Life at Treaure Cay: Continuing our journey to the Dark Side

On Feb 27, we set out from Green Turtle for Treasure Cay.  The weather was delightful. 

When we arrived, friends offered to put us up at a dock in return for a few favours we had done for them and, I believe, to entice us to stay.

We had just been through several nights of interrupted sleep.  Last year, February was a month weather front after weather front at about 3 day intervals.  This contrasted sharply with the first year we were here when they came through about every 10 days.

Treasure Cay has a special dock rate every January and February ($500/month), so I thought I would do my bride a favour and rent a dock for 30 days.  (When moma is happy, everybody is happy.) This made moma very happy.

Treasure Cay Marina as seen from the flybridge of the R&B Haven

Now if this seems a pretty lazy and comfortable lifestyle, it is.

Not only do you have easy access to the land for walks, even when the wind howls, but you get invited to things that you would otherwise miss.

Birthday party at the property of Dave and Tony, the people who accepted our dirty diesel.

Bev preparing an appetizer.  Everyone brings something to eat and whatever they want to drink.

Dave, the birthday boy

Tiesha hiding from the other dogs.

After meal sing-song.

A lobster hunt:  Dingys were taken from Treasure Cay Marina to a local beach where the ladies set up shop.  The guys then went hunting for lobster.  Emery and I got skunked (I found 2 but they were too small) but Brad and Scott bagged 4.

Ladies on the beach, supervising.

While I was cleaning diesel out of our bilges, the other guys went offshore fishing.  They bagged their limit.  A fish fry was then organized at someone's house and the meal was followed by a hootenany.

Brad and Karen chose a strategic location to play and to sing.  Karen brought printed sheets of song words.

We would not have been invited to any of these things if we were not at the dock.

It is now February 7 and the first weather front since we checked in to Treasure is just now arriving.  The weather has been beautiful - not at all like last year.  Even with the passage of the front, there is only a 20% probability of rain and even that will likely happen in the evening.

When the weather is good, I get restless. 

We have taken a number of tours to other islands and to other resorts.  The photos that follow are meant to give an idea of our lifestyle.

Bev quilting on our sun-deck.  She has pretty well finished this quilt over the last 2 weeks.

Walking the beach at Treasure Cay

The beach at Treasure.  The white sand is as fine as flour.  When the sun shines, the turquoise colour of the water is truly stunning.

Our boat was originally named the Georgia Girl.  This boat, the Georgia, was tied up at the end of our dock and is over 110 feet long.  Bev wanted to know if it could be our next boat!

Bev walking the beach again at Treasure

Yacht Harbour at Great Guana.  Note that there are no boats.  The Canadians are here but there are few Americans.  The Bahamian economy must really be feeling the pinch.

This is a poisonwood tree.  If you touch it you will get a poison ivy like rash.  If you even walk under it during a rain storm, you will get a poison ivy like rash.  On some islands these trees are very prevalent.

The colourfull bar at Nipper's.  Their rum slushies are mostly rocket fuel.

More of the bar at Nippers.  Nippers inspired us to create our own rum punch.  You take a gallon of fruit punch ($3.95) from the grocery store at Treasure Cay.  You pour out 60 ounces.  You then fill it back up with Bacardy Gold ($15 for 1.75 liters).  Put it in the freezer for a couple of days until it turns to slush and voila, R&B Haven rum punch!

Walking the beach at Nipper's

Bev on the Beach near Nippers

More Nippers Beach.

Who says you have to go the Exumas to experience heat?  This thermometer was in the sun, but it also read 80F when it was still in the shade.

Beach at Hope Town.  This is one of our favourite spots to hunt sea glass which we then use for making "fun" jewelry.

The Jib Room in Marsh Harbour had a conch cleaning and conch horn making demonstration.  Bev volunteered to be a guinea pig.  Here she is cleaning the conch.

Here is her prize!  The guy doing the demonstration then turned the conch into a really yummy salad using mostly just conch, orange coloured limes and some spices.

Bev, the good sport as always, blowing a conch to show how it is done.

On the way back to Treasure, we stopped for our own lobster hunt.  I only got one, but it was a good size!!

Bev on the Beach again. 

