It comes in threes

March 30th, 2018.

It comes in threes.

You know the old saying that it comes in threes, well that definitely holds true for us.  We have been hanging out at Man Jack doing a lot of deep spring cleaning. Not much else to do with the high winds and cool weather, keeping the water temps to rough and cold for snorkeling.  We started in the V-berth and made our way to the back over about a seven day period.  We are even starting to get rid of old unwanted stuff, like stained old pillows, clothes that don’t fit, etc. Things have been going along just wonderful in our little world here, until today.  Friday morning, we started the generator, got the refrigerator and laundry going, had breakfast and then BAHM. NO WATER.  We already changed out our fresh water pump back in January and now the spare stopped working.  So we shut everything down and after about two hours of repairing the first pump, Kevin finally got a working pump.  Let’s pray it keeps working until we get home.  Then once he finished and the water was working, he turned on the generator, started the wash load again and the refrigerator and the BAHM NO GENERATOR.  So he goes back into the engine room and starts the usual check list.  The first item was possibly the fuel pump, change that.  Nope not that, the pump just keep sucking air through the line. Ok lets change the Raycor filter. Nope not that, still sucking air and no fuel.  So then he came out had a beer and we discussed all the possibilities.  He goes back in, puts the old fuel pump on. Nope. So maybe we are low in the tanks.  Go put 10 gallons in the tank, and some fuel to the pump. She starts up, then dies as soon as the fuel in the pump runs out.  WELL, he then traced the hoses and found one of the welded elbow in the main assembly system to allow us to switch from one tank to the other was lose.  Kevin then bye passed the valve and hooked the fuel pump up directly to the line running to the tank. After five hours in the engine room, everything is working. The following day my washing machine bit the dust.  The inner drum has completely come lose from the machine, so I have a load washed, not rinsed or spinned. This is definitely the worse week every.   Welcome to the life of boating, there is never a dull moment.

On the up side, we should have some warmer weather and calmer seas over the next few day and maybe get some snorkeling in.  Our friend Tom will be back next week and then we are going exploring to some of the islands we have never been to.  Until next time, happy sailing and fair winds my friends

Happy St. Patricks Day

March 17th, 2018

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Life goes on here in our little world of sailing the Abacos. We did cross back through the Whale pass with no issues, and we have been in Man Jack since then except for three trips to GTC (Green Turtle Cay).  Our first sail down was to renew our visa’s on the 6th, for another 90 day.  We are good until June 6th, then they will kick us out.  Just kidding, we will be back state side by then.  The weather that day was very calm, we anchored outside New Plymouth settlement and took the ferry to Treasure Cay and then a taxi to the immigration office and back again.  We were tempted to just dinghy over, but didn’t know if the winds would hold till we returned.  So this was my first ferry ride, very uneventful.  After immigration we did some shopping and then headed back to Man Jack, after checking on Tom’s boat.  While in Man Jack this past two week we have seen many beautiful and odd sights.  I have to say the oddest was a large catamaran (Place to Be) coming back from GTC towing two very large black drums.  Then once anchored two dinghy’s came out and retrieved the drums and towed them to the beach.  One of the dinghy companions, decided it would be fun to ride on top of the drums.  Both drums were black plastic for water storage, one was 1,000 gallons and the other was 500 gallons. It was quite entertaining for about an hour.  No one fell in.  Since then we have been snorkeling and finding new reefs that are just starting to develop.  The first trip out the water was to murky for photos. We hope this afternoon or tomorrow we can go back and get some photos.  On Man Jack there are six homes and two new ones being build.  We have met most of the owners and what a bunch of characters they are.  Several from Canada, one from Africa, England and two are natives.  Life here is much simpler and basically off the grid.  There is WiFi but all power and water is self made.  Lots of solar power and solar hot water sources, water is collected from the rains. So this time of year is very dry, and we have been trading water (that we make) for things like using a table saw to cut wood.  Everyone helps everyone. No backstabbing, complaining or negative gossip.  We even have movie night.  We load into Bill and Leslie’s center console and go to GTC, where one of the locals has a big projector screen outside and everyone comes by dinghy with chairs to sit on or golf carts.  We all bring our own drinks and popcorn and watch a movie.  

The down side is the high pressure systems that blow through about once a week and everyone scatters to there little holes and marina’s , then they all come back when its calm.  One of the locals here is taking Kevin diving/snorkeling after this next front passes and they are going out on the reef to show him how to spear fish and lobster.

Life is grand here and we will hate to leave at the end of April.  But we have definitely made this our second home.  Until next time.  Fair winds and happy sailing my friends