Soon to be Cruising

It is Sunday afternoon in Marsh Harbour and the wind is howling . The new plumbing for the intake valve for the water maker is done and the captain is very pleased. He has spent the day under the pullman berth and in the head doing plumbing. Last year we ran into problems getting seawater into the water maker system because our intake valve was rising above the water when we were out in much wave. When we are motor sailing is when we want to run the water maker so we knew that the intake needed to be changed...thus the new plumbing and the new placement of the valve. We will get to try out the new system tomorrow on our way to Lynyard Cay.

The picture of the dog is Oreo. She is the queen of the potcakes on Green Turtle Cay and all this she does while getting around on three legs. I walked with her on the beach last weekend and I couldn't keep up to her.

The pictures taken in the cockpit show our new BBQ. So far we are really pleased and we even cooked tortilla pizzas the other night and they were great. Peter and Lynn will be impressed with Celebrian's new jewellery!?

The weather has finally warmed up so that we are now able to shower in the cockpit as demonstrated by the captain. The wind is blowing 25-30 knots today but is expected to slowly go down tomorrow so we should be able to make our escape from Marsh. I am ready to leave the rake and scrape capital of Abaco....the evening entertainment one gets to listen to when one is trying to go to sleep. If it hadn't been so windy we might have considered joining the party; however the reason we are often anchored here is because we are in such a protected harbour.

We are ready to go cruising....clean and clear water, dolphins, quiet bays, snorkelling, swimming and physio exercises in the sunshine.... and oh yes....naked varnishing....what more could you ask for?

On the Waves Again

Today is the third day after our launch and the salon still looks like a bomb went off. The captain loves the process of getting Celebrian ready for another sailing season; however the admiral is not as enthalled with living in clutter and chaos. That being said I do understand that once he gets his tools out it doesn't much make sense to put them away so I take a deep breath and try and clean and organize around everything. Those of you who boat do understand the premise that in order to get at anything you have to move other things....thus the clutter and chaos. I, on the other hand am trying to organize the clutter and am doing inventory and cleaning lockers in preparation for provisioning. Rob has finished getting the batteries charged and is presently installing our new, albeit slightly dented BBQ. It is quite the luxury for Celebrian to have a marine stainless steel BBQ after 22 years with a table top one. Only my captain could keep a table top Bar-B going that long!?Last evening our dock mates, Brad and Karen on Moskoki and Scott and Mary Lynne on Zingarro, both couples from Ontario invited us over for a game of Mexican Dominoes. I had never played dominoes but this game was a lot of fun and boat sized. Both of these couples spend the winter in the Abacos at Treasure Cay. They enjoy golfing and use their boats more as cottages. As you know Rob and I enjoy getting away from it all, seeing new places and are happiest far from the madding crowd. That being said we never turn down a pot luck or happy hour!The weather is going to be cool all week but the winds are to settle down by mid week. We are planning on heading through the Whale and on to Marsh Harbour on Wednesday. Marsh Harbour is the third largest city in The Bahamas after Nassau and Freeport; however it only has a population of five thousand but it is the place to provision and pick up what you need. Once in the Exumas most of the settlements are less than a hundred people until you get to Georgetown with a population of around one thousand. We have just decided that we are going to leave the dock at high tide this afternoon and anchor off of New Plymouth for the night. That way if the weather is decent tomorrow we have the option of leaving for Marsh Harbour. Abaco Yacht Services is in Black Sound and we can only get in and out of the harbour at high tide. All sailing and anchoring decisions have to be based on both the weather and the tide levels. So...we have a couple of hours to get sea worthy enough to sail away.

Today is January 15th and we are anchored in Marsh Harbour. We spent the Monday evening anchored off of New Plymouth in Green Turtle Cay all by ourselves and left the next morning for Marsh Harbour. The Whale Cay passage had large ocean swells but was not a difficult sail. We stopped at Man O War Cay to drop off Celebrian's summer cover at the sail maker's. The cover had stayed on all this season but had suffered some damage. We had planned on staying the night anchored off of Man O War; however the wind picked up while we were in the settlement and we decided that a pitch poling evening was not what we wanted and left for the shelter of Marsh. The harbour which usually is quite full was not busy when we arrived; however we are expecting a cold front this weekend with possible gale force winds so boats are gradually coming in. Marsh Harbour is not one of my favourite places as it is often busy and loud and you can't swim; however for provisioning it is the only place to go. We have spent the last two days doing major provisioning. Picture loading your kitchen with enough food for the next three months and filling every nook and cranny with supplies. Then covering all the cupboards and drawers with pillows and covers and using the kitchen as your livingroom and then you will get some idea of what provisioning is like. It is not like we can't get food in the Exumas; however there is not a lot to choose from and the prices are even more outrageous than in the Abacos. So....we waddle out of the Abacos laden with dry goods, canned goods, as much fresh food as we can stuff in Celebrian's small fridge and as much meat as we can put in our one cubic foot freezer. It would be nice if we could supplement our food with fresh fish but we haven't proven to be the best fisher people so thank heavens for pasta!? The captain has managed to put five cases of 24 beer and four cases of 24 orange pineapple in the bilge....our boat cellar and the bathtub are filled with wine and water...the two other necessities of cruising.
You will remember from an earlier blog entry that we have had a broken foot pump in our galley. This has necessitated us living on jug water while the little gizmo that the captain stuck together with epoxy has had time to cure. Today the captain installed the little spring gizmo and so far so good. Now finally we were going to have our water system up and running but when the captain turned on the water pump we had no whirring noises. Obviously the water god just does not want us to have a water system. However my captain is always prepared and stowed away far in the nether reaches of the quarter berth was a spare pump. They sure don't make those pumps to last as Rob had replaced that water pump before we left Bayfield. Imagine if we had had to order the pump from the U.S. and wait for it to arrive in Marsh Harbour? Sometimes living on a boat can seem a little claustrophobic and especially when one is living in a sea of tools and spare parts but I continually remind myself that those tools and spare parts are what keeps us afloat.

Before we leave Marsh Harbour Rob has to fix our battery starter on our propane stove as well as move the water intake for our water maker. Once those jobs are done we will be in good shape to leave and as it turns out the weather may let us leave Monday. At the moment our plans will be to head south to Lynyard Cay to stage for our ocean crossing to Royal Island, Eleuthera. From there it is a day sail to the Exumas where we will meet up with First Edition.