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.