Marsh Harbour, Abacos: Ready ... Set ... Wait!

Jan 2-9 – Marsh Harbour, Abacos: Ready … Set … Wait!


With Anneke and Eli due to arrive in Marsh Harbour mid-February, we decided we would head south to Eleuthra and the Exumas for about six weeks, then come back and resume visiting the southern Abacos with them.

General Plan:
Green Turtle Cay (Abacos) to Marsh Harbour (Abacos) to Little Harbour (Abacos) to Royal Harbor (Eleuthra) to the Exumas

To go south from Green Turtle Cay, you must go from the Sea of Abacos into the Atlantic Ocean around Whale Cay, then back into the Sea of Abacos.  The conditions at the Whale are a determining factor in whether or not it is safe to make this trip.   We had been watching the weather and looking for the earliest opportunity after the 1^st, which happened to be the 2^nd!   As we shall see, favorable conditions do not always come so fast ...


Just for fun, before we leave Green Turtle Cay, below is Aviva in her slip at Bluff House Marina, more or less at high tide.  You get onto the boat by grabbing the piling and stepping UP.

Aviva in her slip at Bluff House, Green Turtle Cay, around high tide

 Below is Aviva around low tide. Whoa! Step DOWN!!!

Aviva in her slip at Bluff House, Green Turtle Cay, around low tide

Isn't it interesting and also kind of bizarre to think of your home rising and falling 4 feet twice a day?!? Just think of the implications for the lines!  They have to be tight enough to keep the boat oriented in the slip and prevent it from hitting the pilings or the dock … but slack enough that they do not suspend the boat when the water drops 4 feet or hold it down when the water rises.  The trick here is the angle of the lines.  For a piling off the stern quarter, bring a line from the midships cleat.  As the boat rises and falls, the angle of the line changes maybe 30 degrees from high to low tide, with relatively little impact on the slack/tension in the line at mid-tide, whereas a shorter line from the aft cleat to the piling cycles from nearly straight up to nearly straight down, with 2 extra feet of slack at mid-tide.  In Georgia, there are many places with 7-foot tides!

Anyway … on Thursday, January 2, 2014, the wind was in the low teens from the south to southwest, favorable for the Whale.  With another strong cold front due around dawn on Friday, Jan 3, we seized the day for a hop south to Marsh Harbour, which has 360 degree protection, great for a cold front when the winds clock around.  We got going about 8 am, stopped at Green Turtle Club Marina for fuel, then headed out.  Kilissa and Te Amor were ahead of us making the same run, Four Aces behind us.  The conditions at the Whale were such that, as Jan from Te Amor announced on the VHF to anyone who was considering the Whale that day, “you could do it on a shingle.”  Below is a picture of the Whale as we went through.

The Whale Cut on a calm day

Once through the Whale, we sailed to Marsh Harbour on a close reach, and were anchored there by 1 pm – setting the anchor in preparation for the expected blow from the NW/N.  Woo hoo! We hopped in the dinghy and scooted in to see Marsh Harbour.  Fred hit the marine/hardware stores and Dorothy tried to find internet accessible to the laptop.  Neither OII (Out Island Internet) nor Bahamas Wimax worked for us, on land or at the boat, so internet was tabled for the next day.  Happily, however, we found the Island Bakery, stocking freshly-baked coconut bread … a Bahamas delight that threatens to undo the weight loss we achieved in the fall!!

Friday, Jan 3 – The strong cold front due this morning was on the horizon to the north when we got up:

Cold front bearing down

Cold front looming

Squall line coming toward us

Squall overtaking the bay

The front passed with a good bit of wind, but not much rain, and by afternoon, we were ready to get out and about.  We headed into town again for grocery, more coconut bread (!), and internet at the library.  The latter was not to be.  Below is the Marsh Harbour Library … unfortunately for the internet quest, only open on Wednesdays and Thursdays.  In the Bahamas, buildings are colorful!

Marsh Harbor Community Library

However, we did stumble across conch being sold out of the back of a pick-up truck!  We bought six, which seemed like a modest enough purchase given that we saw someone else buy 21, but cruising friends have told us we bought a lifetime supply.  First we have to figure out how to prepare it, then we'll see!

Below is a photo summary of how the conch is removed from the shell and trimmed.  The fellow selling it was very gracious in allowing me to photograph every step.  My great thanks to him and my equally great apology for forgetting his name!!

The white pick-up -- conch!

