Not much to report today except that we got alot done and are another 42 nm closer to our destination.
Alot, in our world, meant oil change for main engine and the gear box.
I fixed some knobs that had come unglued in the galley cabinets.
Two for the price of one !! Blue jobs and pink jobs and all that.
Not that we have any of those onboard, LOL !!
And then we raised anchor and rode the rising tide out, anxious to be on our way once again, but more than that, just really, really anxious to "get there".
There being the Exumas.
The Exumas are about 40 nm away, bearing South-East of where we are now, and are an archipelago (which is just a fancy way of saying la group of islands) of over 350 cays (and islands), stretching over 120 miles ! Many are private, some inhabited and some not, some are so pristine and precious that the Bahamian govt set aside a large area for the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park...
There's a bit of weather coming and we wanted to be safely tucked away before the North Winds start to blow by Wenesday. We have one more long day tomorrow and then we should be there, phew, we "can't wait"!
So today was another day spent "motoring" along. Amazingly enough we went from 7 foot depths to 13 feet, to whoa, crossing the tongue of the ocean at well, the charts were saying 9000 feet plus, and our depth sounder, well it was blinking ferociously, meaning, it had no idea! The water was a delicious shade of purple-blue, nice !
We tried trolling but there be no fish caught on
Banyan today. So we busied ourselves with the Watermaker and we're thanking the lucky stars to have such a wonderful machine onboard.
We had to make a quick stop at Lyford Cay Marina for a top up up of diesel. The idea being top up whenever you can, as you have no idea when you'll get some next. What a posh marina, and we knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that if there was a 160 foot yacht in there, there be enough depth for us, however, at $4/foot/night to stay there? Yikes!
They say Sean Connery makes his home around here, and just what would we say if we came face to face with him? Here being somewhere in the island of New Providence, Bahamas. New Providence is an island wedged between Andros Island and Eluthera. The capital, Nassau, could be seen off in the distance, as could Atlantis, and we heard and saw the planes vying for their place on the tarmac. The AIS clearly showed one of Disney's cruise ships was in town.
And then it was back out of the channel, round the bend into West Bay, and not liking the very black squall we were seeing on the horizon. We increased our speed to get in before the squall and/or before the sun set so we could see where we were going... hoping to sit back and relax as we watched the sun set, sooner rather than later.
Notice how there's no spectacular sunset pictures to post today? Well turns out we were a tad busy with this whole anchoring process... Something that usually takes us oh, seemingly very few minutes.
We tried and then tried again, then changed location and tried again, and changed location and tried again.
It's not set as firmly as we'd like, however, at this point, we've had supper, we've showered and wifi'ed ourselves to up-to-date-dom, anchor tracks and alarms are on, and thankfully, quite quiet, for now.