The wind blew all night somewhere between 15 and 20 kts. This made for great airflow through the cabin. As usual, we were each up at times in the night to check out different sounds that the air and water produced. At 11:45pm Paula heard a noise and went up on deck to find that a large sailboat was passing the marina in the dark, wind and chop. The stars were incredibly numerous and seemed very close as there is little light pollution on Bimini.

Today’s mission was to try to find a replacement for our stern light. We only had a cracked half of the light’s housing still attached to the arch. The rest of the housing and all of the light is now in Davy Jones’ locker. We had heard a rumor that Bimini’s only marine store opened at 11:00a.m., so we showed up a few minutes after. It was closed and locked. Next door at Big John’s Bar and Hotel we asked about the marine store’s hours. “Dunno’, they usually open by now.”

Just then the proprietor, a very hale, sun-exposed 70ish woman with a face like stone advanced up the street with a string of keys, followed by two young men holding tools. It seemed that the men were in the middle of a mechanical repair job, and were both returning tools to the marine store, and in need of others. Muttering, she opened the door. Tom asked if she was getting ready to open, and she snapped, “No!” Then softening a smidgen, she added, “Not yet.” We said we were happy to wait. She disappeared inside and a few minutes later she let us in while telling us about all the things that had gone wrong that morning. When Paula remarked that it sounded like the proprietor had had a really rough start to her Monday, she was quick to disagree. “Nope, this is a great morning. I didn’t wake up dead.”

She thawed fractionally once we told her about needing a replacement stern light. The only thing she had was an anchor light for a small power boat. We’d have to make do with that and some improvising. Things got almost friendly when we paid in cash and with exact change, which the proprietor stated she approved of. We were even invited back to browse later, which we may do, but just then we were hot to get back to the boat and effect repairs.

We did take one small detour to a grocery and the “straw market”, where several telephone-booth sized shops have dresses, tops, purses, trinkets. Paula bought a deep purple “free size” dress, after some good-natured haggling over the price. The dickering seemed to be expected of the customers, and the shopkeeper appeared to enjoy it as much as Paula did, which likely means Paula left money on the table.

Tommy spent several hours  jury-rigging a new stern light with the new light we just bought, the broken housing from the old light, and things at hand. I helped with handing him/fetching tools, etc.

When it came time to fasten the whole thing on the arch, Tommy needed two hands free. To reach the stern light attachment area on the arch, Tommy had to stand on the stern and lean out over the water with the stern light in its rehabbed housing in one hand and his tools in the other. Great, except the wind is 25mph+ today and there is a brisk chop with whitecaps in the harbor. The risk for dropping vital tools or bolts or (even the new stern light!) in the water is not zero. So he’s leaning out, the boat is bouncing and the wind is blowing like crazy.  Paula is standing in the cockpit with both arms wrapped around Tommy’s waist and her face pressed against his butt holding him steady and bracing us both against the stern rail. Hopefully no one was watching because it probably looked very weird. Amazingly, nothing fell in the water, and the stern light is attached and it works! And $0.00 labor costs! For a picture essay and more details of how the new jury-rigged stern light was constructed, click here.

In between and around these activities we bolted lunch, Tommy repaired a broken earpiece on one of our headsets, Paula made ice, cleaned (it never ends, even in Paradise!) and washed and hung a load of laundry.

At our brief stop at the grocery before returning home,  we found the available produce consisted of  a few heads of iceberg lettuce and cabbage, sweet and regular potatoes and some very elderly apples. Since we have apples and potatoes on the boat already, we didn’t buy. Paula’s dinner plan is roasted Bratwurst with sautéed sweet potatoes and apples, along with the leftover ceviche. She feels a little guilt that she is not serving the obligatory fresh green vegetable, but hey! We’re in the islands now! Time to try different ways of doing things.

The wind is continuing to strengthen and won’t settle down until Friday or Saturday, so we’ll be here a little longer. We plan to anchor on the Bahama bank our first night after leaving Bimini so we need at least one calm night in the forecast.