Up and on our way to the dinghy wall to go tour the island. Steve and I took off to the Gap for some breakfast. They had Omelets and great French toast. We walked down the little streets and found a computer store / realty co. The owner was very nice and advised us we could bring our computer to his office and use his Internet anytime. He told us he had been to Tn and Lookout Mtn. The next small store we stopped at the owner said she also had been to lookout Mtn to seminars at Covenant College.  Everyone here seems to eWorld together. The grocery store was really nice an clean. Prices are higher but not too bad. We bought some stuff for Steve’s sinuses and walked back toward the quilt shop and the museum. Since we are leaving for Spanish Wells this afternoon we don’t have time to make an appt to see it.  We made it back to the boat and prepared for the ride to Harbor Island through the devil’s backbone. Our guide is very good and got us through it no problem. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful ride. I saw so much beautiful scenery and the water was gloriously beautiful. We came in to the harbor and anchored out and prepared to go in and eat. We will have to move to the other side of the bay tomorrow due to a front coming in. Then we will come back and anchor out here again to be close to the Mecca here! Lol

After that horrible day we got up after sleeping late and getting a little rest. Our friend Captain David and hIs wife also got up reviewed their damage to the boat and we sailed over to an island called Spanish Wells. We anchored in a protective cove and just sat back for a while and rested. Believe me after that ride you need days to recuperate. That evening we went over to the island to a little restaurant called The Generation Gap. You walk in and right away notice the hand painted fish on the walls the plastic chairs and tables and an old time cafe feel. The waitress was very nice as she took our orders. Cheeseburgers in paradise that is what we had. You have to eat a lot of fresh seafood out here and we miss the old burger every once in a while. The town is very neat and clean with trash barrels every 50 feet almost. It is a fishing village with (from what i hear) the best fisherman in the aCaribbean. It is really clean here. Headed back to the dinghy we have to climb a ladder off the water wall. The tide was down so we had to climb down into the dinghy which was almost on ground by now. We made it in safely with some fancy maneuvering and headed back out to the boats which were only about 100 feet away from the main street. The water goes up to a wall that you climb up and BOOM your on a main street. Gotta watch the traffic because it is all opposite of the US over here. But most of it is golf carts and small cars. Tomorrow Steve and I will tour the town while i friends visit with their other friends here on the island. After that we are going to go to Harbor Island by way of the Devils Backbone. It is a very dangerous passage due the coral heads and the waves shoving you into them.

CAPTAINS LOG: Having to use a Bahamian anchor procedure here where you put out two anchors parallel to each other to prevent swinging and safety in case one anchor slips.

Day 118 March 3 2013 Sunday

We got up early and talked to David who said we needed to go to The Spanish Wells if we were going to go. It was a short window and the anchorage there at the place we were was iffy for us. Our anchor slipped again. So we decided to follow David across the small Atlantic waterway toward Spanish Wells Bahamas. The waters are uncomfortable anyway to navigate. I tried to help Steve navigate the waters so he could rest. The sea was unsettled and gradually the waves grew we got a short rain shower, but the front caused the waves to continue to grow. I took the helm for about an hour as the sea settled a bit so Steve could rest. After about one hour the wind picked up and the waves did too. We had about 25 more miles to go, let me explain how long it takes our boat to go 24 miles with the motor unable to operate and only under sail. 4.5 MPH max in waves 6-10 foot with wind gusts up to 30 MPH. It took us 10 hours to travel 60 miles. Do the math, whew! The waves continued to pound us and Steve did a tremendous job holding our course. The skies grew dark and our stress went up. Steve is exhausted by now and we have 13 miles to go. Our friend David is offering encouragement to us as we sail. We attempted to pull in the headsail and as I was tying it off the main lines to it flew out of their locks and were swinging wildly in the dark catching the eerie red and green glow off the running lights. I grabbed the line tied off and pulled as hard as I could to try and pull the sail in as close to wrapped as I could get it. With Gods help I got it wrapped back up and just let the lines wrap up around each other. There was nothing else we could do. We pulled out the mainsail half to try and steady the boat and make it to our destination. We still couldn’t get the motor working properly. So no motor, no headsail and only reefed main. Let me tell you this, if you are not religious before you hit seas like this you will be before it is all over. We had a wave taller than our boat hit us broadside and cover us with water and flip us 90 degrees in that horrible set of waves that is the sea. We r ighted her and plowed ahead.  We were almost to our destination when David called and had a damaged headsail had lost a hatch cover and he was already almost to the destination. We just grabbed our guts held on and did the best we could, prayed hard and kept our heads. We finally made it to shallow waters and burped our engine line started it up and made it to the anchorage. I was contemplating how could I get a plane home from here as Steve was so relieved he was just ecstatic about us making it and fighting the sea successfully. After three days of fighting the sea we just passed out and tried to sleep. I did not understand how a boat can take that but the sailors always say, “the boat can take more than you can”, and ours did. Steve did an incredible job and in the face of total exhaustion, I cant admire him any more than I do now. I’m safe but still shaking. It is gonna take days to get over that one. 🙂

