Sunday, February 15 — We puttered around the boat in the morning and early afternoon. Eric and Keith put out both flopper stoppers. There was only mild motion, so one would have been enough for today, but the forecast said that on Monday, the wind would change directions to be from the south. We knew that on Monday, we’d need the second flopper stopper, so Eric was proactive.

We had an early dinner and headed over to the beach at about 1630. One couple was already there and the rest of the boats arrived shortly after. Keith played with the kids while Eric and Christi chatted with the adults. It was a really nice visit. We had been planning to clean the bottom here, but were warned that there were aggressive bull sharks in this anchorage. The bottom can certainly wait! Here was the sunset.

And a shot of the beach looking the other direction

And a shot looking back at the beach as we were on our way back to Kosmos.

Kosmos at dusk with the flopper stoppers out.

Freya had left today. As we were dinghing back from shore, Eric decided that he wanted to move into Freya’s spot, which was about 300 feet closer to the shore. We moved with the dinghy and flopper stoppers down. Because it was getting dark fast, we made some shortcuts with our normal routine, which backfired. We had a little issue with the snubber, which cost some time, and another with the windlass while we were dropping the anchor, which messed up our positioning a little bit. Both were minor issues that were easily resolved, but we learned that we should have just done it properly in the first place. Like at Flamingo Cay, It took a little while for the anchor to set, but it did set on the first try. It was noticeably calmer in our new spot than it had been just 300 feet back. 

On Monday, the sunrise was mostly blocked by a cloud.

After Keith and Christi finished school, Keith went to shore with the other kids while Eric and Christi did chores onboard. Eric was super excited because he finally fixed something very small that was adversely affecting his quality of life. In 2021, Eric bought fancy toilets that have a touch screen controller with incredibly bright lights (someday we’ll write a post about the toilet ordeal). We like to sleep with the bathroom door open for more ventilation (via the bathroom window), and those lights are so bright that they affect Eric’s sleep. Eric fashioned a makeshift cover with some tape at one point, but it leaked more light than he wanted. The real solution was a 3d printed custom design. Eric designed it and then a friend in San Diego offered to print it. Christi had picked it up from him when she was in San Diego. Eric was overjoyed when he installed it and found that it worked great! It was easy to lift the cover when one needed to flush. The design ensured that no light escaped through the seams. And it had an extra latch mechanism for rough seas.

All three of us went to the cruiser get together onshore in the late afternoon. Several of the cruisers had been here last year when the Space X craft exploded literally above them. They all got emergency alert texts warning them to take cover from falling debris. Afterwards, Space X paid the local Bahamians to clean up the debris. If we remember correctly, the cruisers said that Space X wanted the debris returned to them. The “Beta” boat sign was made out of a piece of rocket debris.

This cute little guy was crawling around the chairs.

At 1930, Eric and Keith went over to Traveler. Several families were there. The adults played cards and Mexican train dominoes while the kids made D & D characters for a new campaign they were going to start. Out of nowhere, a giant group of flying ants and giant moths invaded the boats. They were surrounded by bugs for a short while, then they disappeared almost as quickly as they appeared. Then a squall came through that brought very heavy rain and wind so strong that it made the anchorage uncomfortable for a while. Eric and Keith got wet on the short ride back to Kosmos.