Busy Day

Today started out with a sleep in, sort of. I woke up and looked at the batteries, they needed charging. Against my usual ways, I went to start the motor to charge the batteries. It cranked over, but didn't start. Oh no, not again. I went through the fuel system checks, no help. Frustrated I got the manual (by now it is in easy access), next thing it said to check was the fuel stop mechanism, this has gone before, I felt like an idiot. The spring that holds it back has lost it's sprung, so I zap strapped it a little further away. Turned the key, and vrooom, she started right up. One idea I wanted to try out was to charge the batteries a bit in the morning, to get the juices flowing, so when the solar panels got going they would be charging faster. I think it worked, but maybe it was just sunny today. I was really happy to see 70 amp hrs of charge today for only an hour and a half running the motor.

The reason I stopped running the motor so soon, was our youthful neighbours were going to go snorkeling this afternoon, and we had stuff to do before that. We got into Alicetown and mailed off the old wifi part, picked up a jug of Diesel (not that we need it, but Jennie feels better having it on board. I recon we still have about 40 gallons of fuel maybe more. We did that and found a working payphone to make a call. This might sound easy in a place with phone booths everywhere, but none of the phones work. We got our jug of fuel and headed back to the boat.

Jennie had to go into the marina (which is only a few hundred yards away) to do something, so I suggested she go on her own and practice her dinghy starting and maneuvering. When she came back she took Dex for a little rip, and as she got close Dex tried to leap on the boat. He didn't quite make it. Splashing around, she reached for him and pulled the safety stop out of the motor. Luckily she got him and grabbed the boat to.

Next we went out to go snorkelling we don't move so fast in a loaded boat so it took us 45 min both ways, but that isn't too bad because we went to the south tip of South Bimini Island. The snorkelling was awesome, our new gear works great, and the water was oh so warm and clear. I watched some spear fishing, and figure I can do that in the future, with a little practice. On the way back we saw a 5 ft span Eagle Ray leap clear out of the water, amazing to see. black back then white belly and thin tail. There have been a few of these leaping rays lately and they sure are cool.

It was a busy day. One more day for us here in Bimini for our weather window, then across the bank and to the Berry Islands. Time for a rest.

No Dex it's too far!!!