8 May - Day 66. In preparation for the upcoming, long, return trip north the engine's preventative maintenance jobs have begun. The oil and filter were changed yesterday. The raw water impeller will be replaced today and the fuel filters tomorrow. The jobs are done before we start the day's cruising because it's more comfortable and easier to work in a cool engine room. Impeller replacement is straight forward and takes about 15 minutes. Unless, of course, one of the bolts shears off! So here's the picture, we're placidly laying at anchor, in the middle of nowhere, and have just incapacitated the engine's cooling system (unnecessarily I may add as the impeller was in perfect shape). Oh well, better here and now than while underway in a big sea. As luck would have it Nellie has a spare raw water pump onboard and we scavenged it for the needed parts. With the engine running well we head south. What a glorious day. The winds are calm. The water is smooth and crystal clear. Big rays and fish are seen crisscrossing our bow. The bottom is littered with big red star fish. The Bahamas have designated some of their most beautiful reefs as preserves. One of them, Fowl Cay lies just ahead. We anchor Nellie in the Cay's lee and dink out into an incredibly calm Atlantic ocean. Interspersed over the white sand bottom are huge ominous mounds of black. It isn't until we're overboard that all the colors and abundant life becomes apparent. In 20' of water this ball shaped reef island is about 100' in diameter and rises all the way to the surface. Getting up close and personal isn't a problem. The big fish, like parrots and barracuda hang out down low while the little fish dart around us near the surface. Colorful hard and soft corals abound as do sea fans. We visit several dive sites and are surprised by how different they are. Continuing south on Nellie we again put into Man-O-War Cay. Many of the Cay's inhabitants can trace their roots back to the English loyalists who first came here 1778. At anchor off of Man-O-War Cay, Abacos. 9nm today: 1501nm total. DBH
