Monday January 31, 2011

I woke up before sunrise. Perked a pot of coffee and watched the sun come up as I sat in the cockpit. Once the sun was up I jumped in the dingy. My goal was to take a tour. First I had to bail out the dingy. It seems that the leak I fixed is not totally fixed. That is to say the dingy leaks but not as bad as before.

The old 1959 Evenrude Fisherman started on the first pull. The dingy was off to explore. I steered down what looked like the Inter Coastal Waterway in Florida. That is to say there were some pretty big home on the canal. In front of the big homes were some really big and fast boats. Wow!

I tried to get the Cruisers Net on the radio at 8:15 but most of what I got was static. The Cruisers Net is a VHF Marine radio broadcast of cruising information. The information is focused around the weather, currents and tides. As cruisers we live and die by the weather. At home in the Great Lakes we have NOAA weather radio 24/7 alerting sailors to the weather forecast. There is no such thing here in the Bahamas. They way to forecast the weather is to read the sunset, the sunrise and the clouds. It also helps to talk to other boaters and that is what the Cruisers Net is all about. People are innovative and figure out ways to get critical information.

After cruising around in the dingy, I tied up at the Treasure Cay dock and went ashore. I had my computer with me and the iPod. Desperately I tried to connect to the Internet so that I could send and receive email. I also wanted to Skype Sandy. No matter what I tried, it was impossible to connect to the Internet from Treasure Cay. I got to the point where I was frustrated and took a break.

My boating buddies said that they had to go back to their boats and get provisions for a trip to Coca Beach. While they were going back to their boat, I wandered the village. I found a little place that served breakfast. The little place was run by Capt Forty. He made me scrambled eggs, grits and corned beef. The corned beef tasted like chilly. All in all it was a good breakfast. As I was finishing my morning meal, in came my boating buddies. They like the looks of my breakfast and ordered.

It was then off to one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. It is called Coca Beach. It is listed in some famous magazine as being one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. it certainly is a beautiful beach. The sand was as fine as sugar and runs for about 3 miles. The tide was out so we had a lot of beach. The water is turquoise and crystal clear.

I headed back to Treasure Cay before my boating buddies. My plan was to take a shower before heading to the next stop. I got into the shower, turned on the water and nothing came out of the spout. I was shocked. Normally when you turn on the water it works. Some one said that there was a power failure. Nice. I’m dirty and salty and the water does not work.

Water is a scarce commodity here in the Bahamas. The main water supply is the result of reverse osmosis. If you get a dock and need water, you must pay for it by the gallon. It is not free like it is in the USA.

By 1:00Pm my boating buddies were ready to set sail for Guana Cay. At about 1L30PM we weighed anchor and motored out of the harbor at Treasure Cay. Our destination was Guana Cay which is directly east of Treasure Cay. The wind was coming out of the east at 10 knots. East was the direction I was headed. Needless to say I had to motor the 12.6 miles to the anchorage at Guana.

I anchored at Guana Cay at 4:30PM. I took three attempts to set the anchor. I could not get the flukes of the Danforth to catch the bottom. After the third attempt, the hook set. Jim and Ellie jumped in their dings and helped. They have a bucket with a glass bottom. They call it their peepy bucket. They looked at my anchor. Jim said that one fluke was sunk into the sand and I was set.

I set the anchor alarm and waited about 15 minutes to be sure that the anchor would hold before joining my buddies for a we made it drink.

While on board the FinniIrish, Jim was able to get an Internet connection and I was able to Skype with Sandy. She said that there was a big snow fall expected in the next several day. I miss her dearly but not the cold and the snow.

After happy hour I returned via dingy to the WaterMark and prepared dinner. I bought two hamburger patties at Treasure Cay and made sloppy joe’s for dinner.

Tonight’s anchorage is very rocky and rolly. It is a rather exposed anchorage and you can feel the boat rise and fall with the swells from the Sea of Abaco.

Somehow I found a WiFi connection from this anchorage. I is possible to update the blog from this anchorage. Wow!! I have a better Internet connection a quarter of a mile from shore than I had this morning at the Treasure Cay dock.