Norman's Cay, Exumas, Bahamas
KORKZcrew is the blue dot on the map.
I can hear the wind blowing like crazy but it isn’t affecting us much because we are in this awesome protected anchorage at "The Pond" at Norman's Cay. The water is relatively flat, so the only thing noticeable is that the boat is swinging a bit with the wind, but not rocking and rolling like it was the night before. Good night’s sleep. Stormy looking outside; cozy inside.
We’ve been getting a lot of “low battery” warnings, and are figuring out that our batteries can only hold a charge for about a day if we are anchored and the engine isn’t running. The batteries automatically charge whenever we are underway, and should theoretically last longer than a day once we stop, so Ron is thinking it might be time to replace the batteries. We can of course turn on the generator to recharge them, but this approach isn’t ideal since it burns fuel. But ya gotta do whatcha gotta do. He did some research online and it was suggested that if you’re at an anchorage for several days, you should consider running the generator for a bit every morning and every afternoon, just to keep the batteries properly charged up.
It's been cloudy and windy with sun and showers alternating most of the day. Ron and I both worked, and Steve, you know, slept. Ron noticed this rainbow at one point, which was pretty spectacular. If you look carefully, you can see the entire thing from left to right.
Skeet entertained himself today by listening to music on the bow and hanging out on the stern. He is incredibly easy-going, and happy with whatever is going on.
Of course there's obviously not a lot to complain about when you live on a boat, but at his age (19), he could easily bemoan the fact that he's stuck with just his parents, bored, annoyed, or all of the above. I wish I could give you an objective "take" on what it's like to be with Skeet, but I think it's fair to say he's got a genuinely sweet disposition and willingly pitches in to help with a wide range of responsibilities, whether it's clearing dishes from the table, helping his dad solve navigation puzzles, fetching groceries, planning weather windows, doing his laundry, or taking care of the dinghy. He's also really good at anticipating anything we might need in terms of getting KORKZcrew ready for its next passage, and will take care of ALL of that with his Dad's permission — turning on the instruments, the engines, and getting the helm station on the flybridge ready to go. He absolutely positively adores Steve. Multiple times per day he'll say, "Mom, look at Steve. Just LOOK at him. Isn't he SO cute? Aren't his eyes and his ears so cute? Look at his TAIL. Just LOOK." And Steve will just be sitting there (ok, lying there) being Steve. Or catching up on his Captain's Log. 😂
Skeet starts online classes tomorrow at Cape Fear Community College, and will be kicking off the first semester of his Sophomore year. He's one semester ahead as he was able to graduate from high school a bit early. Skeet has an intense passion for flying and hopes to become a commercial pilot one day. He can identify any plane we see flying overhead by name and can tell you everything about its make and model. Sometimes he'll go into long stories about the manufacturer and why that aircraft was phased out (and what year) or redesigned or insert-interesting-crazy-fact-here. If he loves a topic, ANY topic, he seems to know it inside and out. Combine that love for aviation with the boating experience he's getting from his dad and it seems the sky is the limit. And that's a really bad pun. But I cannot WAIT to see what Skeet does with his gifts. I learn something from him every single day. I just can't remember what it is.
Thanks to my buddy Fonda, I made an easy one-pan dinner tonight that was healthy and delicious. If it wasn't for Fonda and F.I.T., I would turn into a gigantic french fry. As long as I can easily track down this meal's ingredients going forward, I think it'll have a regular rotation on KORKZcrew's dinner"menu".
Based on the upcoming forecast, we are realizing we might be anchored here for several days, so we're being really mindful of our water usage. A lot of our water use comes from washing the dishes, so we try to rinse them off at the back of the boat as often as we can to save us a step. (And speaking of dish washing . . . good lord you should see my dishpan hands. 😱 But I'm really glad you can't.) We don't take many showers or run laundry until it makes sense to do so. To live on a small boat, you have to be comfortable with not showering as often as you might be used to, but honestly, if you can take a dip off the back of the boat, it’s not that hard to adjust. You just need to be ok with hair that feels like straw, and that you can shape like clay. 😂 But maybe I’ve just always channeled a little Pig-Pen from the Charlie Brown cartoons — walking around with a little cloud of dirt constantly surrounding my body. Or maybe the care train has officially left the station. I would tell you which one is more likely the truth, but I don't really care. 😜
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