Great Guana

We left Treasure Cay this morning. Treasure Cay is a beautiful resort on Grand Bahama. The beach is long with clean powdery sand lined with huge homes and the town homes along the harbor are all painted with bright colors.

 We spent two days at anchor in the small anchorage with our friend Debbie on Illusions. We also caught up with Ken and Sara on Alegria a beautiful Cabo Rico 38. We went to pizza night at Treasure Cay Marina on Thursday. It was mobbed with locals, cruisers and all the families with kids on spring break that have flown in from the States. 

We arrived in Great Guana this morning and came in to Grabbers for a beer and internet connection. Our booster will have to be returned to the manufacturer when we return to the US as we cannot get power to it no matter what we have tried so we only get internet when we come into shore. 

The high temps are in the low 70's and the lows in the 60's. Too cold for me!! Tomorrow things will start warming up once again. We are watching the weather to see when we can head back but it doesn't look good all the way to next weekend. We hear that the temps are low on the east coast down to Florida so we are just as happy staying here rather than going back even if we could (which we can't) to cold windy days on our way up to the Chesapeake. 

We just looked at the forecast through next Sunday and don't see an opportunity to cross back to the states.  We were hoping to sail from the top of the Bahamas to South or North Carolina.  Last year we were able to make it to Charleston.  Monday we will move farther north and west.  We had hoped to go to Green Turtle Cay and then to Great Sail Cay and on to the US.  We are looking at other islands now where we might stop along the way such as Manjack and Spanish Cay.

Hope you all have a Happy Easter,

Happy Easter

We are now in Treasure Cay.  It's a beautiful resort.  Tomorrow we will go to Great Guana.  We will be there through Easter.  We will then move to Green Turtle Cay where we will top of with fuel and wait for weather.  This morning the weather guy said there would be no window until at least Friday a week from tomorrow and then there are no promises.

Elyse has been walking and I think the exercise helps her back a little.  We keep looking at the weather in the states and wonder why we are rushing back.  We heard it was 39 in Palm Beach.  It is in the low 70's here and in the 50's at night. Great sleeping.


We are going to a friend's boat for drinks and then taking the dingy in for pizza night.
Hope you all have a great Easter.  We are really looking forward to seeing you.


Love,
Dad along with Elyse

Marsh Harbor, again

Well we are still in Marsh Harbor. On Friday with our raw water strainer leaking big time and our fridge not working at all, we decided we had better make a determined effort to get assistance before everything closed up for the weekend. We removed the broken bolt on the strainer and John took a taxi to a distant boatyard to have a new bolt fabricated to fit. It only took a few hours once we figured out who could do the job so we were very hopeful that the strainer issue would be resolved. 

The refrigerator was another deal. We had been fussing with it for a week or more trying to find a bad connection. A call to the boatyard that installed it brought the suggestion of water in the coolant which would have to be drained and recharged. John just didn't think that was the problem. Last year after the freezer and frige were only 1 year old the controller went bad on the freezer and we had to have it replaced. John thought it was the same issue with the refrig but the tech at Frigoboat and the guy at the boatyard had different thoughts and not being confident we decided to get someone to look at it. For over a week it would go off for several hours and then start once again. In the off times we would take ice from the freezer and pack the refrig in order to keep 3 months of my VERY expensive medication at the proper temp. By Friday it had been off for 2 days and we were pretty sure it was not coming back on. We called around and found a refrig guy who was working on 2 other boats but said he would call on Sat. when he was finished with those jobs. By 4 on Sat. there had been no call (island time) so we were set to give up and just keep icing down the frig until we could get back to the states but lo and behold at 4:45 pm Sean called and said he was on his way and could we pick him up at the dinghy dock? (in the States one always has to take the boat into a marina as the contractors almost never come out to your anchorage). He came out with all his recharging equipment and after trying another controller he confirmed that the controller was indeed dead. So this was the second one to fail in a system less than 2 years old although we had been assured that it was very "rare " for any of the parts to fail on these units!!! 

