There is a new proud owner

Finally, Seas the Moment has a new proud owner!  Ross (left side in the picture) and his dad will be enjoying her from now on.  She will surely take care of Ross and his crew in future endeavours, and it is my wish that one day, he can take her far out to sea again.  Maybe one day, she will help him build the courage to put everything on hold, sieze the moment, untie the mooring lines, and go out to sea on an awesome journey to unknown ports, with an uncertain itinerary, and an unclear plan... where the only element guaranteed is adventure.
Good luck!

Note:  There is a common saying out there that claims that a boatowner's two happiest days are the day he/she buys the boat, and the day he/she sells the boat.  I'm here to debunk that myth... that might be true for some, and I have in mind those who buy new powerboats and use them rarely... but for others, especially cruisers, who take their boats out for extended adventures, learn to interpret their vessel's personality, and live to tell their sea tales, the day they sell their boat is bittersweet... a financial burden is lifted on to the buyer's shoulders, but the door to a certain type of freedom gets shut as well.  To me, the day I signed off her title, did not represent one of my happiest days as a boat owner.

Seas the Moment - sale pending

After a couple of weeks of being for sale, a couple of offers have been made to purchase Seas the Moment.  I have accepted one of these offers and have received a deposit, effectively taking her off the market until the rest of the money is delivered so that the title can be signed off and transferred.  The person buying her is perfect for her, he is young and intends to keep her at the Coconut Grove Sailing Club, the place which has been her home for probably over a decade.

Hopefully, this guy will be able to get as much value out of the club as I have.  The club represents to me the place where I met so many awesome people, got so many boat questions answered, initiated so many awesome adventures, and where I met her, Seas the Moment, whose path wound up crossing mine and then safely taking me on a trip of a lifetime.  She might have been influential in giving me the courage to move back to Colombia (her previous owner sold her and moved to Peru... coincidence???), and she definitely helped me build my confidence in so much other than sailing during our last few months.

If the buyer is able to get even a fraction of the value from her and from the club, it will have been worth every penny.

The Bahamas - lessons learned

I spent a good amount of time researching cruising in the Bahamas and beyond, and after spending four months cruising there, I have some ideas/opinions to share with future cruisers.

Garmin GPS/Chartplotter
I used a Garmin 76CX with the US and Bahamas charts loaded through a microSD card, it was absolutely accurate everywhere I went (Biminis, Berrys, New Providence, Exumas, Andros, and Long Island).  I never noticed the GPS placing anything (not even channel markers) in the wrong place.  The charts on my GPS seem to be derived directly from the Explorer Chart data which is reputedly excellent and after having cruised through so many cuts and channels, I would dare to "navigate them by GPS" (even at night) given that it was so accurate.

Paper Charts
Like I mentioned above, the Explorer Charts are reputedly the best, and in my experience they were excellent.  The only inaccuracies that I observed were where the actual depth was greater than charted, but I'll take that any day over the opposite scenario.

Cruising Guides
I used the Yachtman's guide to the Bahamas and Passages South.  I found the Yachtsman's guide redundant if you have the Explorer Charts.  Passages South had very good weather information that really explains the Bahamian winter very well. 

Anchoring
I had read a lot of information related to anchoring... from what kinds of anchors work best, to how much chain one should have, to how much scope needs to be laid.  I used two anchors only three times in four months.  I found that using two anchors was a pain in the butt for the following reasons:  difficult to deploy and retrieve (especially if you need to get out of where you are in an emergency), they got tangled, they rubbed bottom paint off and smeared it on the hull above the waterline, and they can get tangled on the keel or rudder.  They do have advantages and I would continue to use them in certain situations such as tidal creeks or when a front is coming and the winds will clock around. 

My primary anchor was a 12 pound Fortress with 30 feet of chain (probably 3/8) and about 150 feet of nylon rode.  I usually used about 7:1 scope, sometimes less.  With this setup, we held in 40 knot blows and NEVER dragged!  My secondary anchor was a 22 pound Danforth with 40 feet of chain and 150 feet of nylon rode, I used that as a second anchor, and ocassionally as the primary anchor, but it wasn't as convenient since it wasn't mounted on a roller.  I had two other anchors on board but never used them, they take a lot of space and add a lot of weight to the boat, but they are my insurance in case of an emergency.  Whatever you do, dive on your anchor and set it by hand if necessary.

