Fuses, Sting Rays, Cat People, and Fireworks – What a Day!

Doldrums: When the ocean meets the sky and
you honestly cannot distinguish between the two.

The Captain and I were excited to move on down the Exumas with their promise of abundant sea life and exciting corals, so even with the ever-so-slight breath of wind on the air, we decided to pull up anchor and get under way.  After a tense moment of navigating a coral-lined channel, we hoisted the sails and waited for that exciting moment every sailor loves: when the wind fills the sails and you can feel the boat lean just slightly to the side as free energy starts to push you toward your next destination.  Unfortunately, no matter which way I turned the wheel, no matter how much we asked the Wind Gods, no matter how much we blew into the sails, we weren’t moving.  The doldrums is a common phrase in modern language that originally comes from sailing terminology; it’s that point where your boat is just not going to move because there is not a lick of wind to move you!

Thankfully, in today’s modern world, when wind won’t move you, the motor will.  Now, we hate to travel this way as it is: 1) noisier, 2) less environmentally friendly, 3) less friendly to the creatures whose home we are moving through, 4) less sustainable, and 5) (most importantly to us at this phase in the game) very expensive due to gasoline prices, so we try to wait for winds and make the most of the fact that we have a peaceful, quiet, cheap way to move.  However, we knew that this lack of wind was going to last for quite a while and we were in the mood to push on as getting to the south end of the Exumas was our “goal”, though we knew the “plan” was to make sure we saw as much as we could of the whole string of islands.

Once we finally accepted that the wind was not going to help us out, we started the motor and pointed toward Hawksbill Cay, a hop that would give us a good amount of distance but a short day which would allow us time to swim and explore the land with all of its mangrove.  Turns out that Calypso’s Fire and the Universe had a different idea: the Captain noticed that one of our gauges (the amperage reader) was showing nothing and we were losing battery power instead of charging as we should be doing when we are running the motor.  The fuse that had blown and been changed in Governor’s Harbor had blown again; however, with it being the starter fuse, the motor could keep going, it just couldn’t be restarted.  So, we changed our destination to Norman’sCay, knowing that it had both an airport on shore and other boats already anchored there (we could see them in the distance).  It was a tense couple of hours where Rob and I continuously checked gages and kept an eye on everything we knew to watch – including our attitude toward one another.  As we pulled into the spot we knew we wanted to lay anchor for the night, I eased the engine into a low idle and it promptly died without any desire to be turned on again.  Oh, well – at least we were where we wanted to be!

As soon as I knew the anchor was secure and the boat wasn’t moving anywhere (not that there were any winds or waves to push us), I jumped in the water in desperate need of a cool down.  The Captain followed and we decided to snorkel around the coral head we had parked close to in order to just relax for a moment and calm down from so much tension.  It was amazing to finally see a colorful coral with no less than eight different types of fish swimming around, chasing one another, playing, and eating!  It was decidedly the BEST way to end a tense, fretful journey and I was so relieved to be able to give thanks for our safe arrival.

The Captain headed back to the boat to get the dinghy with intentions of us going ashore to ask around about the airport, see if there happened to be an auto parts store (on an island with less than one mile of road), or just get a general sense of what resources we had open to us.  As I felt antsy, I wanted to swim off some anxiety, exercise my body and quiet my mind in the way only swimming can do, so I told the Captain I would meet him on the beach.  As I swam toward shore, I kept looking up and around as though I could figure out the best route possible, my mind swarming with the “what if”s, the “what will happen”, the thoughts and fears that pop up when you have a boat that’s a year older than you and no money to fix any major problems.  At some point, my brain quietly said, “Just look down at what is in front of you and enjoy the swim.”  I listened as, well, it is my brain and I figure it’s the one thing I should listen to when it’s time to calm down.

As I kept making forward progress toward shore, seeing white sand and the occasional clump of sea grass, I was surprised to come across another coral head that I did not know was there; however, more importantly was the shock I got seeing a HUGE manta ray just laying on the coral!  While an abundance of playful, colorful fish darted around the coral, the manta ray seemed almost as though he was sleeping or resting and enjoying the same sights I was!  The quiet voice inside my head reminded that there was no way I would have been able to plan this out and find it, that there are just too many events in life that happen because you just keep going and show up at the right place during the right time.  When the heart is open and the mind is quiet, some of the most beautiful parts of life just happen and are much more beautiful due to them being unexpected!

