Six Months in a Leaky Boat!

From D:


From D:



After spending roughly a week in the Grand Lucayan waterway, with our friend Rich on "Feral Cat", we anxiously awaited the prime opportunity and precise weather to venture out. Departing at 4am we headed offshore for Great Harbour Cay. As the morning progressed the wind was not favorable so we changed course for the east end of Grand Bahama Island. The wind was increasingly gusty from the Northwest, so we turned in to anchor off the beach. The waves were strong and we were fairly unprotected. We started dragging as soon as we dropped anchor at around 1pm - when we pulled it up to reanchor we discovered it was gone! Or rather it fallen apart and there was only the shank remaining. The Captian was happy because he said it was a shitty anchor but he hadn't had the heart to throw it away.. We then found a better, more protected beach to spend the night. At 4am the wind switched direction again from behind the island to practically pushing us onshore (leeshore). No one was getting any sleep in the nauseating rolling, so we got up and made the 50 mile break for Great Harbour. It was a long day of sailing in light winds. We anchored just as the sun was setting, but again, with shallows all the way to shore we couldn't tuck ourselves behind the land; we suffered yet another sleepless night of terrible rocking and rolling. Eventually we got a break in the wind direction so we moved just across the bay to a nice beach on the island owned by Norwegian Cruise lines. This is where Karl had his first adventure in the wilderness of Bahamas...

So after numerous cold fronts, we headed south again, plan-A Frozen Cay, plan-B, Petite Cay. Conditions weren't ideal so we turned into the inlet at "Little Petite Cay". I find this to be a horrendously redundant name. It makes me cringe like when people say "guestimate" or "flustrated". Anyway this was a beautiful and calm inlet, alive with wifi signals from all angles! The only problem was - you guessed it - our router was fried! Good thing we had a spare... It took Karl the rest of the afternoon to format it properly. Things are like this on a boat. If you have lots of wifi around, your router dies. If you have a working engine - which we now do thanks to mr fixit - the alternator dies, so when you have no wind power to charge the batteries, and you rely on running the engine to top things up, of course things can't be that simple. If you have beautiful wind for the generator, surely your anchored in a tidal zone where the drifting of the boat at anchor is determined by the tide and not the wind direction. Murphy's Law should have been called Mariners Law. I should mention that this wifi hotspot was our first chance in 2 weeks to email our families since we had been in the boonies with no signal since our "adventurous" crossing. Karl had even tenderly approached a couple from a cruise ship with an email in the form of a note, begging them to email our families to tell them we were still alive! They graciously agreed..

From D:

On to Frozen Cay! Our favourite private island - excellent wifi and not a cruiseship for miles.. Here we stayed, awaiting more passing weather. During this time Karl made a crucial adjustment to our crippled engine. This restored our ability to engage it in forward motion!! While simultaneously we had to sacrifice reverse. Forward is better..

From D:

We met an interesting couple on Katemba. A name we would later find out is a drink - coke and red wine - it was delicious! They invited us to their boat for Katembas and home-made hungarian sausage, and oh the liquor and politically incorrect sailor-talk was flowing! Neither of us remember dinghying back to our boat later that evening. The next day Karl and the Katemba crew enjoyed a slaughter-fest of snorkeling, bringing back 2 slipper lobsters, 6 spiny lobsters, a grouper, and a huge oceanic triggerfish!! We feasted on the bounty with a fire on the beach and Karls maniacal dog doing laps and killing plastic bottles and our ping pong paddles in the background. We had hoped to have them over for a dinner of beef and sauerkraut, but alas, the weather was ripe for us to leave the next morning. To Nassau, and beyond! Well, as it turns out, not beyond.

We hung around in Nassau harbour waiting for another cold front to pass - as we expected it to be quite strong, and the holding here is not so good (anchors dont bite, boats drift around, bad things happen when people aren't attending their boats). We checked into a marina for a much needed shower, laundry, and shelter from the storm. And protection from theives. In the harbour, boatloads of patriotic drunkards from the cruiseships down the way, pile onto huge catamarans and glass-bottomed boats, aptly named "booze cruises", to torment us, night after night with terrible "popular" musak and an unrelenting pounding bass that one might find in the trunk of a "jacked up" honda civic.

Crime in Nassau is through the roof - every store, restaurant, even corner stores have security guards literally standing at the locked door or gate to let you in or out.
In the middle of the day!

When we had enjoyed our 3 days of luxury in the Marina, we attempted to head south to Normans Cay. On the way, we discovered the batteries were not being charged. Something is now wrong with the regulator or alternator. And somewhere along the way the Captain discovered we no longer have neutral either. It's either on and forward or nothing. More problems with the engine are not what we need, especially in light of the very unco-operative weather we have been having. We made it only to rose island due to poor crossing conditions.

From D:

From D:


Through much discussion it was decided we should not press on to Georgetown. Apparently, we were lucky to make it this far. From here, we turn back, to make the month-long journey home.

From D:




From D:




From D: