Category Archives: Boat Technical

Specifics about the boat.

Moving to Ragged Island in the Ragged Islands, The Bahamas

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Sunrise on Sunday February 22

The wind is going to change this evening to the west, a direction that was not protected by this anchorage, so we needed to move today. It was actually a good time for us to move — the boat was a mess and moving always forced us to tidy up. The majority of the anchorage that we were going to, on the southwest side of Ragged Island, was shallow. Eric wanted to leave early to ensure that we could get a spot in the limited deeper area.

We got Kosmos ready to go as soon as we got up and pulled up anchor at 0800. There was quite a bit of seaweed and/or sea grass and at least half a dozen little things living on the anchor chain. The creatures were firmly fastened to it and Christi had a hard time removing them and dropping them back into the water. Here was a small sampling of the collection of items that came off the anchor chain.

In bad news, as we were getting the dinghy raised, Eric realized the dinghy’s solar panels were dead.

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Lying Low in Hog Cay, Ragged Islands, The Bahamas

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Dawn on Wednesday, February 18

It was another day of puttering around the boat. Before doing school, Eric and Keith changed the generator oil and cleaned the sea strainer for the generator. Eric also ran the wing engine. Then Keith and Christi did school. In the afternoon, Keith went tubing with Clean Cup while Eric and Christi went to shore. There were a couple of locals there who were making repairs to the hut, but they left shortly after the group arrived.

When they were done tubing, they joined everyone onshore. Here was another shot of Kosmos with both flopper stoppers out. You can see why we called them “the force field.” No one wanted to anchor too close to us when we had them out!

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Hanging Out at Hog Cay, Ragged Islands, The Bahamas

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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

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Snorkeling and Diving The Piano at Rudder Cay, Exuma Islands, The Bahamas

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Just before the sunrise on Friday, January 23

A popular tourist attraction in the area was a statue of a mermaid about to play a piano that David Cooperfield had sunk for an activity for his resort guests. After Christi and Keith finished school, Eric and Keith snorkeled the statue with Bogumilia.  

We’d read that the statue was hard to see while snorkeling because it was kind of deep, and they recommended going at low tide, when it was only about 10-feet down, for the best views. While they could see it, it was tough. Low tide meant a strong current, and it took a lot of strength to stay in place over the statue in order to get a good look at it. From what they could see, it appeared the statue was a 1:1 scale of a person and a grand piano.

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Moving Back to Blackpoint, Exuma Islands, The Bahamas

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Sunrise on Friday, January 16

As soon as we all woke up, Eric said he’d had a bad night wanted to move to a less stressful location. It was high tide, and since the tide would be going down, we needed to move ASAP. We quickly got the dinghy up and the boat ready to go. The snubber had gotten twisted again, and Eric noticed that it was beginning to fray at the base. We pulled up anchor at 0730. We had a hard time getting the anchor properly seated in place on the bow. The anchor swivel was getting worse. Eric thinks it’s likely getting because there was sand in it. Lubricating it was still on the to-do list. 

There was a solid one-knot of current in the narrow, shallow pass. Worried about how the autopilot would perform, Eric hand steered us through the narrow spots. Even though the tide was falling, he felt safe because we were following the same track out that we’d taken in, and he knew it was deep enough at that moment. 

We went to Blackpoint, which took about 2.5 hours. It was rolly in the anchorage, so we put the out the port flopper stopper right away. The wind was forecast to calm down and change directions soon, and when it did, the anchorage would be calm. After we arrived, Eric took a long nap. At about 1415, we got the dinghy down and went to shore. As predicted, the waves in the anchorage had slowly but steadily calmed down, and by the time we headed to shore, conditions were pleasant. 

We docked at the public dinghy dock. In addition to a couple of sharks, we also saw a turtle. We had lunch at the Lorraine’s by the road. While Keith was pretty much over his cold, he wasn’t feeling particularly energetic. He also had a mild residual cough.

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