Tomorrow will bring another day.  We are hoping to take a crowd on the R&B Haven to one of the good lobster spots.  We will tow a number of dingys with us so that people can set up camp on shore if they like.  They can also use the dingys to go out to the rocks where the lobsters are most commonly found and will return in the late afternoon.

At the beginning of this trip, I felt like I was always spending all my time fixing things.  We are now at the stage where I feel like I am able to adventure and enjoy myself also.

Life is good!

Maintaining you boat in exotic places

Our little stay in Green Turtle gave me a chance to resurrect the generator.  I turned out that it had a number of electrical problems (a high temperature cut-out switch, an internal relay and one major power junction) that were probably a result of having being exposed to a salt fog from water escaping from the faulty exhaust elbow last season and then being exposed to the heat and humidity of Florida over the summer.  Once I found and eliminated all of these, the generator started and ran better than ever - at least for a short time.  Then it sprung a leak around the thermostat housing, flooding the area with lots of steam.  For a few moments, until we knew that we were dealing with steam and not smoke, it was more than a little scary.  Replacing the lost anti-freeze and tightening a few bolts solved the issue, however.

We also used the time in Green Turtle to resurrect the fly-bridge depth sounder.  It seemed that I had simply plugged two halves of a multi-pin cable together incorrectly.  To look at it, you would not think this was possible but I guess it was.

Once we reached Treasure Cay, I was faced with the task of cleaning the diesel out of the bilges.  What do you do with several gallons of sea-water contaminated diesel once you suck it out of the bottom of the boat?  I use the verb suck since a shop-vac was the best way of skimming it off the surface.  Lucky for us, one of the families we met at Treasure Cay had bought a property lot and was clearing it of bush.  Dirty diesel was useful to them to help burn the brush piles.  We were happy to get rid of it and they were happy to have access to our dirty diesel - truly a win-win situation. 

When we first fired up out dingy, the outboard ran very poorly.  Now that it has had a few tanks of fuel flushed through it, it runs much better.  Notwithstanding that it had lots of Stabil added to the fuel and then was run dry before storage, I think the carburetor had some gum in it.  It is not often that mechanical problems fix themselves so I guess I should be grateful.

I find that even now, I am still learning the boat and its systems.  And I am still doing the occasional bone-head trick.  Just the other day, now that we had clean bilges, I failed to screw the dip stick on the generator properly into its hole.  As a result, it shook loose, allowing 2 quarts of oil to be blown out and into the bilge.  Yuck!!  Now bilge cleaning can start all over.

Anyway, (touch wood) the boat seems to be running well and I continue to gain confidence in it.  While I do not claim to be truly mechanically competent (sometimes I create more problems than I solve), I continue to be boggled by people who set out to live this lifestyle in spite of no mechanical competence whatsoever.

Getting Started, Crossing the Gulf, near disaster at the Whale

As we finalized our preparations to head for the Bahamas, we were joined by our friends Gerry and Pam. 

Gerry helped me bring the R&B Haven down the St Lucie River as far as Manatee Pocket near Stuart.  This was where we would stage while waiting to cross the Gulf Stream.  Pam helped Bev complete provisioning and then we were ready to go.

Happy Hour at Finz at Manatee Pocket
From left to right:  Ray, Gerry, Pam, Bev and myself (Rob)
 
I am always a bit nervous about crossing the Gulf Stream.  The weather was promising to be good; a light wind out of the East or South East.  The previous day, it had been blowing lightly from the North East so we could expect a bit of a cross chop but nothing huge.  My problem is that my imagination is too good and I imagine all the things that could go wrong!

As things turned out, nothing went wrong.  The weather was good.  Once we hit the Gulf Stream, we did hit a bit of a chop.  Tuck (one of our dogs) was seasick.  Yuck!!  But by mid afternoon, it was all over.

Sunrise on the Gulf Stream

On the day we crossed, we did almost 100 nautical miles, leaving our anchorage at 5:30 AM and arriving at Mangrove Cay in the evening dusk around 6:30 PM after running all day at 8 knots.  Our usual cruising speed is 7 knots, but we prefer to get the crossing out of the way in the daylight to the extent we can.  So we trade fuel for time.

