Georgetown Passage – Day 2, Part VI, 01-05 through 10-07-09

We left you with us swinging on our anchor, secure in our deep-water
location in an area rife with water which disappears at low tide,
sometimes.
The prior weather reports had suggested we should leave Monday night
in order to make our best passage to Georgetown, but I got up early to
check in with Chris Parker, our weather guru, anyway. His most
current report suggested it was still the best time to go, but it
would be a very close reach, with us going as far out as possible and
keeping as close-hauled as we could all the way, in order to moderate
the wind’s shifting from just slightly north of east to somewhat south
of east. As it was forecast to be stiff enough to suggest it, with
our forward motion adding to the speed in the close reach or beat, we
resolved to put in a reef before we left.

However, the day was perfect for the remainder of the polishing-up
which Lydia and her Mom couldn’t reach so I rigged up my bosun’s
chair, using the preventer with its 4-1 purchase to hoist myself. I
attached the clam-cleated end, alternately, to the prior dinghy lift
attachment points (we’d had to move our blocks inboard as the new
dinghy wasn’t as wide as the one on which I’d drawn my specs for the
arch construction) and two places under the arch. Hoisting myself
provided a firm platform in each location and I finished off the arch
and the solar panel frame in short order. The stainless there hasn’t
looked that good since the day we bought it!

We’d wanted to take Portia over to the tiny island so she could do
some un-leashed wandering around, and this would be the last chance –
so we took it :{)) We also took along the Joy, for a salt water bath,
and a good time was had by all. As the sun was heading south (well,
further under, to the west), we headed back to the boat. While Lydia
did dinner, I put the dinghy to bed in its hoist and straps
arrangement I’d worked out to keep it snug and free from swinging.

The day we hurried ashore to give the charts to McDuff’s, as I went to
start the engine, the recoil starter took a vacation. It started by
not pulling at all, so I pulled off the cover to investigate, and,
while the cause of the initial lockup wasn’t evident, when I pulled
the cord, it came out, but didn’t return.

Thank goodness (see one of my other signature lines about problems
delivering gifts, now at the bottom of this post) that didn’t happen
on our return, because, being at the boat, Lydia was able to fetch a
line that I could use to manually start the engine – we’d have been
out of luck ashore! That line will remain in the little seat cubby
aboard for future difficulties, but, reinforcing the “Cruising is boat
repair in exotic locations!” truth, I’ll have to take the top end of
the engine apart to see if I can repair it, or if I’ll have to get the
folks who are flying to Georgetown to bring me the replacement part.
That will be one of my 1-2-3’s on Tuesday.

That’s because…

We’d planned to leave slightly before dark, following the narrow
channel out to the Exuma Sound. Unfortunately, earlier, I’d regarded
the slack water in the current we’d seen that morning as the break in
the tide. Instead of high tide being about 3 in the afternoon, it had
been nearly 1PM. Accordingly, we got about 200 yards north of where
we’d been anchored all this time and went firmly but extremely gently
aground in the sand and grass in the falling tide.

No amount of motor, throttle, wheel and gearshift tricks I tried would
dislodge her, but we did discharge a notable amount of soot, having
not run the engine hard in quite a while. So, we gave Perky a good
colonic while we tried to get off :{)) Meanwhile, one of the
neighboring boats had seen our plight, and Clark came over in his
dinghy, offering to carry our anchor off for us to try to kedge off.
Three tries confirmed that we were well stuck, and we went to bed on a
slight slope.

Our conversation with Chris Parker Tuesday morning revealed that much
of the US was going to be experiencing some really nasty marine
weather in the short term future, but the Bahamas would see a little
bit better. As the front moved through, and made its rotation,
Tuesday would experience some south winds by the evening, Wednesday
would see the wind begin its westward clock, and by Thursday PM, the
wind would be back in the northerly quadrant. So, we set our new plan
to leave Thursday afternoon. In the process, of course, the tide’s
high would move later in the day, helping with that, as well, but,
having chatted up our neighbor who helped us try to get off our
grounding, we have a much clearer eye for where the channel is :{))

So, once again, we’re stuck – sun and breezes, sandy shores, palms
waving, places to explore – it’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do
it! Of course, the rising tide floated us again, but that was about
midnight Tuesday morning, so I wasn’t about to move it then. Instead
we moved the boat back to deeper water during the day, and set about
to enjoy our surroundings. There are far worse places to be stuck, so
to speak!

Before we moved, we plotted out the channel we’d follow, and, putting
our chartplotter into 1/64 mile range, plotted about 8 waypoints. We
got off at what we calculated to be high tide, but it was a very slow
affair with much nosing this way and that to finally work our way out
of the sand. However, it was otherwise uneventful, and we put our
hook on the second of the marks. Later, we put the other outboard on
the dinghy (the 6HP one we’d normally use on the PortaBote, our
“sports car” or “runabout” we rarely use) to run out to have a look
firsthand at the channel we’d be following later this week.

