[Previous log file is http://www.geocities.com/bill_dietrich/Magnolia/MagnoliaLog2001.txt ] [This log file generally covers my trip to the Bahamas in early 2002] 1/1/2002 (Tuesday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor. Cool and gray morning, but little or no rain. Got genset started ! Had to wiggle starter solenoid linkage. To do that, had to disassemble half of sound-shield. Ran genset for 3.5 hours to cool freezer, charge batteries, run refrigerator, charge other things. Cool and sunny and breezy by 11 AM. Removed and recaulked port forward toerail to try to stop deck leak. Dinghied ashore for shower and TV and conversation. Towed a stray dinghy to the marina. Pork chop and saffron rice and baked beans for dinner. Ran genset for 1 hour. 1/2/2002 (Wednesday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor. Cool and gray, rained from 8:30 AM to 10:00. Checked refrigerator thermostat; seems to work okay. Flag halyard to top of mainmast chafed through and came down. Polished starboard stanchions; they looked okay with a little rust on them, but I got TONS of dirt off them; the paper towels came away black. Aground at 3:00, then rained briefly at 3:30. Took hand-pump off galley sink; O-ring at bottom of it is very brittle. Dinghied ashore for shower and shopping. Bought new hand-pump ($54) for galley; old one didn't look to be worth rebuilding. Leftover fried chicken, and salad, for dinner. Ran genset for 2 hours. 1/3/2002 (Thursday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor. At midnight last night, torrential rain and some close lightning for about 20 minutes. Wind and light rain at 10:00 AM. Ran engine for 15 minutes to see if I could drag anchor away from shore slightly; wouldn't budge. Typical boat-project experience today: Tried to install hand-pump I bought yesterday. Should have been a piece of cake, it's a drop-in replacement for the old one. I read the instructions, and it says lubricate various parts once a year with petroleum jelly. I decide to do that now, but it takes 1.5 hours to find my tube of petroleum jelly. I organize various heaps of parts as I go along, find some things I didn't know about, organize the medicine cabinet, etc. Finally, I try to get at an O-ring in the new pump, and the plastic over it crumbles into pieces. Took it back to the store (later), and now I have to wait one to 7 days to get another pump. Another typical experience: went to fix sandwiches for lunch, and found that some of the galley shelves had water on them. Looks like chainplate I replaced is leaking onto the shelves. Got off cheaply: just a couple of containers of salt ruined. But making lunch turned into a 1-hour clean-up-the-mess activity. While looking at something else, I realize that my stanchions have fairly chintzy backing plates, and all of my deck cleats have NO BACKING PLATES AT ALL, just little washers on the bolts ! Measured all cleats and tried to figure out what size backing plates I can install. Went to genset dealer to discuss solenoid problem, and they want me to bring solenoid and starter in to be swapped. Good of them, but a pain for me. I was hoping I could just adjust the linkage somehow, but they say I can't. Now I have to remove a 50+ pound starter, dinghy it ashore, get another they have on the shelf, dinghy it out to the boat, and install it. Hope I never have to do this on the main engine starter; that sucker probably weighs 90+ pounds. Started stocking up on food for next cruise. Hope to leave Marathon within next 2 weeks. Leftover fried chicken, and canned yams, for dinner. Hard-boiled 7 eggs; was afraid they'd spoil. Ran genset for 2 hours. Had to mess with solenoid linkage to get it to start. Blowing 25 knots in the anchorage; might get cold tomorrow morning. 1/4/2002 (Friday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor. Blew 20-25 knots all night and morning. Cold (50's), especially with wind-chill. Removed starter motor and solenoid from genset. Polished stanchions on port forward quarter. Dinghied ashore and showered. Bought a week of dinghy-dockage ($16). Exchanged genset starter at dealer. Picked up re-hubbed outboard motor propeller ($44). Installed genset starter and solenoid; works so far. Had some bananas about to get too ripe, so opened Joy Of Cooking and made "Bananas In Blankets" (slice bananas, put pineapple inside, wrap with bacon, broil). A little disappointing; it tasted good, but I was expecting some unique flavor or something. Ran genset for 2.5 hours. 1/5/2002 (Saturday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor. Cool and windy again. Spent the morning researching electrical upgrade project. Finished polishing stanchions. Put re-hubbed propeller on outboard; seems to be okay but haven't tried it at high speed. Dinghied ashore. Warmer in evening. Hamburgers for dinner. Ran genset for 2 hours. 1/6/2002 (Sunday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor. Warmer and sunny, but still slightly windy. Headache all day. Rained at 2 PM. Dinghied ashore. Very still evening. Reassembled genset sound shield. Ran genset for 1.5 hours. Tuna salad sandwiches and salad for dinner. 1/7/2002 (Monday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor. Warmer and sunny. Headache all night and day. Cleaned outboard spark plugs; very oily. Dinghied ashore, but forgot my flip-flops and had to dinghy back out to get them. Blowing 25 in the anchorage when I dinghied back to boat at 8 PM. Ran genset for 1.5 hours. Dinner was an orange, a salad, some soup. 1/8/2002 (Tuesday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor. Cool and windy. Headache improving. Worked on forward head; vented loop was clogged, inlet flapper may be missing a gasket. Stocked up food for cruise. Fried chicken from supermarket for dinner. Ran air-conditioners (in heat mode) to exercise them. Ran genset for 2 hours. 1/9/2002 (Wednesday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor. Cool and windy. Did bucket of laundry. Put more water in forward tank. Bought DC Y-cord ($6) at Radio Shack. Talked to AIM about electrical project, but they really prefer a different direction than I do. Bought 100 feet of DC duplex wire ($54). Ran genset for 2.5 hours. 1/10/2002 (Thursday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor. Slept warmly now that I got rid of cotton blankets, got 2nd acrylic blanket, added comforter. Sunny, a bit warmer and slightly less windy. Worked on forward head some more; made plastic gasket out of milk-jug, replaced inlet flapper valve, and it is fixed. Put more water in forward tank. Took galley water filter out but couldn't find replacement. Organized provisions a bit. Bought used 6 mm wet-suit (2 pieces: farmer-john and full-torso) for $130. Received hand-pump. More provisioning. Leftover fried chicken, and rice with pineapple for dinner. Ran genset for 2 hours. 1/11/2002 (Friday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor. Cloudy but warm, 10 knot wind. Cleaned bilge; not in bad shape. Connector on 4th (AC) bilge pump came apart in my hand. Tested all bilge pumps; 1st and 2nd are fine, but 3rd (manual) has cracked bellows. Opened propeller shaft stuffing box; water doesn't come in too fast. Measured flax diameter and applied anti-seize to threads. Checked water in all batteries, oil in genset, oil and water in engine. Installed manual water pump in galley; it leaks out of the place the first one broke ! Maybe it will stop leaking after water has made the rubber expand a bit. Measured fuel at 13.5 inches; seems too low. Put more water in aft tank. Bought rebuild kit for Whale manual bilge pump ($44), zinc for propeller shaft ($12), flax for propeller shaft stuffing box ($5), bilge pads ($4). Very still, damp, reasonably warm evening. Fried chicken from supermarket, salad, oranges for dinner. Ran genset for 1.25 hours. 1/12/2002 (Saturday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor. Sunny, little wind. Engine hour 1486.1 Up at 8, put away lots of stuff, started raising anchor at 8:30. Took a while because chain was covered with sandy muck, and there was a fishing line wrapped around it too (got a steel leader off it). Moving at 9; motored out and through Boot Key Bridge (approx lat 24.42.3 long 81.06.3), then under Seven Mile Bridge (approx lat 24.42.0 long 81.10.2), then up Gulf side of the Keys. Wind right on the nose; no way I could raise sails. Did some work underway: mended tear in my shorts, rebuilt #3 (manual) bilge pump (but big hose clamp broke in my hands), replaced garden-hose fittings on #4 (AC) bilge pump. A magic moment: at 2 PM, near Long Key, at lat 24.50.068 long 80.51.983, six or seven dolpins came over and swam around the boat cruised near and under the bow as I slowly motored. They played with the boat for about 10 minutes, often just 10 feet away as I stood on the bow and watched them. Again 20 minutes later, about 12 to 15 dolphins surrounded the boat and did all kinds of frolicking, near lat 24.50.460 long 80.51.043 Put sails up from 3 PM to 4 PM. Did about 2.5 knots, as I took a sun-shower. But the wind was coming straight from the anchorage I wanted to reach, so the engine went on again. Anchored in Matecumbe Bight (lat 24.52.062 long 80.43.302). Engine hour 1493.7 Salad and leftover chicken for dinner. Ran genset for 1.5 hours. TV seems to have died; the video-player part of it jammed a few weeks ago, but now it won't turn on at all. Looks like I'm going to just miss a weather window to go to the Bahamas; wind is going to be S for a couple of days, then turn N on Tuesday. So Monday night would be a good time for crossing. But I'd have to motor all day Sunday (to Tarpon Basin) and Monday (to Angelfish Creek) to get in position to cross Monday night from Angelfish Creek. No way I can motor all day Monday, sleep 6 PM to midnight, then motor across midnight to 10 AM. So I'll probably spend Sunday night and Monday day and night (at least) at Tarpon Basin, and watch for the next weather window. 1/13/2002 (Sunday) At anchor in Matecumbe Bight. Warm and cloudy and light wind. Got a late start. Measured fuel at 13.0 inches. Added 1/2 quart of oil to genset. Added 1 quart of oil to engine. Added 8 ounces of fluid to transmission. Motored up through gulf side. Day got warm and still and sunny before noon. Saw 3 dolphins but they ignored me. Went into Mangrove Marina in Tavernier, scraping mud outside the marina. Put 75 gallons of diesel ($96 at $1.29/gallon) in the tank, bringing it to 17.25 inches. Bought 2.5 gallons of gas ($4) for dinghy. Added water to tanks. Saw people I knew when I stayed in the marina last June. Not much has changed. They have open slips. Sun-shower under way. Anchored in Tarpon Basin (lat 25.07.724, long 80.25.877). Engine hours 1499.8 Fixed starboard navigation light: glued lense, cleaned and reseated bulb, taped over housing and lense. Totally still evening; mosquitoes out in force. Leftover fried chicken for dinner (again !). Ran genset for 1.5 hours. Now weather forecast says wind turning N and 10-15 on Tuesday night. If it did it late in the night, I could be across before waves started getting ugly. 1/14/2002 (Monday) 10 knots wind, cloudy this morning. Cleaned water strainers. Dinghied ashore, walked 4-5 miles to go to various stores. Bought hose clamp ($3), fuses ($6), luggage-cart ($22), groceries, DC power cord ($3). Raised anchor in 15 knots of wind, motored to Jewfish Creek bridge (approx lat 25.11, long 80.23.5). Nice sunny afternoon, 10+ knots SE wind. Sailed across Barnes Sound, doing 2.5 to 5 knots, then motored up to Pumpkin Key / Angelfish Creek and anchored on NE side of Pumpkin Key (lat 25.19.700, long 80.17.577). Installed hose clamp on manual bilge pump. Sun-shower under way. Tape I put on top of seams in freezer door doesn't seem to have helped; removed it. Engine hours 1503.2 Blowing 15 knots SE in the evening. Took apart stern light to see why it is intermittent; socket is corroded. Spaghetti and salad for dinner. Ran genset for 2 hours. 1/15/2002 (Tuesday) Wind switched from SE to SW overnight, as predicted, but stalled out and is maybe 1/2 knot or less at 7 AM. Thick fog, too; visibility less than 100 yards. Water is so still that I can see every blade of grass 8 feet down, where the water was totally opaque yesterday. By 9 AM the wind was up to maybe 1 knot, and the fog and low clouds started to move off. The water still was very clear. By 9:20, bright and sunny and faint N wind ! Measured fuel at 17 inches. Launched dinghy and scrubbed hull at and below waterline. Did small bucket of laundry. After lunch, put on wet-suit, mask, snorkel, fins and scrubbed hull below waterline with a plastic putty knife. Much more effective than scrubbing from dinghy. Found a lobster-pot line wrapped around the propeller and shaft; dove under 3 or 4 times to get it loose. Found propeller totally covered with barnacles ! Dove under 20 or 25 times, crunching barnacles one at a time with pliers. Must have spent about 2 hours in the water. Only dropped the pliers once, but water was about 8 feet deep, so I was able to find them on the bottom. Wet-suit has paid for itself already. Raised anchor and moved to another spot in the anchorage, to get shelter from the coming NE and W wind. Rained briefly at 5 PM as I was moving. Repacked propeller shaft stuffing box; getting the new packing in was hard. Tested #3 (manual) and #4 (AC) bilge pumps; #3 works but #4 doesn't (won't self-prime). Grilled chicken, and pineapple biscuits (from scratch) for dinner. Ran genset for 2.5 hours. Looks like last night was perfect time to cross to Bahamas, but I wasn't ready. Tonight there will be 9-11 foot waves in the Gulf Stream ! Next weather window should be Friday night or Saturday night. 1/16/2002 (Wednesday) Cool and grey and humid, threatening rain, wind 10-15 from N, lots of chop. Sun out at 11 AM, burning clouds off. Fuel level 16.7 inches. I had no energy at all this morning; must have overdone it yesterday. Finally got energy to sand outside of pilothouse in afternoon; now I'm exhausted again. Ran genset for 1.25 hours to do sanding. Sun-shower afterwards. Thought it was going to rain and wash the sanding dust away, but it didn't. Salad and tuna salad sandwiches for dinner. Very light wind in evening. 1/17/2002 (Thursday) Beautiful sunny morning with 5 knot E wind. Washed anchor crud and sanding dust off deck with many buckets of seawater. Did some fiberglass cloth work on aft underside of pilothouse roof. Snorkeled under boat and cleaned propeller, rudder and hull some more. Had to chisel barnacle feet off the propeller with metal putty knife. Very hot sun-shower. Ran engine for 0.5 hour to adjust stuffing box. Cheeseburgers, chili, salad, microwave popcorn for dinner. Ran genset for 2.6 hours. 1/18/2002 (Friday) Partly cloudy, damp morning, but sun is coming out. Very light wind, which clocked around in middle of night. Put another piece of fiberglass cloth on aft underside of pilothouse roof. Motored out Angelfish Creek to scope out route to Bahamas and test propeller shaft stuffing; the stuffing box got too warm to keep a hand on, and some goo boiled out, so the stuffing is too tight. But I loosened the nut until more than enough water was dripping through. I think the flax itself is so tight that it needs to get worn down a little; maybe it will be okay after some more use ? Cleaning the propeller and hull definitely improved boat speed. Ocean was calm. Engine hours 1507.0 Removed Velcro from forward hatch rim, but the leftover adhesive is hard work to scrape off. Pork chop and scalloped pot 1/14/2002 (Monday) 10 knots wind, cloudy this morning. Cleaned water strainers. Dinghied ashore, walked 4-5 miles to go to various stores. Bought hose clamp ($3), fuses ($6), luggage-cart ($22), groceries, DC power cord ($3). Raised anchor in 15 knots of wind, motored to Jewfish Creek bridge (approx lat 25.11, long 80.23.5). Nice sunny afternoon, 10+ knots SE wind. Sailed across Barnes Sound, doing 2.5 to 5 knots, then motored up to Pumpkin Key / Angelfish Creek and anchored on NE side of Pumpkin Key (lat 25.19.700, long 80.17.577). Installed hose clamp on manual bilge pump. Sun-shower under way. Tape I put on top of seams in freezer door doesn't seem to have helped; removed it. Engine hours 1503.2 Blowing 15 knots SE in the evening. Took apart stern light to see why it is intermittent; socket is corroded. Spaghetti and salad for dinner. Ran genset for 2 hours. atoes and salad for dinner. Ran genset for 2 hours. Very still evening. Planning to cross to Bahamas tomorrow night; wind will have been non-North for several days, and should be SW while I'm crossing. Heading will be slightly S of E, so SW wind is good. Might be able to sail or motor-sail part of the way. 1/19/2002 (Saturday) Partly cloudy, damp morning. Scraped adhesive from Velcro on forward hatch. Fuel level 16.25 inches. Underway at 10:15 AM. Motored out Angelfiush Creek against incoming tidal current and 10 knot wind. Stuffing box still running too hot. Ocean rougher than I expected; 10-15 knot ESE wind and moderate swell. Arrived at Pacific Reef at about 1 PM; found only a single mooring, but fortunately it was free and I picked it up. Lat 25.22.214, long 80.08.356 Big, ugly swell on mooring; everything sliding around. Often goes 20 degrees to each side. Lashed down dinghy and jugs. Scraped some adhesive from Velcro on aft hatch. Tried to loosen propeller shaft stuffing a bit. Sun-shower. Rigged jacklines. Ran genset for 2 hours. Tuna salad sandwiches for dinner. Surprised at how many boats are anchored outside the reef at night; maybe fishing. Tried to sleep from 7, but gave up by 8:30; swell is too nasty. Got underway to Bahamas about 8:45. Motion of boat much nicer; swell is gentler away from reef, and now it's hitting the bow instead of the beam. Stuffing box immediately too hot; decided to leave it open for the crossing and let the bilge pump deal with the incoming water. Night sailing (motoring) pretty scary at first, but not too bad after an hour or so. Used RADAR help track targets and figure out distances. Only surprise was with a small sailboat just as I started; the only light she had was a mast-top tricolor, and I couldn't figure out what I was seeing. Most big boats seem to have all white lights, in no discernible pattern. Weather and sea state are terrific; warm, fairly calm, great visibility. 8 or 10 big boats in first 3 or 4 hours, then nothing much else. Between Florida Current and clean propeller, I'm getting great boat speed (5.5 to 6 knots) at low engine speed (1200 to 1300 RPM). Used to get 6.2 knots at 1900 RPM. 1/20/2002 (Sunday) Continuing crossing from Florida to Bahamas. Wind and swell picked up. Had to circle for 2 hours to avoid arriving in dark. Swell and building wind was quite annoying. Arrived at low tide, entrance is shallow and dangerous, anchored outside in a fairly bad swell (again!). Found lobster trap line snagged on rudder or swim platform; will have to snorkel to remove it. Totally beat. Raised USA flag on stern, Quarantine flag on starboard spreader. Tried to get some sleep from 8 AM to 10 or so, but swell prevented it. I hate the rolling, with all of the crunching, creaking, sliding, squeaking, clinking it causes. By 10, tide had risen a bit, so I decided to risk the channel into the harbor. Should have called on radio for local knowledge, but a boat coming out volunteered the critical info to me just in time. Go along the beach until you get to the jetties coming out at right angles. Go within 10 feet of the jetties, and stay VERY close to the beach after that. In the harbor mouth, get out into the middle of the channel again. The anchorage is at the north end of the harbor (lat 25.43.742 long 79.17.580), has great protection, nice clear water. But it's next to the town's power plant, which runs noisily 24 hours a day. It's next to a seaplane landing area, which is cool. The locals run motorboats through the anchorage at full throttle. Rest of lobster trap line and float came loose while I was motoring in through the channel. Finally got a few hours of sleep. Then repacked the propeller shaft stuffing box, scraped adhesive from aft hatch, straightened up cockpit and deck. Nice hot sun-shower. Ran genset for 2 hours. Spaghetti and salad for dinner. Data from my crossing from Florida to Bahamas: SOG = Speed Over Ground CH = Compass heading Tr = Track over ground I motored the whole way, used auto-pilot the whole way, kept RPMs fairly low (1200-1300). Stayed awake the whole time, except for little 2-minute naps in the cockpit. Time SOG CH Tr Position --------------------------------------------- 2045 left Pacific Reef 2130 5.1 100 84 25.22.819 80.04.249 crossed sailboat with tricolor at top; I figured out too late what I was seeing 2200 5.5 98 82 25.23.415 80.01.395 2230 5.8 95 77 25.24.215 79.58.503 2300 6.4 95 61 25.25.727 79.55.455 small cruise-type boat parallel to me slowly crossed in front left-to-right 2333 6.0 95 59 25.27.786 79.52.392 0003 6.0 94 62 25.29.539 79.49.742 Big, well-lit cruise ship passed well behind. Could see it for a couple of hours. 0030 5.6 95 65 25.30.904 79.47.324 0100 5.6 97 64 25.32.344 79.44.613 0131 5.4 98 66 25.33.755 79.41.947 0211 5.4 99 68 25.35.427 79.38.517 0235 5.0 96 67 25.36.280 79.36.506 0300 4.8 100 70 25.37.134 79.34.434 Big swell on beam, wind stronger. 0332 5.3 97 63 25.38.265 79.31.819 0400 5.2 100 68 25.39.457 79.29.505 0437 4.5 105 74 25.40.597 79.26.708 Started zig-zagging to avoid arriving in dark. 0800 anchored 25.42.511 79.18.360 Engine hours 1521.0 1/21/2002 (Monday) At anchor in Bimini's north harbor (lat 25.43.742 long 79.17.580). Sunny morning with a few rain clouds. Dinghied ashore to Customs. They were displeased that I wasn't staying in a marina slip, and told me to bring boat to government dock, which is bare concrete dock exposed to wind and chop. Sent me a few blocks away to Immigration, where I was told that everything is done at Customs building. Anyway, got forms from both offices. While dinghying back to boat, was hailed by someone on another sailboat, which turned out to be from Boot Key Harbor. They asked for a lift to shore, which then turned out to involve 10 minutes of loading some woman's stuff and cat into the dinghy, since she was being kicked off the boat. Finally got to shore, towing their dinghy, where the not-happy woman was waiting. Turned out they crossed from Rodriguez Key, and didn't wait for weather, leaving in a N wind. Spent 35+ hours crossing, I think, and had a miserable time. Filled out forms and then raised anchor and docked at government dock. Did a very nice unassisted docking along a concrete dock with only two bollards in decent positions. About 10 knots wind coming from port forward quarter. Did the paperwork at Immigration and Customs, and when I said the boat was at their dock, they lost interest and decided not to inspect it. Paid $100 Bahamas entry fee. Leaving the dock wasn't too bad; used engine to hold boat in place against wind, set a quick spring line on the stern, idled engine to let bow swing out, released stern line, put engine in forward. Would have been easier with someone helping, but the only help nearby was some dockrat who wanted to be paid in alcohol. Anchored again, and dinghied ashore. Walking around town took about an hour, and someone who visits there often told me I'd seen all there was to see. North end of north island is mostly residential, a couple of restaurants. South island is airport and residences and a couple of marinas. Everything in town is small; one-room stores, one-room library, a couple of bars, a couple of marinas, Chalk airlines, one bank, government stuff. Just one commercial street; west side is residential plus a couple of churches. People generally friendly. Golf-carts very common, and practical. Nice beach on west side of island. Batelco office (internet access) is at north end past electric company; did email there ($2). Several stores close early or have split hours. Beached dinghy once next to ferry landing next to Customs building, but that is fairly exposed. Docked it next time at seawall across street from police building; shallow at south end, and good thing I took a fender, but no one hassled me. Dinghy dockage at marinas is $5 ! Dinghied back to boat to find it aground, and tide still going out. Guess I anchored too close to shallow grassy area in anchorage, but there really wasn't too much other space, unless I put down very short scope. Tried to motor off but no dice; may try again on rising tide at 11 PM to midnight, or maybe I'll just let the anchor chain pull me forward a bit. High tide should be 3 AM, I think. Heeling maxxed out at about 7 degrees to starboard around 8:45. Ran genset for 2 hours. Hamburgers and salad and green beans for dinner. Calm evening. 