We were walking past a group of rather Dr. Suess-ish palm trees and I thought, Coconut. That could be the name of our boat. We have been trying to think of a name for the boat during this hiatus (well I haven’t been trying that hard since I am burnt out from trying to name a gazillion things for Baha Mar at my Vegas agency) since Curlew 2 we inherited with the boat and we aren’t too crazy about it. Though Coconut is common I think it achieves several things: It’s simple, easy to say and I especially like that it says we are a little nuts cause God knows we are for doing this trip. Not to mention buying that “hole in the water you throw money into.” The other name Lawson likes is “Shakedown.” And he likes Coconut Shakedown. :o)

Speaking of shakedowns…we’ve had some more. We finally left the Davis Harbour Marina after like a week I think. We motored to Highbourne Cay and anchored up and I remembered how much better I like being on the hook than in a marina – it was so beautiful! And the water was clear as can be. We swam off the back of the boat. Captain Todd (the man who gave us all that fresh Mahi – finally had the rest of it for lunch today) was there with Layla (the boat he captains) and its owner – a nice English lady. They were actually waterskiing from their dingy in the anchorage. All was well but we did have a mishap with Vudu To Go. All of our movies and shows were downloaded through this software – I mean hours and hours of downloads and suddenly they were all gone. Lawson was trying to figure out what happened and finally talked to them and turns out it’s a glitch with their software. Normally this would be an inconvenience but to us it’s a nightmare – no way we can download anything with the Internet speeds we’ve encountered on our travels and through our Bahamas phone mobile hotspot we’d pay at least $10 a pop for each download. So there went a bunch of entertainment for T right out the window. When April came she brought DVDs that I ordered and had shipped to her that have helped but they can only be played on our DVD player and we have no way to charge that unless we are on shore power at a marina. We used to be able to charge that with our generator but that stopped working a few weeks ago. Did I even write about that? That was a shakedown surprise, seeing that it was BRAND NEW. Ugh. It is covered under warranty but only in certain places, like Nassau, so I think we’re just waiting to fix that when we get home.

Anyway, on to the latest shakedown. So the next day, we leave Highbourne Cay and head across the Big Bahama bank – we were going to do a long haul to cover some ground and get closer to Bimini. There was absolutely no wind, the water was like glass and there was a slight fog. It was so amazing. Like we were in a glass bottom boat and just going into the middle of nowhere for hours and hours. I think we only saw one boat the whole way. So toward the end of the day the water gets choppy again and then guess what happens – the engine dies like it did before. Of course by now it’s almost dark but we’re almost to the Chub Cay Marina. We’re trying to sail in. And then we run aground. The marker channels were confusing and since it was dark we missed the channel. So we’re literally a stone’s throw away from the marina. Other boats are to the right of us as we’re right next to an anchorage, but most of those boats are catamarans as it must be more shallow.

So we’re aground until the tide goes up later and just stay put until morning. Around 6am when the tide went out we were back on the sandbar and could feel the nudge of it against the boat – very annoying. So then the calls begin…calling the marina, calling Boat US. Turns out our Boat US membership – that includes free towing – did us little good because we were 15 miles outside of their range. They got a company to give us a quote and it was like $12,000. Uh, no. Finally the marina people came through for us – they sent a guy on a boat out to pull us to the fuel dock. This guy didn’t even charge us – he just said buy him a beer. He was a very nice local. Then the dockmaster found us a mechanic. What was figured out was that our gas gauge is totally inaccurate and we were almost out of gas. When the fuel gets too low air gets in and causes it to die. Something like that. Anyway, we know now and will top off the fuel tank before taking any long trips.

So even though that was all just shakedown craziness, today was a pretty nice day. We walked around Chub Cay which is basically like a big resort but empty. The new clubhouse was huge and still under construction. Behind it, facing the beach was a huge pool with a swim up bar, but no one was there but a few guys working. I guess it wasn’t technically open either, but they didn’t care if we swam. Tristan of course loved that. After we had lunch on the boat he and I went back later and also waded around the beach and I found three sand dollars just like that.

At the end of the day we moved over to the other side of the fuel dock so we could have power, and I guess we will have to move again tomorrow into a bonafide slip. We can’t leave tomorrow because the weather is too bad, once again. (It’s actually blowing like crazy right now in the middle of the night…glad we are tied up and off the hook!) That means we miss our weather window for the crossing from Bimini, too. So who knows when we’ll get back to FL.