|
Days 10-12, July 24th to 26th
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
I think this will be another “Island Time” kind of days – we’ll
wander around the Marina and take in more “new construction” –
definitely an Island under construction! Actually, we watched the
workers trudge along on their own Island Time – witnessed 4 guys
leaning up against one of the newly constructed porches, no doubt
wondering what they will do next or if they will just go home. I
worked on my “story” and pictures for a couple of hours then we had
lunch and headed out for along walk on the outer beach along the
Ocean that we had to fight to get to, over nasty rocks and burrs
(welcome to the Bahamas) Salty is covered in burrs but we did manage
to make it to the beach, through the NO BEACH ENTRY signs and found
out why – it’s rough over here with a lot of sea weed being tossed
onto the beach which is not a very nice swim, walk or run for Salty
(of course we are only doing it for him anyway, right?) We headed
back to the Marina’s beach which is much nicer and very well
maintained. I made another nice dinner and we were in bed early in
order to get ready for our trip to Highborne Cay tomorrow.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Another
fine, but breezy day in Paradise. We were up early and would be out
of here by 9:00 am. It would have to be the windiest day yet,
especially when we’ll be traveling across the “big” waters, The
Yellow Banks on the North side of Nassau. It takes an incredible
amount of work to pack up and get going on to the next port. If the
dingy is off the boat, just getting everything off of it is a chore,
but then there is getting it back on the boat, secured and putting
the cover on – that’s a days work in itself! Now it’s time to get
the shore power off and back onto the boat, fill the boat with
water, get the hoses back on, take the carpeting off the stairs,
remove cushions from aft deck chairs, pile the tables, stool and
chairs up and secure all together so nothing moves. Then start the
generator (still working!), start the boat, take most of the lines
off and leave strategic ones on so I can easily release them as we
start out of the slip. Where’s Salty? Of course, when all this
action starts to happen, he can be found on the dock as far away
from the boat as he is allowed – looking off in the other direction
in hopes that he isn’t forced to get on that rolling, buzzing big
white floating thing again. Ok, he’s on the boat in position in
front of his fan and we can head out again – we’re out of the slip
and now my work begins. Down below, everything has to be put down
and secured so it doesn’t fly around and bread while under way –
especially putting the special band across the 30” flat screen TV!
This also includes tying the fridge and freezer closed tightly –
I’ve had more than one time when smashed jars and booze covered the
galley floor. Once all is secure down below, I have to get up top
and start gathering all the lines from all the cleats, tie all the
fenders down (yes, fenders not bumpers – Dave Bennet taught me
that), close the window flaps, secure stern lines and large swim
platform fender then wrap all the collected lines and wrap them so
when it comes time to get them out again, you’re not scrambling to
undo a tangled mess of knots while the captain is ready to dock.
Yes, boating is a lot of fun but is a lot of work too.
Ok, now that we are under way again and all settled in for a nice
long and hopefully, uneventful run we begin planning the next stage
of our Adventure. We’ll get to Highborne Cay in about five hours so
another one of my chores is to make sure the cooler is stocked with
ice, drinks and a couple of sandwiches for when the hunger pangs
hit. The seas today aren’t as calm as in previous runs and we’re
cruising in about 3-4’ waves. Not bad really and the boat handles it
very well, but the wind is about 15 to 20 knots thus making the
waves “choppy” and the boat hits them harder and more often. Ok for
humans but not so ok for Salty dogs. He was on my lap for most of
the run which is a little on the warm side; he’s not exactly Yorkie
size and he gets heavy after a while. We have to go through Nassau
Harbour and that is always a trip. This is a very busy place with
Cruise ships, Dive boats, “Booze and Cruise” glass bottom boats,
Water taxis, Tour boats and Atlantis, not to mention beautiful
mansions! We cruised through the Harbour looking at the sights then
on to Highborne Cay. The water is getting a little calmer on our
approach to Highborne which is a good thing and we’re looking
forward to relaxing, settling in and going to the beach for a swim
with Salty.