1/22/2002 (Tuesday) At anchor in Bimini's north harbor. Sunny morning with a few rain clouds. Had a nervous night; woke up at 2 AM to move theboat, now that it wasn't aground any more. Had trouble getting anchor to hold; finally put out a lot of chain and hoped for best. Woke up about 5:30 AM to find string tidal current (max ebb) running, and now I was too close to another boat, and anchor probably was sliding. Tried to re-anchor up-current; couldn't get anchor to hold. Tried to anchor more in center of anchorage; ran aground and powered off. Tried again to anchor up-current, and finally got anchor to grab a bit in some grass. Too nervous to go back to sleep for a while, then finally slept from 8 AM to 9 AM. Engine hours 1523.4, fuel level 15.25 inches. Cleaned water strainers. Raised anchor and left harbor about 10 AM, about 1 hour after low tide. Sweated bullets going out through that tricky channel. Motored north along west side of North Bimini. Repainted marker links on anchor chain while under way. Propeller shaft stuffing box is much improved; runs just a little warm. Turned inside North Rock, 11:40 at lat 25.47.520 long 79.15.520, to start crossing the Great Bahama Bank. Eventually turned onto desired course 112 T, and of course the wind was coming from exactly there. Welcome to trade-wind sailing: want to go ESE, and wind is usually from ESE. Raised sails at 12:12, dropped them at 2:12, and managed to make about 0.6 nm of east progress. I could sail N or S at about 3 knots as much as I wanted, but little E. But it was peaceful and fun to sail, and once I had the sails balanced I hardly ever had to touch the helm. Ate lunch, read a magazine, enjoyed the day. Started motoring again, and with 10 minutes saw 6 to 8 dolphins, at lat 25.50.5 long 79.11.8. They played around the boat for a few minutes. Took teak trim strip off starboard side of pilothouse, so I can sand and paint under it. Put tie-wraps on 20 and 40 links on anchor rode. Sun-shower. Anchored at lat 25.47.379 long 79.00.355, in about 18 feet of water with 100 feet of chain. I'm afraid to put out more rode because I don't completely trust my rope-to-chain splice. Promises to be an uncomfortable night; I hoped wind would stay in 5-10 range, but it's up in the 10-15 range. The swells are not too bad, but could get worse. No land in sight, but Bimini is just over the horizon, about 12-15 miles away; I'm sure I'll see a glow from it at night. Still get Miami commercial radio stations, Bimini and now Freeport VHF traffic, some Miami and Key Largo VHF traffic. Saw only a few boats all afternoon. Water was 15-25 feet deep all afternoon. Ran genset for 2 hours. Grilled chicken and canned potatoes for dinner. Did 3 days worth of dishes. Just realized I've totally screwed up my weather planning. Wednesday winds are supposed to be 15-20 with associated swells. I thought I was leaving on Monday, and would be arriving Chub Cay on Tuesday evening. But I left on Tuesday, not Monday ! And I left late, to catch the rising tide, and then screwed around sailing for 2 hours. So now I'm going to be stuck motoring through nasty wind and swells for 2 days, and stuck anchoring in rough conditions for 2 nights. Sure enough, all night the boat was galloping up, down and sideways. I got about 2 hours sleep. Fortunately the anchor held just fine. Saw a few other lights of passing boats in the middle of the night, including one that seemed to anchor for an hour or two. 1/23/2002 (Wednesday) At anchor 12-15 miles ENE of Bimini, in the Great Bahama Bank. Sunny morning with a few rain clouds, but 15-20 knot ESE wind and 3-4 foot swells coming from a couple of directions. Gave up trying to sleep and started to raise anchor at 6:15 AM. Took a solid hour to get it up, singlehanded in this swell and wind and bringing in 100 feet of chain. Swell and wind kept pushing bow off sideways, making chain jump to wrong bow roller, and off the rollers at one point; getting it back on was hard. Finally raised mizzen sail to try to keep stern downwind; seemed to work. Pulled chain in a few inches every time the bow dipped down into a swell. Lack of sleep and awareness of the danger of working on a wet pitching foredeck in the middle of the Bank didn't help. Pretty tired by the time I got it up. Motoring into the swell is tough; fortunately I have a big engine. In flatter moments, the boat will get up to 6 knots. Then it hits a swell and drops to 5 or so. Very big swells drop it down to 4.5. Spray over the bow and onto the windows and running down the side decks. Lots of plunging and rising of the bow. Reinstalled teak trim on pilothouse. Will take all the trim off when I'm ready to sand. Sponged water out of bilge at base of mainmast compression post. Other than that, didn't do much today, except read and lie around feeling sleep-deprived. Motored all day until I anchored at 3:50 PM off the northwest corner of Andros Island (at lat 25.21.312 long 78.21.169). I couldn't make it all the way to Chub Cay (my next destination) today, and this place is the only shelter nearby. A shoal area gives some protection from the swells raised by the ESE wind, and the area is shallower than last night's area (10 feet versus 18). And it doesn't seem to have the swells from multiple directions that the other place had. Still no land in sight. Saw only one or two boats today, and they were fairly far away. Still haven't seen any coral-heads; I was worried that I might plow into one because of the reduced visibility (due to spray and wind and swells) and my constant use of the auto-pilot. Biscuits wrapping sausage and cheese, and salad, for dinner. Ran genset for 2 hours. Engine hours 1538.1 1/24/2002 (Thursday) At anchor off northwest corner of Andros Island. Anchor held fine all night. Sunny morning with 10+ knots SE wind. Measured fuel level 14.1 inches. Motored up to Northwest Channel. When I passed the west beacon and headed for the east beacon, about 12:30, there were 5 boats and two markers in sight ! Felt like Grand Central Station ! Two were sailboats on a course parallel with me, but motoring at more like 3 knots compared to my 4 to 4.5. They must have taken a long time to cross the Bank. I motored at up to 6 knots at times yesterday. As I left the Northwest Channel and entered deep water, the water color changed from swimming-pool green to gun-metal blue. The depth went from 20 feet to 200-400 feet, and the swells got big, since they were coming in from water that's 3000 to 8000 feet deep. Did some fishing (well, towed a lure with a hook) for a couple of hours. No fish. Sponged more water out of bilge. Pulled in to Chub Cay Point anchorage about 4:40 and anchored at lat 25.24.657 long 77.54.565. The anchorage isn't very big; there are about 8 boats in it now, and maybe 4 more could fit. Just barely sheltered from SE wind; if the wind shifts more E as it's supposed to, the shelter will be much better. Engine hours 1544.7 Took a sun-shower. Saw a US Navy barge-type boat pull in to the marina, and a US Coast Guard helicopter take off from the airstrip. Salad and canned beef and green beans and noodles for dinner, fruit cup for dessert. Ran genset for 2.5 hours. Enough motion during the night that I moved from the aft cabin to the V-berth to get less motion and fewer creaking noises (from the boat, not me). 1/25/2002 (Friday) At anchor at Chub Cay. Rained at 7:30 AM; got nice and sunny by 9. Did bucket of laundry. Went ashore and found that Chub Cay is far smaller and quieter than even Bimini. There is a nice marina complex at the west end (where I am), called the Chub Cay Club. There is an airport. There is a marina and restaurant at the east end, called Shipwreck. Some houses. That's it. Bought a loaf of fresh bread at the marina store. Saw a seaplane land and take off nearby. Saw another one later. Started to remove teak trim from pilothouse so I could sand, but ran into a couple of pieces I hadn't removed before. Those take an hour apiece to get off, so I got one off and had to give up on sanding today. A nice guy (Canadian, of course) from a nearby boat came over to say hello, and I pumped him for information about Nassau. He's going there tomorrow too. Sun-shower. Measured fuel level at 13.5 inches. Watched glowing orange sun set into the water. Salad and bread and grilled chicken for dinner. Ran genset for 2 hours. 1/26/2002 (Saturday) At anchor at Chub Cay. Wind shifted to northwest and rained at 2 AM, then wind shifted back to SSE. Raised anchor and left for Nassau at 7 AM. Wow, the clean propeller and hull improved speed more than I thought ! At 1800-1900 RPM, we used to get 6.0-6.2 knots; now I get 7.3-7.5 into a 10-knot wind and small swell. Scraped caulk off teak trim under way. Saw several freighters and several pleasure boats. Arrived Nassau entrance about 2 PM. Got permission to enter, went past lots of docked cruise ships, anchored about 2:45 near the Crocodile restaurant (at lat 25.04.769, long 77.19.839). Engine hours 1552.5 Confusing; boats in anchorage are pointing many different directions. I could understand wind versus current, but two very similar boats right next to each other pointing substantially different directions ? The currents and bottom contours can't be that strange. Lots of ferry-boat and excursion-boat wakes. Seaplane landed. Interesting boats going through. 1/27/2002 (Sunday) At anchor in Nassau Harbor. Several cruise ships left in the night; I didn't hear them go. Worked on teak a little more. Dinghied ashore at Crocodile's restaurant. Very nice: free dinghy dock, free garbage dumpster, free water across the street. Walked east to the cruise ship docks and then to the Straw Market. Most stores closed, but still a lot of activity. Half of the local men seem to be involved with taxi's; lots of people asking "taxi ?" and lots of taxi's beeping their horns at people. Stopped at an internet cafe ($2). Met a nice couple back at the dinghy dock. Fuel level 12.5 inches. Dinner is sort-of beef curry over rice, plus green beans. Ran genset for 2 hours. 1/28/2002 (Monday) At anchor in Nassau Harbor. Dinghied ashore and walked to the east end of the island. Saw Fort Montagu, fish market, nice scenery, lots of traffic. Bought fresh loaf of raisin-and-coconut bread. Got some water. Salad, hot dogs and beans for dinner. Ran genset for 2.25 hours. 1/29/2002 (Tuesday) At anchor in Nassau Harbor. Overcast morning. Dinghied ashore, went to library, donated some books and magazines. The library building is an old, 8-sided, 3-story building that once was a prison. Read some newspapers from England. Went to a cyber-cafe and did email ($3). Got some water. Did a bucket of laundry. Brief rain at 4 PM. Dinghied ashore again and walked over the bridge to Paradise Island. The bridges are great: terrific views. As I was watching a ferry dock, with my elbows on the railing of the bridge, some yokel on the ferry dock looked up and yelled "don't think; just jump!". I felt like going down and telling him "I've jumped off higher bridges than this!" (I've done 4 bungee jumps). The marina is full of big powerboats, and a few big catamarans. One of the powerboats had three enclosed decks (three stories). Had a nice conversation with a cute girl who crews on one of the big yachts in the marina there. She said the marina costs $5/foot/night, but her boat's owner loses so much money at the casino that their slip is free. She's bored because the boat has been sitting here for a couple of months; they were supposed to go to the Virgin Islands but that got cancelled. There's a crew of 5 on her boat. The casino is interesting but the best part is an aquarium, with lots of interesting fish and a big manta ray. Dinner back at the boat: soup and salad. Ran genset for 1.5 hours. 1/30/2002 (Wednesday) At anchor in Nassau Harbor. Up at 6 AM to find another boat swinging very close to mine, as all boats went crazy at max flood or high tide. At one point, the two boats nearest mine, and mine, were facing W, N and E, with sterns toward each other. Talked to the people on the other boat about it, but they don't see a need to move their boat or reduce scope. Hope we don't collide. I've already reduced my scope to a dangerously short level (about 3-1 at high tide). I'm in pretty shallow water and the anchor seems to be holding. Dinghied ashore and walked over hill to a supermarket. Prices weren't outrageous, and they even had the same brand of granola I usually buy. Made brandied chicken (sort of) and corn bread for dinner. Should have used more brandy on the chicken. Ran genset for 2.75 hours. 1/31/2002 (Thursday) At anchor in Nassau Harbor. Wind 15-20 knots. Measured fuel level 12.25 inches. Did some shortwave listening. Re-anchored the boat to try to get to a clearer space and put out more scope. Decided to offer Magnolia for sale (again); I want to be with my girlfriend, and she doesn't want to be on the boat. Dinghied ashore, walked down past cruise ship area along shore, found nothing of interest down there. Did email ($5), read newspapers in the library. Dinner was a sausage, a hamburger, salad, corn bread. Ran genset for 2 hours. Lots of rain and wind at 7:30 PM, and again at 3 AM. 2/1/2002 (Friday) At anchor in Nassau Harbor. Wind about 15 knots. Hoped to move to Rose Island (just east of Nassau) today, but it's a little too windy and threatening rain. Do a lot of shortwave listening with very little result; can pick up commercial stations, but none of the marine nets. Put more water in the tanks. Dinghied ashore and walked over the bridge to Paradise Island, hoping to get to a beach. But it seems the beaches there are behind hotels and fences. Take ferry to downtown Nassau and do email ($3). Try to call girlfriend several ways; all fail. Get some more email ($1), including new phone instructions. Get through to her answering machine. Dinner is salad and a chicken casserole I threw together at random (chicken, green beans, linguine, butter, parmesan cheese, milk, egg, flour). Came out okay. Ran genset for 2 hours. Dinghied ashore in the dark and finally got my girlfriend on the phone. She wants to come here for a couple of months ! Great ! 2/2/2002 (Saturday) At anchor in Nassau Harbor. Rain clouds all day, but didn't rain. Commenced operation "Cleanup": did laundry, cleaned heads, cleaned much of galley, started attacking mess on main table. Dinghied ashore to do email ($2) and call the girlfriend. Asked Immigration how she can fly in and then sail out; appears I'll have to go to the airport with the cruising permit. Leftover casserole and cornbread for dinner. Ran genset for 2 hours. 9 months on the boat and I'm still finding things I didn't know about: Downstairs VHF (which I never use) turns out to have bad reception because no antenna is connected (I think I knew that once). Looking underneath the nav station, I find an antenna switch I didn't know existed. It seems to have only a ground wire going in and nothing coming out. So now I have to go trace antenna wires and figure out whether I have all the parts to connect an antenna to the downstairs VHF. 2/3/2002 (Sunday) At anchor in Nassau Harbor. Partly cloudy, but they're rain clouds. Did more shortwave listening, and some cleaning. Measured fuel at 12.75 inches (higher than previous reading!). Saw a manta ray skimming the bottom of the harbor. Just before noon, a dozen or so big yachts came out of Paradise Island marina, paraded around, blew their horns, and went back in. Getting a bit too close to another boat, so tried to start engine and move, but batteries are flat ! Guess running the blower last night prevented them from getting well-charged ? Ran genset for 2 hours. Sanded outside of pilothouse one more time. Did Velcro for screens on hatches. Decided not to move boat after all. Measured fuel at 12.1 inches. 2/4/2002 (Monday) At anchor in Nassau Harbor. Mostly sunny. Did a couple of buckets of laundry and some cleaning. Near-disaster; at about 1 PM, as I was starting to think of going ashore, heard some strange thumps and realized my anchor was dragging. Rushed up top to find myself dragging toward several boats. Tried to start engine, but batteries too flat. Let out more scope; didn't help. Missed one boat as I started the genset. Engine still wouldn't start. Dropped second anchor; didn't seem to help. Starting to swing into a boat. Finally managed to start engine. Tried to motor away, to find that second anchor had snagged anchor rode on other boat. Tried to raise second anchor; couldn't do it and control boat. Bow pulpits collided in glancing blow. Two guys from dinghies came aboard and raised my anchors as I controlled boat. Motored up and set primary anchor. Got in dinghy, dropped second anchor as a guy got on my boat and let out chain. Smashed two fingers on my right hand dropping the second anchor. Used his glass bucket to see that primary anchor is set well, secondary isn't. I'm on the edge of a channel, in 20-foot water, without enough scope. But it's blowing 15-20 knots; too rough to raise anchors and move. Could have been far worse. Talked to owner of boat I hit (glancingly); no damage to his boat. I have a dent in one upright on the bow pulpit. Very fortunate that I was on board when it happened. Nice that it wasn't night or raining. My fingers are okay; bruised and some bleeding. Some lessons: - Keep batteries up. - Use more than one anchor in bad holding. - Tight harbors with bad holding really suck. - Make a "glass bucket" and check the anchor set. Ran engine for a couple of hours to charge batteries. I'm totally nervous and wired; afraid to leave boat in case anchors drag again. Lots of errands to do but can't leave boat. Engine hours 1555.6 Guy who helped me invited me over for drinks at 4:30. Nice people: Charles and Claudette Munson on Margarita (Mainship 34 trawler). Other guy who helped was there too: Randy and Lori McGraw on Soulmate 3 (CS 33 sailboat); their dog is named "Bosun"; their email is sv_soulmate at hotmail.com I really need to make some "boat cards". Dinghied ashore to phone girlfriend. Guy on dinghy asked for ride out to his boat to get bolt-cutters; the lock on his dinghy was frozen. Took him out and back, then phoned girlfriend and got answering machine. Still too rough at 7:30 PM to raise anchor and move; looks like it will be a long, nervous night. Dinner is some soup and some green beans. Ran genset for 1.5 hours. 2/5/2002 (Tuesday) At anchor in Nassau Harbor. Cool, windy and sunny; cold front moving through. Popping head up every 15 minutes during the night to see if the anchors were okay. Up at 4:30 when tide shifted boats around, since now I was hanging on a badly set Danforth on short scope, with a mooring buoy behind me and a hard shore a hundred yards beyond that. Ran the engine in case I dragged, and tried to raise anchor, but couldn't get the CQR up. I'd have to raise the Danforth first, then the CQR, hoping the CQR didn't foul the mooring buoy line, while the wind spun me down into the buoy. Finally gave up and stood anchor watch for a couple of hours, with the engine running in case the anchor suddenly let go. Gave up and went to bed at 6:30. Up about 8:30 and did re-anchor, and it went okay. Didn't actually move that far, but got CQR into shallower water at a better angle, and I'll move the Danforth to a good location later. Did a couple of buckets of laundry. Dinghied ashore for email ($2), phone call, haircut (in a barbershop away from downtown, where I think they don't get too many white customers), mail a letter, buy bottle of rum. Washed decks. Sun-shower was hot but cold wind chilled me. Hamburgers and salad for dinner. Ran genset for 2 hours. More straightening up and cleaning. Left at 10 to pick up girlfriend at airport. Dinghied ashore, arranged with restaurant people to have security guard let me through at 1 AM, walked downtown, took taxi to airport, cleared everything at Immigration, waited until flight got in at 12:15, and she wasn't on it ! Airline screwed up connections in Miami and stranded her there. Took taxi back to restaurant, hopped fence to get in. Dinghied out at 1 AM. 2/6/2002 (Wednesday) At anchor in Nassau Harbor. Cool, windy and sunny. Dinghy/downtown/taxi again to pick up girlfriend at airport; successful this time ! Wonderful to see her. (Funniest thing; after having taxi drivers yelling "taxi" at me all week, couldn't get one at the tourist center. Had to walk out to Bay St to get one.) We're both exhausted from lack of sleep; ate huge spinach/sausage/cheese omelet and slept all afternoon. Ran genset for 1 hour. Sun-showers. Aft head looks like there was an explosion in there; her stuff is everywhere. First mate tried galley hand-pump, which I haven't used since it leaks, and this milky goo is coming out of the forward water tank (I've been using the aft tank for the last several weeks). May have to shock and/or drain the forward tank. Also, tried to start genset at dinner time and the solenoid is sticking again ! This is the second reconditioned solenoid that is doing this. Poked at it and managed to get genset started. Ran genset for 3.25 hours. Dinner is rice and chicken stir-fry; delicious. Chai tea with dessert. 2/7/2002 (Thursday) At anchor in Nassau Harbor. Late start today. Dinghied in to do email and shopping. Walked downtown and went in lots of stores. For some reason, Tikal's internet cafe closed. Ate lunch (conch salad and conch burger) at Crocodile's. I'm glad I tried conch, but I don't see what the big deal is. Not that terrific. Walked over hill to City Market supermarket for groceries; tired from all the walking. Nice happy-hour in the cockpit, watching the harbor traffic. Used binoculars to look at Club Med; it looks empty. Fried rice for dinner. Ran genset for 1.75 hours. Had to poke at solenoid to get it started. 2/8/2002 (Friday) At anchor in Nassau Harbor. Reasonably hard rain at 11 AM, just as we were thinking of going to the beach. Salad and grilled cheese for lunch. Dinghied ashore and checked out eateries and fish and produce stands under the Paradise Island east bridge. Saw a dead sea-turtle in one of the stands; it really turned our stomaches, lots of raw meat spilling out of it's body. Looked like it was going to waste, too. Walked east to shopping center to buy groceries at City Market supermarket. Swinging a bit close to a boat moored behind us. Still very cloudy and trying to rain. Dinner was garlic bread and spaghetti. Ran genset for 2 hours; solenoid stuck again. 2/9/2002 (Saturday) At anchor in Nassau Harbor. Loafed all morning. Pressure water system: cleaned strainer, determined that aft tank was empty, ran some ugly but safe water out of the forward tank, cleaned hoses on top of sight tubes (very dirty). Dinghied ashore to get water. Added 15 gallons to aft tank and found water now halfway up sight tube. Water leaking from rudder shaft stuffing box; lock nut had worked loose. Maybe I put too much anti-seize on it. Dinghied ashore to go to bakery and grocery and get more water; added 15 gallons to aft tank. Dinghied ashore for more water; added 15 gallons to aft tank. Nice happy-hour although a bit windy. Salad and steak and potatoes for dinner. Ran genset for 1.75 hours; solenoid still sticking. Dinghied ashore at 8 PM and walked over bridge to Paradise Island. Checked out boats in Atlantis marina, then went into casino. Place was active on a Saturday night, although there were plenty of open tables and machines. Didn't do any gambling. 2/10/2002 (Sunday) At anchor in Nassau Harbor. Worried about anchor and possible flat batteries at 3 AM, when boats were in "silly time" (pointing all different directions, sailing around, etc). So got up, started engine (no problem), ran it to charge batteries and kept anchor watch for 30 minutes. Engine hours 1558.7 Fuel level 12.0 inches. Sunny, breezy day. Tried listening to shortwave; reception terrible. Skipper made lovely omelets for brunch. Did some laundry. See, the problem with doing laundry in a bucket, is not so much the washing as the drying. The lifelines always have salt on them, sometimes rust also, and most other lines the skipper can possibly string from anywhere for laundered items to hang to dry on are likely to brush up against something that has salt on it. Once the clothes get salt on them they never get dry. Usually rains on wash day and the clothes usually don't get dry the first day they are put out for whatever reason. Dinghied ashore for water. Added 30 gallons of water to aft tank. Dinghied ashore, walked downtown, did email, bought liquor. Most shops closed. Dinner was corn bread and Hoppin' John. Saw very nice fireworks next to Atlantis. Ran genset for 2.5 hours. 