It was boat maintenance day so Larry and I suited up and changed out the sacrificial anodes on both of our boats. Larry is an advise scuba diver so he had a tank on his boat which made it a lot easier to do this work. I was the assistant handing tools and piece parts to him as I bobbed around on the surface in snorkel gear. It took us almost 2 hours to do both boats and even with a wetsuit, I was shivering pretty good when we finished.

If you have been following the blog site posts you will know that our anodes were pretty much gone when I dove under the boat a couple of weeks ago to check things out. It took almost 2 weeks to order and have a new set delivered via a Florida air service. My total package weighed 20 lbs. and the final bill for delivery, including the Bahamian brokerage paperpwork and taxes was $45. That was a bargain in my books.

So we now have 2 x 1 lb. zinc sacrificial anodes on our propellor shaft, a zinc propellor end anode and a very heavy 6 lb. zinc anode , shaped like a fish, which is attached to our standing rigging and hanging overboard into the water to handle any galvanic corrosion. You might call it a sacriFISHial anode! The theory behind this is that everything metal on the boat is bonded together so attaching metal that more readily dissolves with any current that flows between the metal and the water instead of the propellor, driveshaft and other metals in contact with the water. We still think the shore power at the marina we stayed at may have been to blame for the accelerated decay of these anodes as Larry's seemed to have dissolved faster that usual as well.

The propellor had a build up of scale on it as well so it all got scraped off. I did notice an increase in speed and less vibration in the drivetrain once this was all done so I think things were likely a little out of balance prior to work.

We went ashore to do a bit of shopping and laundry as well as having dinner at a waterfront restaurant for Lynn's birthday. we also watched the local fishermen cleaning their catch at the dock complete with school of nurse sharks and stingrays chowing down on the scraps. It was pretty neat getting into the dinghy and watching sharks swim under the boat a couple of feet below the surface!

Another excursion was to Iguana Island with its resident population that only live in the Exuma and Andros Islands. It's funny when you approach the beach they all come running down to see what you have for them. Also they're the reptile version of the pigs at pig beach. We had some food scraps but they were pretty picky so I guess they get fed on an equator basis.

Larry also took us to see the wreck of a sailboat which had been seized by the Bahamian authorities a few years back. Apparently the skipper was in a bar 1 night yapping about how he had a number of guns on his boat and that intended to shoot some of the native population. Someone called the cops, which were a fair ways away and they came, searched his boat, impounded it, confiscated his guns and arrested him. His was a few years back and the boat apparently was never released and is now a wreck on the beach.

https://youtu.be/NrLkTZrPZA4?si=5Coo4zwne5Jfq2do


follow up to episode 59, the Aga Khan who owned the island I talked about has just died. Apparently he was a very philanthropic throughout his life.
https://apnews.com/article/aga-khan-ismaili-muslim-obit-568f5859ac60d11f2eac2abf793d81f5

Today photo of the sharks coming in for dinner scraps off the stern of Lynn and Larry boat. Not sure what the closest 1 is but the other is a nurse shark. They look pretty awesome in the underwater lights!