Early Febuary in Abaco

It is almost 2 weeks since I last updated this blog.

During that time, we have seen some beautiful sunsets, walked some beautiful beaches, had dinners with great friends and generally enjoyed life.

Lobster omlette for breakfast on Te Amor

Cam with some of his watercolours.

Cam also did some incredable sculptures.

The gang after sea glass hunting on Lyniard Cay

Little Harbour and Pete's Pub were so close, we just had to go there the next morning.

The Atlantic side beach at Pete's Pub

Same but different angle.

We found a little sea glass her but not much.  We really needed to wade into the water, but it was too rough.

Bev hunting for sea glass in the crevices.

Sunset at Grabber's Bar

Same sunset

Dinner on the R&B Haven with Ian and Sharon

There is one big difference from the last time we were here.  It is the weather.

I now have a bit of an idea what if feels like to be a pin in a bowling alley. Instead of bowling balls headed our way, we have had an incredible series of weather fronts. When every one heads our way, we want to shift, dodge or to duck. But, like the bowling pin, we are unable to do any of these and so we get run over by each and every one. We just get ourselves sorted out and bingo, there is another one headed our way!

It seems that, like the future, the weather isn't what it used to be. Two years ago, the fronts came every 10 days or so. Lately, it has been every 5 days or even less. The wind is spinning around the compass so quickly, it almost makes you dizzy. And it has been cold. On a couple of days, I had to wear long pants. In the evening, it has been common to wear a sweater. We have even worn shoes (although socks would be going too far). Last night, we had gale force winds. Someone with a recording anemometer registered 50 knots at the peak. Fortunately, we were tucked into the anchorage at Treasure Cay, were pretty sheltered and did not see winds nearly that strong, although the boat certainly shifted and rocked with the gusts.

But then, at least there is no snow. And the palm trees all look healthy. Unlike Florida, there has been no threat of frost. When I think of cold, I mean in the 60s.

Still, this weather does not make you feel like snorkeling for lobsters, although we did try in Red Bay but got skunked.

Walking the beach at Treasure Cay (supposedly one of the top 10 in the world) while waiting out the weather.

Still enjoying each other's company.

Bev walking in the surf

Shot of the beach.  Too bad it is so crowded.

Reverse view

Treasure Cay beach cottage

Rob on the beach

And, to round out the family, the dogs on the beach.

Being holed up by weathers doesn't mean that life has been without its little discoveries.

For example, we found a great source of fruit punch ($3.75 per gallon) in Treasure Cay. Fruit punch is good but what is even better is when you mix 1 cup of rum ($7.00 per bottle) with 2 or 3 cups of punch and then put the mixture in the freezer for 4 to 6 hours, you have a rum slushy that tastes much the same as the concoctions they sell in the local bars for $7.00 per drink. NASA should be interested in this stuff.

A couple of sips and it is “Houston, we have ignition”.
A couple more and it is “Houston, we have lift-off”.
By the time the drink is finished, we have a definite “Houston, we have achieved orbit”.
Like the space shuttle, re-entry can be a bit tricky.

Thinking of freezers, ours is a great convenience. Like most conveniences, there is a penalty. This one is generator time. When we were buying the R&B Haven, I was very concerned with the efficiency of the main propulsion system. I am not sure that my interest was not somewhat mis-focused. I should have been more concerned with generator efficiency. The freezer is a power hog. This is not entirely the fault of the freezer. Every day, we ask it to make a couple of liters of ice for our beer cooler. Also, this means that the inverter must run 100% of the time and it consumes a couple of amps even when doing nothing. The end result of all of this is that we run the generator for about 3 hours a day, pumping about 275 amp-hours into the batteries and about 1 ½ to 2 kw-hrs into the hot water tank, the coffee maker, the electric stove, the microwave, Bev's hair dryer etc. This is a lot of power! Solar panels and wind generators might help a little, but they would not help much. All of this burns about a gallon and a half of diesel per day. Even at Abaco prices ($4.00/ gallon), this is far from the end of the world, but at our present rate of consumption, we are going to put as much diesel through the generator as we will put through our main Perkins diesel. So, I should have been as concerned with the efficiency of the generator as with that of the main propulsion system.

