2025-12-28 Haul out, Christmas and moving south

 Sunday was windy, so it was a boat day, doing nothing much.  Monday, we went to town, and got some groceries, and then back to the boat, still quite windy. 

Tuesday was the big day – time to haul out.  Robert from R&B called us around 10:30, and told us to come on in.  It was quite windy with gusts up to 20, so a bit tricky to get to the dock, but all went well, and we got tied up.  By the time we were tied up, and they measured us, and adjusted the platform they use to raise boats, it was close to noon.  They shut down for an hour at noon, so we walked over to the “Snack Vault” and got lunch.  Never been there before, but it was a pretty good lunch of burgers and fries.   We took the food back to the boat to eat, as we wanted to be on the boat for when the yard came back.  

Setting the blocks on the lifting platform before we are hauled

 

The "Snack Vault" - was a decent place for lunch

We finally hauled around 1:00, and the guys got right to work draining the oil on the starboard sail drive, which was milky again already.    Once the shaft and seals were out, they cleaned everything up well, and then waited on Robert to come and do the seal replacement.   They were happy to let us watch, which we did, and they all did a very good job.

Charm up and out of the water. 

The guys taking off the prop and working to remove the shaft 

Kris taking a look at the shaft while it is being cleaned up

R & B boatyard office has nice mural on the front

Once the seals were replaced, Kris added new oil, they lowered us back down, and we headed out.   We were lucky, the tide was going out, and ½ an hour later we would have been stuck overnight waiting on a higher tide to leave.

Wednesday, we sailed the 42 miles over to the Exuma’s.  We had northeast winds, which made for a nice downwind sail, although a bit lumpy.   We anchored somewhere new, at Lobster Cay, and would not do it again, and there is a fair current, and makes it a bit choppy at times, but it was fine for a couple of days. 

Christmas was quiet, as we were anchored by ourselves, which was fine.  Dean made cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and chips and dip for lunch.  And Santa gave us each some candy in our stockings for Christmas.

Yummy

Our Christmas stockings and presents

Friday we headed south, motoring down to Warderick Wells where we got a mooring ball.   Went for a nice walk along the trails, up to BooBoo hill and back.

 

Kris in front of the old whale skeleton at the beach in Warderick Wells Cay

Charm on the mooring at Warderick Wells Cay

At the top of BooBoo Hill, looking at all the boaters memento planks

Beautiful view from the top of the hill, ocean side

Dean crossing the causeway on our walk

Rugged causeway trail on Warderick Wells Cay

Saturday, Kris took the kayak for a nice paddle, and then midday we went for a snorkel.  Saw a few nice Eagle Rays, barracuda and other assorted fishes.

 

Large barracuda showing us his sharp teeth

This little fish was not afraid of us at all

Eagle rays swimming around - very large, around a 5 or 6 foot wingspan

Today we will head south again, motoring as there is no wind, down to Great Guana Cay, planning on making to Georgetown by the 3^rd for Junkanoo.

2025-12-21 Change of plans

 Sunday we had rain in the morning.   Kris decorated for Christmas, and put up the “tree”

Sunday afternoon she checked the oil from the starboard sail drive, and made the determination that yes, it was milky.  So we drained the sail drive best we could and replaced the oil.  So a haul out is in order to fix that problem.  

Working on removing the sail drive oil

That's not normal looking oil - definitely wrong

We were planning to head south, but the only haul out facilities were north of where we were, luckily there are two places on Eleuthera.  We planned on going to Hatchett Bay, as they have a haul out facility, but on calling them Monday, found they have no room in the schedule to haul us.  Called R&B boatyard in Spanish Wells, and they said that they could get us in the following week on Tuesday the 23^rd.  We feel very lucky that we were able to get something that quickly.

The winds would be contrary to going north until Thursday, so we set about getting a project done while waiting in Rock Sound for better winds on Thursday.

Monday, we started working on replacing the Strataglass in our dodger.  We had replaced the panel directly in front of the helm, but not the rest, so Monday, part of Tuesday and part of Wednesday that was the focus.

Cutting out new Strataglass

Kris working on the dodger.  It would be nice to have a large table to work on, but the floor is all we have.

Tuesday, we walked into town to get some groceries.  We were planning on having lunch out, but due to rain we decided to not, and dined on the boat instead.   

Grocery store decorated for Christmas

The main road "Queens Highway" in Rock Sound was being freshly paved

 

Wednesday we finished up the dodger project, and yet more rain.

