Saturday, February 27, 2016

Black Point Settlement, Great Guana Cay, Exumas



Laundry Day!  Carting our laundry ashore in the dinghy, we visited the laundromat at the respectable hour of 10:30am.  As described to us by many cruisers as the best laundromat in the Exumas, it was very clean and airy with 16 washing machines, a bunch of dryers, laundry carts, each with 4 wheels that all worked, a clean working bathroom with toilet paper and a cushy vinyl toilet seat, and an attached small store with cruiser oriented supplies like engine oil, snacks, hors d’oeuvre fixings, and to order chocolate cake, rum cake and brownies which also had a wall covered in no less than 1,000 boat cards.  Unfortunately the store was closed today but Bob got a sneak peek when the owner stopped in to check on something.  The laundromat being a very popular place on Saturday morning, nearly every machine was in use before we left.  While our laundry was washing Bob was harnessed to his return of required emails and I made a phone call to my mother on my gracious $1.00 per minute AT&T phone plan!  This was the first place since leaving Bimini that we’ve had internet and phone service.

The best laundromat (white building) in the Exumas has a grand entry and view of the bay.

Lunch at Deshamonds Restaurant took several hours as anything that is ordered takes at least an hour before being served.  And before that there is the hour or so waiting to order but if you are in a hurry then you should not be here.  Conch and fries for lunch was accompanied by two more Kaliks.  After all we are in the Bahamas and you can’t drink the water!  Our morning laundry excursion took 5 hours!
The biggest fly we’ve ever seen

Having gone ashore with all our water jugs, one 5 gallon, two 1 gallon, and one 2.5 gallon, we filled them on the way out at the free R/O water spigot across the road from the government dock.  As usual, nothing works 100% the way we think it should and the 2.5 gallon jug had a leak in the bottom so it immediately became trash.   That’s OK, we are on island time and are still seven gallons more than we had this morning.  Next time; Buy two each 5 gallon blue plastic water jugs.  On the good side, the Britta water filter has done a fantastic job removing the sulfurous taste and odor of the R/O water supplied on these islands.  A few slices of lemon in the water pitcher makes the water sweet and tasty. 

Freshly stocked Exuma grocery store

Rays and Sharks waiting for a hand out.

Friday, February 26, 2016

Warderick Wells to Black Point Settlement, Great Guana Cay, Exumas


     

Time to move on again!  Off into the Exuma Sound for another exciting day of dodging coral heads . . . not.  Diligently following the rhumb lines on charts keeps us in 10 to 20 feet of water and once we even found a deep hole of 30 feet!  Around 10:30am, after only an hour of cruising, Peggy heard a strange hissing noise when she into the galley.  And then there was the water, not usually something one likes to see on the inside of a boat.  Bob came to the rescue when he discovered that the constant movement of the stabilizers had rubbed a hole in the pressurized fresh water inlet of the washing machine.  Our limited fresh water supply was becoming a fine spray which soaked everything behind, under and around the washer/dryer unit but Bob soon found the valve to shut off the water supply.  A sponge and a fan finished up the job and the excitement was over with no more than a gallon of water lost.  
Roadside gardens



Anchoring at Black Point Settlement in the early afternoon we had hoped, to no avail, for internet or phone service in the anchorage.  Silly us!  It meant going ashore with the laptops in search of free WiFi.  First we ran into other cruisers and ended up going to Scorpios, whose Happy Hour was tonight from 4-6, so of course we stayed from 3:45 to 7:00 and each of us had a Kalik (Bahamian beer) and downloaded and answered emails, and returned to the boat after dark.  Late night!

Which way to go?