April 23, 2015 Warderick Wells, Exumas

This morning we left our anchorage and “work shop” to move further south.  Our plan over the next couple of weeks is to go to Staniel Cay and Georgetown.  There is a regatta in Georgetown this week through Sunday, so we aren’t in any hurry to get there.  We figured it would be overly crowded.

As we were lifting the anchor, we had the boat in reverse.  Out on the bow, Dave could see the remora swimming about.  He said they looked confused because fish they are attached to don’t normally swim backwards :)

When we put the engine in gear, forward or backwards, I could hear a whining/squealing sound.  I guess I am getting used to what sounds normal, too.  Dave said he adjusted the shaft brush for the grounding strap yesterday and that was probably the sound.  It should get better over time.  I made him explain this so I could put it here in the blog.  The engine is grounded.  then there is a coupler that attaches the shaft to the engine that isn’t grounded, so the brush grounds the coupler.  The brush is a solid piece of carbon on a metal spring strap.  The grounding reduces corrosion and is “supposed to” reduce the effects of lightning.  I am always amazed at the things he knows.  This sailing makes us use our brains all the time, so we shouldn’t get Alzheimer’s, right?  I guess with Dave, people will just say “oh, he’s always been like that.”

There was just a light wind today, so we only sailed part of the way while we were at a direction with the wind in our favor.  One thing we learned today was the difference between a sand bar and a sand bore.  We were seeing sand bore on lots of the charts, but weren’t sure what they were, besides shallow.  We couldn’t find the term in any of our sailing books.  Finally, I saw a description on my garmin app.  They described a sand bore as shifting, fluid, living areas of sand.  So we figured a sand bar was stable and a sand bore was always changing. 

you can see the different color of the water where it is more shallow

We anchored on the west side of Warderick Wells Cay tonight.  This is the headquarters for the Exumas Cays Land and Sea park that stretches 22 miles long and extends 4 miles on either side of 15 cays, and several small islands.  We didn’t do any exploring, because we plan to come back through here on our way north when our son is visiting.  Since it is a park, the snorkeling is supposed to be fantastic.  And there are several hiking trails on the islands. 

As we were sitting in the cockpit enjoying the sunset, we heard a splash of water off the side of our boat.  Dave said “I wish fish would scream as they were being eaten.  That would keep a few more people off of the water.”  Don’t know how those thoughts end up in his head.