Boat Jobs Du Joure

July 12 - 18, 2007

Thursday, July 12, 2007 - Big Majors Key, Exumas, Exumas
By Tom

We decide last night to stay here at Big Majors and just sort of hang out. I'd like to tell you we made that decision because we were going to be mega productive and do lots of boat related jobs, but that would be lying.

Mostly, I just wanted to spend the day wind surfing and not working on the boat, but if you would prefer, please think I spent the day hard at work, slaving away on various boat projects. Hey, you aren't paying for this, so keep your expectations low.

As I've gotten better at the wind surfing, I have found that I can do about 50 minutes before I start to fade and need a break. I have sort of tailored my trips out on the board with this time limit in mind. I spent the better part of six hours sailing to and fro wasting the day away and honestly I didn't feel guilty about it at all. Man am I lame.

My arms finally gave out around 5 pm and I retired to the cockpit and joined Amy for pineapple rum drinks in the cockpit. The weasels showed up and took up residence in my discarded wet suit on the floor while sipping rum runners from their custom made sippy cup.

Post sunset, I fired up the grill and made pepperoni pizzas. We ate dinner in the cockpit and enjoyed the cooling breeze before heading inside to watch the last half of After the Sunset for the thirty second time.

To bed by 10 pm

Friday, July 13, 2007 - Black Point Harbour, Great Guana Cay, Exumas
By Tom

The wind pushed down to due south at first light this morning which made our anchorage pretty uncomfortable, so we had the anchor up and the boat under way by 6:30 am.

Our destination was a whopping 7 miles to the south and the town of Blackpoint on the north end of Great Guana Cay and it's a good thing because the wind was blowing at 20 knots right on our nose and we only managed a meager 4.5 knots per hour.

We had the hook down and the boat to bed by 9 and then I tackled boat projects. Both of our water pumps (fresh and raw) starting acting up over the last couple of days. The raw water pump refused to even make any noise, much less pump any water, so I removed him from underneath the sink and took it in to the cockpit to beat some sense into him.

I disassembled, cleaned, then re-assembled said pump and for no good reason it started working. I put the pump back under the sink and back into surface. Time will tell if we have actually fixed it or not.

The fresh water pump needed to have new wires run to the pressure regulator and about four tons of corrosion and cruds removed from it's innards. Once back together, this pump too began functioning.

Pumps fear me.

When we cleaned up from the pump work, we launched the dinghy and went in to town in an effort to find fresh veggies. The mail boat came in yesterday afternoon, but our (ok, just Amy's) hopes were dashed when grocery dude said no fresh stuff arrived. Apparently, the normal mail boat is in Freeport being worked on and so the other mail boat is now running two routes and thus there isn't enough room on the freighter for veggies.

Fear not for the vegetables-less Bahamian communities, as we were informed that the normal mail boat will be back in service sometime next week. More than you wanted to know I suspect, but there you have it.

We did end up buying 5 potatoes, mostly because we felt bad about not buying anything, rather than that we actually needed potatoes. Perhaps not the most sound financial planning, but grocery dude seemed to appreciate it. Anyhow, we wandered into the Scorpion Bar and Lounge and had a cold beer and played pool while watching BETV with the bar tender. As an aside, why is there a black entertainment tv station and not say an all Asian, all the time station? I hate being put down by the man.

We ran back to the boat, dropped of our potatoes and picked up our water jugs and Milo and returned to shore. I filled water jugs from a convenient roadside water tap and Amy played with Milo and about 15 little Bahamian kids on the government dock.

Milo was well behaved and so were the Bahamian kids and so no one got bitten or did any biting. All but one little girl who ran away screaming something that sounded like "Rats! Rats!" thought Milo was pretty cool. No one in the group had ever seen a ferret before and some of the less shy kids peppered Amy lots of questions about all things weasel.

We returned to the boat around 4 pm and spent the remainder of the day playing on our computers and reading books. Tomorrow we'll probably motor down towards Farmers as the wind is still supposed to be directly from where we want to go.

Saturday, July 14, 2007 - Big Harbour, Little Farmers Cay, Exumas
By Tom

A squall rolled into our anchorage around 8:30 this morning and the wind went from south east at ten knots to due west at thirty and it left us directly exposed.

It only took twenty minutes for three or four foot breakers to build in our anchorage, so we wasted no time breaking down the dinghy, lifting the anchor, and heading out, Due to the wind shift, we were able to motor sail under head sail alone towards Farmers Cay and we averaged between 6 and 8 knots in extremely lumpy seas.

The water was so rough that every fourth or fifth swell crashed over the side of the boat threatening to wash overboard anything not tied down. The motion of the boat was so violent that poor little Mila puked all over her favorite ferret blanket and Milo actually peed on himself.

Sad, I know, but I felt the need to share my pain.

Like all violent squalls, this one too blew itself out and within an hour or so the seas returned to a more manageable state. We entered the harbour at Farmers Cay and made it across the bar at half tide without touching bottom this time.

The anchor wouldn't grab in all the grass we were anchored on, so I dove in and set the hook by hand in three and a half feet of water. We cleaned up from all of the wind and water that seemed to find its way on to the boat during the trip down and then retired to the salon for an appetizer portion of buffalo wings, medium spicy, done on the grill ala Tom style.

