Getting ready to move again
16 December 2011 | Cabbage Cay, Berry Islands
alan
Well it was nice to have a few days of rest. I have been here since last Sunday. I've been on the move almost every day since the last week in October. So the R&R was nice. I got a chance to clean up a little but, move some things around and of course fix a few things. The latest thing to misperform is the VHF radio. The range is only about 5 miles. Did some testing as I carry a SWR meter and a 50 OHM dummy load. I went up the mast today and the connections were wet and cruddy, so the cable is probably shot. The FWD power is less then 12 watts up there. I cleaned up the connections and put some dielectric grease on them. Not much else I can do here in the middle of no where. While I was up there, I could actually see the end of the world from there.......and I thought it was in Deltaville So anyhow, I move UNABATED back across the sand bar today at high tide. Now I won't have to wait until 12:33 pm tomorrow to do it. It would have been too late to leave for Nassau by then. Now I can leave at first light. It's only 35 miles, but no one has been able to travel the last 5 days and I am sure everyone will be tomorrow. So I figure I need to get there early and find a good place to anchor. Today has been the first calm day since I got to the Bahamas. It's been blowing out of the East at close to 20 or 20+ knots everyday, all day with gusts to 28+. Seems kind of weird not to hear anything out there. While in Nassau, I'll do some provisioning, fuel up before heading south and try to figure out what plan B is for the VHF... Thinking duct tape and a new cable up the side of the Mizzen and put an antenna on the spreader. I'll let you know.