A long Bahama trip in a small boat

[cdavisdb]

You can get a belt on there that is short enough to work without slipping when you have no way to tighten it?? Any idea what size? I'd been planning to take a spare hydraulic pump next trip, but a belt would be a whole lot cheaper since I don't really need the power steering.

[FLexpat]

or maybe a cheap idler pulley from a junkyard - mount it and only use it if you need to.

[kmoose]

Originally Posted by cdavisdb

You can get a belt on there that is short enough to work without slipping when you have no way to tighten it?? Any idea what size? I'd been planning to take a spare hydraulic pump next trip, but a belt would be a whole lot cheaper since I don't really need the power steering.

It takes some measuring from around the pullies but an old belt you can cut up works great. Cut a piece that sits in the groove butted together and buy one 1/2 to 1" shorter. The belts have a considerable amount of stretch so don't worry. If you can get it on the big pulley and half way on the pump pulley it will go with just a bump or two of the starter.

[FLexpat]

Originally Posted by kmoose

It takes some measuring from around the pullies but an old belt you can cut up works great. Cut a piece that sits in the groove butted together and buy one 1/2 to 1" shorter. The belts have a considerable amount of stretch so don't worry. If you can get it on the big pulley and half way on the pump pulley it will go with just a bump or two of the starter.

That made me remember what someone told me he did years ago in the same situation - he had a short belt like what Moose said and just took out the pulley bolts to mount the belt then remounted the pulley and tightened the bolts.

[Tiny]

It was an epic trip and I won't soon forget the walls at conception or San Salvador. For me it was spur of the moment, I got a PM on here, and next thing I know I’m leaving on the boat from Ft. Lauderdale for San Salvador. It was a great adventure along the way I made two new friends and great memories.
The hull/drive performance was fantastic, some due the designer (the ride) some due to the captains preparation (accommodations). It's a big 25 foot boat. There are few 25 foot boats that you can just put on a heading (any heading) in confused 3-5 foot sea's and never touch the throttle running 19 knots, while riding comfortably.

Connor did a great job preparing for the trip and had totally thought out accommodations down to the last detail, save one :-). He did a fantastic job in planning and execution. Simon had fantastic knowledge he passed along that really helped my diving as well. Much thanks to both of you!

[cdavisdb]

Ok, so what did I forget? Surely I've got a great excuse.

[cdavisdb]

The run to Rum, about 45 miles could have been very rough if we had to go into it, but quartering away was no problem. Sea started out a minimal 2-3, but ended up a steep, nasty 4-6++ . What looked like a tropical wave was moving through, cloudy, lots of squalls, generally unsettled. We started out exploring the reef that sticks north from Rum's NW corner, reputed to be extremely pretty. It had been, once, lots of dead elk horn and very few fish. You could tell it had been spectacular, once. Hit some deeper spots, but there did not seem to be a wall in decent depth. We covered enough ground that I'm confident there is not much there for freedivers today.

Next Flamingo Bay. This is a spot I'd heard of and been on my list for years, big protected bay, full of coral heads, long gorgeous beach, uninhabited, supposed to be outstanding.

It was.

Getting into the bay was an intricate dance with a jillion close together coral heads that came right up to the surface. Not a problem in good light but something I'd never try any other time. We anchored off one end of the beach, near a set of colonial era ruins and some coconut palms. Matt quickly produced and opened some coconuts. I'd long forgotten how good and how different fresh coconut tastes instead of the stuff we can buy in the store, outstanding! I took the opportunity to go for a long walk on the miles long beach. My kind of place, not a footprint on it but mine, and drop dead gorgeous.

Now we had a problem. We had come to Rum, found the diving I'd heard about to be mediocre. Now what? There is some great stuff on the south side, but its hard to find and I had not arranged for a guide. Nobody ever said anything about the north side, where we were, so we just went exploring. Did some diving on the coral heads just outside of Flamingo Bay. Heart breaking. They had been beautiful, but most of the coral was dead. You could get dinner there, with effort, but that was all. Ran about half way down the island to where the 100 fathom curve comes close in, thinking we might find some walls like San Sal, but no luck. We did find a real nice 60-100 ledge with good, coral covered spurs and a fair abundance of Nassau grouper. You had to be below 80 to really appreciate the place, so Simon loved it and I was a bit limited. Did my only 100 ft dive of the trip, so it wasn't all that bad, just limited. The weather was not great, cloudy, windy, dark diving. Again, Simon felt right at home. .In Chile, where he lives, he dives in 40 degree dirty water, on rocky shores with 12 ft swells(I ain't kidding) so these conditions were just fine. I thought it was a bit less so.

