Hopetown

The lighthouse on Elbow Cay

With a fully functional boat (except now my main VHF radio has gone out), we decided to head to Hopetown on Elbow Cay today. The wind was light out of the SE (dead on the nose), so instead of tacking our way upwind for 12 miles, we just leisurely motored over.

The water was great. Everything was typical Bahamas and things are really grand.

The water in the Sea of Abaco as we headed Easterly today

We picked up a mooring and no sooner than we had turned off the engine, than a guy came by wearing a 'Downeast Rover' tshirt. Jan has already told me to look for Brad who used to run the Downeast Rover (a sailboat for tourists on the Outer Banks). As he started by and I saw his shirt I asked him what his name was. He turned his dingy around and said it was Brad. I told him I was Jan's husband and it was another example of a small world.

After having a beer on board, we headed ashore and had lunch at the HopeTown Lodge - at their beach bar. The cracked conch was great - although it didn't agree with Rick too well and the bartender was a guy named Gary who was unassumingly very smart. We had an interesting conversation about Edward Teach (look it up) and I was about to bet him a $5 tip that he couldn't name Edward Teach's ship. He pegged "Queen Ann's Revenge" instantly. He's one of those guys you wouldn't expect to have the little treasure trove of knowledge. Goes to show you can't judge the book.....

The beach

After lunch we walked south a bit and then back into town and around the lovely little streets. It was pretty hot today, so we came back to the boat and chilled out a while.

Around 4, we went to the lighthouse and went up into the top for a look around. The lighting was great and harbor looked marvelous.

The view from the top of the lighthouse

We went to happy hour at Capt. Jacks where we had 2 for 1 Margaritas and since it was taco tuesday some great tacos.

Back on the boat now. We'll head back over to Guana Cay tomorrow.

Alternator, - check!

The view off the back of the ferry as we leave Guana on the way to Marsh Harbor

If you've been reading this blog, you know that I've been playing the alternator follies. The first alternator went out at 3 am on last wednesday morning. The second one went out before midnight on the same day.

Once I got to the Bahamas, acquiring what I needed to replace the alternator has been less than easy.

Today, I took my second trip on a ferry into Marsh Harbor and went to the NAPA. Before I went, I contacted my alternator guy (the one who rebuilt the first one poorly) and got him to cross reference my alternator with the closest one from NAPA. Thusly I was able to march in with the part number I needed.

They didn't have the exact one I needed, but they had one that was close and so I hopped the ferry back over to Guana Cay.

After installing the new alternator (with much sweat and effort), it didn't work. I called my guy in the US and asked him why. He said it wasn't a 'self exciting' alternator. It seems that alternators have to be told to 'engage' by some mechanism other than the belt turning them (that seems like enough to me). The one I was supposed to get would know to engage on it's own (self exciting), while the one I got uses a series of wires from the car to do this.

Luckily, I understand electronics and so after Bill told me what had to happen for it to work I got out all my electronics stuff and built a wiring harness which I connect one end to the two probes on the alternator and the other end to a switched 12v connection. Now when I turn on the key to the boat - it sends a message to the alternator telling it to 'alternate'. Go figure.

Glad to have the boat back as it should be.

We may sail over to Hope Town tomorrow. I'll take photos. It's a photogenic place.

A great Sunday!

Last night on the boat at sunset. I've been taking these type of photos with the camera mounted on the end of a 12' boat hook (pole)

Nippers on sunday afternoon.

This morning in the anchorage. I thought the clouds really looked nice

We had a great day yesterday. It was the first day since we got into Abaco on Friday that the winds haven't been pretty strong and even quite a bit cloudy. I got some boat projects done - cleaned the bilge and replaced a pump in the shower sump. I put a new and badly needed new painter (rope) on the dingy.

Around 1:30 or so, we left the boat and went over to Nippers for some drinks and lunch. Sunday's are the biggest day of the week for nippers so it was a decent crowd. Around 4:30 or so we came back to the boat and chilled out while the sunset. About dark, we went back ashore and had drinks and dinner at Grabbers. We got back out to the boat somewhere around 8pm I think and watched the meteor showers for a while.

This morning the anchorage is very calm and nice. I've been tracking down part numbers for the alternator via skype and I'll be getting on the 11:30 ferry and headed over to Marsh Harbor for parts scouting. Hopefully I'll get what I need on this trip. I've already had a new 93 amp alternator made up for me in the states that I'll bring back to the boat after Christmas. This way I'll have a spare and not get in this situation again.

Chillin' in Guana

Serenity on her mooring in Settlement Harbor - Guana Cay

That's not Guano - it's Guana :)

Because of our adventure of getting towed into Guana, we had not cleared customs. There's no customs office on this island and so we had to take care of that. We were actually - by law - a bit out of compliance, so I gingerly asked around about the best way to take care of it.

Troy at Dive Guana - who knows EVERYTHING there is to know about the Abacos, told me to call over to customs in Marsh Harbor and tell them the story and ask them what to do. They just said bring the documents for the boat and our passports and come over to the Airport.

So at 11:30, we hopped on the ferry and rode a half hour over to Marsh Harbor. A 10 minute cab ride later we were talking to the customs folks and going through the process of clearing in. After that, we had our cabbie take us by the only auto parts store open on saturday and I spent about 30 wasted minutes trying to get them to see if they had an alternator. There's a NAPA in town and I'll have the alternator guy back in Palm Beach find out what NAPA alternator will work - on monday morning, then I'll take the ferry back over and try to get one.

This is the townspeople on Guana Cay - all turning out on this saturday morning to decorate their town Christmas Tree in the Town Square (the fig tree).

Our ferry back to Guana left at 3:30 and since we were done with customs and stuff by 1:30, we went to Snappas - a bar/restaurant on the harbor and had lunch. Then we walked around and looked at boats and walked to a resort on the NE end of the island.

We got back to Guana a little after 4 and I got on the internet and booked our flights home so we can both be home by Christmas.

Tomorrow - we have absolutely nothing to do, so if the weather's good we'll do some exploring.