2/11/2002 (Monday) At anchor in Nassau Harbor. Listened to shortwave; reception terrible and got no weather info except that it should blow north all week. More laundry. Cause it was a good idea to use up the nasty forward tank water by getting laundry done (uh huh). Dinghied over to the Texaco station and walked to City Market; bought more provisions. Had to try 2 ATM cards at two different banks before one worked. Skipper broke a bottle of wine lifting it onto the boat. Dinghied ashore for another 15 gallons of water in the hot sun. Raised anchors about 2:30; batteries were too flat to start engine without running genset ! Thought they should have been in better shape. Ran genset for 0.25 hour to charge batteries before starting engine. Chain was wrapped around CQR anchor in a couple of ways. Lots of garbage floating around harbour, pop cans, garbage bags, even six pack containers, disgusting, even though the water itself looks crystal clear. Motored to Esso fuel dock, only to find that the attendant had "made a mistake" when he told us the diesel price earlier. Left and went to the Hurricane Hole Marina fuel dock. As the first mate said at least we have a chance at getting water there also. Diesel was $1.44/gallon, gasoline was $2.30/gallon. Expected to pay $0.20/gallon for water, but we asked for the water hose right up front, the first mate smiled at the attendant, and no one mentioned money and water in the same sentence aka no charge for water. Wish I hadn't spent all of that time and effort hauling jugs of water in the dinghy ! Spent $143 for 94 gallons of diesel and 3 gallons of gasoline. Shortly after we crossed the channel away from the fuel dock and heading out of Nassau Harbour, we heard the very loud noises of the seaplane that takes off and lands in the harbour, from what we thought on the west side of the paradise island bridges. We pulled to the starboard side of the channel as the plane was took off right down the middle of the channel, looks like they don't wait for all clear conditions. Finally left the harbor about 4:30, got to Rose Island's Bottom Harbor at 5:15 or so. Anchored at lat 25.05.011 long 77.12.565. Swell from SE is uncomfortable; wind was supposed to change to NE today, which would have made this anchorage perfect. Saw one of those WindJammer Cruise Yachts, looked empty, doing a lifeboat drill or maybe tendering passengers, anchored quite a ways off Nassau for passengers to be tendered though. First mate squeegeed pilot house windows whilst underway, so as not to appear too scruffy when we arrived at Rose Island anchorage. Big rain clouds over Nassau. Engine hours 1560.9 No showers; sun-shower didn't get hot today. Salad and Pad Thai for dinner. Skipper on scrap-up and coffee duty. Played Aretha for a little after-dinner workout/dancing. Ran genset for 2.25 hours. 2/12/2002 (Tuesday) At anchor in West Bottom Harbor on south side of Rose Island. Boats didn't change position at all during the night; faced east all night, despite supposed strong tidal flows through the anchorage. Got early start: up at 7. But first mate wanted coffee, toast and oatmeal, so we ran the genset for 0.5 hour. Blew out a fuse trying to do all of the cooking at the same time. Anchors up by 7:45. Motored west and south and east to get out and around Porgee Rocks, then sailed for 4 hours. Wind is supposed to start moving around to NE, but kept coming out of SE (directly where we wanted to go), so after 4 hours we'd made 12 miles of south and 1 mile of east, to about lat 24.51.5 long 77.12.7 Rudder shaft still leaking a bit; packing nuts keep working loose; may have to wipe anti-seize off. Did some fishing along the way, the skipper trolling hand-made lures to the great disdain of the first mate. Since she made most of the morning passage asleep, ... Also listened to some nice Bahamian FM radio stations. Skipper also hand-sanded parts of outside of pilothouse. Ready to apply primer soon. Started motoring at 1245. Anchored west of Leaf Cay (part of Allans Cays in the Exumas) at 24.44.903 long 76.50.269 As usual, this anchorage is far smaller than you'd guess from the charts and guidebooks, and the 12 boats (including us) in it fill it pretty full. We struggled to dinghy out our second anchor in a good direction. Tighter quarters than I'm comfortable with, but that's been true of every good anchorage in the Bahamas so far. Set primary anchor well, and have lots of heavy chain out, and the anchorage is well sheltered and extremely calm, so I think we'll be okay. Engine hours 1566.7 Saw iguanas on beach next to us; this place is famous for all of the iguanas. Anchorage is very dark: lots of stars, and can't see your hand in front of your face inside the boat with lights out. And very quiet: can hear soft conversations on other boats. Guy behind us blew a few notes on a trumpet to herald sunset, and then played a little tune later; he's very good. Ran genset for 1 hour; seemed a shame to add noise to the anchorage. Dinner is chili (with hamburger and potatoes added) and leftover cornbread. 2/13/2002 (Wednesday) At anchor west of Leaf Cay (part of Allan's Cays in the Exumas). Good rain from 7:30 to 8:30. Caught several gallons of it in buckets. Partly sunny afterward. Terrible reception on the shortwave. Iguanas sunning themselves on the beach. Ran genset for 0.5 hour to cook first mate's breakfast. Genset solenoid still sticking. Sprinkled a few more times before noon. Wind variable, sometimes from SW. Two "Powerboat Adventures" boats from Nassau appeared, to let their people feed and harass the iguanas. We dinghied ashore to take pictures of the iguanas, then dinghied around the anchorage a bit. Skipper snorkeled under the boat to clean the hull for more than an hour. First mate polished stanchions and other hardware. Dinner was chicken paprika over linguine. Ran genset for 2 hours. Hot water for first mate's shower. 2/14/2002 (Thursday) At anchor west of Leaf Cay (part of Allan's Cays in the Exumas). Raised anchors about 9 AM; was tough because the two chains were twisted around each other twice. Strong current running too. Had to push boat around twice with dinghy to untwist the chains. Launching and raising dinghy and then raising two anchors was pretty tiring. Motored out of Allan's Cays, then sailed for about 20 minutes before having to turn straight into the wind to motor southeast. Motored several hours to southwest corner of Hawksbill Cay; anchored at 2:30 at lat 24.28.130 long 76.46.237. Beautiful anchorage, lots of space, only 3 other boats, several small beaches. Slight swell from SW, which is unexpected. Engine hours 1571.4 While underway, added ground wire to SSB receiver; want to see if it improves reception. Did a little fishing (trolling) too. Snorkeled around the anchors and reset one. Wonderful sandy bottom, 6 feet deep. No fish or other wildlife except some sponges and some depressions with something living at the bottom. We're inside the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park anyway; no fishing or taking of wildlife. Looks like Juno II is here, we came across them them at Rose Island, one night at Allen's Cay and now here at Hawksbill Cay. Maybe we should introduce ourselves. Swam and dinghied ashore to small beach (first mate almost killed skipper with dinghy as change of course by skipper mistakenly read by first mate as a command to bring the dinghy in to pick him up. Skipper's head and dinghy's bow grazed. To further add embarassment to ineptitude the first mate couldn't remember how to turn the motor off when she got to shore, nor how to lift the propeller out of the water, no damage done, but as the First Mate says, "she shouldn't be allowed out".) Two more trips back to the mother ship, one for sunglasses and camera, then for lifejackets, paddle and binoculars, then dinghied north to much bigger beach, looking for a trail to plantation ruins. Couldn't find it. Huge motor yacht on northern beach, with 3 jet-ski's, a dinghy and a powerboat, flying the St Vincent and the Grenadines flag ? Nice walk on beautiful beach. Looking for creek mouth, couldn't find it either. Wind and small swells have been clocking around all day; was SE this morning, S and SW in afternoon, then W and N and now NE in later afternoon. Anchorage is protected from NE, E, SE. We've killed a liter of Mount Gay rum in 8 days. Had to poke at the solenoid again to get the generator started. Started generator at 7:20 pm Garlic bread and leftovers (Pad Thai, cornbread) for dinner. Ran genset for 1.75 hours. Lots of uncomfortable swells from W from about 9 to midnight. Wind changed to E and NE after that, and swells stopped. 2/15/2002 (Friday) At anchor at southwest corner of Hawksbill Cay. Measured fuel at 16.3 inches. Blowing 10-15 knots. Sunny with a few clouds. Listened to shortwave and heard a bit of a forecast; still unclear. We're at the edge or just ahead of a weakening cold front, so wind is SE but might change to N in a day or two. Raised CQR anchor under sail, but had to start engine to raise Danforth (would have taken all day under sail). Motored out of the anchorage, then sailed west at 4.5 knots in 15 knots of east wind. Turned south (wanted to sail 140, but couldn't do better than 165) and sailed for a couple of hours at 2.5 to 4.0 knots. Boat balanced very well, didn't have to stay at helm. Wind becoming ESE, 15-20, swells building. Saw several other boats sailing fast. Had to start engine to turn east shortly after noon. First mate oiled half of the interior teak. Some of the teak veneer is starting to split, either because of water leakage or lack of oiling or the stresses from all of the rolling in swells. Motored into middle anchorage (Emerald Beach) on west side of Warderick Wells Cay. Anchored at lat 24.22.953 long 76.37.617 in about 7 feet of water. No other boats near us; they've all elected to pay for moorings ($15 for 2 nights) in the north harbor, which is about 1/4 mile north of us. We're protected from NE to SE, and somewhat from N and S. Engine hours 1573.7 Dinghied in to park headquarters, which is nice but pretty basic. Touristy stuff such as postcards for sale, but no fuel or food, maybe some bottled water. Interesting antique bottles, some other beach-related things, and a sperm whale skeleton on the beach. Started to walk down a trail, but it quickly became a walk across rough coral, and the skipper wasn't up for it. Dinghied back to boat, where we swam for 10 minutes and then showered. Skipper thought he saw a barracuda under the boat, although the part headquarters information said they didn't have shark or barracuda in these waters, some hog-eyeds something or other was predominant though. First mate attempted to scrub the dinghy, with only moderate success. Bottom of anchorage is all sand, very good holding. Lots of small plane (float plane) traffic. Dinner is leftover Chicken Paprika. Ran genset for 1.75 hours. 2/16/2002 (Saturday) At anchor at middle anchorage (Emerald Beach) on west side of Warderick Wells Cay. Measured fuel at 16.25 inches. Wind SSE at 15 knots. Motored down to Little Bell Island, hoping to snorkel, but it was too rough, so continued out Conch Cut into Exuma Sound. Did some trolling. Motored SSE through Exuma Sound to north entrance to Staniel Cay. Surfed in through the entrance on 5-foot swells, some breaking slightly just at the top. Bow of boat was pointing down alarmingly at times. Strong current running out of the cut. Had to make some decisions about which side to take around various rocks. Skipper got a few more grey hairs. Anchored on northwest side of Staniel Cay at lat 24.10.627 long 76.26.600 in 8 feet of water. Did quite a nice job of anchoring with two anchors in strong wind and current, between two boats and a dock. Probably about 20 boats moored/anchored in several different areas. Engine hours 1578.1 Dinghied ashore and lucked into the social event of the season: a fund-raiser for the library/museum. Oh, the pageantry ! Oh, the finery ! Actually, it was a bake sale and book sale and rummage sale and food sale, with 50+ people attending. Had some nice conch fritters that were more fritter than conch, bought some books, talked to a couple of nice yachties. One couple (Canadian couple from St Thomas Ont) had been here since Christmas; don't know what they find to do here. Walked to the two grocery stores; the pink one had lots of good stock, the blue one didn't. First mate got to pet a nice black cat; made her day. Didn't buy anything. Walked to the two marinas, and up into the center of the island. Several gaily-painted rental units and houses; very pretty. Hauling the dinghy off the beach and back into the water took muscle. Didn't look like there was much in the way of garbage facilities for the residents let alone cruisers, marina charged $5 to deposit large bag of garbage (maybe only to marina customer). Looks like a business opportunity, haul in goods from Costco and haul out garbage. Looks like a pleasant island to live on, lots of community activity, quiet roads, lots of golf carts used as vehicles. Ran genset for 2.25 hours. Dinner was sauteed onions canned mushrooms and canned roast beef, canned green beans, and 3-cheese potatoes from a box. Wind changed to SW in evening and we couldn't sleep in the rolly swells until we moved to the V-berth. Rain squall brought strong SW wind and lots of rain at 1 AM, putting us off a lee shore. Fortunately the anchors are set well, and held just fine. Caught an inch of rain in several buckets. 2/17/2002 (Sunday) At anchor at Staniel Cay. Strong (20 knots) W and NW winds, and forecast for more of the same for the next few days. Unfortunately, anchorages protected from W are scarce in this area. Ran genset for 0.75 hours so first mate could have coffee and toast and oatmeal. Did a great job of raising two anchors, with 90 feet of chain on each, while being blown towards a lee shore. One anchor was about 30 feet behind another boat; her skipper got VERY interested as we approached to raise that one. Motored out through anchorage; almost ran aground as we circled toward a beach. Chart and guidebook disagreed about route out, so we had to wing it. Motored into strong wind and big swell on starboard quarter, giving a lot of rolling. Finally turned SE. Tried sailing with jib only, but hard to keep it filled going dead downwind (unless I had poled it out), and it gave us about 3.5 knots with lots of hand-steering. Ended up motor-sailing with auto-pilot on, and got 6.5 knots from low engine RPMs and some surfing down swells. Motored down to Big Farmer Cay. Passed Moosha Key, beautiful beach houses, think it is a private resort with cottages that rent at about $1000/night, lots of beach equipment, windsurfers, jet-skis, fishing boats, didn't look like too many guests, one guy who looks like a TV producer with a beard, can't think of his name now, he jet-skied by us later in the afternoon. Looks like the island has its own landing strip as many of them do down here. Felt our way through passage past Moosha Cay down to Rudder Cut Cay, where we anchored at north end in 6 feet of water at lat 23.52.860 long 76.15.153 Protected from N to SE, some NW protection. Engine hours 1582.9 Dinghied to a couple of nice beaches, and into a private lake in the middle of the Cay. Looking for conch, saw lots of piles of empty conch shells again. It's hard do imagine that there are any left from the mounds of discarded shells one sees everywhere. Looked into a cave. Skipper tried to throw dead coconuts up into trees to knock down green coconuts; no luck. Back to boat, skipper snorkeled around looking for conch or fish, but nothing to see. Dinner is world-famous garlic bread, and spaghetti. Ran genset for 1.5 hours. 2/18/2002 (Monday) At anchor at Rudder Cut Cay. 10-20 knots N wind early morning and morning. Ran genset for 0.5 hours to cook breakfast. Should have stayed in bed today; I made a bunch of bad decisions: Raised anchors; it was hard in 20 knots of wind. Motored south to Rudder Cut, where first mate had a conniption when she found I was planning to go out the cut and into the Sound. It looked rough out there. I went out the cut, and it was as rough as she feared. We rolled around for 10 minutes (or much longer like an hour) before deciding to come back in. Going out we were bucking a strong flood current; coming in we were surfing with it. Made it in and out okay, but first mate was right: it was too dangerous and it was too rough out there. Then first mate wanted to take the inside route south, which I had looked at and decided was too tricky. Second bad decision: I took the inside route. We got down between the West Pimlico's and the East Pimlico's, couldn't see a clear way to get through, went anyway, and ran aground more or less at high tide (12 noon or so). Tried powering off, set an anchor from the dinghy and tried pulling off, tried pulling while using the dinghy to push the bow (and at least got the boat facing the way out). Set a second anchor off the bow using the dinghy. Exhausted ourselves pulling anchor rodes and pushing with the dinghy. We were facing into the teeth of the 20-knot NE wind and swells. Finally gave up, rested and ate a small lunch. A local guy (Shakey Shack) got on the radio, came over, and we tried pulling the boat over with a spare halyard to see if that would get the keel off. All it did was change us from upright to a 10+ degree heel at 3 PM. By 4 PM, 17 degrees. At least we're on soft sand. 5 PM: 25 degrees heel. Had to take stuff off port shelves, take port drawers out. Max heel of 27-28 degrees from 5:30 to 8:30. Pretty darn uncomfortable, and dangerous when moving about. Salad and granola for dinner. Sitting on the high corner of first mate's bunk. Got upright again about 11 PM, and started the engine about 11:45. No luck motoring off and cranking on two anchor rodes for more than an hour. About to give up at 1:40 AM when we suddenly got free. Panic scramble to motor off and raise two anchors in dark with 20-knot wind and small swells. Gained and lost ground on the anchor chains, finally got the CQR up, couldn't get the Danforth up. Tried using the motor to rip it out of the bottom; didn't work. Finally let out lots of chain and rope on the Danforth, and went to the cockpit to have the first mate motor past it, only to find that she thought we had motored across deeper water and stuck into another shoal. She wanted us to reverse. We tried some of that, got nowhere, dropped both anchors, and decided to wait for daylight. Now at least I think we can get off, once we can see where to go. Still 20-25 knot winds forecast for tomorrow. Except now the wind and waves are hitting us broadside. Now we're at lat 23.49.232 long 76.13.842 2 degree heel at 3 AM. 2/19/2002 (Tuesday) Aground between the West Pimlico's and the East Pimlico's. Woke up to 22-25 degree heeling at low tide, wind blowing 20-25 knots from east, lots of sloppy swells. Decided how we're going to get free today. Lolled around waiting for tide to rise. Two people radioed in and promised to come over with dinghies to help at high tide. Raised CQR anchor. Got most of Danforth's rode in, but the anchor is grabbing hard 30 feet from the boat. Skipper got in dinghy, slid a rope down the Danforth chain rode as he motored to the anchor, then dragged the anchor over to the boat. First mate hoisted the chain and anchor. Skipper had to bail out dinghy a couple of times. Skipper motored under CQR anchor, and first mate lowered anchor, all 100 feet of chain, and 100+ feet of rope rode into dinghy. Skipper took it out and dropped anchor on port side, 200 feet abeam of the bow. Started running main engine, trying to motor off as keel bumped on sand. Two dinghies appeared and pushed bow toward good water as skipper hauled on anchor rode. Didn't work at first, but 10 minutes later bow was moving. Soon got whole boat moving toward good water. People in dinghies started yelling to cut anchor rode, which didn't seem necessary to skipper but he did it anyway. Bob in dinghy gathered in anchor and rode. Magnolia in good water by 12:45. Bob led us over to his cay (leased from the Crown), and we anchored at lat 23.49.432 long 76.14.882 in about 5 feet of water. He dinghied us ashore and led us to his house, where we had a very nice afternoon with Bob (Bugger Bob, creator of the WindBugger wind generator) and wife Nancy, and Woody and Missi from Too Lazy To (1972 Morgan Out Island 41). We brought a 12-pack of Beck's beer, 2 onions and several cups of flour. Bob provided live conch from his conch corral, showed us how he cleaned them, and Nancy cooked up batch after batch of wonderful conch fritters. They all told us stories of how they ran their boats up on rocks, had stuffing boxes fail and threaten to sink the boat, got dismasted. They told of someone who lost a Formosa 51 on rocks in one of the cuts nearby a few weeks ago, by relying on electronic charting and not supervising the helmsman. They said half of the people out here don't even know how to change their engine oil. I guess the stories made me feel like less of an idiot. They're interesting people. Bugger Bob and Nancy have been spending 8 months/year in the Bahamas for many years. Bob started and/or used to own the company that made the Windbugger wind generator. They have multiple wind generators, a propane generator, a cistern, washer/dryer, a nice house, heavy cast acrylic storm panes over every window. A big dog, two boats, lots of other stuff. They work in Montana 4 months/year. Nancy thought the first mate was bad to have let the skipper bring the boat from Marathon to Nassau singlehanded. Nancy showed us huge nasty scars on her ankle where a barracuda had bitten her severely; she spent a couple months with hospitals and casts and antibiotics, and had lots of bad hospital experiences to talk about. Bob went out and killed the barracuda as soon as he got home from taking her to the hospital. It lived right in the lagoon where they keep a boat. Woody and Missi have been cruising for 8 years, all over the Caribbean. He worked on tugboats in the Pacific before getting injured and retiring at 30. They were the other boat in the anchorage when that boy was shot by bandits in Honduras. They have 3 cats on board, including an 18-year-old cat. They throw their cats overboard occasionally to make sure they can swim. Decided to stay anchored, somewhat in the lee of the cay, tonight. Back to Magnolia, and everything seems to be fine. A big relief to be back to normality. Escaped from the experience with no damages except to ego. Dinner is leftover beef stew and rice and potatoes. Ran genset for 2 hours. 2/20/2002 (Wednesday) At anchor on west side of West Pimlico Cays. Slept like logs last night. Wind moderating a bit; E probably 15 knots. Ran genset for 1.5 hours to make breakfast. Spinach, mushroom and sausage omlettes. Engine hours 1591.4 Motored back to Rudder Cut Cay, feeling our way through shallow water at several places. Anchored at lat 23.52.638 long 76.14.931 By the time we got there, it was blowing SE 25 and swells were getting big. Since the anchorage is unprotected from the SE, it was unsettling. First mate glued several port-screens that were separating. After several hours, at 3 PM, we decided to move to the north side of Darby Island. Had a tough time getting anchor up. Motored to Darby Island and couldn't quite figure out directions and hazards in it. Ended up anchoring not very far into the "harbor", because we saw (and hit) shallow-looking water. Anchored at lat 23.51.474 long 76.13.723 Swell almost completely gone, wind slightly reduced. Skipper had very nice sun-shower, first in 2 days. First Mate decided to do some fishing at sunset with the conch cuttings collected as Nancy and Bob prepared the conch for yesterday's lunch, innards, eyes etc. First mate cast bait, with big wind just let bait lie, as it was being blown with wind and current. Skipper decided to join with his cuban reel, off the port stern. First Mate quickly lost bait and hook, worried it may have been a big barracuda that took it. First Mate held skippers reel, while he reloaded the first mates' rod. He loaded with his prize steel leader he found in Boot Key harbour whilst pulling up his anchor. The First Mate cast the new lead, with bait and almost instantly caught a fish, the combination of the smallish hook (1/0), the large lead and the small line, made out for letting the fish wear itself out rather than doing a lot of pulling to bring him in. Felt big; we were patient, First Mate gave line to Skipper, as guilt pains started to creep in and she had to go to the bathroom. Skipper finally brought in a 1+ lb mutton snapper. The air was even heavier with guilt. The First mate took orange "Fishing Gloves" from skipper, determined that she would be the more humane in removing the hook and letting the fish go free to go on his merry way. The hook and leader combination proved more complicated than anticipated, the first mate gave up when the fish either pooped on deck or excreted something from its mouth. First mate left the scene with instructions to the skipper to make bait out of it. Skipper cut its head off and threw it over, with knowledge of which the first mate thought what if its family sees its head float by ? Skipper decides he is going to practice filleting with the catch. 5 minutes later after several consultations with one of the many instructional books aboard, the Skipper announced that he was just going to throw it over. The First Mate pronounced "no", cut it up into bait. After the scene was over the air was no lighter, the Skipper had his reel still loaded with conch bits. Again almost immediately the bait was snagged, this time by an even smaller snapper. Story continues along with same lines as to bait removal. This time the whole fish was thrown back partly alive, however the air was still heavy with thoughts as to his destiny. Dinner was pork chops, potatoes and lentils. Skipper on scrap-up again as first mate uses too much water for the task, however skipper uses too much soap. Threw pork chop bones over the side to make amends to the families of the fish who died this evening. Hope we didn't cause any sqabbles down there, in 7 - 8 feet of water. Ran genset for 1.5 hours. 