Kerm here,
I had a nice blog with updates of what's been happening over the last couple of days but the dog ate it. I don't know where some of the drafts go and I hate to redo my homework but here goes.
Dan came yesterday from Cleveland. It was great to see him as it was probably during Christmas time that I last saw him. Since I got here he has researched every aspect of this hospital and even the attending Dr. That's my boy. Unfortunately he left this afternoon as he will be flying tomorrow out of Cleveland.
Drum roll please. Stent on Monday probably, on starboard side. Nothing is cast in stone quite yet but if it's done on Monday I can leave on Tuesday. I'll probably head for the Cities for a few days and then come back here for a check up and then back to to the Exumas. More detail later.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Lucky Boy
Kerm here,
I had a spat of carotid stenosis yesterday and had to be flown to University of Miami Hospital. They tell me I'm lucky here at the hospital as the blockages are fairly pronounced and can't believe I came out this clean as far as stroke repercussions.
I woke up quite early yesterday morning figuring that maybe I would read for awhile and if lucky I would be tired enough to fall back asleep before the sun came up. The book was so good that I ended up reading into the daylight plus another hour. At that point my right eye went mostly blank, blank white. Haven't we all been lead to believe that when you go blind the color would be black. Nope, white is my blind color.
At that point I woke up Chris and Linda and with a lot of scurrying around they brought out the medical book and a blood pressure cuff. Blood psi was up but not that bad and the book as we expected came up with stroke. About that time the eyesight started coming back in blocks, Weird man. Then as it was almost all there I got tunnel vision in the same eye for 5 or 10 minutes before all went back to normal.
All of us at that point knew what we had to do (get to a hospital) but still we wavered and decided to give Barb Wold a call and see what she thought. She is a practicing RN but gave us the phone # for the Blue Cross nurse line. Sat phones are great but are prone to loosing satellite connections so it was two calls to Barb and two call to Blue Cross. All parties said get your skinny little white ass to a hospital.
We're still at Black Point. Chris called Loraine (one of the settlements elders) to check if any planes where coming in today and to explain the situation. Loraine said there was a plane coming in soon so dinghy in and she would give us a ride to the airport. Loraine was waiting and as we drove the short distance to the airport she told me that she found out who was leaving Black Point on the airplane and called the fellow to explain our situation as to bump him off the flight. You don't say no to Loraine. There is more to the airport saga but lets just say I did get to Nassau on the puddle jumper. Linda made me reservations for the next leg to Miami. We picked Miami because it was the closest in connecting flight departure time and easy to get back from. We also figured good hospitals and probably under the circumstances a longer flight to places like MSP might not be prudent under the circumstances. More drama getting to the hospital from the airport but I'm leaving that for the movie.
Arrived at the hospital emergency room at about 4:30 pm. Between waiting, tests, waiting, financial stuff, waiting, getting my room ready, waiting, more tests, more waiting, more drugs and I finally get to the room at midnight. Shortly after a nurse comes in and says I have to go for more tests. I had had it and started asking questions and the bottom line is that she thought I was going down for some type of leg tests. I protested. She left. She came back I think twice with better information that was still on the thin side but I gave up. Those tests where not done until about 1:30 am. Then, more paper, more in room tests... I didn't get to sleep until about 2:30 but was further interrupted nearly every hour until sun up by blood psi tests, etc. More the same today and the consult is sometime today. Keep in mind a day at a hospital is indeed 24 hours long. The consult yesterday was at 11:45pm.
Kerm
I had a spat of carotid stenosis yesterday and had to be flown to University of Miami Hospital. They tell me I'm lucky here at the hospital as the blockages are fairly pronounced and can't believe I came out this clean as far as stroke repercussions.
I woke up quite early yesterday morning figuring that maybe I would read for awhile and if lucky I would be tired enough to fall back asleep before the sun came up. The book was so good that I ended up reading into the daylight plus another hour. At that point my right eye went mostly blank, blank white. Haven't we all been lead to believe that when you go blind the color would be black. Nope, white is my blind color.
