With a Little Help From Our Friends

 We're not singing out of tune (as per the Beatles), but Sea Change has hit a few sour notes recently, as you know from previous blog posts.

The good news is, we've had plenty of good local help. First, Norman, who cares for the boat when we're away, just repaired our leaking dinghy. Then two different mechanics worked on our diesel engine, and it's now purring like a kitten. Finally, before that, when we couldn't start the engine, we got a tow from our harbour "concierge" to a safe place to hide out from the huge windstorm that is currently passing through.

So, knocking on wood, everything's working for now, and with full water tanks, a provisioned larder and reasonably charged batteries, we're finally feeling more relaxed!

We just saw a picture of a snow-covered car in South Florida, so we still feel lucky to be here - especially on this howling day off. 

A Dramatic End to a Calm Day

Ok - I finally have a story to tell! We spent the last week at beautiful Emerald Bay - hot showers, free laundry, parties with new dock friends, days by the gorgeous infinity pool and great restaurant - all for a price, of course. 

It wasn't all fun and games, though - especially for Jeff. He tried to replace the zinc, and kept losing parts of the old disintegrating zinc in the engine. Then he removed the heat exchanger and couldn't put it back together. After 3 hard, hot days, he gave up and called a mechanic, who, 4.5 hours and $450.00 US later, fixed the problem. 

At least, that one. The dying batteries showed no sign of revival, even after a week of charging, so we bit the bullet and rented a car, drove on the left to George Town (25 minutes each way), only to find that the set of batteries Jeff had reserved were no good. At least we were able to stock up on groceries and booze (badly needed at this point!).

So today we finally left to return to George Town - a beautiful, blue-sky motor, as the wind was on our nose, so no sailing. All was calm, until we entered Red Shanks Harbour in what looked like 9 feet of water at high tide. Should have been fine, right? Wrong. Before we knew it, we were aground - deeply embedded in the sand and not moving. Low tide would be a disaster, if we couldn't move soon.

In moments, 3 dinghies from neighboring boats were busy pushing, pulling, and eventually releasing us from our watery prison! As we motored to deeper water for the night we started to taste the Bahama Mamas awaiting us in the fridge. Another exciting day in Paradise!

Finally Sailing Away!

 We made it - we left Elizabeth Harbour yesterday and had a rolly ride motorsailing to beautiful Emerald Bay - about three hours away. After 5 weeks of roughing it, with no hot water and dying batteries, we're plugged in, having hot showers and had our first dinner out last night beside an insfinity pool at a nearby resort. We feel like we're in the lap of luxury, for $2.25 per foot per night.

We're surrounded by huge boats that dwarf little Sea Change - definitely an upper class district. We won't do this often, but it sure feels good to be at a dock now and then - I even worked up the energy to clean the boat, inside and out!

Tonight we'll feast on fresh tuna, caught and gifted to us by our neighboring boat - Australians who have traveled the world in their 47 foot Macintosh. We meet the nicest people here.

This feels like a holiday!

Biding our time

Sorry for the long gap - we haven't gone anywhere, so there's not much to say.

We're still in Red Shanks  - something always gets in the way of leaving. The weather has been very windy,  and on the few calm days we've had,  we go by dinghy into George Town for water,  groceries,  laundry,  etc.

Recently,  Jeff's hip has been acting up - we think he's going to need a hip replacement.  So he hasn't wanted to go anywhere for that reason.

But it's still better in the Bahamas - I know Toronto had a huge snowstorm the other day - closed all the schools,  highways,  etc. Not missing that much!

When the hip and weather settle down we'd like to go to Emerald Bay to plug in for a few days,  as the battery needs a boost.  We'll probably have to invest in new batteries in the near future 🙁. And the dinghy has a leak that we can't find, and our foot pump has given up the ghost. On top of that, one of our friends here, who travelled to the USA recently has tested positive for Covid. We're staying away, of course, but it's upsetting. 