Fishing/Spearfishing
I did some trolling with limited success, and some spearfishing with mixed results.  For trolling, I wish I had bought a strong rod with a standard reel (not a spinning reel).  I ended up not trolling as much as I would have liked because I was often towing the dinghy and I didn't want to tangle the line with the dinghy or painter.

Regarding spearfishing, I had a polespear with a barbed tip, it was great for slaying lobster, but fish would often not get close enough for me to fully penetrate them (yeah, I know what you are thinking!).  I think a Hawaiian sling would have worked better at getting fish since you can supposedly shoot from a greater distance. 

Smartphones
These were the most useful items on our trip.  You would be amazed at what you can do with a phone on board... they serve as phones (duh!), as alarm clocks, as chartplotters, as routers, as your source of weather, game console, eBook reader, TV, blogging device, and any other internet-related use you might think of (yes, I just ended a sentence with a preposition). 

I used it mostly to check the weather via Windfinder, PassageWeather, NOAA, AccuWeather, etc.  I also spent a lot of time doing internet research, watching YouTube videos, sharing my connection with others, reading on my Kindle app, and playing games.  Many cruisers would wake up early in the morning to listen to weather forecasts on the SSB, I simply checked the weather from my phone at any time.  The BTC coverage and speed is usually really good (usually better than the speed I get with GoSmart in Miami).

The most convenient thing to do if you will be going to the Bahamas is to get an take GSM smartphone, then go to the BTC store and buy a prepaid SIM card, then register online so that you can buy credits for your account, which you can then use for calling, or better yet, to purchase a 30 day data plan (2GB at really good speed, slugish after that).  The speed is usually so good that we were able to download the Vonage app and make free VoIP calls to the US using the cellular data plan.

SSB
I bought two Grundig SSB receivers because I thought this would be my primary source of weather data... I think I only used them once since the cellular network coverage was so good that I could just use the internet to get the weather forecasts.  I suppose this is good to have, but I would have been fine without it.

Dinghy
I bought a Walker Bay 8 foot dinghy a couple of weeks before I left.  It has the inflatable rim and a bimini! The dinghy is extremely stable and having the Bimini allowed us to sit in the shade during the awfully long dinghy rides in Elizabeth Harbour.  I took a Nissan 5HP two-stroke engine that works like a champ.  Everything works well with it but it is a slow dinghy.  I developed dinghy-envy for those with hard-bottom inflatables with 10 or 15 horses... they can plane, so they can get anywhere in no time!

Emergency Locator
I did not carry a classic EPIRB or PLB... I did, however, carry a DeLorme InReach Communicator.  These gadgets are small, waterproof, and use regular batteries.  They are similar to a SPOT Messenger in that they can send predefind messages to a predefined mailing list at the touch of a button.  But they are so much more than that!  When you pair them up with a smartphone, they become text messengers piggybacking the data through the Iridium satelite network.  I was occassionally outside of cellular network coverage but was still able to have two-way text message conversations with my friends and family, or if needed, with the emergency response team at DeLorme, how awesome is that?

Refrigeration
We did not have any, I did spend plenty of time, money, and energy getting ice for our cooler.  I did not have the charging power to support a fridge anyway, so it wasn't really an option.  If your boat can sustain a fridge for an extended period of time without shorepower, awesome!  If not, don't let that hold you back.

Grocery Shopping
Out island grocery stores are weakly stocked and they get even weaker as the days pass since the last visit by the mailboat.  However, you shall always find something to eat in these stores if you are creative.  We, and several other boats, ended up taking much of our canned goods for a roundtrip cruise to the Bahamas, precisely because fresh stuff is generally available so we didn't end up consuming much of the canned stuff.

Bars and Restaurants
Rum is cheap, beer and food is expensive.  A case of Kalik usually costs at least $40.  Most restaurants have a nearly identical menu and everything tends to cost between $8 - $12. 

Marinas
Seas the Moment rests better at anchor than at any Marina, but in certain locations we took slips.  Nassau and Bimini have strong tidal currents and fowled bottoms so anchoring can be tricky.

Fuel
It is expensive... usually from 50% - 100% more expensive than in the states.

Stereo
I had a regular boat stereo but I never used it, instead I used a Bose Sound Dock which worked perfectly, required no wiring, etc.  The only drawback is that while charging the Sound Dock, it draws about three amps through the 12-volt plug.

Reading
My Amazon Kindle was awesome until it got damaged... after that occured, I had to use the Kindle app for Android which is fine, but the phone's battery doesn't last as long as the Kindle itself (whose battery lasts for weeks).