At that point I woke up Chris and Linda and with a lot of scurrying around they brought out the medical book and a blood pressure cuff. Blood psi was up but not that bad and the book as we expected came up with stroke. About that time the eyesight started coming back in blocks, Weird man. Then as it was almost all there I got tunnel vision in the same eye for 5 or 10 minutes before all went back to normal.
All of us at that point knew what we had to do (get to a hospital) but still we wavered and decided to give Barb Wold a call and see what she thought. She is a practicing RN but gave us the phone # for the Blue Cross nurse line. Sat phones are great but are prone to loosing satellite connections so it was two calls to Barb and two call to Blue Cross. All parties said get your skinny little white ass to a hospital.
We're still at Black Point. Chris called Loraine (one of the settlements elders) to check if any planes where coming in today and to explain the situation. Loraine said there was a plane coming in soon so dinghy in and she would give us a ride to the airport. Loraine was waiting and as we drove the short distance to the airport she told me that she found out who was leaving Black Point on the airplane and called the fellow to explain our situation as to bump him off the flight. You don't say no to Loraine. There is more to the airport saga but lets just say I did get to Nassau on the puddle jumper. Linda made me reservations for the next leg to Miami. We picked Miami because it was the closest in connecting flight departure time and easy to get back from. We also figured good hospitals and probably under the circumstances a longer flight to places like MSP might not be prudent under the circumstances. More drama getting to the hospital from the airport but I'm leaving that for the movie.
Arrived at the hospital emergency room at about 4:30 pm. Between waiting, tests, waiting, financial stuff, waiting, getting my room ready, waiting, more tests, more waiting, more drugs and I finally get to the room at midnight. Shortly after a nurse comes in and says I have to go for more tests. I had had it and started asking questions and the bottom line is that she thought I was going down for some type of leg tests. I protested. She left. She came back I think twice with better information that was still on the thin side but I gave up. Those tests where not done until about 1:30 am. Then, more paper, more in room tests... I didn't get to sleep until about 2:30 but was further interrupted nearly every hour until sun up by blood psi tests, etc. More the same today and the consult is sometime today. Keep in mind a day at a hospital is indeed 24 hours long. The consult yesterday was at 11:45pm.
Kerm
Friday, February 21, 2014
Christie here.
I haven't blogged for a while. It seems I'm just focusing on experiencing every day. Selfish, maybe but Kerm has taken up the slack and his posts are awesome, I think. They let you in on a whole different perspective on the cruising life.
Anyway, I have some pictures to share since we are in an internet friendly spot.
BIMINI
NORMAN'S CAY
WARDRICK WELLS
Wardrick Wells is part of the Exuma Land and Sea Park which is a conservation reserve so no fishing, lobstering, conching or shelling of any kind is allowed. The slogan here is "Take only pictures, leave only bubbles". There is beautiful snorkeling and great views everywhere.
STANIEL CAY
Linda's children and our sister, Margie all came to visit us and enjoy the weather and beauty of the Bahamas. They flew in to Staniel Cay and rented two great cabins with a dock big enough for the Belle to snuggle into as well.
That's all for now.
Having a great time and enjoying life aboard.
Love to all
Christie
I haven't blogged for a while. It seems I'm just focusing on experiencing every day. Selfish, maybe but Kerm has taken up the slack and his posts are awesome, I think. They let you in on a whole different perspective on the cruising life.
Anyway, I have some pictures to share since we are in an internet friendly spot.
