Okay, two weeks in one place, a nice place, but just one single place, nevertheless. We stayed partly because we really do like the folks in New Bight and partly because of the weather. Strong winds make for waves, ever growing waves. We’ve mentioned “a blow” and 20 knots plus winds. Thought you might like to see what we are talking about. With us anchored about a quarter of a mile away from the shore, look what 20 knot plus winds can whip up, sorry didn’t get the 30 plus we felt.

We were anchored in a wonderful bight (Webster defines as a curved coastline or open bay), yep, it’s that. Wonderful wind protection from the east because of the big hill with the Hermitage on top, just not much from other directions.

So, what’s coming? Here is one of our weather sources, and look at this coming weekend. The arrows show the predicted wind direction. The number on top is constant wind, and right below the arrow, strength of gusts. We have a real doozy coming up, with the high winds clocking around from south to north!

We have decided to travel back up Cat Island and go around the bottom of Eleuthera to tuck back into good ol’ Rock Sound. This will take two moves: today up Cat to Bennetts Harbour and then tomorrow, the long leg around to Rock Sound.

We’re now laying outside Bennetts Harbour (which was too small and too crowded), and lo and behold, we just saw our first “green flash” at sunset! We’ll keep trying for a really good picture. Oh, the chore….

No roosters!

Historians don’t really know when it started, but one of the earliest “recorded” mentions of a shipboard bell was on a 1485 British ship named Grace Dieu. Before the advent of a really accurate marine timepiece (Marine chronometer – 1761), which is a story in itself, time was measured using sand trickling through a half-hourglass.

Typically, a young lad was assigned the job of flipping the glass when the sand ran out and then ringing the bell to denote this vital job was complete. The sounding of bells on the half and hour continues today in the modern navies of the world.

Thanks for the history, but what does this have to do with the SaltyMare?

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SaltyMare‘s ships clock has its own story told by Todd:

It’s an old-fashioned clock. Rather than batteries, it has a spiral wound spring in its works, so you just wind it once a week and it ticks away. It also has a spring for the chimes, or in this case, bells. My first memories of it, I was young, perhaps 11, in Florida. It held a spot in our hallway, central to the house. Its shiny brass body surrounded by a ships wheel is in contrast to its simple face with roman numerals. Here’s my guess as to where my father acquired it. Dad was career Navy and spent 25 years on submarines. The mid- to late-sixties would have meant perhaps he brought it home from one of his tours in the Mediterranean or it was a gift from one of the officers we hosted during a visit from one of Britain’s nuclear subs.

For me, it was just always there, announcing the changing time. As a Navy family, it goes without saying, there was order in our house. When Dad was at sea, Mom ran a tight ship, and the clock rang on. You got used to its rhythm through the day. Many a day, I awoke to hear 5 bells, and dinner was typically after 2 bells. The key was kept on top of a nearby bookcase. Winding was always done by Mom or Dad, regularly on Sunday. In high school, if I heard 6 bells, it was out the door running down the hill to catch the bus.

They gave the clock to me as an adult. I guess with my leaving the house, their life had changed, slowed down, I suppose. Maybe not as much order was needed. It rang throughout my adulthood and parenthood, in my various homes, admittedly sporadically. Like most older things we “inherit” while young, we set them aside for newer stuff. Heck, sadly forgotten, it once fell off the wall during the pounding of a renovation. Finally, during another one of life’s events, into a box it went. Always with me, too many memories to discard. When Susie and I sold everything we own to move to the water, it survived the cut. Just couldn’t let it go. We had it repaired, and today, it proudly hangs in our pilothouse as Mom and Dad smile down.