I hope this information will help you prepare for your upcoming cruise to the Bahamas.

Seas the moment is up for sale

Finally, after hours of work, Seas the Moment is back into her former glory!  My personal items have been removed and she has been cleaned up.  She looks nimble and spacious again!  She is ready to race, go out for a short cruise, or for a simple daysail.

I took some pictures of her, please help me find her a new owner.

Seas the Moment is back at home

The Gulfstream crossing was uneventful! It was a boring motorsail in small, but confused, seas... it was, however, light enough to not be uncomfortable.  When we were about 25 miles off the coast, Seas the Moment slowly started raising the Miami Beach buildings out of the horizon... it was an impressive sight to see buildings from South Beach all the way to Hallandale Beach.  We were doing about five knots in a direction 25 - 30 degrees north of were we were pointing!  I felt the stream finally let us go when I was about two or three miles east of Virginia Key's north end.  I changed course and set sail south towards the lighthouse.

As my cruise came to an end, shortly after passing by the Cape Florida lighthouse, dolphins started to swim by us and some even jumped about three feet out of the water!  I felt this was a very appropriate "welcome back" gesture from the sea. I finally made it back to the Coconut Grove Sailing Club shortly thereafter.

Seas the Moment is finally back at the moorings which she has called home for so many years.  Although she looks weighed down from all the cruising gear she has been loyally carrying for the last few months, she finally seems at rest.  During the next few days, I will be removing my personal items, cleaning her up, and offloading any unnecessary cruising gear from her.  She has taken excellent care of us and deserves a good cleaning and scrubbing.  After that is all done, I will be spending time finding her a new owner, hopefully one that will keep her at the Coconut Grove Sailing Club...

It is somewhat ironic that now that my home has found her home, I have been left homeless.  I will be living at my uncle's place for a few days until I can find her a new owner.

I will also be spending time figuring out what to do about income... the cruising world consists off all kinds of people, all of whom dread the thought of having a job.  Cruising is like living in Peter Pan's Neverland where adults are free to do whatever they'd like and have no responsibilities outside of taking care of their vessel and themselves.  I have now traveled back to reality and must figure out how to make the next chapter of my life sustainable... simply living any longer from my savings is unsustainable.

Grassy Bay, Cat Cay

There is some sort of low pressure system stalled over Lake Okeechobee that has been wreaking havoc with the weather as well as the models that forecast it.  We are supposed to expect all kinds of thunderstorms, but tomorrow is expected to not be as bad.  I'm hoping for this last crossing to be just as uneventful as all others (crossing fingers).

This morning, determined to get a head start on the crossing and a better angle on the gulfstream, we headed over to North Cat Cay.  We anchored in a little cove on the west side of the island called "Grassy Bay", obviously named for being so grassy.  For those that don't know, anchoring in seagrass is not great, but the winds are so light, and it offers so much protection that we decided to anchor here anyway.  The bay is only exposed to the northwest, and since there is no forecast announcing northwest winds or waves, we decided that this would be fine.

Sailing over from Bimini we could see thunderstorms to our west, it looked pretty bad.  The radio was going crazy with multiple severe weather warnings in Dade and Broward.  Looking at the doppler radar, I could infer that we would be seeing some of those later.  About an hour after having anchored, it started raining and blowing from the northwest (yes, the only direction from which we had no protection).  The winds picked up and Seas the Moment swong on her anchor to face the wind, we must have been 50 feet from shore!  I turned on the engine a little above idle to take some of the pressure from the anchor which may (or may not) be holding.  The wind probably didn't reach 20 kts, but it was kind of sketchy to be being blown onto a beach just off our stern.  Mike and Jennifer decided to reanchor further off the beach while all this wind and rain was going on... it looked kind of difficult, plus, I didn't seem like I was dragging, so I simply kept "motoring" until the winds let down.  I hope I don't have to deal with that again later tonight!

We are thinking about leaving shortly after midnight.  I'm somewhat nervous about storms, yet so eager to raise Miami's skyline out of the horizon!

Wish me luck!

Bimini revisited... I can almost smell Miami from here

I've had an awesome time hanging out with Mike and Jennifer here in Bimini.  We've been hanging out at a few spots that are thriving with locals, which is refreshing compared to other places where the local to cruiser ratio was really low.

As I get closer to Florida, I'm noticing more and more spanish being spoken around me... specifically the shouting exercised by Miami Cubans in their superfast powerboats makes me reminisce about the sandbar in the lee of Key Biscayne.

