Weather window arrives next week...will we be ready?

Two dinghies are passing each other, next to our boat. The one guy says to the other one that is headed towards him, "You look unhappy. Did you buy a boat?" We get that joke, having experienced the ups and downs of boat ownership.

With a working generator and engine, we had basically been waiting for a weather window to get back to the Bahamas. It seems that winds from the west are few and far between this time of year. We also wanted to get one of our fuel tanks cleaned out but that could wait if necessary.

Later this week, our much anticipated westerly's are forecasted to arrive and last for 3 whole days. So we are definitely out of here, right? Well, last week we discovered an issue that we didn't know existed. The generator (now that it's running), wasn't charging the batteries. The solar panels are great, but without a backup source of power, we run the risk of not being able to do little things like start the engine (and less importantly but still really nice to have--run the freezer/fridge, water, electronics, and toilets) if we have a prolonged run of cloudy days.

We had to replace the charger but before we put in the new one we need to address an issue with the 230V wiring that Matt discovered. This issue might be what killed the charger in the first place. AC wiring on a boat is a bit more complex than AC wiring on land so we want to get a marine electrician that knows both 110V (which we also have) and 230V to come look at it for us. We hope that can happen early this week, freeing us up to leave later in the week. There is pretty much nothing that can go wrong with that plan (just kidding--refer to the first paragraph again).

On the beach the other day, there was a topless woman (sorry guys, no picture). Not the kind of topless woman that is laying on her stomach and covers up when she gets up. Full glory topless. Most likely she was European. Not surprisingly, Matt noticed her first. Public nudity is a rare sight for us, but didn't really bother us. However, after a couple of minutes a woman (who we will unkindly refer to as "Sheltered Mom") who's family was 20 yards away walked over to have a talk with her. As "Sheltered Mom" gestured toward the 10-year old boys that were with her, we deduced that she was uncomfortable with her boys looking at the topless woman. After "Sheltered Mom" left, the topless woman laid on her stomach for awhile but 20 minutes later sat back up to talk to her friend. "Sheltered Mom" then promptly sent her 10-year old son up the beach to report the woman to the lifeguard. The lifeguard then walked over and had what had to be an incredibly awkward conversation with topless woman, who eventually covered up. Um, "Sheltered Mom", unless your son doesn't get the internet good luck keeping him away from nudity.