BIMINI
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| Walking the beach |
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| That is a shark cage...no none of us went in |
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| At The Dolphin House. Local artist and historian, Ashley Simpson, has created a fascinating house with all kinds of elements he finds on the beach. On our last visit here, I gave him a small tile from Spain that my friend gave to me years ago asking if he could incorporate it into his house. He did so. And now all can see it. |
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| Ashley and me. He recognized me when I walked up to him and told me I was The Southern Belle. |
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| Another room at the Dolphin House |
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| Lots of boat cards and coins from people all over the world |
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| One of the views from The Dolphin House |
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| On the crossing from Bimini to Nassau |
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| We weathered several days of windy conditions at Norman's and suffered a little anchor angst ,but the Manson held |
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| Happy Crew |
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| Shroud Cay |
WARDRICK WELLS
Wardrick Wells is part of the Exuma Land and Sea Park which is a conservation reserve so no fishing, lobstering, conching or shelling of any kind is allowed. The slogan here is "Take only pictures, leave only bubbles". There is beautiful snorkeling and great views everywhere.
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| The Belle anchored in a thin strip of deep water in front of the beach |
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| You can just see the top of our boat, fourth boat from the right |
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| Climbing the trail to Boo Boo Hill |
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| People leave their boat names on the top of the hill, we looked for the one we placed 2 years ago but could not find it |
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| Hard to see our stick offering...it's held up by the piece of driftwood and has blue writing |
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| Boo Boo Hill Trail |
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| There's the Belle, Taken from the Park HQ Building |
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| Ship coming the Cut from Exuma Sound |
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| Cleaning the Belle's waterline |
Linda's children and our sister, Margie all came to visit us and enjoy the weather and beauty of the Bahamas. They flew in to Staniel Cay and rented two great cabins with a dock big enough for the Belle to snuggle into as well.
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| Off to snorkel at Thunderball Grotto |
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| Margie piloting us down to BlackPoint |
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| Staniel Cay Yacht Club dead ahead...the Serenity Cottages are to the left with round roof lines |
That's all for now.
Having a great time and enjoying life aboard.
Love to all
Christie
Another day in paradise
Kerm here
We're still here at Staniel but did take a cruise down to Black Point with Chris's sister Margie on Wednesday. Chris and Margie toured the island and I stayed to work on the boat. We stayed at anchor overnight and woke up to a 35 knot squall. It was short in duration but we probably go an inch of rain. The boat needed a good fresh water wash as on our trip down we ran into some pretty good rollers that splashed over the bow that covered the boat with salt water. This was after Chris spent 4 hours the previous day washing the boat. By the way for you land lubbers whenever I mention knots or the kt abbreviation multiply by 1.15 to get statute miles or statute miles per hour.
It was a windy trip with wind speeds between 15 and 20 kt. Again for you land lubbers, white caps normally start showing up at about 13 kt but the wind going against the current will kick the waves up even higher. For our trip the waves were about 3' high with the time between the waves of about 4 to 5 seconds. Not bad for traveling down here but on the St. Croix River nobody would leave port.
Green flash count is Chris 9, Linda 8 and me at 7. The last one was a bit weak but Chris says it was a good enough to count as a flash is a flash regardless of duration. So we took it. It was the first flash for Margie, Molly, Bryan, Pat, Katie and Mary O.
We're still having problems with the batteries. The engine battery did not have enough juice to start it when we were leaving to Black Point. I continue to trouble shoot and may have found the problem.. May have. I checked the output voltage on the battery charger and the leads going to each of the battery banks was at 17 volts. I wondering if this higher voltage has been damaging the batteries. The book on the battery charger says that the voltage should be 13.5 to 15. If I leave on lead connected the voltage was at 24 volts. Yikes. I e-mailed Dan and he is going to call the charger factory and see what is going on. For now I have disconnected the charger from the circuits. I have a bad feeling about this as I think all the batteries have been damaged and those babies were 400 bucks
X 3.
Tomorrow the O'Donnell clan plus Margie go back to 10" of new snow in Minnesota. We will be headed off to Little Farmers Cay. It's not a long trip but we look forward to a place we have never been before. This will be the furthest south we have ever been as we continue down the chain of islands. How far are we going down. We have not decided. Sometimes we talk about going all the way to Georgetown and perhaps even down to the Tropic of Cancer but wonder if we should save the fuel and perhaps hit The Abacos on the way back instead. Stay tuned.
