Dinghy Motor Blues

Today was a tough day.. Not real bad but one where all the plans change in an instant.

The morning was going fine – had a nice Skype call with Jim Thompson then later about 3 hours before low tide I took the dinghy and hand held depth gauge out to measure the depth of the channel. I found mostly 7.5 feet or better. This is necessary because if we want to leave here and make Little Harbour tomorrow I need to work the tide. A – to get out of here, and B—more importantly get into Little Harbour. It is only 3.5 feet MLW there.

Everything was going fine and then when I throttled up to come back in the dinghy motor faltered. It had no power. It would just barely run. I noticed the fitting on the fuel hose to the engine was a little loose. I made it to the boat then troubleshot.

I replaced the fitting on the hose. No dice. I cleaned the plugs. No dice. I cleaned the fuel filter which contained little trash – no dice. Then I noticed a small hose from the carburetor just dangling in the air. Ohh it must have come off on the other end – where is the other end?? I could not find anyplace it would connect too. I checked the manual and in 3 pictures I saw the hose coming off the carburetor but no mention of what it connected to.. I then puttered around the anchorage looking for a similar motor to mine. Damn all where newer than mine and the ones I looked at did not have the hose.

Arrrrgh. I found out that the lighthouse marina was a Yamaha Outboard dealer so I went over there. Hmmm not open on Saturdays but I found a guy who said he could look at the carburetor later today.

Hmmm what to do??? Without a dinghy things get real tough… I should have brought along a spare carburetor!!
Well this place is good to wait for repairs. I can easily row to the grocery store and to the Lighthouse marina. We will have to stay till the engine works again.

Well I went back over a little later and met the guy and surprisingly he immediately started working on it. After quizzing me on spark plugs and filters he removed the carburetor and took it to the shop. He tore it down in less than 5 minutes then soaked the parts in cleaner solution, blew it out with compressed air then reassembled. I thought cool but the engine would not start… He played with it then disassembled it part way and reassembled it then the engine would start. He took it out and ran it hard and adjusted the jets. Then he let me try it. WOW it really worked again..

My day improved or I should say my mood and outlook improved. I’ve had very little trouble—mechanical – on this trip and I was surprised at how low I felt when I couldn’t easily resolve the issue. You have to expect this sort of thing and be prepared and prepare for a wait most of the time. This time of rectification in the Bahamas is unheard of. I’m happy and planning to head to Little Harbour tomorrow. Ya Hooo.

Just Cooling our heels in Hopetown

Hey I apologize for yesterday’s picture. It is just too dark. It was dark but legible when I processed and unfortunately became darker after posting it. I’ll get another of the daily freighter here.

Not a bad day – a bit cool with the high only 67 degrees and very cloudy. Low was 60. There is a string of fronts coming right now so we will remain here till Sunday.

This is not a bad place to hang though. Most of today was spent reading and relaxing and recovery from the “Yellow Birds” we had last night over at Captain Jack’s Trivia contest. We didn’t do too well. Too many sports and music questions.

A N D I hate to say – spent another hour standing on my head looking for Karen’s jewelry again in the hole below the holding tank. We have done well to move it but this morning I needed so paper products from under the bed and I lifted the mattress and it upset the covering shelf and spilt her jewelry again. It was tough and we recovered all but one ring and I bloodied my hand in the process of contorting the vacuum hose in there. I know I know – fool me once shame on you and fool me twice shame on me – well that jewelry has a new home now – far far away from that “BLACK HOLE”.

On Fridays a local sport fishing boat comes into the Public dock at 3pm and sells fresh fish, conch salad, and other fare from the sea. We went over but nothing really looked that good to us.. The conch salad had way too much “Salad” and was practically green so I passed. I need to get back to Marsh Harbour for a real Conch fix!!

We walked the town some more and found some really cool lanes up high behind the public dock. These are full of very quaint cottages – probably original housing. It was very pretty but then you realize that they are all for rent.. What happened to the original owners?? Where do they live now?? Real Estate is big business here. To buy one of these properties here in Hopetown – a cool million or more!!

Not much planned for the evening. I need to find some ear plugs because Friday night is “MUSIC” night over at Captain Jacks. We don’t plan to go.

