December 28, 2009
Still in Fresh Creek. We now have our second head gasket and new head bolts. We received them Christmas Eve and Ali the "new" mechanic has come today to put things back together. Update: This was not the problem, possible cracked head - have to send it to Nassau to have it checked then go from there, soooooo now we stay longer - oh yeah!
On the bright side, we are still having a great time here. We had a dock party on Christmas Eve and all the friends that visit every day, (bicycle John, Dancing John, Dave and Sandy and Elvira) plus the marina boat people and some from the AUTEC base - came and had a good time. The local people have been so good and generous to us. Christmas Day we were sitting on the dock and George (a local guy that comes to the marina everyday) came up to us and said to be here at 1:30 he was taking us for a drive to meet someone. We had no idea what he had in mind. He came and took us to his sister's place for Christmas Dinner. We were so shocked and so pleased to be included in their family celebrations. They treated us like royalty and welcomed us into their home. The menu was a traditional Christmas Dinner, it started with conch salad, then we had Bahamian Mac and Cheese, Bahamian peas and rice, lobster stuffing, Mahi Mahi, salads, coleslaw, turkey, ham, deserts etc. etc. They served us wine and beer for Barry. It was a wonderful Christmas present.
We came back to the Marina and Donna, who works here, felt bad for us, so she made up two large plates of Christmas Dinner from her home, complete with Coconut cream pie (very different from what we think of cream pie, but really, really good). We thanked her and put these dinners in the fridge as we still had a Christmas Dinner to go to at Small Hope Bay Lodge that night. Needles to say, we were not alone for Christmas.
Two nights later the local Bahamas Electric Company put on a FREE party over on the fuel docks. They had music, free drinks (anything and as much as you wanted) and they served dinner on a plate, which consisted of Mac and Cheese, peas and rice, coleslaw, ham and a huge amount of fried chicken breast - wow another fun night.
Barry has been entertaining himself fishing off the docks. Yesterday he caught a nice size Jack and a Barracuda came flying out from under a boat and bit the fish in half. Luckily he caught another one and we had it for dinner.
We are going to find it very hard to leave here when the time comes.
January 2010
Still in Fresh Creek. Had the head checked and it was cracked. Sent to Texas for a new one and yet another head gasket (#3). Installed the new head and still running hot. Barry went through everything he could think of to find something plugged. Eventually found a few things that he cleared up and took her out for a trial run again. It now runs within the proper limits. The heat gauge still reads hotter than it should, but the laser gun shows good temperatures. We are going to try to leave tomorrow morning (January 30) for Highbourn Cay, Exumas. We either do well and continue on or still overheat and come back here to our new home in Fresh Creek.
I won't bore you with all we have been doing here in Fresh Creek, but we are still having fun and will miss this place so much.
We managed to get on the AUTEC military base four times and had great dinners at their restaurant for $4 - unbelievable. We were able to shop in their grocery store and got American things at cheap prices. The base is awesome and is a self contained city.
We now have connections on the base and were able to get our parts mailed there which made it faster and way, way, way cheaper - did not have to pay duty of 40-50% on anything you have shipped here.
The people have been so kind. The "new" mechanic came to the boat three times to help out and spent many hours here. When we asked him what he wanted for pay, he said he couldn't take any money as we were stranded and he wouldn't feel right. We insisted on paying him anyway as they need the income. We went up to settle our bill at the marina and the manager said he would not take any money either - this we accepted as it is a government business (oh what standards we have). They could not have been better to us if they tried.
We spent the afternoon today with Bone Fish Charlie who is quite famous in the bone fishing world. He invented the Crazy Charlie Fly and the Bang Bang Club. He introduced Margaret to Pierre Trudeau at Small Hope Bay - what a character.
Tonight a bunch of us are going to "Hanks" for a farewell dinner - oh so sad.
Here's hoping all goes well from now on.
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check out the map and see our position
December 8, 2009
We got up early to leave today and started the engine. It was hard to turn over, but eventually started. Then we had billows of white smoke come out of the exhaust - turned it off right away and cringed. What in the world has happened now? The first thing Barry did was to check the oil, and lo and behold it was full of water. Yikes!
We got a mechanic (recommended by the dock master here) over to take a look. We discovered that the end seal on the fresh water pump was gone and water leaked back into the engine. We then took the head off the motor to check for damage etc. and found none (to the naked eye). So we ordered a new head gasket from a place we found in Texas. Our engine is a Bukh, so not every corner store has parts for it. The parts came in six days and we got the mechanic back. Welllllll (we did not know he was the local coke head - it soon became apparent). Long story short he over torqued the bolts and broke one off, therefore the new gasket was compromised and we needed a new head bolt also. Another call to Texas and a lot of "your kidding" we ordered another head gasket and bolts. We sit and wait for new parts. Talking to the mechanic in Texas who works on these motors(he had us take pictures of the old head gasket so he could analyze it) - he said we should be good to go with the new parts, but have it checked when we get back to Florida just to make sure the head is not warped. He thinks this damage was done over a long period of time and we should be good for the next four to five months.
We had a new mechanic come on board today (December 22) who comes highly recommended by all and he says he can get us back together when the parts come. This is particularly good of him as he just lost his son this week, but he said he heard about us and wants to make sure we are OK. There are some really good people in this world.
Now the good news
Everyone feels sorry for us, so we have been getting some perks. The Marina Manager (who arranged this new mechanic) has stopped charging us dockage - that is a huge savings. A local fisherman came over and gave us seven lobster tails. Donna, who works at the Marina office keeps baking us goodies. A fellow Canadian gave us his car to tour the rest of the island, which was great. We have met a couple from Canada who rent a house here and we have been having dinners back and forth with them. There are some other boats in the marina, so of course we get together for happy hours. The Marina is also a hotel and has a swimming pool, laundry, showers, internet and air conditioning. We are very, very comfortable here, but do long to cross over to the Exumas. They had a lighting of the Christmas tree in the middle of town the other day, complete with a very impressive Prison Band from Nassau - it was really great. One day we were just sitting under the Tiki hut and a group of little kids came along with their teachers. They were from a religious school up the road - and they sang Christmas songs for us - they were so cute.
We have been invited to Small Hope Bay Lodge, Andros (google it) for Christmas Dinner, so we will be looked after there. Our friends Dave and Sandy from Canada - Dave's cousin runs the resort and we had a tour of it the other day, wow it is spectacular. The Marina Gang have organized a party for Christmas Eve. There are a few more Canadians here and they will come over, plus the military base AUTEC is just down the road and a few of them are coming up to join us, so that should be a good time. There are also some lovely beaches to explore here.
That is about all we have been doing for the past few weeks, we will hopefully post some good news soon.
Merry Christmas to all.
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We hung out in Morgan's Bluff for a few more days as the weather was not cooperating for us to move on. We decided to go hunting lobster the other day. We got lucky and found eight lobster and one crab. Dick and Nancy were quite excited as they have never caught a lobster before. Dick managed to get one and found the crab. We had a great lobster dinner and saved the crab for snacks the next night.
There was supposed to be some bad weather coming so we moved into the inner harbour for protection. It turned out the weather was not bad but the bugs were really bad because there was no wind. We moved back out to the anchorage the next day and had a good night.
We finally left Morgan's Bluff today, Monday and had a great motor sail all the way to Fresh Creek. We caught a 47 inch Mahi Mahi which we will have for dinner tonight with Dick and Nancy. We are staying at a nice marina tonight and did some laundry and had great showers.
We plan to leave tomorrow for Highbourn Cay which is in the Exuma chain. We can't wait to get there and start touring the Exumas again. Not much else to add.
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