A Concert to Remember

 We're still waiting, not so patiently, for our friend David to arrive from Florida with a new impeller for our engine. So we're charging our batteries with borrowed generators for now.

The upside of being stuck in George Town is that there are many wonderful events sponsored by this boating community. 

One of the best happened yesterday - a rooftop concert and open mic, on top of a boater's houseboat. It was reminiscent of the Beatles' rooftop concert, to commemorate that event on the same date decades ago. Many very talented musicians played for a huge audience, on the beach or in their dinghys on the water. 

I anchored our dinghy close by, and sat in it to enjoy the concert, joining in with my hand drum and dubious singing voice 😀. A wonderful way to spend a Bahama afternoon!

A Pause

We celebrated Jeff's 75 birthday on February 28th, with a birthday dinner on board shared by a couple of friends here. Jeff appreciated all the emails and phone calls, which lifted his spirit, because since then we've had nothing but trouble with the boat. 

Now the batteries aren't charging,  because the engine's not working properly, and the water tank is leaking all the fresh water we just put into it. 😞

So we'll be working on fixing all that, and you may not hear from me until the situation improves - hopefully soon! Keep your fingers crossed!

Quite a Scene

 Imagine this ....

A white powder sand beach, covered in Casuerina trees and a few palms. Under them sits a beach bar called Chat n Chill, filled with t-shirts people have contributed with their boat names and bits of ironic humor. The area is surrounded by picnic tables, around which are people eating, drinking, playing cards or chess. Nearby, kids are swinging from ropes attached to the trees, and others are digging in the sand, or cracking open coconuts with small machetes.

Partway along the beach, there's a jam session happening, with all kinds of instruments, and a little further away, there's a ukulele lesson in progress. Still further along, there's a conch hut where fresh conch salads are being deftly produced by Rinaldo, who dives for the conch on calm days.

A game of beach volleyball is underway in another area, and a beach yoga class has just ended.

The sky is a perfect cerulean blue, and the sea is turquoise, with dinghies tied up and boats anchored all along the shore. Sting rays are gathering to eat the conch innards being tossed into the water by Rinaldo, and they rub up against delighted swimmers like pet cats.

This is the scene we encounter every day as we visit Volleyball Beach for one reason or another. Certainly hard to be bored here!

Fun and Games

 The last few days have been fun and games here in Elizabeth Harbour.

Yesterday, we dinghied over to February Point resort, and had an exquisite lunch at the Rusty Anchor Restaurant. We then filled up our jugs with their free RO water, and returned to the boat to make an appetizer for the 4:00 ARG meeting - that's Alcohol Research Group - otherwise known as a beach party 🥳. There must have been 150 sailors there - dinghies lining the whole beach!

Today, Jeff needed to check in with the clinic again for his ailing hip. So I attended a yoga class, and then browsed a sailor's flea market on a different beach, and bought a hand-held drum for musical jam sessions. We may not be traveling, but there's lots to entertain us here. Tomorrow it's water aerobics at another beach - life is good.

A Safe Harbour

 I hope everyone had a happy Valentine's day 💕.

We're now hiding out from a wicked windstorm in our hurricane hole. Despite the protection of this very safe harbour, we're rolling around as if we were on the open ocean! 

But we had a lovely day, despite all that. It started with an hour yoga class, and then a pancake breakfast, shared with a friend who was helping Jeff with our bilge pump.  After a relaxing afternoon, we went out for a gorgeous dinner at St. Francis Resort - a 2-minute dinghy ride from our boat. We both opened cards and a gift (for me, a lovely locally-made bracelet, for Jeff, a bottle of his favorite tequilla).

Today we're puttering on the boat, and staying out of the weather. I just finished two watercolor paintings to submit for consideration as the t-shirt design for the 2023 Sailing Regatta. The designs get voted on by the community, and the winning one is printed on all the t-shirts - quite an honor! I don't expect to win, but it was a fun project for a rainy, windy day at the "cottage".

The Excitement Never Stops!

Now we're anchored at Monument - close to all the activities in this amazing community. Yoga, water aerobics, ecstatic dance, ukulele lessons and jamming - all provided free of charge by our fellow cruisers.

The other day, while I did a yoga class, my Captain tried to fix the wayward bilge pump, without success. As he was about to give up, I arrived with Lee, who had offered me a lift back in his dinghy. I'm a good mechanic, Lee announced, and quickly joined Jeff with his head in the bilge.

Suddenly we hear a voice from outside saying, "there's a boat floating down on you!". Yikes!! A huge Catamaran was adrift, with 6 dinghies surrounding it, trying to prevent it from colliding with nearby boats.

As we watched helplessly, with fenders at hand, the owners raced down from the top of Monument, jumped in their dinghy, and were soon aboard their runaway boat and reanchoring. Disaster averted! They had spotted their boat adrift from the top of the mountain - enough excitement  for everyone for one day!

An Eventful Few Days

 The last few days have been eventful, beginning with a touch and go exit from very shallow Red Shanks. At high tide, we had .9 feet of water, according to our depth sounder. But we made it safely back to the harbour at George Town, where we anchored last night.

Jeff has had a persistent skin rash which seemed to be getting worse, despite being treated with an ointment suggested by the local pharmacist. So we made an appointment at the Exuma Family Medical Clinic - an absolutely gorgeous 3 year old facility. Jeff was seen by a doctor, who gave him a prescription for a drug and a different ointment, and the rash seems to be healing - yay!

So today we moved the boat to Sand Dollar Beach, where I took an ecstatic dance class for an hour. Then we moved the boat again to our favorite harbour at Monument Beach, where we'll await the arrival of David, who is bringing us new batteries, among a myriad of other items from Florida. Maybe he can help us figure out why our bilge pump has stopped working 😞.

But all in all, we're having a good time now - yoga on the beach tomorrow, and then maybe a hike to the monument. The weather is beautiful and we're surrounded by gin clear turquoise water - life is good.

Drowning in a dinghy

 We've spent the last week sitting out the big blow in a hidden corner of Red Shanks. Several times, we needed to go George Town for food and water, so we braved the wind and HUGE waves in our little dinghy. But the most challenging day was when I went with friends in their dinghy all the way across the Bay to the beach at Chat and Chill- a 45 minute trip. My friend, Dale, was offering a ukulele class, which I joined. Then we traveled across the bay to George Town for supplies, and headed back to the big boats.

Suddenly, we noticed that there was 8 inches of water in the dinghy - it looked like we were sinking! Fortunately, those inflatable dinghies don't sink so easily - we bailed, and pulled the bung-hole plug, and eventually emptied the boat. We figured the extreme turbulence in the cut into town caused the flood, and we didn't notice because we were focused on the crazy waves and walls of seawater splashing us constantly. I was very happy to put my foot down on Sea Change - which felt like terra firma!

We had a calmer day yesterday, and spent the evening with Dale and Kris, who made us a barbque dinner, followed by a jam session with all of us playing. Jeff had an amplifier on his guitar, and sounded great. Their little dog didn't even howl!

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!