I always enjoy it when the sun and moon overlap in their passing of the sky. Watching the moonrise before the sun has set gives a strange sensation to the experience. This was our first night anchored in Slaughter Harbor in the Berry Islands as we awaited a strong easterly wind to approach.
Our First Bahamian Sunset
Getting to the Bahamas took us a bit longer than it would take someone with a motor. We left April 24th at 11pm and arrived in West End at 3pm on April 26th. The winds got light and the Gulf Stream was pushing harder than expected, so we took longer to make it there.
While the 10 hour journey took us a day and a half, the sunset on our first night there was worth it! It was a calm day, we went swimming, relaxed in the hammock, and then watched the sun paint the horizon a glorious orange.
This is what we were looking for when we set sail for the Bahamas, and we found it on our first day there.
Deep Blue
Water is a magical compound. It ebbs and flows, always moving and changing. No matter what form it takes, I am always mystified by deep blue water.
I wonder about what lives down there in the column right beneath our keel. What is swimming about or resting? What is growing on the bottom? What does the bottom even look like?
Deep blue water makes me wonder about the depths that we are merely skimming the surface of.
When the Crewmember Wanted a Shoreside Adventure
On our fourth day at anchor, the crewmember went stir crazy and wanted to go to shore. There were two reasons I didn't want him to go. First, the weather was very fierce, with strong winds and high waves forming, even in the anchorage and protected areas. Second, the land he wanted to go to was 5 miles away and the dinghy has a hull speed of 3.5 knots.
To dinghy in settled weather would take about 1.5 hours, and burn about a gallon of gasoline in the process. Gasoline here costs around $6.50 per gallon, meaning that a round trip would cost $13 in settled weather. Today was not settled, and the weather was rather challenging.
The crewmember got rather hot headed and stormed off anyways, bailing out the dinghy as waves crashed over the sides. The journey took him 3.5 hours one way, and cost way too many gallons of gasoline (which is a waste of our cruising budget).
While $13 may not sound like a good reason to keep someone on a boat, the other factor that comes into play is he was taking our only dinghy with him. Should it get stolen or damaged, we would be the ones who are missing a dinghy. Should something happen onboard Wisdom and we need to get to shore, we would be unable to as he had our dinghy.
Once he got to shore, he turned off his radio and we didn't hear from him until the following afternoon when he radioed us that he was returning.
This sort of careless attitude and lack of respect for other peoples things is not a good quality for a crew member.
Gasoline
The fuel of portable generators and outboard dinghy motors. This liquid gold can power your toys and also explode your yacht!
The worst part about gasoline is having to purchase it. We have had a Honda 2000 generator for several months and are comfortable with the burn rate it gives us. It burns through 1 gallon in about 8 to 10 hours, depending on the demand we put on it. This lets us charge up our electric motor bank in a hurry if we drew too much power from it trying to motor through an inlet.
In the Bahamas, our crew member brought his 2hp Honda outboard along with him, so we have enjoyed the freedom from rowing that it has brought us. The freedom does come at a price! This little motor burns through fuel at an alarming rate! To conserve fuel, we travel at less than hull speed on our dinghy, and we travel in the straightest line possible, making the trip as short as possible. Hull speed for the dinghy is 3.5 knots, so we usually travel at around 3 knots. This makes getting places slow, but still faster than rowing!
Now, even with all these factors in mind to reduce fuel consumption, that dinghy motor burns through the fuel at an alarming rate! We carry 10 gallons of gasoline on Wisdom, and this has never been a problem. From Hatteras, NC to Lake Worth, FL, we only had to buy 30 gallons of gasoline to run the generator. We carry two 5 gallon jugs, and when one jug was empty, we would then begin searching for the cheapest fuel.
Usually, we would buy fuel once a month, so it was never that big of a financial burden. We bought fuel right before we left Florida for the Bahamas, and left with 10 gallons of gasoline, ready to carry us along for a long time.
Then we started using the outboard, and in under a week, we burned through 5 gallons of gas! We are anchored between two private islands owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruises, and our next destination is a chain of uninhabited islands. The thought of getting stranded with no fuel felt unsettling!
So we went to one of the islands to see if they could sell us some fuel. The price of fuel is insane in the Bahamas! They charge $6.50 per gallon, and after the taxes are added, the 5 gallon jerry can cost us $35!
This put the brakes on running that outboard so much, as it represented a very expensive convenience. We used to row for free, and it got us to shore and back to the boat. We simply timed the tides and made our journey at the right time! The outboard is convenient, but an expensive one.
The priorities for gasoline will be: 1st, the generator. 2nd, the outboard.
We will try to anchor closer to shore so that we can row in instead of burning gas, and only use the outboard when absolutely necessary.
