8th December

22 27 N
73 07 W

Weather: nice sunny day to being with, wind 5 to 10knots E, waves 2 to 4 feet

17 MORE SLEEPS, TIME TO START MAKING SURE YOU ARE ON THE NICE LIST!

We woke up to a glorious morning, the sun was making the water sparkle, we could see the sandy bottom that we were anchored over, there was no one anywhere near us (mostly due to the fact we had anchored a good mile and a quarter from the town due to our draft not allowing us to go in any closer). The coffee was on, we had a breakfast of "bits" that were left over in the fridge - 2 hash browns, 2 spoons of baked beans, 3 mushrooms, 1 slice of bread and an egg each, it went down well and cleared a little bit of space in the fridge which is always at a premium.
We then went into housekeeping mode, planning on doing a few minor things that get put off like cleaning the floor, the plan quickly went to the dogs as Gerry brought out a breeze booster (a sort of wind scoop that fits over the outside of the hatch and captures whatever breeze there is blowing and directs it down the hatch and into the boat) with the intention of putting it over our berth hatch. On inspection it needed a bit of repair work as the snaps which held the arms in place were corroded out and unusable and the wooden bar that holds the whole thing inside the hatch was too long. Bob the builder to the rescue "Can we fix it?" "Yes, we can!" out came the drill, pliers, screwdrivers, rivets and pop rivet gun, the bag which contains our snap fasteners, the thingy that forces the snaps through material and the hack saw. On the rug in the salon (why would you do it anywhere that is easy to cleanup?) Gerry set about drilling out the old snaps from the arms and after spraying the snaps on the material with some liquid wrench he took to using the pliers and screwdriver to forcefully remove those one too. It was then just a simple case of replacing the corroded snaps with new ones. Time then to see how much he need to cut off the wooden bar so it would fit our hatch without falling through or being carried off by a strong gust of wind. I made him measure twice before allowing him to cut once, we got it right thank goodness as we had no other pieces of wood on board that we could replace it with. Job done, he put the fixed breeze booster into use straight away, it certainly blows a good deal of air into the interior of the cabin - makes it cooler at night so we should sleep better.
There was just the matter then of taking the rug out into the cockpit and getting rid of the bits of metal that had invariably managed to find their way into the fibers of the rug when he drilled out the old snaps! Next Gerry decided that the time was right to run a new water hose line to the fridge water cooling pump using the same suction as the water maker and the galley sink, rather than the engine water supply which it currently used. All this to give the fridge better water cooling to allow it to maintain its temperature a bit better. There was absolutely no point in cleaning the floor at this point as he was certainly going to make a mess!. Out came all the tools, the cabin sole was lifted and some new hose located. Next thing Gerry was head down and bum up fiddling around in the engine compartment with the hoses, Stanley knife, hose clamps, screwdrivers and of course the zip ties, the only things that were missing were the duck-tape and an instruction manual!
I kept well out of the way and striped the bed intending to change the sheets however I got a bit waylaid. We had bought a king size mattress protector for our bed just before leaving the States, it's long enough and wide enough at the head of the bed but as our bed is V shaped (it's in the bow of the boat so think pointy end!) it tapers down leaving a whole heap of excess material which continuously comes untucked and bunches up; the time had come to sort it out and custom fit it to the bed. Out came the salon table, sewing machine, stitch unpickers, scissors, pins, tape measure and marker pen. I had hoped that it would be a simple case of trimming off the excess and stitching it back together, huh wishful thinking! I ended up having to unpick the entire elastic skirt from around the edge which took forever as it had been overlocked as well as being sewn in place but I eventually had it in 2 pieces ready to remodel. With Gerry's help, I couldn't move it into position alone, I laid the fabric on the bed and marked the shape of the mattress on to it. It was then a case of cutting the 2 layers of fabric to the new shape, pinning the layers together and re attaching the skirt, cutting that to the right size as I went. Unfortunately Gerry had a brain fart just as I was pinning the fabric layers together, he had been looking at the weather forecast for the next few days and we were to expect increasing wind up to 25 knots out of the east with accompanying waves and swell. The master and commander wasn't happy to stay where we were anchored as there are numerous coral heads all around us and if we dragged anchor at all it could prove to be disastrous. There are a couple of alternative anchoring spots around Mayaguana and Gerry thought it would be prudent to move anchorage and get away from the coral heads by going to Betsy Bay which we had passed on the way here the previous day or we could stay put and move in the middle of the night if things blew up. I was not happy with the thought of dodging the coral heads at night, it's bad enough in good sunlight never mind at night with increasing wind and swell so we elected to move there and then, at 3.30pm. I stopped the sewing job, packed up the tools, put the sewing machine down low so it couldn't fall and by then Gerry had the engine running and was on deck waiting to haul up the anchor. I was not a happy camper as I had wanted to get the job finished but if we didn't leave straight away it would be dark by the time we arrived at Betsy Bay. We motor sailed with the jib and staysail up, out of the anchorage to the Devils point, aptly named, where the currents meet and the water became quite confused and lumpy. We had to turn northwards to get to the anchorage and could no longer fly the jib and staysail so they got furled away and we continued with just the motor, it was an uncomfortable ride but we survived it, arriving at Betsy Bay at 7.30pm. I did manage to get some good sunset photos but there was no green flash, the quest continues. We had passed just one other sail boat heading south wards, he had pulled in and anchored just to the south of where we were going to anchor. Betsy bay was completely empty of boats so we had our pick of the anchorage and dropped our anchor. Then all hell let loose, the swell was unbearable, we were rolling and rolling and rolling, one minute it was dead calm and the next we were heeled over to one side and then the other in rapid succession, just horrible. Gerry thought about putting out a swell bridle, this runs from the anchor chain to the stern and works by easing the anchor chain out and tightening up on the line at the stern of the boat, turning it so that the boat is into the swell and side on to the wind easing the rolling. This thought was discarded as our anchor roller sticks out a long way and the swell bridle puts a lot of pressure on the side of the anchor roller and may damage it (our roller is t
here to take the static weight of the chain and anchor not the weight of the boat). I very rapidly went below and finished my sewing job, calling Gerry down below to actually put the bedding back on the bed and help me to stow away the sewing machine and the table. I am very happy with how my remodel turned out but not how I had to achieve it! I had pre-prepared our dinner for the night whilst we were still in the calm waters near the coral heads but there was no way either of us was going to be doing any cooking in this rolly anchorage, so my prepared meal went in the fridge for another day and we "ping mealed" a quick Italian dinner followed by cheese and biscuits. We went to bed not expecting to have a very goodnight, the rolling is not like being in a hammock, you get thrown from one side to the other without any warning so the bracing is almost continuous. I think Priss hated it too, she hardly moved from her bed.