Waiting for tide, and other things...

We picked up a mooring here Sunday afternoon as the harbor is really too small for anchoring.  Several sea turtles have poked their heads up to look at all the boats and we've seen dolphins swimming through the moorings.  We have spent the last couple of days exploring Hope Town.  It is one of the prettier settlements we have seen,  possibly because it is such a popular tourist destination.  To my eye over half the houses here are rental properties.  And probably 25% of the buildings are for sale.  Depending on the size and the location you can rent a house for $1000 to $4000 (or more) a week.  The buildings are all pretty well maintained, with typical tropical pastel paint schemes.

Yesterday we climbed the Hope Town lighthouse.  It was built in the 1860s and is 120 feet tall.  It is a key wound kerosene light - one of the last three in the world.   There is also a nice little museum here with interesting artifacts.  We hiked south out of town a mile or so and then walked back into town along the ocean side beach.  We had considered renting bikes but it was so hot we decided the money would be better spent on ice cream.  We had some local conch and lobster meals at a place called "Munchies" - I'm sure it's not a chain as Mr Munchie cooked our meals and then sat under his cork or fig tree (he didn't know which) talking with us.

Right now we are waiting for enough tide so we can leave and go to Man O War Cay.  As we listen to the weather reports in the morning people are calling in to see when the winds will be favorable to cross the Gulf Stream.  A few people started leaving the Bahamas a month ago and now a steady stream of boats are heading north in the Abacos to get ready to make the crossing back to the States.  We have a few more places we want to visit, but have also started watching the forecasts for a decent weather window.  We're at a point where we don't really want to leave, but we also don't want to miss a good opportunity since our crossing will be over a hundred miles.  In the next few days as we work north I think we will lose cell phone/Kindle coverage.  SPOT should keep showing our progress.

No comments, just pictures!



Our dolphin escort



Tight moorings at Spanish Wells

Spanish Wells cemetery

Father Jerome home on Como Hill

                          Father Jerome residence on Cat Island

Check out the horizon!

                         A Father Jerome church on Long Island

Exuma youth band

Straw market at George Town

A perfect beach

Divers at Thunderball Grotto

What sidewalk?

Alice Town, Bimini

Winding down winter in the Abacos

Wednesday we went shopping in the biggest and best grocery store we've seen in the Bahamas.  Except for the prices the store is comparable to a Publix or Krogers back home.  We also shuttled 45 gallons of water to the boat - sure am glad we didn't have to row!  We also visited with friends from several boats, including Bluejacket.  Donna and Jerry (Bluejacket) are friends of Mary and Dave from Daytona.  We first met them in Miami and just caught up with them again.

Thursday the wind started to pick up and more boats started coming into Marsh Harbor.  When the second boat anchored within 25 yards of us we decided it was time to leave.  We had a nice sail back towards the south end of Abaco.  Sue wanted to visit Little Harbor which we had passed on our way to the Mercury dealer.  There is a foundry there (decorative sculpture) and some caves.  Friday we took the dinghy into Little Harbor.  We saw the sculpture gallery but the foundry didn't appear to be open.  We saw the caves from the dighy but didn't bother to go ashore to see them.

Later in the afternoon we sailed back towards Marsh Harbor.  As we were approaching the spot where we were going to anchor we noticed another boat showing a lot of bottom.  It turns out they had anchored at high tide and them went off snorkeling.  When they were gone the tide went out leaving their boat aground.  High tide was just before midnight, and in the morning they were safely anchored in deeper water.

We have a couple more settlements near by - Hope Town and Man O War Cay - that we plan to visit before heading north through the rest of the Abacos.  It looks like we'll be heading back cross the Gulf Stream from the northern end of the Abacos.  We missed seeing the Berry Islands and probably won't see them because it means too much of a back track.  We might end up back in the States a week or so earlier than we planned but I've already checked and it's almost warm enough in Georgia!

Waiting for another shoe to drop...

For those of you who are tired of hearing about our outboard problems,  check back in a couple of days.

Monday morning we rowed ashore in spite of 15 knot winds to get the parts we hoped would fix our beloved Mercury.  After a quick trip to check out the grocery store (it's wonderful) with parts in hand we rowed back to the boat.  We soon had the four new parts in and the carb back on the motor.  The motor fired right up!  Of coure as soon as I tried to start it a second time it was flooding out just like before.  Right after lunch we rowed ashore again and carried the outboard to the Mercury dealer.  When I explained the symptoms the mechanic was hopeful of a simple solution.  He said to check back around 4:00.

