We’re still in Miami – still anchored in Sunset Lake. Most of the important boat jobs are done and we’re almost ready to cross to the Bahamas. I’m looking forward to telling you about all the things we’ve fixed on the boat, but I think I’ll save it for another day. The calluses are still fresh and if I tell you about it now, I’m afraid it might come out a bit whiney.

We came ashore this afternoon to get a few last minute items so that we’ll be ready to go if a weather window opens sooner than later.

If you know Phill, you probably know he was a diver (an instructor, a commercial diver, the whole bit). I bet in all his experience, though, he never had to boil it down to basics like this!

Why pay good money for a vest or a fancy buoyancy regulator when a piece of rope will do just fine?

A little diving improv was necessary because he wanted to check the propellor and the anodes today. When different metals are placed in a conductive liquid (like salt water, for instance) you get a sort of battery; current will flow if the pieces are connected, trying to equalize the conductivity between the different metals, removing material from one of them. This removal is called “electrolysis” and it’s really bad if one of the metal pieces in the electrolytic equation is your propeller. So to avoid electrolysing your prop, you attach a “sacrificial anode” to the shaft. (Someone please correct me if I got any part of that wrong.)

As “sacrificial” would imply, these anodes get consumed and need to be replaced. Phill found that one of our two zincs was half-consumed and sort of broken-looking, so he replaced it with a new one (that’s the old one he’s holding in the picture). He also cleaned the bottom of the boat and the propellor.

So now we’re waiting for good weather to cross to the Bahamas, which for us, means winds that aren’t too heavy, and with no northerly component (to oppose the gulf stream and kick up a fuss). In the meantime, we’ll be in Sunset Lake.