We're still here at Staniel but did take a cruise down to Black Point with Chris's sister Margie on Wednesday. Chris and Margie toured the island and I stayed to work on the boat. We stayed at anchor overnight and woke up to a 35 knot squall. It was short in duration but we probably go an inch of rain. The boat needed a good fresh water wash as on our trip down we ran into some pretty good rollers that splashed over the bow that covered the boat with salt water. This was after Chris spent 4 hours the previous day washing the boat. By the way for you land lubbers whenever I mention knots or the kt abbreviation multiply by 1.15 to get statute miles or statute miles per hour.
It was a windy trip with wind speeds between 15 and 20 kt. Again for you land lubbers, white caps normally start showing up at about 13 kt but the wind going against the current will kick the waves up even higher. For our trip the waves were about 3' high with the time between the waves of about 4 to 5 seconds. Not bad for traveling down here but on the St. Croix River nobody would leave port.
Green flash count is Chris 9, Linda 8 and me at 7. The last one was a bit weak but Chris says it was a good enough to count as a flash is a flash regardless of duration. So we took it. It was the first flash for Margie, Molly, Bryan, Pat, Katie and Mary O.
We're still having problems with the batteries. The engine battery did not have enough juice to start it when we were leaving to Black Point. I continue to trouble shoot and may have found the problem.. May have. I checked the output voltage on the battery charger and the leads going to each of the battery banks was at 17 volts. I wondering if this higher voltage has been damaging the batteries. The book on the battery charger says that the voltage should be 13.5 to 15. If I leave on lead connected the voltage was at 24 volts. Yikes. I e-mailed Dan and he is going to call the charger factory and see what is going on. For now I have disconnected the charger from the circuits. I have a bad feeling about this as I think all the batteries have been damaged and those babies were 400 bucks
X 3.
Tomorrow the O'Donnell clan plus Margie go back to 10" of new snow in Minnesota. We will be headed off to Little Farmers Cay. It's not a long trip but we look forward to a place we have never been before. This will be the furthest south we have ever been as we continue down the chain of islands. How far are we going down. We have not decided. Sometimes we talk about going all the way to Georgetown and perhaps even down to the Tropic of Cancer but wonder if we should save the fuel and perhaps hit The Abacos on the way back instead. Stay tuned.
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Staniel
Kerm here,
Great spot but boy you don't want to be at this dock in a west wind with the current going out especially with a full moon. Mistake. I knew that there might be a chance that it could be bad for a couple of hours today but holy cow it was nuts. Extra spring lines going out for the length of the boat +. This is why a person going from fresh to salt must think about is at least 2 or three lines 1 1/2 the length of the boat with a diameter a couple of sizes larger than normal for these situations. Add to that chafe guards. Even with all are preparations we still had a bit of damage to one of the rub rails. Hey, that's why they call them rub rails as Chris likes to tell me. A bit of epoxy and all will be as good as new.
We got into the cabins today. Nice. A cut above especially for the Bahamas. I think you can do a search for houses for rent, Staniel Cay, Serenity and come up with pictures. We have the two smaller units closest to the water. I plan on running out the water heater for the showers every day, maybe twice. My bathing hygiene probably has been a bit lax... thank goodness Wold's tend to not stink.
Today is a relax day for Linda's family plus Margie the 3rd of 4 sisters. So five women Vs two of us guys. Me thinks Patrick and I will go with the flow for today and tonight. Linda's son in law will be coming tomorrow so it will be 5 to 3. Me thinks Patrick, Brian and I will go with the flow for the week.
At slack tide tomorrow the grotto will be high on every ones list. The place gives me the creeps but I will be a good sport and perhaps if I go there enough times I will start to feel like James Bond although with my facial features I will be satisfied with an eastern block spy trying to take over the world with James Bond on my trail. Why does he always have to kill all of us... I think we are viewing the movie Thunderball tonight to get us ready. I'll let you know how it goes.