I'm eager to make this last passage in safety and comfort, but that will also mean the end to this incredible adventure, so I have mixed feelings... in the meantime, while I wait for weather here in Bimini, I'll be taking it easy and enjoying the last days of my trip...

Chub Cay to Bimini - the Grand Bahama Bank from hell, revisited

I woke up on Tuesday morning to troubleshoot an issue with the running lights.  As usual, when you need something to work, it stops working.  I tested it the night before precisely for that reason and discovered it wasn't turning on.  It only took me a few minutes to figure out the problem and fix it.  Afterwards I made breakfast, raised the dinghy, and left around 9 AM.  Undaunted followed closely behind.

The winds were a bit stronger than forecasted, I got to the nortwest channel during an ebb and the current was ripping, it was bumpy and steep but not difficult or scary...  On my way to the channel, I observed what looked like an exposed reef just a few feet from my boat.  I rushed to check my GPS location while at the same time keeping an eye on the reef.  The GPS confirmed that I was in good water, then I realized the "reef" was actually the dark topsides of some type of whale, and that there were a few of them swimming around!  Obviously this only happens when there is no one around to confirm your story when you are telling it at the bar. 

Once on the banks, I set my course for the Cat Cay waypoint... ETA 2am... I figured I might end up anchoring somewhere in the banks.  The wind fell and so did my speed, so I shaked out the reef in my main. The wind shifted direction a few times, sometimes it would be just behind the beam, other times it would be directly on my stern.  For a while, I even rigged a sort of whisker pole  by putting a block at the end of the boom, and running a line from the cockpit, through the block, and into the jib clew.  Undaunted chose the northern route through the banks. I wanted to check the cat cay route, so we slowly parted ways.  They reported having caught a 12 pound Mutton Snapper while trolling on the banks, so i threw a line out to test my luck... We chatted on the VHF until we could tell our distance was making our comunication difficult, so we said goodbye, like I've had to do with so many awesome people during this trip.  I caught a chunk of seaweed on my lure, the ocean sure owes me a large amount of fish by now, the odds have to be stacking up in my favor.  I have a feeling that the ocean is like "the house" at a casino, the odds are stacked in it's favor, but if you spend enough credits, it gives you a couple back to make you think you will win in the end, but sailors, fishermen, and other gamblers should know that in the end, "the house" always wins... but I digress.

A lonely dolphin swam along my boat for a while in the middle of this featureless dessert of sand and sea called the Great Bahama Bank.  Night fell and although the wind was not strong enough to warrant putting a reef in the main, I did so anyway just so I might not have to do it at night.  To my surprise, my speed did not drop, and the jib filled up with better wind than before.  By this time, the stars had started to shine and everything was perfect.  There were no boats around and it felt kind of spooky to be sailing alone in the middle of nowhere, headed towards even shallower banks which I would have to navigate by moonlight (and GPS).  I took a couple of short naps.  My speed rarely dropped under 5.5 knots and the wind was building at the rate of a third world construction site (slowly).  I got to the east side of  North Cat Cay at around 11:45 PM and started to look for an anchorage.  I couldn't find any calm water so I ended up sailing all the way to South Bimini through some really shallow spots, in strange waters, super tired, and at night... basically begging for something to go wrong... somehow, Murphy spared my last night and I made it to Nixon's Harbour in South Bimini around 2:00AM... not bad for 90 nautical miles.  By the way, the wind increased throughout the night while I was sailing, at the end, I was doing 5.5 knots with a deeply reefed main and deeply reefed jib! What ever happened to the promised night lee that Bruce Van Sant claims occurs in the banks after a sunny day and a forecast of under 15 knots????

Anyway, this morning I woke up and was pleased to find that the nameless Catalina 27 was anchored a few yards away, they made it around 5:00 AM!  We waited for slack high tide and motored over to Browns Marina.  Southern Blue and Wandrian are still somewhere on the banks...

Today I will experience the elusive activity called a proper shower, which, if I remember correctly, aids one in getting to that mythical state of being called "clean".

Chub Cay, an idyllic anchorage... maybe

Last night was awesome.  The wind was calm and the anchorage was dead flat.  The skies cleared and the moon was casting our shadow on the sandy bottom below.  The water was so clear that I could see the individual strands of seagrass and starfish in the boat's moonshadow, now imagine how clear it was in the moonlight.  As opposed to Andros, I've seen no bugs besides the ones that managed to catch a free ride on the boat... it cost them dearly though when they tried to bite me at night!

