FUN, GAMES AND BOAT REPAIRS ON MAGIC

Magic has made it to the heart of the Exuma Island chain in the Bahamas and it would be a huge understatement to say that it is far more beautiful here than we expected. Let me retrace just a bit.

DIANE'S FIRST STARFISH

            Leaving the small, and forgettable anchorage of Frazier’s Hog Cay in the Berry Islands, Magic and Veritas crossed to the island of New Providence (Nassau) we quickly saw our depth gauge go from 10 to OMG as we crossed over the deepest waters between the US and Virgin Islands. The so-called “Tongue of the Ocean” just east of the island of Andros is so deep (over 6000’ in many places!), the Navy uses it as a sort of “Top Gun” tactics playground for submarines! As we crossed this 30 mile wide body of water, there were likely two or more of them literally dogfighting thousands of feet below. Kind of eerie! Here we were, enjoying a glorious sail on the trip of a lifetime while my “bubble head” brethren were honing their warfighting techniques right below us. Who knows, they may have been using Magic as a practice target!

I’ve always prided myself in our anchoring techniques. For the 12 years we’ve owned Magic, only rarely have we had any problems getting our trusty Spade anchor to grab the bottom and hold like Velcro, even in the worst conditions. Well, As Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz said, “…Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore!” Down here, I have to become an expert in reading the bottom and then finding a good spot to drop the hook. Needless to say, it will be a while before I get good at it! Our first night on New Providence Island (Nassau), Diane and I decided to go to a well regarded anchorage called West Bay, about 12 miles from Nassau. The cruising guides said holding was good but stay away from grassy areas and, oh yes, parts of the bottom were “scoured” (a very thin layer of sand over hard packed sand that most anchors will not dig into). After 5, count em FIVE unsuccessful attempts to get our anchor to take hold, we finally dug in. Humiliating to say the least. Later that day, several other boats entered, including one we’d met in Bimini and they all leisurely dropped anchor, paid out some chain, and went back to their cockpit seemingly unconcerned whether or not their anchor had set. What the heck? What was their secret? I dingied over to our friends boat and they explained that in some places, they do what is called a “cocktail anchorage.” When they drop the anchor, if they see a “poof” of sand as it hits the bottom, they just let chain out the prescribed distance for the depth of the water, and go to the cockpit and have a beer! After about ½ hour, they set the anchor with the engine and it almost always digs in perfectly! I guess the weight of the boat and chain slowly forces the anchor into the sand without prompting by the engine! I really like that technique.

NASSAU HARBOR.

After a short motorsail to Nassau, we tied up at the same marina our “buddy” boats, Peaceful Easy Feeling and Veritas awaited. PEF was anxious to get going and left the next day, but we spent 2 days in the city of Nassau, about 1 ½ more than I would like! Unfortunately for us, this is where the title of this blog comes into play. Right after our arrival, we noticed our forward head (toilet for you non-boaters) was no longer functioning. We have manual toilets, which means you pump water into the bowl, do your thing, and then pump it out into a holding tank. Well, I couldn’t get the pump to move so that meant there was a blockage...really not good. I tried all the “easy” things to get the thing to work, all to no avail and wound up literally taking the whole system apart and digging to find and clear the blockage. I’ve done this sort of thing before and it doesn’t get any easier…please excuse the pun, but it was truly a crappy job! After many, many hours of cursing, pulling hoses, cursing, cleaning hoses (YECH!), more cursing, reassembling, yes more cursing, and then doing much of it over to find some tiny leak, we finally got the head back to full function. Of course, our nasal passages will never be the same, but what the heck our toilet works again! As usual, Diane was a champ and worked right alongside me the entire time. LONG, HOT showers did wonders and we were almost presentable. Thankfully, there are no photos to document this repair in an exotic location! To celebrate our accomplishment, we went to a local watering hole for a beer and conch fritters. Name of the place?  The Poopdeck Restaurant of course!

Celebrating at POOPDECK Restaurant

Oh yea, for those of you reading this who are sailors dreaming of this sort of adventure, fixing your boat in strange and exotic locations is just part of the deal. Since leaving home I’ve had to repair our refrigerator, replace our alternator controller, made numerous repairs to our once-trusty outboard (now called “Christine”), Remember, you will NEVER have the right spare part, no store will have exactly what you are looking for, and the price will be at least double what you would have paid at home. Still, it is all worth it, trust me.

Crossing from Nassau to Exumas

Since leaving Nassau we’ve visited a number of small islands in the Exuma chain all more beautiful than the last. Our good friends Bob and Maryln Oates on PEF have moved south faster than us in search of exotic locations but Veritas and Magic have pretty much hung together for the last couple weeks. Lively sessions of Hearts and Spades take up much of our evenings and even Jennings (Veritas), a dedicated "night crawler," has gotten used to our early bedtimes and even earlier wakeups to listen to Chris Parker (Shortwave Bahama weather guru) at 0630 every morning.

My next blog will have a lot more photos and descriptions of some of these awesome locations.