Great spot but boy you don't want to be at this dock in a west wind with the current going out especially with a full moon. Mistake. I knew that there might be a chance that it could be bad for a couple of hours today but holy cow it was nuts. Extra spring lines going out for the length of the boat +. This is why a person going from fresh to salt must think about is at least 2 or three lines 1 1/2 the length of the boat with a diameter a couple of sizes larger than normal for these situations. Add to that chafe guards. Even with all are preparations we still had a bit of damage to one of the rub rails. Hey, that's why they call them rub rails as Chris likes to tell me. A bit of epoxy and all will be as good as new.
We got into the cabins today. Nice. A cut above especially for the Bahamas. I think you can do a search for houses for rent, Staniel Cay, Serenity and come up with pictures. We have the two smaller units closest to the water. I plan on running out the water heater for the showers every day, maybe twice. My bathing hygiene probably has been a bit lax... thank goodness Wold's tend to not stink.
Today is a relax day for Linda's family plus Margie the 3rd of 4 sisters. So five women Vs two of us guys. Me thinks Patrick and I will go with the flow for today and tonight. Linda's son in law will be coming tomorrow so it will be 5 to 3. Me thinks Patrick, Brian and I will go with the flow for the week.
At slack tide tomorrow the grotto will be high on every ones list. The place gives me the creeps but I will be a good sport and perhaps if I go there enough times I will start to feel like James Bond although with my facial features I will be satisfied with an eastern block spy trying to take over the world with James Bond on my trail. Why does he always have to kill all of us... I think we are viewing the movie Thunderball tonight to get us ready. I'll let you know how it goes.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Back at Staniel Cay
Kerm here,
Wow, what a crazy couple of days. We left Black Point because of coming bad weather from the west and ended up at Compass Cay Marina. All the mooring balls along the way were full and most of the good anchorages with protection were probably gone PLUS with an anchorage with all the weather predictions we probably would have done 360's all night. Nope. So, Compass Cay Marina which was full with all the people kicked out of Staniel Cay Yacht Club because of west winds. You can take a look at Compass Cay Marina on the web but their claim to fame is swimming with their pet sharks. Yuck. And no showers but well maintained place by Bahamas standards. Our slip was a holy crap slip. Easy to get into but I spent 2 days trying to figure out how the hell the Belle would ever get out of there. We took the hail mary pass with what they call warping and I don't know how but it looked like I had been doing my whole life. I'm sure to pay in the future.
So, we waited this morning to see if Staniel Marina would be letting boats in again with some more west winds tonight and sure enough, green light. But we are not going to Staniel Cay Yacht Club but a place further north with again what we thought would be a direct west exposure. Nope, well not really nope our dock at the house where Chris's sister and Linda's kids are coming tomorrow is indeed north / south but we are tucked in behind Thunderball Grotto. Search James Bond, Thunderball Grotto, Staniel Cay. Nice new facing dock, nuts current and tide but right out front of the house. We be Calillac'n. Oh, and free water, ya hoo. The Belle will get a much needed bath after a month or more. Me too.
For this week we also have a golf cart and a speed boat so will be doing all sorts of diving, touring and doing stuff with people that were having a very cold winter in Minnesota. So, 6 really white people that really will reallly try not to burn too bad and not like to leave next Saturday. Save your money kids.
Wow, what a crazy couple of days. We left Black Point because of coming bad weather from the west and ended up at Compass Cay Marina. All the mooring balls along the way were full and most of the good anchorages with protection were probably gone PLUS with an anchorage with all the weather predictions we probably would have done 360's all night. Nope. So, Compass Cay Marina which was full with all the people kicked out of Staniel Cay Yacht Club because of west winds. You can take a look at Compass Cay Marina on the web but their claim to fame is swimming with their pet sharks. Yuck. And no showers but well maintained place by Bahamas standards. Our slip was a holy crap slip. Easy to get into but I spent 2 days trying to figure out how the hell the Belle would ever get out of there. We took the hail mary pass with what they call warping and I don't know how but it looked like I had been doing my whole life. I'm sure to pay in the future.