A Happy Cory

Once Rob picked me up in the dinghy, we made a plan to go by every boat – or, as many as it took – to see if anyone had a spare fuse that would work for our boat.  The first boaters we met were a welcoming couple with stove issues of their own who invited us aboard in order to talk.  It was fun to talk with the lady of the boat about the Dominican Republic and the fun she had there as the Captains hashed out and grumbled through their respective mechanical issues of the day, though they ended up not being much use to one another.  The second boat was the part-time home of a very sweet French couple who, unfortunately for us all, did not speak much English (though they knew MUCH more English than we do French!), and did not have the part we were searching for.  The last boat that had been in the anchorage when we came in was a large (and I do mean HUGE) motor yacht that had a willing-to-tell-us-they-didn’t-have-the-part-but-not-willing-to-invite-us-aboard kind of crew; the type who are nice enough, but not overly inviting types.

The Captain and I decided to try the one last boat, a 40ish-foot Catamaran that had laid anchor after we arrived and seemed to have quite a few people aboard.  We headed their direction with blown fuse in-hand and they saw us coming – before we had even gotten close enough to slow down the motor, one of the men was on the step preparing to take our painter (the rope that ties up our dinghy) and welcome us aboard!  Within three minutes, we each had a cold beer in our hands and two of the four men aboard were MacGyvering a makeshift fuse from a piece of wire and two spade lugs while the other two men and two of the four women were asking us about our adventures and giving us advice on fishing.

This helps keep our costs down!

We spent the better part of two hours mingling with the four couples who had chartered the sailboat for a week’s worth of cruising through the Bahamas, the type of trip all of them come together for every two years.  By the time we were leaving them to eat dinner, we had the chance to talk engines, sailing, snorkeling, cooking, and fishing with some of the nicest people we’d come across in a while, though it seems as though the boating community is chock FULL of people we can (excitedly) say this about!  We left their boat with: fishing lures, leaders, hooks, and new fishing knowledge that would help feed us in the future; they gave us not only the makeshift wire fuse, but also more wire to make another one and the advice to clean ALL of the motor of any corrosion and get to the heart of the problem with ideas on what that problem may be; AND, they gave us the excess provisions they had on the boat which they were not going to use as they were returning to the States in less than 48 hours!  This meant Rob and I were blessed with: two pounds of ground beef, a package of hot dogs, buns for those dogs, a WHOLE cantaloupe(!), so many onions, lemons, and limes that we had them overflowing our fruit basket, three bags of charcoal (which we are looking forward to having a beach cookout with), and 13 – yes, THIRTEEN – gallons of purified water! 

I almost cried when I realized the generosity we had just been the recipients of and quite literally did not know how to thank them enough!  Later that week, we would find ourselves stranded at anchor for much longer than we had intended on being in the uninhabited parts of the Exumas (read: the parts with no grocery stores) and, though we would have survived off the ship’s stores of boxed/canned food and the plastic-tasting water from the tank, we were even more thankful than we could have imagined being at the time we received so much kindness from our fellow boaters.  So, Crew of the “Texsun” (Dave & Barb, Ken & Karen, Wes & Judy, and Rob & Suzanne), we thank the Universe for bringing us to you and we thank you all for your generosity and your kind, inviting souls!  It’s wonderful to know how great our fellow humans are!

Our own private oasis! (with our own private problems...)

That night, back on our own boat, the Captain grilled up some hot dogs while I threw together our boat version of Bahama Mamas with instant fruit punch and some cheap coconut rum.  Almost as soon as the hotdogs were ready and we were sitting in the cockpit, reflecting on our excitement of our full refrigerator and water jugs, the large (BIG) motor yacht started playing music quite loudly, which we thought was unusual for a man the age of the owner.  That is, until the first flame lit the sandy beach and we heard the “whiiiiirrr POP” of the first firework!  We were privy to this man putting on a miniature – but very good! – firework show for his five grandchildren aboard, arranged and lit by the crew of his ship.  We ended such a stressed day feeling as though it were the best, most intimate Fourth of July celebration which we were privileged enough to be a part of!  The closing song was the one song which gave me the encouragement and knowledge that I could quit the unhappy job I was in a year and a half ago and just go where the Universe wanted me to be.

Good show, Universe, good show!