2/21/2002 (Thursday) At anchor on north end of Darby Island, able to look right out Rudder Cut. Put a coat of primer on the outside of the pilothouse, making it look much better. The paint was thick and epoxy-like, so it thickened and dried quickly, and we couldn't get it to quite cover everything. Plus we were painting in 15+ knots of wind at times, which was an adventure. But the pilothouse looks much better; in it's sanded state, people were looking at it and saying "boy, your boat needs a lot of work!" Dinghied up into the cut between Little Darby Island and Darby Island, looking for conch. First mate supervised as skipper went wading and snorkeling to hunt. Found a baby conch, and a smallish crab living in a conch shell, but no live mature conch. The shores were littered with heaps and heaps of old conch shells; there must have been ten thousand spread through the cut. Nice sunset at happy hour. Dinner is barbecued (Indian) chicken and herb potatoes, with cranberry bread to follow. Ran genset for 2 hours. Exercised air-conditioners briefly. 2/22/2002 (Friday) At anchor on north end of Darby Island. Listened to marine nets on shortwave, with usual result of total confusion about the weather. A high-pressure ridge and a front are somewhere north of us and moving toward us, and every forecast is conditional on where and when we and they are located. Added 1/2 quart of oil to the genset. Added 1 1/2 quarts of oil to the main engine. Disaster: all of the main engine oil is in the bilge ! Adding 1 1/2 quarts didn't make anything appear on the dipstick, so I looked in the bilge and found lots of oil. Looked for leaking points on the engine, found a few suspicious areas. Called for help from Woody on Too Lazy To, and he came over. He brought a quart of oil. We added that plus 2 1/2 more. He said "oh, it's normal for engines to burn oil, you're just low, and what looks like a lot of oil in the bilge is just a thin layer of oil on top of mostly water". He was ready to leave with problem solved, when I pointed out that we'd added 5 quarts of oil. We started the engine and looked for leaks, and quickly found a leak on the oil cooler, on the joint where the forward hose for main engine oil goes into it. There is a crack in the soldered or brazed joint between a hexagonal metal piece and the cylindrical body of the oil cooler. So it looks like 5 quarts of the 10 total capacity ended up in the bilge; we added 5 quarts to bring it back to full. Woody drove me over to his boat in his dinghy, in the roughest, wildest boat ride I've ever experienced, slamming and pounding over following 2-foot swells at 15 knots in a 9-foot inflatable. We'd fed him 4 or 5 beers, and that probably contributed, although as we were leaving to go back, Missi said "he's a real wild man driving that dinghy!". Anyway, we picked up a torch (maybe MAPP?) from his boat, I petted one of their 3 cats, we came back to Magnolia (slamming and pounding again, flying over shallow water, getting some air at one point), and he tried 4 or 5 times to solder the crack closed. All tries failed; the joint leaked when we started the engine and oil pressure came up. Either the torch wasn't hot enough, the body of metal was wicking the heat away, or we had the wrong solder or heat for the type of metal. Rained briefly at 7 PM. Dinner was barbecued chicken, potatoes, lentils. Ran genset for 2.25 hours. Applied Marine-Tex White to crack in oil cooler. Played cards; never bet against the first mate. 2/23/2002 (Saturday) At anchor at north end of Darby Island. Waiting for patch on engine oil-cooler to harden. Weather forecast is alarming; SE 15-20 before front comes through, N 25-30 afterward, gale force winds, small craft warning all that. But the position of the front is unclear, and most of the weather reports were wiped out by static, as usual. Did boat chores: cleaned heads, fixed light fixture in forward head, glued broken hand-compass, cleaned fresh water strainer. We're also watching the movements of all the boats in the area: "looks like they're moving to that anchorage", etc. Saw a couple of boats going out the cut to go south in 20 knot winds and big swells. Started engine at about 1:30 PM, and the patch on the oil-cooler is working ! Raised anchor in 20 knots of wind, but for some reason the boat wasn't pulling on the rode. Motored up to Rudder Cut Cay, checking the patch on the engine every 2 minutes, it seemed. Anchored with 2 anchors at lat 23.52.891 long 76.15.191 at about 2:30 PM. Blowing 20 knots from S. Engine hours 1595.5 Skipper went snorkeling, to check anchors, examine hull after our recent travails, and hunt for dinner. Anchors were fine. Bottom of keel has an 8x12 area scoured through bottom paint and gelcoat and down to fiberglass. Hunt for dinner was fruitless, and skipper got a good workout and frightened the first mate by going pretty far out to a nearby cay, and having to fight stiff waves and current and wind to get back to the boat. Tried auxiliary boarding ladder; still impossible to ascend. Blowing SW 20-25 knots by happy hour. Killed another liter of rum about now, I think. Dinner is pizza made with dough mix from a package; came out quite well. Played 500 rummy; skipper is undisputed champion of the world tonight. Ran genset for 2 hours. 2/24/2002 (Sunday) At anchor at north end of Rudder Cut Cay. Blew 20-25 all night, with gusts to 35. Rained briefly and blew from S about 11 PM, slowly clocked around to W by 2 AM or so, but didn't come around to NW and N as predicted. Barely getting NW by 9 AM. Anchors held fine. A bit bumpy but really not too bad. Heard radio traffic this morning about boat dragging 300+ feet at Farmer Island. People reporting gusts to 32 and 35 overnight. Got almost no weather info this morning, too much static, interference. Looks like things will start to stabilize tomorrow morning with the wind still out of the N or NE, and sounds like several boats (probably including us) will be leaving this area early tomorrow morning to go through the cut down to Georgetown. Skipper baking a fruit date nut loaf without the nuts ??? Because first mate didn't want any raisins in it. Turns out mate wanted a fluffy bread loaf; skipper made a non-fluffy loaf. Friction in afternoon. Ran genset for 1.25 hours. Investigated broken TV/VCR; found AC side is dead but DC side works. Opened TV up, hoping to find some obvious problem, and hoping to find easy way to connect 12V internally, but no go on both scores. First mate put teak oil on interior teak. Started running DC wire from TV/stereo area to electrical panel. Hand-drilled hole through cabinetry, ran wire under port settee, but hit roadblock at freezer. Looks like they added freezer after putting on cosmetic wood behind it. Lots of tight corners and little access. Gave up and going to think about it overnight. Too Lazy To left anchorage about 4 PM heading for Georgetown. Will arrive in dark; doesn't seem good to me. Still blowing 20-25, from N and NNW. Ran engine for 0.5 hour to test oil-cooler patch. No problems. A little more leaking from valve cover than usual, but that can wait. Radio traffic in afternoon about Canada-USA hockey final game in olympics. Later, we hear that Canada won. Canadian first mate serenades American skipper with several approximations of "Oh, Canada", with lots of "something something"s in them. She knows the words about as well as the skipper knows the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner". Made cable to run laptop from house batteries. Hoppin' John for dinner. Played 500 rummy, skipper is a terrible cheat. Ran genset for 1.5 hours. 2/25/2002 (Monday) At anchor at north end of Rudder Cut Cay. Wind NE 15. Measured fuel level 14.75 Raised anchors at 6:30 am, out Rudder Cut by 6:45 am. It's a parade: everyone's heading for George Town today. Saw 4 or 5 sails ahead of us, one next to us, 5 behind us. Motor-sailing at 7 knots at 1400 RPM. Fairly big swells on beam. Heard other boats on radio joking about catching fish; one said "who am I kidding; we haven't seen a fish in 3 years !". Arrived George Town harbor entrance about noon. A bit nervous doing turns to get in, as prescribed by guidebooks and charts, but we were able to watch two boats coming in ahead of us also. Cruised past at least a hundred boats anchored along Stocking Island, saw at least as many more anchored further down, plus more inside the island and across the harbor on the George Town side. Radio has been saying there are about 340 boats here. Crossed harbor to George Town side and anchored at lat 23.30.407 long 75.45.722 about 1 PM. One anchor with 80 feet of chain in 5 feet of water (plus 6 feet of freeboard) at low tide. Engine hours 1602.7 Fuel level 14.25 inches. Anchored close to all the boats we recognize from Darby Island and Rudder Cut: Relax I, Ocean Star. Need to talk to Relax I, he seems to have a plug into the weather forecasts. Also anchored beside Pegasus, the boat with the beautiful graphic around it's name, he beat us across the stretch from Rose Island to Allan Cay. Looks like he has a huge black labrador on board. The talk channel here is channel 68, where one gets to hear all the updates for activities plus they broadcast the weather updates at 8:10 am and 5:35 pm. Dinghied ashore, going under bridge and landing at Exuma Markets dinghy dock. A hotbed of activity; lots of dinghies docked. Ran into Woody and Missi from Too Lazy To in the market; turns out we anchored right near their boat. Saw most of the town in a couple of hours. Bought liquor, food, internet time ($12 for 20 minutes). Heard chef in Two Turtles saying they hadn't had any conch in two weeks; they were bringing some in from Nassau. Found two grocery stores, some things cheaper in one, and vice versa. Looks like the boat from Nassau comes in Tuesday, so we should be able to get eggs and milk tomorrow, both stores sold out today, also selection of fresh veggies pretty dismal. Got some free water. Two laundromats in town, the one we walked to at the south end of town looked good, lots of machines and looks like $1.75 for wash, $1.75 for dry. They will do a load for you: $6 if they use your soap, $7 if they use theirs. Talked to some nice people: English couple at Two Turtles, bread lady (Moms). Purchased a snorkel for the first mate at the hardware store. Weather report says another front arriving Thursday. Beef stir-fry for dinner. Skipper drank some of the water from the dock; he's not foaming at the mouth any more than usual yet. Ran genset for 1.75 hours. Got out checker set and played checkers; afterward first mate said "okay, we're not playing THAT game ever again!". 2/26/2002 (Tuesday) At anchor off Regatta Point in George Town Exumas. Wind ENE 10-15. Beautiful sunny day. Listened to cruiser's net on VHF at 8 AM; pretty funky, lots of strange announcements, they have committees for various things, etc. Supply boat arrived in town. Did bucket of skipper's laundry; mate taking hers ashore to laundromat. Dinghied ashore to do laundry, buy stuff, get rid of garbage. Bought 3 gallons of diesel engine oil ($39), 2 quarts of outboard oil ($10). Got water. Bought lots of groceries. Dinghied to boat with groceries, dinghied back again with more garbage. In afternoon, dinghied ashore again and bought 9.5 gallons of gasoline ($27) and piece of plexiglass ($5) to make a glass-bucket. Bought more food. Walked around Victoria Lake; pleasant in the cool of late afternoon. First mate called home. Cheeseburgers and chili and salad for dinner. Ran genset for 2 hours. 2/27/2002 (Wednesday) At anchor off Regatta Point in George Town Exumas. Beautiful sunny still day; no wind; boats pointing all different directions. Wind seemed to be NW 5 last night. Spinach/mushroom/cheese omelet for breakfast. Today is election day; no liquor available until 6 PM. Sudden revelation about water tanks: cross-over pipe must be sucking water from one tank to other, and making both sight tubes lie to us. Opened vent and sight tubes suddenly say we have about 60 gallons of water left. Also, some thin claylike goo in the tube. Cleaned tube, put a shot of bleach in each tank, dumped 6-8 gallons of water into each tank. Rough calculation says we're using about 10 gallons of water per day, plus sun-shower water, which is too much. But we have 230 gallons of tankage plus 17 gallons of jugs. Dinghied ashore. Disposed of contaminated diesel, bought 4.5 gallons of new diesel ($9), nice snorkel for first mate ($28), various food, nicotine gum to keep first mate sane (or, as close to sane as usual). Cheaper than in the States, $18 for 105 pieces whilst the price in the states is between $20 (walgreens brand) and $30 nicorette brand name for 48 pieces. Got more water. Disposed of garbage. Grilled cheese and hoppin john leftovers for First Mate's lunch, left over stir fry for Skipper's. Motored across harbor to find somewhere to anchor along Stocking Island, since cold front will bring wind from that direction. Cruised up and down looking for open spots with reasonably shallow water, and it took quite a while. Finally settled for 11 feet of water (at low tide) off Volleyball Beach, at lat 23.30.957 long 75.45.569 Amazing number of boats over here. Dinghied into the "holes", where boats probably have been anchored for the whole season. Then went ashore at Volleyball Beach and wandered around. Probably not a typical experience, since the bar is in no-liquor mode because of election day, very British, would never happen in the States. Back to the boat, snorkeled on the anchor and took a sun-shower. It's a real community out here; we can hear people in dinghies and on other boats. For a little while, we were too close to a boat in front of us, but when the wind picks up and the anchor rode straightens out, we should be okay. Chicken apricot for dinner. Skipper is going to make Oatmeal Raisin cookies from recipe on bag of Canadian oatmeal purchased from Exuma Markets (more Canadian products on the shelves at (more) reasonable prices, than american stuff). Ran genset for 2.75 hours. Constructed glass bucket for looking underwater. 2/28/2002 (Thursday) At anchor off Volleyball Beach in George Town Exumas. Cold front coming through today; wind supposed to be strong this afternoon after it passes. Calm last night, a few very light rain sprinkles. Blowing ENE 10+ this morning. Expecting E to NE 20-25 tonight and Friday. We swung a little too close to a nearby boat (a Morgan Out Island 41, which are legion down here), so we raised anchor this morning and moved another 100 feet away, to lat 23.30.937 long 75.45.583 The oatmeal cookies made last night are wonderful ! Dinghied ashore to Hamburger Beach. Long dinghy ride and a bit wet and windy at times, but plenty of interesting boats to look at on the way. Saw a guy ferrying his dog ashore to poop, and first mate hung over the bow of our dinghy like a dog, making all of us laugh and taunting the poor dog. As we landed, saw a school of 8-inch fish chasing a school of 1-inch fish into the shore and eating them. It went on for 5 minutes; I've never seen anything like it. Walked up over the island to the "ocean" side, and the water was rough and windy over there. Saw a small motorboat anchored just past the breakers; must have been a diver down. Had a nice walk on the beautiful beach, then walked down a long nature trail on the way back. Lots of trees and plants labeled with placards telling you interesting things. Got a bit confused about directions, but managed to find our way out of the nature trail. Lazy afternoon; loafed. Spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner. Ran genset for 2 hours. Wind picking up into 20+ range. Played cards; some game I vaguely recalled and can't remember the name of. First mate is "world champion of the anonymous game". 3/2/2002 (Saturday) At anchor off Volleyball Beach in George Town Exumas. Blowing E and ESE 20-25, sunny and clear. Blew 30+ last night; very bumpy at times. First mate didn't sleep well because of boat motion, noises, and feeling too hot. Finally got DC wire for TV set /stereo through space behind freezer and over into engine compartment. Connected it to electrical panel. It's apparent that the builder installed wiring, then placed cabinetry over top of it, at least in the case of the freezer. What a pain ! Dinghied ashore to Volleyball Beach for a concert of cruiser's music by Eileen Quinn. Very funny songs about killing the captain, how unglamorous the cruising life is, potlucks, weather, anchoring. Leftover chicken apricot for dinner. Made pineapple upside-down cake afterwards. Ran genset for 2.25 hours. 3/1/2002 (Friday) At anchor off Volleyball Beach in George Town Exumas. Blowing E and ENE 20-25. Anchor holding just fine. A bit of boat motion last night but not too bad. Supposed to blow ESE 25-30 tomorrow. Ran genset for 0.5 hours to make breakfast. Cleaned off top of engine, removed and sanded and spray-painted rebreather tube, sanded and spray-painted rusty spots on valve cover. Just about my first experience spray-painting; results could be better. Used Napa / Martin Senour "Olds Engine Blue 638"; a little lighter than engine original blue, but I want that. More boat motion and stronger wind by noon. Very good windsurfer (a woman by the by) in the harbour about 3 PM, she was really booting along. Ran DC wire for TV a little further. Some rain at 5 PM. Pad Thai for dinner. Ran genset for 2 hours. Played more cards; first mate takes the day. 3/3/2002 (Sunday) At anchor off Volleyball Beach in George Town Exumas. Blowing ESE 15 early, ESE 20+ by 0100, sunny and clear. Put bigger screws in anchor chain shelf. Tried to start engine and batteries were too flat; ran genset for 0.25 hour to charge batteries. Started engine, raised anchor in 20+ knots of wind, motored over to anchor near town. Had to do 3 passes through boats to get where we wanted to be. Anchored at lat 23.30.290 long 75.45.833 Skipper did 7 dinghy trips to load about 120 gallons of water. Got soaking wet in the high wind and swells. Current through the small bridge was pretty strong. Skipper did a bucket of laundry, to great disapproval from first mate. Heard someone on radio marveling about seeing a big sea-turtle right next to their boat, and of course they didn't say where they were, so we couldn't look for it. Missed hearing the weather this morning, so first mate took charge of hearing it this afternoon. Left VHF on wrong channel and missed it again ! Dinner was leftover Pad Thai, and green beans. Ran genset for 2 hours. Completed DC wire to TV. 3/4/2002 (Monday) At anchor off Kidds Cove in George Town Exumas. Blowing ESE 10-12, nice sunny day. Front supposed to come through tomorrow morning. From running lights and TV last night, and anchor light and refrigerator all night, batteries are flat again. Ran genset for 1.25 hours. Dinghied ashore to do laundry, get water, do shopping, do internet. Failed to do laundry and internet; lines were too long. It's a madhouse; everyone is ashore today doing stuff. Dinghies 3 deep at the dinghy dock. Market out of milk and eggs; supply boat coming tomorrow. Found hot italian sausage in the freezer area of Exuma markets to the skipper's great pleasure; life is complete again: he is nearly fully stocked in sausage, granola, peanut butter and crackers. However the price for diet coke is a bit hard to swallow, $15 for a case of 24, and cheese puffs are a mere $3 a bag. Got water and added it to tanks; completely full to overflowing. Skipper emptied more water in tanks to overflowing, about 3 inches of water in bilge area around sight tubes. Dinghied out and circumnavigated Crab Cay, a very big cay with lots of "fingers". Got pretty wet on the harbor side of it; nice and sheltered on the inland side. Walked on a nice little beach. First mate got some practice at driving the dinghy, and got it planing, which she didn't like at all. Dinghied ashore again and did laundry (including some items the skipper had bucket-washed yesterday), internet ($12), water and shopping. Sent emails requesting snail mail and tax forms to be shipped to George Town; should have done that a week ago. Bought 3 gallons of gasoline ($9). At happy hour, invited Missi and Woody from Too Lazy To over for drinks. Had a very nice time drinking and chatting until 10 PM. Skipper tried to get a game working on Woody's computer and couldn't; first mate got it working. I think we both had big "relationship" and "boat life" discussions with Missi; it was very therapeutic. Woody suggested the genset solenoid sticking could be a ground problem; don't see how it could be myself, but previous owner said a problem with a binnacle gauge while running the genset was probably a ground problem (maybe just the ground on that gauge). Probably a coincidence. House batteries totally flat; ran genset for 3 hours to charge them. Grilled some sausages at 10 PM for dinner and fell into bed at 11 PM. 3/5/2002 (Tuesday) At anchor off Kidds Cove in George Town Exumas. Blowing NE 10-15 and cloudy and humid. Started blowing ENE 30+ and pouring rain at 3 AM; Front came about 9 hours earlier than predicted. Batteries flat again this morning; I think combination of anchor light, refrigerator running too much, and battery charger not up to snuff are killing them. Checked battery water and added water to every cell, but only a couple of them were low, and they weren't extremely low. Batteries barely strong enough to start engine; started engine at 0655 (engine hour 1605.3) and ran for 1.25 hours (to engine hour 1606.5) to charge the batteries. Messed with cabinetry behind freezer to try to put it back together again after running TV wire. Inspected fire extinguishers. Fixed black flashlight (some loose connection). Examined boat insurance to make sure Bahamas covered. Measured rope diameters to document them. Cleaned knotmeter sensor paddle-wheel; still no reading. Works when spun by hand. Adjusted battery charger to try to increase charging current. Blowing NNE 15-20 most of the afternoon. Rained hard several times noon to 2 PM, and again at 6 PM and again later. Depressing number of deck leaks. Some are attributable to the trim being off the pilothouse because we're halfway through painting, but others are recurring problems. Heard a delightful Scottish voice on the VHF; we were cracking up at times. He said it was "blowing boots", among other things. Ran genset for 2.5 hours. Used Dremel to try to cut through trim board behind freezer; didn't work very well. Chili over rice, and corn bread for dinner. Killed another liter of rum today. Blowing 30+ with big swells by 9 PM. Front is stalled just south of us or over us. Weather is unpredictable. 3/6/2002 (Wednesday) At anchor off Kidds Cove in George Town Exumas. Blowing NE 15+ and cloudy in morning, but turned bright and sunny by 0100. Caulked some pilothouse seams I'd opened when we painted, and forgot to recaulk. Dinghied ashore at 0900 to go to Immigration to get permission to stay longer, but the office didn't open by about 0945, so we gave up and went shopping. Had nice chat with couple from Millenium Dragon while waiting for Immigration to open. Market was marking prices up, maybe for Regatta Week. Rough and wet dinghy ride back to boat; broke one egg (first mate immediately made an omelet). Got back to find batteries flat again; ran genset for 0.5 hour to charge batteries enough to start engine. Ran engine for 3.5 hours to charge batteries. Engine hours 1610.0 Even after tweaking, genset-powered battery charger drives only 10-12 amps at 13+ volts into batteries which are at 12.0 volts. Engine-driven alternator drives about 30 amps at 13-14 volts. Need a new battery charger. Skipper sanded primer on pilothouse while first mate lounged around looking good in a bikini. Also recaulked leaking starboard main double chainplate. Rained once briefly, but generally has turned into a nice breezy sunny day. Skipper dinghied ashore to get a time extension from Immigration, mail bill payment, do internet ($9), buy soda and muriatic acid. Just realized that battery charger doesn't increase current if there is a load present; if we watch DC TV or run lights while charger is charging, much of its output doesn't reach the batteries. Dinner is garlic bread and spaghetti. First mate had the temerity to criticize skipper's garlic bread. Ran genset for 2 hours. 