Suliere's Blog

Ok, the GRIB files can be something of an underestimation for example; this morning we woke to 18 knots from the West coming right into the bay giving more rock and roll for those few remaining monohulls that lingered, yet the GRIB was showing just 10 knots!  The water in the bay has been churned up and  disturbed as though its been through a blender, the whole bay looks like a giant peppermint milkshake.

Waves wash over the sugar scoops and keep Slurpy dancing out back

Whilst we just gently bounce up and down on the waves dear Slurpy is frolicking about a bit out back, man can she dance!  One of the unforeseen issues with having a fixed console and a davit system thats quite rigid  is that in these waves we cannot lift her out of the water without the risk of the davits smashing into the console and engine.  So poor Slurpy rides it out on a long painter  frisking about doing a lot of Slurping and we spend a lazy Sunday onboard catching up with the blog.

Slurpy Frolicks in the Waves

If we had our time again we would not have bought Slurpy as she is. The engine at 30hp is too heavy and frankly after having learnt it takes 4 hours to replace the impeller in the Honda Outboard we would never have one again.  For servicing and utility a 15 to 20 HP Yamaha would have been fine. Lighter, easier to service around the islands and an easy impeller change.

The fuel tank for Slurpy is in the forward compartment but as fuel is used and the weight forward reduced it becomes harder and harder to avoid nose up motoring. I have now added our spare diving lead weight belts as ballast in front of the fuel tank and it seems to have improved things.

Our next and last stop in the Exumas will be  at Little Farmer Cay before heading off for a two day journey to the Jumentos. Its a 71 mile trip to Flamenco Cay but we need good light behind us for that route hence the plan is to spend the night in the open on a sand bank some 1 mile south of Great Exuma then leave early the next day so we arrive on the next 30 mile leg with the Sun behind us and high.

The afternoon stretches out  into a lazy, hazy blur of semiconscious drowsiness and in such a state of mind as this,  its curious how a giant man with a long bent nose  quickly becomes a savage dog,  all barred teeth, ears pulled back and terrifying,  then in a swirl of updraft his nature changes as his body melds into a big fluffy sheep…… You might think that Lesley has developed cabin fever but no, its just an afternoon of lying back on the tramps cloud watching and letting her imagination run with it.

As the wind shifts to the North calm descends on the bay once more