Sunrise on Thursday, January 1, 2026

It was a chiily morning – only 66 degrees Farenheit! But it was 45-degrees in Florida and snowing in Baltimore, so it much warmer here in the Exumas than the rest of the US East Coast.

Eric celebrated the New Year by making a French toast breakfast with the coconut bread that we’d bought from Lorraine’s mom. This coconut bread was different than the one we’d gotten in Cat Island. In Cat Island, it was basically white bread with a hint of sweetness and a hint of coconut. Looking at it, you’d never realize it wasn’t plain white bread. Lorraine’s mom’s bread was basically white bread with a swirl of coconut jam in the middle — like a jellyroll cake but with bread instead of cake. The jam was made from tiny pieces of real coconut. Eric and Christi loved it and thought it made phenomenal French toast. Keith wasn’t a coconut fan and said he preferred French toast with regular bread.

After breakfast, Eric did a little gaming to help psych himself up for tackling the toilet. The first step was to clear out the closet. Then he had to disconnect the water pipes from the toilet. The water in the outgoing pipe spilled, which was stinky.

Next, he had to take the toilet off the mount. The entire time the toilet was off the mount, the boat stank to high heaven like the blackwater tank.

The next step was to take apart the guts of the toilet so he could get to the tube where the stuff accumulated prior to mastication. He didn’t have enough elbow room to work inside the closet, where he could see what he was doing. He was forced to stand in the bathroom, reach around behind the toilet, and disconnect it by touch.

He took the tube outside and emptied it out. The retainer was inside. Thank goodness! He noticed that the tube had a buildup of uric acid crystals, so soaked it in Sew Clean for a while. The bucket was orange, hence the background color of the tube in the bucket.

Once the crystals were dissolved, he put the toilet back together. When he tested it, the toilet was leaking. Frustrated, he worked on fixing leak for a while with no success.

In the midst of the toilet repairs, Tiki Tour came back and anchored near Zimovia. Zimovia and Tiki Tour went to a beach and then a different sandbar for a few hours, and they took Keith with them. Keith departed Kosmos not long after the toilet work began and returned not long before it ended, so Keith missed out on most of the toilet fun. Christi helped Eric as much as she could every step of the way — handing him tools, holding things in place while he screwed/unscrewed, cleaning up spills, etc.

By now it was lunch time, so Christi and Eric took a break from the toilet to make a quick lunch and eat. After lunch, the kids from Zimovia and Tiki Tour came over to play D & D.

After D & D, Eric was able to fix the leak quickly. Some host adjustment and tightening things properly. Yay! He left the toilet unmounted so it could completely dry out underneath (Christi had mopped it as best as she could under there to sterilize from the toilet water spill). Much to his dismay, Eric realized that he’d strained his back working on the toilet. It wasn’t nearly as bad of a strain as he’d gotten in the Abacos, but his back was definitely not feeling good.

Shortly after the toilet was fixed, Keith went to Zimovia to hang out with the other kids and Eric and Christi went to Tiki Tour to hang out with the adults. This was the dusk.

Everyone on both boats had a great time. On the way bak to Kosmos, the moon was so bright that it completely lit the surroundings. We could see everything clearly — it was as bright in the middle of the night as it was on a cloudy day.