January 25, 2023
After arriving in Freeport on Saturday, we took the day to clean the boat a bit and then Don went for a 90km bike ride while Jinhee made friends.
We spend a lot of time talking about how to pass the time now that Jinhee is onboard full time (if I was more awake, I would consider how to use the word ‘time’ less in that sentence … sorry). The hurry can mostly come out of our plans. I am giving the boat a lot more attention, while Jinhee is keeping up with professional matters and turning the boat into a home. One outcome is that we are trying not to be constrained by schedules.
While we did have a slip at Grand Bahamas Yacht Club, we wanted to get to the Berry Islands and find a quiet anchorage and relax. So Sunday morning we slipped the lines off the cleats and off we went. Into 3-5 foot head seas and 18-35 knot winds. That wasn’t the forecast . . .
We decided to keep going just the same and we arrived at Big Stirrup Cay around 5pm and dropped anchor. We were a little worse for wear, but sometimes that happens when travelling by boat. Those winds (above forecast) meant the anchorage was a bit rocky … and still we managed to sleep well.
On Monday we continued to Soldier Cay, about 25 miles south and tried to tuck in there for a few days. Turns out the wind was from the north and north east, and the anchorage was even more rolly. Even with our passive stabilizer out it was still bumpy. (The stabilizer is amazing though and takes out most of the roll, but not the pitching.)
By this morning, we decided that we would head to Eleuthera. Having never been to Eleuthera, it would be nice to see a new place and the southwest side is quite protected. A good night at anchor is the goal. So we pulled up the stabilizer and the anchor and off we went.
Seas were, again, on the nose, but the waves were more spaced out and we were not pushed around as much. After 10 hours we arrived at Royal Island where we will stay for a day or two and finish some projects, take a few phone calls and hopefully have some calm waters to swim and work in.
So what’s up with that? Well, Jinhee’s day to day work is done but she does have some professional responsibilities just the same and there are a lot of phone calls to be joined.
My ‘work’ isn’t so important. We started a number of projects in the USA before we left and I have to finish them. One of the key items is cleaning the bottom of the boat. It’s pretty dirty with sea life and I will use my new hookah dive system to get under there and clean up.
I also worked with Chris Hale at Colonial Metalworks to get a bike rack made for the dinghy. It looks awesome, but I have yet to install it. It will make it much easier to transport my bike to and from shore and will also probably carry a grocery bag or snorkelling gear pretty well also.
Finally, I have a couple of new solar panels that need to be properly installed. I have the mounts on board, but I need to do some work to install them.
Over the next week or so, it should all come together, but there is still much to do, and we need to stay put, get some good weather and get to work.
More photos will be forthcoming as we progress. It has been to windy for the drone but it is beautiful here. For now we are well underway and will post more as we see things of interest.
Living the dream !