Category Archives: Boat Technical

Specifics about the boat.

Moving to Between the Majors, Staniel Cay Area, Exuma Islands, The Bahamas

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On Tuesday, December 9, 2025, it was raining during sunrise. The view of the sun was completely obscured, but there were some pretty colors prior to the rain rolling in.

Much to our dismay, when we checked the forecast this morning, we saw that it had changed again — the wind would continue to come from the west all day today. Argh. We were frustrated with ourselves for not moving yesterday. When Eric and Keith went to bring in the flopper stopper, they saw this guy was making circles around it.

We immediately moved to the anchorage called Between the Majors on the northwest side of Big Major Cay. It was much more comfortable than the south side had been, but still rolly enough to deploy the port side flopper stopper. One of the issues with this anchorage that had made Eric reluctant to move yesterday was that it had a strong current that caused the boats to swing wildly from one direction to the other, increasing the chance of dragging. And the boats didn’t move together in unison. Some boats moved more with the wind direction and others with the current, so there was a bigger chance of collisions in this type of anchorage. We made sure that we anchored far away from the other boats and that the anchor was set well. This was our view of the anchorage looking northeast towards Fowl Cay.

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Transit from Royal Island (near Eleuthera Island) to Highbourne Cay (Exuma Islands), The Bahamas

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Full moon just before dawn on Friday, December 5

Sunrise

On Friday morning, while Christi and Keith did school, Eric cleaned the watermaker sea strainer, the DC carbon filter, and the AC carbon pre-filter and filters. In the early afternoon, Eric and Keith tried to go to shore to explore the hurricane ruins, but that dock was still inaccessible. Given how shallow it was around that dock, it was probably only usable at high tide.

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Mellow Days in Marsh Harbour, Abacos Islands, Bahamas

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Friday, November 28 — It was an interesting sunrise. The clouds mostly blocked the colors, but wherever there was a gap in the clouds, the colors were vivid.

There had been a little bit of rain overnight. It was a gloomy morning. The wind was at 12 – 15 knots and the anchorage was quite rocky. It never failed to surprise us at how little fetch it took for wind waves to form. Unlike Thursday, there wasn’t much boat traffic. It seemed most boaters had hunkered down for the windstorm. The temperature was warm enough for shorts in the morning, but as the day progressed, it cooled down. By the late afternoon, we were wearing sweaters. Due to the thick cloud cover, the solar panels only produced 1/3 of the electricity that they normally generated.

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Start of the Passage from Norfolk to Marsh Harbor, Abacos, Bahamas – Cape Hatteras and Crossing the Gulf Stream

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Wednesday, November 12, 2025 — Christi woke up feeling like she was fighting a cold. It was warmer today than it was yesterday, but it was still too cold for our comfort. In the morning, we drove to Cova for lattes. Christi also stocked up on coffee since she knew finding good coffee in The Bahamas was not easy. Then Eric returned car while Christi and Keith did school. 

We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon getting things ready to go. Since it was a major passage, we had to make sure that everything was put away and securely packed in the cabinets and drawers. Eric rinsed the boat down and cleaned the exterior windows. Even though we’d run water over the lazarette and it seemed water tight, we decided to be extra cautious and put tape around the seals of the lazarette.

We untied at 1500. At first, the ride was not bad. We ran at 1625 RPM and averaged in the high 5s for speed. The sunset and twilight were… striped.

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Changing Plans in Norfolk, Virginia

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Tuesday, November 11, 2025 — Here was Kosmos in her slip at Morningstar.

Cruising season in the tropical latitudes officially began on November 1. Many families that were silent all summer have begun chiming in on the various boating apps, sharing where/when they were going. We’d mentioned that in Annapolis, we hadn’t met a single family going to the Eastern Caribbean — most were going to The Bahamas. As such, Keith has been asking to go to The Bahamas since that was where all the kids would be. Eric and Christi kept assuring Keith that there would be lots of families in the Caribbean and he’d have plenty of friends. But as we watched the check-ins, Eric and Christi began to doubt that was true. Few families indicated they were going to the Eastern Caribbean, and those that were wouldn’t be heading over there until later in the season.

Meanwhile, yesterday it cooled down again, but the terrible cold snap hadn’t hit yet. We knew the freezing temperatures were coming and would last for a while. We did not have the proper clothing/gear on board for such low temperatures. There was no weather window to Bermuda for the next three weeks, but a weather window was opening up to The Bahamas on Wednesday. Eric and Christi decided to give up on the Eastern Caribbean and just go to The Bahamas, instead. Keith was thrilled by the news. 

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