Quiet Days at Over Yonder Cay, Exuma Islands, The Bahamas

Dawn on Saturday, January 3

As the sun was rising in the east, the moon was setting in the west. The moonset was magical.

Yesterday, the wind died. With the water calm and clear, it looked like Kosmos and Kosmopolitan were levitating. The unfortunate part about no wind was that flies and little bitey bugs were able to make their way into the boat.

After Keith finished his schoolwork, he went tubing with the other two families in the anchorage. In the evening, the kids played games on Zimovia while Eric and Christi played games on Tiki Tour. It was another magical night with the moon lighting up the sky as if it was daylight. We could see the bottom of the lagoon below us!

This morning, the other two families left, and we were alone in the anchorage. The bottom needed to be cleaned, and because the currents were strong here, it needed to be done at slack tide. Determining when slack tide would be has proven to be a little challenging, as currents have been strange and unpredictable in this location. This morning we had a lazy morning while keeping an eye on the current. You may be wondering how we could tell current strength. Not slack tide.

Slack tide.

At lunchtime, it looked like the current had slowed down, so we got ready to clean the bottom. While the water temperature has varied from one location to another, Christi hasn’t swam a whole lot this season because the water has usually been colder than she finds comfortable.

Since we had no idea how long slack tide would last, all three of us worked on the bottom at once. Christi did the starboard side as far down as she could comfortably go, Keith did the port side as far down as he could comfortably go, and Eric took the air and did the very bottom.

Eric found two oysters or clams on the line cutter on the back side of the propellor shaft. He was certain they were stowaways from our time in the Chesapeake and we’d just missed them on previous cleanings. He also found a few small barnacles or shell pieces in the main engine keel cooler and a couple of barnacles in one of the through-hulls that he believes also came from the Chesapeake. The worst part, though, was that he noticed one of the propellor blades was slightly bent. He also believes that happened in the Chesapeake — most likely, at some point we’d snagged a crab pot and hadn’t realized it. Other than what was reported above, the bottom just had a light layer of fuzz that was easily removed.

Between tubing yesterday and the waterline today, Keith was sore. Eric was still sore from straining his back on the toilet, but said the swim actually made his back feel a little bit better.

The sunset