A Beautiful Sail!

I took this beautiful picture of the setting sun at anchor in Marsh Harbor. We spent two nights there so I could do laundry and Larry could change our alternator belt on the engine. Then purchase replacements. We spent Wednesday doing those errands and Thursday we relaxed on the boat and went for a walk at shore.














Friday morning we lifted our anchor and returned to Great Guana Cay. This was a self portrait taken by Larry at the beach on Saturday morning. We had a great walk and wet our feet in the surf but didn't go swimming or snorkeling. We didn't even find shells or beach glass. As you can see it was a glorious day.















Another cruiser we met, Phil brought these guys up for a closer look and pictures. After which he put them back in the water. I noticed that they floated for a while, I guess they needed to absorb water again before going to the bottom. There are so many starfish in the water here that you can't go 50 feet without seeing many of the big guys.















This little guy was a, you guessed it, yellow submarine. I took this shot from our boat. The owner surfaced and came out to say hello. It is the second sub he has built. How cool is that.
















This is a picture of the amazing color of the water as we sailed around the Whale Cay cut this morning. We are getting ready to cross the Gulf Stream for our return to the US. We had a great sail today and are anchored at Manjack Cay for the night. Our plan is to stay here tomorrow and do some conch hunting early at low tide. Hopefully the wind and waves will cooperate.

Water Pump Good as New!

Friday morning early, Larry removed the water pump from the engine. Our seal was leaking and he had ordered a new one three weeks ago and it was finally in. He was unable to remove the shaft so we took the entire pump to the marina to ask if they could remove it and put the new seal in. We walked the two miles to the marina but the Yanmar mechanic was busy installing an engine into a boat. They will close on the weekend and we figured we would have to wait till Monday to get our pump back. The Gal at the desk said she would have the mechanic look at it after lunch and she would hail us via VHF channel 16 with a report. We were lucky to get a ride back to town with another cruiser in a cab. We did a little grocery shopping along the way and arrived back at the boat before 2:00 Pm. We were just sitting down for lunch when we got the call. The mechanic had not only looked at it but he had already changed the seal. It's amazing how quick a job can be done with the proper tools. No matter how many tools we seem to have aboard inevitably we never have the proper one.

The picture is of Larry reinstalling our water pump. After he finished he went above to fire up the engine and my job was to watch for water spouts on the pump. Fortunately none happened. Another great job done by Captain Larry. Any thing he didn't know how to do before we lived aboard he certainly is learning how to do it now.

Yesterday, Saturday we lifted anchor and set sail to Tilloo Cay. We spent one night here with Rich and Julie but had to get out of harms way of a front coming in and went to Little Harbor. It is just beautiful here now with under 10 knots of wind no waves and lots of sunshine. Larry is out fishing now on the dinghy and we plan to stay put and do some snorkeling later today. Our plan is to do a little Cay hopping this week and reprovision next weekend and then start working our way back to jump off to the states.

A Visit From Friends From Cold Country!

This is Kieth and Jane the night they arrived in Marsh Harbor. Their plan is to spend a few days with us aboard our boat then go to Grand Bahama Island for the remainder of the week. We had planned to dive with Dive Guana, sail and snorkel and enjoy the beach. Mother Nature had other plans in mind. They arrived Sunday evening and we spent the night on the hook in Marsh Harbor. Monday the winds were about 10 to 15 knots and out of the west. We lifted our anchor around 10 AM and headed for Great Guana Cay. We had a good sail until we had to turn half way there when the wind was on our nose. We motored the rest of the way. We decided to take a mooring ball to get us closer to the dinghy dock. The winds did continue to build though the day.














We didn't let it stop us, we dinghied to shore and walk to Nippers and to the beach. Jane and I decided not to get wet and watched as Kieth and Larry went out to the reef to have a look. They actually were out for about 45 minutes at which point Jane and I began to get cold and were glad to see them come out of the water. The ride back to the boat was a soaker. The waves had built and were crashing over the bow of the dinghy. We were glad to have a warm shower when we arrived back at the boat.

That evening the weather continued to get worse. About 3 AM the wind grew to about 30 knots and the direction stayed the same. It was like riding a bull. By daylight when the dock hand came to collect his fee, Larry ask if any mooring balls were available in the next bay around the point of land. It didn't take us long to let loose our lines and move when he said yes. It was still very windy but without the large waves it was substantially more comfortable.














After breakfast on board we went to shore in search of something to do now that our dive plans were cancelled. We decided to rent a golf cart and explore the cay. We had a blast inspite of the weather. We rented it for 3 hours which was plenty to see what we had access to by cart and a nice lunch at the Orchid Bay Marina. We even fit in a tour of the new development connected to Orchid Bay.

The photo of Larry, Kieth and Jane was taken on the Atlantic side where we took a walk on the beach after returning the golf cart. Not quite warm enough for a swim but Kieth did manage to get his shorts wet in the surf. We had a great day inspite of our forced change of plans.
















Our time with Keith and Jane went by very quickly. We hope they can stay longer next time. The ferry was their ride back to Marsh Harbor yesterday morning to catch the Island Hopper to Grand Bahama. The Sea of Abaco was still rough yesterday morning and the ferry would get them there much quicker than we could. It seemed to be the lesser of the two evils.

The rest of their week promises to be much warmer and less windy so they should be able to get some diving in.

Larry and I stayed put for the rest of the day and the wind continued to blow. We got laundry done and went for a walk to see the ocean and how wild it got. We are taking our time this morning. We plan to sail back over to Marsh Harbor about noon to pick up a part for the water pump on the engine and buy some groceries at the store. We will come back to Great Guana Cay tomorrow and wait for the Whale Cay Pass to calm from the rage so we can pass to the upper Sea of Abaco and wait for a good passage to the States. For now we'll just enjoy the sunshine.

Farewell Rich and Julie, We Will Miss You!

It certainly was a very fast ten days. It has a habit of doing that when you are having fun. We enjoyed our time as well as did Rich and Julie. The weather was perfect with lots of winds to sail but not too much to enjoy it. This picture was taken the morning of their departure, all rested and happy.

Unfortunately, we didn't get a good signal for the Internet to do many updates while they were here. Larry finally paid the $40 for a week with Outer Island Internet. We have another couple, also from New York visiting with us this weekend for a few days. We needed to be able to call them on Skype. Next time we visit the Bahamas we will subscribe by the month. The convenience will be worth it.















This is Larry, Rich and Julie on the way to shore to catch a cab. Another storm squall moved though just as it was time to go to shore so they waited it out. The squall left behind light rain so we loaned them our rain gear and bagged their luggage.

We had an even more intense squall move though when we arrived in the harbor at the beginning of their trip to pick them up. I'm not sure what Marsh Harbor is trying to tell us.















This picture of Rich and Julie was taken at dawn waiting for the sun to rise. Richard went out the forward hatch trying not to wake us. Didn't work Rich! We were anchored at Tilloo Cay at the beginning of our week.















This picture was taken in Hope Town from the lighthouse. We are the boat by it's self on the left in the harbor. Where the water is breaking on the reef in the back of the picture is the Atlantic Ocean. It was a breathtaking view and the picture doesn't do justice to the colors of the water.

















This was Richard checking out his gear for snorkeling behind the boat. We did some phenomenal snorkeling while they were here. The last day on Saturday we had a perfect day to snorkel on Mermaid Reef, just outside of Marsh Harbor. The fish were incredibly friendly. I found out last night that people make a habit of feeding them. No wonder they were following us around.

I have been keeping a paper journal this trip because of the lack of Internet. This is something I haven't done since I began blogging. I don't wish to forget a moment of this incredible trip.