Dawn brought to my eyes one of the most idyllic scenes so far during this trip.  The clear glassy water lay interrupted only by the nearby islands and by Undaunted.  The morning was also very silent except for some seagulls scavenging on the beach under the high tide line, in the distance I could also faintly hear the rumbles of the generators that power the failed project also known as Chub Cay Marina.  I made myself some breakfast and once I finished, I could not tolerate the tower of dirty dishes so I went to work on cleaning them up.  I am philosophically opposed to any kind of activity that can be labeled as work, but I suppose it is the price one pays to enjoy yet another day in paradise.

I went for a swim around noon to manually reset my anchor into a safer direction in anticipation of the late afternoon northeasterlies being predicted by the different weather sources.  I also swam over to Undaunted and chatted with them for a while.  Then I spent some time cleaning the hull from all the nasty spilt fuel that inevitavely flows by your boat at the Nassau harbour.  I then grabbed the spear and went for yet another unsuccessful hunt.  I did see lots of fish and an easy lobster (but they are out of season).  As I swam on the edge of the abyss leading to the depths of the Tongue of the Ocean during flood tide, I could feel the rich cold water flooding the banks.  I managed to partially spear a good sized grunt but the barbs didn't go in deep enough and it managed to swim away.  Shortly thereafter, and at the same time, a 6-foot nurseshark and a barracuda swam over and paid me a visit... this spooked me enough to call it a day.

I swam back to the boat and started to prepare food for tomorrow's passage.  I had some lunch and now have a new pile of dirty dishes!

The wind picked up around 5:30PM and the anchorage doesn't seem as idyllic anymore.  I am a bit concerned about how my friends at Morgan's Bluff are dealing with this, hopefully the wind will turn sufficiently east such that the anchorage remains tennable.

Tomorrow, if everything stays as planned, I will be heading out across the banks for an overnight run down to Bimini.  I may end up anchoring somewhere in the middle of the featureless banks if conditions permit.

Morgan's Bluff and Chub Cay

Last night, Southern Blue and Wandrian had to make a night entry through the unmarked break in the reef which serves as a channel into the harbor.  It was tense, and we tried as much as possible to aid them from the relative comfort of Undaunted's cockpit.  We stressed as we heard their conversations on the VHF, there were a few lights from cars driving along the seawall, and from our boats at anchor, which must have been totally confusing to the boats coming in.  Add to that, an unlit mooring ball intended for really big ships, and the crazy horsefly looking insects locally called "Doctor Flies" which were attacking all boats near the harbour and you can begin to imagine how unnerving it must have been for them.  Fortunately though, the wind and seas were fair so they mostly only needed to focus on not ending up on the reef.

The anchorage was pleasant but the holding was bad, it seemed like there was a miniscule layer of sand over a flat sheet of rock, the boats were holding simply from the weight of their ground tackle and not much else.  One of the boats in the harbor (the only one that was there when we arrived) had found an old mooring and had tied up to it.  He was lucky to have found it because early that morning he had a squall pass by dumping about 40 kts of wind from the north (precisely the direction that the harbor is exposed to), had he not been tied up, he might have dragged onto the beach with such poor holding.

Anyway, it was a pleasant, albeit buggy night, and I got some good sleep.  I woke up to gray skies and a slightly different weather forecast than what I thought we had when we left Nassau.  It now seems that we might have some wind from the north-northeast which might make the harbor untennable, so I opted for making a quick run over to Chub Cay about 14 nautical miles away.  I discussed this with the captains of the other boats we sailed with while we strolled through town and Undaunted liked the proposition, so we decided to sail over to Chub Cay around 2PM.

We had some squalls all around us most of the way, but luckily we did not run into any of them.  One of the squalls even appeared to have a small funnel that never seemed to reach the ocean so that it could reach waterspout status, it was an amazing sight but only from a distance.  We reached the anchorage at Chub Cay shortly after 5PM and dropped the hooks in calm water.  Clark from Undaunted managed to find a spot with equally poor holding as Morgan's Bluff so he had to reanchor, I found a spot that was reportedly good deep sand (Clark dove on my anchor to check it) and set to work on getting the dinghy off the foredeck.

There isn't much to do here at Chub Cay and the marina has become prohibitively expensive since we last visited (north of $4/foot!!) So we will be waiting on the weather out here. 

I'm really dreading the next leg of the trip, it is really long and there are no anchorages on the way... but I suppose that I have no choice but to get it over with (on a good weather forecast).