Back to Flamingo for the night. I'd seen enough to know that the north side was worth exploring for several more days, but Conceptcion was calling. The wall there was so great and the wind was much more easterly now, so the wall was sheltered. We were running out of time, but had saved a day for that wall. Next morning early we crossed, did a short wall diving session(vis was poor) then spent most of the rest of the day shooting dinner. Next morning we really hit it. Bright sunny, no current to speak of so we could tie up to buoys over the best part of the wall. All three of us in the water this time, near perfect conditions and we took advantage of it. Simon was doing ridiculously deep dives, Matt did his deepest, I'll let him chime in on that. I was having a wonderful time flying around the big heads. We spent pretty much the whole day there and I was so tired at the end that the next day I stayed in the boat. We crossed to Long Island and shot a fair load of fish on some heads I knew about.

Then it was back to Georgetown. Still had a gallon. of good water. We got there and fueled up no problem then discovered that the next day was Independence day, nobody was going to be open again until Monday (3 days off) the stores were crazy, and nobody had any large quantities of water left. Typical Bahamian snafu. I tried to envision my wife drinking the stuff we loaded in San Salvador. Not a pretty picture. So we spent minor megabucks buying water in quarts and smaller, only to discover that the dock water was free and just fine to drink., filled all the tanks . I loaded up on produce and more, even though Karen was bringing a cooler full with her. In the Bahamas, if its available and you might need it- BUY IT. From there it was easy. Divers caught their plane, Karen arrived, having been relived of all her produce in customs and it was off to the rest of the Exumas

We had cruised this area 25 years ago and were looking forward to seeing it again. Not much to report except it was very fun to be back. Second night we spent next to a wonderful blue hole(which happened to be full of lobster, so we ate well). Leaning back on the canvas on the back deck, holding hands,watching the sunset with the lines of a Buffet song running through my head, “and 25 years slipped away,” very very nice.

One thing that really struck me, the megayachts. I'm sure I saw over 50. Also much fewer of what used to be the normal cruising boat, 35-45 ft sailing monohulls. I'd read a lot about how well the rich have done in the last 30 years and how the middle class is being stressed, but it had not affected me much and I'd kind of ignored it. Seeing the result so graphically was eye opening.

Stopped in Staniel Cay for some extra fuel. Funny how places don't change their character. We had not liked Staniel before, bad atmosphere. Much more upscale now, full of megayacht passengers, but still the same boozy, unpleasant atmosphere. Stopped at Compass Cay at a marina owned by Tucker Rolle, who once invited us to dinner when he had no money, about 12 very well mannered kids, and one chicken to split between all. Impressive guy and I was delighted to see he'd done well. The place had its quota of megayachts, but the atmosphere was so good I would like to have stayed.

[cdavisdb]

few days later we were in Nassau, again switching crews. Picked up Chris and Jake, a father son team who dive the springs in Central Florida. They had never spearfished, never spent any time on a small boat, or done much salt water diving, so this was an experience. They picked up spearfishing real fast. I was worried about having to feed us with little help, but, not a problem. Jake is 13, and already an outstanding diver. Know any 13 year olds who can dive 80 ft + and stay down a couple of minutes?? Very fun to dive with these guys. We spent a couple of days in the Berry Islands and then headed for Riding Rock, south of Bimini. Worked north, diving spots I knew about, especially a big ledge call Victory Reef, south of Cat Cay. 40-80 ft humongus ledge several miles long. The current blows you along it so its a different spot each time you dive. Good coral, lots of healthy soft corals, extremely nice place.

Next day was dolphins. Oh boy, did we get into them. Found them very early, almost the moment we arrived in the right area. Dolphins all around the boat. Divers getting gear on as fast as they can. I'm jumping up and down and screaming at the divers HURRY UP, GET IN THE WATER BEFORE WE LOSE' UM--- HURRY UP!! These guys are spring divers, where there is a premium on getting everything just right and none on speed. Afraid I was not too polite, but they were forgiving. Apparently the dolphins really wanted to play. They stayed around and went wild when Jake and Chris got in, tale slapping, mobbing the divers, just crazy. More than once I could see a diver with several dolphin in front of him only to have a couple of more surf a wave right over his back. 25 minutes of this and I couldn't stand it anymore. Switched places with Chris and got in with my Dol-Fin. Its a monofin with an aluminum blade that pivots much like a dolphin's tail. Unique design and these dolphins had never seen it before. They went nuts again. The reaction was much like two years ago with a different group, but even more so. They were so close and moving so fast, just amazing. I could not have stuck my arm out without sticking it through a dolphin. A couple of times, I was afraid of getting hit. Never did though. They seemed to like balling up around me as I a did loop-d-loops as fast as I could spin, the dolphins going very fast and chattering like crazy.

