January 20 - 23, 2018 Hope Town visit

finally it is time to put away the engine parts back into our parking garage…our 

parts are on order and now it is a waiting game.

time to celebrate what we have so far achieved and

we ordered a Take a Way of smoked ribs and smoked chicken

$10 each and it lasted Joe and I, 4 meals

Sunday I was invited to go to a church service … the one hour 15 minute service

turned into a 2 1/2 service .. there was a lot and I mean a lot of singing, by the Pastor and

the congregation ….

we are still trying to find the leak in the v-berth and we think we found it..

Joe chalking the toe rail … now we need rain to test it 

still waiting on parts to arrive, so on Tuesday we take Albury Ferry to Hope Town

we bought the Frequent Passenger Tickets so it is only $22 each both ways

while waiting we are visited by a flock of shore birds, begging for food

Sandys Way and Jule III are moored in Hope Town and

we got together for coffee … Jule III are heading back around the

Whale later today, and it will be one of the last chance to do so

before the next front comes thru Wednesday - Sunday

Sandys Way is heading back to Marsh Harbour tomorrow

note the washed ashore sailboat

our friend Marti Moss picked us up in her golf cart and toured us around the

7 mile long Cay (island)

note on the left hand side of the picture, Owen Sound in red paint, our sign from last

year indicating how many miles to home port

Mardi took us to her beautiful home on a hill for lunch

it has a great view of the ocean and much needed breeze on this melting day

lunch is served on the deck

we had some time to put in before the ferry took us back to

Marsh Harbour

this is what is left of the boat that was missing after it left Puerto Rico and was travelling to

USA … it ended up on the reefs off Elbow Cay (Hope Town)

there was two people and dogs aboard, and we understood that they did make it safely

to shore, sometime the first week of January 2018

some one or many people are stripping the boat of everything that they can carry away,

we noted that the prop was cut off, sails and brass window frames gone, anchors gone, stainless steel

frames gone

we don't know the whole story around the mishap,

but we are told by Rey our harbour master, that the man and woman on board, lost power on board,

and they were in the storm on January 2 -4 … they thought they were near

Fort Lauderdale, Florida  … they hit the reefs off Hope Town,

Trueman (Lucky Strike), rescued them and got them to shore .. I'm not to sure how they communicated

with him

there is a lot of evidence of the ship being banged against the coral heads (reefs)

Joe said it is a West Sail 32 ft .. a very nice ocean boat

brass port windows missing and marks of it hitting the coral heads

well it is time to leave on the 5pm ferry back to Marsh Harbour, we still have 1/2 hour

walk back to the boat after we dock at Crossing Bay … we want to get back before dark

January 14 - 19, 2018 … part two

a blooming airplant on Jule III

bright coloured air plants

Ann and Bob and cat Maddie aboard Jule III

the mail boat has not arrived yet with the fresh veggies

no milk either

January 14 - 19, 2018 engine repairs part one

the rusted Mixing Elbow … part of our problem

Joe working behind the motor

transmission off

we have cleaned up all the rust now

some more tools

July 14 - 19, 2018

On Saturday Rey our dock master called a mechanic for us.

around 5:30 he showed up and we told him what the problem was.

Andrews hourly rate is $85 and on weekends $150 … we decided

to wait until Monday.  At 1pm he came and crawled into

our cramped engine compartment and saw the oil leaking, when the motor was running.  He did not want to work in such cramped

quarters, so he proceeded to tell Joe what to do.

So we backed the shaft off, coupler off the shaft and mixing elbow and exhaust system off. It took a lot of time, removing nuts and bolts.

About 4 hours.

Tuesday - Joe raised the motor and took the transmission, flex

plate, flywheel off.  This  took close to 8 hours, the bolts were

rusted on.  All this was caused by a leaking rusted mixing elbow.

The mechanic thought the rear seal was leaking.

Joe thought the transmission was heavy to lift and remove, but the fly wheel is even heavier.

Wednesday - we installed and reinstalled the fly wheel a few times because we needed it on to start the motor, and then we hooked up the  a temporary exhaust system. We needed to go to town and buy special tools and an exhaust pipe to do this. 

What was actually leaking is a steel oil pipe that runs on the exterior of the motor, not the seals and gaskets.

So we are not too sure if this is good news or bad news, any way we

have now found the reason for the 3-4 minutes that it took for

all the oil to drop from the engine.

