DINGHY DETAILED!!

We have had a problem with the mold on our dinghy not coming off and breeding ground for more and more. Florida is not kind to her. 

The two pictures above are the BEFORE. See below the transformation! Now, we will see how it lasts in Bahamas, this paint had good reviews.

Yoga mat is a great non-skid that we adhere to the parts of the dinghy that is slippery when wet (which is too often).

There is probably enough yoga mat for me to do yoga! Ha ha ha, just kidding, I don't do yoga. We will use it for lining a drawer or something. 

Our dinghy is our "car"! We don't like using a beat up old clunker down there, Engine is fantastic, so a new paint job is all it needed.

     

PAINTING A DINGHY?

PAINTING A DINGHY?? Be honest have you heard of this before? We have had the paint on board. Our poor dinghy (our car in the Bahamas) is in need of TLC. It looks awful, mold has seeped in and grows and grows. No amount of cleaning supplies has helped. To get one more year out of our "car", we are painting it today!

MOLD

Paul did one coat and looked pretty good. Will post tomorrow when two coats on the whole dinghy. It is amazing paint and went on well. The blue tape preparation was the real work (me for a lot of it), just kidding. 

See this awesome handle on our boat.... it was just installed! I don't know what we did beforehand.... wait, I do remember, I fell once on the dock! Paul bought for my birthday along with the cool set of drawers, see below. We actually have room in our stateroom for this. And believe or not, the top drawer is empty! 

Many boats arriving for the winter season, including this regular fishing boat. He is ready to go out for the day with his captain on board. Gulf Stream fishing needs a license (Florida), I think next year we should get one.

LITHIUM IS OUR NEW WAY

We are celebrating many new things on board Time Out. Two are very important! Number one is the fact that we are installing lithium batteries. Below is our first test one before we order more. It was like Christmas onboard. 

This is 4 cells attached together

Paul had measurements and had special plastic made to store the lithium batteries in. His measurements were accurate!

The lithium set up is being tested down in the engine room right now. These batteries cost more, but weigh less and supply more power. This test battery weights 48 lbs (271 Amp hours). Next stage is to build a 24 volt (542 Amp hour) lithium battery. Basically 1,100 lbs of batteries are removed from boat and 200 lbs of lithium replaces those!

Our next major project is happening next week! STABILIZERS! Paul is prepping and installing pieces on the inside of the boat before we get hauled out. This is like four Christmases all at once!

Stay tuned for the next post.

We love expiry dates on boxed wine like this one when provisioning.

BY THE NUMBERS (2019)

This is usually our last post of the "season" for last couple of years and why change anything? Thought I will do the numbers again for us to look back on and for others if interested.

474

AMP hours one day was our best with our solar

13
Nights in marinas

67
Days in the Bahamas

5
Nights of fun friends visited

0
Mahi Mahi caught

3
Mahi Mahi fillets given to us

797
Nautical miles travelled (917 miles)

9
Parmalat milks used

300
Dollars for our Bahamas Cruising Permit

11
is the NCIS season we are up to. We are way behind but loving this show

15
Dollars for 15GB Bahamian data per month

1501
Miles from our house to the marina (2415 Kilometres)

365
Islands (Cays) in Exuma, Bahamas! 

135
Hours on our generator

10
Gallons of gas used by our dinghy

524
Gallons of diesel used in Time Out (American gallons)

3
Cases of beer given away in Bimini. We brought too many. At $65 dollars a case we always bring our beer from the U.S.A.

53
Nautical miles to Bimini from Ft. Lauderdale

9
Lunches out at restaurants (no dinners)

30
Chicken thighs eaten from our freezer (I need to bring more!)

115
Hours put on our engines

  

WHAT I HAVE DISCOVERED LIVING ON A BOAT

Your backyard is huge! And it doesn't matter the size of your boat, we all share this massive area and share in the same community.

Everyone says hello on the dock coming and going. There is usually talk of weather.

In one's galley, everything is in arm's reach, you realize how little you need to cook a gourmet meal.

When you buy a piece of clothing another one in your closet needs to go to make room.

When deciding to fix something--- I have to remember there will be 2 more projects involved that one didn't realize. Beware when taking apart something!

When you smell something really bad, assume the worst and be prepared to put a face mask on and probably those disposable gloves that you have handy.

All's men's bathing suits come in different sizes, unfortunately the speedo is on someone that has had it for 20 years and really should not be wearing it anymore!

I have discovered that I really really love our ice maker! Other boaters seen to too.

Be prepared to help other boaters with their boat problems. What goes around come around in the boating community. Our portable generator helped three boats this year.

We discovered the first year we need to have a few one and five dollar bills for handy tip money all the time.

Saltwater is our enemy! It does not dry. Everything has to be rinsed with fresh water before entering the boat. 

Be prepared to pull anchor if you don't like your neighbours. No need to tell them you don't like their music or whatever.

I need to be agile when going down to the engine room to remove batteries or  clean up !@#$ from our vacuflush that is not working (Toilet part). 

I discovered that polarized sunglasses work better when boating! And do not lean over the boat when they are not secure on your head! Never buy expensive ones, just have a few around, the salt doesn't like the hinges!

Amazon is a personal friend of ours!

We have discovered to NOT shop at West Marine for boat supplies, find another supplier if you can. 

We have been blessed to have friends that can handle us for a week and stay on the boat. 

We have discovered to not share or publish our favourite anchorages, we realize that when we go to these places there are others there now hmmmmm! We are very selective and we ask those we share with to not tell anyone else! Hahaha.

I have discovered what boat hair means.