Interestingly, our little Honda 2 kw generator seems to burn twice the gas as the diesel ONAN generator burns to produce the same amount of power – and gas is more expensive than diesel here in Abaco. The Honda has a reputation for being fairly efficient, so perhaps the efficiency of our ONAN is not all that bad. The Honda also has a reputation for being very quiet. At idle or at partial load, that is true. When we are using it, however, it is running flat out, all the time, and when running flat out, it may be quiet compared to some generators, but it is still not all that quiet.

Anyway, the sun has now come out and there is a beer that beckons so I must go.

Until next time,

Rob and Bev

R&B Haven

The First 10 Days

It is 10 days since we left Green Turtle to cruise the main cruising grounds of Abaco.  To me, it seems like 2.

Today, we are holed up in Marsh Harbour.  It rained yesterday and is threatening today, so it is a good time to get caught up on laundry, grocery shopping and general maintenance.

This includes a little problem with the water injection exhaust elbow in the ONAN generator.  I had notices some salt deposits in the area.  Salt spray and 110 volts do not normally make for a healthy combination, so I had done what I could to isolate the problem, to protect sensitive electrical equipment and to help me identify where the leak actually was.  Once I had it isolated, I read what Nigel Caulder had to say on the matter.  After all, if Bob Sunday recommended his book, it must be good!  Caulder showed a picture of an elbow in much worse shape than mine that had been "fixed" with a piece of inner tube and the fix lasted for 200 hours.

I am a little reluctant to try and remove the existing elbow here in Abaco since it will almost certainly be heavily corroded to other exhaust elements and I may need several pieces before I am finished.  If I can patch things together for the rest of our cruise, that would be great.  Otherwise, I will dissassemble then order parts.  That means that we may have no diesel generator for some time.  Good thing we have the 2KW Honda as a back-up.

Our neighbour on Celtic Cross happened to have some high temperature silicon seal and a spare bicycle inner tube, so yesterday, I cleaned the elbow as well as I could, applied high temperature silicone seal to all the cracks (there were several) and wrapped it all tightly in inner tube.  In the process of cleaning, I discovered that someone else had already coated almost all the cracks in something black (probably JB Weld) so the elbow had been "fixed" before.  The exhaust is cooled in manifold before it gets this far.  The elbow is also cooled by the sea water injection so we will have to see how well this new "fix" holds.  I ran it for an hour today and nothing caught on fire.  No exhaust leaked.  So far, so good.















As our good friend, Byrne, is fond of quoting, cruising consists mostly of fixing your boat in exotic places.  So far, we have  been pretty fortunate in not having a lot to fix.

Otherwise, our cruise so far has been pretty typical of 10 days in paradise, except for one thing; we have both been suffering from colds.  Bev got hers in Florida and then gave it to me when we first arrived in the Bahamas.  There are some gifts that you would rather not receive, but we are both just about over it.

Our passage from Green Turtle to the main cruising area of the Sea of Abaco was via the Dont Rock Passage.  We had taken this route before in the Stray Cat, but were a bit nervous that this unmarked channel through the sand bars might have shifted over the last 2 years.  As it turned our, the minimum depth we saw (at high tide) was 4.9 feet.  We draw 3' 3", so this was as good as infinity.  Most boats take the longer passage via the Whale Cut.  Both routes can be rough.

Our first stop was at Guana Cay where we encountered the delightful guys, Josh and Andy, in the photo below.  They had extra lobsters to give away.  We traded:  4 lobster tails for 4 Coors Light.  We were both happy with the deal.

I had forgotten just how clear the water can be.  It is about 6 feet deep in the photo below, but it looks like if you jumped in, you would break your ankles.

Sunset in Great Guana

Same sunset a few minutes later.

The first evening, we ate lobster on the boat.  The second day, we went exploring.  This is the beach at Nipper's Bar.  There is a really nice coral reef about 150 feet off the shore.

Looking the other way down the same beach.

At Nipper's Bar,  they serve these incredible rum slushies.  One is enough for me!