A little overcast today, we started out with three of us and waited on the fourth but he never showed up. After several hours we finally got him on the radio so that David would not have to turn back and find him. Sailors never leave a man behind. The weather got rough and Steve and I had a rough day sailing, first our main sail got stuck and we couldnt reef it in. That means we had to fight the wind all day with our headsail out to help stabilize the boat. We had the boat turning around in the middle of the banks in rough water to try and pull in the main sail. We tried and figured out why it wouldnt reef, the bottom loop of the sail was torn apart. So this means that that sail has to be put back together and pulled in before we get to any port or anchorage so that we can control the boat when anchoring or docking. ! Steve and I thought about it and the plan was it had to be sewn back together  So i in my wind and rain proof gear (thank you Paula) get my needle and sail thread ( an incredibly strong thread) and climb out there. My vice grips held the needle while i tried to push a big needle through three layers of heavy duty chord material that binds the sail  together.  The rain pouring the wind blowing and me on the deck under the boom with a needle and sail thread using vice grips to sew it back on. The wind was blowing the bottom of the sail as I tried to stabilize the sail with the wind trying to blow it out of my hands, i had to take a piece of the sail thread tie it to the sail loop and wrap it around the mast tie it and hold the sail in place with my wrist while i worked on it. Needless to say i had on my new strap attached to me and wrapped around the mast and attached back to my offshore life vest. The rain started in but i stayed dry in my suit, but it became harder to sew with the wet material and tools. Finally i got three to four good stitches in punched a hole in to get a piece of paracord through for extra strength. Put the parachord through after about 30 minutes of getting it thru the hole. Tied it together and went to get Steve to get the mast to hook on. By the time he got out there the paracord had come untied already but we still had stitches in. We have to work together to get chord to reattach. I have to flip open the lines that go to the sail when he says so the loop will catch the post as it goes around. While i keep the boat on course and flip open the line latches also!! We got it after three tries kept the boat on course, but let me tell you this is a tough day today for both of us. The stress is through the roof and we deal with it. Sailing is not for sissies i tell you this. You pay dearly for those beautiful azure blue and sea green waters with the wonderful beaches and island breezes that make you just melt into the islander way of life. Steve and I pay for every wonderful moment we spend in paradise. On a prayer we pulled in the main and it worked, !!!!!! YEAH!!! Our excitement was unbridled. Exhausted and stressed we collapsed after settiing anchor in a protected island cove with the three other boats. We saw some other boats there also that had left Bimini the day before us. David radioed us and stated how impressed the others were that we fixed our sail while underway. Sometimes you just dont have a choice.  Sleep  here we come!

David came over and said that the front had decreased to minimal threat and they were leaving today. We decided to leave with them going across the Bahama Banks headed to Chub Key and Eleuthera Bahamas. We scrambled to get everything together. I went in to town to try to get a loaf of Bimini bread but it was not through cooking yet so i got us a couple of cinnamon rolls and a drink. Steve went to get gas and water in our containers. Well out to sea again with three other boats into the Banks. The Great Bahama Banks are shallow waters all the way across the land to the Atlantic. The day started out great it got a little rough but not too bad and we anchored out in the middle of the banks, the water is only 6 foot today. You can see the bottom when the waves are not too high. Our boat sails great but the catamaran is fast and the other boats are made for fast sailing ours is slow too because we have so much stuff on board. We kept up pretty good. 🙂 We enjoyed the sailing today.

