March 29, 2016 Arthur's Town, Cat Island Bahamas

We spent some time on the internet this morning.  Dave needed to send a few more things to our accountant for taxes.  I did some rearranging, dug some things out of storage, and put other things in storage.  Always a shuffle.

It was too windy for the 2 jobs we had in mind, so about 1:00, we moved the boat north to Arthur’s town.  This is the home of Sidney Poitier.  As we headed north, we could see a squall over the town.  The wind was from the west and moving it across the island.  So Dave figured it would be gone by the time we arrived.  We only had to go about 5nm so we moved right into the squall.  I kept hinting that we could wait and let it pass.  But Dave kept saying “it’s only rain”.  We could see what looked like a tornado or water spout dipping down out of the clouds, but it was further west from us.  So I trusted his judgement and didn’t complain.  It was raining pretty hard when we were ready to anchor.  And it was harder to see the bottom without the sun.  We look for a sandy spot to drop the anchor.  So we waited to anchor by putting the boat in reverse and sat in place against the wind at our stern.

We were able to anchor by 2:00, had lunch on the boat, then went to shore.   I had to mail a letter to South Dakota.  It was a notarized signature telling the state Department of Transportation that I accepted the property changes to my business property in Rapid City.  They are improving the main highway one lot over from my building, but they are also widening the side street to include 1/2 of my property.  The mail boat doesn’t come to Arthur’s town until Thursday.  So I am curious as to how long it will take for this letter to get to SD. 

community play park

community park

the one time Dave wanted to go to church and we couldn't get inside

We stopped at Cocktails by the Sea for a drink.  This was a little beach bar with chairs and picnic tables on a couple decks.  There was an older lady sitting outside.  She told us to help ourselves to anything in the cooler.  Then we sat with her and visited while we had our beer and juice.  She introduced herself as “Grandma” and had lived here all of her life.  She told us about her family and a few other things that we had a hard time understanding.  The bugs kept us from having another drink, but we could have visited with her longer.  Wonderful woman. 

"Grandma" at Cocktails by the Sea

Dave visiting with Grandma

We were the only boat anchored here.  I don’t think very many cruisers visit Cat Island.  We think most are looking for marinas with facilities and places to go out to eat.  We really like the quiet places.  BUT, we did have surge from the open ocean which made our boat rock side to side.  So Dave put out our Magma “rocker stopper”.  It is a device that we hang off of our boom to slow down the motion of the rocking. 

our boat in the distance is the only boat in the harbor

Dave is putting out the "rocker stopper" to help stop the rocking from the surge. can you see my reflection taking the picture?

March 29-April 10, 2016 preview

I am sorry, but posting this blog uses a lot of data, so I will update when I have free wifi or when I go to an internet cafe.
Basically, we enjoyed the remoteness of Cat Island.  We really like New Bight.  The Hidden Treasure restaurant shouldn't be missed if you are in the area.  We also hiked to the highest peak in the Bahamas, 206 ft, and toured the ruins of The Hermitage.  Pictures to follow.
Then we went to Georgetown in the Exumas on Tuesday, April 5.  We have been working on projects here.  I also spent a day hiking on Stocking Island (pictures on Facebook).  We both spent a day at the wifi cafe. 
Friends from MN are arriving today for a little over a week.  So I probably won't post again until about April 22.
Thanks for following.  Some of you are seeing ads when you read the blog.  If you click on them, I will get paid (pennies-but it may add up).  Some aren't getting them, so I may have someone help me figure that out.
Cheryl is having a great time on the catamaran and is being a tour guide through the places she went with us.
Loving the Bahamas and the cruising life.
Mary and Dave

March 28, 2016 Eleuthera to Cat Island passage

We had a great night’s sleep without earplugs!!  We left for Cat Island at 7:30am, just after sunrise.  We motor sailed most of the way because the winds were light and variable.  As we were leaving, we actually saw the winds recorded at 0 k.  That was a first.  Once we were away from the shore, it picked up to to 15 k around 10:00.  The southern end of Eleuthera is called the Whale’s Tale.  The land splits into two peninsulas similar to the tale of a whale.

We were at the South East tip of Eleuthera by 12:30.  Then we had about 10 nm in open water to get to Little San Salvador.  We were there by 2:30.  We had contemplated stopping here for the night, but the only bay to anchor is a playground for cruise ships.  We could see 2 cruise ships anchored off the island from quite a ways away.  So we stayed with our original plan to go on to Cat Island. 



