Sunday 5 January 2020
Last night the wind honked up and I am really happy to be at the dock and not at anchor somewhere with unknown holding. The gusts were to 65kph and Nelleke worked back and forth on the dock lines enough to pull off the rubber bits on the smaller fender board. The water is clear enough that I was able to see them on the bottom right beside the piling. Oh well. Live and learn, eh? I guess I should have rigged up some means to keep them on the 2x4.

The other thing that I was able to do this morning was sort out the roller furling for the jib. As we were coming into the harbour last Tuesday it appeared to have jammed and I had to pull the sail down to douse it. It turns out that the reefing line had overlain itself on the drum. If I had just pulled a little harder I would have been able to roll it up. Now we will raise it again in preparation for our departure tomorrow.

We had breakfast and then walked over to the post office to mail some post cards. While there we met Johnathan, the local fire chief and the only professional firefighter in Bimini. The rest are all volunteers like me. Interesting to talk to. They have about 21 volunteer firefighters of which about ten are effectives. They have a nice shiny attack truck with a paint job of the west beach on North Island wrapping around the sides and front. They also have a new tanker which has been donated by a benefactor from Miami but it is held up at the government dock as the bureaucrats haven’t released it yet. I guess they haven’t gotten their bribe. There is also a donated fully equipped ambulance held up for essentially the same reason. I’m glad I don’t live here after all. I believe I’d probably be in jail because of what my reaction would be to something like this foolishness.

Church was a flashback to my younger days when I was brought up in a High Anglican Church where the service is held by an Anglican priest who is addressed as Father, incense is swung at key points in the service and a bell is rung to indicate the transfer of the body and blood of Christ into the bread and wine. It was wonderful and the faith obviously meant a lot to the congregation and it wasn’t just old folks either, a couple of young families with small children, teenagers etc. Everyone went out of their way to make us feel welcomed. It was a very positive, memorable experience.

We walked back to the boat along the shore road on the west side of the island. Today would not be the day to try a crossing from Florida as there is still a 25kt wind out of the north producing good sized short period breakers.

Before lunch I had to dive to retrieve the rubber bumpers that had been rubbed off. I was a little nervous as I kept thinking that only two days ago there were six bull sharks cruising right past and under our boat. I guess that either they weren’t hungry or I was simply not to their taste as I recovered the lost pieces and exited the water with all my necessary bits still intact. Whew! A couple of more holes drilled in the wood and a bit of rope stretched between them and we should never have that problem again.

We put the #4 jib back up again and filled our water tanks in preparation for tomorrow’s departure. We also have one more walk around town looking to see if there was anything in any grocery stores that we might want to pick up before setting off. We got some basic staples, enough to last us until the next time we can get ashore.

We also stopped off at the Big Game Club on the way back to Nelleke just to be able to say that we had the Froo-Froo drink that I promised Barb yesterday.

The other thing we have done is lay in our course for tomorrow. From the harbour opening we will head north to North Rock and then easy to Mackie Shoal, then to NW Chanel and finally to Nassau. According to Predict Wind we should reach there early on Tuesday AM. Then, depending on how we feel we could cruise through Nassau Harbour and continue to the Exumas arriving there sometime before nightfall. That’s the plan anyway. Our friends aboard Iolanthe have said that they will be in Rock Harbour which I think is in the southern end of the Elutheras by Wednesday where they intend to lay over until the next blow goes by. They have a lot more experience cruising in the Bahamas than we do so I am inclined to follow their lead. If we can get over to the Exumas tomorrow where we can moor or anchor we will do so.