 

The rain is great to clean off the boat and fill the tanks, but not great for outside projects

Thursday was a nice day, and we had a beautiful sail the 56 miles from Rock Sound to Meeks Patch.  Nice to have the sails up and sailing finally.

 

Downwind, wing on wing for most of the trip, was quite nice.

When we went to hoist anchor in Rock Sound, the windlass would not work, but then it did.  Same thing happened when dropping anchor.  So Friday morning we took the motor off the windlass and Kris worked on the brushes.  This is the second time we have done this since the motor was new in 2021.

Kris working on the brushes.

Our friends Jerry and Donna on BlueJacket were at Meeks Patch as well, so Friday went over for a visit and a nice game of cards.   Always fun to spend time with them, but we forgot to take any photos.  We are just not very good at that, I guess.

Jerry and Donna left Saturday morning to head south.

Bluejacket heading out

We moved over to Spanish Wells, as NE wind predicted for the next few days.   

Our port head macerator was making funny noises, so Dean took it apart, and we found the usual culprit, hair wrapped on the shaft, so Kris cleaned it and got all the hair out (mostly hers anyway) and Dean reinstalled it, and now it is working great again.

Dean working on the head macerator

We went to town, and talked to R&B boatyard about our scheduled haul out on Tuesday, and then went for a nice lunch at Budda's Snack Shack.   Had a nice lunch.

Budda's was nicely decorated for Christmas

Kris got a kick out of this sign posted at Budda's

Dean visiting the Pirate on the walk back to the dinghy

We will be here until after Tuesday for sure, then hopefully head further south.

2025-12-14 Rain in the Bahamas

Sunday was calm, but we knew the weather was changing, so we made plans to move.   Before we did, there was one more thing Dean wanted to check out, which were some swings out on a sandbar surrounded by deeper water.   We decided to dinghy over, even though it was high tide, so we knew the swings would not be on dry sand.   We were not expecting 4’ of water, though.

Dean is standing on the bottom

It's hard to get into a swing that is 4' tall above ground

 Dean got in and got on the swing, but getting back in the dink was a chore, as with no flippers or ladders, it was all upper body strength.  Didn’t help that Kris was laughing the whole time, making him laugh as well.  It was a good trip, even though swinging was out of the question.

Back at the boat, we got cleaned up and motored over to Royal Island, which has a nice protected harbor for all wind directions.  Found a good spot to anchor.  Spent two nights at Royal Island, just doing nothing.  Winds started from the southwest, and did a complete 360 over the two days.  We also had some rain, so Dean put up our rain catcher during the rainstorm and got soaking wet, but got a bit of water into the tanks.

We saw that NE winds were forecast from all 5 weather models for Tuesday, so we decided to sail down to Hatchett Bay.   All 5 weather models wrong, and had to motor into the winds for 3 hours to get there.  The entrance into Hatchett Bay is narrow, so always a bit stressed motoring in, but all was fine.

We did get shifting winds Wednesday, but also more rain.   Rain on Wednesday night and rain on Thursday morning.  The tanks are full, and we even ran the laundry to use up some water.  We have never seen this much rain in the Bahamas.  

Rain coming down in Hatchett Bay

We got off the boat Thursday afternoon and walked over to the beach.

Signpost by road in Hatchett Bay

Nice beach on the east side

Quite large surf from the strong offshore winds

Cut into Hatchett bay, from Hatchett Bay side

 

Friday we motored 7 miles down to Alabaster Bay.  Winds were forecast to be ENE so we anchored in the northern part of the bay.   Went for a nice long walk over to the abandoned naval station.  Not as abandoned, as they have a desalination plant running there now.   We were last there in April 2022.  Not much has changed, buildings even more run down.  Nice walk.   

 

Run down buildings

Overgrown roads

Nice beach with super soft sand

Nice sandy beach and pretty coast

Trees overtaking the buildings

The forecast was wrong again, and winds slightly south of east, so not a flat calm night, but not bad either.   Saturday we had for the first time in the Bahamas a nice sail.  Even put a reef in.  Sailed from Alabaster Bay to Rock Sound.  Forgot how the boat could really get up and move – hitting 8 knots frequently on the sail, with apparent winds around 60 degrees, and winds 15 to 18 knots.  Averaged 7.7 knots for the 30-mile sail.

Found a nice anchor spot, and relaxed the rest of the day.  More rain forecast, so Dean put up the rain catcher - that should stop the rain if past history is any indication.  We will stay here a bit, maybe get some projects done, as winds are forecast to be quite brisk until next Wednesday or Thursday.

