Great Guana Cay, Bahamas

15 May 2012

Great Guana Cay

Although tired, last night was a busy night.  We were each up several times to check on our holding.  Fortunately, we had Fair Haven to our starboard with a very bright anchor light on and the winds were steady from the southeast.  Consequently, all of the visual signals were very simple, and mostly it was a restful, but VERY DARK night!  It was completely covered with clouds.

This morning, we slept in until 0800.  We were up ready to work on the wash.  Last night, I emptied the ice chest, and turned it in to our washing machine.  I added just a bit of laundry detergent, as recommended by our cruising friends, Barb and Doug Schindler. We put the sheets and pillowcases in the washing machine with about 8 gallons of water, then let it agitate all night with the natural movement of the waves and boat.  Renne has been busy keeping the interior clean, which can be quite a chore with me around.  I am grateful she cooks as well as she does!  Her meals are always welcome after working around the boat.

An hour after finishing the wash, this morning, and hanging it out to dry (remember the Beverly Hillbillies?) we had a light sprinkle.   

So with the wash almost dry, it will probably take another hour to dry now, but we will have “rain fresh” laundry, dried in natural sunlight.  Barb and Doug have been very helpful with this.  We use the same “Lake City Wringer” they use, although they have the room on their boat to leave the wringer in place most of the time.  We have ours attached to the Mast Pulpit.  With the round stainless bars, I have to make sure it is really well attached, or it moves as the wringer is turned.  We had a welder in Key West fashion new jaws for clamps and they work tolerably well. 

 We may have to make another arrangement when we get back to dry land, but for the moment, they work well.

Renne’ and I have been discussing our plans following the departure from the Bahamas.  We are tending toward going north instead of heading south to Key West.  But that decision has not been finalized.  We have been talking with Barb and Doug, and their plans are to move the boat from El Masnow in Barcelona, Spain westward toward Italy and perhaps Scicily.  We are contemplating meeting them during the end of July or early August again.  We will begin searching for Space A flights again in a few weeks.

We are hoping to pick up our granddaughter, Payton for part of the summer, and she will stay on the boat with us.  We are also planning a trip back to Houston, so we will do that when she is with us also.  She gets to see her sister, Zaley, while she is there and other family members she has missed.  I, of course get to see my daughter, Cami.

Have the GenSet running now. It recharges the batteries very efficiently.  While we are at it, we are replacing 20 gallons of water.  I like this.  We don’t have to worry about showers, laundry, dishes, cleaning, cooking, head useage, etc. while trying to conserve every drop of water on the boat.  The genset uses about .25 gallons of fuel per hour, so it is much more efficient than using the engine (1.0 gallons of fuel per hour). What it does do is give us an appreciation of how long we have to run the watermaker (HUMMMMMM noise in the background) for every gallon of water we do use. 

By 1200 we had motored in to the beach at Grabbers.   

Frankly, as much as people had talked about it, we found it a nice place, but a bit sterile.   

We tied the dinghy to a tree, and were glad we did.  We got to the beach at low tide, and by the time we got back at about 1700, the dinghy was floating and would have drifted away.  Others have an anchor, and I believe I will add that when we get to Treasure Cay tomorrow.

Bored with Grabbers, we were the first to leave to find Nippers.  It was not a long walk, but a couple streets away.  What 10 minutes.  When we got there, we realized why people really like Nippers.  It is on one of the most beautiful beaches Renne’ and I have ever seen!  

 It is also a party place, a lot like the Floribama in Orange Beach.   

This is a more beautiful view of the beach.  Renne’ got in the pool with Brenda and Vicki with their new shirts on for pictures.   

Renne’ headed for the beach later and nearly lost her footing when a wave hit her.  Funny!   

We had a great grouper sandwich which was very good.  So rather than hang around for the night, as thunderstorms were building, we headed back to the beach at Grabbers and headed back to the boat.

We settled in well, and slept without worry of dragging.