More Exploring Hopetown Abacos

Well another weather opportunity that did not meet the poor forecast. Don’t get me wrong – I like nice weather but when I’m paying for a mooring I like to know that I’m doing it for good reason. After 2 days here I’m staying because of the poor weather forecast which has not panned out. The wind has not been as strong and the torrential rains have not come. Well while staying trying to make the best of it.

It looked like poor weather this morning but then it turned into a fairly nice day.

Karen made 2 loaves of bread this morning – the first on this boat and it has turned out great. When was the last time you ate a crust of bread and had a beer for a snack?! Very good.

After lunch we went to town and walked down lanes and alleys we haven’t tried before. Very interesting in many ways and very depressing when we came across a very old unkempt cemetery.. I can’t believe they can have a cemetery on this island and not maintain it. Horrible. All head stones were defaced or destroyed, trees had grown up through grave sites then cut down leaving the stump in the grave, high growth, etc. It is a site of about 25 graves behind the public park/pool here.

I got a nice picture of the island hopping freighter than comes here every day around noon. This is how all goods arrive in Hopetown.

Not much else to report. The invasion of charter boats yesterday were very well behaved last night and all left this morning. I wonder where they went because a BIG blow comes here tomorrow or so it is forecast. We will probably leave after this next cold front passes through. Ohhh this is the one that is FREEZING you northerners. The high here tomorrow is expected to be 68 degrees after a low of 60 degrees tonight. Just might have to find some long pants tomorrow!!

Exploring Hopetown Lighthouse

Today was a day of discovery for us. The weather did not turn out as bad as forecast and the night was fine with just a light rain. No horrendous wind as predicted. However we cannot become too complacent because there is a series of cold fronts coming into the weekend so we might get some really bad weather yet – thus we will just remain here in this comfortable harbour of Hopetown.

After breakfast and Karen’s effort at making some home made bread we went to the lighthouse for a visit. It is really cool. It is open and the tour is self-directed. Just a book for guests to sign in and a place for donations. After that the Lighthouse is completely free to be explored except for the area around the fresnel lens. You can go all the way to the top and walk around the balcony around the light itself. No way you could do this in the USA!!!

We had a nice visit and some good pictures. It was overcast so the water below is not as beautiful as it can be in full sunlight.

After lunch we explored more of the town and just soaked in the aviance of this place. So many quaint cottages however most have been turned into rentals.

I downloaded a great book about the Bahamas and learned things that no current guide would ever discuss. Like back in 1905 when the study was done – Hopetown was full of mentally degenerated persons because of close intermarrying of relatives and there was a substantial population of leprosy here then too. None of that is visible today. It is very interesting reading and covers all of the Bahamas. Google it: The Geographical Society of Baltimore The Bahama Islands Edited by George Burbank Shattuck
Late this afternoon we were “invaded: by 5 Moorings charter boats of Israelis. Two have took moorings around us and they are bursting with folks aboard – six to 8 on 40 foot boats. I suspect there will be some partying in the harbour tonight. I know they are Israelis because they are all flying the same flag. Lord knows they need a vacation after what I have been reading sporadically in the USA Today.

Not much planned for this evening. Just hang out and enjoy Hopetown.

Enjoy the pics.

Just Lazy in Hope Town

We have had a fine lazy day here in Hope Town. Didn’t do much of anything.

We had a leisurely morning listening to the various radio nets, took a walk to town and visited both Vernon’s Grocery and the Harbour View Grocery and spent a sum total of less than 8 dollars. Stopped at the Lighthouse Liquor store and priced Kalik Gold – cheapest around at $48 a case so I bought one. Price and it was a short walk back to the dinghy.

We went to Captain Jack’s for lunch. I had the Fried Cracked Conch and Karen had a Cheeseburger – a ten dollar one!!

We saw SMILES come in and take a mooring so we gam’d with them awhile then back to Temptation for an afternoon of reading and watching for the Big Bad forecast cold front. Actually it has been a very nice day today with less than 15kts wind – sooo far.

One of the things we noticed last night over at Captain Jacks is Monday is a BINGO night during Happy Hour – we didn’t go but it sounded like fun. Tonight there is a game called “Cornhole” – Tic Tac Toe with bags of corn I guess -- I don’t think we will go because the weather is threatening now.

We have plans for tomorrow but tonight – just veg out I guess.