So, we waited this morning to see if Staniel Marina would be letting boats in again with some more west winds tonight and sure enough, green light. But we are not going to Staniel Cay Yacht Club but a place further north with again what we thought would be a direct west exposure. Nope, well not really nope our dock at the house where Chris's sister and Linda's kids are coming tomorrow is indeed north / south but we are tucked in behind Thunderball Grotto. Search James Bond, Thunderball Grotto, Staniel Cay. Nice new facing dock, nuts current and tide but right out front of the house. We be Calillac'n. Oh, and free water, ya hoo. The Belle will get a much needed bath after a month or more. Me too.
For this week we also have a golf cart and a speed boat so will be doing all sorts of diving, touring and doing stuff with people that were having a very cold winter in Minnesota. So, 6 really white people that really will reallly try not to burn too bad and not like to leave next Saturday. Save your money kids.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Hop, skip and a jump
Yesterday we left Cambridge Cay and took a 15 nm jaunt down to Staniel Cay. We had a great time at Cambridge and our going away present was seeing the green flash at sunset the night before we left. Chris is up to 6 green flashes, Linda 5 and me at 4 for lifetime totals. We only stayed one night at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club (yacht club is used quite loosely down here) and had a great time at the bar / restaurant with friends but decided to leave this morning for Black Point, 9nm.
Black Point is one of our favorite stops in the Bahamas. It's a large anchorage and with the exception of west winds it is well protected. For the most part it is unspoiled by tourism and has a quaint charm as not much has probably changed here since Eisenhower. It does look like change is on the way but at least we were here to see it beforehand. There is a wonderful little bar / restaurant here called Lorains where if Lorain is busy you just go behind the bar and get what you want and write it down on a napkin. When you leave you knock on Lorains kitchen door and show her the napkin and pay. It's all pretty much like that on Black Point. There is also a laundromat here that everyone says is the best in the Exumas. Take your victories where you can.
We just ran out of fresh veggies today so will be stocking up here also. The Black Point supply boat just came yesterday so the shelves will be full, with variety and fresh. The store is closed on Sundays. Baptist country. Word is out that the supply boat came in so there are over 40 boats in the anchorage. Me thinks we will get up early. I just hope the sailboaters don't create a human shield to keep out the power boaters but in reality so many of them are French they probably would surrender without much provocation.
Our other provisions are holding up quite well. We still have 2 or 3 days left of frozen meat and will probably make it several more weeks with canned goods. The provisioning this time has been much better than last as we Chris and Linda knew what not to buy and what we ran out of first last time. Beer is a good example of what we ran out of and evaporated milk and stewed tomatoes on the high side. I ended up giving a trunk full to a Mexican church when we shipped the boat from Georgia. I don't know what you can make with canned milk and stewed tomatoes.
Kerm here,
Had a nice trip down to Cambridge Cay yesterday. A bit spooky with all the rocks, coral and current but I'm getting better at doing this kind of thing without my blood psi going sky high. When we turned to the west to go in the south wind was putting up 3 to 4' rollers. It would have shaken me up a couple of years ago but not so much now. Chris slammed in action and tied everything down in the cabin and we rolled like a stick. The decks got a nice wash but after hitting these things off the bow for a few hours everything got a nice salt water bath.
We were happy to see some of our old friends when we got here and explored honeymoon trail and the ocean side beaches with them. National Geographic could do a series on this place and not do it justice. Today we waited for slack tide and took the dinghy off to see the airplane reef and the Sea Aquarium. Wow. Chris and Linda dove and I stayed with the dinghy as the park really does not like you to anchor as it might ruin the coral.
They drift dived for the quarter mile to the Sea Aquarium and I used the 'look bucket' to see what nature has brought us. Wow.