3/7/2002 (Thursday) At anchor off Kidds Cove in George Town Exumas. Beautiful sunny calm morning, E 5-10. Measured fuel level 13.25 inches. Decided to paint outside of pilothouse. Skipper washed off sanding dust. First mate taped off edges (windows were already taped), started doing edges with brush, and then had several disagreements with skipper about his painting technique (or lack thereof) and other matters. First mate soon uttered a few bad words and left to pursue other opportunities. Skipper painted the pilothouse. Brief rain-sprinkles an hour or two after done painting. Raised anchor and motored over to Hamburger Beach. Anchored, and then two people came by in dinghies to tell us we had anchored "in the channel", although it is unmarked and people always anchored there. The harbormaster had appeared for the first time in living memory that morning and told people to move out of that spot. So we raised anchored and re-anchored further north, at lat 23.31.788 long 75.46.265 Engine hour 1611.2 Skipper snorkeled on anchor and hull, cleaned around knot-meter and scraped propeller a little. Saw a starfish at least a foot across. Dinghied ashore to hear Eileen Quinn in concert again; lots of fun and funny songs about cruising. Got compliments on pilothouse paint job from Woody and Missi. Veggie stir-fry for dinner (that means tofu), corn-bread for dessert. Ran genset for 2 hours. More work with Dremel on paneling behind freezer, trying to cut it in half so I can glue shims onto hull and re-attach the paneling. Freighter came in at 4 AM, shining a very bright spotlight to look for any boats anchored in its way. 3/8/2002 (Friday) At anchor off Hamburger Beach in George Town Exumas. Beautiful sunny morning, ESE 10. It's a stampede: lots of boats leaving through west entrance. Bacon, cheese, and spinach omelets for breakfast. We raised anchor about 0930 and motored east through the harbor and out through the east entrance, to go to Moriah Harbour Cay. Tricky route, trying to avoid reefs and coral heads. We eyeballed our way around some of them. Saw a dolphin (the mammal working on a coral head just past RedShanks, on the way out) Medium-big swells coming in east entrance as we went out. Same swells made anchorage in Moriah Harbour Cay rolly too, which was surprising since it's protected from the east. Anchored at lat 23.28.064 long 75.40.490 Skipper was disappointed; thought it would be calm, hoped we'd have it to ourselves, heard snorkeling and shells would be good; none of those were true. Still it was a nice place and we had a good time. Nice walks on a couple of beaches. Skipper snorkeled around various rocks and ledges but found no food. First mate snorkeled off stern of boat. Visibility was bad because of lots of sand/silt in water. Bottom was all sand with a little grass and rock. Various problems: main engine is surging a bit; will try bleeding fuel filters. Outboard motor is running very fast; will try carburetor cleaner. Main engine tachometer is behaving strangely; may be electrical interference in harbor. Motored back to harbor and anchored off Kidds Cove, at lat 23.30.258 long 75.45.769 Trolled red/white squid lure en route; no fish. Engine hour 1615.0 At 5 PM, started heating a smoked ham (pork shoulder) that skipper bought. Will take 2.5 hours to cook. Also making three-cheese potatoes from box, and green beans. And skipper made a sour-cream coffee cake with streussel swirl ! Ran genset for 4.25 hours ! But dinner was tremendous. Now leftovers for a week. 3/9/2002 (Saturday) At anchor off Kidds Cove in George Town Exumas. Beautiful sunny morning, E 10. Nice weather on the good ship Magnolia means one thing: work ! Dinghy work: oiled carabiners on hoisting bridle, cleaned spark plugs, fixed high-idling problem by running carburetor cleaner through it. First mate vacuumed below. Worked on rust spots, gunk spots, and epoxy spots on deck. Skipper touched up pilothouse paint job, filling cracks and pinholes and doing edging and fixing areas that didn't cover well. First mate used muriatic acid on rusty bits on deck and rust stains around stanchions, and washed whole deck. Dinghied ashore to shop, get water, dump garbage, call home. Outboard quit 100 feet from the boat and we drifted while it took 15 pulls to start again. Went back to boat and got paddle and handheld VHF and tried again; no problems. Sun-showers, and then dinghied over to Too Lazy To (toolazyto at pocketmail.com, tolazytoo at yahoo.com) for drinks and dinner with Woody and Missi. Got to pet their three cats. Nice drinks with watermelon kool-aid and rum. Nice salad and spaghetti, with garlic bread we brought. First mate worked on Woody's computer to get games going for him. Talked about all kinds of things; they've been cruising for 8 years, all around the Caribbean. Rained sharply a couple of times around 9 PM. Short dinghy ride back with no lights, in the dark, to our boat which had no anchor light. Fortunatly First Mate had too many Rum's and cokes to get too excited, and actually got in and out of the dinghy without problems. Ran genset for 0.75 hour to charge batteries. 3/10/2002 (Sunday) At anchor off Kidds Cove in George Town Exumas. Beautiful sunny morning, NNE 10. Skipper dinghied ashore early in search of a newspaper and some fresh pastry; failed on both counts. Got water, though ! Reinstalled most of the trim on the pilothouse. Opened access port at base of main mast to try to stop a deck leak. First mate worked on some spots in the cockpit, then polished up the big horn. We reinstalled the horn on the side of the pilothouse, and it looks great. Recaulked some lower trim screws on port side. Nap time after lunch. First mate is a professional napper; she napped to almost 5 PM. Skipper got up and touched up paint on pilothouse, bled fuel filters (no water), hacked at panel behind freezer some more. Wind picking up; NNE 15+ by 1700. Blackish clouds have been passing by to the east all day. A front is supposed to stall north of us. Hoppin' John and corn bread for dinner, coffee cake for dessert. Ran genset for 2.5 hours. 3/11/2002 (Monday) At anchor off Kidds Cove in George Town Exumas. Beautiful sunny morning, NE 5+. Skipper dinghied ashore to attend an Airmail/Winlink email-over-HF-radio seminar. Learned a few things (alias, got bored at the slow pace and bad organization of the presentation and left early). Did email ($9). Finally got to read Tracy's email, which confirmed earlier finding that First Mate is a far more colourful writer than the skipper 'im self. Got water (in leaking water carrier). Dinghied across the harbor to Volleyball Beach to go to Women Aboard meeting, but it wasn't there. Met well-spoken little South African boy. He told us there is a hole from one of the anchorages inside the island, running 2 miles out to the ocean, and sharks come in there; skipper is not sure he believes it, but then he can be a clod at times. Hiked over hill to ocean side, long walk on ocean beach, then over hill to Hamburger Beach. Meeting had broken up by the time we got there. Had a very nice hike there and back. Met a couple on the ridge; we took each other's pictures. Met two women from Distant Music on the beach. Watched volleyball on Volleyball Beach for a while. Dinghied back to boat; outboard motor acting up; won't develop full power. Fiddled with throttle linkage and sprayed cleaner into carb; seems to be a linkage adjustment problem, maybe. Motor will give full power if I move the linkage by hand. Cleaned genset and engine water strainers; genset one had a lot of seaweed in it. Tightened alternator belt; may explain erratic tachometer behavior. Replaced engine heat-exchanger zinc (first mate did this, mostly); must remember to check it every week or two. First Mate handed skipper socket type things, which he himself handed back dirty of course and ordered that they be put back in their proper slots, only to want them retrieved again shortly afterwards. Batteries pretty flat, but they started the engine. Ran engine for 1.5 hours to charge batteries; was driving 32-34 amps in beginning, 20 or so at end. Engine hour 1616.4 Accidentally ran engine for a couple of minutes with the raw water intake closed; I'm sure there was no damage, but I'm more concerned that I looked at the exhaust output and couldn't tell that there was no water coming out; it looked fine. Maybe it looked fine for the first 30 seconds as old water came out, then ran dry after I stopped looking at it ? First mate cut skippers hair before his sun shower at no charge, came out pretty good considering the tools and the subject. Dinner is bean casserole and corn bread, with coffee cake for dessert. Run out of instant coffee by the way and it's $8 for a smallish jar at Exuma Markets. Skipper is on a test to see if he can wash dishes for 5 minutes without finding something wrong with the First Mate's dish handling / organizing, he was formally banned from the galley for his unacceptable dish washing schemes. (He believes in lots of soap and a good rinse but cold water; she believes in hot water, little soap, no rinse.) Ran genset for 2.5 hours. 3/12/2002 (Tuesday) At anchor off Kidds Cove in George Town Exumas. Beautiful sunny morning, ESE 5-10. My package of mail arrived from Marathon; took 8 days by FedEx. Touched up paint on outside of pilothouse some more; it's looking pretty good. Dinghied ashore to dump garbage, get water, do shopping, get ATM cash, pick up mail from USA ($5 apparently because FedEx does not deliver here (UPS does) the $5 is the cost of the taxi to deliver the package from the airport???!!), buy 2 gallons of gasoline ($6). Just a bunch of bills and tax statements in the mail. Prices have been raised in town, now that Regatta Week is approaching. First mate was skipper of the dinghy; she launched it, started motor (which was a bit balky), drove us to dock, docked it with a bump, brought us back to boat, drove into the stern of Magnolia with a thump, then circled around and docked perfectly on second try. Not a bad job, and now she knows that the skipper of the dinghy always ends up with a wet butt from sitting in the driver's position. It's good to be the skipper, but the job has its downsides. Put glue on leaking water jug. Skipper dinghied over to Moss Cay and snorkeled around it. Very pleasant: warmish water, 2-5 feet deep, nice variety of plants and corals and small fish. Nothing amazing, just very nice. Strong drinks for happy hour; just about killed another liter of rum. Beautiful calm evening, S 2-5 wind, very orange sunset. Leftover Hoppin' John and bean casserole for dinner. Ran genset for 2.25 hours. 3/13/2002 (Wednesday) At anchor off Kidds Cove in George Town Exumas. Sunny breezy morning, SE 10-15. Touched up outside pilothouse paint. Fixed lid of forward toilet. Dinghied ashore. Ran into Randy and Lori from Soulmate 3 (met them in Nassau) at the dinghy dock. They came down via Eleuthra and Cat Island; they liked Spanish Wells and Harbor Island, and the Hermitage on Cat Island. Did internet ($8) to pay credit card, renew PO box ($150 for 1 year). Changed cell-phone to low-rate plan. Did some shopping. Outboard motor running really badly on return trip. Took apart instrument panel at forward end of cockpit, labeled wires, got rid of nails, and then sanded it. Nice sun-shower afterwards to get rid of sanding dust. Invited Missi and Woody over for drinks, homemade pizza, and fresh-baked coffee-cake. Very nice time was had by all. Showed them the painting and sanding we've been doing, and their reaction was the same as the people in Marathon: "you guys have been working too hard!". Ran genset for 3.75 hours to do sanding, dinner, various charging. Exercised air conditioners while sanding. Very still, calm evening. 3/14/2002 (Thursday) At anchor off Kidds Cove in George Town Exumas. Sunny still morning, NE 1-2. Washed sanding dust off instrument panel. Measured fuel level at 12.75 inches. Batteries too flat to start engine. Ran genset for 0.25 hour to charge batteries. Started engine and ran it for 3.25 hours to charge batteries. Engine hour 1619.7 Woody and Missi invited us for a long dinghy-ride to explore some shallow coves, but our outboard wouldn't start. Cleaned plugs, adjusted idle screws, but it kept firing up and then dying after 5-10 seconds. When Woody came over, we looked at it together, and he said it probably has a broken accelerator diaphragm; there's fuel shooting out of a weep-hole where it shouldn't be. Paddled the dinghy ashore (got a tow for the last 1/3 of the way), walked to Minn's outboard place, had to wait 30 minutes for mechanic, and then got bad vibes from him (didn't seem very interested). Went elsewhere, looked up Mercury dealers in Nassau and Ft Laud, and then had fits trying to call the one in Nassau. MCI card wouldn't work for it (i.e. calling within the Bahamas, you need to dial a one infront of the number to call Nassau from George Town, it is the same area code however) , booths only take US quarters not Bahamian quarters, most booths don't take coins at all. Ended up phoning from Batelco ($3), dealer has a gasket kit in stock but wants a faxed signature sheet. Got a form faxed from dealer, then decided to go back to boat, disassemble carburetor, and see if that's really the problem. Still have to figure out how to get the kit shipped from Nassau. Wanted to leave George Town on Saturday; now looks like it'll be Wednesday if we're lucky. Did some shopping. Paddled back to boat; got tow for last 2/3 from guy from Betsy June. Removed and disassembled carburetor, and it looks like the primer diaphragm really is the problem: cracked in several places. Guess we'll have to order the gasket kit tomorrow. Pretty exhausted and stressed from the whole day; it was the hottest day in recent weeks, and we were anxious and walking all over town. Skipper must have pulled the stupid outboard starter cord 100 times today. Salad and garlic bread and clams linguine for dinner. First mate very distressed to find bugs in the linguine noodles; we had to kill bugs and discard bad parts of the noodles before using them. Then had to open all other boxes of pasta, kill live bugs, salvage decent noodles, dump others overboard. Ran genset for 3 hours. 3/15/2002 (Friday) At anchor off Kidds Cove in George Town Exumas. Sunny morning, SE 5-10. Have outboard motor's carburetor in pieces. Told Woody that the outboard primer diaphragm looked terrible, and he said I should bypass it. He came over to look, and I made a flat sheet to replace it, from gasket material I had on board. I managed to drop hand-drill in cockpit and take nice big chunk out of the gelcoat. Woody left. Put gasket in, cleaned all the other parts of the carburetor, put it back on the motor, and no change. Still starts and dies after 5-10 seconds. Woody came over again and we investigated more parts of the carburetor. Looks like the STP I'm using is attacking the rubber parts; I need to do a complete gasket/diaphragm replacement ASAP (probably means: when I get to Florida). Found some varnishy chunks in part of the fuel pump; probably not the problem. Finally almost accidentally found a big chunk of something in the inlet/mixture needle valve seat. Put everything back together; still no joy ! Sweated over it for a while longer, thinking about ignition, timing, air, fuel. Tried to run it on WD-40 squirted into air intake. Finally Woody said "your fuel is red, mine is blue; aren't you using oil ?" I am, and being fairly careful about measuring it. But we connected his tank to my motor, squeezed the fuel primer bulb hard a few times, and the motor started and ran fine ! Now, I can't believe for a minute that oil or lack of it kept the motor from running. It would stop very suddenly after 5-10 seconds of running fine. Start again, run 5-10 seconds, stop suddenly. Same every time. I can believe the STP in my gas killed the oil, and damaged gaskets. Woody said maybe my primer bulb is weak and squeezing his loosened something. Very mysterious. Anyway, we're throwing out my old reddish premix oil (only had a little left anyway, and we threw away the last can a week ago so I don't remember the brand, but it definitely was premix oil). Now we're using Castrol premix oil, which is blue. We're very glad we didn't hire a mechanic at $60/hour, or order a gasket kit ($58)and wait a week for it. Now we plan to leave tomorrow morning to head north up the Exumas. Added water to tanks. Dinghied ashore to buy gasoline ($11), buy food, do laundry, dispose of bad oil, do internet ($5), get water. Tax forms from my brother arrived ! Thank you Chris; I owe you. Amazed that they got here so quickly, and just before we planned to leave. Ran engine for 0.5 hours to charge batteries. Dinghied ashore, got more water. It's payday, and a hundred laborers are cashing their checks at the bank. Dinghied ashore, first mate was having major laundry odyssey. She put all of our stuff in 3 washers, then other people took all the dryers. Finally got dryers. Back to boat. Ran genset for 1 hour. Took showers. It's opening night of Regatta Week, and there's a party ashore from 7 PM to whenever. Skipper proudly wore clean pair of undies soft and warm from the dryer. Dinghied ashore in the dark, walked to Regatta Park where there were reggae/bahamian tunes playing, lots of people, and a huge line for food. Talked to Mark Hutchinson, a very tall Canadian guy who singlehanded a 22-foot sailboat from Canada to George Town. He started out the beginning of November. His radio is not charging as his engine won't do it, and I don't think he has charts for a lot of stuff, this all sounded too tough even for Bill. He did believe in doing his laundry in town using a real washer and dryer though. The food was great; spicy curried chicken, decent rice, nice macaroni and cheese casserole. Free drinks: white wine for first mate, rum punch for skipper. Locals seemed to be skimming off a bunch of cans of soda (worth their weight in gold here) from the bar. Talked to Randy and Lori from SoulMate III again; they plan to leave Thursday and head up the Exumas. Dinghy ride back to boat was an adventure; anchorage is crowded, very dark night, lots of anchor lights and dinghies and anchor rodes to watch out for. Ran into a rope rode going very horizontally from the small sailboat behind our boat; he put out two anchors with very horizontal rope rodes. Fortunately we were going slowly and skipper put motor in neutral as soon as he saw the rode coming, and we just bounced off it and waited until we floated a bit clear of it. Ran engine for 0.75 hours to charge batteries. 3/16/2002 (Saturday) At anchor off Kidds Cove in George Town Exumas. Sunny morning, NE and ENE 10+, where ESE 10+ was forecast. We planned to leave early, but the wind direction is wrong and we're tired and skipper is headachy. Will wait for 0800 weather and see then. No one else moving early. Weather forecast says ESE 10+, and by 0900 the wind was getting E, so we raised anchor and left. Motoring out through the harbor and it's NW entrance, Conch Cut, took about an hour, and involved some tricky turns to go around and between reefs. GPS kept quitting, which was irritating but not critical. Probably got some sanding dust in it. Tried to hail Woody and Missi several times to say good-bye, but couldn't reach them. Tried to contact harbor control to get permission to leave, but turns out they don't work on weekends. So now I wonder how accurate their "boat count" is. Out in the Sound, the wind was E-ESE, but swells were E-ENE as we sailed NW, so there was a lot of uncomfortable rolling. Tried sails alone, but that gave us only 2.5+ knots. So we motor-sailed, getting 5.0-5.5 knots. First mate feeling queasy and skipper still has headache, so we'll make it a short day and pull in to Leaf Cay. Exercised RADAR a bit. Trolled for fish the whole time; got nothing. Arrived at Adderly Cut and made it through with no problem. Went to Leaf Cay and tried twice to anchor, but it was bad holding with sand over coral, and the anchor wouldn't hold. Motored down to NW corner of Lee Stocking Island. As we approached, another boat warned us that they were aground ahead of us. We stopped and anchored pretty far from where we had been headed, at lat 23.46.162 long 76.06.987 Engine hour 1627.4 After putting out a second anchor, we dinghied over to see if they needed help, but they were fine and had gone aground at low tide exactly. Two couples on board Catalina 40 "Last Chance". They were headed to George Town. Dinghied around the shore a bit and back out near Adderly Cut, but a cloudy sky made it chilly, a strong current was running, the bottom seemed to be mostly sand and grass, and we gave up on snorkeling. Back to boat. Tightened davit bolts. Did a little fishing, with no result. Strong tidal current running. Ran genset for 2 hours. Salad and chili and cornbread for dinner. Pretty tired from trip (and previous night's party). 3/17/2002 (Sunday) At anchor off Lee Stocking Island. Cloudy, wind SE 5-10, but we're pointing W because of tidal current. Rained briefly last night. Skipper still has headache. Raised anchors; a real fight in a strong current and decent wind. Bow kept blowing around quickly, and current made anchor go behind the boat. Exhausted when done. Motored out Adderly Cut and then motor-sailed up to Farmer's Cay. Not quite as rolly as yesterday's trip. Typical boat saga: Tried to use jib whisker pole, but found no fitting on mast. Found car in drawer, tried to add car to mast track, found that a screwed-on eye is obstructing the end of the track. Tried to remove the eye, and one bolt is frozen; may have to cut it off. Came in through Farmer's Cut from Exuma Sound. Wildest ride we've had yet: a strong tidal current was coming out as a swell was coming in, and we pitched and yawed and made 3-4 knots over ground while doing about 6 through water. The yawing was especially bad; took a lot of fast steering to keep us heading between the rocks. Afterward, first mate said "well, that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, RIGHT ???" In other words, we're never going through there again. Little Farmer's Cay didn't look very impressive, so we kept going. White-knuckle time going up north past it; lots of unmarked shallow water, including a stretch of 5.5 feet. Made it through into deep water (9 feet!), then raised sail and turned off the engine and sailed for Black Point. Very nice day, sailing 3-4 knots, wind becoming NE as the weather forecast predicted. Did more trolling, but didn't expect anything; met expectations. Finished sailing and motored into Black Point north anchorage. Anchored at lat 24.05.985 long 76.24.164 in 8 feet of water over nice sand. Slightly close to the boat behind us, "Sunshine", which is sailing all over the place at anchor. Engine hour 1633.5 Back in the territory of "Bahamian guys flying at full throttle through the anchorage". Haven't really seen that since Bimini. Dinner is beef stir-fry. Ran genset for 2 hours. Played cards. 3/18/2002 (Monday) At anchor at Black Point, Exumas. ENE 5-10 wind, beautiful sunny day. Got weather forecast, and wind is going to be NE as we try to go NE; what happened to all of the SE wind we had while trying to go SE ? Checked battery water; forward battery's water overflowed a bit, but it isn't low. Maybe I overfilled it, and maybe that battery gets too hot when charging. Ran genset for 1 hour to make omelets, cool freezer, run Dremel on panel behind freezer. First mate took a nap in the cockpit while skipper painted the forward instrument panel. First mate then moved to aft cabin for a nap. Dinghied ashore to see the town. Got some water. Everyone very pleasant. Two small grocery stores, a restaurant with internet connection, a nightclub. Abandoned bar on a point looking out over a beautiful vista toward the anchorage and the Banks. Saw "Garden of Eden" sculpture garden, made from driftwood and conch shells, and talked to the artist, Willie Rolles. Everyone knows everyone else and is related to many of them. Signed up for dinner at Lorraine's cafe (first time out to dinner in Bahamas; first mate doesn't believe in dining out). Back to boat, for happy hour for first mate, and more painting for skipper. Dinghied ashore for dinner. Shared a table with Bill, Carolyn and Robin from Some Day Soon. Very nice conversation; they've cruised for 5+ years, done the "great circle" up the east coast, west through St Lawrence seaway, south down the Mississippi, east through Gulf of Mexico. They were heading for South America this year, but boat repairs made them cancel and do a Bahamas cruise instead. Group at next table was celebrating a woman's birthday. Food was okay; conch fritters appetizers were good, lobster was tasty but a little dry (fixed with melted butter), grouper was fried, rice and potato salad and coleslaw were okay. With a Kalik, came to $30 plus $6 tip. Everyone left the restaurant at the same time, headed for the dock, and had fun untangling and launching 10 dinghies in dark with 15-20 knot wind. Fortunately, we'd anchored close to the dock, so had a short ride. We've had so much practice at launching and hoisting the dinghy, that emptying and hoisting and lashing it in the dark and wind was no problem. Ran genset for 1 hour to charge batteries and run freezer and heat water for first mate's shower. 