January 2009

The turn of the New Year saw us in company with Moondance (Sabre 38) and Onward (Catalina 47) bent on heading south from the Abacos towards the Exumas. We made it as far as Little Harbour where at 06.00 our windlass failed and Moondance had persistent salt water leaks from her engine cooling. We realised that further south would mean less help so we reluctantly returned to Marsh Harbour and a berth at the Conch Inn Marina.
The windlass is located in a locker forward of our v-berth and fastened to the under side of the deck at arms length - and it weighs 28lb! It took a long while to dismantle the old windlass because of age and corrosion. The gearbox had died and when I opened the motor casing it was full of gear oil. New Year is not a great time to find spares!

Using Muir in Australia we located the right agent in the USA and Chip from IMTRA was kind enough to help with parts supply. It took 24 hours to FedEx the parts but the Bahamas now charge 45% duty - Ouch! It took two days to complete the windlass refurbishment and then only with lots of support ropes and me getting both arms and head an shoulders into the locker - another ouch! Moondance replaced her raw water pump and we were good to go again when the weather co-operated.
We visited Hope Town by ferry while waiting for parts and this time managed to visit the lighthouse. The trick is to ask the ferry to drop you and pick you up again as there is no road there. The lighthouse itself represents the best of British engineering of the period with a paraffin lamp (kerosene) and a rotational mechanism that moves with just the slightest accidental touch despite the immense weight of the lenses.

We had a great day out in Hope Town and a leisurely lunch by the water with an opportunity to feed the hundreds of hungry snappers who know when the cafe is full of people.
Our work completed we set out for Exuma Park over three days via Royal Island, Current Cut, Pineapple Cays and Cape Eleuthera. Arrival was timed well to get just ahead of a series of aggressive cold fronts coming south from the USA and the extreme cold on the E Coast.

We have really enjoyed coming to the Park again despite the bad weather. The highlight of a long day hiking was undoubtedly the local waterspout. This formed about 100ft or so behind our boat and lasted for about 15 minutes during which it travelled about a quarter of a mile before dying out over one of the islands. These are nowhere near as dangerous as tornados, lifting fish not cows!