Day 172 - Bond, James Bond — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 0, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $0, there have been very few days on this trip with triple zeros, daily high temperature 78°f

Our night on the hook started out with Deja vu all over again from one of our previous nights on the hook. Gentle readers can you recall what I am referring to? We are unplugged from the dock, the sun is going down, it is time to cook dinner. Therefore it is time to………. start the generator. We had run the generator only one time since we exited the Tom Bigbee waterway in November. We ran it a month ago just to make sure it still worked. Tonight we started the generator and it ran for 15 seconds and died. We tried to start it several times but it always shut down in 15 seconds. I went below and noticed the warning light was flashing seven times. According to the Onan generator owners manual that meant there was a problem with the cooling system. We checked the water intake and that was fine. There might have been a blockage in the outflow but no one was going over the side in the dark to check it. Dale continued to read the manual and decided to check the water pump impeller. Somehow that item was overlooked on our maintenance list. All the fins had broken off the impeller and were lodged in the hoses. Dale spent two hours in the hot bilge changing the impeller. He is our hero. We are back in business and cooking a pork roast and macaroni and cheese at 10:00 pm. Priscilla is watching TV. All is well.

This is a new impeller. Our impeller had no fins attached.

Our next adventure was a visit Thunderball grotto. This grotto was featured in the 1965 James Bond 007 movie Thunderball 50 years ago. There is low opening that gives access at low tide. At high tide you have swim under the ledge into the inner chamber. The chamber has a hole in the top that lets in sunlight. There are 100’s of colorful fish swimming around the reef inside the grotto.

This is the interior view of the grotto.

We observed a sailboat will full sails entering Staniel Harbor. Then we noticed she was still under full sail and not moving. And then she was titled over and not moving. There is a lot if thin water in the Bahamas. Fortunately it was dead low tide. The high tide will float him off.

On Sunday we will cruise north 20 miles to Warderick Wells. This is the location of the Exumas Land and Sea Park. The park is a safe haven for all species in the Bahamas. Take only photographs, leave only footprints. They have mooring balls available on a first come first served basis. However, the winds have died down and will be soft for a week so anchoring out is not an issue if we do not get a mooring ball.

Priscilla decided to get close to the local wildlife.

Bonus photo.

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote of the day.

“I’d like to be the ambassador to the Bahamas.”
Eleanor Mondale

Eleanor Mondale was the only daughter of Joan Mondale and former Vice President Walter Mondale. Her older brother is former Minnesota State Senator Theodore A. “Ted” Mondale. Her younger brother is attorney William H. Mondale, the former assistant Minnesota attorney general. For her senior year of high school, Mondale attended St. Timothy’s, a boarding school outside of Baltimore. After graduating from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, she moved to begin a career in Hollywood. In 2006, after battling brain cancer for the first time, Mondale signed on as a host at WCCO-AM. She remained there until 2009, when she left the airwaves to go on disability because of her cancer’s recurrence.