When I checked back the mechanic was shaking his head!  He had had the carb off 3 or 4 times and still couldn't make it run properly.  He wanted to soak the carb body overnight to maybe flush the little passages clean.  Check back in the morning...

First thing this morning we rowed ashore with our laundry.  While Sue did the laundry I went to one of the many hardware stores here (they even have an Ace Hardware and a NAPA) and then on to the Merc shop.  Another head shake - not a good sign.  The solvent soak hadn't worked, but a NEW carb should fix us right up.  They had one new carb in stock, and BTW, someone else had just brought the same engine in with the same problem!  Since a new carb was cheaper than a used outboard I told him to go ahead.

When we went back to pick up our outboard the gal said there had been a problem and we needed to talk with the mechanic!  It turns out their new carburetor wasn't complete and they had taken a part from a used carb, but they reduced the price by 15%.  With that discount in mind, and while staring at their "All Sales Final!" sign I asked if we could return the parts we bought Monday.  Sue was amazed when they said yes.

Once again the outboard seems to be running and we can get back to playing tourists again and see some other sites besides hardware stores and outboard repair shops.  Today (Wednesday) is another lovely day, sunny and 80 degrees.

P.S.  After typing on this blog for almost 2 hours (Kindle typing is very slow) the Kindle froze and I thought I had lost it all.  Luckily, Sue managed to find a saved draft of most of it.

Marsh Harbor, Abaco - another big town.

We were able to sail about half the distance between Eleuthera and the Abacos, but since it's about 60 miles we couldn't keep sailing when our speed dropped below 4 knots.  We saw several freighters up close, and once we got into shallower waters we had another escort of four dolphins.  The water is so much clearer here than in Florida that you can see them 2 or 3 feet below the water.  They came streaking up from behind and then slowed down to match our boat speed.  They sort of rolled over on their sides to look up at us while their tail fins sort of brushed up against the hull.  I like to think they enjoy putting on a show for us, but more realistically they're probably just laughing at how slow and ungraceful boats are.

This afternoon as we came into Marsh Harbor I caught a glimpse of a sea turtle.  His head looked about the shape and size of a cantalope.  Then a few minutes later we got to be the entertainment for a few boats.  Marsh Harbor is not huge and has several areas of shallow water.  There are also two unmarked channels where you are not supposed to anchor.  There are also lots and lot of boats anchored here.  After motoring around a bit looking to find swinging room between several boats we dropped the anchor.  Before the boat drifted downwind to set the anchor we realized we were aground.  It was almost low tide at that time (the best time to run aground!) so we only had to wait a couple of hours.  In the mean time our boat was sitting perpendicular to all the other boats in the harbor.  Not 5 minutes before we went aground we noticed another boat aground trying to leave Marsh Harbor.  I should mention that at low tide most of Marsh Harbor has only 6 or 7 feet of water, so it's not always easy to find room between other boats in deep enough water.

Next on our agenda we hope to find the parts we need for our outbard, and Sue wants to do laundry, again!  I just can't figure how she gets her clothes so dirty

Spanish Wells - must be salty.

Sunday we sailed north on Eleuthera Island to Hatchet Bay.  The settlement there is another Alice Town.  The cut to get to the bay was blasted out of the rock cliffs and is about 90 yards wide.  It is hard to find from a distance and would probably be nerve racking with big winds or waves.  We got the last available mooring.  There wasn't much to see or do in town.

Monday we sailed to a place called the Glass Window.  We were just going to sail by to take a couple of pictures but the water was so clear and the view was so interesting that we decided to spend the night.  The island is only 100 or so yards wide at this point and there used to be a natural stone arch.  From a boat on the Bahama Banks you could look through to see the ocean through the arch, thus the "glass window".  When the tide is up the waves still break from the ocean side onto the banks - looks pretty cool.

Tuesday we sailed through "Current Cut" on our way to Spanish Wells.  Depending on the phase of the moon and the state of the tide the current can be 8 to 10 knots!  We got lucky and came through the cut with about a 4 knot assist.  We followed a power boat we had met at the window.  He radioed us the depth as he went through so we knew we were in the channel.  The sand shifts in that area so the charts aren't always accurate.  A boat coming through after us ran aground and had to wait for the rising tide.

Here in Spanish we got one the 8 moorings in town.  The moorings are just across the channel from town which makes it a short row if your outboard doesn't run and the local dealer doesn't have the parts you need.  We were going to rent a golf cart to see the town.  Then we realized you could see the whole town in a 2 or 3 hour walk.  We bought 10 gallons of diesel - the first fuel we bought since January 28.  We also bought 15 gallos of water for $1.50.  We're not sure if it's reverse osmosis (R O) salt water or cistern water.  It has a slight salt taste to it so we don't really want to put it in our tanks with our "good" water which also has a slight off taste or smell.

