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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Exuma Park and dang it was the inverter

Kerm here,
For those that look at us on SPOT we are indeed in Exuma Park in a VERY narrow channel on a mooring ball.  Way so cool.  Current is something but you could swim to shore in 3 strokes. Wow.
I'm sure Chris will have pictures as this was very, very high on her bucket list as it should be for anyone that knows spit about the Exumas.

Anyway, for the guys ? that are keeping with me on the battery saga,  the engine would not start today when we were trying to leave Shroud Cay.  No poop in the batteries.  # 3 is offline, #2 was my default starting battery and even #3 couldn't get the they old Brit diesel to start.  Generator (Riley) was needed to fill in for a bit of power.  None of the gauges read right on our way here and after a few hours of cruising they were still in the 12's. 

Here it is folks.  I was using the very nice digital inverter control panel to look at voltages and at this point I believe the inverter ic's were confusing the AC charger AND the alternator ic's.  At the end of today's cruise the batteries only registered in the 12's and only showed charging in the near 13's.  I took the inverter off line and started the engine and yea, the engine started to charge at the good old 14.2.  So, I hooked up #1 to a portable battery charger and in the morning I will again make it the main engine battery and see what happens.  Low amps and voltage kills a starter and Joe senior told me many of time to bring a spare.  Dang, I wish I would have listened to him.