This is Bev "steeling" herself for a walk on the beach.

More of Nipper's.

No reunion with Nipper's would  be complete without a Nipper (rum slushie).

The pool at Nippers.  They encourage anyone to come and use it.  Of course, you are expected to buy a drink.


After Nippers, we went to the boat to rest up and then went in for the pot luck dinner at Grabbers and more rum slushies.  If you don't get Nipped at Nippers, you are likely to get Grabbed at Grabbers.  If after one drink at each establishment, you can still walk, you are doing OK.

After Great Guana, we went to Marsh Harbour where we met up with our friends Ian and Sharon from Celtic Cross as well as our friends Chris and Deke from the ChrisDeke.  These latter two were the same friends that we met up with in Stuart on our way over.

Whereas we had a delightful experience clearing in at Treasure Cay, Chris and Deke had a bummer of an experience clearing in at Marsh Harbour.  Apparently this echoed the experiences of others. 

Above, Deke is in the foreground and Ian is blowing the conch in the background.

Ian and Chris on our after deck.  The wind was quite strong and so we set up the side screens on the sundeck.  You will notice that no one is starving.  These were just the appetizers.

 

Bev and Sharon

After Marsh, we set off to reacquaint ourselves with Hope Town, one of the prettiest towns on the planet.

 

The famous lighthouse at the entrance to Hope Town

Hope Town Beach

Cutting through from the beach to the streets.

 

Pretty House in Hope Town

The pastel colours are delightful

After Hope Town, we scooted over to Treasure Cay in order to meet up with our friends that we had met in Green Turtle.  Treasure Cay is supposed to have one of the top 10 beaches in the world.  They also have a real deal on water:  $9.00 for as much as you can take.  We took 250 gallons.  For $10 per day, you can anchor out and have full access to the facilities of the resort: not a bad deal.

 

The pool at Treasure.

  

Canal waterfront at Treasure

I shudder to think what one of these houses would be worth.  We talked to people who had just spent $200,000 US for a 750 ft 2 condo.

  

Business meeting at Treasure

Monkey-business that is.

  

Treasure at the pool

 

Bev and Karen

Out for our afternoon exercise by walking the beach at Treasure

Preparations for a wedding on the beach.

Tiesha and Tuk taking a breather

After a couple of enjoyable days at Treasure, we left en masse for Great Guana in order to partake of the pot luck again at Grabbers.  The tri below, was owned by a Canadian couple who were looking at settling into Treasure in a pretty serious manner.  If someone wanted their tri, there would probably be a real deal here.

Beth from Coyote and Bev while we were out for more exercise.

The inner harbour at Great Guana.  It is pretty shallow here.

Dinner at Grabbers.  

Later on there actually was food and lots of it.

Hootenany time at Grabbers

 

Scotty on the gut bucket.

The next morning, I did the angel of mercy thing by showing Josh and Andy (of lobster fame) how to hot wire their ignition.  Their key had broken off and so I showed them what to jump to what to get going again.  

In the mean time, a lobster snorkling hunt was organized for one of the nearby cays.  I found that my cold was still bothering me, making me short of breath and giving me vertigo when I was upside down.  I did not see any lobster, but did find a 3 1/2 foot shark lurking in a cave.

After Great Guana, we headed for White Sound, anchoring at Hope Town again, and then dingying over.

  

Walking the beach at White Sound.

There is no barrier reef here so the surf can be spectacular.

Not so today, however.

  

 Bev at the beach.

  

Bev at the beach

  

The  beach at White Sound.

We were hoping to find sea glass, but it would seem that others beat us to it.

  

More White Sound Beach

 

House in White Sound.  Love the colours.

The sky is supposed to clear up tomorrow.  There is no rain in the forecast for the next week or so.  Today, the high was about 21, but later in the week it should be in the 24 to 25 region.  In the sunshine, this is plenty warm for me and I like the cool evenings for better sleeping.

I am not sure where we will go over the next few days, what we will do or who we will do it with.  

I just know it is going to be fun.

Too bad you are not all here.

Until the next cloudy/rainy day when I have time to actually write,

Rob