The next day, we started out cruising at a liesurely rate towards an island called Allans-Pensacola.  The wind was from the South-West.  Around noon I became worried that there were no good anchorages between us and Green Turtle that would be sheltered from all directions if a front went through.

We were not in range of any weather forecasts to confirm but thought we had better err on the side of caution.  We realized that we could just make Green Turtle around sunset if we dialed the boat up to 8.5 knots, again trading fuel for time.  The entrance to Green Turtle is not lit.  It is shallow and it is narrow.  A night time entrance would be hairy.

It turned out that Bahamian Customs is now open 7 days/week at Green Turtle (New Plymouth) so we were checked in first thing the next morning (Saturday) by a very pleasant and polite young lady.  These customs officials are your first contact with the people who live in the Bahamas.  Our experiences have been nothing but positive. 
A front did go through that evening (with winds hitting 80 km/hr or 50 mph) so we were glad to be snug.


On Sunday, we explored Manjack island, meeting former cruisers, Leslie and Bill, who had swallowed the anchor there.  They welcome cruisers to use their dock and to access the trails across the island.

On Monday, we decided to see if we could cross the Dont Rock passage leading from the Green Turtle area to the Sea of Abaco area feeding into Marsh Harbour.  The alternative was to go around the Whale Passage but it sounded as if it might be a bit rough.

As we got closer to the entrance to the Dont Rock passage, we could see breakers right across.  As we got even closer, I realized that the breakers were about 200 yards from our side of the entrance of the passage, and that if you could get past the breakers, the rest of the passage and its exit were smooth.  I decided to run with the waves a bit to see where the breakers petered out and to see if there was a reasonable way around. 

Then disaster almost hit.  We broached in the waves.  Beverley felt she could almost touch the water by reaching out from her window on the flybridge.  In reality, we probably heeled over about 35 to 40 degrees (still lots).  It felt as if the lee rail was going to go under and although this is a normal mode of operation for sail boats, I don't think that power boats are supposed to operate this way.  So, once the boat had spun that far around, I just cranked the wheel over so that we took the next wave bow on. 

We then checked out the Whale Passage, but I could see breakers right across it.  We were not going there so we turned around and headed back to Manjack Island.  Upon anchoring, we noticed a strong smell of diesel.

The spare propeller had come loose, smashing one of the fuel filters and creasing the oil filter.

Red died diesel in bilge.  Good thing this was not gasoline or we would probably not we here to write this.

Crushed fuel filter.  It is incredible that this engine still ran.

Creased oil filter.  It is lucky that this was not punctured.

Cleaning up this mess was to take a lot of work, but we were incredibly lucky not to have been in real trouble (e.g. engine loss in steep seas, destruction of engine because of loss of oil, explosion if a gas engine).

So we changed filters, bled the system and returned to Green Turtle where we played tourist over the next several days until things really calmed down.

Bbqing on the after deck.

Bev and I in the Green Turtle anchorage.  Life is good!

New Plymouth Harbour

Bev and friends Gerry, Dick and Laurie touring New Plymouth by golf cart.  Bev's foot was operated on late November so she was still limited in how far she could walk without a lot of discomfort.

Small Westerley sailboat with their anchor rode tangled in our propeller at 2:00 AM.  The guys on board were from Montreal and were really glad we did not get really excited.  The previous night, we had seen them coming up the channel at midnight, in the middle of a thunderstorm only to anchor right beside us.  We did not realize it at the time, but apparently they had dragged from the other end of the anchorage, right down the narrow channel, only to awaken in the mangroves at its entrance.  It is a marvel that they  made it that far.

Our time at Green Turtle was relaxing but between storm anchor watches and wandering boats, we did not have many uninterrupted nights sleep.  We were looking forward to getting to Treasure Cay where we had been promised a free night's stay at the dock.

2011 Winter Season

Hello Blog. 

It is February 4, 2011 and we are currently anchored at Marsh Harbour.  This is the Bahamas' third largest city.  It is so big that it even has a traffic light.  Before you snicker, be aware that this traffic light is a very important land mark.  Everything is so many blocks this way and so many blocks that way from the light.  From that perspective, it is very useful.