 

2025-11-30 We are in the Bahamas

 

Apologize, a wordy blog, but not many photos.

Sunday we had a leisurely morning, and then we checked the weather.   We both had the same idea – hey, it looks like we could make the crossing to the Bahamas today.  Wasn’t the plan, we were thinking of heading down to West Palm Beach and then crossing, but we have learned to go when the weather dictates. 

So we upped anchor and headed south, planning to exit at Stuart.  Kris looked at the charts and since we had never used the Stuart inlet, checked online sources, and it did not have favorable reviews – lots of shoaling.  We decided to motor south to West Palm, and exit there. 

We pulled in for fuel at Stuart to top the tanks off at a place we have found usually has cheaper priced diesel, and we asked the dock hand about the Stuart inlet.  He said should be no issue, but call TowBoatUS.   We should have thought of it.  After fueling we called TowBoatUS on the VHF, and got a “no issue” from TowBoatUs, and then on our way out we passed a sheriff boat, you yelled over to us – “No worries on the inlet, it is good, you should be just fine”.  Guess even the Sheriff follows other boaters on the VHF.   We thanked the Sheriff, and decided to head out at Stuart.   

Which meant we had to apply for our Bahamas cruising permit online before we left cell service areas.   Kris got on the computer and started working.   She got the permit OK, and by then Dean had done a great job navigating the inlet – which was no issue after all.  We then proceeded to head south, hugging the coast, as we still needed to change both our cell phone plans to a cheaper plan, as in the Bahamas we would be using Starlink for data and Wi-Fi calling.  Only need a phone plan that lets us Wi-Fi call and is cheap.  Kris spent the next two hours changing over both phones, and with that done, we made a left-hand turn and headed east. 

Large cruise ship all lit up at night, passing close behind us, note the calmish water

Saw a lot of ships during the overnight crossing, but no close calls.

Had a very calm crossing, no real wind, so motor on the entire way.  Gulf Stream only had about 1 foot seas, and after that the seas were almost flat.   Finally, a little wind about 6 hours out of our destination to Great Harbor Cay in the Berry Islands. 

We arrived around 2:00 in the afternoon, so anchored and took the dink into check in.  They told us they needed us to bring the big boat in, so we went back, upped anchor and took in the big boat to the marina dock.  Talked briefly to the Customs lady, and she said she had to go to the office to get some papers and would be right back.  2 hours later, she returned, and we were able to check in.  Bummed, we were given only 90 days of immigration, as others checking here got 120 days.

At 4:45 p.m. we left the marina dock, and headed back out to anchor.  The noseeums were terrible at the dock, so happy to be away from them at anchor.   

To get from the anchorage to the harbor and marina, you must go through a narrow cut.  After back on anchor, this larger fuel ship went in the cut - looks like it would be tight for him, but there was plenty of room

Tuesday was a lazy day.  Cleaned up the boat a bit, did some re-arranging of groceries, took naps, read books, and relaxed.

Wednesday more of the same.  Kris worked on financials, did some cooking.  Dean relaxed, read and played on the computer.  We moved the boat to a new spot close by but better for access to town, and some snorkeling we had planned.  Also better for high NE winds coming.  After moving the boat, the engines were warm, so Kris changed the oil on both the engines.

Nice to be back in the sunshine, warm weather and blue water

Thursday was Thanksgiving.   Kris made apple pie in the morning.  Cut her finger only once, so not bad.  Dean had made chip dip, so around 10:30 Dean enjoyed a bit of a snack.  While the pies were in the oven, Kris noticed a small smell coming from the port side holding tank.  Decided to clean the lines, so pumped some water in and then went to empty the tanks using our macerator to pump overboard, and the port macerator would not work.  Dean spent an unenjoyable Thanksgiving, replacing the old macerator with our spare.   Let's just say the boat was not smelling of warm apple pie, but some other odor far less pleasant.

He was done by the afternoon, so we were able to enjoy a late lunch of junk food, soda, chips and dip – without the stinky smell around.

Enjoying a much deserved treat after working the stinky job

For anyone keeping count, in the last month we have replaced the freshwater pump, the seawater pump, and both starboard and port macerators. All of them were of different ages, so no reason for them to all fail within a month of each other.  Gotta love boat life.

Friday the high winds out of the NE started, so it was a boat day for Friday and Saturday while the winds blew.   Lots of reading and playing on the computer.   Ate up all the pie, all the chip dip and were fat and lazy for a couple of days.    Neighbors on the boat Shally kayaked by, and we spoke with them for a bit.

Last of the pie went for Saturday morning breakfast