Stay Over Days in George Town

—Blogpost written by Bob

Feb 8 thru Feb 10

This is our third multi-day blogpost from George Town, Exuma.  We were beginning to get to know our way around and fully realized our preference for our Monument Beach anchorage.

Saturday, February 8

The sky started out overcast this morning but the clouds blew over by 8:30 AM.  The deck was covered with a heavy dew.  There was hardly any wind.

A haze enveloped the anchorage in the
morning.  (This is a view of the
outskirts of the Honeymoon 
Beach anchorage from 
Monument Beach.)

Yesterday's addition of Freon to our fridge was successful!  This morning, the compressor had reached it's shutoff point and our battery bank did not suffer as it had done previously.
I think the fridge still has only a partial charge but I didn't have enough Freon in the can I used.  (The second can I had onboard was completely empty, even though it was never tapped. We found out that there is a NAPA store that carries cans of Freon 134A--buying another can or two will be a project for Monday.)


Rather than wait until Monday for Freon, we drove the dinghy up around Goat Cay and landed on the north end of the beach. We then walked through a gate at the end of the beach and right out onto the road (King’s Highway). The NAPA store was only about 2 blocks north—they had plenty of 134a refrigerant (since it is also used in the A/C units for cars). After buying two cans, we got back into the dinghy and went into George Town (a 40-minute ride from NAPA) to get 5 gallons of fresh water and another 10 pounds of ice cubes.

We bought 2 cans of 134a refrigerant
this morning at the NAPA store.

As we were filling a 5-gallon jug with water, another cruiser had mentioned that Minn’s Water Sports (a local business located right along Lake Victoria) repairs outboard motors and they are a Yamaha dealer. I intend to call them on Monday morning about fixing our 6 HP outboard motor. (I think I can take it in by dinghy--we'll see.)

When we got back to the boat we made a yummy lunch (grilled pork chops, coleslaw, and apple sauce). We both wondered why we eat lunch out so often when the restaurant meals are seldom as good as the ones we make onboard.

It got quite warm today (80+ degrees) but fortunately there was a cool breeze, though somewhat light. The forecast was for moderate easterly winds (slightly less than 20 knots) for this weekend and into next week.

If it weren't for this blog I would never know what day of the week it was or the current date.  All the days seem to run together without any type of structure--this can be good and bad.

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I just finished an excellent audio book, Caffeine by Michael Pollan.  The book includes the history of tea and coffee and their impact on the world, as well was their addictive properties.

The excellent audio book I recently
finished reading.

I ran the water maker a little too long today (until 3 PM). I have to remember to turn off the water maker with enough sunlight left in the day to fully charge the battery bank—this means I have to turn it off around 1:30 or 2 PM. Consequently, I had to run the engine again this evening (30 minutes) for battery charging—I hate to do that.

Some guy just pulled into the anchorage in a power cat. He didn’t leave enough distance between his anchor set point and the nearby rock ledge. He’s going to be in for quite an awakening when, and if, the wind shifts. Another boat neighbor is loading his dinghy onto his foredeck—maybe he’s leaving the anchorage soon. Sometime during the day a catamaran anchored close to the beach (our beach!)—it must be nice to draw so little water.

A boat neighbor drying laundry on a
temporary clothes line on 
their bow.

Another boat neighbor was drying their laundry on a temporary clothes line on their bow. Happenings in the anchorage are so entertaining but, in a way, I kind of feel like an old “busy body.”

Sunday, February 9

Even though the problem with our fridge seemed to be resolved (temporarily, at least), I was concerned about some oily substance I wiped off the bulkhead near the lines going to the back of the cold plate. Leaking Freon is oily. Could there be a leak in the copper tubing going to the cold plate? If so, how bad is the leak? Did the leak slowly maturate over the past 5 years or did it occur rather suddenly, maybe during our recent high-wind experience in Highbourne Cay? Could I simply keep adding Freon when needed until we get back home or do I have to consider a temporary field repair of some type (like coating the leaking area with epoxy) while we are here? I pondered these questions as I lay in the v-berth unable to sleep last night. (Sometimes being a mechanical engineer sucks. Why can’t I just forget about it until the problem reappears?) 

In the morning big white cumulus clouds were being moved around the sky by unseen forces as the sun came up. The 15-knot easterly wind was nice and cool (low 70’s). I could smell Maggie’s coffee brewing below—it was her habitual first shot of caffeine for the day.  Mine was in the form of tea, Bigelow’s English Breakfast blend.

