A Tale of Two Chemists: Take only Photographs, Leave only Bubbles

Take only Photographs, Leave only Bubbles … Monday 1st April 2013

Today was our last day in the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. We are looking forward to moving on but will be sad to leave this wonderful area behind. In my opinion this really is the jewel of the Bahamas - or at least what we've seen of the Bahamas. It's great that the Bahamian government had the foresight to set aside this area of pristine wilderness and it's such a privilege to be able to experience it. This morning we jumped in the "Dumb Dog" and accompanied Lynn and Lee on a trip to the north west end of Shroud Cay where we were able to take a narrow, mangrove lined cut through the island over to the east Exuma Sound side. The route is only passable at mid to high tide so we planned it to be on the last hour of the rising tide. The colors of the water were amazing and it felt quite remote. We saw a few birds, snowy egret, kingfisher, royal terns and laughing gulls, but the highlight by far was the sight and sound of white tailed tropic birds passing overhead, showing off their arial courtship dance. At the far end of the creek we beached the dinghies and climbed to the top of a low hill where we got some good views. This was sight of an old camp, although nothing remained, and it was also used by "The Feds" as an observation post during a drug busting operation. The island to the north, Norman's Cay, had been taken over by a Colombian drug runner called Carlos Leder who was using it as a distribution center and murdering unfortunate boaters who came too close to the operation. After staking out the area, the authorities moved in and cleaned up. All this happened during the bad old days when Bahamas were a focus for drug running, but today all that remains of this particular operation are the bullet ridden walls of a former compound, a ditched aircraft underwater and a defunct radio tower.

Before heading out on this mornings trip we had spent some time doing routine maintenance in preparation for the forthcoming passages to Nassau and over to Florida. We cleaned the sea strainer for the raw water cooling the engine and replaced the sacrificial anode in the heat exchanger. We also decided to replace the belt that drives the refrigeration compressor. As we did this we realized that the adjustable bracket that is used to hold one side of the compressor and tensions the belt had cracked completely through. This is one spare that we don't carry. We used epoxy cement to bond the two halves together and because the bar acts as brace the tension of the belt tends to hold it in place so we are optimistic that it will be OK for the time being. We'll see if we can find a spare in Nassau and we also have a fall back plan to provide the necessary tension if the bracket fails completely. It could have been worse - at first I thought this was the cooling water pump for the engine, but that runs off the same belt as the alternator. I hope not to be writing much more about this!

Tomorrow we head out in the morning for Allen's Cay about 15 miles away at the northern end of the Exuma chain. This should provide a secure anchorage and a good jumping off point for our passage to Nassau on Wednesday.

p.s. Today we logged our 305th day of sailing experience. We need just 60 more to support a 100 ton license application.

Mike

24 32.016 N, 76 47.944 W