We have discovered that we are living a dream and this is our reality! 

BIMINI TO LAKE WORTH, FLORIDA

We sure enjoyed our 8 nights "stuck" in Bimini waiting to cross the Gulf Stream. We met a few fishermen and below was given to us. It is mangrove snapper. It is now in the freezer waiting to be eaten, we were given Mahi Mahi the same night so ate that! We love our boat friends and neighbours that share!

There are some ferries that run from our marina in Bimini to Ocean Cay, a resort that is being built. This cute ferry has an outhouse on it! Same colour as boat. It arrives in morning and leaves late afternoon. 

https://www.msccruisesusa.com/en-us/Cruise-Destinations/Caribbean-Antilles/Bahamas/Ocean-Cay-MSC-Marine-Reserve.aspx

While in Bimini, we went out for 3 lunches (so rare). Sharkies at Bimini Big Game Club was our favourite! Fresh food on the barbeque!

This is our sixth time in Bahamas and every time we walked the beach we took a right turn, this time we took a left turn and lo and behold..... tons of sea glass! I decided to paint them and maybe one day I will be talented enough to make jewelry! Stay tuned!

We waited until a perfect day to cross the Gulf Stream from Bimini to Lake Worth, Florida, too many times we try to cross and then come back. The weather was perfect and the wind and waves.... until we entered Lake Worth Inlet.... thunder, lightening and rain and more rain! It was terrible. We had our radar but we could not go to Riveria Municipal Marina until weather stopped. We hovered and maneuvered around the big turning basin there. This inlet is large because there are cruise ships that leave from area. We did get docked but the thunder was on top of us and super loud!

After we land in the USA we have to get a cruising permit for our boat at Customs and Immigration close to Riveria Marina. When we got up in the morning there was a huge yacht on fire at Cracker Boy Boatyard next to marina, needless to say there was alot of action. There were helicopters, firetrucks and media! The customs building is next door to the boatyard, when we arrived the office building was shut down. We just cruised up to Vero Beach and got one at the Fort Pierce airport the next day. 

We are at our home dock and preparing the boat for hurricane season before we drive home.

      

DID YOU KNOW?

Did you know..... is a post on this blog that some might find interesting.

Did you know that this is our 6th time travelling to the Exumas? We did it twice on our power cat Coyaba. (there is a link to this blog on the right). The last 4 times has been on Time Out.

Did you know that we usually travel 8 knots.... if we decide to go faster and travel at 10 knots, we use double the fuel, if we go 18 knots, it is 4 times the fuel. 

We have a water maker on board. It turns the salt water into fresh water! We have to run the generator to use it. If you buy water in Bahamas, it will cost 75 cents per gallon and sometimes it is not good quality water.

Did you know that we have 2 freezers and 2 fridges? One freezer can be turned into a fridge later if we need it. 

We have a washing machine on board! And a dryer (same machine), but the high speed dryer is the clothesline!

Did you know that if you use a Credit Card down here, they will charge you an extra 5%? We bring cash! Big city like Nassau may not charge the extra 5%.

The U.S. dollar is the same as a Bahamian dollar in value. 

A bag of nacho chips or Ripple chips will cost $7+ so we bring all chips and other provisions with us.

There is a VAT (value added tax) on EVERYTHING in Bahamas, 12%. This is new in last couple of years. 

There are boats here that are flagged from many countries. There are many from Canada.

Conch is a very popular food here. There are the shells everywhere. But, they are over fished right now.

Boats our size have to pay $300 to cruise here which includes our fishing licenses.

We have satellite t.v. on board, every time we move the boat we can turn our tv on and it finds all our channels.

We are in Bimini now at a marina waiting to cross the Gulf Stream. The weather and winds are not in our favour. 

On our way out of Nassau, this beautiful Norwegian Cruise Liner was there with this painted on the side.

On our way to Bimini we anchored on The Banks, 40 miles from any land all by ourselves. We travelled through some light rain and then the above rainbow showed up. We could see both ends, we motored right under it. So cool.

This funnel cloud was not where we were travelling, we saw a few on our way to Bimini. 

THALASSOPHILE
a lover of the sea, someone who loves the sea, ocean

EXUMAS, SEE YOU SOON

In boating we try to remember it is never "goodbye", it is just see you later and safe travels.

We enjoyed the Exumas this year with company onboard for 5 nights of fun, friends and food! Then we reconnected for a few days with another boat from Canada. We enjoy the company of Sheldon and Cyndi from C-Shel.

Our last stop in the Exumas is our favourite! Norman's Cay, from beaches, mangroves, coral reefs and the great weather, it is an awesome place.

Our friends Susie and Steven gave me a Henna Kit! What fun that was and still remains. Will keep the Henna product in the fridge to do another design later. Maybe do the back of Paul's head? ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf1hLBpcN5g

When we left Staniel Cay (with C-Shel), we researched the weather from many websites and the seas were only 1 foot out in the open waters.... so a decision was made lets fish for Mahi Mahi on our way to Norman's Cay. Yipee! After about half an hour, those 1 foot seas turned to 3 or 4 foot seas, there was a major squall of weather and we have to turn into a cut to go on the inside on the Banks. This was NOT what we expected, so certain cupboards and miscellaneous boat parts were not tucked away safely! Moral is lock every cupboard and put everything away even if just a jaunt somewhere. So many boats travelling that day and had unexpected weather. The boat chatter on the VHF was busy. Visability was poor at times and we were relying on radar to see other boats. The above rain spout was just outside of Norman's Cay before we anchored safely there. 

We are heading to The Berry's, something new to see and post on our blog. Stay tuned!