Spanish wells, what a nice place! Outside of the Abacos I think I like this place best in the Elutheras and, so far, Black Settlement in the Exumas with Wardrick Wells a very close second only because it IS nice to buy hooch, do laundry and get some groceries. Too bad the two weren't side by each and you could stay at one and visit the other. Of course, we haven't seen much of anything else in the Elutheras other than the very posh Harbour Island and only as far south as Black Point Settlement in the Exumas, so our opinion is based on an incomplete information set. Perhaps there will be places that we find next year that will tickle our fancy.

Today I have a buncha stuff to do, shop with Barbara, plus I want to do the work to put the water maker filters some place that I can actually access them. I know where and how, I just have to do it. I had a review of the installation direction in the manual and guess what? One of the things that they clearly recommend is that the pre-filter assembly be put in an easily accessible place. Hummm! You dummy Turney. Do it once in a hurry and guaranteed that you will be doing it over.

Dinner last night aboard Troubadour and Barry informs us that he has engaged the services of A1-Pilot, an older guy who will show us the route through the reefs to the north that should cut a couple of hours off our trip back up to the Abacos on Wednesday. That and the weather looks like it will be a good day to make that trip. As I said in yesterday's post, we will let nature decide where we will be going and it would appear that it has.

I decided during the night that we will be buying our fuel at the dock in Marsh Harbour - cheaper for one thing and we won't need to rent a golf cart to bring the fuel to the boat and we won't need to use the jerry cans. Again, think a bit Mike, before doing something and you'll save work, money and time.

We're I to say something like "Crap on a pogo stick!", would I have made my feelings clear? This morning, after a fair amount of work on both my part and on Barb's we moved the pre-filter for the water maker to a more accessible spot only to find that when we started it up again it wouldn't draw the water up through the filters. I could do it by sucking on the hose so it really didn't take too much effort. When we looked in the trouble shooter guide that came with the unit the problem was diagnosed as being either the poppit valve or the valve spring which is part of the pump mechanism which controls the opening to allow more water in and then closing it off to shove the water into the membrane. I'm not sure that I have the guts to pull the pump apart although I do have all the necessary bits and pieces as I had taken the precaution of buying a service kit when we bought the unit. We are looking for a service centre here in the Bahamas and if there is one I will get them to do it. If not I will bite the bullet and give it a shot myself. I found that there is someone here in Spanish Wells that does this work but they won't be available until tomorrow morning which is too late. Oh well. Maybe there will be someone in Hope Town or Marsh Harbour that could do it. Maybe Barry or Marcia might know of someone.
Wait! Wait! More late breaking news! The local water maker service centre sent out this old guy that did three things for us: first, the water maker is running again; second, he told me that when we change the filter we have to make sure that we fill it with water before we start the pump. When it was in its lower position it didn't make any difference since it was below the water line and gravity would fill the filter as soon as we opened the sea cock; and third, he recommended that we put a small cheap 24VDC water pump in the water line just after the seacock to pump the water up to the filter. Since we will be running the engine or the generator whenever we run the water maker the power consumption will not be an issue. (Great sigh of relief! $75 less in my pocket but $1,000 more knowledge in my brain).

We bought some more wine and Barb bought some more colourful material from a store that we like here in town and we are getting ready for an early departure tomorrow which means that we will pay our bills tonight, be up, breakfasted, and ready for departure when the pilot shows up at 07h00. Oh and late breaking news, it looks like there might be three boats in the convoy through the reefs following A1-Pilot - two Canadians and Troubadour.

Meanwhile its a scorcher again. Yea!