Friday, March 22, 2013
Location: N23.30.971/W75.45.363 (Stocking Island)
Final prep for the next leg of our voyage. Larry topped off water and we motored across the bay (less than 1 mile) to a place on Stocking Island (not to be confused with Lee Stocking Island that was further north in the Exumas). It has several names “Volleyball Beach” … because all the cruisers gather to play volleyball a couple of times a day … or “Chat-N-Chill” because of the restaurant/bar at the tip of the cove where everyone meets to “socialize”. We anchored just off-shore with the 50 or so other boats. We were going to meet Ray and Sandy from Megerin at 2pm, along with others that they’d already met. Of course, we were on time and waited and waited for Ray/Sandy. They meandered over in their dinghy probably close to 3pm. They’d been in town for a late lunch and just got back. They were on “Island Time” … we’ve got a ways to go still! We had a beer each while we waited ($4.00 each). Then while we sat and chatted with everyone, I went back to the bar and got a rum punch for Larry and a rum/diet coke for me. I was shocked to see that these cost $8.00/each! Usually rum punch is almost given away.
In any case, we decided to leave in the morning and head for Long Island. Ray/Sandy would come with us, along with Brian from Novia (he was a single-handed sailor with his wife back home in port-Thunderbay, Ontario, Canada). One of the couples was going to hang around in Georgetown still and another couple, who had travelled with Ray/Sandy to this point, were leaving their boat and heading back to the US. There were some health issues that we didn’t press for details.
Just as the group was breaking up for the day, another couple (RL & Karen from the SV Last Call) came and asked if someone could assist them. It turns out they had pulled their dinghy onto the beach (with the dozens of other dinghies). As the tide changed, the dinghy beside them moved differently to theirs and the outboard motor of the other dinghy put a huge gash down the side of their dinghy. One air tube was completely flat. It was a VERY sad sight. Some things you just don’t think about but it was a lesson learned for everyone around. We all pitched in and helped them get the motor off the boat (so it didn’t sink when they tried to tow the dinghy) and the dinghy and crew back to their boat. We looked at our dinghy far down the beach, all by itself and new we’d made a good decision … no other boats around. Larry found one of our numerous patch kits and took them over a very large patch that we had. Most people don’t anticipate a gash that large and only carry smaller patches. Go Soulmatie!!!
We’ve been having numerous problems with our outboard motor. We have two. The original one that came with the boat when we purchased it. It’s a 9.9 and was supposed to be almost new. We’d had a couple of issues back home with it so Larry purchased a brand new 9.9 right before we left. It was a major, unexpected expense but a wise move (in hind-sight). We’ve been using the older motor and it seems to be just one issue after another. First there was the primer bulb issue we had. I believe I wrote about that earlier. Luckily, because we had the same type of motor (new), we were able to switch out bulbs until we could get a new one. Then today, Larry was running errands in the dinghy while I was in town and the outboard started giving him trouble. It turns out it won’t run unless the choke is out and even then, it won’t accelerate. We made it back to the boat, from town but at a very slow pace. Since we were anchored so close to the beach now, we still used it to get ashore at Chat-N-Chill. However, on our way back to the boat, it seemed really bad so we decided to change out the motors and use the new one. Larry switched back the primer bulbs and we hauled the old one off and put the new one in it’s place. Larry adjusted the idle on the new motor and it runs beautifully. After looking at the old motor, now that it was safely on the boat, Larry determined there was a plastic gear cable “thingy” that was broken. We’ll see about getting it fixed somewhere down the road but are VERY glad for the spare outboard.
We secured everything on board and settled in for a relaxing evening before our sail tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment