YachtAweigh: In the Bahamas! – Abacos – Lynyard Cay to Marsh Harbour

Apr 10^th – It was an extremely windy cool day with a mix of sun and clouds. We are well protected in our Lynyard Cay anchorage in the Abacos and we know our anchor is well hooked. There’s no end in sight for the high winds that we are experiencing at the moment. People that we’ve talked to told us the Bahamas used to only have one weather front move through every month which meant that it was windy while the front was moving through and the winds would calm down after the front had passed. In the last few years they’ve experienced weather fronts moving in every 5 days or so thus there are not too many days where you actually experience light winds. The trick is to learn how to deal with the high winds by picking your large water crossing days carefully and also picking an anchorage or marina that will be protected from the forecast winds to ensure your comfort for the time you’ll be staying there. Since it was windy I decided to play with the water maker today and I bypassed all the automated components and then I tested my temporary work around and I did it – we can make drinking water now. The trick is to run the water maker for a couple minutes with a tube coming out of the membrane into a bucket until the water is potable and then use the quick disconnect fitting to remove the hose and connect the one leading to our water tank. This is good enough until we get home since we won’t need the water maker after we leave the Bahamas due to the abundance of water at the US docks plus the water in the US waterways isn’t high enough quality to make water from. I plan to wash the salt off our boat tomorrow with our newly made water … Exxxcellent! In the evening Gerald and Barb came over for the Guys against the Gals Euchre Play-offs and the Guys won!

Apr 11^th – It was another extremely windy cool day with a sun cloud mix. We are planning to stay one more night at our Lynyard Cay anchorage and then move farther north tomorrow to an anchorage called Tahiti Beach by Elbow Cay. As our generator was running this morning I made some drinking water while I washed off the salt from the boat and Maria was vacuuming. The boat looks much cleaner now J It was mostly cloudy in the afternoon with high winds thus Maria did some power reading while I continued with a few boat chores and then I played some Hearts on the Ipad and picked away at the guitar for a bit. It was an extremely lazy afternoon but that’s OK once in a while. And guess what … it started to rain in the afternoon … of course … I just washed the boat. Only 4 more sleeps before our daughter Amanda joins us in the Bahamas. We are looking forward to her visit and hopefully she brings lighter winds with her.

Apr 12^th – It was a warm and extremely windy day. During my last snorkel around the boat I noticed that my port side rudder was lower than the starboard side thus this morning I went down below and found that the rudder collar had stripped threads where a hex bolt was screwed against the rudder post … most likely when the rudder shaft logs were repacked by Green Turtle Bay. The rudder dropped down over time and was riding on a support structure and friction against the support structure was making it harder to steer. I was looking at a number of temporary fixes and Gerald came over and suggested that we drill into the rudder post which will allow the hex bolt to hold the rudder up until we can permanently fix the issue. Hopefully this fix lasts until the boat is hauled out this fall. If not, I may have to drop the rudder low enough to be able to remove the collar and then rethread the hex bolt holes and reinstall it on the rudder. Another surprise job that needed my immediate attention. Afterwards we decided to pull up anchor from our Lynyard Cay anchorage with Hard Dock Café and move 9 miles north to Tilloo Cay. After we arrived the 4 of us went for a dingy ride in Hard Dock Café’s dingy to Elbow Cay where we went for a walk along the beach … in the rain … and then watched the enormous waves come into the outer side of the Cay … in the rain (aka liquid sunshine). The sun decided to show up while we dingyed over to Cracker P’s, which is a great Tiki bar, … they are having a Full Moon party tonight thus we went back by dingy for an all you can eat buffet dinner and then some dancing with a full belly. And then a bouncy ride back to the boats in the dingy while the full moon peeked through the clouds … Fun, Fun, Fun! Only 3 more sleeps to Amanda’s arrival!

Apr 13^th – It was a warm and sunny day with moderate winds that are supposed to increase over night. We pulled up our anchor from our Tilloo Cay anchorage and headed 13 miles north to Marsh Harbour and dropped our anchor in the NE side of the harbour. We went to the dingy dock to go shopping for provisions and we were surprised to find one of the best grocery stores that we’ve seen so far in the Bahamas. We caught up with Valentine and Relax Now which left us in the Exumas and we ran into Kitty Kat which we haven’t seen since Green Turtle Bay and joined them at Mangos marina for a session about visiting Cuba by boat and then docktails, Only 2 more sleeps to Amanda’s visit!