Thursday- Monday, December 26-30th

Just a review of what we've been doing in Marsh Harbour, Abacos.    The flowers and plants on the island still amaze me.  Mom, you would just love it....and just think, it's December!!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday, 26th
Today is Boxing Day on the islands and everything is closed in town....even the marina.  For those of you that don't know about this holiday, it's when the wealthier people boxed their left over foods, clothes etc. and gave them to the poor. It's an important holiday for the Bahamians.  So we basically had to stick close to home.

Today we started to clean the inside of the boat.  We discovered mildew growing, so we decided to clean a different area in the boat each day.  Today we're cleaning the main salon. It looks like that's as far as we're going to get because it's starting to get hot...so hot that after a bite of lunch, we took off for Mermaid Reef to swim and snorkel!

Oh no....by the end of the day,  Chuck suspected another mechanical problem.....he thinks the frig/freezers not working right!  Plus one of the latches in the refrigerator which holds the lid down tight got broken today.  Problems are coming at us in pairs now!!!!!Why do these things always happen when the stores are closed?

Friday, 27th
Chuck woke up this morning pondering what could be causing the refrigeration problem. He's thinking that maybe it needs recharged with more Freon but he wants to wait a day to see what might happen. In the mean time, he's still fretting over the broken latch.  We definitely have cold air seeping around the edges of the lid because it's not secured tight.  I reminded him that the cupboards under the v-berth have the same type of latches.  I thought for sure that he remembered that from our discovery this past summer.....nope....I think he was a bit upset with me because if he knew this he could have slept last night!  LOL  After switching out the latch, it worked perfectly.  Yeah!!!

garbage can holder

It's time to motor into town.  We have to find a
latch that will temporarily keep the cupboard door closed so our canned and bottled goods don't come spilling out onto the floor.  We  have a few other items to look for also and then our last stop is to be the Curly Tails Restaurant and Bar. 
We were pleasantly surprised when Bev, Rick, and Mom McKee told us that there was gift certificate waiting for us there!!  While there, we decided to go

upstairs to the open-air bar to eat.   It was hot again this
afternoon and the breeze was blowing through the opened windows.  So we sat at a high-top table, ordered a Goombay and lunch, while overlooking the Mooring's charter fleet.
.....thanks Bev, Rick, and Mom, here's a toast to all of you!!  The grouper and conch was awesome!!

 

 



Saturday, 28th
We are getting into the slow, lazy, lifestyle of the Abacos.  Today we got up late and just messed around the boat.   We do what we feel like doing and don't do what we don't want to do!  Life is great!!

Chuck decided he needed to check on the internet about new refrigeration units....Adler Babour, Frigoboat, Dometic, Isotherm, etc.  Hopefully we can wait until we get back home before we have to invest in a unit.  The duty on the shipping here isn't pretty....very expensive!!  Chuck also talked to Jason up at the Jibroom.  He recommended that we call Clement, a local refrigeration man.    Of course today is Saturday, so we probably won't hear back from Clement until  Monday, if that.....

After dinner, we went up to the Jibroom for a drink.  People were arriving for their weekly Saturday night steak dinner.  We checked the grill......110 steaks were cooking.  They looked so good that we decided we would put our order in for next Saturday.

Sunday, 29th
We are sitting in our cockpit, listening to music and the water lapping against the transom and reading our latest book.  Just enjoying the day!  The sun is shining(11:30) but the skies to our south are looking like rain.  The skies are very deceiving here.  We probably won't get a drop even though it's rained after midnight for the past 2 nights! 

We wanted to just hang around Happy Hours II because Chuck was hoping Clement would have the time to check our refrigeration.  Here,  he was in the marina this morning working on something.  All of a sudden, everything seems to be working ....wouldn't you know it!  Later in the afternoon, Clement showed up at our boat with his gauges.  Five minutes and $30 later, he determined that everything looked to be in working order and it didn't need any Freon.  What a relief!!  Now it's time to enjoy a refreshing 'Moscow Mule'.  Thanks Doug and Barb from sv/ Melinda Kay for sharing this drink and recipe with us!!  We think of you two everytime we make them!! 

Monday, 30th
I wanted to make pancakes this morning.....but the milk was spoiled. Then we thought we'd just do cereal....forgot, no milk.  We settled on breakfast bars.   Things like this happen sometimes when living aboard!  LOL   It sounds like we need to make a trip to the grocery store this afternoon!!

But first, I had planned on cleaning the galley today.  I'm determined to
continue an attack against mildew.  Chuck's been such a good help and with the two of us working, we got the galley finished by noon.  We decided to motor to Mangos for lunch and then shop.  Mangos was very busy and we had to wait for our food but it's always fun to talk to Jimmy the owner and people-watch...conch chowder and pizza....delicious!

Interesting boats on our ride back to our marina.

Back to the boat to relax.  Once again it is so hot
and humid it just seems to zap our energy.  As we were watching the sun set, Rita and David, and Keith and Trevor motored in to sit around a talk.  We hadn't seen them for 3 days because Whisper, Rising Sun, and Circe went on a little cruise to Treasure Cay and then Great Guana Cay.  We walked back to the Jibroom to chat but boy was it stinking sticky out.