horsepower engine so I can have hot water – finally !!
11.  Buddy up on peeing so we don’t fill up the holding tank – the rule is you must ask the other person onboard if they have to pee before you actually flush.
12.  I never thought I would pass up a bath in an actual bathtub  – but I do.  Imagine a bath tub – Now imagine the same bath tub that an unknown number of people have used and the last time it was cleaned is unknown….not me…..I’ll pass thank you very much.  Not putting this naked butt on that surface.
13.  I never thought I would loose track of what day it was until I got Dementia or Alzheimer's.  I often found myself totally oblivious to what day of the week it was.  I have to ask other cruisers and that often sparks a conversation about who knows what day it really is – we usually come to a close enough conclusion and go with that – sometimes were right, sometimes were wrong.  It’s always Saturday to us retired folks.
14.  Consider doing laundry at 4:00 am – because no body else would be crazy enough to do it then right.  WRONG !!  The problem with this is we cruisers are like minded individuals.  That means we all think alike -  meaning there is a whole group of us at 4:00 am in line to do laundry…gee whiz people !!
15.  I never thought I would have to make a list of things I never thought I would do….until now.  I am sure there are more things I will do that I can add to this list…..feel free to add your “never thought I would do” items to my list.
Happy Cruising
Tamera

Fixing Your Boat in Exotic Locations

By Capt. Scott Buckley

I have heard it said that the definition of "cruising" is fixing your boat in exotic location.  Well you are on a boat in exotic locations and boats break so it makes sense. 

Loosing power

In Long Island I have had to deal with bad batteries that had to be replaced. I made a lot of calls and found 3 of the big 4D batteries on Long Island.  It took a while and was a lot of work but we managed to replace all 3.  I could not find AGM batteries but had to install lead acid water filled type.  The terminals were different and the original cable would not fit but $1,300 later I was back in business.

No go.propane

In Georgetown a guy was selling a Lehr propane outboard for $300.  I bought it and found that it would overheat.  I found the thermostat did not work so I removed it and tried the motor again.  It still over heated so I changed the impeller on the cooling water pump.  Fortunately I had a spare and that did the trick. 
I usually run the propane outboard from the big tank connected by a hose.  The motors can be run from a little 1 lb tank that you could carry in case your big tank runs out.  There is no tank gauge so running out is possible even if you are paying attention.  Well I tried to connect the 1 lb tank and had a serious propane leak.  It seems the hose got very stiff after about 7 months and would over stress the swivel connection and cause a leak.  That will need to be replaced.

Can't stay in one place

In Arthur Town Cat Island when the weather got nasty the boat was pitching up and down violently at anchor and was seriously pulling at her anchor.  I connect the boat to the anchor chain with a snubber to absorb the shock load from the anchor that would be transferred to the boat directly by the chain.  When I got to Little San Salvador I noticed the splice was starting to fail.  I jerry rigged a bowline knot in the snubber and pulled the splice out.  It will have to be replaced later.  If bad weather is coming I will have to rig a secondary line so I don't loose the hook in case the knot fails.

These are a few of the things lately but all in all we have been very fortunate with the boat's operation.  Calibers are know to be very sound and Kooky Dance has certainly lived up to the that reputation.

Little San Salvador to Eleuthera

By Capt. Scott Buckley

We sailed from Little San Salvador at the north end of Cat Island to Cape Eleuthera Marina to hide from some weather, take on water, provision, get a hair cut, clean some cloths and clean up the boat a little.

While we were there we rented a car to see some sights.

Governor's Harbor 

The high light for me was Ocean Hole in Rock Sound. It is 600 ft deep and is right in the town of Rock Sound. 

We are still here at the marina waiting on weather and may head back to the Exumas.  We missed allot of the islands on the way down to Georgetown and due to weather.  Our Exact destination will determined by tides, weather and availability of a mooring ball at the park.



Onward to Cat Island and the Lobster

By Capt. Scott Buckley

We passed a pleasant night at Hog Cay at the north end of Long Island and ran into friends (Mark and Linda on SV Dev Ocean) that we had not seen since Farmers Cay.  The Snorkeling was very good there.

We left in the AM to cross over to Emerald Bay Marina to take on water, do some provisioning, take a real shower and get some laundry done and then leave to cross over to Cat Island.  We rented a car to ride down to Georgetown to provision and did a little sight seeing while we were out.

Salt Pond Monument

Tropic of Cancer Beach

Mom's Bakery

We had originally planned to head down to the Jumentos where the lobster fishing should be better but the winds and tides meant that that would be a 2 or 3 day journey so we changed plans to instead head to Cat Island.  I had been trying to catch a lobster or two for the 1st mate but I either saw them in areas it was prohibited to take lobster or they were too small.