Not Jealous any more? Hope all of you are doing better - I feel like I need a holiday...sigh.

A Musical Encounter

 Well, here's a story for you. We were anchored in Red Shanks right next to a lovely cruiser named Dale, who was my original ukulele teacher down here.

He recently made himself a cigar-box guitar, and offered to give Jeff a lesson on it. But then he moved his boat down the harbour a ways, so we thought we'd missed that.

Well today, we were toodling in our dinghy down the harbour, and I said, "let's see if we can find Dale". We arrived at his boat, and he asked us aboard, where he introduced us to Alison, from a neighboring boat. Then he pulled out his uke, his cigar box guitar, and another new one that he handed to Jeff. My captain got excited about learning to play it, and Dale offered to sell it to him for $100.00.

Alison immediately pulled the money out of her wallet and paid it to Dale - she said she was "paying it foward" for all the help he'd given her! We were shocked and grateful 🙏. 

So now we have a new instrument aboard, with a promise for a lesson from Dale. We'll make both of them a special dinner in a day or two - and Jeff and I will start playing duets before you know it - amazing!!

A Planned Adventure

 We're habouring from a big wind in a favorite place called Red Shanks this weekend. It's totally isolated with a gorgeous small beach nearby, but nothing else. It would be perfect, except that we ran out of water last night, with no gauge on our water tank to let us  know when that's happening. 

So today we braved the rough seas in our little dinghy, to motor the 15 minutes to a resort called February point. They have a great restaurant,  the Rusty Anchor, where we had lunch, after filling up our large water jugs on their dock. The return trip was a soaker - directly into the wind, on huge waves. But our trusty dink and new 15 hp motor powered through it!

Now we're back on Sea Change, preparing for a "sundowner" visit from a friend who is anchored not far from us. Tough life ...

Just Whiling The Time Away

 We're still in the harbour - now the batteries are misbehaving 😞.

But it's a beautiful place to be, with all kinds of activities initiated by the  boaters - like Summer camp for adults. I've added two new pastimes to my repertoire - rock painting and water aerobics! I'm doing the latter 3 times a week. 

The rock painting started when I found a beautifully painted little rock on a hike. Turns out one of the cruisers is making and leaving them on trails for people to find and take, if they like them. I decided I would contribute some, too. So I've collected almost everything I need to begin - now I just need to find the rocks!

My captain is still busy with repairs, so when I'm not provisioning, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, marking student papers, writing letters of reference, etc. I'll try my hand at painting rocks for the community. Better than bingo, I guess 😀.

I expect we'll be sailing soon🤞.

Relaxed at Last

 Ah - finally... we're at anchor at Monument Beach, with the boat sorted out, no immediate demands, a well-stocked larder, full water tanks, and reasonably healthy bodies (knocking on wood). Though Jeff suffered a wasp sting yesterday, but it didn't amount to much.

Today we're headed to the  nearby dock to talk to other cruisers about rebuilding it. This community is always taking on improvement projects like that. We may hike to the monument and then to the beach after that. One of the cruisers has been leaving beautifully painted rocks on the paths, and inviting people to take them. 

So I'm off to clean the cockpit on this lovely January 3rd - 80 degrees and clear skies - you gotta love it!

Happy New Year, 2022

What a beautiful way to ring in the New Year! At my instigation, about 50 cruisers gathered on Sand Dollar Beach for a huge bonfire  celebration. We had pot-luck snacks, drinks  and music provided by several folks with guitar, ukulele, harmonica and tambourine. We blew our conch horns at sunset to welcome in the new year, and then lit the fire 🔥. 

The scene was beautiful- the weather perfect, with a little breeze, so no bugs, and all in all, it was a party to remember. It was still going strong when I left, exhausted, at 10 pm, and at midnight, the harbor sky was filled with fireworks  from various resorts onshore. A great way to begin a year that I hope will be kinder to all of us and the planet. Happy New Year 2022!