Finally in the Bahamas
15 December 2010
December 15th, 2010
Well!!!!!!!
We had a shaky start. We tried to leave Stuart with Fine Lion and Sapphire and made it about an hour out of Stuart when the engine started to over heat again. We told them to continue as we did not know what the problem was or how long we would be and didn't want to hold them up.
We went back to the Marina to try to figure out this problem. It is not always a bad thing to be stuck in Stuart. We met a couple from Nova Scotia, Harlie and Betty Johnson on a trawler (new to them) named Celilidh. Then Blair and Laurie Aston on Odissea XX - we met them last year and had Thanksgiving dinner on their boat.
We had a great Thanksgiving dinner at the Marina -the marina provided the turkey and ham - yummm.
Barry went through the engine with a fine tooth comb AGAIN, changed all the hoses etc. etc. We finally managed to find some citric acid to put in the motor to dissolve any crude that may have built up. Barry put some in and let it stand for 24 hours, then poured it out. What a lot of rust and crud came out. We took it for a sea trial and it was better, but not quite what we liked, so we did it again, took it back out and it was a little better again. Finally we were somewhat comfortable.
We left Stuart December 1 and went to North Lake Worth and the boat ran really well. We met up with Savage Son, Far Niente, Our Destiny and Verandah. They invited us aboard to discuss the plans for leaving to cross over. We were still not totally comfortable, so we found a health food store and got some more citric acid and ran another batch through. We stayed in Lake Worth for two days then moved onto Fort Lauderdale and the engine ran fine all day. We decided there was a very short window so we crossed over to Morgan's Bluff, Andros Island. It was a great run and we were very happy that we took this window. We checked into Customs and had to wait for Immigration the next day, as this was December 5th, a Sunday. The Immigration Officer was a pure @#$& and would only give us 93 days, so on March 7th we have to go to Immigration and get an extension - not the end of the world but annoying. We met a nice guy in Morgan's Bluff who spent the winter there last year and is waiting for friends to come over around Christmas. The engine was showing a little high by the end of the trip over , so once again Barry checked the engine and noted that when he took the hose off the engine that the water did not run out smoothly, so he put a screwdriver through it and some crud came out. We suspect that that was the blockage this time. It appears that the citric acid has loosened up the crud and some little bits keep breaking free. We put more through the engine just to make sure we got it all.
We decided because of the weather direction that we would go to West Bay on Providence Island, then the next day onto Highbourne Cay. We arrived near West Bay by noon and it was a great day, so we decided to continue to Highbourne Cay and arrived around 10:00 that night. The engine acted like she did when we first got her. Keep fingers crossed.
On the way down to Pipe Creek to meet up with Sapphire and Fine Lion, Mike on Sapphire was hailing us on the VHF, but was having trouble with his radio and could not hear us. We then got a hail from a boat I had never heard of "Wind Rush". I answered the radio and heard "Susan is that you?", I immediately recognized Bruce Marshalls voice. Bruce and Val were good friends of ours from Nova Scotia. We actually passed each other on the Banks, as they were heading to Nassau to go home for Christmas and we were heading down to Pipe Creek. We said our hellos and plan to meet up after Christmas somewhere to catch up. What a small world.
We stayed in Pipe Creek for quite a few days as there was a very strong front coming through. The first night we arrived there was a great beach party and we met a lot of new people. We went beach walking the next day, then we stayed on the boats for the next few days as the wind was up to close to 40kts on Sunday morning through Monday and down to 25kts. We had very rough nights as the anchorage was quite narrow and everyone was worried if the anchors would hold - thankfully they did, but we still stayed up all night on anchor watch. Fine Lion broke free in the middle of the storm and had to reset. Their anchor grabbed really hard and they found out when they went to haul anchor that it was stuck on some corral - they bent their anchor getting free. We had all had enough and decided to leave yesterday, Tuesday and go five miles to Big Majors. It was a little rolly here, but we know the holding is great. Another boat is travelling with us "KoKoMo" the catch, Roland and Leta. It was Roland's birthday on Monday, but it was too windy to get off the boats, so Leta had us all on board last night and made, conch salad, conch fritters and chocolate and cherry cake - A good time was had by all.
Today we may go into Staniel Cay to the store and bar and a beach party is planned by Fine Lion for tonight. There are only five boats here now, but it will fill up today as it is good weather to move today.
We have not done much yet as we have been working on the engine, and hiding from storms, but things will hopefully change soon. I might mention that we are still wearing shorts and t-shirts, it is a little chilly, but not bad, 75 degrees.
Happy Holidays to all.