Woke up to a beautiful day in Bimini. Steve ate breakfast and went to help David work on his boat while i went in to the marina to shower and find internet to work on blog. We dinghied over to the dock of the Big Game Club in Bimini which is a private club that has been there since the 1930’s. They are so laid back there no one cared if i was there or not. I went in to the showers which were so neat, the showers were in a circle with printed canvas between the sections and lines holding them onto poles with a curtain to give privacy. Very clean and loved the hot hot shower water. You dont know how much that means until you have taken too many boat showers. I finally got finished and dried my hair (another luxury) went outside and hooked up the computer to an outlet in the outside covered patio area and grabbed a chair from one of the outside tables and sit at ping pong table with another person who needed internet. Talk about slow but i was so glad to use it it did not matter. I couldn’t download any pictures but i did get a few days typed up on the blog. It took me two hours to get that done, 🙂  Steve came by and we walked the docs and he showed me the big bull shark that was at the docs. The guy that works there said there are usually around 5 that stay there and 10-15 when they are cleaning fish. You are not allowed to swim,, snorkel, or dive there. The sharks are very aggressive. They have a shark cage you can go down in and view them if you want to. By this time the day has gotten away from us and we are tired and ready for bed. Loving this place. Hope to stay thru the weekend. Big front coming thru this weekend so we will probably stay here.

Steve and I got up early made breakfast and headed for Bimini until a front moves out so we can have a protected anchorage. We made it past the rough breakwaters only to find out a small front had moved in on us. I felt the boat begin to sway side to side and saw those waves start to grow high and choppy. Well there goes that smooth ride, time for life jackets and three points of contact at all times. My two feet and both hands. Steve handled the boat well as we rolled back and forth like a fishing bobber in a blender. We had to cut the waves and crab walk toward our destination. Really slow going but the mistress of the sea gives you no other option if you are to safely reach your port.This sailing is getting easier to accept when conditions get rough! Talk about relief when we reached Bimini Harbor We both cheered and exhaled. We anchored out close to some other boats and a wonderful gentleman and missionary named David came out in his dinghy told us where to safely anchor and how to put out a Bahamian anchorage. He was really nice and helped a lot. He advised us that a mooring line was close to the front and the young people on the boat were leaving in AM so we talked to them and they stated that we could have the anchorage when they left. This place to anchor will protect us when the front moves through this weekend. Supposed to be cold and windy. Cold as in the low 70s, I love the tropics. We finally got settled anchored well and went in to town. This time we went to the phone company to try and find a phone. We walked into the electric company and asked for the phone company and they directed us around the corner. The ladies at the phone company were super nice and gave us all the details on acquiring a phone in the islands. We decided to just use my phone if we needed it. The missionary David told us to eat conch fritters at CJ’s on the hill by the ocean. So we walked all over the island again this time we went on the upper road, one road is on the hill side and one on the lower end. :-)) I had to walk to the end of the beach to the graveyard and try to find that swimming pool again. After i walked on the road ( well it looks like a road where big machinery tracks used to run, sorta like tracks mashed into the rock above the beach by bulldozers etc.) then into the cemetery and back to the overgrown weeds to look for the pool. We walked over pine needles and avoided the little crabs in the overgrowth as we walked. Steve noticed a staircase really hidden and I pushed my way through the limbs and found what i was looking for, the swimming pool to the old Tuna Marlin Resort built in late fifties. It had Barracuda tiled into the walls with flying fish and an octopus too! What a place this must have been then. I love it here. I took all kinds of pictures but it takes an hour to load one so i will wait for better wifi before trying to load them. After that we walked back down the beach looking for shells checking out an old wreck and saw a newer boat up on the rocks at the beach. It looks like it was picked up by the waves and slammed onto the rocks. For lunch Steve and I ate at CJ’s. Let me describe this too you. A small building with a fly bait bag on the corner to cut down on flies, a screen door into a small room with a drink cooler on the left hand side as you walk in, a small counter in front of you with 3 bar stools turn right to a small counter and two ladies cooking. The size of a small  bedroom. We ordered the conch fritters and an order of fries to eat. They were delicious and Steve ordered more. The ladies were really nice and the i just loved the place they had there. They had a couple of benches outside above the beach and a screen window they yelled at you through to tell you your order was ready. YEP i could live here. We walked back through town over the dirt roads past the end of the world bar, the heavenly bakery and the monuments to Bahamian residents and back to the boat for a good nights rest.