still hot!
12/07/2009, Manjack Cay

With the newly repaired generator, we decided to watch a movie last night on our fancy flat screen TV. Thanks to my brother-in-law, Bruce, we have a reasonable collection of "classic" movies to watch over the next six months.

The movie was fine, but the batteries are not happy with the power drain... so the solar panels are OK for some things, but not everything.

Another day on the beach spent collecting shells and whale wax, together with beachcombing for new boat hardware...

Our neighbours, Bill & Leslie, just purchased an older Pearson 34' sloop in reasonable shape for $4500 at Green Turtle Cay which they plan on using as a guest cabin for visiting friends and family.... only in the Bahamas...

More lobsters and fish, and Louise has started working on the home-made ravioli for tomorrow's dinner....

Light winds and a soft slapping of the waves on the hull..........

glen

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90F and no wind...
12/07/2009, Manjack Cay

It's been an interesting couple of days...

We sailed up from GTC and anchored with a reasonable south wind (20kph) and let out 80' of chain. The day was spent getting the water-maker working now that we're out of the harbours and surrounded by clean water...

The watermaker came together easily with no surprises, and the wind shifted to the west and started to blow...

We recheck the anchor lines, and its blowing 30-40 knots and we're 400 feet from the lee-shore so we collected our passports and credit cards and stuffed them into the "ditch bag" so that we're ready in the event that the anchor chain let's go......

At 50 knots the wind shifts 90 degrees to the north, and we're again somewhat protected and relax a little bit. Sleeping is not that easy when you are being blown into a lee shore 400 feet away.

The starter motor is successfully installed and the generator is working beautifully. Upon reflection I realize that the solar panels have so impressed me that we only used the generator twice last year, upon launch and upon haulout, which is not enough! I'll try to use it weekly, even though I don't need the power, just to keep it in good shape.

Yesterday was spent walking on the ocean beach collecting coconuts and sperm whale wax.... much discussion with other sailors about what this waxy material really is... wikipedia suggests two different possibilities... ambergris ( a whale laxative) and/or sperm whale wax ( a wax found in the head of the whale)... who knows.... Louise will make candles!

Dinner involved fresh fish, lobster and newly discovered mushrooms from the tropical forest (Bahamian chanterelles....who knew!)

Louise has invited our neighbours (3 boats, 8 people) for dinner tomorrow so we'll polish the stainless steel and chrome, and relax in the moonlight under the stars...

glen

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Hot and humid! close to 90F
12/04/2009, Green Turtle Cay

All of the locals have been complaining about the high temperature and are looking forward to the cooler winds from Canada.....apparently it has been a very hot summer season right up to November.

All of the necessary bits and pieces have been obtained to repair the starter, so we plan on sailing north and throw out the anchor at high tide this morning after a shopping trip into town on the bikes. The daily mooring fee in this very protected harbour is $15 which includes high-speed internet access...

We've started to get organized for Anne-Marie's visit and started planning our Christmas celebration...

The satellite phone antenna has been repaired which makes for quite good outgoing calls and we're slowly unwinding from the mad scramble to get down here.....

Louise has evolved her beach searching activities to include a substance called "ambergris", a white waxy material that supposedly comes from the head of a sperm whale..... she hopes to make candles....so it goes...

Life is good!

glen

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