Week 18 –Preparing to Leave This Golden Place

Week 18 –Preparing to Leave This Golden Place

The gulls, the gulls....oh the gulls ... it’s a lot like Digby wharf with the herring boats in. Their cries are a lot like those of crows.  I had been dreaming about being attacked by a flock of crows just before awakening....

It is Homecoming Week in Bimini. There are lots of family groups wearing their ‘family’ tee shirts. Booming base guitars notes until 4:00 am. It is clearly audible at the other end of the island. This is not ‘quaint’ island reggae or steel band music for tourists. This is something else. Most of the boaters could not sleep – but only one claimed to be able to follow the lyrics being bellowed out.

This week we are going back to the USA – but—many of the cruisers here in Bimini are waiting for a break in the weather so that they can travel on to Nassau and the Exumas. The news from Nassau is basically all BAD! The Nassau Yacht Haven Marina – a place where we have felt ‘at home’ in two separate years, has been the target of boardings and thefts while the owners were sleeping aboard.

The eastern-bound group have been sharing e-mails with those who went before and are adjusting their plans accordingly. The level of crime, and lethal crime at that, has ballooned in Nassau. The murder rate is very high. A bus-load of cruise-ship tourists was hijacked recently and from the way I read the press on this – the Bahamian Tourism Board is dreading that phone call from one cruise line or another announcing cancellations. Tourism is the largest industry here and the out-of-control rate of violent crime has everyone who is in the known planning around the problem. Most of the cruisers are planning to anchor on the western side for an overnight stop and then to press-on for the Exumas.

The other day we went to the RBC ATM and as we stepped away we were confronted by the front fender of a golf cart. The guy was typically unintelligible except for the words “sorry ‘bout that black boy’ – to which my confused response was “ha ha – no problem!”   Maybe I am learning the idiom here? Since that time I have heard the expression on channel 16 and 68 as a hailing call. One example:”Black Boy, black boy – come on back” ....  typically no response...”Black Boy, black boy – bring the ferry to the xyz wharf, we got passengers here for ya.”

There has been a lot of debate among a few of the cruisers who have emergency bottom work to perform as to the breed of shark being chummed by the fishermen next door. As far as I am concerned the finer points which differentiate the docile Nurse Shark from the less than docile Bull Shark go by the board when they are being fed fish offal. The one thing about our home waters that is eminently superior to the local condition is the amount of tide available at home. Anyone can find a wharf to tie against on the Bay of Fundy, and with a little planning they can do a whole lot of bottom work on only one tide. And with no bother from sharks.  

With two days to go before departure we still have not conclusively resolved our fuel issues. We are going to use the fuel tank of the outboard motor (from the tender) as our main fuel tank for the main engine. This is straightforward and when testing the concept today I noticed that if I used the primer bulb of the outboard tank to assist the electric fuel pump, then the engine behaved more reliably.

The fuel pump is rebuildable and I hope that this resolves the matter. If not, we can pay an outrageous amount to Mrs. Weech at the chandlery and purchase what will be a ‘temporary’ replacement fuel pump.

It has been a long and slow series of discoveries in the course of bringing this Atomic Four back to a level of reliability. The fuel tank dirt cannot be blamed on the engine – and I should have ruled it out sooner. In my tests of the fuel in Cuba I could find no dirt in the tank. I was a lot more thorough this time around and was very surprised at the amount of crystallized varnish residing on the bottom, as well as a significant amount of sweet black goo, source unknown. This tank will have to be removed for steam cleaning before being put back in service.

The cruisers gathered around the pool tonight for a going away pot luck dinner. Most of the Eastward-bound cruisers will be leaving at 7:00 am tomorrow so this was a goodbye dinner. As the eating ended things got a little quiet – and then, led by fellow NB’er Greg and his wife LizAnn, the Happy Birthday song began.For Susan! And there were gifts! Sue made a very brief speech and then LizAnn came forward with a tray of brownies sporting 3 candles, a clutch of plastic balloons and an electric sign that flashed “Happy Birthday” as it emitted the song again.

Some cruisers seem to plan for all occasions! And what a great thing to do. The birthday card was signed by all of the cruisers with their boat name and little messages to her (such as: “you win the cleavage contest!”).

Pics of the party

Tiki Man

There is another 105 footer at the end of the dock tonight. This one is extreme shoal draught at 3 1/2 feet. With jet drives this boat can probably make headway on a wet lawn. However the captain who brought her in says she is a terrible handful that skates all over the place as well as rolling too much, conditions which he attributes to her lack of stabilizers.    

She would be a perfect fit at the power boat club with her draught and dimensions.

Another mega yacht was travelling past earlier today and managed to stray from the channel, running aground right in front of our little marina. The show was brief as a rising tide resolved the issue.

We just missed our departure time for Lake Worth this morning. I took one last look under the engine for gas leaks ANNND I found a steady drip! An hour later I had replaced supposedly gas tolerant thread sealing compound with silicone caulking. This explains a nagging problem on the suction side of the fuel line by which air was entering the system and airlocking the fuel pump.

Having been delayed only an hour, we gave the departure a try –only to discover that our reverse gear does not fully engage.  That adjustment held us up until 9:15 am which would have put us at the entrance to Lake Worth at the crest of a high tide and after sunset. Another day here is not a terrible thing! Either we will do an overnighter or we will leave early tomorrow. The east winds are ideal and the chop is only 1 to 2 feet – and is predicted to remain that way for a couple of days.