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We’ve now listened to those bells competing with the wind to mark the passing of the last five days here at anchor in New Bight. Sure, we spent the time in the same ways our land-based friends would – housekeeping, cooking and eating (perhaps too much eating), reading, watching movies, playing games, defrosting the refrigerator, tracing the problem with the charging of the stern thrusters, honoring the sunset with the conch horn… Wait. Those last few are boat-specific. At any rate, you get the point. We are ready to move! This boat’s been at anchor here for two weeks. So, move we will, just as soon as we make a trip into town for groceries…

Time to go!

We’ve really enjoyed New Bight, but we’re ready for the next adventure. Tuesday was a great day, sunny and beautiful with mild winds. Dave and Peggy were crossing over from Eleuthera, and we planned to move north to the top of Cat to meet them to travel back down together. Well, a submerged line fouled one of their props, and they had to turn back. So, we went ashore for ice cream instead.

As we said, we are always weather-watching, and all of our various weather sources (we use five different ones) were predicting sustained winds of better than 15 kts with gusts beyond 20 starting Wednesday. Rats, Dave and Peggy were going to stay in Rock Sound, Eleuthera, and given the “sporty” forecast, I guess we would hang right here. Wednesday comes and, oops, it was a great day, sunny and beautiful with mild winds. So, back to lil Gippy’s for more ice cream before the “blow” was to now start the next day.

Thursday comes and “OOPS again!, it’s a great day, sunny and beautiful with mild winds. Got an idea, let’s go to Gippy’s and get a snack and then ice cream! Afterwards, we can walk to the bakery! (Thinking this week’s weigh-in should be interesting…)

So, those rascal forecasters got it wrong. Missed it by not one but two days. Yesterday it finally started and continues. We’ve seen gusts over 30 already today. Forecasts have it blowing until next Tuesday….. Our dinghy is safely stowed… missing lil Gippy’s already….

Getting our hands on a replacement inverter/charger was only half the battle. The next step involved more Boat Yoga.

And then…yep, the process has to be reversed to mount the new one on the same awkward wall.

Once the project was completed Sunday, Todd began looking forward to Monday morning, when Duke offered to take him fishing for conch and lobster. Helping Duke source supplies and playing in the water? Todd’s definitely game for all that! So, we got up early to catch the sunrise before they headed out.

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Duke and his son, Tiano, picked up Todd, and off they went for a few hours of hunter/gathering.

After the “eagle eyed” youngster Tiano kept reporting glimpses of “something? not dolphins,” Duke finally relented and lo and behold they were fortunate enough to see a whale and her calf cruising along in the 30 feet of water. With careful maneuvering they got within 50 feet for a few pictures. Best guess is Sperm whales, as the “mom” was better than 35 feet, with a little one in tow.

Regarding the fishing, though, you apparently don’t need luck when you have a Duke. Duke is a machine with countless dives to 25ft or more. And “deadeye” with a Hawaiian sling! They had quite a successful morning!

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But, wait. Where are Todd and Tiano while Duke is showing off the catch? They’ve apparently not yet had enough of splashing around in the water.

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Once they reach shore, however, there are tasks for everyone. While Duke prepared the feast for the fire, Pompey scrounged up supplies to build the fire, and Todd and Tiano moved the conch from the boat into a storage net.

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And the resulting feast? Duke outdid himself. Dinner was absolutely fantastic! Talk about “Fresh Catch of the Day.” We can’t thank you enough, Duke. What a treat!

About ten seconds after we closed on the boat, our broker said, “You know what cruising is, right? Fixing boats in exotic places.” It’s a classic line that’s probably etched into every cruiser’s id.

Other idioms we learned in our first year were, “Don’t postpone your departure until everything is perfect—that day will never come.” And, “You don’t need to take a spare for every system on your boat.”

Our life, like most, has been filled with challenges/adventures, and heck, cruising has been no different. In anticipation of this trip, we searched the boat high and low, in every nook and cranny, for that rascal stowaway, “Murphy.” We alluded to it days ago, so, here’s the tale of the unexpected repair.

