Day 105: Fueling Up

Big Majors, Exumas, Bahamas (anchored)

April 30, 2022

The general store had propane today so we took our two empty tanks to Staniel. We knew we could get more gasoline for our dinghy and generator at the yacht club, so we decided to fill up our gas container while we were there. Since we were heading to town, we also took a bag of trash with us.

The wind shifted to a more southernly direction which meant our ride was pretty bumpy. We are in for some higher winds – it’s a blessing and a curse, since more wind gives us more consistent power via our wind generator but it also means the water can get more choppy. Our anchorage is pretty protected from really strong easterly winds but there’s some open water between us and Staniel that can make a dinghy ride over kind of uncomfortable

The dump is about a twelve minute walk, but when you’re not sure where you’re going, it can seem longer. I stopped to see if I could find the dump on one of our navigation apps just as a police car was coming our way.

Sgt. Stewart gave us a ride to the dump and then back to the dinghy dock. We learned that the police rotate duty through many of the islands here. This was Sgt. Stewart’s first week and he was orienting himself to the island

At the yacht club dinghy beach we ran into boat buddies from Great Harbour. A conch boat came in as we were eating our lunch outside. They had already removed the meat from the shells; they were chopping and cleaning the meat. Lots of locals were there – some with bags to get meat and a few grabbing conch “pistols” and eating them right then and there.

Soooo…there’s a lot of innuendo regarding the magic properties of the conch pistols but Google says different. They’re pretty salty and had a texture like shrimp. I googled it when I got back to the table and found out that they’re probably not all that magical. I loved that folks offered me some of what they were enjoying.

We had our dinghy anchor so we headed to snorkel the Grotto. I didn’t feel confident enough to swim against the current through the rocky passage to get inside. When John came out we snorkeled a bit around the outside and saw lots of really beautiful fish.

Our afternoon has been full of simple pleasures: showers before a steak dinner as we watched the sun set.

Some days feel really challenging: the weather makes travel difficult or supplies are sparse. We have had to deal with a variety of mechanical problems made even more challenging by a lack of replacement parts. Days like today remind us that there’s a lot of fun, too.