My morning tea sitting on
the cockpit coaming.

The state of the battery bank first thing in the morning was a little over 12.3 volts--this is another indication that the fridge was still working too hard overnight and that I didn't add enough Freon yesterday.

Later in the morning we pulled everything out of the quarter berth (again) and accessed the compressor unit. We planned to do this anyway because I didn’t think we charged the unit sufficiently with the little bit of Freon that remained in one of the cans I brought with us. (The compressor was still running a bit too much, though drastically improved.)  However, I wanted answers to the questions I pondered late last night. 

Immediately after adding Freon (maybe 4
ounces) I got a (3-blink) error code
(indicating that the system was 
overcharged) I removed 
some Freon, and 
then, again.

This was the area where I noticed
some oily residue--it was
pretty far away from
connections.

I was not able to get answers to the questions I pondered last night but I feel that I added a sufficient amount of Freon this time around.  In fact, I had to remove some Freon by pushing on the needle valve on the compressor discharge many times during the afternoon.  (Later I read in the manual that this should not be done.)   I kept getting a fault light indicating Freon overcharge.  In the end I could NOT get the refrigerator to cool at all and I had to shut down the system.  (Remember that I believe that there is a leak in the system and it is in an inaccessible area.)  At this point I don't hold out hope of getting it fixed here in the Bahamas and we are considering ways to get by without our fridge, like paring down what we refrigerate and using bags of ice cubes for cooling.  At this point our recently down-sized outboard motor becomes a liability--when we have to transport ice cubes one nautical mile to the boat at such a slow speed.  I was so frustrated at this point that I was considering working our way back to the U.S. earlier than we originally planned.

This is the kind of day we missed today
messing around with our
refrigeration.

Monday, February 10

Things are always easier to handle in the morning—last night I was ready to throw in the towel and start heading home.  First thing this morning I called Minn’s Water Sports about repairing our 6 HP outboard dinghy motor.  They explained that the Yamaha 6 HP/4-stroke is not sold here in the Bahamas and, therefore, they don’t carry parts for it.

I then called a local refrigeration guy (Rolle & Sons) about repairing our refrigeration system—he seemed confident and knowledgeable enough to do the job but we have to be in a slip where he has 110-volts AC to run his tools. So, we arranged to do the repairs on Friday at Emerald Bay Marina, about 6 miles from George Town.

After my earlier discussions with Minn’s and the refrigeration guy, I picked up a small cooler as a giveaway from a cruising neighbor in case we needed it. Then, we proceeded on our 1/2-hour dinghy trip into Lake Victoria. The high wind out of the southeast was causing swells in the harbor and they were amplified at the entrance to Lake Victoria.  It was tough going at the inlet to Lake Victoria.  We were soaking wet when we arrived.

Once in Lake Victoria, I stopped by Minn’s to further investigate the availability of an impeller thinking that maybe some of the small 2-stroke engines that they carry would use the same impeller but this wasn’t the case--they didn't carry any small engines.  However, we found out that Minn’s best seller is a 15 HP/2-stroke (on display in their store) that weighs only 85 pounds and sells for $2,750 including VAT—this would be an ideal solution for us here.  However, we decided to wait to see if our refrigeration can be fixed before deciding to buy another outboard engine. (If we buy this engine we would be going home with three outboard engines and we are not sure where we would put them all on the boat—I’m sure we would manage somehow but I'm also wondering if I could get the 2-stroke engine serviced at home.)

Part of the decision on whether to buy a larger 2-stroke engine is dependent of our future plans to come back to the Bahamas.  Last night I was feeling like this was our last trip to the Bahamas but today I'm feeling differently.

We have very strong sunshine today, allowing us to run our water maker longer than usual plus we picked up 5 gallons of fresh water in town. Yeah!

We finally made it to Chat-N-Chill for the afternoon Happy Hour!  This is the main area where cruiser's gather for socialization.

The bar area for Chat-N-Chill.

A little bit of the outdoor area of Chat-N-Chill.
This is commonly called Volleyball Beach.

We ran into John and Bobbie at Chat-N-Chill.
They rented the slip next to ours in
Baltimore one summer.

It was really nice running into John and Bobbie from Anchorage Marina in Baltimore!  Stay tuned for more of our adventure...


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