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April 19, 2016
We tried to pick up Mr. Parker's Weathercast this morning with no luck. There is too much interference here in civilization. I try to pick up his webcast but or current operating system is not compatible so I decide to update to Windows 10. I start on the boat and load to 16%. Then go to Starbucks and load to 67%. We then go to Dairy Queen for lunch and are back at square one. We stay there until 14:00 and get fully loaded. We then go back to the boat to install it on our computer. Another two hours back at the boat for the installation. After the instillation was complete, I got a pop up from Microsoft asking me how did I like the installation…. I was ready to kill something. I was able to bring up Mr. Parker's webcast after the upgrade. Yea!
I got a call from our financial advisor about two weeks ago but only got the message this weekend so I finally called him back. He wanted to make some changes to our portfolio but needed signatures to get the changes done. He sent us e-mails and messages with passwords to handle the transactions. After a few phone calls and a couple of hours we were done. We are doing quite well with our investments so far.
We sit down and review the weather reports trying to decide when we can head for Spanish Wells. I would like to get out of Nassau as soon as possible. We will see what tomorrow brings.
April 20, 2016
The weather does not look favorable for leaving today. Looking east we can see white caps rolling in from the direction we need to go.
We went for a walk to the Queens Staircase. We had been up there before, twice, but somehow had missed the staircase. It was worth the walk. The staircase is cut back into the rock about 50 yards. Then you do the climb to the top. We then walked down the trail beside it and into town. We were hungry so we headed to the Green Parrot for lunch. We sat right by the boats in the marina and had our lunch out in the sun. It was a bit cool in the shade.
We went back to the boat and I got into the engine compartment to fill the hydraulic steering fluid reservoir. The top of the reservoir is four inches below the ceiling on top of the steering pump. No way can you see it from where you are sitting under it, so I use a mirror to see what I am doing. I take a 5 ml syringe and use it to fill the reservoir which is down about 100 ml. I am having a hard time seeing what I am doing so I try to wedge a flashlight in the right spot to see. The flashlight falls, hits the oil container, and knocks it into my lap. I am covered with oil. Great.
I clean up the mess and find another spot for the flashlight. After another half an hour the reservoir is filled. Now it is time for a shower.
April, 21, 2016
The weather is still not good for heading to Spanish Wells. Maybe we should just bite the bullet and do an overnighter to the Abacos.
We went over to Starbucks for coffee and internet. We then went to the grocery store for meat and bread. The rest of the day we chilled on the boat. We did leave the boat after dinner to go to Dairy Queen for some ice cream. Yum.
April 22, 2016
The winds are supposed to be out of the east southeast at 14 this morning. We are headed northeast which should give us enough to sail to Spanish Wells. We pay our bills and head out. The winds are blowing 18 knots out of the east. We head out hoping that the winds will shift once we clear New Providence Island. We are pounding into it taking water over the bow a good deal of the time. We start out doing about five knots. After an hour and a half we are now down below four knots. I finally tell Karen we need to head back this is not going to work. She wants to press on so we wait another ten minutes. No change but the seas are getting bigger. It was time to turn around. We are now doing better than 7 knots.
So we checked out with harbor control when we left, now we check back in. This is the first time ever they give us a traffic report. Hum?
We go back to the marina and tie up for another day.
I watch the winds all day but they do not abate until 16:00. How frustrating. We head over to the grocery store in the evening to pick up dinner. We buy a rotisserie chicken and potato salad and head back to the boat to eat.
Maybe tomorrow we will have better weather.
April 23, 2016
Chris Parker tells us the thunderstorms should stay north of our travels so we head out. We check out with harbor control and head for Porgee Rock. Once there we head north through the reefs and islands until we are clear for a course to Spanish Wells. The winds are blowing eight to ten knots out of the southeast. We set our sails and motor sail for most of the day. We do put out our fishing lines but never get a nibble.
The crossing is uneventful and we bring in our lines when we get about ten miles from Spanish Wells where the water begins to get shallow. The waters we are traversing run down to 10,000 feet deep. When we get into waters less than 50 feet we pull in our lines. The shallow water is barracuda country. We don't eat barracuda.
We head towards Spanish Wells and dodge the coral as necessary. We head for a spot on Russel Island one mile west of the entrance. This will help keep us in deeper water. Once we are near Russel Island we skirt the coastline keeping us in six plus feet of water. If we went directly in there are spots where the depths hit five feet at mean low tide. Too shallow for us.
We arrive at the channel without touching bottom. We enter the channel and navigate ourselves to the Spanish Wells Harbor Marina where a deckhand is there to help us tie up. We tie up on the inside of the T-dock.
The place looks great! Last time we were here this place was a dump. The docks are all new. There are about five new buildings on the site. There is new shrubbery on the grounds. There is even a new pool. Nice.
We use their new huge showers to clean up and then head to the Shipyard to get their specialty drink the shipwreck. On our walk to the Shipyard we run into a couple from S/V Aurora (Gary and Charlene) who is docked near us in the marina. They tag along with us to the Shipyard to have drinks. We order shipwrecks all around. We had these drinks two years ago and loved them. We are here to steal the recipe. When we get our menus, the recipe is on the drink menu. Ok, the stealing will not be that hard.
The drinks were strong and we ordered two. It was happy hour and the drinks were two for the price of one. We had dinner and Aurora had appetizers. They headed back to their boat and we went and walked the town.
April 24, 2016
We got up and decide to walk the beach. We headed north on 14th Street until we hit the beach and then headed west. It was high tide and we had to do some dancing around the waves to keep from getting wet. Some of the houses' seawalls come right up to the water. We walked to the end of the island and then walked the road along the canal back to the marina.
We plan to leave and sail to the Abacos tomorrow morning. We decide to just chill by the pool and read our books. We set up our chairs and move an umbrella to keep us in the shade. We chill and read.
After a while a trimaran comes in. Karen sees that they are docking in the spot next to us. They should be on the outside T-dock, not next to us. I can see they only have about two feet of room to clear us and begin to drift towards our hull. I give a shout and run over to fend them off. They finally get control of their boat and I can go back to relaxing.
I stop by Aurora and we chat about our plans. He says that he is going to head over to Royal Island so he can get an early start from there. The marina office does not open until 8:00 am so that means we could not leave until about 8:30. That is a late start. I talk to Karen and we decide to leave today from the marina and head over to Royal Island so that we can get an early start tomorrow.
We make the short run over to Royal Island and drop the hook in the little bay there. There are already four other boats in the bay. Royal Island is also another island that claims that Christopher Columbus landed on their island first.
By the evening there are now 12 sailboats in the harbor. Just at dusk one of the big 100 foot charter yachts pulls in and drops his anchor right in front of us. I notify him that I am right behind him and he has no room to move back. He tells me he will drop there and we agree he is ok where he is at. I leave to visit Aurora and on return find him anchored right on top of us. If the winds shift as predicted he will slam right into us. We pull anchor and move away so there is no collision. These young pup captains have no respect for others.
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