Wonderful Hope Town Abacos

Hope Town Abacos--- probably everyone’s favorite destination in the Abacos. We are here now --- for a while – maybe a LONG while…

The weather is taking a nasty turn this week with at least 2 strong cold fronts coming through – Tuesday and Saturday. I decided last night I needed a break from anchoring in a cold front with all the assorted worries so Hope Town was first choice followed by Man O War, then Marsh Harbour – a Marina.

We had a nice evening at Tahiti Beach last night – calm and peaceful. Good thing too. This morning we had drifted over our anchor and I noticed it was laying on its side with a big tuft of grass in its beak!! Boy that may have held against 1500 RPMs in reverse but a wind buffeting would have definitely dragged… I probably would have caught it earlier but I wasn’t worried last night. If I know a blow is coming I set the anchor at 1800 – 2000 RPMs. Big difference…

High tide was at 8:50am this morning so we left early to make it here on the rising tide near high tide. Hope Town is a tricky shallow entrance and you need help from the tide to get in. At low tide it is only 3.5 feet MLW and I draw 5.5 feet.

I’m on one of the Alley OOP moorings in front of Capt’n Jacks and the Harbour View Grocery. I see a lot of boat traffic but they are well behaved here.

Once we were settled in we went for a ride around the harbour to see who was here – Flash II from our days at the Bluff House is still here and plan to stay through these next 2 blows. Smiles is coming tomorrow and Mid Watch is at the Hope Town Marina with guests.

We had a nice lunch and have just relaxed here this afternoon. The sky is already threatening with the cold front a full day away!! We also had a short shower this afternoon and I put my bathing suit on and in the rain I scrubbed the deck of the boat – it has been looking pretty filthy here lately. Now waiting for a real downpour to wash the dirt and soap away now. Fresh water is precious here…

We can stay for many days because we just filled up on water and fuel yesterday. I think we may be here for nearly a week.

Gosh the ease we found moorings here sort of points to the low tourist traffic here in the Bahamas this winter. This mooring pool is usually very crowded and all moorings are normally full. We got here this morning and there were 12 empty ones. Now late this afternoon there are 2 empty and both are adjacent to me!! I hope my neighbors will not be boors.

Lubber Quarters -- land of "hard aground sailboats"

Boy Lubbers Quarters is shallow!! We didn’t bump but other boats were hard aground when we arrived at Tahiti Beach on Elbow Cay. We came down on a falling tide so I was alert. The path is pretty well mapped to Tahiti beach but becomes dicey south of there.

Tahiti Beach is okay but not really the spectacular vista as described in the Steve Dodge guide. However we did find several very small baby Conchs which we left in the water and an assortment of Starfishes of different size. The shelling here is nearly non existent. Ohh and on the plus side??!! Good internet WiFi.

We will see how it plays out this evening under the nearly full moon – should be beautiful with little light pollution.

Another lesson learned back at Marsh Harbour this morning. I wanted to get going early today to refuel and rewater the boat and leave while there was still about half tide but that didn’t happen. I hustled Karen to get the hook up by 9am but there was no one working at either Marsh Harbour Marina or Harbour View. I yelled at some folks on the dock at Marsh Harbour and they said it opens at 10am on Sunday. So we came in and took a place at the fuel dock. Then we learned it did not open to 11am!!! Well I still had plenty of fuel but we were down to 40 gallons of water. WHOA – Luna Sean only carried 34 gallons!!! Ohh well we stayed tied up and used the time judiciously to do some reading and figure out why the stop button in the cockpit no longer stopped the engine!!! I’ve been going below and working the fuel rack by hand to stop it.

Once the Dock master showed up he was about 50% there. Young guy who had really tied one on last night!! Glad those days are past me.

We took on 18 gallons of diesel in the main tank and 12 gallons in Jerry cans on the deck – there is a 10% discount for purchases over 25 gallons. Then filled the dinghy tank with 4 gallons of gas and about 140 gallons of water – ouch $26 dollars worth. But that is okay.. We haven’t bought water since we left the dock at GTC which was before New Years..

We have another strong cold front coming in Tuesday with weather deteriorating tomorrow night. Thus we need to find an all weather anchorage. Will try Hope Town in the morning – but if full then Man O War and if full then back to Marsh Harbour.