Hopefully we'll catch up with Southern Blue, Wandrian, and the nameless Catalina in Bimini soon.

Seas the Moment crosses the Tongue of the Ocean

We organized a mini fleet of boats interested in going down to Morgan's Bluff from Nassau.  The fleet loosely consisted of Seas the Moment, Southern Blue, Wandrian, Undaunted, Catalina (a nameless sister ship that we simply call Catalina), and Southern Belle (who did not end up sailing today).

Undaunted left a little before everyone else and routinely relayed the wind and sea conditions.  The sea was confused and had at least two directions from which swells were coming in... this made for an uncomfortable ride, but it was bearable.

I left a little later than I was hoping for, and since I wanted to get to Morgan's Bluff in daylight, I started motorsailing in light winds from (you guessed it) the west! The odd west wind was likely caused by some small low pressure system to our north because eventually the wind direction shifted to south-southeast as was  forecasted and I was able to kill the engine and simply sail...

The channel markers on the entrance to the harbour were characteristically absent, so I had to follow the Garmin GPS electronic charts which seemed to be spot-on (as has been the case for every single cut or channel in the Bahamas).  The actual anchorage is littered with Casuarinas and loosely resembles the Marine Stadium anchorage in Miami.

As I'm writing this stuff, Undaunted, Seas the Moment, and Catalina lay peacefully at anchor, Wondrian and Southern Blue are still sailing and may have to make a night entry... which is kind of sketchy, but given the current conditions, it will be fine (crossing fingers).

Where did my day go?

Where did my day go? I used to wonder what people without jobs did all day, now I think I can answer that myself...

I wake up usually around 8:00AM and check my phone, this means that I check my various email accounts and ongoing text message conversations.  After that, I'll invest some time playing a video game on my phone as well.  Soon thereafter, hunger or thirst will strike, at which point I'll clumsily manage to crawl out of this coffin of a bed called a V-berth.  Depending on my energy level, I will either cook some sort of breakfast, or prepare some cereal.  After I'm done, I'll observe the growing pile of dirty dishes and cringe.  However, I'll usually determine that I'll wash dishes later at a "better time" (as if there was such a thing).  I may spend a few minutes organizing the boat, then I'll gather up all the necessary items for taking a shower and brushing my teeth.  As soon as I'm ready to take a shower, the familiar tingling in my lower abdomen comes knocking to inform me of a late appointment with the restroom.  I'll then put my toothbrush, towel, etc back on the boat and head over to the gas station to use their "head".  I patiently get in line at the gas station until I get to the attendant which I politely ask to open the restroom for me.  Sometimes the restroom will be occupied and I'll have to wait in a light panic for it to be vacated.  I use the restroom while playing video games on my phone and then come back to the boat to get my stuff so I can take my shower.

My showers here consist of standing on the dock in my boardshorts while using a hose to pour water over myself... I like to check out the expression in people's faces while they see me taking a shower on the dock in plain view.

At some point between the restroom and the shower, friends from nearby boats show up to use the internet at the gas station, so after my shower I'll walk up there to determine what to do for the rest of the day.  We chat for a bit and we realize that it is about noon! We usually start to slowly walk towards downtown which is about two good miles west.  On the way there, I'll figure that it must be 5:00PM somewhere, so it might as well be right here! So I'll purchase a cold refreshing Kalik to make the long walk bearable. 

Once we get to downtown, we'll find a public space with some shade and spend some time discussing upcoming passages, cruising plans, the weather, travel, boats, etc.  Hunger will creep in and the conversation will start to focus on hunting down our next meal.  We will walk to different places until we find something suitable, then have lunch.  Later we might end up going to the public library and chill on its fresh and shaded wraparound balcony overlooking downtown Nassau and the harbor.  After a while there, the sun will have dropped significantly, and walking around town becomes more pleasurable.  So we might check out some sights and slowly make our way back to our boats while discussing dinner plans...

$630 later

I started the day with 3 tasks to do.

Fix/replace phone
I walked the steamy streets looking for cell phone stores, after multiple stores, haggling prices, and losing about 10 pounds worth of sweat, I ended up buying a Samsung Galaxy III mini for $479!

Spare GPS
After checking out the units available, I determined that this would be prohibitively expensive... so I'll keep the ones I have.

Handheld VHF
I ended up buying a Uniden unit for $149, it will be stored in my ditch bag when not in use...

Hopefully the rest of my stay here will turn out cheaper...