Thunderball
As is common place, better than half our day yesterday was spent doing miscellaneous boat chores. The first on the list was repairing the leech cord on our Genoa (large head sail). A leech cord, for those who aren’t familiar with it, is a drawstring of sorts that allows you to tension the rear edge (leech) of the sail. It is attached at the top and runs down inside the sail material to be fixed again at the bottom corner (clew) of the sail. Unfortunately, when our sail ripped on our spreaders during our gulf stream crossing, the cord also chafed through without our realizing it and Rebecca patched the sail without dealing with it. How to fix it? Imagine how you would feed a lost drawstring through a pair of pants. Now imagine doing that through a pair of pants that are made with several layers of very heavy material that are about 40 feet wide! That’s pretty much what we had to do. That and of course, some more patching, sewing both with our sewing machine (it rocks!) and also a bit by hand.
In addition to sail repair, I also jumped in the water to scrape off the barnacles that have taken up residence on the lower unit of our outboard engines. Although we retract the engines up out of the water when not motoring, there is still a small part of them that trails in the water. This is seemingly a desirable place for barnacles to hang out. They are tenacious little buggers and it took some work with a metal scraper to get them off.
Even though the water here is so chilly that we see most people snorkeling with wetsuits on, we couldn’t leave here without first experiencing Thunderball Grotto, made famous in the James Bond movie Thunderball and also later seen in the movie Splash. At low (slack) tide, when we visited it, you don’t even need to put your head under the water to get inside the cave although we are told that that would be a bit different at high tide. The countless little fish curiously swim all around you as you explore the large cave. It is truly a cool experience.
As I expected would happen, 6 other boats have come to join us in this anchorage and every boat has moved out of the exposed anchoring area by pig beach. The winds are supposed to clock to the west today, building to 20-25 knots with squalls possible overnight containing 30-35 knot winds. It looks like we’ll be hanging out here for at least another day or so and we’re cool with that, except that we are now unfortunately on a little bit of a schedule. When we cleared in to the Bahamas back in Bimini, we were only given a 30 day cruising permit (although many others were randomly given longer stays depending on which port they cleared in to). We can have our permit extended but we need to be in Georgetown before the 18th to make that happen. Fortunately that isn’t more than a few easy days of travel from here (or 1 very long day).
Note: Sorry for posting 3 entries all at the same time. We are sitting in a restaurant having breakfast and taking advantage of the area’s non-free internet. Sadly we can’t access it, or any other signals, from where we are anchored. By the way, the dinghy ride to the restaurant this morning was “exciting!” 🙂
With cold and miserable weather your postings and photos have made my day – they are great – almost feel like I’m there. Pigs are interesting. Pigs fly and pigs swim! Thanks agin!!!!!
🙂
Wow! Awesome pictures. Looks like those tropical pictures we’ve been waiting for!
Exactly!
No apologies are required! I am glad you guys are having fun and making the most of it.
Thanks Jim!
M & R
Great photos (underwater ones are great)……What camera are you using for the under water shots? Are you using just one or two cameras? Get the extention and continue to enjoy the Bahamas………..No rush mon!
Thanks John!
re: Camera:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001SER460?ie=UTF8&tag=zertocru-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001SER460
We also have a much more expensive canon 30D but it seldom comes out to play.
#1 I am now officially jealous.
#2 What camera are you using underwater?
#3 Do you bring your laptop back and forth to shore in the dink? How do you protect it?
1. You’ve already been here, done that, so you can’t be jealous!
2. Camera:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001SER460?ie=UTF8&tag=zertocru-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001SER460
3. Laptop in sealed dry bag. That dry bag inside another sealed dry bag. Those dry bags inside a backpack.
Awesome pictures guys, what type of camera did you use?
As per the movie, “thunderball”, did you see any “golden grotto sharks, the fiercest, the most dangerous”…as spoken by Largo in the movie?
Sharks? Negative. Fortunately.
Camera:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001SER460?ie=UTF8&tag=zertocru-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001SER460
What a beautiful place! Pigs swim for the same reason we do–to cool off! That’s also why they wallow in mud. They really like being clean.
I think perhaps I’ll try the mud thing next time I’m really hot. I hear it’s good for your complexion too. 😉
Great, Great Pictures. Can not wait for Summer. Your pictures help tho. Thanks Mike, You
two are doing a Bang up job with this blog. Have fun, JC
Thanks JC!
Glad you’re following along.
Speaking of boat chores, I seem to remember you had problems with your solar charger after your crossing of the gulf stream, but I can’t recall any updates on a repair. Did I miss it, or is it still on the list? Lyndsay
Ummm… blown fuse. I replaced the 10 amp (left there from when there was only the old panels in the circuit) with a 20 amp. All fixed. 🙂
OK now I am really jealous…I mean really happy for you guys :). About 6 inches of snow outside and minus 10 or so. The pics are wonderful (especially the underwater ones)!!! I have now decided rather than counting down the years until we set sail I’ll count the months. Maybe scratch them in the wall in my office like they do in prison. Living vicariously like many of your followers and once I pay off my Xmas bills I’ll send a donation if you promise to use some of it for a rum punch with freshly grated nutmeg and toast us Cold Canadians.
Hmmm… that sounds great! I mean the rum punch, not the snow and freezing weather. Sorry guys. 🙂
Hmmm… that sounds great! I mean the rum punch, not the snow and freezing weather. Sorry guys. 🙂
By the way, if you do start making prison marks in your office, I want a pic of that!