Now we have our two major issues resolved. John did a temp fix on the third leak. We could now leave if it were not for another cold front moving through which brought high winds and t-storms. We are waiting out the weather and are hoping to move on to Treasure Cay or Great Guana by tomorrow or Wed. 

The good news is that we were able to get to shore today to fill our propane tank, grocery shop and pick up email (our booster antenna is still not working).

 Life is good and the Bahamas are beautiful. 

E and J

Marsh Harbor

We are in Marsh Harbor at anchor and visiting the internet cafe as our booster which allows us to use internet on Spunky is not working for some reason. We just returned from Maxwell's Grocery Store. It is very well stocked and either I'm just getting numb to them or the prices aren't as high as the rest of the Bahamas. 

We moved Sat. afternoon from Spanish Wells where we anchored off the shore of Russell Is., as the winds were supposed to be 20 kts out of the North, to the west side of Egg Island in preparation for our crossing of the NE Providence Channel early Sunday a.m. We were anchored with 2 other boats. One left at around 3 a.m. and we were anchor up at 6:30. It was a good motor sail. The sea was fairly flat and we were through Little Harbor Cut into the Sea of Abaco  and anchor down at Lynyard Cay by 3:00. 

John spent the rest of the afternoon trying to repair two leaks in our cooling system. One was the raw water strainer.  The bolt holding the lid on broke and it could not be tightened enough to keep it from leaking. The broken bolt set up required drilling a new hole and finding a piece of metal to hold it in place. The second leak involved a broken piece where a pipe screws into the heat exchanger. John rigged a repair with 5200 and rescue tape. Both are temp fixes but will get us home to States we hope. 

By Monday a.m. I was anxious to move up to Marsh Harbor hoping to find more permanent parts for the repairs. No luck with that so we are going with Plan B and hoping things hold together til we get home. 

We got together with our friend Debbie on Illusions who has spent all her time in the Abacos this winter. We will meet her for dinner tonight. We spent the late morning with her catching up on old friends and what she has been doing since we saw her last in Melbourne. 

We are both enjoying our trip. My back has been giving me trouble again. We will stay in Abacos for a few weeks and then look for a weather window to cross to Charleston or Beaufort, NC. 

Hope the winter is over wherever you may be,

Elyse and John

Marsh Harbor

Took this last night from the boat.

Marsh Harbor

We are now in Marsh Harbor.  Great place.  The biggest town in the Abacos.

Spanish Wells

Hello all,

We are in Spanish Wells.  The island was settled by Methodists.  John Wesley visited.  There is no alcohol sold on the island.  It's like living in the 50's.  The economy is based on fishing and not tourists.  They speak a dialect that is different from anywhere we have been.  I am standing outside a store with the computor on a 55 gal drum.  A woman just stopped and invited us to go to her house.  

We are going to move the boat this afternoon a little west to Egg Island and in the morning take off for Little Harbor in the Abacoes.  The Abacos are the last chain we will visit in the Bahamas.  We plan to visit about 5 or six islands and then head back to the states.  That will probably be in about 3 weeks depending on the weather.

The weather is great and the islands are beautiful.  

I hope your life is wonderful.

John & Elyse  

It's too cold!

Hope your life is good.  Elyse has been complaining because the temp has only been getting to the high 60's.  I think it will get back to the 70's by the end of the week.  We may slow our  progress north.  We went to the grocery store.  A real treat.  I think we may head out north toward Spanish Wells tomorrow.  Winds look good.  There will be another front coming through later in the week.  From Spanish Wells we will jump off to the Abacos.

Take care.

