We weren't ready to leave today. We had three things we needed to do before we go. Bud got two of them done today. First, we noticed the prop was noisy when we docked on Wednesday. Bud snorkeled down on Thursday and found that the prop was loose. When Bob put it on he tightened it as far as he could and put a cotter pin through the nut. When we used the prop the torque and the pressure of the water pushed it further up the shaft. When Bud reversed it at the dock it was pushed back down to the nut, but now there was play and it rattled. So this morning Bud put on his diving gear and went down and installed the large washer that Bob couldn't fit on the shaft the first time around. Bud would like to have tightened it a bit more than he did, but couldn't turn it further and still insert the cotter pin. He looked up the installation instructions in the owner's manual and it seems the fixed two-blade prop is supposed to have two nuts. We have only the nut from the ruined Max prop. We hope this is enough.

We also lowered the dinghy, brought it around to the side of the boat and used the preventer for the main to lift the engine. Bud put it up on the stern rail and took apart the carburetor again. It was running rough at Little Farmer's Cay when we used it. Bud saw something in the idle jet and used a straight pin to get it out. This is the second time he's done that, we don't know how stuff is getting through the fuel filter, which is clean. Perhaps the dunkings have introduced dirt that we didn't get flushed out.

The last thing we want to do is build Fuzzy's ramp. Fuzzy is feeling much better, and now he's not happy at all to be penned in when he sits on the settee. The vet said to try to keep him from jumping, so we're still using the pillows, but we need to get a ramp so we don't have to lift Fuzzy up and down all the time. He doesn't like not being able to get on and off whenever he feels like it.

These jobs aren't holding us up because we couldn't leave anyway. A front came through last evening and this morning and now strong winds have filled in from the east. The Exumas are a string of islands running mostly north to south, though the northern end is a bit west of the southern end. Anyway, the west side of the islands is very shallow water; the east side is the deep Exuma Sound. About 30 miles further east are Eleuthera to the north and Cat Island south of it. Those island form the eastern edge of Exuma Sound. We can sail on either side of the Exuma islands as far south as Farmer's Cay. From Farmer's Cay to George Town the west side is too shallow for us, unless we go miles west of the islands. So going back north, we have to go out into Exuma Sound for the first 30 miles up to Farmer's Cay. Today there was a chance of squalls and the waves built this afternoon. Tomorrow they will be 7 to 8 feet. Those are not swells; they are wind driven waves. There are 4 problems with waves like that. First, getting out of this harbor entrance is difficult, because you have to exit at an angle and then turn into the waves. Second, getting through a cut between the islands to get to an anchorage can be a problem if the tide and waves are opposing. Then the waves get very steep, and you're also fighting the current. The locals call it a rage. Third, sailing in waves like these forces you to kind of brace your body, and that would be hard on Fuzzy right now. Last, we don't want to put any extra strain on the prop. So we're waiting for the next weather window and getting all our jobs done. Once we get back to Little Farmer's Cay we can sail on the west side of the islands even when the prevailing easterly winds are strong. You can be sailing in 20 knots of wind with one to two foot waves; it's great!

I took another picture of the channel, but it's pretty hard to tell how rough it is. I took this one at the end of the man-made jetty. You can just see one of the green buoys out there, and you can see the end of a breaking wave in the channel near it.