Spencer's Bight to Little Harbour

A short trip around the peninsula is Old Robinson Bight, and at its' southern end is Little

Turtles everywhere! Dozens of them!

Harbour. We entered in the middle of a rising tide, with a northern wind pushing a little extra water into the channel. No problems entering the harbour or attaching to the mooring. We dinghied into the ultimate dive beach bar, Pete's Pub. We had a Coke each, and paid for a night on the mooring ball. We saw sea turtles everywhere, there were caves to explore, an abandoned lighthouse, and a nice beach to walk the dogs. There was even a back way to get to the beach, since the waves on the beach were a little rough for the dinghy.

Little Harbour

After checking the engines, once they cooled down, Steve continued the electrical trouble shooting to find out why we were losing power to the starboard engine, making it barely able to start. Simplifying and cleaning electrical connections, so that all of the batteries were not connected to the house bank, which was done the LAST time we paid for someone else to work on our boat! The next morning, we saw that our starboard starting battery was way down on voltage, even though it had been shut off all night. The port side starting battery was at full charge, so we flipped some switches and tried to start the engines, no luck! Three hours of sweating and salty sailor words later, and Steve had removed both engines' starters and found that they both needed service. Great! How do we replace a 100+lb 8D battery, and two 30lb each starters for diesel engines 20 miles from the nearest town, with no vehicle, and seas too rough to dinghy that far? We had no idea, so we did what any normal person would do. We asked our friendly local bartender, of course! Miss Amber, who was shocked to learn that we don't drink alcohol, made some calls on our behalf, and got the Captain a ride into Marsh Harbour, and she even helped carry the battery to the truck! She said it was lighter than the coolers of ice that she moves every day!

Mr. Desmond, Amber's husband, loaded Steve and his broken parts into his pickup truck, and down the road they went. Their first stop was to Carquest to exchange the battery, and to get hose connectors for the dinghy. No problem, mon. Next was IDG, the alternator, starter, and generator, repair shop. After a couple of hours of testing, diagnosis, and repair, both starters were as good as new! In the meantime, the guys went to lunch, bought new bolts to mount the starters, and hung out at the repair shop. As it turned out, Desmond knew everyone on the island, and every place to go to get things done right, and right away! Paying cash at the small shops helps, and the labor rates are VERY reasonable, compared to the US, where you're lucky to find someone to repair components at all, without charging as much to repair them, as it would to replace them.

After getting back to Little Harbour, Steve installed the battery and starters with Jacob's help. Both motors started right up, and ran smoothly. Jacob was very excited to contribute to such vital and successful work. The weather was not ideal to move to our next stop for at least five days. We then moved off of the mooring ball to anchor nearby. There was just barely room enough for our boat in the water depth we needed, so we put out two anchors in a Bahamian moor, to minimize our swinging around when the tides changed.

After getting settled in, it was time to walk the dogs. Down to the dinghy, try to start the motor, and the throttle handle falls apart! Yay, we're yachting! [Yachting=boat repair in exotic places]. Luckily we still have our 2.5 hp motor, and a bracket on the dinghy! Dogs refreshed, time to fix some more broken stuff! The handle base had cracked off pretty smoothly, so a little cleanup and an application of epoxy fixed it up. Time for bed and epoxy curing!

Two strong cups of coffee, breakfast, and a dog walk is our morning routine now. Done by ten o'clock, and project time. Steve decided that "while he was at it" he should clean and grease the throttle handle and mechanism. Not too complicated, but a few little parts to keep track of and replace in the correct order. All put back together, and now it almost works too well! Goose it and she's off to the races, let go of the handle, and the motor dies out. More tinkering and adjusting, when Steve gets sick of it enough to deal with it again!

Waiting for the weather window for our deep-ocean passage, we set about exploring the area. Little Harbour lives up to its name, it is less than a half of a mile across! Late morning until early afternoon and our exploring was done. There are two large caves to explore on the west side, and beach landing near the pub puts you on the road to the light house trail. The southernmost cave was the most interesting, with multiple levels and rooms, bats, and stalactites! The lighthouse trail was an easy walk on a slight incline, less than a half mile long, through mangrove, coconut palm, and sea grape trees. The ruins were very cool to explore and to explain to the kids how cisterns work, and that they are a major freshwater source in the islands. Beyond the lighthouse, on the ocean side, are spectacular views of the Atlantic ocean, which transitions very quickly to thousands of feet deep. This feature allows you to see deep blue ocean from dry land.

Yes, those are bats!

Can you see us up there?

These caves were huge. The first family to settle here, in 1952, used these caves as homes until they built a thatched hut.

The old lighthouse

A late lunch back on the boat, and the generator is "making funny noises." Super. A little testing showed a stuck intake valve! Awesome. Steve pulled the head off of Genny, and cleared the piece of oil-absorbent cloth from the catch can that got sucked in and was stuck on the valve seat. Reassembled, and refilled the coolant. No more funny noises, no leaks, and running smoothly. Woo-Hoo!!

Easter in the Bahamas! We explored around the corner of the harbour, in the bight, and found a nice long beach to explore! Empty conch shells littered the beach, so we gathered a few to paint as Easter conchs. We were out of eggs. We all sat around the sundeck table and painted the shells, and wrote our Miss Daisy Email address on the inside of the shells. We plan to leave these shells on islands we really like. Maybe we will hear from someone who finds our conchs!

Easter Conchs #1-4

This is turning out to be a spectacular repair week. The water maker is producing salt water, and making funny noises, too! Luckily, we have some spare parts for it. After going through the trouble shooting guides, and inspecting the innards of this machine, it turns out that we have a couple of worn-out parts, and we have the replacement parts! After cleaning and reassembling the pump, Steve ran a cleaning cycle and the water is ridiculous, Evian, nectar-of-the-gods, fresh, and delicious. Can I get an AMEN?

Now we rest and wait for our weather window to Royal Island. We watched the turtles, read books, and lounged around. On Island Time. What day is it again?
~Steve