Only a few of the shells on the far left still have conch in them

First you put a hole in the shell in just the right place with the hammer claw

Then you use a skinny knife to cut the tissue holding the conch to the shell

Extraction of the conch

Trimming the unwanted parts

Left hand holding what you keep

Eventually we found that for a small purchase like a fruit punch we could use the internet at Snappas.  It's not that we are addicted to the internet (ya, right!), but we were eager to get our very overdue St Marys to Green Turtle Cay blog posted – which we did!  We also have to look up conch recipes!!

Saturday, Jan 4 – We were now looking for two days, adjacent or not too far apart, when we could get down to Little Harbor (about 25 nm) and then down to Royal Harbor on Eleuthra (about 55 nm). With winds still strong from yesterday's cold front (ENE 20 gusting to 25), and Sunday supposed to be S to SE 20-30 and squally, today wasn't the day to go, and tomorrow wouldn't be, either.  We decided to work on trouble-shooting our automatic bilge pump, which had stopped working abruptly on Dec 16.    The automatic bilge pump is activated by a float switch.  When cruising, checking the bilge is a regular part of our routine as we get ready to go.  On Dec 14, when Dorothy lifted the float switch, the bilge pump worked (it drained the small sump area of the bilge as usual).  On Dec 16, when Dorothy lifted the float switch, nothing happened.  Arg!!

The automatic bilge pump is paired with a second bilge pump that can be activated by a switch on the breaker panel, which still worked, so it wasn't like we were without a bilge pump.  (There is also a manual bilge pump at the helm station in the cockpit.)  However, if we were off the boat, or asleep, or didn't realize there was water in the bilge, this bilge pump would not be activated.  We really needed to get the issue with the automatic bilge pump figured out.

We got out the voltage tester that Dorothy's brother Chuck had carefully instructed us in using when he and Sally visited us on the boat in late August.  (And that made us think again of Sally's banana bread and fresh salsa, too – yum!!!)  We used the tester (Multimeter) to figure out that the float switch worked (seeing that the resistance was infinite when the float was down, 0 when raised).  But we found some odd voltage values across wires in the vicinity.  We hot-wired the pump and found that it worked OK.   So the problem must be in the wiring or connections in between.... We checked voltages at various butt connectors and found that there was juice  (12 volts) past the float switch, but we could not find where it was lost after that.  From the float switch to the pump the wires went all the way to the panel, then back to the pump, a lot of ground to cover.  After remembering to turn the multimeter off, we resolved to ask other cruisers  - - they had recommended for an electrician in Marsh Harbour, then headed over to Snappa's for some fruit punch and internet.  There were a bunch of cruisers we knew just gathering there for dinner, and they invited us to join us, which we did!  And got two offers of help trouble-shooting the next afternoon!

Sunday, Jan 5 – Cam from Te Amor and Richard from Kilissa spent the afternoon on the boat reviewing the trouble-shooting we had done and taking it to the next level.  In the course of that, we learned a lot more about the system, including that both pumps run together, for both manual and auto switch mechanisms, which we hadn't realized.  Dorothy fed us all smashed fish, using leftover grouper and the other ingredients specified by Richard's wife, Carol.  Just as dusk was nearing, Richard and Fred narrowed the issue down to this circuit's pin cell in a block in the panel, which had gotten corroded.  When Fred and Richard bypassed that, the pump worked again, via the float switch.  WOO HOO!!!  Fred put all the connections that had gotten torn apart in the trouble-shooting back together, and we looked forward to Richard's return on Monday to do a final review and resolve.

It turned out that the weather was not nearly as bad as predicted … but no way to have known that ahead of time, and in any case, resolving the issue with the automatic bilge pump was a great coup!

Monday, Jan 6 – The winds were SW 10-15, a mild day, but due to clock around during the day in advance of another, even stronger, cold front due around sunset.  Some cold fronts have strong winds ahead of them; this one was to have strong winds behind it, out of the N/NE and accompanied by rain and squalls gusting over 30 through Wednesday.  Then Thursday through Saturday it was supposed to blow out of the SE, also strong but gradually moderating – none of which was good for heading to Little Harbor and Eleuthera.  The waiting game continues!

Richard came back in the morning, and he and Fred wired a connection bypassing the bad cell in panel block.  YEAH!!!

Fred and Richard zeroing in on the problem

Bilge pump hoses, filters, and pumps (partial view) 

The bilge, with test water in the sump area, float valve next to pot

For electrical geeks:  One of the confounding things was that although 12 volts was measured through the faulty connection, apparently the corrosion was such that it could not carry the current needed to run the pumps through the float switch.  Voltage and current are not the same!  Richard, thank you for sticking with us and helping us finally fix it!