Spanish Wells is quite "white".  The town fills St Georges Cay - about 2 and a half miles long by not very wide.  It is home to a very big lobster fleet.  It is probably the most prosperous town or settlement we have seen.  The houses and stores are brightly painted and for the most are in good repair.  Lots cost $70 to $100 K.  Add a cottage or a house and you're looking at $350 to over a million.  I'm hoping my friend Jack sells his glider and buys a place down here so I can come visit him next winter.

Tomorrow and Friday we head north to the Abacos.

Mercury Outboard Saga - part 27

This morning Sue finally got through to the outboard mechanic.  It turns out he was NOT a Mercury mechanic but he said he would take a look at it after he finished another job around noon.  We rowed ashore around 1:00 to be ready for him.  We went to the store for groceries while waiting, and then gave him a call around 2:00  - no answer!  There is an auto repair garage right across from the grocery store so I thought, what the heck - if they didn't work on outboards they might at least have an idea of what I should look for.  They didn't work on outboards but said the guy right next door did.

We had noticed the place next door.  The yard was covered with old boat hulls - to the point of hiding the building there, and no sign to indicate any sort of business.  When I walked up Matthew was sitting under a tree talking with a friend.  They were surrounded by outboards in varying degrees of dis-assembly, old parts, broken parts, wheelless jacked up vehicles, and what to an untrained eye looked like junk.  Matthew said I could bring our outboard by and he would take a look.  Sue was still waiting to hear from the first mechanic so we carried our outboard across the street.  We eventually got it rigged up in a tank of water.  It wouldn't start so we pulled the carb off  (I'm actually pretty good at carb removals by now).  Matt found one dirty jet that I apparently missed when I cleaned the carb last week.  I was happy that he found it but a little disappointed with myself for missing it.  Even more so when it fired right up after we put it all back together.  I didn't feel quite so bad when the motot died and wouldn't restart.

Without going into all the gory details,  Matt eventually determined that the fuel pump was bad - it was actually allowing too much fuel past the carb.  Matt said he was going to check "the parts department".  Did I mention that Matthew isn't a Mercury dealer or mechanic?  His "parts department" was scattered all over the ground.  We eventually found most of a Nissan 5 horse outboard.  Under the cover it is identical to the Mercury -as is the Tohatsu.  I pulled the carb/fuel pump off the Nissan and put it on our carb.  We got our outboard running with the Nissan donor parts - so well (so far, knock on wood) that Sue could start it in the test tank.  I'll be curious to see how long it continues to run.

The really interesting thing about all this, and why I even mention it, Matthew was prepared to loan us his outboard so we could finish our trip if he couldn't get our motor running.  "You can bring it back next year." he said.  Sort of an interesting counter point to our Batelco experiences.  And, by the way, we're still waiting to hear from the first mechanic.  Why do I think there will be more Mercury episodes?

"Island Time" reflections

We've mentioned what it's been like trying to use the phones here in the Bahamas.  As we were approaching the Batelco office here in Rock Sound I saw two pay phone stands right out front.  Great, I thought, the location should make it really easy for the phone company to keep these phones working.  So imagine my surprise to find no phone in one stand and no receiver on the other phone!  A quick check in the office revealed no public phone there, the closest working phone apparently a 20 minute walk away at the airport.  So much for a convenient phone.

And speaking of phones, I mentioned that our outboard motor is once again not running properly.  We got the number for a factory trained Mercury mechanic in the area.  We have spent the last day and a half trying to contact him.  No answer on the VHF radio, and either hours of a busy signal, or hours of no answer on the phone.  I'm glad we brought the dinghy oars.

Yesterday we were at the big grocery store in town.  When we asked where the bread was the gal said they were sold out but would have more today.  This afternoon, when we were on our way back to the store, we found out the store is closed Wednesday afternoons.  We found another store that was open so we got our bread but they didn't have small containers of ice cream!

We found a couple of interesting sites today - real, not web.  One is a land locked blue hole.  It connects to the ocean under water and we saw a sea turtle swimming there.  I sure hope the turtle remembers how to get back to the ocean.  Right next to the blue hole was a series of caves.  The caves were inhabited by tree roots and bats and were free to visit.  Both sites were just across the road from the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

We cleaned the boat's bottom today for the first time since December.  It was starting to get colorful soft growth but nothing hard yet.  We are both amazed how little growth there has been.  Actually, the rocks and other hard objects under water have little growth on them.  Guess that means the water is pretty clean.