Maybe 40 minutes total that seemed like 30 seconds and the dolphins decided they had other things to do. We hunted for another group for several hours, found a big group, but they were going someplace and had no time for us. Oh well.

Next day we tried again, but had less luck, just one group of 3 who were not all that interested.
Broke off at 10 am and headed back to Ft Lauderdale. Uneventful crossing, nice and calm


Some trip, and a good time was had by all.






Notes

Performance

This is one that really needs a vacuum gauge. When you load it heavy, the vacuum drops a lot. To keep from burning valves you have to slow down, also a lot. Light loaded, vacuum at 7, I can run 3600-3700 rpms. Load it down and that drops to 3100-3200. Since the duoprop doesn't slip, that translates directly into boat speed. The engine is working much harder, but it sounds, feels and runs exactly the same unless you try to run it to WOT. The only reasonable way to know whats going on is the vacuum gauge. Heavy loaded, my speed was lower than I wanted, around 20-21 kts. That came up pretty fast as we burned off fuel, groceries and water.

Fuel economy the only time I checked it carefully on a long run was 1.7 kmiles/gallon. That was late in the trip and I had the sense that fuel economy was slightly better earlier, maybe 1.8 kmiles/gal.

The single I/0 duoprop combination works very well for this boat, but I'd like a bit more speed. The extra horsepower of a 383 stroker would be mighty welcome.

Trim is real interesting. As stated other places, this boat likes weight forward, lots of it. On the way home I had a chance to play with trim and found that at 21-22 knots (a) trim had very little affect on speed and (b) it ran most comfortably and often fastest with the tabs( 8x12 Bennets) far down and the drive trimed almost all the way down. This is not at all what I would have expected. It looked like the biggest possible tabs, molded to the hull shape (like Blue Herons, but even bigger) would reallly work well, cutd down on the roll as well. Anybody care to comment???

Roll

Of course, the 25, being so sharp, has a considerable roll, more than a 23 but no worse than a Formula 233. Thankfully it doesn't snap like many deepVs, so I have no trouble getting used to it. There is something else that is more annoying. The boat has a fast, short roll when the water is near but not quite flat, almost a skitter, +/- 5 degrees or less, but very fast. For me, this is annoying and hard to get used to.

Crew:

I can't say enough about the crew. A real pleasure to have such experienced guys aboard on the first leg. Simon has been on a number of trips and has the drill down pat. He cooks some(and better than me) and that takes a load off my back. Matt was the surprise. It usually takes a while for a new crew to adapt to a challenging and new situation. Matt, fit in immediately. He is a planner as well as a very experienced small boat operator. In no time, he was doing stuff on the boat that needed doing before I'd even thought of it much less asked for help. An enormous help. Both, of course, were congenial companions in a place that had no privacy and wasn't always as comfortable as you might want. All this and outstanding divers, too. I was blessed.


Chris and Jake were just fun. Neither had any experience at this sort of thing, but adapted quickly. It was a real pleasure to watch and seeing the dolphins go nuts was amazing. Almost as good as being in the water myself.

Food

Carl's fold down galley, a two burner white gas stove and I can feed 3 hungry divers no sweat. I had modified the forward storage compartments under the bunks to carry more cans and staples and in total had enough to carry food for a month, buying some produce along the way and gathering seafood. Fish were not nearly as thick as I expected. There are more grouper south of Bimini than in any of the places we went, and we did not even see any hogs in the three outer islands. Still there was enough. Lobster too. Matt figured out how to cook the big ones (the ones that usualy have the texture of tire rubber). We split them and cooked'em the shortest possible time. Tender and delicious. Conch salad was enjoyed by all, frequently on the first leg of the trip, less often there after. Very good stuff. Simon always brings some of his special Chilean spices and fish tacos with that stuff are to die for. Simon is a very good cook.



Whew! that's a lot of typing. Now for the pics. give me a little time on the videos, but I'll try to post a few pics tonight

[flyingfrizzle]

[Snookerd]

Another great story.....