Small fry in a big fish pond

Here at the Grand Bahama Yacht club we've learned some humility. But only up to a point. The Affinity Yacht sporty off our bow facing starboard is quite a boat and it dwarfs Freedom.

They pulled in a day after us and proceeded to have all sorts of issues that included power and etc.. After flicking breakers on all the power towers (ours included) several times, my patience ran out and I let the owner hear it. At least I am not alone. The crew quit the day they arrived with some rather unflattering words.

After all of this, with several folks aboard working on the boat, the dockmaster knocks on the side of our boat hoping we have some duct tape to lend him. Yes, now he wants my duct tape also.

 Ok we let him have some.

 After this we took a ride in the dink to blow it out for the season. As it turns out we got about a mile away from the facility and the next round of Dan vs. Tohatsu was rung in. Sadly, there was no scantily clad woman nearby holding up the round number. Deb and I smelled some gas. I pulled the bonnet off the outboard and sure enough there was some gas leaking from the accelerator pump. Fortunately it only leaked at high rpm so we could safely putt back to the marina at a slow speed.

 Given our experiences with this outboard last year, this season we left with a complete rebuild kit in our bag of spares and I went to work on the carburetor yet again. This time I think it's really fixed but time will tell. For the first time in many years I have not seen gas weeping out of the accelerator pump bellows after a good run.

 As far as moving on goes, we are hoping the predictions for Saturday hold up so we can make a run for Spanish Cay. It's a long run of about 100 nm that we need to get done in a hurry because there is foul weather coming and we don't want to anchor out in it. Thus what we would do over two days normally will be done in a single day this time. There were some days we could have made the trip if the tide aligned with our departure of the North end of the Grand Lucayan Canal but with the tide running high late in the day we could not make the trip. The North end of the canal dumps out into a stretch of pilings that mark the most shallow water we have ever taken Freedom through. Tomorrow morning we should have high tide there, and that gives us a couple of feet of water under the running gear to spare so we'll plan to be there then.