We strayed off course a little to follow a shelf in the ocean.  We were hoping to catch fish on the passage.  We only caught 2 barracuda about on hour away from Cat Island.  It’s exciting to have a bite and to pull them in, but disappointing when it’s barracuda.  They carry ciguatera from eating reef fish. 

we need a shade on the stern when we are traveling east

We anchored at Bennet’s Harbor by 6:00.  It is in the northern half of the island.  We had
cocktails in the cockpit to unwind from the day at sea.   We enjoyed fish tacos from left over wahoo.

shore at Bennet's Harbor

March 27, 2016 Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Sunday to all. 
I went to the dinghy dock at the Orchid Bay restaurant to go to church this morning.  Fred and Debbie from Early Out were arriving at the same time.  We walked to church together, about 4 blocks.  No one was at the church when we arrived.  We started walking to the back of the church and someone next door came out of her house to tell us that mass had been moved to 10:00.  The visiting priest was very old and wasn’t feeling well from the heat.  So they moved our mass to 10:00.  The neighboring town that was supposed to have mass at 11:00 was joining us.   There were also a couple vans bringing people from a cruise ship.  Since we had an hour to wait, Fred, Debbie and I walked to a local restaurant, Sammy’s, for coffee and orange juice.

After mass we visited with a few of the people from the cruise ship.  They were fascinated to hear about living on a boat. 

our boat from the church

 
After we had brunch, we moved the boat to south end of Rock Sound Harbour.  We wanted to stage ourselves for leaving early in the morning.  Plus the Homecoming had their finale tonight.  They had a Junkanoo parade called a Rush at 4:00am and it would last until sunrise.  Junkanoo is a Bahamian tradition of colorful costumes with feather head dresses.  They make all kinds of noise with drums, horns and whistles.  Some people go to bed early and get up for this.  Others just stay up all night priming themselves.  Either way, we didn’t want to hear it at 4:00am. 

March 26, 2016 Propane tank project and Orchid Bay

This morning, a couple from a neighboring boat came over to say hello.  Craig and Susan were on a catamaran called Leap of Faith.  They were inviting all the boaters in the harbor, about 8 boats, to join them for happy hour at the restaurant on the shore, Orchid Bay. 

Fred and Debbie stopped by to invite us to go to the Homecoming afternoon activities for the kids.  But we were still not eager to go anywhere.  Fun to get to know the other boaters in the harbor.

Dave’s project today was to change our propane bottle set up.  We have 2 10 pound tanks that sit in a propane locker.  It is set up to drain any fumes out of the boat.  One is connected to our propane stove/oven.  And we have to connect it to the grill when we want to use it.  We also bought a 20 pound tank as a back up because we weren’t sure how easy it would be to refill propane tanks in the Bahamas.  So far we have been OK.  The 20 lb tank sits on the stern port corner perch.  This is a little seat on both sides of the stern that can be removed.  We seldom sit on them, so he mounted the 20 lb tank onto the port stern perch.  Every time we want to grill, he would have to move the 20 lb tank to get into the propane locker.  Now he has a hose in the port lazerette that he can use to connect the 20 lb tank to the grill.  He said he can have that hose hooked up before you can say “burnt chicken anyone?”.  He also uses the 20 lb tank to refill our 1 lb canisters for our Lehr outboard motor for our dinghy.  We found out later that Dave had to add a regulator.

We joined people from 5 other boats at Orchid Bay for happy hour.  Two boats were from Montreal, Quebec.  So Dave got to practice his French.   We also enjoyed meeting the others.  We generally swap stories about where we came from, where we are going, then it usually moves on to discussing boat parts.  We exchanged information with each other.  Most people carry “boat cards”, but I refuse to do that.  I take a picture of their card, store the information in my phone and then send them our information.   I guess I carried business cards all my life and refuse to continue to do that. 

March 25, 2016 Homemade Jelly and Cheryl's flight to Marsh Harbor

After breakfast, Dave took the juice we had been saving from canned peaches, pears, and mandarin oranges and made his first attempt at making jelly.  He thought it would make one little jar, but it ended up making 2 large ones once you add all that sugar.  Since I had never made jelly, I thought he was crazy.  I pictured people making 20 jars at once.  And there was no way we would do that on the boat, let alone store them.  So 2 jars seemed to work out just right.  They have to be refrigerated, so we will freeze one and see how that goes. 