We are going to stay another night here and then probably anchor at Big Majors just north of Staniel Cay where we will be staying for a couple of weeks.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Black Point
Kerm here,
Wow. The weather is great. The locals say that the weather is like their summer. High 80's. Nice. We're clearing out tomorrow as there is a front coming in. The N's and W's in the forecast with winds in the 30's is not on my list of things I like to do at anchor. So we move in the morning. There are not a lot of anchorages and the safe mooring balls have probably have been taken but there is a place right below John Depps place that we are looking at right near the Exuma Park undersea thing. Nuts current but should be good holding just off to the side. In the big current the bottom is scoured so don't want to go there. We were in this area the other day drift diving. Wow again. So if we are stuck there for a couple of days and we have good holding all the better. There is so much to see. Then on to Staniel Cay when weather gets better and meet up with another Hauser sister + 3 O'Donnell sisters and Patrick. Pat and I don't have a chance. My only chance at manhood is that when the engine is running, I am the captain. Engine off, I, perhaps not.
The Belle. I, for the most part I only work on broken things. Island time mon. We have to run the engine to charge the battery bank daily for more time than I would like but hey mon, it is what it is. When we get back to the states the boy has work to do. Right now enjoy and if we have juice to start the engine we're golden. No, everyone knows me better, we need at least 2 redundant systems. Got it covered.
Wow. The weather is great. The locals say that the weather is like their summer. High 80's. Nice. We're clearing out tomorrow as there is a front coming in. The N's and W's in the forecast with winds in the 30's is not on my list of things I like to do at anchor. So we move in the morning. There are not a lot of anchorages and the safe mooring balls have probably have been taken but there is a place right below John Depps place that we are looking at right near the Exuma Park undersea thing. Nuts current but should be good holding just off to the side. In the big current the bottom is scoured so don't want to go there. We were in this area the other day drift diving. Wow again. So if we are stuck there for a couple of days and we have good holding all the better. There is so much to see. Then on to Staniel Cay when weather gets better and meet up with another Hauser sister + 3 O'Donnell sisters and Patrick. Pat and I don't have a chance. My only chance at manhood is that when the engine is running, I am the captain. Engine off, I, perhaps not.
The Belle. I, for the most part I only work on broken things. Island time mon. We have to run the engine to charge the battery bank daily for more time than I would like but hey mon, it is what it is. When we get back to the states the boy has work to do. Right now enjoy and if we have juice to start the engine we're golden. No, everyone knows me better, we need at least 2 redundant systems. Got it covered.
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Kerm here,
Still at Warderick Wells Cay
It's been blowing stink E-SE and will continue for the next couple of days. The ocean on the other side of the island has 7 to 9' seas. Don't want to go there. The sound on the west side of the island is a bit roughed up the further you go out and our next destination requires that we travel about 3 to 4 miles out before turning in to Cambridge Cay. We'll sit for today and probably snorkel down the way on the NE side of Narrow Water Cay where there are mooring balls for the dinghy. Chris and I did a recon yesterday with the look bucket and it looks like a great place to explore underwater.
During slack tide yesterday Chris put on her snorkel gear and worked on cleaning the bottom of the boat. She did finish from the waterline down to the chine and it looks great. Think today she is going to tackle some stains just above the water line where exit ports are for gray water and the air conditioner drain. Linda has been keeping the stainless steel bright and shiny as the salt water will start rusting it in a hurry if you let it go. Me, I finally finished installing the trim boards on the back side of the fly bridge. These were taken off when the bridge was reconfigured. There had to be several modifications and one piece made from scratch. No small job as one piece had to be ripped on the vertical down through 2" X 3' long. These Japanese pull saws are fantastic.
Still at Warderick Wells Cay
It's been blowing stink E-SE and will continue for the next couple of days. The ocean on the other side of the island has 7 to 9' seas. Don't want to go there. The sound on the west side of the island is a bit roughed up the further you go out and our next destination requires that we travel about 3 to 4 miles out before turning in to Cambridge Cay. We'll sit for today and probably snorkel down the way on the NE side of Narrow Water Cay where there are mooring balls for the dinghy. Chris and I did a recon yesterday with the look bucket and it looks like a great place to explore underwater.