Eleuthera, another long island

Saturday we had a windy sail from New Bight on Cat Island to Arthur's Town at the north end of Cat.  Wind was predicted to be 17 to 22 knots.  The average wind we saw was 25, with some gusts to 32.  Arthur's Town didn't have too much to offer so Sunday afternoon we decided to sail to Little San Salvador Island.  Little San Salvador is a private island owned by the cruise ship companies.  Just before we got there the Carnival Liberty arrived.  We thought it was arriving late and was going to spend the night.  It turns out it was coming back to pick up passengers after having dropped them off in the morning for beach and water activities.  Private boat owners aren't supposed to go ashore when the cruise ships are there but we thought we might be able to go ashore Monday if another cruise ship didn't show up.

First thing Monday morning another Carnival ship arrived so we headed over to the south end of Eleuthera Island.  There was virtually no wind so we ended up motoring.  We saw another cruise ship anchored at the southern end of Eleuthera, ferrying passengers to their private island resort.  We are now anchored at Rock Sound, which is one of the bigger settlements we've been in.  Most towns here (even George Town and Alice Town in Bimini) have only one main street running through the town (usually named Queen's Highway).  Here the settlement is several blocks in each direction, with quite a few stores and shops.

And in the strange but true category, the people with the Mercury outboard, who we towed when their outboard died, have the same anniversary as we do.  (It turns out they had a broken spark plug and now our outboard isn't running again.)

Sharks, turtles, and a green flash.

I don't remember exactly what I mentioned last...  but I think it was about trying to sail to Conception Island, which is a national park.  The second day we tried the wind was on the nose again.  One tack had us arriving around 10 p.m. and on the other tack the distance was increasing!  We noticed that on one tack we were heading back towards George Town so we kept going.  We thought maybe we could sail back to Conception the next day, or if not start sailing back up the Exumas.  In the morning the forecast was for 17 to 20 knot winds - right from Conception!  It turned out not to be that strong and off the nose enough that we could actually sail to Conception Island.  We dropped anchor just after sundown.  So after three days and just under a hundred miles of sailing we had avoided motoring 30 miles.  There were about fourteen or fifteen boats there and nothing else for miles around.  Conception is uninhabited and is one of the most remote places we have been.

Sunday we went snorkeling with three other couples.  We saw a ship wreck, some coral, and tropical fish.  It was rather like being in an aquarium.  The water is crystal clear so you can see the bottom even in fifteen or twenty feet.  Sue decided since she was already salty she would clean the dinghy bottom before taking her shower.   After she splashed around under the dinghy for about 10 minutes she asked for a sponge to clean the rudder of the big boat.  The next thing I knew Sue came flying up the ladder!  Apparently there was a four to five foot long shark under the boat.  Later we met on the beach with people from 7 or 8 boats to watch the sun set.  One couple who does a lot of diving said not to worry about the sharks as they are not interested in us but Sue does not want anything to do with sharks.  There was a green flash - which needs just the right conditions to be visible (Google it).  I actually didn't see the green flash, and suspect the other 15 people were lying, though I suppose it could have something to do with my red-green color blindness.  Nah...  Sue said she saw it.

Monday we decided to dinghy into the mangoves in the center of the island to look for sea turtles.  The cut was upwind about a mile and a half from where we were anchored so we wore our swim suits; a good decision as it was a wet ride.  Once inside we saw 2 or 3 sharks - probably small Lemon sharks, each about three feet long.  We also saw two sea turtles but they were too fast to get close to.  As we were wading around finding live conch two other dinghies came in to explore.  Ever since our outboard problems I'm always wondering what we'll do if I can't get it started when we're a long way from the boat.  I figured having two other dinghies behind us wouldn't be all bad, so we headed back towards the ocean and our boat.  As we got almost to the ocean we saw another dinghy anchored in the creek, its owner pulling away at the starter cord.  We stopped to see if we could help and were amazed to see that they had the same exact outboard that we have.  I told Donald our outboard had quit too and about cleaning the carb and the fuel system.  We pulled the carb apart and found a litte bit of crud.  But when we put it all back together we still couldn't get it to start.  We ended up towing their dinghy back to the anchorage and it was another wet ride.

Today we motored until the wind filled in and then had a slow sail back to Cat Island.  We might be here for a few days as high winds and squalls are predicted for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  The holding is pretty good here and even if we drag the water is shallow for a mile or so with pretty much only open water behind.