You know all that work we do to leave a dock? Well, the same work
has to be done in reverse when we enter a dock. The Captain made
another perfect docking into the slip at Highborne and we were all
ready for a nice afternoon before heading off to the Exumas tomorrow
where we will test out the generator for several days. Everything is
done and we are ready to plug into shore power. Crap! You guessed
it, the shore power doesn’t work. We try another electric pillar on
the dock and another and another – nothing, nada, zip. The
electrical panel is saying “Reverse Polarity”. Great. First the
generator and now shore power. Come on! Typically, if the generator
craps out then we can always go in to a Marina and hook up to shore
power and now things are completely turned around. Luckily, Barry
had stocked the boat with just about every spare part imaginable to
mankind (sounds like a Bill Chalmers thing to me) and he did in
fact, have a spare plug for the power cord. This is not exactly what
he wanted to be doing but really didn’t have much of a choice. We
just kept the generator running (I hate to even say that out loud
for fear I’ll jinx it), had a drink, then Barry spent the next
several hours – tuning up the old plug and then eventually replacing
it completely with the new plug. Still nothing and instead of going
on to the Exumas tomorrow, we’ll have to go back to Nassau to find
someone who can figure out what is wrong. So, the afternoon was an
incredibly disappointing bust and that was our exciting adventure
for that day. Highborne, Highborne, Highborne Cay, what can I say
about Highborne Cay? You’ll have to go to our Bahamas 2005 Adventure
to read about that!.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Seeing as how we didn’t unpack anything, it was a quick
escape from the dock – up at 6:15 am and away from the dock by 7:00
am. The water was much more forgiving than yesterday and it was a
calm and quick run into Nassau. We were going to fuel up before
docking but there was a “Sailor” at the fuel dock in a Cat and we
waited and waited….never mind, Sailors take way too long to fuel up
so we went ahead and docked instead and there wasn’t any time to be
wasted – we had to find an electrician – now. We are staying at the
Nassau Harbour Club where we stayed a couple of years ago. That was
the Marina that was so dilapidated, we wondered why anyone would
come here but on the other hand, we also thought it would be a great
spot if someone came in and fixed it up. We heard that it had been
improved and we were curious to see it again and besides, it’s
across the street from a Mall – groceries and maybe even a Wok can
be found there! I managed to lose (or someone stole) Salty’s leash
while at Chub Cay so I have to find another one –perhaps at the
Grocery Store at the mall. One thing you absolutely do NOT see
around the Bahamas is people walking dogs; never, unless they are
coming off of boats at a Marina. Bahamians seem to dislike dogs
and/or are afraid of them and I really can’t blame them because the
strays running amuck scare me too, especially when I’m walking Salty
alone without some kind of protection. That’s pretty sad to say but
nonetheless the truth. Another bad thing about this marina is we
can’t put the gang way down because the side docks are too narrow,
so that means Barry will have to lift Salty on and off which isn’t
good for his wrenched back. Barry managed to track down an
electrician to deal with this shore power fiasco, actually two, so
if the first one coming today can’t fix whatever’s wrong, then at
least we’ll have a back up. Ok, we’ve been waiting for several hours
now and no one showed up! The biggest bonus ever is that the
generator is running like a top – thank God (or Alec) for that
because we would be in deep trouble if that wasn’t working. So, out
of the two electricians, one phoned eventually (yes, Barry decided
he would need a cell phone for this) to say he couldn’t make it over
today but would be there in the morning around 9:00 am. So, here we
sit – stuck again at this crazy marina with no choice but to wait
for something or someone we have no control over. We decided to walk
down to the famous Chinese joint that we went to a couple of years
ago for dinner then sat out on the aft deck when we got back for
after-dinner cocktail and watched the Nassau Harbour lights
flickering on the water – the end of a not-so-perfect day.
|
.
New Chub Cay Club