Thursday - we walk 3/4 hour one way to Boat Harbour Marina and the Yanmar dealer to look into ordering parts. Luckily Joe had a print out from a Yanmar Dealer in West Palm, USA and we found all the part numbers we needed.

The quote from them was $500 plus and it will take 10 days, because they do not have any of these parts in stock.

Our supervising mechanic told us to call this certain dealer in New Jersey.  And we did and was told it was out of his area to sell parts to us, and he gave us another number for Fort Lauderdale, USA.

So we did and they asked us for the zip code we are having it shipped to and was told it was not in their area, and they gave us another

Fort Lauderdale phone #.  OMG

Finally we got the right Yanmar dealer, Complete Yacht Services.  Joe gave them the

14 different parts we needed and within one hour a price was

emailed to us $250 tax included.  But 3 items are no longer made and 2 items are not in stock in Fort Lauderdale.

Friday - Good News, I think.  Complete Yacht Services, emailed and they can get all of our out of stock items and a replacement for the no longer made items.  And they will ship out of C.Y.S. on Monday… and the price now is only $90 total.  What the heck !!!

The parcel will be sent to a custom brokers and delivery agent in F.L.

and then flown to Marsh Harbour and will be received at

Bahama Flex Custom Brokers and delivery.  We have emailed our

cruising permit to Yanmar and they are supposed to attach it to

the outside of the package, so Customs does not charge

us import tax.  (motor parts on a foreign vessel)

Well that is what is supposed to happen.  

So we will see !!!

January 9 - 13, 2018 - engine problems

it was time for us to check the aniods in the engine … we just checked on 2 out of the three, and

replaced only one … the third one was changed last spring

we got together with C-Soul, Mark and Gail and Other Goose, Todd, Susan and Rick

we are all planning to depart Marsh Harbour in a few days

also a lunch time get-together with Sandys Way and Wingspread

and then Happy Hour at Mangoes …. 

we always seem to be eating

some more boat chores .. after the last rain, our boat is still leaking

Joe is now getting into the chair locker to re-chaulk the bow roller and

bow pulpit

removing the windlass to re-chaulk

Sandy collected a conch and wants to make a horn ..

unfortunately after 2 cuts into the end there was no hole to blow into

...so she is off to find another shell

next we found a coconut and Joe with his machete opened it

and

John had a sip of the coconut water

then Sandy's turn …  we also shared the nice thick meat inside

then next day we left Mangoes to head out to Boat Harbour and Tilloo Cay for a few days

well we only made it out of the harbour and around to Mermaid Reef

and our engine alarm went off .. within 3-5 minutes all of the oil

dropped out of our engine and into the oil pan and bilge 

… thankfully we were in an wide open area and drifted for a bit, then we put up our sails and

sailed slowly back into Marsh Harbour …. Wingspread and Sandys Way, turned around and

returned also

the other boats quickly anchored and Charlie came back to us and side towed us

back into our slip that we just left one hour ago

Joe getting us all tied up again

once safely tied, Charlie and Sandys Way headed back to their boats

****** now lets see what happened to our motor *****

January 2 - 8, 2018 Marsh Harbour

one of our first stops upon arrival was to go to Asian Market and pick up

some home grown Wing Beans …. mashed garlic potatoes and salmon loaf finished

off our supper

Joe's favourite drink …

one last visit with Mark on Cauv, before he heads off to Cuba

what a great night onboard Sandys Way .. it sure is nice to have an enclosure all around

Joe and I went to Mangoes  for a few days, we took advantage to super charge our batteries

it actually turned out that we stayed for 6 nights because of high winds and torrential rains

it was Sandy's and John's first time to Marsh Harbour, so we showed them the

highlights … Island Bakery was the first on the list

if you don't get there in time all of the Coconut Bread, Thursday and

Raisin Bread on Friday will be gone

Cam from TeAmor, dropped off a gift, that Jan made …

it is for a special parcel that is arriving in April

Arron arrived to install our new wind direction indicator, last year the other one

fell off during high winds

Joe had a safety on Arron but said it never had to even haul him up 

… he climbed the mast like a monkey

up up and away

the new instrument being hauled up

Arron checked all our rigging while up there and removed our

radar indicator .. left side

and the rains came, in one night we had 3 inches .. note the depth in the

dinghy around Joe's ankles

and the boat V-berth leak that we thought we fixed is still leaking