3/19/2002 (Tuesday) At anchor at Black Point, Exumas. ENE 5-10+ wind, beautiful sunny partly cloudy day. Dinghied ashore early and took long walk north on the island. Saw blow-hole near ocean; only about 8 feet across, not as impressive as we'd been led to believe. Walked further along road, through varied terrain and foliage, past a garbage dump, to a big rust-colored pond (not sure if salt or fresh). Pretty hot when the wind is cut off. Road became trail and then nothing, so we went over the rise to the Sound, and walked south along beach. Very pleasant, except for all of the plastic garbage strewn all along it, washed up from the ocean. Walked back into town, past a church that was having a prayer meeting with very nice singing. Got water. Skipper touched-up instrument panel paint job. Fancy lunch: heated leftover chili, cornbread, and fried rice. Measured fuel level 11.5 inches. Skipper dinghied ashore to get water and do internet ($3). First mate glued broken seat of stool, and fixed loose hinge on aft toilet. Raised anchor, motored out of anchorage, then sailed up to Staniel Cay. Nice sail at 3-4 knots, with small following seas. Wind was confusing: masthead saw wind from 60 degrees, deck saw wind from 100 degrees. Motored into Staniel Cay and anchored at SW corner of Big Majors Spot, at lat 24.10.874 long 76.27.701 Probably about 30 boats in this anchorage. Dinghied over to Thunderball Grotto, which turned out to be spectacular ! Big schools of fish came up to the dinghy as first mate threw bit of ship's crackers over to them. Skipper snorkeled around nearby, and first mate threw bits in front of him, and then bounced some off his faceplate, so he got a very close look at many fish. Skipper went into grotto through a small underwater passage, getting a small cut on his leg, but no sharks or barracuda appeared to investigate. Then he came out the main entrance. First mate got into the water and we went into the grotto for a while. Lots of different fish to see, and the grotto itself was pretty. A good current running through, and it's good we went at low tide, or there would have been a lot less clearance inside the grotto. Dinghied back to boat, but detoured to say hello to an adjacent boat, Simaaron from Toronto (first mate's home town). Turned out to be a wonderful guy, Markus Humby, a 74-year-old singlehander on a Grampian (named Simaaron), who's been coming to the Bahamas for 8 years. He was raving about how much of a bash he'd had sailing south today, how nice it was to finally have a working auto-pilot, how nice having an electric windlass is. We ferried him over to our boat for drinks and snacks, and he was very happy we had stopped by to talk and invite him over. He was impressed by our boat: he kept saying "you've got a SHIP here !". Very impressed by the engine compartment. We had a great time talking. He told us a story about his veterinarian daughter having to ultrasound a huge gorilla's heart: the gorilla saw the guy with the dart-gun coming, and stuck his finger in the end of the gun-barrel. They eventually gave him knockout pills in ice cream. Markus gave us a terrific book about cruising the Chesapeake. Ferried him back to his boat in the dark. I hope I'm still going that strong and I'm that enthusiastic about life when I'm 74 ! Dinner is Hoppin' John with italian sausage; very spicy. Ran genset for 2 hours. Wind E 10-15 by 2200. Had a "relationship" talk with the first mate, and it ended badly. She has had it with me, and wants off. 3/20/2002 (Wednesday) At anchor at Big Majors Spot, near Staniel Cay. E 5-10 wind. Lots of big dark clouds to north of us, no clouds to south of us. Put instrument panel back together after painting. Looks nice. Skipper raised anchor singlehanded (okay) under sail (bad decision). Was blowing ESE 15 with swells, and as soon as anchor came up and skipper unfurled jib, it back-winded and we started sliding backwards. Would have cleared boat next to us, except then the sails decided to catch wind and send us forward. So we're sliding sideways toward the boat next to us. Started engine quickly and motored out of there. Motor-sailed NW. Dead downwind, with big following swell, so it was hard to steer. 4.5 knots under sail alone, so decided to motor-sail at 6 knots instead, using auto-pilot. Sails are wing-on-wing (jib and main on opposite sides). Wind direction indicator instrument is misreading. Main accidentally jibed once; no damage. Jibed it back and rigged a preventer to it. Arrived at Warderick Wells middle anchorage, went far into the cove, and anchored at lat 24.22.922 long 76.37.376 Despite being far in and being sheltered from the SE wind, a swell is coming in from the S and making the anchorage rolly. The swell must be curving around the land; the wind has been E and ESE and SE for days. Engine hours 1638.3 Looks like something is broken at the top of the main mast: I see a loose pulley dangling, and the spare halyard is a bit slack. Maybe it broke the pulley it was through ? Dinghied 100 yards away to a couple of coral heads and went snorkeling. Lovely fish, as you'd see in an aquarium: some neon blue, some blue and yellow, some white, big, small, etc. Some schools of smaller fish just hovering near a fan coral. Saw a couple of big lobsters and several conch. But we're in the land and sea park: can't grab them. Not that we have any experience cleaning and cooking them anyway. Swells starting to diminish. Beautiful orange sun set into the water. Dinner was shaked-and-baked pork chops, three-cheese potatoes from a box, and fresh-baked coffee-cake. Ran genset for 2.5 hours. Had trouble getting oven to go on; probably the switches are dirty. Swells almost totally gone at 2200. Swells suddenly came back at 0300 or 0400. Uncomfortable. 3/21/2002 (Thursday) At anchor at Warderick Wells. SE 5-10 wind, mostly clear sky. First mate wants off as soon as possible, so we get moving early (0730). Start engine, tachometer stays at zero, it's always been balky. Raise anchor, motor about 200 yards, realize the ammeter is showing no charging current. Go look at the engine, alternator belt looks fine, alternator is spinning. Anchor and stop engine and investigate, poke the wires, test the belt, everything seems okay. Start engine, still no charging. Stop it, investigate some more, find loose wire dangling below alternator. A wire broke just where it entered a crimp lug. Strip wire end, crimp on new lug, put it together, start engine, everything is fine ! Motored out through very uncomfortable swells on the beam, before turning to get them more on the stern. Nice motor-sail downwind, with big following swells, justt the jib up. Did 5.9-6.3 knots (much of that was engine). Went out Wax Cay Cut into Exuma Sound. The cut wasn't bad, but the approach to it was unclear. We were approaching high tide, which is good (less likely to run aground) and bad (bad shape if you do run aground). So skipper was sweating a bit through huge field of 7-foot water. Motored up to the entrance to the North Harbor of Norman's Cay. That harbor is wonderful: protected from all sides. We want that because a front is coming through tomorrow. But as we got to the entrance, three powerboats went in ahead of us. The first had 5-foot draft and got in okay. The second had 4'3" draft and ran aground. The third was circling just outside the entrance. We started circling too. The boats were buddies and they were talking on the radio, and we talked to them a few times too. After a while, all three powerboats got in. But after changing his mind multiple times, the skipper finally decided not to chance the entrance. Although our draft is 3'5" (less than theirs), and we asked them for and got the benefit of their experience, the risk of going aground in the entrance at high tide with a front coming was not worth it. Also, once past the entrance, the channel inside is shallow and tricky. They were mentioning a range that our chart and our guidebook did not have, so I felt we had insufficient information. And we might have had to wait for another high tide to leave, which would come at 3 AM and 3 PM (very inconvenient) if we were in there for a couple of days waiting for the front to pass. Anyway, we went back out and went into the south anchorage of Norman's Cay. Anchor didn't hold first time; tried again and anchored in 6.5 feet at high tide at lat 24.35.551 long 76.48.733 Anchorage is surprisingly calm, for being fairly exposed to the south. Engine hours 1644.4 Dinghied ashore and found no pay phone. There is an airstrip and a bar and a few cabins. Had to walk a mile to get to them. Dinghied to small island and found a baby conch and a juvenile. Went over to crashed airplane and skipper snorkeled around it. It's much bigger than it looks from above, and most of it is intact. It's sitting in a depression; I don't it made a crater, probably the currents excavated sand from around it. Some nice fish around it. When I dove down and picked up a conch shell (turned out to be empty), a bunch of fish darted over to see what was up. Garlic bread and spaghetti for dinner. Ran genset for 2 hours. 3/22/2002 (Friday) At anchor at south end of Norman's Cay. Wind 5-10, wandering back and forth between SW and N mostly, in advance of cold front which is supposed to arrive this evening. Sunny and clear. Boats pointing every which way this morning. Skipper squirted contact cleaner on stove switches, and scraped rust off big sheet of metal from inside of stove and spray-painted it. A lot of work. Anchorage very calm in the afternoon; water is very clear, visibility 80+ feet. Dinghied ashore to beach. First mate walked up to cistern while skipper snorkeled down to small dock and found a very nice small reef. A hundred or more small and medium fish hanging around it, and a school of about two hundred medium-sized white fish nearby. Swam back to dinghy and we launched it and anchored it near the small reef. First mate and skipper snorkeled on it. Saw a barracuda make a pass at the school of white fish. Back in dinghy, drove over to shallow water, got out and waded around picking up conch. All too small to keep. Back to boat. Skipper greased motor grease points. Took apart fresh water pump and found its diaphraghm is ripped. In evening, water is very still and clear. Watched 3 or 4-foot fish chasing prey. It swam at 30 knots or so for 75 feet or so once. At 7 PM, lightning to the north of us. Wind is from the west; maybe we won't get lightning. Pig In A Blanket (with cheese and hot smoked sausage) and leftover chili for dinner. Ran genset for 2.5 hours. Started raining at 9 PM, gently, then briefly hard, then gently. 3/23/2002 (Saturday) At anchor at south end of Norman's Cay. Blew NE 15-20 all night, but we're protected by lots of 2-foot deep water upwind (and a cay well beyond that), so swells never got very big. Up often to check that we and boat upwind of us were not dragging. Wind E by 0730; sunny but windy by 0900. Ran engine for 1.75 hours to charge batteries. Took apart other fresh water pump; no problems found, but doesn't pump water ! First mate's mood not improved by finding a bug in the bag of rice, and by smelling a bad odor and turning the V-berth inside out looking for it. Dinghied ashore. Rough surf onto beach; anchored with stern of dinghy just off the beach. Skipper snorkeled, then walked halfway around the cay. First mate walked completely around the cay, almost. Back on boat, took apart BOTH water pumps and switched good diaphraghm into pump that partly works. Still no good, but then opened crossover between water tanks. Suddenly started working, but water jetting out of side of pump. Took pump apart one more time, trimmed off some rubber bits, and the pump now works fully ! First time in my ownership of the boat, I think. Dinner is salad and chicken with vegs. Ran genset for 2 hours. 3/24/2002 (Sunday) At anchor at south end of Norman's Cay. Measured fuel level is 10.75 inches. Skipper up at first light, raised anchor, got going toward Nassau. Nice ENE wind, but swells more from the N than I expected after a day and half of E and ENE. Motor-sailing at 6 to 6.7+ knots. Lots of clouds, but we're usually in sun. Several other boats making the same trip ahead and behind us. Long steady trip, getting very rolly toward the end. The only excitement was a field of nasty-looking black patches that turned out not to be too shallow. We had to plow right over some of them (no easy way around), holding our breathe that they were deep enough. Arrived in Nassau harbor to find several megayachts anchored near where the smaller boats anchor. We have a great view of a 3- or 4-story megayacht "Tatoosh"; we saw the owner departing on a launch; the staff was standing at attention. The boat has a helicopter, a 22-25 foot launch hoisted on the starboard side, a 22-25 foot sailboat hoisted on the port side, a couple of 15-foot inflatables, a Hobie cat, a couple of jet-skis. We had great fun watching them raise anchor and depart later. We kept giving them the hand-sgnals we use when raising anchor. Anchored at lat 25.04.741 long 77.19.840, close to the spot we left from six weeks ago. Next to two boats that were here then: Dulcinea and Mare Liberum. Engine hour 1654.3 Dinghied out to look at the anchors, and the Danforth is sitting on scoured coral, and the CQR is not out far enough. Picked the CQR up into the dinghy and took it out to a good place. Started main engine and backed down on Danforth, but it isn't holding. CQR seems to be dug in. Too tired to raise Danforth and try again, and I don't think there is anywhere better to set it; holding here is bad in many places. Nice orange sky at sunset. Enjoyed watching all of the harbor traffic. Bacon cheeseburgers and salad for dinner. Ran genset for 2.5 hours. 3/25/2002 (Monday) At anchor in Nassau Harbor. Dinghied ashore to figure out how first mate can fly out, but couldn't get through to MCI. Did internet ($12) to try to catch up on a two-month backlog of email. Measured fuel level is 10.0 inches. Added water to tanks. Rained briefly at 1 PM, sunny before and after. Started excavating wiring in engine compartment: there are layers of it, each held down or together in different ways, making it hard to trace or change anything. Starting by freeing up areas of it and holding them down with big reusable cable clamps, instead of the tie-wraps and staples and other things used now. Dinghied ashore to Texaco station to go grocery shopping. On the way, we went past "Morning Watch" from Newfoundland, and stopped so Canadian first mate could talk to Newfies. The guy on board was very nice, but first mate said later that he wasn't a real Newfie because he wasn't a native and he'd lived there only 40 years. Walked into a marina to check out boat "Riding High", which seems to be a Gulfstar 47 or so. Lots of similarities and differences (bowsprit) from my boat. Made the rounds of four marine stores first, looking for some things but not really serious about paying the high prices. Mercury outboards: 9.9 HP 2-stroke long-shaft $1500 no sales tax ($1900 plus tax at West Marine in USA); not sure of warranty and USA-import-duty implications if we bought here. Store said used motor would be easier to sell south of Nassau. 15 HP only $1600 ??? Went to the supermarket and enjoyed prices lower than those of George Town, although a small, tired head of lettuce was $3.59 and a bag of Romaine hearts was $6.50. Saw guy cleaning fish back at dinghy dock. Grilled steaks and potatoes and green beans for dinner. Ran genset for 2.25 hours. Dinghied across the harbor in the dark to the dinghy dock at the Atlantis marina. It was fun cruising past all the big boats and then tying up at the dinghy dock. We walked the docks, then went to the casino and played slot machines. First mate was up $70 early, but ended up down $100 by the end. We had several rounds of pina coladas for that money, and had fun. It must be spring break; the place was loaded with pretty college girls dressed in eye-catching ways. Seemed to be underage kids drinking in the casino bars. Dinghied back home after midnight. 3/26/2002 (Tuesday) At anchor in Nassau Harbor. Sharp rain at 0930 and more at 1000; many dark grey clouds before and after. Lots of activity in the harbor: a dredge working, another one being moved through the harbor, a couple of freighters coming in, tour boats running for cover from the rain, lots of boats coming and going. Dulcinea raised anchor and left at 0730, after at least 8 weeks in the same spot. Big sloop Beaugeste left; first mate wants to find out who owns it. Tatoosh is docked at the cruise ships dock. Relationship with first mate is on the mend; we're communicating again. Went through a few days of hostility that were very hard on both of us. Rained again at 1100 or so. Took opportunity to start doing my taxes (what fun !). Wind and swells picking up in the afternoon. Did a little more wiring-excavation in engine compartment. Ran engine for 2 hours to charge batteries. Engine hour Rained hard for an hour at 4 PM, just as we wanted to dinghy ashore to do shopping and get water. Since boat wasn't pointing upwind, rain came right into the pilothouse. Saw people anchoring in the rain; didn't look like fun. Dinghied ashore at 5 PM, after rain had stopped, and the town was wonderful. Clear air scrubbed by rain, everything clean-looking, cool. Walked down to center, did a little email ($2), walked through court/library complex, sat for a while in the library courtyard. Wandered around, did a little shopping, looked at the cruise ships. Walked back, got water. Very calm evening in the harbor. Chicken Paprika for dinner. Ran genset for 2.5 hours. First mate packing suitcases. 3/27/2002 (Wednesday) At anchor in Nassau Harbor. Calm, sunny morning. Up early to dinghy ashore so first mate can catch a taxi to the airport. Then skipper scrambled to get going to Chub Cay. Did two loads of water, bought gasoline ($2). Hoisted and lashed dinghy, then there was the first mate on the radio, saying "pick me up from the dock" ! The airline people had no record of her reservation change, and flights are booked solid for the next week or two. So she's back on the boat, and we're heading to Florida. Good thing we like each other again ! Too bad she had to pay for $50 of taxis to find out the airline had screwed up. Engine hours 1656.5 Measured fuel level 9.5 to 9.75 inches. Raising anchor was exhausting. We had two anchors down, they twisted around each other a couple of times, and there was a significant current running so I couldn't untwist them by pushing the boat around with the dinghy. Raising them took about 45 minutes and completely exhausted the skipper and gave him a tired back. In the middle of it, first mate found a wire-strand that came off the rigging somewhere, which did not improve the skipper's mood. Some wire high up in the rigging is disintegrating. [Later, first mate found it is the main topping lift, which is the least critical wire it could have been; if that fails, the boom will fall 6 inches onto the top of the pilothouse.] No cruise ships at dock; we had wanted to go close to them on the way out. Very calm and flat seas outside harbor. Wind dead on the nose as usual, but we put up sails and motor-sailed anyway. Sails are giving us no boost. Noticed problems with jib: 1-square-inch hole and 3-foot-long frayed seam along foot near clew. Heard Tatoosh on the radio saying they are about to leave for the Galapagos. I think that's about 3000 miles away, through the Panama Canal. Wonder where they get their fuel, whether they have to call ahead to reserve 4000 gallons of fuel, and how much of a volume disocunt they get ? They're going to be in the Galapagos for 3 weeks, which doesn't sound long for such a long trip. Later we heard them clear out with Harbor Control, saying their destination was Panama. Finally gave up motor-sailing; all it was doing was making us motor 20 degrees off course so the sails wouldn't luff. Cranked engine up to about 1500 RPM / 6.7 knots. Trolled two fishing lines this time, and caught exactly double our usual catch of fish. Ran the RADAR for a while to exercise it. Anchored on the east end of Frazer's Hog Cay, at lat 25.24.965 long 77.50.573 Had trouble getting anchor to hold; lots of grass. Second try worked a little better than the first, then I snorkeled on it, found it lying on its side, and stuck the anchor's point deeper into the grass. Scraped the hull and propeller a bit, and checked the propeller zinc. Engine hour 1663.6 Measured fuel level 8.5 inches. Very calm evening with huge, bright full moon. Pizza on french bread for dinner. Ran genset for 2 hours. Brilliant full moon all night. 3/28/2002 (Thursday) At anchor at east end of Frazer's Hog Cay. Calm, sunny morning. No-see-ums bit us a lot this morning. Omelets AND oatmeal for breakfast. First mate took dinghy for her first solo spin, to a nearby beach. Came back all smiles. Saw lots of fish near the boat; saw two dolphins a few hundred yards away near another boat. First mate washed the dinghy and then scrubbed the deck with muriatic acid solution; big job. Skipper excavated some more engine compartment wiring. Italian couple Claudio and Madeline (?) from steel boat "Virginia" came by and offered to give us fish if they caught any. Raised anchor and moved up near the Berry Island Club, to get away from no-see-ums. Had to anchor twice; bad holding in grass over coral. Anchored at lat 25.25.299 long 77.50.152 Ran engine for 1.5 hours to move and charge batteries. Engine hour 1665.2 Dinghied over to "Virginia", but they had caught no fish. Went ashore briefly; watched a guy cleaning a big dorado. Dinner was chicken stir-fry over noodles. Ran genset for 1.75 hours. 3/29/2002 (Friday) At anchor at east end of Frazer's Hog Cay. Wind suddenly picked up at 0400. Breezy, mostly cloudy morning. Measured fuel level 8.5 inches. Raised anchor at 0645 and headed out. Sprinkled a little as we motor-sailed past Chub Cay. Doing 6.6 knots at about 1200 RPM with jib and mizzen up, dead downwind, and big following swells. Really wish I'd been able to get the jib whisker pole working; we need it today. Seems like the wind always has been either on the nose or on the stern. Speed fell and jib started flogging, so furled jib and raised main. Doing 6.2 knots at 1350 RPM with main and mizzen. Speed varies from 6.1 to 6.6 as we surf down swells. Auto-pilot having a hard time steering. Rigged a jibe-preventer on main. Decided to head straight for Cat Cay from Northwest light; saves 20 miles or so we'd spend rounding north end of Bimini and going south. Still won't make it all the way to Cat Cay today. Sprinkled rain occasionally all day; rained harder at 2 PM. Just kept cruising along, sitting mostly dry in the pilothouse, auto-pilot steering. Jib is damaged along leech as well as foot; furled it for good. First mate slept all morning, got up for lunch, then went back to bed and lay there reading in the afternoon. Then slept. Motor-sailed until after dark, getting within 15 miles of Cat Cay. Anchored in about 12 feet of water at lat 25.31.405 long 79.09.518 Big, uncomfortable swells; I was hoping to get into shallower water and have less motion. Engine hour 1678.4 Dinner is leftover Chicken Paprika and rice. Coconut ice cream for dessert. Ran genset for 2 hours. 3/30/2002 (Saturday) At anchor in the Great Bahama Bank about 8 miles east of Cat Cay. Extremely uncomfortable night, between pitching and rolling, and all of the no-see-ums we seem to have brought with us. Got going before sunup; saw red edge of the sun coming over the horizon as I was raising the anchor. Motored to Cat Cat and anchored just outside the marina on the east side by 0800, at lat 25.33.470 long 79.16.799 Engine hour 1680.4 Ran genset for 1.5 hours to make breakfast. Slept the rest of the morning. Lots of big powerboat wakes, jet-skis, several small freighters. Found that suddenly our aft water tank is empty and the forward one has about 40 gallons. Dinghied ashore to Cat Cay Club; saw a 3-foot shark just in front of the dinghy on the way in. Expensive place: highest prices we've seen in the Bahamas. Got rid of our garbage, but didn't get any water. Saw a couple of manta rays from the marina dock. Measured fuel level at 6.5 inches. Snorkeled off boat and found a large conch nearby. Threw it back in because I couldn't find any more, and you really need several to make a decent-sized meal. Shrimp-and-cream-cheese canapes in the pilothouse as the sun set. Pork chops and baked macaroni and cheese and green beans for dinner. Ran genset for 2 hours. 3/31/2002 (Sunday) At anchor on east side of North Cat Cay. Skipper had headache all morning. Replaced port running light; bulb corroded apart. Measured fuel level 6.25 inches. Raised anchor and motored up through cut between Gun Cay and North Cat Cay, and anchored on west side of North Cat Cay, in Grassy Bay, at lat 25.32.973 long 79.16.968 Really only room for one or two boats in the area out of the swell, and there's a big powerboat in there already. So we ended up fairly exposed to the swell. Dinner is chicken cockaigne and risotto. Ran genset for 1.5 hours. Raised anchor about 2045 and headed out across the Gulf Stream. More wind and swell, from S, than we hoped for; supposed to moderate later. The weather window is good: we've had a couple of days of E and SE 10-15 wind, and the wind is supposed to go "variable" tomorrow. One worry: the fuel tank is lower than ever before. I think we have 40+ gallons in there, enough to cross 3 times, but I'm not absolutely positive. First mate soon went below and slept through the whole passage. Skipper stayed up and took little snoozes in cockpit. Motor-sailed with main and mizzen (jib is damaged; don't want to use it). Made good speed (5-6 knots at constant 1300 RPM), but ended up in the middle of Miami as expected. Was tracking 300-310 degrees most of the time, and to make Cape Florida we would have had to start from Cat Cay by going south for 3 hours or so. Pleasant night, about 70 degrees or so, although steady wind made it cool sometimes. 