Update: Going to the Bahamas in January

[Linda Sitton]

Drifter I thought I remembered looking at charts that show Western and Southern Abacos as a bristly place. I don't feel the need to be Christopher Columbus.. so I'll go from the channel 5 bridge to riding rock and take the regular run. I totally agree about not arriving tired in a challenging area. I tend to think out of the box, but usually conform to conventional wisdom. I will certainly get the Explorer chart book. Thanks for the information.
Cameron, I'd love to see your 1160! We have been on the 1000 quite a bit, and chartered a 1200 twice but I have never seen the highly touted 1160 in person. I plan to find you in the Exumas. Georgetown is certainly on our agenda. Once I get across the banks, we haven't decided if we will go to our favorite old haunts or head directly to the Exumas where we have never been. In the past we were on "vacation" and had to leave everywhere we stopped sooner than we wanted to. My goal this time is to soak up each place until the sponge is full, then move on.
Cameron I have talked with Mike, even raced against him on my Stiletto but I haven't joined the group yet. I'll get Linda to sign us up. Mike stopped by my boat yesterday at Waterford while a friend of mine was there helping me install A/C. I bought a single self contained 16K unit and will duct it to both hulls. I am not sure how familiar you are with the 1000, but I'm putting the A/C in the battery box area behind the rear facing salon seat backs. The unit is sitting on the stbd side and I'll duct over to port in the top of the battery bay. I'll move all 4 batteries down under the seats all the way forward next to the water tank. That way I'll gain some storage area in the salon and use that area forward in the seat storage that never gets used because it's so remote for my batts. It places my battery weight lower and farther outside of center, that has to be a good thing for a cat huh? My friend Tom has the same unit and can run it with the EU2000 Honda like I have. I'll only run A/C at the docks 99% of the time but it would be nice after a long damp run to dry out the sheets as attitude candy. I'm going to put vents in the salon through the shelftop in the front corners by the front windows that I can valve in or out. I envision staying topside, especially on the hook. It would be nice to put the divider up and pour 16K down on the setee. I'm going thru the stbd side of the batt bay into the electrical cabinet and up to the wooden header over the sinks for the starboard vents. When Linda's cooking I want to be able to keep her cool. Like I said, AC will mostly be used on shore power when you can't find a breeze. I do think having vents in the dead air space at the front corners of the setee will mean a lot, even if I'm just running the blowers during the day on shore power to freshen the salon.
Steve, if the wind is adverse when we come that way we will look you up. I like the route entering at the Achafalaya if the outside is not favorable and going through the locks in NO, dropping back out about Pearl River. If It's nice out we will probably just go to Venice on the way thru. I may do some powersailing to get along to the warmer climates in Jan/Feb. The good thing is "if I want to" means a lot on this trip...