We  left Emerald Bay in the AM to head to Hawks Nest at the south west end of Cat Island. 

Cat Island on the horizon

Again the water was nice for Snorkeling.  The next day we headed around the south end of the Cat Island to Port Howel, a little known cut into the reef where we could anchor and due some additional snorkeling. 
We ended up staying for 2 days and snorkeled almost non stop.  I managed to catch 4 lobsters while we were there.  One of them was massive.  We gorged ourselves on lobster that night.


Port Howell looking West 

Port Howell anchored next to a coral head

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Where to go where to go?

We did not know really where we were heading next and we were really missing our friends on SV Alice Mae so we decided to head to Conception Cay where they said they might be headed. 
Again we left in the AM and in route I tried to reach them on the marine VHF radio. To our surprise they answered and we told them we were headed to Conception.  They were just leaving Conception and pleaded with us to reconsider and meet up with them in Cat Island.  They had been missing us a lot.  They explained the condition of the reef and the snorkeling had been disappointing.  It was not hard to convince us because we had been missing them a lot as well.

New Bite Cat Island

We met up with them in New Bight on Cat Island.  We had dinner ashore at Hidden Treasures and it was the best food I have had in the Bahamas so far and oddly the cheapest.  It may have been reuniting with our friends that made it all that much better.  We also ran into Pru and Bert from SV Exuberance and got them to join us for dinner.

We did a little site seeing in New Bite.  A visit to the Hermitage is a good idea.  It is the highest point in the Bahamas and everything is miniature.  Which is kind of cool if you want to feel like a giant.  And who does want to do that once in a while.

Ma' I'm at the top of the world.

We are giants.

New Bite to Arthur Town  

From New Bite we moved up to Arthur Town.  The town was disappointing and the weather turned nasty with a 15 knot onshore breeze.

Little San Salvador

From Arthur Town we moved up to Little San Salvador.  The winds were unfavorable for anchoring in Half Moon Bay so we tried to find and anchorage on the north side of the island. 

This area is uncharted and it was nerve racking.  SV Alice Mae with here 3’ draft was able to snug up to the coast and find a good spot.  We on the other hand worked our way slowly thru the reef to find a spot to anchor in 25’ of water.  I put out 120’ of anchor line and jump into the water to swim the anchor swing circle.  I found shallow coral head on both sides.  My gut was telling me to leave.  If something happened in the night and we had to pick up anchor we would not be able to see anything in the dark and the charts were completely useless for navigation in this uncharted region.  We would not be able to get out of this area because we had threaded our way into it visually.  When I told the 1st mate my gut said leave she immediately started pulling the anchor.  She said if my gut said leave that was good enough for her.  We anchored in Half Moon Bay and rolled a bit on anchor through the night but it was not so bad.

Little San Salvador is owned by the cruise lines and you are not to anchor in their harbor when a cruise liner is in.  As we approached Half Moon Bay the Cruise liner was just leaving so in we went.
There was no cruise liner the next day so we hung around and did some more snorkeling and lobstering.

  

The next morning we would head to Eleuthera

The Long Island Rally

By Capt. Scott Buckley

The Long Island Rally

There was a lot of interest in joining the Long Island rally from Georgetown but the weather was not cooperating.  The decision was made to move the departure date from Georgetown up a couple of days and forgo the racing along the way because the winds were on the nose and many of the passages too narrow to tack a bunch of boats through.  More than 80 boats had signed up.
On rally day only 41 boats remained and only 35 made it all the way to Long Island.  I caught a barracuda in route.
 
There were rallies and parties on the beach at the Long Island Regatta center and a race planned for the next day.
  We crossed the tropic of cancer and had a little celebration on SV Kooky Dance.
 
We finally arrived on Thompson Bay Long Island at about 3PM the same afternoon.
I entered the dinghy in the race and won the dinghy class.  The waves were pretty big for the dinghy and I had to keep stopping to bail the boat out during the race.  It was even announced  that I was bailing as I crossed the finish line. 

Part of the rally was dinner in a cave.  At the time it seemed like a wonderful adventure but all it really was was a dinner in a cave and once it was over did not sound so wonderful.  It was expensive and not at all pleasant.  It was smelly, difficult and very dirty.

The next day we rented a car and toured around Long Island.  We went thru the town of Buckley and had to get a picture.
We saw allot of beautiful coast.
We explored some ruins.

The highlight for me was Dean’s Blue Hole.  At 663 feet, the deepest in the world.  
We headed north from Thompson Bay to anchor down at Hog Cay at the very north end of Long Island.  We planned to make a passage the next day to Cat Island.