Dorian

One doesn't get the magnitude of Dorian, the hurricane, where we are on Grand Bahama Island.  Yes, everyone's house was flooded and roofs were ripped off.  I hoped to help someone gut their house or hang some sheetrock. But yesterday I rode out to East End right next to Abaco with 3 young people who have a 501c3 doing relief work here called Hope Fleet.  They work with a local church.

The devastation was mind-boggling.

Recovery efforts now, after 6 months, are still focused on cleaning up the mess and leveling homes.  The busiest reconstruction sites were at 2 Baptist chuches with crews that were obviously American.  After some musing I realized that rebuilding a community had to start with restoring the gathering places.  Down here that's a church.

We stopped at the ferry dock connecting Abaco to GBI and talked to some folks. 

One woman had opened a little store/bar in the trunk of her car.  Potato chips and rum.

Most of the population of Abaco has been absorbed into the other islands by family or churches.  Those that are hanging on do not want to go on social services.  They have two big needs.  The first is roofing materials.  The second is to get their livelihood back which is fishing.  They need small boats/runabouts and outboards.

That's when I realized that we can be so much more helpful by raising money to get those fishermen back to work.  So I am developing a plan to raise money to buy one or two boats with motors.  In Maye will appeal to the Lake Champlain boating community and work through Hope Fleet.  Much better than hanging sheet rock, although that would make me feel good.

Seems that Grand Bahama houses were built with concrete while Marsh Harbor and Hope Town were mostly wood structures.

So life goes on here.  Seawater pump hasn't arrived and that's not surprising.  Still lots of work to do on the boat.  Kathleen got sick of this old tub and decided to buy a new one.

Still hanging in Lucaya

We will spend all of January at the Grand Bahama Yacht Club and maybe more  Tomorrow we'll get our new seawater pump from Germany and install it.  Then we'll decide where to go from here.  But it's very comfortable here.

The pace is pretty slow.  Lacy gets a lot of attention.  Kathleen goes to the beach when the wind is cooperative.

I work on the boat.  We both read a lot.  But...

We expect to head north no later than February 20th for the long trek home.  We plan to be in Hinesburg on May 1st or 2nd.  We'll probably have to leave Rosie somewhere in the Hudson while we wait for the Champlain Canal to open.

Life is good.

Your intrepid reporter, live from the Bahama's.

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Hangin' Out

When you think there's nothing to do there's always something to do.

Brightwork!

Kathleen is amazing!  Since we left the lake there has always been  a colorful floral display in the salon.  Where she finds it is a mystery.

Expect our new seawater pump to come by the 24th but we may be dreaming.  Starting to think about what/where's next.

Today we scrub the hull.  Flat water and 78 degrees.  (sorry)

Slackin'

We're slowing down which is great.  So I've been slackin'.

But life goes on and Rosie always needs lovin'.
This cruising life is a fretful life. I am constantly seeing, smelling, hearing things that I'm sure are symptoms of major breakdowns.  While lubing the steering cable I'm sure it's corroding away.  The voltmeter jumps around and I'm sure we need a new alternator.
There's a drip from our sea water pump and I'm sure I'll need a new pump. Well actually we do.  Thought it was the impeller gasket so I changed it.  Nope.  Thought it was a pinhole in the pump housing so I put some Marine Tex on it.  Nope.  It's an internal seal.  New pump coming from Germany in a few weeks.  $500.

I'm doing a lot of the bright work.  It's reliably warm, windy and no bugs.

Motor cats are the big thing down here.  Big huge rectangles of fiberglass with ALL the luxuries.  They draw nothing, go fast, aren't "tippy"  Their beams are usually half of their length so a Leopard 51 has a 25' beam.  Built for comfort but you have to pay for two slips.   Cats weren't worth a damn under sail anyway.

This place might look luxurious...

..but it's been devastated by the hurricane and has no business.  We thought we'd be doing some volunteer work here but in Freeport/Lucaya it is illegal and they have deported people for doing volunteer work!!!  (Unemployment is 47%)  OTOH, friends on Green Turtle Cay says they're begging for help but only want you to come if you're totally self-sufficient, ie. not needing water, food, fuel, septic, etc.  We are but doubt we'll get there b/c we're waiting for a pump that could take weeks.

We do enjoy seeing some great boats.  This is a Kadey

 Krogan but check out the two masts and the crow's nest!  They're for stabilizing sails only but it does carry a jib.

While making coffee one morning I heard a familiar sound that took me a while to recognize.  It was the sound that Lacy's paddling makes in the water!  Kathleen had gone ashore and Lacy tried to follow her but ended up in the water.  I raced out on deck and looked down.  There she was frantically treading water.  Luckily she was by a ladder and I got her by the scruff of the neck.  Didn't have to jump in.  What a scare though.

Not much else exciting here.  We did watch a very large sea turtle motoring around our stern.  Big spotted head would poke up and stare at us.  I did hear a bird this morning.  That's rare.

Sounds like it's been a funky winter so far.  Well it's a third over and the days are getting longer.  Stay warm.

Bahamas

The Gulf Stream flows north between Florida and the Bahamas at around 5 knots. If the wind is opposing that current there will be very high waves and bumpy waters. So a "weather window" is when the wind has eased enough to let waves flatten and moved around to the south in conjunction with the current.
Chris Parker, the noted maritime "router" called Monday's window "small and marginal" because wind was predicted to move around to the north after midnight at 5-10 knots.  That meant we had to be across the current by midnight.  So we left at 1700 (5:00) before the winds had really laid down but within an hour we had the weather we anticipated and made good time.
Night time passages are not preferred  You're steering a course in the pitch black and watching out for big freighters and cruise ships.
We made good time and had to wait for the sunrise before entering Bell Channel.

The anchor was down at 0700, the quarantine flag was up and we were down and out.  14 hours at the helm with neither of us getting real sleep.

I take back any derogatory comments I might have made about our BMW D150.  After months of fretting over him, Mr. Beemer was a beast.  2600 rpms giving us 6.5-7 knots when not in the current.  Just awesome.

We were rousted by customs after a 2 hour nap and moved Rosie to the gas dock.  After way too much paperwork, the quarantine flag came down and the courtesy flag went up.

The Grand Bahama Yacht Club is a great place.  We were here 9 years ago.  It shows the scars of Dorian and the number of boats here is way down because people are avoiding Abaco and Grand Bahama Island.  So they made us a sweet deal and we're going to stay here until we head back in mid-February.  Lots of work to do on the boat.  A great pool that makes Kathleen very happy and we want a break from travel, travel, travel.

Much more to follow.  Happy New Year to everyone.  Thanks for tuning in.