Post snack, we spent the day surfing the net on an unsecured wireless network that we found and reading books in the shade of the cockpit sun cover.

In the evening we had an American Pie I and II movie double feature and snacked on crackers and cheese instead of a dinner. The post movie running of the ferrets took place around 8 pm and then weasels and crew turned in for the night.

Sunday, July 15, 2007 - Childrens Bay, Childrens Bay Cay, Exumas
By Tom

We got underway shortly after 8 am this morning. The wind was at 10 knots, but still right from where we want to go, so it was another motorfest south. We chose to go out the cut and into the ocean rather than motor the much more intricate path on the banks side.

It was an uneventful trip except that I had to put oil in the starboard engine at the half way point of our trip. The rate of oil consumption in the motor has increased to 1 quart every six hours and I fear the engine may not be long for this world.

We arrived off of Lee Stocking Island and came through the cut at high ebb and consequently we had a 3 knot current against us. We put out the head sail to help counter the foul current and we made it through without any problems.

We were anchored in the bight of Children's Bay Cay in five feet of water by 2 pm. At 4, I switched on the satellite radio and listened to the Nascar race from Chicagoland Speedway while Amy read books and played with the weasels.

Around sunset (8 pm) I fired up the grill and cooked two large Queen Trigger fish fillets in honey-terriyaki sauce with some potatoes and it was good.

Tomorrow we head back to Georgetown and begin to tackle the ever growing list of boat projects

Monday, July 16, 2007 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

We awoke with the sun and were out the cut at Rat Cay by 7 am. The wind was still out of the south east at 10 - 15, so we were forced to resort to motoring the remaining 15 miles in to Georgetown.

We arrived off of Volleyball Beach and had the anchor down by 11. The first order of business was to launch the dinghy so I could go into town and get fresh water for the boat and fresh vegetables for Amy. I also dropped off two big bags of accumulated garbage from the last two weeks before returning to the big boat.

We spent the rest of the afternoon putting the boat back together then making up our list of repair projects that we need to address before we are ready to go again.

Around 6 pm we headed up to Saint Francis for Monday night poker. There were 15 players and I resumed my winning form by bringing home the seventy dollar first prize. Amy placed third and recouped her five dollar entry fee.

While playing, Amy also washed our dirty laundry from the last two weeks. She claims that having to multi-task during poker may have cost her a shot at the title, but I'm skeptical.

We returned to the boat by 10 pm and turned in shortly there after. Welcome back to Georgetown

Tuesday, July 17, 2007 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

Amy made a trip over to the ocean side in her kayak this morning to do her yoga thing, while I stayed on board and played with the weasels.

While she was gone, I made breakfast tacos for Milo and myself while Mila had blue berries in a flour tortilla sprinkled with ferretone.

Amy returned a little later and after she jumped over board to clean up made herself something unidentifiable to eat and then we read books while our food digested and before we tackled boat jobs.

We spent the day working on the never ending list of boat projects. I accomplished a couple of things off my list, but then we added three more in the afternoon, so technically I accomplished less than nothing. Damnit Tom!

In the evening we made a list of all the stuff we need to pick up on the island and it looks like we might need to rent a car to get to all of the places. We talked to Kenny and Linda on Lattittude as well as Speedo Ed and they were both interested in sharing the ride, so it sounds like we'll have a full car load.

I was cooking ribs and grouper on the grill when Greg from Saint Francis stopped by to chat. We invited him on board and as we had way too much food asked him to stay for dinner. We hung out and told stories over a couple of bottles of wine and Greg finally went home around 9 pm.

Amy and I stayed up another hour listening to music before we turned in. I suspect it will be another busy day tomorrow.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

This morning after breakfast grilled cheesies, we both began tackling the numerous boat jobs from the list we compiled yesterday. For the record, I have thirty three items on my list and Amy has seventeen.

Today's chores for me included rebuilding the pressure switch on the fresh water pump. I had actually intended to just remove the switch and clean the contacts, but when I removed it, it broke in to two different pieces. I cleaned off the corrosion from the two halves and then super glued the assembly back together.

This sounds weird I'm sure, but it did the trick and the pump is working properly now. It took me over three hours in all, but at least it's checked off the list and it didn't cost two hundred dollars to do. Nice.

Around noon, I headed back in to town to get an internet card from Harbour Wifi, drop off our one empty propane tank, and make arrangements with the car rental company to get a car for tomorrow. Many of our projects require pieces and parts that we cannot get in town, so rather than spend the day running around in taxis, we opted to get wheels of our own.

Back on board, we continued to work on projects for a little bit before calling it a day. We went back up to Saint Francis for happy hour and an impromptu, 8 man poker game broke out. With the limited number of players, we made the buy in ten dollars instead of the usual five, and when the dust settled I walked away sixty dollars richer. Amy finished in second place, so it was a Team Dream Catcher sweep which netted us the entire eighty bucks. Nice.

We returned home hungry and decided to grill up some Tequila Lime chicken breasts for a late night victory snack. To bed by 11 pm.