After a great night’s sleep we have an impromptu breakfast and discussion with WHITEBIRD and SEA JULES. WHITEBIRD will be leaving shortly for Shroud Cay for a couple of days while Julie and I both stay connected to the BTC tower on Highbourne for work. It is Sunday so we do some boat chores and then move to Allan’s Cay to see the iguanas. On the way we stop at Highbourne Cay Marina to get some fuel and water as the watermaker is still not working. The fuel dock hand is the same guy that helped us last year when we came in to the dock and stayed for 5 days to ride out a storm. He was very helpful both times. We stay an extra hour just talking about whatever comes to mind. On the way in to the marina we had two interactions with a small float plane that landed and taxied in front of us and then mid channel turned around and came back out at us. He then followed us back in to the marina basin and was working to cut between us and the fuel dock. Finally we communicated by hand gestures and miming to where he shut down and we docked at the fuel dock then he passed us to the visitors dock. It seems he is the Florida representative for ICON aircraft and is here with three planes while a VIP from England is checking out the Highbourne resort and a super yacht. He is expecting to lease the entire island resort for a group of 300 in April and will have the super yacht and the planes available as toys. The seaplanes are kind of cool yet annoying as jet skis. They fly almost continuously Sunday and Monday and land and take off randomly throughout the day.

We head for Allan’s Cay where we had anchored with OUR DIAMOND and the Lagoon charter cat when the kids and grandkids visited last spring. It was strange as the depths seem to be much shallower than the spring with only one or two small boats anchored inside and about 10 boats anchored outside. We decide to anchor outside as it was uncomfortably shallow. We are still trying to decide if it is really shallower than last spring or we have lost our familiarity with the really shallow Bahamas waters. It may be a combination of both but I am dreading pulling the anchor tomorrow from 22 feet water depth where we anchored outside. Yep, I have out 175 feet of 5/16 chain and Robert is the windlass.

We dinghy in to see the iguanas which are only native to this island. They are the largest wild land animal in the Bahamas. The sign says they are cyclura cychlura inorata. I still don’t know Latin or understand how they define animal species. The kids loved following them around and feeding them bread when they were here. It is getting towards late afternoon and all of them are basking in corners of the rocks to keep warm it appears. Later we have dinner on the boat and crash on our first warm, humid night.

SEA JULES moves from Highbourne to Allan’s Monday morning and Lana takes them in to see the iguanas while I work. After lunch I take a snorkel break and we go snorkeling for an hour until Julie sees a shark and then all of us are jumping in the dinghy like firecrackers. Somehow my boss knows when I am away and always calls and of course there is a message when I get back to the boat. Lana claims he has GPS tracker attached to me somehow.

After dinner we visit SEA JULES for a marbles showdown and the guys win 2-1. All is well in the world. Tomorrow they are off to Staniel Cay/ Big Majors Spot (where the pigs are) and we will travel on Wednesday to meet them. There is a tentative plan to have a James Bond party at The Grotto which is where Thunderball was filmed. Lana and I watched it last year and agreed that it is one of the worst James Bond movies. Oh well the snorkeling in the cave is cool.


Tech Note: We tried the watermaker underway crossing the banks and it only worked for about 3 minutes, then threw a low voltage error. Funny as I was motoring and it runs on the 12 VDC system which is charged by the 120A alternator. After troubleshooting for about an hour I give up and decide to call the manufacturer. It now builds to 170 psi pressure where it was only getting to 30 psi in October before we left and the manufacturer recommended a change of a vent valve. I have some further voltage drop investigations to do before we get to the bottom of it. On the phone with the tech support it sounds like a bad wire or bad motor. Hopefully it is the wire as I can replace most of that on the boat but a new motor will require shipping and it is quite heavy.