Okay, I know it has been a while since you have heard from us, so I will attempt to keep this short while bringing you up to date on our travels. In our last blog entry, I mentioned that Erica, Robert and the boys were coming to the Bahamas. They arrived on Saturday, February 13th and stayed through the 20th . We had a fantastic week. The weather cooperated and we were able to do most of the things we had planned on. (See the pictures in the blog photo gallery.) In summary, we snorkeled the Thunderball Grotto, fed the pigs, played hide and seek in the palm trees, and swam with a shark at Staniel Cay. Then while at Cambridge Cay we experienced the bubbling water from the breaking surf at Rachael’s Bubble Bath, snorkeled the Aquarium, the Sunken Plane and the Rocky Dundas which are caves similar to Thunderball Grotto. And of course we did lots of swimming, paddle boarding and playing in the sand.

The day the kids left, we prepared to pull anchor to head south to Black Point Settlement, with our friends Tim and Karan on Grace V, however the engine would not start. Ron determined there was a fuel flow problem. He proceeded to check all of the bleed points and there was plenty of fuel. When he was tightening the last bleed bolt which is located on the injection pump, the bolt broke. Well now we had a real problem. We arranged a tow into Staniel Cay Yacht Club, 1.5 miles for the bargain price of $400. On Sunday, Chubby the local mechanic, took a look at the problem and said that we would be better off going to Nassau to a mechanic that he highly recommended. He said the mail boat could tow us the 60 miles north to Nassau. On Monday morning we called the mechanic and to our surprise he had the exact fuel pump that we needed. So as we were preparing for the mail boat, our friend Jerry from the sv/Persephone showed up. First thing Jerry did was remind us that we are a sailboat and that we should sail to Nassau, but first he wanted to look at the problem. We showed him where the broken screw was. He then removed the anti-stall device and got the broken screw out. He was able to find a fine thread screw and cut it to the proper length and fixed that issue. Next we had to find out why fuel was not getting to the injectors. It ends up a spring which pulls the stop lever back to the open position had broken and the stop lever was not returning to the full open position. We re-attached the spring and bingo, the engine started. Jerry is our hero. Not only did we have Jerry to help us, but Karen and Tim stayed behind to cheer us up and provided support until the engine problems were resolved. Once again we are reminded how lucky we are to have such good friends. This includes our friends from back home and our new friends we have made during our travels south.

The next day we made the planned trip to Black Point Settlement along with Grace V where we did lots of laundry and topped off one of the water tanks. We had a beautiful sail with winds in the upper teens.

On Wednesday, February 27th we pulled anchor along with Grace V, Civil Twilight and River Rat and headed south towards Georgetown. After a brisk sail we dropped anchor in the lee of Galliot Bank. At first the anchorage seemed strange, because it looks like you are out in the middle of the banks with no protection. However, after you drop anchor you realize you have protection from all directions due to the shape of the sandbar. This is not an anchorage we would have chosen, but will be one that we will return to without hesitation. Once anchored, we took the dinghy and cooler to the sandbar for happy hour with several other boats. There are sand dollars on the beach and in the water. I found three of them, but easily could have found more if we had more time.

The next morning we raised anchor at 8:00 AM, went through Galliot cut and out into Exuma Sound for the first time since coming to the Bahamas. We had a beautiful sail with winds blowing out of the southwest. During the day the winds clocked around to the northwest and filled to 20 knots. We came to Conch Cut around 3:00. The cut is really wide and the waves were about 2 feet. We entered Elizabeth Harbor with no problem and anchored at Sand Dollar beach.
The Cruisers Regatta is taking place this week here in Georgetown. Some of the activities include a variety show, sailboat races, dog parade, and several tournaments including bocce ball, volley ball, beach golf, and coconut challenges. There are also various cruising seminars. We picked a great time to be here. Our plan for now is to relax and have lots of fun.

Deb