[photo: Joe's shack for seafood on the go.]

Day 21: Tue 1 Apr 08

I had plans to write an April Fools joke about some disaster striking us, but decided taken out of context it might worry some of our relatives back home.

Another cruising day today: we did very little. I took two of the four five=gallon diesel jugs and siphoned them into our main tank, then took the empties over to the fuel pump to be filled. I am certainly getting stronger as I age. I could never have carried $50 worth of fuel all by myself 30 years ago.

After 20 minutes of exertion, it was time to pull out the cruising guides and read about what lay ahead. It wasn't too long before I got the idea that I should do some other constructive tasks. The idea suddenly came to me when Diane started asking whether I was just going to relax all day. Married men get these ideas frequently, it seems.

I took the laptop up to the office area to sit in the shade, check email, and post to this blog. Then we walked to the beach again where we had it all to ourselves and the water was fabulous. Diane read continuously, but after 10 minutes I was hot and needed to take another plunge.

Back at the boat, our neighbor asked if I had seen the beautiful woman on the beach he had mentioned earlier. When I said no (except for my wife, of course), he asked me what day it was. I said Tuesday. He asked further, "what day of the month?" I said, "April first," then he just smiled an walked inside his boat. He sure played a good one on me.

I later checked the weather forecasts on the Internet to compare them with those issued on the SSB radio by Chris Parker, the new weather guru for the Atlantic region. They generally agreed, but the fact is that to await a near=perfect weather window could keep us here for more than a week. It looks like tomorrow and early Thursday might be our best chance for a little while.

The thing is we will need to anchor on the banks. These are the shallow water plateaus that the Bahamian cays (pronounced "keys") sit atop. The ocean water rises extremely steeply from thousands of feet to just 20 feet or so to the banks. It is quite a phenomenon. Anyway, with the speed of a sailboat (even if we have to motor the whole way), we just cannot reach a real anchorage in one day's travel and you really don't want to be doing much at night without specific knowledge.

The banks can, we are told, be a perfectly safe and comfortable place to anchor in settled weather. Given that we might have somewhat more than settled weather, we have to assess whether the degree of discomfort we might face is worth it to make some progress forward. From what it appears, today would have been a decent day to depart, more=so than tomorrow. So, all I need to do is invent a time machine tonight and we're set.

Diane and Marilyn are both making pizzas tonight, which we'll eat aboard Diva Di. The plan is for John to come over to our boat at 0700 to call up on our SSB to talk with Chris Parker for a personalized weather forecast, thanks to the subscription they purchased in advance of this cruise. Then we'll make a decision.

Day 22: Wed 2 Apr 08

A decision was made; we stay at least another night. It is entirely possible we will look back and say that conditions were fine for another two long days of passage making. However, we elected not to take a chance on heavy seas and wait another few days for the expected break in the winds to occur. The difficult part is that from where we sit, the weather looks fine for the trip. Our Canadian neighbor, Bob, counseled us that he thought it would be fine and he is likely right, but here we are.

The resignation to be here another few days led us to some other decisions. We had the mind=set that this was a brief stopover, so the securely=lashed dinghy stayed lashed. There was no water exploration except for dipping into the beautiful ocean=side beach. Today, that changed.

We launched the dinghy and ran the attached 4 HP engine to be sure it started OK. Carburetors gum up quickly, and we are not sure how much to trust the StaBil fuel conditioner. Then I motored over to John's boat and shifted my engine over to one side of the transom. We then lowered and attached his so that we could test his and run the carburetor dry of fuel. He was pleased to see it started on the first pull. For a brief time, I may have had the only 10 foot dinghy with dual outboard engines!

Back at Diva Di, John helped me get the 4 HP engine off and put the 9.9 HP engine on. I might as well call it 10 HP. The whole 9.9 HP rating came about because some locations placed restrictions on engines 10 HP and up. The 9.9 started and ran great, so Diane and I planned a late morning checking out the snorkeling.

In the meantime, I decided that with a swim platform available for easy entry to the boat, I put the regulator and hose over the side and did some bottom work. The sacrificial zinc anode on the propeller shaft needed to be replaced and the bottom has a mild build=up of slime. I was also able to wash the sides of the hull. After taking off the 24 pounds of lead weight I used to keep myself underwater while breathing SCUBA air, I felt like a cork bobbing on the surface cleaning the above=water parts.

That task done, Diane and I took off in the dinghy. The marine life we could see was very unremarkable compared to other places, but what shortened our excursion was that the current was running so strongly that it was just about all I could do with fins on to keep from getting swept down=current. It was something to do, but I can wait for the exquisite snorkeling in the Exumas.

Arriving back at the marina, John and Marilyn were just getting ready to walk up to the Big Game Marina for lunch, so we joined them. I must say it was a treat; the ambience and photos on the walls were very interesting, and the food and prices were great. Diane and I split a delicious bowl of red conch chowder and a platter of cracked conch and French fries. Unlike the tiny pieces we had at the Bimini Bay resort, these conch pieces were huge and lightly=breaded. It was delicious and plenty for both of us. The bill with one Kalik beer each was less than the Bimini Bay meal, for twice the food and more than twice as good.

We walked back and stopped at the Dolphin House atop the hill. This home has a most unique exterior with all the tile mosaics and white=painted stucco reliefs, the largest and most prominent of which is a dolphin (porpoise). The observatory on the roof has a wonderful view of both the bank and ocean side of Bimini, but we were not able to see that for ourselves as the owner was not home for us to take the tour.