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February 26th, 2011

We are anchored at Black Point, Great Guana Cay.  This is a favorite place for cruisers who need to get their laundry done.   The two story building in front of Snap is the Laundromat.    You can see the dinghies at small dock that is easy access to the machines.  It is the closest thing in the Exumas to a state side laundry.  While you are waiting through the spin cycle, you can buy a few supplies at the Grocery, grab a bite to eat and access the internet at Lorraine's Cafe,  down a few beers and watch some sporting event at Scorpio's bar, or even have Ida (who owns the Laundromat) cut your hair.  It's easy to see why cruisers stop in here on their way North and South.

I finally got a picture of the cake that Nancy made for Earnestine's birthday and Terry and Earnestine's Anniversary  .  The flowers were made from sliced jelly candy.

We met our friends Pat and Wayne on S/V Kolibrie along with new friends Axel and Mary Claire on S/V Azaya at Black Point and had them over for a Shuttle Launching Party.  We tuned in the countdown on our XM radio and looked to the northwest as the launch occurred.  Nope, didn't see a thing.  We are just too far south for a visual on the shuttle.  But we did celebrate the launch in a good way.  The sunset after the launch was nice and we even saw a green flash just as the sun disappeared below the horizon.  After the sun set and the seas calmed, it was really peaceful.   

Our autopilot is still not working and its looking more and more like we lost the control board.  It may never work.  We decided that we really didn't want to hand steer the boat all over the Bahamas so we are doing something different this year.  We will stay in the Exumas but visit little harbors, bays and Islands that we have always passed by.  One place we stopped was Jacks Cove Bay.  A very little bay on the west shore of Great Guana Cay.  It turned out to be a wonderful place.  One that we would go back to.  We walked to the Ocean side of the Island from the bay and discovered another very little bay that opened to the deep ocean waters.  Walking the sands we found some more sea beans to add to our collection. 

Probably tomorrow we will move north to another island we have never been to.  This is fun.                                                                                            

February 21st, 2011

With the strong east winds we moved to another mooring at Little Farmers Cay.  It is just on the other side of the harbor next to Great Guana Cay.  We have been having an enjoyable time in glassy smooth water.    The flag will give you an idea of the wind and you can see the smooth water around us.  Nancy has been swimming and collecting shells and we have been beach walking and collecting shells.  This collection is from one walk to an ocean side beach and includes, hamburger beans, heart beans, sea glass, beads and shells.   

The beans and sea glass are used to make jewelry and the shells and beads are used for decorations on woven baskets or just display.  This is what we normally collect on each trip to the beach.  We could have more but we are getting picky.

We had our Valentines' dinner at Ocean Cabin and had a ball.    Earnestine's famous lobster dinner with cake, song and dance.  Other boaters and locals joined us in the festivities.  Dress code was red and white.. Nancy had a great time with the local kids.  She always carries a little candy (and a lot of hugs) for them.    

About 5 dinghies departed the other day and we all went to a cave on the hill called "Oven Rock Cave".  You can google it or follow this link ,  Oven Rock and it will give you an idea what the cave is like.  Anyway almost everyone went swimming in the cave..   A few days ago we found another ocean side beach and marked a trail to it, so yesterday a group of us headed over there.  Found some more shells and beans..

We have worked a little at Ocean Cabin helping out the owners Terry and Earnestine.  Mainly tending bar and taking a few food orders.  We will be moving on soon to another place to explore.  Nancy wants to go to a "secret" sand bar and get some shells so that will be our next task.

Tomorrow is Earnestine's birthday, so Nancy just baked a cake for her.  I hope she is happy with it. (Double Chocolate with fluffy white frosting, decorated with flowers made from gummy candies - what's not to like?)

CAT NEWS 

We have also been collecting fishing floats on our beach walks and one we found was orange in color.  Our orange cat Snap just had to check it out.    He also had to check out a Mutton Snapper fish we had in the sink before we filleted it.   .  He was rewarded with bits of raw fish. So what does a cat do after working so hard?  Sleep. Where? Any place.  Engine room.     Sink. 

All for now.  I will post again when we can get some good internet.  We have a good extended range wifi antenna that we hook up to the computer but to give you an idea how poor the connections are, it took up 7 hours to get 33 messages on our email.  Some messages had video or pictures that slowed it down a lot.  If you send pictures to us make sure they are only about 1200 pixels wide or about twice the size of the little 640 x 480 that we have all seen in the past.  We cannot Skype because of that.  If you have called us and we did not answer that is why.  Great talking to you and we always look forward to receiving your emails and all the good gossip that is happening around you life.   Bye

February 11th, 2011

A few things changed since our last post.  A little background information first.