Unfortunately, our handheld depth meter seemed to want to go to sleep,
so we didn’t get actual measurements, but we did get to visit the
area, and chatted up a returning couple who’d gotten 3 lovely lobster
for their dinner. Earlier, Clark had found the area we pointed out to
him and had a conch to go with the lobster he’d found. We believe
we’ll have to get a lobster tip for our spear, as they are somewhat
specialized in comparison to the usual tip for fish. Of course,
neither matters much, as we’ve not seen the first spear-able
underwater resident yet!

Anyway, we drifted out to sea while we were chatting up the folks with
the lobsters, so we were in a good position to explore the extreme
south end of the eastern side of the island, an isolated patch of
limestone with dunes covering much of it. Over the dune we go, and
look on a huge expanse of palmetto, dense to the point that it would
take a machete to go more than a few feet. What a marvelous, desolate,
beautiful area it was, with another small island in the distance to
the east, a couple of smaller islands south, and the main part of
Norman’s Cay visible in the distance beyond where we’d anchored

When we got back, after replacing the batteries in our handheld depth
sounder, I lit into the recoil starter. That involved fabricating a
flywheel puller, which I was thrilled to succeed in doing from my
spare parts bin, and its removal, aside from the “BANG!” the flywheel
made as it separated from the crankshaft, which was alarming until I
figured it out, was straightforward. The removal of the recoil gear
was likewise straightforward, if a bit tedious with all the other
stuff that had to come off, and I set about to troubleshooting.

The mechanism relies on a huge clockwork spring, which, unfortunately,
resisted bending into the shape required to match the fitting where
the broken end used to go. Being spring steel, it broke on my first
three attempts to shape it, but taking my torch to about 3 inches of
it softened it enough that I was able to persuade it to match the
shape of the original. Reinstallation was pretty simple, and I also
managed to solve a few other problems we’d had (for example, failure
to pull and seeming to lock up on start attempt) by observing how
stuff was supposed to work (I didn’t have a shop manual, much to my
disappointment), and putting things where they belonged. A final
loosening of the works and a liberal application of 3-In-One Oil in
the spring area made everything move smoothly. I reinstalled the
flywheel and pulled, receiving a satisfying whir and retraction of the
starter rope. Replacing the cover finished the operation. Phew!
Pulling the cover off and winding the rope around the flywheel to
start it each time got old very quickly :{))

We gave McDuff’s a call on the radio, and found that they’d had a food
delivery, so we’ll take advantage of that to take us all in for some
internet and a late lunch/early dinner on Wednesday.

Wednesday we woke early, to check in on the weather, just to make sure
we were still on for Thursday PM. If anything, it improved, so I set
to my 1-2-3's - the little things which keep ahead of the boatyard. I
made up the mount for our solar light which we'll put on the dinghy,
eventually, and at the same time, did one for our pushpit, which will
provide light for additional anchoring security. That same light will
sit in the propellor of the first boat I ever owned. Bronze, it
polished up beautifully with a power buffer, and will make a lovely
dinner light for the table in the saloon. Finally, I took a wire
wheel to both the outboard motor mount on the pushpit (it has a
stainless strip where the clamps press), removing some of the surface
rust and making it a bit more compatible with all the polishing which
has been happening lately. Then, I took the same wire wheel to our
secondary anchor's snubber chain hook, which had rusted somewhat, and
sprayed it with stainless steel "paint" - a preparation we've found to
be very effective in not only arresting, but avoiding future, rust.
As we expect we'll have to double anchor in Georgetown, that was one
of my somewhat-priority items I'd been meaning to do for some time, as
it was staining the deck where we stow it when we're not using it.
The main anchor has a specialty fitting on the snubber line, and it's
stainless already, and still looks great.

That finished, I stowed all the tools and cleaned up. We went over to
McDuff's (www.ncbcmacduffs.com) to enjoy the internet access and
another marvelous lunch, this time their famous burger and, again,
their perfectly prepared french fries, meeting Lydia and my unusual
preferenced (nearly burned) preparation. We'll be returning to the
boat soon, so we’ll leave you here, and see you on the way to
Georgetown!
..
As always, those on our log lists (if you don’t want to wait for our
internet connection, you can subscribe or view via the Google and
Yahoo links in my signature line) will receive real-time reports, but
those seeing these in the forums will have to wait until we have good
internet connectivity. There’s no internet service here, and we don’t
know when the next will be, but you can see our progress on our SPOT
page, http://tinyurl.com/FlyingPigSpotTracking …

Stay tuned :{))

L8R

Skip and Crew

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"You are never given a wish without also being given the power
to make it come true. You may have to work for it however."
(and)
"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in
its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts."
(Richard Bach, in The Reluctant Messiah)