The fire was extinguished with one new ABC extinguisher which fortunately only leaves a white powdery residue once the fire is instantly extinguished. Now tracing the cause is another story.
Leaving Northwest Channel Cut after an almost flat sea day, we turned south into the Tongue of the Ocean for a second overnight down past the south side of Nassau to the Exumas. Easy night, especially with the full moon for Stanna’s and my midnight to 2AM watch. One navigational addition on Dragonfly, and new to us, is AIS (Automated Identification System) where all commercial ships must use a transponder with Name, Bearing, and Speed sent on a VHF frequency that radios with that receiver can read. Really great for freighters whose well-lit decks mask out the red and green running lights, where you often can’t tell if they are coming or going.
We arrived at an anchorage just north of Staniel Cay called Big Major Spot just before noon. We knocked off a few more chores and had an early dinner, a round of Kings in the Corners (a card game new to me, which demonstrated my lack of experience with Solitaire, following simple procedural rules and bad luck – I out-scored everyone in a game where the lowest points wins).
Chris Parker’s morning weather net foretold of rough seas and high winds for the next five days for anyone leaving later than that morning, so we battened down Dragonfly and bashed our way thru the cut and into 8 to 10 foot seas with occasional 13 ft’ers (we know cuz the captain says when the horizon is blocked when he’s at the helm the wave is greater than 13′). What was best about this leg, was that during the daytime we could see exactly where all the salt water was coming thru into the salon, cabins and shower. Actually we knew about the shower as the solar vent on the port deck slid down toward the helm and Joe snatched it. This photo show Al screwing it back down in heavy seas.
We made the northern Georgetown cut by mid-afternoon so Joe and Helen had time to go check out Deja Vu before dinner time. For those who hadn’t heard, a tropical storm named Sandy hit Cuba first then passed over Georgetown at a reported 112 MPH before heading north to mess with New England. They’d heard via email that Deja Vu was fine but until you see her for yourself there is still a tad bit of doubt. She sat high and bright in her hurricane hole when we dinghy’ed in to her. From looking at the outside she looked like someone had just painted or waxed her. And because the crew had left her super clean inside she looked like they left her yesterday. They “love” the Kevalli Marina and hurricane hole now and see that as her berthing for next several years, if they don’t need to go back to Florida Dredge and Dock in Tarpon.
As you can see from the photos we rafted the two cats while we transferred all the booty scored in Florida. Amazing how much smaller a 45‘ cat is next to a 64‘ cat. BTW Paradox was just as diminutive when rafted to Deja Vu.
