Big Majors, Exumas, Bahamas (anchored)
May 1, 2022
We have been in the Bahamas since February 27 and haven’t had a rainy day. Rain showers come and go but we haven’t had days just wash out.
Of course, when it does rain, we hurry through Lailia to close hatches and portlights. The rain always seems to stop just when we get everything buttoned up!
The light at sunrise was really beautiful this morning. Lailia’s bow faces east over Big Majors so we don’t see the sun come up over the horizon.
We actually had showers come from both the southeast and the northeast today, but they were brief. I enjoy watching them edge toward us – the way the view blurs and the water turns from turquoise to aquamarine.
Continuing the tradition of John repairing stuff, our alternator is not charging Lailia’s batteries when we run her engine. We had the alternator repaired in Nassau but it’s not working now. A boat buddy had a spare alternator that came with his boat and offered it to us. John had to do some adjustments to make it fit. It’s frustrating to spend hours on a repair that didn’t work! Turns out the spare alternator was also bad,
We have ordered a new alternator to be delivered to a freight handler in Florida. Once it arrives there, they will add it to their daily freight flight to Staniel Cay which is a quick dinghy ride away for us. Some boat buddies have had to use this service and have told us it’s an easy process.
While the best-case scenario is not needing an alternator repair at all, we’re in a beautiful, protected anchorage with easy access to fairly well-stocked (for the Exumas) stores. We can charge our batteries (and electronic devices) with our solar panels, wind and gas generators – and we have easy access to more gasoline, if we need it. We’ve also been able to get a sim card for the other internet provider and can download episodes of Ozark and Better Call Saul, so we have entertainment options – and I have a few pounds of butter plus flour, sugar, and yeast so we can have fresh-baked goodies.
We’re hopeful we’ll be on our way by next weekend. We need to start heading towards making the crossing back to the United States in early June to avoid being here during hurricane season.
Life on Lailia 