Cheryl finished packing this morning and ended up leaving a few things with us.  We think we will cross paths in Georgetown.  So we can just hand over those things to her at that time.

Dave and I did some paperwork online.  I had a document that I needed to print, have notarized and send back to South Dakota.  Cheryl is actually a notary public and had her seal with her!  So we took care of that before she packed her seal away too far. 

We took Cheryl to shore to meet her taxi driver for the airport about 3:00.  Her flight to Nassau was at 4:30.  She will have to overnight in Nassau and fly into Marsh Harbor in the morning.  She will connect with Rinssor, our taxi friend, to get her to the dock and her meeting place for her next adventure.  She promised to keep me informed along the way. 

We ended up doing nothing the rest of the day.  Some other boaters were heading in to the Homecoming, but we had no desire to go anywhere.  The music was pretty loud from our boat, so we couldn’t imagine trying to be any closer.  We actually moved the boat further north to get away from the festivities.  We had to sleep with ear plugs. 

March 24, 2016 Rock Sound Homecoming, Eleutheras

This morning I made biscuits using Cheryl’s technique and they turned out awesome.  We had leftover sausage gravy for them.

Dave went outside to work on the port lazerette.  We have a “wet locker” in the stern swim platform.  It is pretty much useless because seawater is able to enter it.  Anything in there gets scummy.  The previous jugs of products would get so creepy that Dave didn’t even want to touch them.  Eeeuw!  Today, he decided to put all the jugs of vinegar we have on board in ziplock bags and store them in there.  He figured he could throw away the bag if it gets gross.  We have lots of vinegar on board as general purpose cleaner.  We used to clean the heads with it, but over time have found that it distorts all the rubber parts in the Jabsco twist and lock toilets.  So now we are using Dawn Platinum in the heads.  It seemed like we were replacing parts every 3 months.  Seems to be working much better over the last 6 months.


After removing the vinegar jugs from the port lazerette, he was able to clean it and organize it better.  He had found something else that had spilled.  So he put everything that was a liquid in plastic bags.  That probably should have happened right away.  He also learned that you can’t just store things and forget about them.  You need to check on them periodically to see if they have spilled or evaporated.  Live and learn. 

port lazarette with all kinds of supplies

Recently, the fuel gauge stopped working.  We also have a 12 volt outlet by the fuel gauge that stopped working.  So he plans to do some electrical work, which is also in the port lazarette, which will involve more organizing and prioritizing.

I helped Cheryl pull out all of her belongings to sort through them.  She had planned to live aboard Ricardo’s boat indefinitely.  So she had more with her than someone on vacation.  I helped her determine what clothes to keep with her.  Then she had to go through all her personal belongings and hygiene products.  We came up with 3 packages to mail back to the US.  They could only be 22 pounds each to go through the mail.  Other shipping options were much more expensive.  We ended up wrapping things in heavy contractor bags and using packing tape to wrap and seal them. 

 
About 3:00, we headed in to the post office.  We each carried a package.  There was a mission on the way to the post office, so she gave them a lot of personal hygiene products.  They were very appreciative.  I wish I had taken a picture of the scale they used for weighing the packages.  It had a circular face and only went up to 22 pounds.  It had a flat surface to set the packages on and it was totally rusted.  We were using our regular body weight scale on the boat and were pretty close on all of the weights.  We met Dulan outside of the Post Office.  He told us all about the Homecoming festival.  He also taught Cheryl how to Junkanoo dance.  Funny guy!

Today was the beginning of the Rock Sound Homecoming Festival.  It is like an all school reunion, but it goes for 5 days!  Today they had booths set up with food venders.  Dave treated this like going to the fair.  He wanted to try everything.  We had BBQ rib dinners on rice with 2 sides.  Then he tried 2 different desserts.  One was a coconut cake, but it was flat like a cookie and crispy like peanut brittle.  It was pretty sweet.  He also bought a local dish called guava duff.  It was like a bread pudding with a creamy rum guava sauce.  He bought one to share with us and went back for another one for himself.  Cheryl and I headed to the liquor store and picked up a couple beers.  They were setting up a stage for bands.  And there were booths with games for children, too. 

thanks Brandon for letting us use your desk for a picnic table

huge lobster and more were in the boat

Back at the dinghy, we decided to go for a ride in the harbor and check out the shoreline.  There was supposed to be another dinghy landing further north.  Cheryl and I opened our beers and had our personal sunset booze cruise.