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Day 25-27, July 11th to 13th
Monday morning we got ready to leave Sampson doing last minute checks of filters and gauges, getting more water, doing laundry and generally packing up….oh, and don't forget paying the BILL! We followed Paul out (because he knows where it is) and he gave us a blow by blow over the VHF radio of what water depth we were going into. Needless to say, we were a bit nervous when we saw the depth go down….4', then 3', then 2.5' - yikes! I can't remember being in water that shallow and considering we are supposed to draft 4' I was expecting to hear some clunking and scraping of the hull on the bottom…then cursing would follow shortly thereafter. That didn't happen and we got to the place where we would anchor in Pike Creek (which isn't a creek at all) and it too is absolutely gorgeous. It's very protected with small Cays all around us which is a very good thing if you ever do get any wind. The different colors of aqua water are amazing and there is a really nice beach for Salty to make his own. Barry had to make sure the anchor was "set" and even went out in the dingy to double check with the "glass bottom pail" (that's another Bill Chalmers' idea) and all looked just fine. What wasn't fine as our dingy is taking on too much water and even though Barry replaced the plug, there must be something else wrong with it which is not a good thing considering that is how we get around when we are anchored off. When we were on the beach, Barry looked under it to discover about a 6 inch gap in the bottom where the keel is which would explain the water coming in. Now both Barry and I have to sit at the back to elevate the bow in order to keep it out of the water so we don't all sink! Even though there is virtually nothing around here, we still see a few "houses" or cottages in the hills on the various little Cays around us. Barry went with Cathy and Paul in the Dingy to check out the place and I stayed with Salty to start a big dinner that we will all have on board Salty Old Dog tonight which I might add, turned out very well.
Day 26, Tuesday July 12th started out with Barry getting ready to change the impeller in the generator because it was "steaming" too much at the exhaust below the swim platform and there had to be something wrong - great. Paul came over to see what was going on and seeing as how he had changed out impellers before, he dove right in and finished the job that Barry had started. It seems it was a tricky fix (of course) and Barry was thankful that Paul was there to lend a helping hand - the joys of boating and boaters. Not only was the impeller chewed up but there were other blockages that, unless you were experienced at changing out impellers, you wouldn't know about. That took most of the morning and actually was probably the only thing that was done on the boat that day except R & R. So, no more "steaming" and we like to see that. The rest of the day was the same - dingy into the beach with Salty and just enjoy the Bahamas.
Day 27, Wednesday July 13th so, what's the first thing you do in the morning when you are on hook? Look at the gauges to see if anything is overheating and look at the generator exhaust to see if it's steaming. Of course it is. Ok, down in the engine room again to check out whatever else could be not quite right. Paul saw that we had turned the generator off (lack of steam) and came over once again to "play". There they are both down there looking at the generator and they found that the belt was really loose but everything else seemed to be pretty clean. So, they tightened up the belt and cleaned everything up as much as possible and that seemed to do the trick. We will now turn off the generator every morning for a couple of hours to give it a rest and hopefully, everything is fine from now on. We all hopped in their dingy with the intention of going snorkeling at "Thunder ball" and have lunch at their little restaurant. Thunder ball is a cave with spectacular fish but you need to snorkel there at low tide so that the current doesn't sweep you away and the rocks above your head aren't too close. A James Bond movie had this particular cave filmed in it which gave it a little bit of intrigue as well. I guess our biggest mistake today was to go to "lunch" first. Up we climb to the restaurant (and I use that word lightly) only to find that they had a big pig roast the day before and they virtually had no food left except one order of fish and one order of chicken wings. Nevermind, we'll just have a rum punch (which really did have a punch) and dingy over to Staniel Cay because we know they have a restaurant there. Of course, the rum punch was so "refreshing" that we all had to have one to go, right? We had a nice lunch at Staniel (that's where Barry, Salty and I had drinks the other day) but we also had a few more cocktails - I seem to remember Pina Coladas, so it looked like snorkeling was out of the picture. We dropped by Thunder ball cave just to have a look and it seems the lure was too strong and Cathy just had to go and have a look which meant that Paul had to go with her to make sure she was safe and Barry had to go after Paul because his curiosity was really peaked now. This leaves me in the dingy all by myself looking at this rock formation and waiting…and waiting. I can't see them, I can't hear them and my imagination ran wild to say the least. Surely I would be able to start and steer a dingy to go back to Staniel Cay to get help because the crazies I was with are trapped or worse, eaten by sharks! Nevermind, there they are….let's go home and take Salty to the beach. We had dinner over at Paul and Cathy's boat tonight - they have a BBQ and it was great! We have got to get one of those for the next time - the George Forman grill is good but nothing like a BBQ.
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