Settling into the Elbow

 We've been on Elbow Cay a little over three weeks now and we're getting acclimated to life on the boat again. It's about time we were getting used to the boating life given we've been aboard Freedom for 6 weeks.
 Initially the temperature was warm and the wind light. Without a functional generator we were concerned about our supplies since the inverter's bank of batteries is finite. We rarely let the inverter drain them for more than 12 hours before we give them a complete recharge. At 1200 dollars for a set of batteries we like to go easy on them. If another storm caused an extended power outage we were going to be in a difficult position that depended on one of the alternators associated with the engines. While they have decent output at 90 amps, running up the engine to charge the batteries would certainly make enemies in the harbour. So after removing the bad parts from the generator we knew what we needed and ordered them from Don Hillman Power Systems in Fort Lauderdale.
 I have to admit they were very good at locating the parts and getting them out to us in very short order. Normally marine parts are not subject to import duties so we were surprised to see a couple of hundred dollars tacked on to the package by Fedex! As it turned out the documentation we shipped over via email was somehow removed from the package thus there was no proof that I purchased it, and that it was bound for a boat. That meant I had to pay the duty or the parts would go back to the States. After some emails and phone calls, Don Hillman Power stepped up and reimbursed us for the duty charges while they work out the issue with Fedex. With all of the parts installed and the system flushed out, new antifreeze poured in, the genny fired up and ran a good load for an hour so it seems that situation has been resolved.
 That resolution put our minds at ease and we moved on to important things like beach combing, hooking up with the gang over here again, refinishing teak, and generally speaking, chilling out.
 As a matter of beach combing we have walked the entire East Coast of Elbow Cay and while there is a noticeable change in the dunes, most of the houses were not damaged by Hurricane Sandy. However the bulldozer is back pushing sand back into place for the second year in a row. Some houses seem to be particularly prone to beach erosion due to their location with respect to reef structures or the lack there of. However workers are busy getting things back into shape and it won't be long before it's difficult to tell Sandy was in town.

 Houses located a little off the beach dunes were much better off as usual. Curly Tail's place remains unscathed offering him the luxury of basking in the sun outside the front door while others are sweating out repairs, improvements or accelerated maintenance. I thought we had the life but then we saw this place and wondered what his career was that left him so well off. Beer on the upper deck, two cars, a plane and a boat in the yard as well. Life's good. The lizard has been here at least 5 years that I know of and I have to admit he keeps this place well. That is, in spite of all the storms the place still looks great.

 But enough of the affects Sandy had on the Cay, it was our good fortune to get a day of calm winds leading to flat water on the Sea of Abaco and that can only mean one thing. Get out in the dink. With that we took off in Madonna and went around the West side of Lubbers to one of Deb's favorite shelling beaches. It wasn't long before we found a number of interesting shells to add to our collection. Moving on from Lubbers we headed South West until we arrived at Snake Cay inlet. This spot generally offers some excellent views of spotted rays but today there were none around. It could have been the run about that shot into the inlet before us but I am thinking the tide was dead low and they left for deeper waters. Since the view lacked the usual water life we left and went back North and stopped in at Lubbers Landing on the East side of Lubbers Cay.
 Here we split a fish burger and had a beverage while enjoying the excellent view of Tiloo Cut.Once lunch was finished we finished up our day on the water with the ride back to Hope Town.