During slack tide yesterday Chris put on her snorkel gear and worked on cleaning the bottom of the boat. She did finish from the waterline down to the chine and it looks great. Think today she is going to tackle some stains just above the water line where exit ports are for gray water and the air conditioner drain. Linda has been keeping the stainless steel bright and shiny as the salt water will start rusting it in a hurry if you let it go. Me, I finally finished installing the trim boards on the back side of the fly bridge. These were taken off when the bridge was reconfigured. There had to be several modifications and one piece made from scratch. No small job as one piece had to be ripped on the vertical down through 2" X 3' long. These Japanese pull saws are fantastic.
Kerm here,
We're currently at Wardrick Wells in Exuma National Park on a mooring
ball. Been here before but do not tire of it. Lots to see both under the
water and on the island. Suggest looking at www.bnt.bs for details.
We're now sending blogs via satellite so have to keep word count low. The
winds continue to be in the 18 to 20 mph range so we're staying here until
things settle down. Our next stop is a new place for us and a bit of a
tricky place to get into and will have to time the tides right plus the
waves coming thru part of the gap are quite high right now 5 to 7'. No,
no, no.
We have been meeting a lot of nice cruisers. Some of the sailing folk are
a bit standoffish at first until they find out that we are also sailors.
Clannish bunch they are. It's funny how we see and talk to the same boats
as we go along even at far back as Clearwater. We may not see them for a
day or two and then we end up at the same anchorage again for a day or
two. It seems everybody travels at about the same rate and stops at the
same places.
All is going well with the boat. It ends up that our battery charger is
undersized by a factor of 3 or 4 times. Back when we were traveling all
the time and staying at marinas on a regular basis everything was fine.
Now not so fine so we have to run the boat engine daily to keep the
batteries up. I would have Dan send a new charger down but everything in
the a/c and d/c wiring would also have to be changed because of the higher
power. Even if a made a detailed bill of materials something would bound
to be missed. I don't know how I missed this. Fancy new generator for
charging batteries and then this. Oh, well, live and learn.
We're now settling into a routine on the boat and even I have slowed down
to the point of banging out a book every couple of days.
We're currently at Wardrick Wells in Exuma National Park on a mooring
ball. Been here before but do not tire of it. Lots to see both under the
water and on the island. Suggest looking at www.bnt.bs for details.
We're now sending blogs via satellite so have to keep word count low. The
winds continue to be in the 18 to 20 mph range so we're staying here until
things settle down. Our next stop is a new place for us and a bit of a
tricky place to get into and will have to time the tides right plus the
waves coming thru part of the gap are quite high right now 5 to 7'. No,
no, no.
We have been meeting a lot of nice cruisers. Some of the sailing folk are
a bit standoffish at first until they find out that we are also sailors.
Clannish bunch they are. It's funny how we see and talk to the same boats
as we go along even at far back as Clearwater. We may not see them for a
day or two and then we end up at the same anchorage again for a day or
two. It seems everybody travels at about the same rate and stops at the
same places.
All is going well with the boat. It ends up that our battery charger is
undersized by a factor of 3 or 4 times. Back when we were traveling all
the time and staying at marinas on a regular basis everything was fine.
Now not so fine so we have to run the boat engine daily to keep the
batteries up. I would have Dan send a new charger down but everything in
the a/c and d/c wiring would also have to be changed because of the higher
power. Even if a made a detailed bill of materials something would bound
to be missed. I don't know how I missed this. Fancy new generator for
charging batteries and then this. Oh, well, live and learn.
We're now settling into a routine on the boat and even I have slowed down
to the point of banging out a book every couple of days.
Monday, February 3, 2014
gotta make it quick
net not so reliable and expensive on the islands. great day. chris spent a lot of time in the water cleaning the bottom and stains coming from the above water thru hulls. we did some touring on the dinghy and will return tomorrow with snorkel equip. sending a sat blog post later from a couple of days ago. talked to dad today via sat. cool. paradise.
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