Friday March 9, 2018 - Rock Sound NW to Governor's Harbour

The winds calmed down over night and we woke up to a nice north, 5 knot breeze.  I normally start the engine before weighing the anchor but, with so little wind, blowing us into deeper water, I elected to get the anchor first.  That was a mistake because when I went to start the engine, it would not start.  I have had this problem since shortly after I left home in October.  It comes and goes but has always started.  A couple months ago, I did a fair amount of troubleshooting and narrowed it down to the push button start switch.  Robert has a new switch with him so the timing seemed good.  However, as I was now pushing the button, I noticed the idiot lights on the engine panel were dimming every time I pushed the button.  That could mean only one thing - the push button switch WAS making contact and there was something else in the starting circuit that was preventing the starter motor from engaging.  Then, Robert, who was below told me he could gear a relay clicking every time I pushed the button. This also confirmed that the push button switch was not the problem. 

After I reset the anchor, I went back and got into the engine compartment for a look.  I found the relay that was clicking.  I did some poking around and tapping on the starter solenoid - nothing.  Then I pushed the button about 20 more times - on the 21st, the engine started - halleluiah!  We pulled up the anchor and headed out for Governors Harbour. 

We arrived in Gov. Harbour at around 1pm, dinghied ashore and walked around town.    We went to the ??????? where we had a beer.  While we were sitting at the bar, a woman that I believe was the owner, mentioned the several dozen chocolate chip cookies she had baked the night before for some social even there in the town.  She had 3 or 4 dozen left over in a large baking pan and offered some to Robert and me.  I'm sure you can guess our response.

Our timing for arriving in Governor's Harbor was good.  It was Friday - the night of the "Friday night fish fry).  My timing in general must be good because when I had gone to the Exuma Land and Sea Park in the Exumas, I arrived on Saturday - the day of the weekly Cruisers Party. 

We dinghied back to the boat at around 4 and then back in at 6 for the big event.  The have a small outdoor porch with a 15 x 30' covered, open on all sides, area for serving drinks and food. The cooking is all done outside on the beach - they have pork chops, chicken, and fish.  How anyone could go to a "Fish Fry" and have pork chops or chicken is beyond me. We had fish - snappers and it was very good.  We returned to the boat at around 8:30 pm.