First a quick bit of boat basics. Boats have two electrical systems. One powers the lights and all the boaty stuff like engines, fancy nav electronics, etc. It’s 12-volt. The other powers basic plugs around the boat to use stuff that makes the boat feel like a house. Appliances, computers, phone chargers, etc. It’s 120-volt, just like a house.

The story “starts” when we returned to the boat from our wonderful day in the garden on the Bluff to discover our main inverter/charger wouldn’t – start, that is. That gizmo is the bridge between the two electrical systems. When we have extra 120 volts because we are plugged in at a dock or running the generator, the charger piece of the gizmo charges the 12-volt side, which is a big bank of batteries. When we don’t have any source for 120-volt, the inverter piece of the gizmo, takes 12-volt from those charged house batteries and “inverts” it to be used by all the household stuff.

Sure, we could run the generator constantly, and some boats do, but we like the quiet that comes from the system doing its thing. This is where just a “fix-it story” changes to a story about good people and why “fixing things in odd places” can be an adventure unto itself!

One can find replacement parts online, but how do you get it here? Enter the first special people. Bobby and Francie on Barefootin’. We called them figuring they’ve been here many times, they would know, and boy they did. Full instructions! Next call is to Makers Air in Ft Lauderdale, and their freight area has just great folks that were quick with the info and process. Makers also provided a reference for a customs broker, and enter the last special person in the process, Heneka Rolle – stationed in Andros, Bahamas. Heneka, with a smile in her voice, handled every one of Todd’s frantic calls with aplomb and made the whole process very smooth. Saturday morning, we get the email that our ship came in! Well, in this case, a plane. This wonderful series of special folks really made a bad situation into a small event. We are eternally grateful! But there are more folks that we met along the way.

Since we now needed to pick up the part and hit a hardware store, it was back to the gas station to get the rental car.

Next stop, Customs at the New Bight Airport (TBI). The customs officer, Radley, was out when we arrived, but after a short wait for his return (during which we got to watch a small plane take off), we paid the VAT, secured our package, and were on the way with a recommendation to try Da Pink Chicken for dinner, but first lunch!

We’d met the owner of Fernandez Bay Village, Richard, outside the police station the day before, in the process of a car inspection. When we asked him about a hardware store, he offered that he might have some of the parts Todd needed in storage at the resort, which is very near the airport.
So we stopped by for lunch and to check it out. Thank you, Richard!

Since we only had a few hours left on the car rental, we opted to explore the shorter distance to the south. The main road (yellow in the image) runs along the shoreline on the western side. There aren’t many roads that cross the island, so when we spotted this one on the paper map, let’s detour to the ocean first. After all, there’s a resort over there; it should be a fairly sizeable road.

The careful drive ends at the base of a large sand dune. To see the ocean, requires finishing the trip on foot.

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Next up, the Deveaux Plantation ruins we’d read about in guide books and websites, however, it won’t come up on Google Maps. It’s supposed to be in Port Howe, and there’s only one road through, though, so how hard can it be to find? There’s probably a sign. Ha! We saw signs for “Entering Port Howe” and “Leaving Port Howe” – a couple of times – but no Deveaux House. We finally stopped at a gas station to ask for directions. The nice man described it exactly.

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During our several passes through Port Howe in search of the ruins, we spotted the beautiful Saint Mark’s Anglican Episcopal Church and stopped for a photo. We found Eva Hunter happily preparing the sanctuary for Sunday service. Miss Eva, like Miss Margaret in Orange Creek, was a joy and of course knows everyone. The island is a very close-knit community.

Although our time on wheels was short, we had fun exploring with the car. Stopped at Alnor’s Bake Shop for fresh bread and treats. Alfred was baking, and it smelled totally fantastic in there! Got some groceries at the New Bight Food Market. Then stopped off to talk to Duke and Pompey before loading everything in the dinghy and returning the car. A day full of wonderful people!
Now, Honey, about the installation of that part? Ohhh, tomorrow. 😉