The month of May saw us continuing our stay in George Town, Bahamas as we worked on boat issues and spent time enjoying the beauty of the waters surrounding us. The parts for the water maker, that we were anxiously awaiting, arrived but did not get it working. Additional parts are now shipped to Nova Scotia for us to pick up and we are optimistic that they will get us up and running again. Jas got the engine exhaust issue fixed though. As for the outdoor shower, the gasket never did appear but Jason was able to modify things to happily get it installed.

We continue to enjoy everything there is to see and do around George Town. This included heading off in the dinghy for a six-hour day of spear fishing. The water by the reef area was unbelievable! So beautifully clear.

We all came back with tons of fish that day. Unfortunately, I also ‘brought back’ a sunburn. Up to that point I had been successful at avoiding burning but as we get further into the summer months, the sun is getting more and more intense.

Always on the lookout for boats with kids, we were happy to connect with the family on the catamaran Beso del Viento. On board are Stella (12) and Siro (10) and their parents, Fedi and Silke. Before we knew it Dylan was spending afternoons at Chat N’Chill playing with Stella and Siro. They have been living aboard for two years now and we quickly found lots to talk about as we got to know each other. One evening they had us over to watch a movie. After hanging up a big, white screen and setting up the projector, we all watched Mamma Mia outside on their boat under the stars!

On this trip we have a bit of an informal ‘bucket list’. One item high on the list was to swim with wild dolphins. The anchorage we are in is home to two bottle nose dolphins – a mother and her calf. Early one morning, we saw them swimming by the boat and we could not resist…we jumped in! For almost two hours we swam with them as the calf stayed ‘glued’ to its mother’s side. It was an experience we will never forget! A week later it happened again. This time the water was perfectly calm and the calf was starting to swim further and further away from its mom. Again, for hours we swam around with them. They appeared to be just as curious about us as we were of them. Several times the calf would swim directly towards me as it communicated ‘eeeee’. Each time it would turn and swim away just before it was close enough for me to reach out and touch it! That second experience swimming with them happened on Mother’s Day and we loved it. 🐬

With a strong interest in finding out more about these beautiful creatures, I started gathering online resources to do a dolphin themed school day. Fedi and Silke had a medical issue that they needed time to deal with so one day I headed over to their boat to teach all three kids. Together we learned about dolphin anatomy and behaviour. It worked out well and was a lot of fun. After that, I did Stella’s hair as the boys played some games.

Following lunch, the kiddos cooled off by jumping off the flybridge into the water. Once Fedi and Silke returned, Jas came over and we made seafood tacos for dinner.

A few days later we discovered the dangers of living in extreme heat. We were experiencing higher than normal temperatures for this time of year. Bahamas was having a heat wave and with no air conditioning on the boat, we were really feeling it. At times, the lowest temps we’d see overnight was +28 degrees Celsius.  It was very hot and we needed to learn to limit our activities during the hottest points of the day. We try to do laundry by hand on the boat as much as possible but with our water maker issues, we have been doing our laundry in town. On this one particular day, the temperatures were incredibly high. We dinghied over and carried our heavy laundry bags the two blocks to the laundromat. I was feeling okay but that changed very quickly shortly after we got our two loads of laundry running. I immediately felt awful. There was a bank close by that we knew had air conditioning so we headed over there. After sitting in the cool air for almost a half hour, I was still getting worse. We determined I needed medical attention and tried to walk to the clinic. I couldn’t manage that and thankfully a woman saw I was in trouble and gave us a ride. The vomiting started at the clinic and the doctor saw that I was suffering from heat stroke. She put me on IV fluids. After an hour I was happy to start feeling better again.

That was a miserable experience but I feel it was the ‘wake up call’ us three needed to be smarter in the heat. We need to make sure we are drinking more water and need to pay attention to our bodies when we do anything that required exertion. That day we knew that making dinner on the beach would be cooler than cooking on the boat. I was thankful to be feeling well enough to join our friends for a beach fish fry. We swam, listened to music and cooked up a feast over an open fire. Laura and Javier from the catamaran Momentum joined us along with their daughters Gabby and Inoa.

With plans to leave Georgetown shortly after our trip to Nova Scotia, we knew there still some ‘must see’ places we needed experience! One was to go to the Lazy River. Accompanied by our friends on Momentum and Beso del Viento, we did the six-mile dinghy ride to it. The Lazy River is simply a natural waterway that meanders around a peninsula. At low and high tides, you can ride the current on a float of some kind. The day we went we were on high tide so the waterway was flowing into the cut from the ocean.  The peninsula is a beautiful beach area where we set up a sun canopy and some beach chairs. It was a fun and great way to beat the heat.

Another must see is the Art Walk. Located by Sandollar Beach is a path that cuts across the island. All along it are creations various cruisers have put up. It’s an eclectic collection of art that proves that some of us sailors can be very creative! Starship has yet to make an addition but we hope to come up with something soon.

The day we did the Art Walk we also found a beautiful beach on the Atlantic side. This meant the water was nice and cool. In the anchorage on the other side, water temps are hanging around +27 degrees Celcius. Locals tell us that it’s very early in the year to be seeing those kind of water temps. Typically the water is not that warm until August. For this reason, we really enjoyed the cooler water that day on the Altantic side. We spent the afternoon alternating between hanging out in the water and under our beach umbrella. There were some waves rolling in so the kids had fun with their skin board and boogie board.

It came time for us to get ready to leave Starship to head up to Nova Scotia. We knew we were not comfortable leaving her at anchor. Considering costs, we decided to move onto a mooring ball at a fraction of the cost of a marina. The problem was, the mooring ball was located in a hurricane hole that is very sheltered from the wind. Of course, that is a good thing for us leaving the boat unattended but in the heat, it was a problem for us. The mooring balls could not be reserved so a week before we left, we felt we needed to move there to make sure we got one. So, in addition to the increased heat, we started getting no-seeums/sand flies on the boat. They were small enough to get through our screens. After two horrendous nights of heat and bug bites, we knew we needed to get off the ball. We were given permission to tie a fender to it and just come back the day prior to us flying out. Thank goodness for that. Once back on anchor we were away from the biting bugs and could benefit from any breeze that could come our way to try to cool us down.

Before we knew it, it was time to go back to the mooring ball. With our bags mostly packed, and the boat as organized as possible, we pulled anchor. That was when I felt (and heard) something let go at the helm. It was the steering cable. I had absolutely no steerage! Why, oh why is nothing easy when it comes to sailing? Fortunately, there was very little wind that morning. We took off the wheel and attached the emergency tiller. The tiller is extremely hard to use but the combination of using it with the autohelm allowed Jas to expertly navigate us over to the mooring field. Once attached the mooring ball we got our last bit of packing and boat prep done and each took showers before excitedly heading to the airport. The steering cable fix will have to wait for our return.

The blog below talks about why we have decided to add the above Coffee button. 😊

Random acts of kindness