We have an evening we call "generator night".    It is an evening that we run the generator and do several things.  It is not a set evening, but occurs anywhere from 3 to 5 days apart.  We run the generator when we need to charge batteries, do laundry, make water or just want to watch a movie.  We have solar panels and a wind generator to charge the batteries and meet our electrical needs most of the time; but when the sky has been cloudy or the wind has been light, we need to start the generator.  When the laundry basket gets too full and we want to use the washer/dryer, we need to start the generator.  When our water tank gets too low and we want to make more water, we need to start the generator.  If we just want to watch TV or a movie, we'll usually start the generator as well. Once the generator is running, we multi-task - make water, do laundry, charge the batteries, plug in all our hand-held gadgets and have a nice evening watching a movie.  Well, we were having a generator evening at the Exuma Land and Sea Park when the boat went black.  We had lost our 120 volts circuit from the generator.  I took a look in the engine compartment and found that our power selector switch had fallen apart.  Bad news since the bilge god  swallowed up most of the small parts.  I had a spare switch on board that could do the job for most of the requirements but not all.  In other words, we could get by.  As I was working on this problem I noticed water dripping from the generator enclosure (not good).  I opened up the side panel and saw water coming from the coolant overflow (bad news, sea water getting into the fresh water side of the cooling system).  Many things could be wrong.  So we decided to drop the mooring ball and head back to Nassau for repairs.  Two days later we were tied to the same dock in Nassau that we had left just a few days before.  A repairman met us a couple of hours later and got power back on the boat with a temporary repair. We tried to find a replacement part for the one that self-destructed - but there was nothing even close to what we needed in Nassau. We made a call to our good friends Ladd and Brenda in Florida and another search began.  Ladd finally located the part at a Marine Electrical Supply house that was just a few blocks from his house and sent it to us International Priority Fed-Ex.  It arrived in Nassau the next day but sat in customs for the next few days while red tape slowly unwound.  We would work on the generator after we got the rewiring done, so we had nothing much to do until the part got delivered.

So when given a lemon, make lemon aid.  We have been sponsors of the Exuma National Trust for several years and had never visited "The Retreat", their main office in Nassau. The Retreat has one of the largest collection of palm trees in the world and that is something we wanted to see. So off we went.  It was about 2 miles from the marina so we had a nice walk along the harbor, through a park and down neighborhood side streets.  We stopped in the Bahamas Trust Administrative office to say hi and to pick up the map for a self-guided walking tour of the gardens.  What was interesting is that we saw many of the same trees that we had just planted in our courtyard so we could get an idea of what our little garden will look like as the palms mature.    Some were absolutely gorgeous.  This is a lily pond built sometime in the early 18 hundreds.    As we walked through the palms we ran across a little waterfall and ponds.  Just a nice cooling place.    We left the gardens and went to a city park where Fort Montagu is located.  It was built in 1742 and guarded the Nassau harbor from the east entrance.     Big gun,  there were 4 of these guns to do the guarding.

Our part finally arrived at the marina and in the meantime our repairman had removed the heat exchanger from the generator for pressure testing and possible repair.  So the next day the switch was replaced and wired and the heat exchanger re-installed.  The exchanger had been packed with mud which had caused a lot of backpressure that forced sea water through the gasket.  With a clean exchanger and new gasket everything was fine. 

So back we went to the Exumas.  We arrived in Big Majors Spot and met up with Escapade and Slow Dancin'.  Fun followed that evening with a Super bowl party at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club.

Here's a picture of the bar flies, Linda, Nancy and Joy, at the Super Bowl party.    A couple days later, we enjoyed a beach party, complete with marshmallows roasted over a bonfire.      Jim (seated) and Janie (standing) are from the M/V Pirate whom we had met last year (or maybe it was the year before that) and Linda from M/V Escapade.  Jim and Janie stay at this beach for about a month every year and keep the little yacht club clean.  Because of them it is called Pirate Beach.   There's a buffet table, some lawn chairs, a fire pit and even a place to leave your boat name behind - in other words, all the trappings.    There were about 10 boats at the party - some old friends and a few new ones.  Good times were had by all.  A view from the ridge above the beach shows our Solitaire at anchor way down the picture next to the far beach, second from the left.  Can't you see her?    Looking the other direction all that you see are uninhabited islands. 

We left the anchorage and went to Little Bay on Great Guana Cay.  It is a very pretty anchorage and gave us excellent protection from the NE winds.  Nancy and Joy went snorkeling.  Nancy took a picture of Solitaire at anchor.    While swimming along the reef they spotted a Lion Fish.  These are very poisonous fish not native to the Bahamas.  The government wants them killed when found.  Although they look very pretty and flower-like, the venom in tips of their fan-like fins will really hurt you.    Then there were the things that would not hurt you.   

That's how the days go.  We are now at Little Farmers Cay on a mooring ball.  We have a week of high winds starting tomorrow night.  A Stingray just slowly swam by. Nancy went swimming also and found out that we have a big green Morey eel that has a home below our boat.

A normal cats day.  

Oh, our autopilot has stopped working.