Powered by the sun...or not

Since we left the dock over a month ago, all our power needs (other than the engines and cooking) have been met with solar panels. This includes our freezer, fridge, toilets, lights (mostly LED), and various tech toys (auto-pilot, AIS, laptop, pads, phones). We have been off the grid and, we are coming to find, we have been spoiled a bit.

Our four panels (820 watts total) have more than satisfied our needs. By early afternoon on most days, our 12v battery bank (which holds 840 amp hours for those of you who care about such things) is fully charged. When the panels are really cranking, they give us an output of 55-60 amps, which in non-technical terms is "really good." Even on party cloudy days we get good output (in the 30s).

However, most of our weather in the Bahamas was sunny and cooler (70s and 80s), which are ideal conditions for the panels. Here in Ft. Lauderdale, we had one completely overcast rain-out day and several mostly overcast days where we did not fill up the batteries. The boat did get a nice freshwater rinse, which was long overdue. But we were concerned for a day or two that we might get too low on the batteries.

Once our generator is fixed (which we need to use for our water maker and dive compressor), that will be our backup power source. Many cruisers use wind generators but we will forego that expense for now.

The obvious solution is to stay in locations that are nice and sunny. So we're working on that avenue.

Young, drunk and half-naked

No, not us of course. Since we're clearly not young.

Lake Sylvia gets a hopping weekend crowd and apparently around Spring break that includes party boats blaring house music and loaded up with young people having fun. It's definitely a change of pace. And, with the music more than loud enough, we didn't have to use battery power playing our own stereo--so we had that going for us. We did cringe a bit when they moved their boat with a bunch of people still swimming around it, but they managed not to chop anyone into pieces. Later we had to lend a knife to one of  the party boats that got a line wrapped around the propeller. There were three dudes onboard that looked like they spent most of the day in the gym, but they made the girl dive in and cut it loose. You've come a long way, baby...or something like that.

On a dingy trip to the store, we randomly came across a festival with carnival games and bouncy houses, which was a fun time for the boys. They came home with a bunch of junky little toys that they got as prizes. It reminded us of summer in Chicago.

Kids say the creepiest things

Here is an exchange that I (Jen) had with the boys last night at bedtime.

Mark: Mommy, when you die I want to put you in a jar so I can look at you whenever I want. [Followed by a big hug and and kiss.]

Conrad: How is all of Mommy going to fit into a jar?!
 

Right, because whether or not I can fit in the jar is the main problem with Mark's thought. Unfortunately, we don't get to blame TV as a bad influence. No one to blame but ourselves, I guess...

We have been hanging out at Lake Silvia, cooped up on the boat because Matt has been off running errands. Lake Silvia is nice because it's free but there are not a lot of options for getting onto shore because most of the property around it is privately owned. The Southport Raw Bar is what many of the boaters use (you can tie up for $10, which gets applied to any money you spend there; they have a great happy hour). There have been battles between homeowners (mostly of the multi-million dollar value persuasion) and boaters wanting to anchor in the water (which is owned by no one).

So besides school, the kids and I have been making corn starch goo and swimming off the back of the boat. We are making progress on our engine and generator issues. Sher, the mechanic, has diagnosed our engine issue to be a bad transmission and is looking into our generator problem as well. Hopefully we'll be out of here in another week or so.

Back in the US of A

No more deserted beaches for now

We are back in Ft. Lauderdale after a month and it feels like we just left. Spring break season is winding down and it seems so crowded here. It's nice to have cheap, plentiful produce and all the modern conveniences that life here offers. But we feel like we have unfinished business in the Bahamas. We are looking forward to getting our engine and generator fixed up so we can head back for another month or so.

If you feel like getting away from it all, you can buy a
fixer-upper in Bimini...

Sea hares

We discovered these things after accidentally dropping the dinghy anchor on one. It is a sea hare or sea slug After Matt asked what they were, a woman pulled him over to the side to whisper the local name for them out of earshot of the children--sea pussy. We wanted to know if they were edible and the answer is a resounding "no". Apparently they have poisoned dogs who ate them. Before we knew what they were Matt kept saying just poke at it with your finger, they're harmless. Um yeah, you touch it.

It's not clear whether the ink is a defense mechanism or just the slug equivalent of peeing its pants from fear. Yes, we stopped torturing them.

Living off the land

We returned to Frazier's Hog Cay and again tried to get some of the best conch in the Bahamas. However, when we got there it was closed. Foiled again (a few days later we did get some and it was amazing). But we hit a conch bonanza and found a ton on our own.

Berry Islands Club. Howard makes a mean cracked conch. It looks
like someone's house when you're walking up to it.

We took the six biggest ones and then Matt battled mightily with the conch to separate them from their shells. Generally, you hit the spiral with the claw side of the hammer and then cut the foot away from the shell and pull the conch meat out. Specifically, there are conch guts everywhere and you break your favorite paring knife. It is definitely an art and a boatload of work. It makes $12 a plate at a restaurant seem like a real bargain.



My friend Karen asked what we eat on the boat when we are not eating fish. Well, we pretty much eat the same things we ate at home. In preparing to go to the Bahamas, we stocked up on everything because food (and everything else) is so much more expensive than in the States. To give you a taste, each piece of fruit that we purchased was a dollar (including small oranges). Bananas and limes are cheaper. Meat and other food is even pricier. We bought one loaf of bread for $6, which prompted us to start making our own bread. When we're somewhere with cheaper food, we will probably eat more of the local food.

In our costs page, you can see that we spent a small fortune on groceries before departing. Here is our provisioning spreadsheet, which lets you see pretty much what we took and what we used in March. Not everything is in here--notably liquor, spices, and produce. You will notice that the spreadsheet is silent on the amount of beer consumed. All I'll say about that is we are living in a confined space with two small boys.

In March, we caught a good amount of fish to supplement our meat supply. We made granola, yogurt, and bread. Yogurt freezes into a nice approximation of ice-cream and canned mandarin oranges make refreshing Popsicles.

Oh, and we finally got to use our machete. So we have a source of fresh coconut. And we still have all our fingers.

Snorkeling, Kid Snorkeling

Here is a video that we took while snorkeling at Thunderball Grotto, where scenes from the James Bond movies "Never Say Never Again" and "Thunderball" were filmed, as well as "Splash". Unless you are a strong swimmer, they recommend you go at slack tide because at other times it completely fills with water. As you can tell from the video, at least a couple of us are in the "not-a-strong-swimmer" category right now. Unfortunately, the video doesn't give the best view of the tons of colorful fish.