Tuesday April 16: Extended Cruising

So the standard definition of extended cruising is jokingly better known as 'fixing your boat in exotic places' - like the Bahamas!

Back in November, our alternator died - fortunately we had a spare! Old but still working - it was a quick swap out at Safe Cove before we left for Banana Bay. And with our many trips to the clinic with my thumb, we took the opportunity to have the newer alternator rebuilt in Miami. Which was a really good thing as the replacement installed at Safe Cove died the first day after reaching the Bahamas.

Randy, Cindy and Steve on one of the northern beaches of Green Turtle Cay

But swapping the alternators out was put off until we were going to be some place for a few days. Right now it was time (as dictated by the weather) to cross "The Whale" and enter the beginning of the Abacos!!

The waters south of the Whale Cay are very shallow so most boats have to travel (including us) need to travel the red line out onto the Atlantic in order to proceed to the Abacos.

Thursday the 11th was the day! We enjoyed Green Turtle but it was definitely the best day to move on. Destination was Marsh Harbor - 28 miles as not nice weather was coming - again!

We could not have had better calm waters! This is Love You More with Whale Cay in the background on a beautiful sunny day! Until it wasn't .....

The weather was as predicted but it arrived early and we hadn't yet made it to Marsh Harbor!

If there is one thing we have learned, don't come in to dock in any kind of weather if it can be helped!

So we slowed down! Watching the tornado (??) reaching out from the clouds was quite interesting. They were over the land and didn't appear to be headed our way so we just stayed on course.

Rained on but it soon blew out and just stayed clouds hanging around. By then we were safely in and tied up - with the sun again making an appearance later in the day!

And we've been here since :-) Randy and Cindy left a few days ago to visit Hopetown and then Little Harbor. The plan is to meet up with them again at Man -O-War Cay in a couple of days.

Marsh Harbor is the fifth largest city in the Bahamas with a population of around 5,000.

It was here that Steve thought he could get the part he needed to complete the alternator installation. Sadly no luck there but ever the innovator, he figured out a way to hook up a switch (which Randy provided!) and install it in the dashboard. Very convenient and easy to use, it will take care of the issue quite nicely!!

The teak continues to get a couple of finished coats that didn't get done before leaving Banana Bay. Two coats of clear coat. It helps protect the finish from UV rays.



Nice that it's finally finished. Sharon would be proud :-)











Plus there was more electrical work that needed attention.

Steve was working to wire the new alternator switch when the boat suddenly lost all power!

Working in a very small closet to figure it out didn't help - plus I think our brains were just not working right. It took us a day and a half to figure out what happened.

The culprit was a ground wire that had gotten knocked off - not sure how that happened honestly but whatever - success in the end.

We are actually ready to travel again! The wind has been blowing between 10 and 20 mph so being here at Marsh Harbor has worked out fine as far as we're concerned :-)

There is a nice open air restaurant here called The Jib Room that sadly doesn't serve breakfast but they have a nice lunch that we checked out.

Conch chowder and fish tacos. Perfect lunch :-)









And more beautiful sunsets ......