Category: Exumas

What’s Broken On Sava

You may be under the illusion that everything works fine onboard Sava. Not true. While our autopilot is still going strong, a lot of other boat parts don’t work. Below, a comprehensive accounting of what’s broken on Sava, and some things that broke and got fixed.

Also, I am not a handy person so my explanations are very basic because that’s my level of understanding. Thankfully Brian is at a much higher level than me. If he wasn’t so handy, we wouldn’t have made it out of Florida. Brian also recommends a good resource for these jobs, the Boatowners Mechanical and Electrical Manual.

Freezer

We thought we got this fixed after the engine debacle, but this freezer is finicky. A couple of times we noticed it was off and we are now very vigilant about ensuring the freezer is plugged in. We also keep the vents clean – got to get rid of the cat hair.

Yet still the temperature regularly creeps above freezing. This is understandable when we haven’t been under power or it’s cloudy, but we don’t know why the freezer doesn’t work when the solar charge is full and we run the engine.

This freezer is driving me crazy. I obsessively check the temperature, which is not easy to do. Because the freezer is strapped into our salon sofa, we have to peek under the table to see the power and temperature indicators.

freezer
A view under the salon table of our freezer indicators
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Bahamas Favorites

Last Friday we departed from the southeastern end of the beautiful islands of the Bahamas. After Long Island, we sailed to Crooked and Acklins Islands, followed by Mayaguana. From there, we tacked to the upper reaches of Turks and Caicos. We are no longer there but we will always remember our Bahamas favorites.

Bahamas Outer islands
From Long Island to Acklins and Crooked to the Mayaguanas, Bahamas

We spent more time in the Bahamas than expected, and we would have preferred a longer stay. There are still so many islands we didn’t visit. Here’s a look back on our favorite Bahamas memories.

My recommendation to you if you come here: get out of Nassau. If you have more than a weekend to spend, take a prop plane to any of the other small islands: the Berrys, Crooked Island, Compass Key for example. Enjoy the quiet and calm, the wildlife and the people. You will not be disappointed.

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Food and Drink in the Bahamas

It’s not far from the states, and there are a lot of Canadians and Americans here, so the food and drink in the Bahamas isn’t very different from home. As long as you are willing to pay, you can get almost everything you want in the shops and restaurants.

Conch

The national food of Bahamas is conch for good reason! The shellfish is so plentiful here and they make some delicious dishes with it.

Conch Dishes Ranked

Here is my ranking of the conch dishes in Bahamas:

  1. Conch salad. Similar to a ceviche in that the chunks of fish are cooked in citrus and then mixed with veggies. Peppers, red onion and maybe some hot sauce. Simple, fresh and delicious
  2. Conch chowder. We’ve had two versions: one in a red broth in Nassau, and a yellow chowder in Clarence Town.  Both had generous chunks of conch and a little kick of spice.
  3. Cracked conch. Lightly fried but with lots of meaty conch.
  4. Conch fritters, which usually just taste like fried dough, so I pass on this dish.
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One Day Off Wasn’t Enough

Remember we had a few troubles and needed a day off? It seems that wasn’t enough because the hits keep coming. Basically one day off wasn’t enough for us or Sava.

But first, our break!

We took Saturday afternoon to explore part of Long Island. The dinghy ride to the marina was short and slightly wet. Once there I had to dive into the water a few times to recover my hat and Brian’s sunglasses. Strong wind!

Our dinghy was running out of propane so we needed to get some. The propane supplier takes Saturdays off but said if we came to him he would fill our tank. He was a 25 minute drive away. We could take a taxi but it seemed worth it to rent a car.

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A Rough Couple of Days on Board

Sometimes the wind is not with us. Sometimes it seems like nothing is with us. The last couple of days have definitely felt like that. Sailing the Bahamas is not easy but we’ve had a rough couple of days on board Sava.

It Starts With The Windlass

Thursday, March 7th: Elizabeth Harbor, Georgetown to Galliot Cay, Long Island, Bahamas

Brian fixed the windlass enough so we could haul anchor and leave Elizabeth Harbor on Thursday. We spent about an hour at the marina filling up our water tanks since we still have not gotten the watermaker working properly. If you hadn’t guessed, this post is going to give you an idea of some of the things that still don’t work on Sava.

We left the marina in the hopes of catching some of the northeasterly wind to help us go east. It was rough. We probably left the marina before 9am and we were on the sea tacking away from our destination for part of the time, and then to our destination the remainder of the time.

map Long Island sailing
Our zigzag route from George Town to the top of Long Island, Bahamas
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