John

Rock Sound

We are anchored in the bay by Rock Sound, Eleuthera. After a couple of bouncy days in New Bight on Cat Island we asked what Chris Parker, weather guru, thought of us sailing to Little San Salvador and on to Rock Sound the following day. He said with the 13-14 ft. swells from the NE in the Exuma Sound we would not be smart to anchor in West Bay at Little San Salvador. By the time we digested that info it was 8 a.m. but we decided to pull anchor and see how far we could get up the south coast of Eleuthera. Our bail out would be Davis Harbour Marina even though the cruising guide and chart said the channel depth was too shallow for us to attempt. At that point we would be committed to traveling the remainder of the way through Davis Channel after dark which is not recommended due to shifting sand bars and shallow coral heads. We felt, however, that if we didn't leave then we would be in Cat bobbing around all night for at minimum a few days. So off we went. It was a good sail although a little intimidating. As calculated, we just made it to Davis Harbour about 1 hour prior to sunset and were grateful to hear that we could enter with no problem. 

The following morning we pulled up to the fuel dock and filled our tank to the tune of $6.00 per gallon. We departed and arrived in Rock Sound about noon. This is one of our favorite settlements as it has a great protected bay, the best grocery store south of Marsh Harbor, and Pascal's, a great bar/restaurant, where we enjoy a cold Kalik after running our errands. 

I neglected to tell you about Sandy the Manatee who lives in the waters just off the dinghy dock at Long Island Breeze in Salt Pond, Long Island. He appears to be a young manatee and he comes up to the back deck of the restaurant where the owner has left a hose for him to drink fresh water. He comes up and drinks right out of the hose. Very amazing as I assume most manatees don't get to drink fresh water. 

Anyway, yesterday "we" (my part was to crawl into the rear lazerette where I could physically fit and screw the wire to the tuner box) installed a KISS ground for our SSB as we were not getting very good reception and John cut pieces of pvc pipe to use to hold our antenna off of the back stay. We were pleasantly rewarded with improved reception this a.m.  We are here for at least one more day and then north to anchor off Pigeon Cay or in Hatchet Bay and stage for our trip through Current Cut, which has very strong currents so we must time our passage to slack or ebb tide, and on to Spanish Wells. 

We turned our clocks forward Sat. night a time I always look forward to as it means spring is near and the daylight hours are getting longer.

Best to you all,

Elyse and John

Cat Island

Here we are in Cat Island after a good sail straight from Long Island. Looks like weather and sea state will keep us here for a week!!

Elyse and John

Long Island

Hey Gang,

We are in beautiful Long Island.  The water is 80 degrees and flat.  We are doing laundry and a little food shopping.  Yesterday we swam in Dean's Blue hole.  Over 600 feet deep and where they hold world champion deep diving championships.  Lots of beautiful fish and clear water.  Tonight the wind is supposed tp pick up so we will be sure to be back on the boat.  There are a couple of weather fronts coming through and I think we will wait till they pass which may mean it will be next week before we head back north to Cat Island.

We just finished our laundry at the Island Breeze resort.  There is a manatee hanging out next to the dingy dock.  When we finish with the computer we will walk over to the grocery store.  

I hope your life is good.  We feel like we are living the life.

John & Elyse on Spunky

Last Stop South

Here we are in Long Island doing laundry and catching up on internet. The winds are supposed to get to 25 gusting 30 tonight with squalls so we are prepared to hunker down. 

Yesterday we shared a rental car with Hayden and Raydeen from Island Spirit and went to Dean's Blue Hole which is 664 ft. deep and used for Free Dive competition. There is a platform in the middle of the hole for divers. We swam out to the platform. It is a little intimidating and there are warming signs saying to stay out unless you are a good swimmer. I figure you can drown in 20 ft. or  600+ ft. either way. We also visited Clarence Town and on the way saw one of the island race boats under construction from local trees. We visited two of the churches that were built by Father Jerome who retired on Cat Island and built the Hermitage on the hill that we saw last year. 

We had a good time in Georgetown playing dominoes and attending the opening ceremony for Cruisers Regatta Week. There was a "No Talent Talent Show" and a Doggie Parade. 

We departed Georgetown on Thursday morning and had a great sail down. We may be here for a week waiting for good weather to move on to Cat Island. 

Elyse and John