4/1/2002 (Monday) Arrived in vicinity of Miami about 0500. Several things happened simultaneously: first mate appeared, I made a turn to start heading south to get down to Cape Florida, and the GPS seemed to go crazy. Speed fluctuated from 0 to 1 knot, track didn't make sense, lat/long said we were going NW when it seemed clear we were going SW, GPS track differed from compass by 80 degrees or so. 20 minutes of confusion as we dodged a couple of cruise ships entering the channel, got backup GPS going, tried to figure out what was happening. Adding to the confusion, we assumed the channel was Government Cut, but our GPS said we were too far north for that. And if we were going the direction the GPS said, the bright lights of Miami should have been on the other side of the boat ! And we didn't see lights where Key Biscayne should have been. Skipper's brain was a bit fried from staying up all night, too. And of course our charts stopped just at Government Cut, so we didn't know what was north of there. Sun came up, backup GPS was checked, some course changes were tried, and we finally sorted it out: the currents from the Gulf Stream (Florida Current) still must have been very strong there (5 miles from shore). So when we turned south, speed over ground went close to zero. That makes the GPS tracking functions go crazy; we've seen that before. Both GPS's still showed the right lat/long. Also, most of the cruise ships weren't going into Government Cut, but some entrance further north. And when we saw the buildings of Key Biscayne, they were all completely dark, in contrast to the well-lit buildings of Miami ! So we plowed south against the current, edging closer to shore, going around some shipping, including one ship towing another. Finally recognized Government Cut, and first mate suggested going in there instead of spending 2+ hours rounding Cape Florida. A call to USCG found that only part of the cut was off-limits due to new security rules, and we went in through Government Cut and then Lummus Cut and Dodge Cut. Went past container docks, saw lots of car-ferries operating, saw golf course right next to oil tank farm. Interesting tour through a side of the port we hadn't seen. The water looks absolutely disgusting compared to the Bahamas water we've gotten used to. Went down through Rickenbacker causeway bridge and anchored at 0835 where we'd anchored in our previous cruise, south of the causeway at lat 25.44.421 long 80.10.426 SE 10 wind makes it fairly choppy now. Engine hour 1692.9 Skipper crashed into his berth and slept a bit; had headache and sore throat. Tried several times to call Customs on cell-phone: no answer; maybe you can't call that number from a cell-phone. Tried calling some old Customs numbers that were valid in 1995; one seems to be a phone-sex line now. Measured fuel level 4.5 inches. Added 5 gallons from jug to tank. Measured fuel level 5.0 inches. Raised anchor and motored over to Crandon Park Marina to call Customs and get fuel and water and do laundry. Customs didn't answer all day; we called multiple times. Started raining as we got to the fuel dock, so fueling was delayed. Got tons of water (free), started laundry. A powerboat from NJ came in and fueled with diesel; the owner said he had bought 425 gallons a week or two ago, and he was buying about 400 this time. We barely managed to load 100 gallons ($116) before the fuel dock closed. First mate talked to woman catching fish from the dock, for sale in aquariums. Met a friendly guy, Doug, who was on a big catamaran going to the Bahamas tomorrow. He offered to let us use his mooring for the night, and he wanted us off the fuel dock so he could move the catamaran there and provision it. Our fueling had prevented him from fueling today, which would delay his departure tomorrow morning. He offered to take us to the grocery store, which thrilled the first mate. So skipper made a pressured, snap decision to take his mooring, we left the dock, and very quickly ran aground just beyond the mooring. Then it started pouring rain. Fortunately, we did it about 30 minutes after low tide, in soft mud. Skipper launched dinghy and took both anchors out toward deeper water. Got completely soaked doing it, and rain continued as we sat inside feeling glum. Ran genset for 1 hour to heat very nice leftover chicken cockaigne and risotto and mac-and-cheese for dinner. When we finished, the rain had ended and everything was completely calm and still. First mate pushed the bow around with the dinghy and then we moved an anchor out to a better place, raised other anchor, pulling boat forward, and soon she was mostly floating again. Then went ashore to start finishing the drying of the laundry. Back to the boat, raised anchor and got her completely loose, then felt our way through the middle of the tightly packed mooring field. Got out into deep water of main channel of the marina, and dropped anchor there. First mate dinghied ashore and finished the laundry while skipper straightened up the boat. Felt strange to be anchored in the middle of a marina. Raised anchor, slowly motored out of the marina and down the channel, then went 100 yards out of the channel and anchored at lat 25.43.309 long 80.10.126, sort of in the middle of Biscayne Bay. Nice to be so far from mangroves and from traffic. Hope nothing else happens today; it's been a busy one ! 4/2/2002 (Tuesday) At anchor SW of NW end of Key Biscayne, just out of the channel. Actually a very quiet, scenic, nice spot. Slept very late, and there was surprisingly little traffic through the channel; I thought we'd have lots of boats disturbing us. Finally got through to Customs; quick phone check-in. Called Immigration; have to go to their office to check in, since we have a dangerous Canadian on board. Having to go there is a major ordeal; there's no way to get there by boat, and by land is going to be an odyssey. Added 1 quart of oil to genset. Motored over to Dinner Key. Started to anchor on south side of north channel and immediately ran out of water (very dangerous at dead high tide); quickly backed out and went in marina and then out to south channel. Anchored at lat 25.43.256 long 80.13.850 Engine hour 1696.1 Dinghied ashore, waited 45 minutes for 48 bus. Driver was very helpful, took us to Government Center, which is big bus / Metrorail hub. Got Seaport Connection bus to the port, and the driver didn't know anything, and half the port was off-limits due to security. Got off the bus at the wrong end of the port, walked to the middle, where the cops stopped us. After much discussion among the cops, one gave us a lift through the security checkpoint and eventually we found Immigration. Everyone gave us different stories about how we could have gotten there or done things differently. Immigration didn't ask many questions; it was easy. Got bus back out to Government Center. Went to library but their internet computers couldn't connect to Yahoo email. Took Metrorail back to Coconut Grove, walked to boutique area. Had a misunderstanding when looking at restaurants, and ended up going back to the boat and having leftovers for dinner. Ran genset for 2.5 hours. 4/3/2002 (Wednesday) At anchor at Dinner Key in Biscayne Bay. Very clear water; reveals tons of grass on the bottom here. Took down jib to see if I can repair it. Put first mate on bus to airport; looks like our relationship is ending (again). Started to catch up on 3 months of email at the library. Raised anchor and motored down Biscayne Bay. Beautiful sunny, clear day. Wind 10 knots from dead ahead. By 4:30 or so, nasty-looking thunder-clouds were building up to the west. Couldn't really tell which way they were moving. By 5, it looked liked they were moving SE, and would end up on top of me. Weather radio was warning that Palm Beach (150 miles north of me) might get gusts up to 55 knots ! I started closing up the boat as I motored, and the timing worked out perfectly. I got to Angelfish Creek / Pumpkin Key, dropped anchor as far as I could from anything hard, put everything away, shaved and showered, and then the wind started picking up. Soon it was 25 knots or so, with a little rain, and a couple of boats near Pumpkin Key were within 100 feet of a lee shore. They raised anchor and motored away to the other side of the key. Anchored at lat 25.19.915 long 80.17.450 Engine hour 1701.0 Boat is pretty spacious and quiet (maybe a little TOO spacious and quiet) with first mate gone. Spaghetti for dinner. Ran genset for 2 hours. Never did get much rain, and wind about 5 knots by 8 PM or so; nice calm night. 4/4/2002 (Thursday) At anchor near Pumpkin Key in Biscayne Bay. Opened and closed all through-hull valves to exercise them. Hot, still day; wind less than 5 knots. Motored down through Jewfish Creek bridge to Tarpon Basin. Anchored at 1130 at lat 25.07.692 long 80.25.818 Engine hour 1704.4 Put some stitches in the jib as I motored, but it is slow going through 6or 8 layers of cloth. Dinghied ashore to go to KMart, library, Publix. Got some grief from a woman for dumping my garbage on a pile at the abandoned Quay restaurant, so put it in a dumpster at the Humane Society. On the way back, met a nice guy on "Annie Rose". Turns out he and I went to the same high school, The Hun School of Princeton, although while he was there, I was busy being born. He told a lot of funny stories about the school, and he said it used to be a part of a chain of schools for rich kids: when you get kicked out of Exeter, you go to Taft. When you get kicked out of there, you go to Hun. When you get kicked out of there, you go to Pennington. After there, Bordentown Military Academy ! Raised anchor and motored down to Tavernier, anchoring west of Hammer Point at lat 25.01.649 long 80.31.061 Hot, very still evening, maybe 1 knot of wind from S. Supposed to blow N 10-15 late tonight; that will be a relief. It's been so calm that the water has been totally clear all day, but I haven't seen any fish. Engine hour 1706.4 Grilled cheeseburgers for dinner. Ran genset for 1.75 hours. 4/5/2002 (Friday) At anchor near Hammer Point in Tavernier. Blowing N 10 as predicted. Measured fuel level at 12.25 inches. Checked house battery water; none needed, but some signs of boil-over as usual. Raised anchor and motored down the Keys. Pretty boring; I've done this trip a couple of times before, and the wind is strong enough today to keep most boats in, there are tons of crab pot floats, and the wind is almost on the nose again so I can't sail. Put some stitches in the jib in the morning. At lunchtime, found I was all out of soda; must be time to stop cruising. Blowing NW 20 by afternoon; gave up stitching when my baseball cap blew off and was lost (it was dirty anyway). No good anchorages down here for shelter from the N, which is where it's supposed to be blowing from tonight. Might go all the way down to Marathon and anchor outside the harbor. At about 1:30, saw a whole line of geese, probably 2000 birds, floating together in the water. Just resting ? lat 24.49.300 long 80.53.500 Made it into Boot Key Harbor and anchored at 6 PM at lat 24.42.418 long 81.05.652, within 100 feet of where I used to be anchored. Put down two anchors close together (not really by design), and had the usual "I wish my anchor had ended up 50 feet more in THAT direction" feeling afterward; the harbor is full and I'm a little close to a catamaran behind me. Wind is NW; it's supposed to be N and NE over the next week, which will put plenty of empty space behind me. My welcome back to Marathon was Don on the houseboat running out and yelling "I swing in a big circle !"; he says that to everyone to try to keep them from anchoring near him. I'm particularly happy I didn't run aground in the harbor, because I came in more or less at high tide ! Engine hour 1715.5 Shake-and-bake pork chops, and green beans and leftover rice, for dinner. Ran genset for 2 hours. 4/6/2002 (Saturday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Started emptying all of the storage compartments to get organized, get rid of cardboard boxes, etc. Measured fuel level at 11.75 inches. Made long lists of things to do and buy ashore. Dinghied ashore. Odd to come back after almost three months. Only boat I recognize at the dock is that of the preacher-couple with the new baby; the other boats are unfamiliar. Doug and Nancy on "Presque Isle" are moored in the harbor; guess they gave up on the Bahamas trip they wanted to do; apparently they're trading their for-sale powerboat for a pickup truck. John still works at the marina, but there's a new dockmaster. Richard who we bought cans from apparently has abandoned his boat and gone to California. The city cleaned up most of the derelict boats from the harbor, but at least one has sunk since the cleanup. Went to Home Depot and started spending money: big screwdriver ($11), Velcro ($8), files ($10), carabiners ($18). Bought outboard carburetor rebuild kit ($70) and ordered carburetor gasket kit ($41). Picked up 3 months worth of mail; it's going to take a week or two to get through it. Library and grocery store and back to the boat. With the new big screwdriver, finally got the bolt out of the mast that was blocking the track I want to put a car on, to try the jib whisker-pole ! Finished Velcro on aft cabin hatch. Ashore again, to library and to shop for tupperware at KMart (what fun!). Met some nice people at the marina: Herb and wife on "Mrs G", a 1976 Gulfstar 43 trawler with twin Perkins 6.354's, from Lake Ontario in New York State. He's having the electrical system redone, with Heart stuff. Mark and wife on Amani (?), anchored out and down from Michigan. Dinner is sausages, and Basmati rice, and coconut ice cream for dessert. Ran genset for 2 hours. 4/7/2002 (Sunday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Very anxious day starting in afternoon: blowing E 25 through harbor, and my anchors are creaking and dragging slightly, I think. Started engine to make sure it started, to charge batteries, and to be ready to raise anchors if I have to. Ran engine for 2.5 hours. Engine hour 1718.0 Lots of radio traffic about boats dragging. E 20+ is supposed to continue for a couple of days. Not looking forward to raising two anchors in 20+ wind with a boat close behind me; I'd better get help. But, I'm a guy. So instead of asking for help (not sure how I would have found someone anyway), I decided to dinghy out a third anchor (Danforth 35). Rough conditions, outboard stalled a couple of times when I put it in neutral, started to shackle anchor (in dinghy) to rode (from deck) while holding onto boat with dinghy trying to go 20 knots toward stern. Had to hold anchor between my knees while standing up and holding onto boat's rubrail. Let go to hold shackle with one hand and pin with the other. As I finished shackling and grabbed the boat again, suddenly lost balance, dinghy went out from underneath me, and man overboard ! Fortunately I had my eyeglass strap on, and dinghy didn't go away too fast because rode was attached to anchor in it. One swim-stroke to the dinghy, grabbed edge and pulled myself into it. Put seizing wire on shackles to keep them from coming undone. Got rode from deck into dinghy. Reversed away from boat, paying out rode, taking on plenty of water over transom of dinghy. Put out about 120-150 feet (last 50 or so must have jammed in anchor chain locker) and dumped the anchor over, off my starboard quarter near a catamaran. If the other two let go, this one will swing me away from the boat behind me and toward an empty space. Back to boat (bailing out dinghy as I go), tighten rode, seems to hold well. Add chafe gear. Empty and hoist dinghy, wash salt water off clothes and myself. Try to calm down. Salad and chili for dinner. Ran genset for 1.75 hours. Anchors holding, but it's going to be a nervous night. 4/8/2002 (Monday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Anchors held all night, although sleeping was tough because of constant "anchor dragging" noises. Still blowing E 20+ today. Moved CQR anchor 60-80 feet further out to get more scope, eventually move boat further away from one behind. Got bottom muck all over the dinghy; much of the chain was coated with it. Harold dinghied by as I was hauling up the chain and helpfully suggested that I wouldn't have any problems if I had a Bruce anchor; thanks, Harold ! Ran engine for 0.5 hour while re-anchoring, to help with adjustments and in case I started dragging. Dinghied ashore, paid for a month of dinghy-dockage ($54), talked to genset people, went to library. Saw Doug and Nancy from Presque Isle; they're here through the summer. They've bought lots of new toys for the boat (inverter, SSB, etc) but haven't installed them yet, and haven't finished the davits. Saw Diver Dave, and Marti (she finished writing her radio book and is starting another one on hurricanes). Rained briefly at 11 AM. Back to boat. Anchors are holding. Took a nap; between daylight-savings-time change and anxious night, I'm tired. Dinghied ashore again and went to library; I'm doing lots of research on battery chargers, alternators, regulators. Weighed myself at supermarket: 187 pounds. Haven't been down to that weight in 15 years ! Bought plastic storage boxes ($13). Big rum-and-coke for happy hour. Chicken (seriously overcooked) and Uncle Ben's chicken-flavored rice and vermicelli (pretty good) for dinner. Ran genset for 1.75 hours. 4/9/2002 (Tuesday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Still blowing ESE 20+ today. Did federal income taxes; huge refund coming because employer withheld assuming I'd work all year. Dinghied ashore. Bought more plastic tubs ($16), paint for pilothouse roof edge ($21), flame-tamer ($4). Ran engine for 1 hour to charge batteries. Did California income taxes. Dinner was leftover chicken and rice. Ran genset for 1.5 hours. 4/10/2002 (Wednesday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Blowing a little less today; ESE 10-15 or so. Worked on pilothouse roof edge: sanded, filled, sanded, taped, painted. Of course the wind picked back up to 20 or so just as I got started with the painting. I was nervous about painting over weathered teak with black polyurethane, knowing that it is irreversible, but the results look great ! Maybe I should do this to all of the exterior teak trim, except the stuff inside the cockpit. Emptied out the freezer (pretty gucky in there), so I can stop running it, which will let me eventually take starter off genset, and also investigate the freezer box insulation. Had to throw overboard things prized by the first mate: bait (mutton snapper and conch) and ham fat. The seagulls were very appreciative. Dinghied ashore, copied and mailed taxes, did library, talked to some people at the marina. Sun-shower so hot that I burnt my hand a little. Ran engine for 1.5 hours to charge batteries. Salad and hotdogs for dinner. 4/11/2002 (Thursday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Wind supposed to be less today, but it's back up to 20+ in the afternoon. Did a bucket of laundry. Made new (additional) wire bridles for lifting dinghy: cut wire and swaged thimbles on. Thought smaller wire (5/32") would be easier than the bigger wire I've done before, but it's harder: the smaller thimbles require bending the wire into a tighter radius. Tricky: made the new wires the same length as the old and added them instead of replacing, so now I have redundancy. Important since the old wire was chafing and getting meat-hooks. Replaced two galvanized carabiners with SS 316 ones. Cleaned out the bilge some more. Dinghied ashore, did some errands. In the marina, a bunch of us watched as a salvage barge with a crane brought up the entire keel of that derelict ketch that was aground just east of the marina. Came up in one piece. Lots of other junk brought up too. They're really cleaning up the harbor. Salad and leftover chili (with bacon added) and buttered bread for dinner. Delicious ! Ran engine for 1.5 hours to charge batteries. 4/12/2002 (Friday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Still strong ESE wind. Sanded edge of pilothouse roof. Dinghied ashore to talk to alternator supplier. Painted 2nd coat on edge of pilothouse roof. Loosened bolts on "viscous damper" on front of engine crankshaft, to see if it will come off (so I can add an alternator pulley there); no problem. Didn't realize I already had a double-3/8" pulley on there, with only one half in use. Dinghied ashore, did library, then went to very nice potluck at the marina. I took a chocolate-everything cake from the store, and it was very well received. Lots of good food and nice people. Ran engine for 1 hour to charge batteries. 4/13/2002 (Saturday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Wind in 5-10 range; very cloudy. Some big fish was thrashing around near the boat last night, probably eating little fish. Loafed all morning. Went to take bread out of the freezer, which is turned off, and found that it's warmed to the point where a lovely pool of muck has collected at the bottom. Removed the last of the bread from the freezer, sponged out the muck, removed and cleaned the shelves, and noticed that something is weeping from cracks in the fiberglass on the inside of the lid. Took the lid off and drilled a hole in one corner, expecting to see horrible stuff gush out, but it seems dry. Decided to start the "upgrade the icebox" project, so took molding and entire front Formica panel off the freezer. It was held on by a combination of screws, finishing nails, and glue. The insulation inside seems dry (at least the outside of it). It's slabs of green prefab foam. I guess glue once was supposed to seal the joints among them. Looks like lots of places for air to leak through. Looks like about 3 inches thick all the way around. And of course the biggest problem: the lid has no rubber gasket of any kind. Dinghied ashore. Bought more plastic tubs ($13). Fried chicken, salad, bread for dinner. Ran engine for 2 hours to charge batteries. 4/14/2002 (Sunday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Loafed all morning. Put some stitches in the jib. Went to mess with genset starter bolts, and found that one had backed out almost all the way, and the other was slightly loose. Never seen that before; tightened them up. Dinghied ashore and hung around. Bought dowels ($2). Used dowels to fix main companionway screen. Better, but now screen probably needs to be cut to size. Ran genset for 2 hours. Investigated why handheld VHF is not charging and found it totally gunked up; looks like salt-water that got on it has totally corroded the battery and its terminals. Leftover fried chicken and salad and bread for dinner. It's one of those depressing times on the boat, where the boat's a mess, I'm in the middle of several big projects, some other things are broken, the list is getting longer instead of shorter, I'm lonely, I'm wondering whether I'll be able to do my next cruise. I've been here before, I got through the other times, I'll get through this time. 4/15/2002 (Monday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Disassembled and cleaned handheld VHF; most of the water damage was to the battery pack. Will see if it works later. Surprising that it is so vulnerable to saltwater, although it is not a "submersible" model. Excavated some more wiring in the engine compartment. Looks like the main AC feed wire from the genset is smaller gauge (12) than some of the other load wires (10) which makes no sense. Dinghied ashore to make the rounds of some diesel mechanics and electrical shops, which is what I've been doing for the last week. I'm trying to find parts and methods for adding an alternator, buying a new battery charger and adding a battery monitor, etc. It's been very time-consuming. Back to the boat, wolfed lunch and collapsed for a nap. It's been hot the last couple of days, and it tires me. Dinghied ashore again, more errands. Bought fuses ($2). Back to boat. Ran engine for 0.75 hour to charge batteries. Ran genset for x hours. Dinner is salad, leftover fried chicken, and fresh-baked cornbread. 4/16/2002 (Tuesday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Started removing vestiges of 4 KW generator wiring (big breaker box, big relay box, genset/4KW switch, volt/freq meters switch) from engine compartment. Hot, sweaty work in a tight space. Had to stop a couple of times to give my back a rest. Rained briefly, so had to close up the boat, making it even sweatier. Dinghied ashore and bought crimp terminals ($5). Back to boat, finished the work, held my breath, started genset, and nothing smoked. Tested outlet polarity, added some loads, kept an eye on it, everything fine. Ran genset for 1 hour to charge batteries. Now there's some empty space on the walls and in the electrical panel. Dinghied ashore again to do more errands. Crab-salad sandwiches, and leftover cornbread, for dinner. Ran engine for 1 hour to charge batteries. 