I have been waiting for a rainy, crappy day to write this blog.  It has not happened, so I am doing it in 80F, sunny weather.  Call me crazy.

Let me break our recent experiences into historical chunks starting with preparing the R&B Haven for this year's sun and fun in the Sea of Abaco.

Someone said that cruising consists primarily of fixing your boat in exotic locations. 

Maybe.  I certainly spend a lot of time fixing our boat.  But Indiantown Florida?   It is not exactly an exotic location.  That is where we had stored our boat over the summer and where we had to prepare it to be launched and to be used as our home over the next several months.

I had projected 10 days of work before we went down there and it took 10 days to get the boat ready for the water.  The difference between my projections and what actually transpired was that we did a number of things that I had not anticipated and dropped off the list some things that would be really nice to do but were not essential.

Mould was a bigger issue than expected.  Unfortunately, I had loosely plugged with screening material, all the through hulls that did not have seacocks.  Unfortunately, the deck drain screens plugged solid with debris and the water then backed up in the internal downtubes until it seeped through the bilge pumps into the hull.  This provided a ready source of humidity and humidity leads to mould growth.  It also leads to corrosion of electrical things.  This was a bad mistake and one that I will avoid next year.  Because of it, we had to do a lot of extra cleaning.  Just to be sure, I have installed a couple of supplementary drains: one in the transom and one at the bottom of the keel so that next year, water will not be able to accumulate. 

Our refrigerator also died.  Rather than replace it with a dual voltage version, we bought a deeper and taller 120 volt fridge at Lowes.  The price difference was substantial ($1500 vs $400) and the the dual voltage fridge always ran on 120 volts anyway since the inverter is always running in order to service the chest freezer.  The new fridge seems to use more power, but it is also much larger.  On the whole, we (meaning Bev) are pleased.

I had lowered the old refrigerator to the ground using ropes and the crane that is for lifting the dingy onto the roof.  I was prepared to do the reverse with the new fridge.  After tying the ropes and hooking it to the crane, I went looking for help from neighbouring boats in the boatyard.  This really big black guy comes over and he picks up the new fridge, hefts it a few times and says "We don't need all these ropes and things.  Why don't I just pass it up (over his head) to someone standing in the boat?"  That is exactly what he did.  He was certainly a better man than I ever was or even ever dreamed of being.

Life is good when you can get help - especially good help.

While I was working inside the hull, Bev did yeoman's service sanding and painting the hull. 

Here is Bev painting.  Now this is a woman worth marrying.

Of course, there are some costs.  She wanted rewards.  She had not previously told me about her Indian heritage and the fact that one of her ancestors was from the Blackfoot tribe.

The biggest error in time to repair estimate concerned the generator.  I had "budgeted" 4 hours to install a new exhaust elbow.  In fact, it took me 12.  I could not just unscrew it.  I had to remove the whole exhaust manifold in order to have the space to turn it in a full circle.  Of course, it broke into pieces when I put some torque on it when it was still in place in order to loosen it up.  In order to remove the exhaust manifold, you have to remove the heat exchanger and the bracket that holds it in place.  All of this is in a restricted cubbyhole.  If the whole thing was on a workbench, it would be easy.  In fact, I had to take the manifold to someone with an oxy-actelyne torch and a 4 foot long pipe wrench in order to separate the elbow from the manifold.  But in the end, it all went back together as it should.   I then stuck its sea water intake hose into a bucket and, miracle of miracles, it started right up.

I thought this meant that the generator would run without problems this year.  Man, was I sucked in!!!

Much of the work was just normal maintenance or undoing the things that we had done to prepare the boat for storage or the possibility of a hurricane.

Reinflating the dingy and installing its outboard.

The work seemed to take forever since we were living on the boat in the boatyard while working on it.  Finally, however, it was ready to be launched.

Launch time!!

Yahoo!

Once the boat was in the water, the main engine started right up, just as it had in the boat yard.  The generator ran for about 60 seconds and then died, not to be recussitated.  Good thing we had the Honda 2000 watt generator as a back-up as it meant that would continue.

While this was going on, Bev was working full time at grocery shopping for essential provisions (wine, beer and food).  Then ready or not, there was a weather window approaching where we could cross to the Bahamas and we were set to go.