 We invited Richard and Carol for dinner, and Dorothy scooted over to Snappa's for some fruit punch, unfortunately missing a late afternoon visit from John and Marlene of Four Aces.  (I know, it seems like the internet is an obsession!  But, with helpful info from some cruisers Chris and Paul of Two C's at dinner Saturday night, Dorothy did make great headway on getting our health insurance figured out on the Vermont Health Exchange.)  Dorothy made taco salad for dinner, which was completely consumed, so apparently was tasty enough.  The cold front kindly held off until midnight, but when it came, it was quite strong indeed, making for a sleep-poor night.

Tuesday, Jan 7 – As predicted, plenty of wind and rain today.  Fred went to Maxwell's (grocery) to stock up on some things we wanted to have on board for heading south (thinking that might be Thursday???), and also hit Island Bakery for some more coconut bread!  Dorothy spent the day at Snappa's drinking a lot of fruit punch and getting internet stuff done, such as putting Navionics Caribbean charts on both the iPad and iPhone.  The connectivity wasn't very good, and everything was s … l … o … w …. bound to happen sometimes.

Wednesday, Jan 8 – Even more wind and rain today – in the mid-20's all day, and rain in squalls off and on all day.  Really a day you would not want to be sailing.

Another squally day

But tomorrow could be a possibility ... wind ESE would be OK, though it's supposed to be rainy ... and the Friday is supposed to be ESE also ... kind of on the nose, maybe a motorsailing day.  Maybe!

Fred hadn't gotten to chat much with Chris and Paul of Two C's the other night, so we had them over for breakfast today: French toast with Vermont maple syrup, bacon, and fresh mango.  We should have company more often!!  Chris and Paul are new to cruising, too, having just set out in September.  It was fun comparing notes on outfitting, routes, and plans.

After Chris and Paul left, we pored over this morning's weather forecast for the next few days, with our charts, chartbooks, and cruising guides, trying to figure out when we might be able to move. Tonight we expect even stronger squalls overnight; as I write this, they are indeed materializing.  Tomorrow is still supposed to be rainy, 70%, with wind any direction but west, and speed anywhere from light and variable to squalls blowing 30-35.  Not a pleasant day! Friday – SE 12-20 – which would be on the nose and is the wind direction that creates dangerous conditions at the Little Harbor Cut – not to mention the sea state given the very strong winds we've had for the last 48 hours.  Saturday – ESE to SE to SSE 18-25 and gusty – hard on the nose and strong.  Sunday – clocking around for another cold front, this one a dry one, that will blow NW, fail, regress and return twice before it pushes through on Tuesday.  The strong hope was tomorrow, but it's really not clear when we'll be able to move.  Are we just too picky or what?  Stay tuned; at this rate we may still be in Marsh Harbour when Anneke and Eli get here!

Meantime, another boat system that has not been working is the macerator in the forward head.  Fred had made a repair to that system in Charleston, reconnecting the take-up tube in the holding tank, which had come completely unattached.  Unfortunately, the macerator still didn't pump out the tank.  The pump would whir, but there was no grinding and no output.  Most likely culprit was the impeller.  We have been carrying around a full holding tank in the forward head since before we left the US.

One of Fred's acquisitions in Marsh Harbour was a replacement macerator pump – no macerator pump rebuild kit was available.  Today was the day to tackle that! Fred found an issue with the current macerator pump, that it was largely blocked by the material used to seal it.  He removed that material, tested, and still got whirring with still no output.  So he installed the new pump, tested, and VOILA!!  We have maceration!  Next time we go offshore, we will be able to macerate the holding tanks of both heads.  We are back in business!!!

New macerator pump, installed in forward head

Thursday, Jan 9 -- Winds 12 from the east this morning ... tomorrow supposed to be ESE ... looking good ... oh wait ... what's that we're hearing ... ocean inlet "rage" conditions at the Little Harbor Cut, which we would need to go through tomorrow morning ... that's not good ... 6 foot breaking waves, white water through the cut ... uh ... nope, not going today.  And with today's wind, tomorrow won't be any better at the cut.  Oh well!!  Off to do laundry, grocery shop, and get some fruit punch at Snappa's!  Cruisers potluck at the Jib Room tonight ... we can't complain!

We are thinking of everyone back home who is dealing with frigid cold.  We saw the other day that every state in the continental US had temperatures below freezing, many places well below zero, and that the cold was setting records some places.  And now we hear that thawing temperatures are coming, with threats of flooding.  ARG!!!!  Here, although the cold fronts are bringing very strong winds that are keeping us from moving, that can't really be considered a hardship, and the coldest temperatures we have seen here is mid-60's.  Our thoughts are with you all!!!!