Abraham’s Bay, Mayaguana
Karen:
We got up at 6 and had the anchor up by 7, and were on our way. We motored south, anticipating we would get the sails up as we rounded the southern tip of Plana, but the wind was still too close to our bow. As the morning wore on we were able to do a mixture of motor sailing and sailing. The seas had quite a bit of swell, and we ended up pounding into the waves, which means water will get into our v-berth, as it’s open to the chain locker. So, sleeping in the salon again tonight! We had a great surprise though, the alternator started working again! Just like that. We don’t know exactly what fixed it, but it must have been that all that wire connection scrubbing and tightening that finally paid off.
We anchored up in Abraham’s Bay, on Mayaguana, the easternmost island of the Bahamas, where we expect to wait for about a week. The next day, we got in the dingy and started for town, 1.2 nm away, taking our chances that our outboard would make it the whole way. We were 2/3 of the way there when it died. Luckily, another cruising family was heading into town and were very close by. They came over to say hi and to offer us a tow, which we gladly took. They have 2 adorable little kids ages 2 and 3.5 years old. They have been cruising for 5 years now, mostly in the Bahamas, and are heading to the Dominican on the same route as us. Our dingys then bottomed out as we had not seen how shallow the bay was and had missed the dredged out entry to the stone peer. We all got out and pulled our dingys to the deeper water.
We walked into town. The island has 300 inhabitants and a few stores on the map. We stopped at the fist one and it looks like a derelict building. We found the center of town, asked some locals for directions, and found the store with the open sign out front, but locked. Michael went to the house next door and asked when it would open and it turns out the shop keeper was there, and she came over to open up for us.
Inside we found pop, chips and cookies, and a few cans. Really minimal. Since I have been BBQing every meal, I was hoping to find some camp stove fuel and some bread at least to help out cooking options. It was a bit disheartening. I am worried about running out of meals, because of our freezer situation and not having a way to boil water for things like rice and pasta. I’ll need to get a bit more creative.
The kids went swimming at the beach and we got to know our new friends a little more. We then jumped into the dingy and tried starting it. No luck. So our friends set up to tow us, while Michael attempted to start the motor. He tried more than 20 times. Sometimes it would start and then sputter out. Finally, on the 21st time, it held its power and we were able to keep our engine going! We had to then drive along side our friend’s dingy while they untied us. We said a hasty goodbye and triumphantly drove back to our boat.
The next day, I got our big cast iron pan out and took the grill off the BBQ. I put the pan directly on and it seemed to fit pretty well. I stirred up some pancake batter and we had delicious butter and blueberry jam pancake breakfast. Because of this amazing breakfast, Michael took a new approach with the fridge/freezer and found a loose connection, that allowed both systems to turn back on – eureka! Another big win.
With these innovations, I reviewed all our provisions and created a meal plan for the next week, while we are here waiting out the weather window, knowing we can’t provision until we get to Turks and Caicos. Here is what we have for dinners:
· Irish Beef Stew in the thermal cooker
· Pizza – with cheese & salsa on the BBQ
· Baked Potatoes and Baked Beans (BBQ)
· Chili (thermal cooker) + home made corn tortillas on the BBQ
· Lentil Soup (thermal cooker) + home made naan on the BBQ
· Beef & Cabbage Stir Fry (BBQ)
· Burgers (no buns, but we have bacon!) + black bean & corn salsa
Lunches are crackers + tuna or hummus or PB&J
Breakfast – cereal, or pancakes/omlettes using the BBQ method
If we get the Propane stove working this will expand our menu quite a bit, so Michael will focus on that and I will try and clean out the carburetor on our outboard!!
We had a visit from our new friends today. Corey showed up with the 2 kids in the afternoon with icecubes for us! Michael let him know our fridge/freezer was back working, and they came aboard for some cookies and played lego and did colouring. Corey was game to try some troubleshooting on the Propane system so he and Michael took a look at that. It’s still a mystery.
The next few days were spent doing school with the kids in the morning, snorkeling in the afternoon, and working on boat projects. Christian & I decided to tackle the outboard. I did some research and it sounded like we need to clean the carburator. I youtubed this and we figured out how to do it. Christian has an amazing mechanical mind, and with all that lego experience he is great at pulling things apart and putting them back together. He has often helped me assemble ikea furniture and always laughs at me when I get things wrong. It was really fun to work together on this. Michael wanted us to start with the sparkplugs so we changed those first. They actually did look pretty toast. The carburator turned out to be squeaky clean, but now we know how to clean it for future! We put the engine back on the dingy and started her up and she sounds great!!! Its so satisfying when your efforts to fix something work out. We celebrated with a dingy ride over to the reef for a great snorkel around a coral head.
Michael devised a solution for the loose floorboard in the galley. He built up a new support, screwed into existing boards where he could, and glued it all together. It also turned out really well. Successful day of boat repair!
The next day we got into our dingy and headed to town, to eat a lunch out and get some supplies. We went to ‘Vicky’s’ recommended by our friends. She is a local woman who cooks from home and you can pre-order plates and pick them up. We ate crab soup full of chunks of different meats, dumplings and gravy, and had pork ribs with rice and veg. We had enough to bring home with us. We chatted with Vicky and watched General Hospital. The kids felt right at home and didn’t want to leave. Lovely Bahamian hospitality indeed!
On our dingy ride back we hit the reef again for some snorkeling, and stopped by Wildly Intrepid for a chat and to check out their boat – a super cool 1983 Center Cockpit 43 footer. So fun to see how some truly established cruisers keep their boat and hang out together. They also lent us an electric induction stove that will allow me to cook some pasta and rice dishes which I am very grateful for!
We have spent another couple of days chilling out and doing some art projects and lego. Taking time to let our creativity flow is needed and a huge part of what this trip is about for us.
We are preparing to move on to Turks and Caicos tomorrow. The weather is showing 12-18 knot winds and seas of 3-4ft, so we think its the right time for us to make a move. We will stage at the West exit of the bay and then have an early start in the morning. Life is good.