4/17/2002 (Wednesday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. More excavation of wiring in the engine compartment. Appears that battery charger is charging genset battery also, which I didn't know. Don't see any problems with battery charger wiring. Dinghied ashore to do errands. Ordered Heart Link 2000 battery monitor ($425). Ran engine for 0.75 hour to charge batteries. The batteries are in sad shape; they lose charge fairly quickly no matter how long you charge them; they've been chronically undercharged. Dinghied ashore again. Spaghetti for dinner. Ran genset for 1 hour. 4/18/2002 (Thursday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Traced some wiring in engine compartment. Made tiny little cardboard prototype of new alternator bracket, complete with tiny little alternator made out of a couple of ends of dowels. Measured icebox to start to figure out what to do with it. Dinghied ashore to do errands. Salad and cornbread and fried chicken for dinner. Ran engine for 1 hour to charge batteries. 4/19/2002 (Friday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Started making full-sized cardboard prototype of new alternator bracket. Took damper off engine, measured, scraped and painted it. Made prototype of new pulley and baseplate. Dinghied ashore to do errands. Finally found a place that can make a propane hose. Back to boat, put damper on. Ran engine for 1 hour to charge batteries. 4/20/2002 (Saturday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. A little more work on alternator bracket prototype. Did 4 hours of work picking up garbage as part of a MEA volunteer project. I thought we'd go around the edges of the harbor, but instead we wentt out Sister Creek almost to the ocean, to a place where the road across Boot Key meets the creek. Apparently it's a well-known partying and dumping spot, and it had a TON of garbage. Lots of beer bottles, some household garbage, a big welding-type oxygen tank, a huge restaurant-size propane tank, lots of little propane bottles, lots of styrofoam crab-trap floats, etc. About 10 of us filled a large-size dumpster. Free soda and pizza afterward. Back to boat, showered and collapsed for a nap. Ran engine for 1 hour to charge batteries. It's getting hotter each day; supposed to be about 90 by Monday. Dinghied ashore to do errands. Put dessicant boxes in two videotape tubs. Salad and leftover fried chicken for dinner. Ran genset for 1.5 hours. Still can't get the handheld VHF to charge; guess it needs a new battery pack. 4/21/2002 (Sunday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. More work on alternator bracket prototype. Drilled hole in base of main mast to let water drain. Ran engine for 1.5 hours to charge batteries. Got a bit stir-crazy and dinghied ashore to talk to people; watched TV and saw 24-car crash in auto race. Spaghetti for dinner. Ran genset for 1.5 hours. 4/22/2002 (Monday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. 90 degrees and not much breeze. Did a bucket of laundry. More work on alternator bracket prototype. Deflated dinghy and scrubbed gunk out of the keel/tube seams. Dinghied ashore to do errands. Ran engine for 1 hour to charge batteries. Took nap in the heat of the afternoon. Tuna salad sandwiches for dinner. Dinghied ashore again. Ordered Xantrex TrueCharge 40+ battery charger ($372). Very still evening. Ran genset for 1 hour. 4/23/2002 (Tuesday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. 90 degrees and not much breeze. Splitting sinus headache all night and morning. More work on alternator bracket prototype. Saw people netting bait-fish out of the harbor. Ran engine for 1 hour to charge batteries. Dinghied asore to do errands. Paid $10 for 1 hour of internet time. Back to boat. Ran engine for 1 hour to charge batteries. Salad and hotdogs for dinner. 4/23/2002 (Wednesday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. High 80's and a little breeze. Climbed main mast, removed topping lift, wind indicator assembly, and dead starboard spreader light. Swaged fittings to make new topping lift. Sprayed silicone lube into wind indicator assembly. Ran engine for 0.75 hour to charge batteries. Dinghied ashore, did errands, bought two spreader light bulbs ($17), ordered charts from Miami to Delaware Bay ($225). Climbed main mast again, installed new topping lift, reinstalled wind indicator assembly, put new bulb in starboard spreader socket. Wind indicator speed seems to work, but direction is wrong (maybe needs calibration). Spread light works. Topping lift works. Main halyard is digging into masthead aluminum; probably need to see about a complete new masthead some day. Dinghied ashore again; went to Doug's boat to look at ICW guidebooks. Salad and chili for dinner. Ran genset for 1.5 hours. 4/24/2002 (Thursday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Ran engine for 1 hour to charge batteries. Finally finished alternator bracket prototype, but I'm starting to think it's the wrong way to go (too complex, too much space, probably too expensive). Dinghied ashore and took it to metal fabricator. Bracket will cost a little less than $250, but he and I have no solution for getting an appropriate large pulley. The only remaining hope is another metal shop in town, but that guy's out of town on vacation for a while. By the end of the day, I'd decided to replace my 50-amp alternator with a same-size 100-amp alternator with a better regulator, instead of trying to add a large-frame 165-amp alternator. Will be far cheaper, simpler. Oh well, I learned a lot by designing the bracket and trying to find parts. Ordered Waterway Guide - Mid-Atlantic ($35). Back to boat, removed 50-amp alternator from engine. Had fun tracing the wiring: found lamp-cord running from alternator to electrical panel and ending in dangling ends. Took out about 20 tie-wraps plus a bunch of twine and electrical tape getting the wires out. Must have been put in by original owner, and I don't know why he used same type and color of wire for AC and for DC, and bundled them together, and fastened them together three different ways. What a mess ! Old alternator doesn't look so good; lots of crud in and on it. I think the pulley was not well aligned and belt dust went everywhere. Have to see if I can improve on that. Salad and noodles and leftover chili for dinner. Ran genset for 2 hours. 4/25/2002 (Friday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Saw a dolphin right near the boat this morning ! Cleaned and scraped and painted front of engine, since I have alternator and fan belt off. Dinghied ashore, picked up new battery monitor from PO box, bought new alternator ($270), bought pieces to wire new alternator ($27). Back to boat, got alternator mostly installed but came up a couple of pieces short. Dinghied ashore to buy more pieces ($7). Replaced fan belt with new one; kept old one. Finished installation, fired up engine, and nothing smoked. Can't tell how much current new alternator is putting out, and my tachometer is wacky now, but generally a successful operation. Ran engine for 0.5 hour to test it. Ordered transmission shop manual ($48) and engine valve cover gasket ($32). Dinghied ashore again; finally got outboard carburetor gasket kit. Ran engine for 1 hour to charge batteries. Salad and fried chicken and corn on the cob for dinner. Ran genset for 1.5 hours. Beautiful full moon rising in the evening. 4/26/2002 (Saturday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Did bucket of laundry. Ran engine for 0.5 hour to charge batteries. Dinghied ashore and bought plastic tubs ($13), BioBor ($16), epoxy ($4). Dinner is salad and leftover fried chicken and corn on the cob. Ran genset for 1 hour. 4/27/2002 (Sunday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Ran engine for 1 hour to charge batteries. Worked a little on battery monitor installation. Removed club-footed-jib fitting from foredeck; I'm getting rid of it. That required removing headliner in V-berth, which was quite a project. And when it was off, I saw that the bolts on the bow pulpit stanchions are all rusty; another job to do. As I said to Herb later, if only you don't look at things, you won't see them, and then you won't have to do anything about them. Dinghied ashore; not much happening. Back to boat. Took bow pulpit bolts out and found that the coring in the deck around them is wet. The proper fix is to rout out the wet coring, fill the holes completely with epoxy filler, then re-drill the holes. Too much work; I'm going to get new bolts and caulk them in. Dinner is salad and leftover fried chicken and corn on the cob. Ran genset for 1.5 hours. 4/28/2002 (Monday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Got bow pulpit bolts out; messy job. Dinghied ashore, bought new bolts and nuts ($4), parts to do battery monitor ($15). Ran engine for 1 hour to charge batteries. Installed bow pulpit bolts. Dinghied ashore, received east coast charts, received mid-atlantic guidebook (wrong year), bought long propane hose ($46 plus fittings from old hose), bought gelcoat mix ($16), had 18-inch battery cable made at AIM ($13; cheaper than I could buy the parts!). Ran into Harold (tattoos) at West Marine (actually, he almost ran into me with a scooter). Apparently he was in George Town about 3 weeks before us, and left just before we got there. He went to Long Island and Cat Island and other places we didn't go. He came away with a bad taste of people gouging him with high prices, and lots of things on his boat broke down, so he isn't inclined to go to the Bahamas any more. Dinner is salad and corn on the cob and soup and noodles. Ran genset for 1.5 hours. 4/29/2002 (Tuesday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Epoxy-filled the foredeck holes left from removing the club-footed jib attachment. Took a couple of rounds of epoxy; it kept bridging over air pockets instead of filling the holes completely. Installed battery monitor shunt in the negative leg of the battery wiring. Hot work. Ran engine for 1 hour to charge batteries. Dinghied ashore and did errands. Bought wire for battery monitor ($6). Back to boat. Ran genset for 1.5 hours. While cooking dinner (spaghetti), drilled and sawed out opening for mounting battery monitor. 5/1/2002 (Wednesday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Hot today; about 90. Will be same for next few days, too. More battery monitor wiring. Got small wires attached to shunt; should have done them before doing big wires. Ran engine for 1 hour to charge batteries. Dinghied ashore to do errands. Bought more wiring parts ($10). Back to boat, connected up terminal strip, realized I need to buy a couple MORE wiring parts ! Tested new propane hose, and it leaks like a sieve at both ends ! Salad and hotdogs for dinner. 5/2/2002 (Thursday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Hot last night; hard to sleep. Got up before 7 AM and right into engine compartment and removed starter and solenoid from genset. Ran engine for 1.25 hours to charge batteries. Did gelcoat repairs on foredeck holes left by club-footed jib attachment; I love the smell of styrene in the morning. Dinghied ashore, took propane hose to supplier, took genset starter to dealer, got more wiring parts ($5). Back to boat, worked up a good sweat finishing installing the battery monitor, and it works ! I can see the loads on the batteries, and right away I see a "mystery load" on battery 1, even when all switches and the main battery switch are off. Must be a directly-wired load, and there seem to be two: battery charger, and control switch for the AC-DC transformers. Unwired the battery charger, and the load is still there. Must be the transformers. Load started at 8 amps, declined to less than 2 in an hour, was zero many hours later. Charging up a capacitor somewhere ? Propane hose seems to work; will test it again tomorrow. Dinghied ashore again. Genset dealer says his starter guy found that the solenoid was misaligned; this after the genset guy told me there must be a mounting problem on the engine. We'll see if it works tomorrow, and if it keeps working. Potluck at the marina tonight; I bought a loaf of Cuban bread and a bucket of potato salad, and they were well-received. Good ribs and chicken and some nice people. Jim gave me a couple of sips of his Tennessee whiskey; very nice. Ran engine for 0.75 hour to charge batteries. Alternator putting out about 52 amps at fast idle into fairly low batteries. Batteries 1/2 accepting about 21/31 respectively. Ten minutes later, more like 15/37. After another ten, 15/35. After another ten, 15/27. Then 15/21. 5/3/2002 (Friday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Hot last night; hard to sleep. Woke up with a splitting headache from the little bit of whiskey I drank last night. Hot day again; we're at about 90 all week. Installed genset starter and solenoid, and although I've done it 5 times before, it fought me every step of the way this time. And when I was done, I pressed the preheat switch and didn't get the usual relay "clunk", so I did something wrong in the wiring (fortunately, I documented the wiring a while ago, and reading it just now, I see what I did wrong). Long, sweaty morning in the engine compartment, getting out every 5 minutes to stand in the cockpit with sweat pouring off me. Removed connection between battery charger and genset battery; didn't like idea that a charger failure could drain all batteries. Corrected the solenoid wiring and the genset works ! Will find out if the sticking problem is gone over the next month or so. Ran genset for 0.5 hour to charge batteries. Monitor confirms charger putting out 15 amps or so. Dinghied ashore. Saw a whole flock of pretty girls in a dinghy; wonder what boat they're on. Received new battery charger, engine valve cover gasket, and transmission shop manual. Salad and fried chicken for dinner. Ran engine for 1 hour to charge batteries. 5/4/2002 (Saturday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. This is the one-year anniversary of my living on the boat; I took possession of Magnolia on 5/4/2001 ! I've come a long way in one year ! Removed old battery charger from engine compartment, cut and painted wood to mount new charger, and painted front wall of engine compartment. It was grey; I painted glossy white to improve the light level in the compartment and make it look better. I figured it was a good time to do it since I had the charger off and much of the wiring loosened. Old battery charger weighed about 30 pounds ! New one is 7.5 pounds, smarter, higher capacity, etc. Did a bucket of laundry. Ran engine for 1 hour to charge batteries. Dinghied ashore and bought wiring for charger ($45!), gallon of interior paint ($22). Salad and leftover fried chicken for dinner. Ran engine for 0.5 hour to charge batteries. 5/5/2002 (Sunday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. More painting in engine compartment; it's looking much better ! Hot and sweaty job. Ran engine for 0.5 hour to charge batteries. Finished installing new battery charger, and it works ! Ran genset for 0.5 hour to test. Dinghied ashore, had nice conversation with Lee Church and Sandy from Santana (Chris Craft Caribbean 35; lchurch963 at aol.com; www.members.aol.com/LChurch963) about electrical stuff and ICW and so on. Dinghy full of babes in bikinis went by as we were talking. Back to boat, dinner is salad and leftover fried chicken. Ran genset for 1 hour. 5/6/2002 (Monday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Put headliner in V-berth back together. Measured fuel level at 9.5 inches. Dinghied ashore, bought tie-wraps ($3), paintbrushes ($2), jigsaw blades ($4). Renewed car and boat registrations ($9 for dinghy, $88 for boat). More painting in engine compartment. Ran genset for 0.75 hour to charge batteries. Dinghied ashore. Back to boat. I'm starting to think I have to replace batteries now instead of later. I wanted to wait, to see how new alternator behaves; I worry that it might fry new batteries. But the old batteries act like they have about 100 AH capacity (instead of their rated 400 AH), and battery 2 is outgassing badly. I think they've been badly undercharged, maybe vibrated too much also, and maybe a little oil got into them also (there was a burst transmission oil hose during previous owner's tenure). They're sulfated and damaged. Salad and spaghetti for dinner. Ran genset for 1.75 hours. 5/7/2002 (Tuesday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Put the club-footed jib pole in the car (sticks 3 feet out of the trunk) and drove up to Ft Lauderdale to try to sell it, buy stuff I can't find in the Keys, and see my cousin's family. Rude awakening at Sailorman's and Second Wind Sails. Sailorman's says they'd be lucky to sell pole, deck attachment and sail for $300; I'd get $200. Second Wind offers $50 for sail only. I could make more by cutting it up for sail patch material ! No other places in town buy used sails any more; I called 3 or 4, and they all said no, but thought some other place was still buying. Now, this is an 11-foot pole, deck attachment, and good-condition sail with 12-foot foot and 40-foot luff. A few small repaired holes in the sail. New, they're pushing $2000. I thought they could sell for maybe $450 and I'd get $300. Guess I'll try Bacon's when I get up to Annapolis, or maybe keep the sail as a spare jib. Spent time at SSCA galactic headquarters, looking through cruising guides and such. Then to my cousin's, where I spent the first night off the boat in about 6 months ! 5/8/2002 (Wednesday) Boat at anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL; I'm in Ft Lauderdale. More time at SSCA. Checked out Delaware River info in cruising guides at Bluewater Books; only a few pages of info on the Delaware, but it appears there are plenty of anchorages above Philly. No sail-repair tape anywhere to be bought; all West Marine locations are out too. Bought water jug ($8), bungee cords ($10), kitchen timer ($6), car stereo CD-player ($62). Back to Marathon, to find dinghy and boat are fine. Batteries are down to 11.85 volts; going to see if I can remove and replace them tomorrow. Ran genset for 1 hour to charge batteries. 5/9/2002 (Thursday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Plunged right into engine compartment and removed the batteries. Nothing better than lugging 94-pound boxes of electricity and acid. Tried to keep a film of baking soda on my hands, and several times I put a hand down somewhere and got some nice fizzing. Got the two 4D's out of the compartment, got the boxes unscrewed from the shelf, then cleaned and cleaned with baking soda and then water and then 409 and then more water. Plenty of gunk and sawdust and stuff. Then painted more of engine compartment, including areas revealed by removing batteries. All the lugging and painting had me very sweaty. Dinghied ashore and bought four Deka GC15 golf-cart batteries ($328) from the golf-cart shop. Bought some Rubbermaid containers ($12) to use as battery boxes, but when I got to boat I didn't like them and decided not to use them. Bought rubber sheet ($10) to make vibration padding under batteries. Got the batteries into the dinghy and out to the boat and up to deck, then used a block and tackle to lower them through the aft hatch into the aft cabin. Cut and put down the rubber sheets, moved the batteries into the compartment, and positioned them. The existing cables fit, but I need two additional cables. Dinghied ashore and had the cables made at AIM. $13 for two 18-inch 1/0 cables with fittings and shrink-wrap ! Apparently they charge $4.50/foot which includes the connectors. An incredible bargain for short cables. Back to boat, installed the cables, no smoke. Added water to the batteries; they were very low, maybe only 1/4 inch above the plates. Turned on the electrical system, and it works ! Started genset and started charging them. Tomorrow's job: get the old 4D's off the boat. Will not be fun. George and Carol came over to see my boat. They have a Mark-Ellis-designed Aloha 32, similar to a Niagara 35. They were very complimentary, and we had a nice visit. Battery charger is pouring the juice into the new batteries. 2 hours and still going at 10 amps into each. Started running the freezer again; it's been off for a couple of weeks. I need to see if I can improvise a gasket for the lid. After 2.5 hours, charger putting 8 amps at 13.70 volts into batteries. At 3 hours, 7 amps. At 4 hours, 5.5 amps. Chili for dinner. Ran genset for 4 hours. 5/10/2002 (Friday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Used a hydrometer to suck a lot of the electrolyte out of the old batteries, to make them safer to move. Scrubbed the outsides with baking soda; lots of fizzing. Wrapped them a bit in plastic sheeting. Rigged a block-and-tackle from the mizzen boom through the aft cabin hatch and hoisted the two old 4D batteries (94 pounds each) up onto deck. Moved the block-and-tackle to the cross-piece of the davits and lowered the batteries down into the dinghy. Dinghied ashore, lifted them out of the dinghy, and carried them to the trunk of my car. Took them to the place where I bought the new batteries. Everything went well. There was a bit of an anxious moment as each battery dropped a little getting them off the stern into the dinghy, but everything held. Ran genset for 2 hours to charge batteries. Started working at replacing the engine valve cover gasket. Should be a simple job, but the cover is stuck on (guess it's been on there for a while). Put adhesive/sealant on gaps in freezer lid mounting. Dinghied ashore. Did various errands, did a shopping trip to start stocking up for the cruise. Salad and reheated chili for dinner. Ran genset for x hours. Still several jobs to do before I can leave: - haven't received 2002 Waterway Guide yet - rebuild outboard motor carburetor - oil and filter changes on engine and genset - replace engine valve cover gasket - get sail-repair tape for jib 5/11/2002 (Saturday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Rained briefly but hard at 11 AM. Replaced engine valve cover gasket. Should have been very easy job, since the cover is right on top of the engine, held down with six bolts. But it probably hasn't been removed in at least 10 years, and the old gasket was holding it on firmly. After prying it off, had to cut and scrape the old gasket out in little pieces. A little gunk was on the engine-block side of the joint, and I had to scrape that out being careful not to let any pieces escape into the valves. Cleaned the surfaces with acetone. Sprayed the new gasket (a big rectangular cork thing) with WD-40 before putting it in. Ran engine for 1.5 hours to test the gasket and charge batteries, and the slight oil leak seems to be fixed ! Will keep an eye on it. Messed with freezer lid seams some more. Wet-sanded gelcoat repairs on club-jib holes. Took jib whisker pole apart; looks like I need a different fitting on one end, and different slide-fittings in the middles. Dinghied ashore; bought more groceries. Dinner is salad and corn on the cob and spaghetti. Ran genset for 2 hours. 5/12/2002 (Sunday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Loafed all morning. Ran genset for 2 hours to charge batteries. Replaced all gaskets in outboard motor carburetor, and now it's running like a clock ! Rained briefly but hard at 3:30 PM. Dinghied ashore and loafed. Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner. 5/13/2002 (Monday) At anchor in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon FL. Tried to do the last big job on my "must do before cruising" list: oil changes of genset and engine. Remembered why I've been putting it off: it's a horrible job. I have a drill-pump that connects to tubes that come up from the oil sumps, but I have to prime it with oil, and this time I just couldn't get it to draw from either engine. Hot, sweaty, oily job with lots of bad language. Gave up and have to go buy some other kind of pump. Need something different to change transmission fluid anyway. Ran genset for 1 hour to charge batteries. Dinghied ashore. Found that my Waterway Guide arrived 10 days ago and Mailboxes Etc misplaced it. Bought Tempo oil-change pump ($58), and sticky-back Dacron sail-repair tape ($8). Forgot about one other big job: find a place to leave my car for 6 months. Was planning to have Matt put it on his dinghy-dock tab, but he's moved to Dockside without telling me. Asked Jim, but he started talking about using it to get groceries, and then dragged me in to ask the harbormaster if it was okay, and of course they have a rule against it. So now I may just park it on the street by Dockside. The alternatives are to pay the marina $40/month for parking, or leave it with my cousin in Ft Laud and take Greyhound back down to here. Wanted to leave harbor early tomorrow; may get out late if at all because of this. Back to boat, worried about the car, and found that the new oil pump doesn't work as well as advertised. Eventually sucked about 2.3 quarts out of genset (should have been 3.5) and about 6 out of engine (should have been 10). Forgot what a horrible mess removing the engine oil filter makes. After another 3-4 hours of sweating and swearing and using up 1.5 rolls of paper towels, the job was done. Conclusions: - It's a horrible job and I hate it. - I still don't have a great way of doing it. Ran genset for 2 hours. Corn on the cob and saffron rice for dinner. [Next log file is http://www.geocities.com/bill_dietrich/Magnolia/MagnoliaLogLate2002.txt ]