5/27/09
Bock Marine
Beaufort, NC

34^o 49.44' N
076^o 41.327'W

Boat traffic was not nearly as crazy as it was near Wrightsville Beach and except for some excitement was we fought the current at Onslow Beach Bridge, we had an easy day.

We anchored at Cedar Creek, about 1/2 way between our usual boat yard, Bock Marine, and Oriental.

On Tuesday, we called Bock shortly after they opened and they promised to work us into their haul out schedule. We upped anchor and started our brief 8 mile run down the ICW to them.

Our superstar neighbors, John and Marge brought our car down. We had lunch with them and then started loading up. By early evening we were in the house and Cruise #5 is officially ended.

Thanks to all who followed our travels on this web site. We made it closer to our marina this year than last but I guess a miss is as good as a mile. We are in the yard for repairs to the same sail drive that failed last year in Myrtle Beach. Hopefully this is something simple although that is not our usual luck.

5/25/09
Swansboro, NC

Currents were unfavorable and we ran the engines hard to make semi-reasonable headway. We planned to buy fuel in Georgetown, but it was beginning to look like we would not get there before the marina closed. Finally near the end of the day, currents reversed and we made good speed, getting in about 5:40 pm, 20 minutes before the dock closed.

Friday we had an easy motor to Myrtle Beach, stopping at a favorite marina there. We were in early and relaxed.

Departing Saturday morning, George almost passed the wrong side of a mark and put the engines hard into reverse to get the boat stopped and correct the situation. Then, the starboard engine was reluctant to go back into gear. Finally after a little fiddling with the shift lever it worked. But each time we put in in neutral it won't readily go back into gear. While waiting for bridges to open we usually shift gears several times as we try to keep the boat stationary in currents. It was getting increasingly difficult to shift.

By the time we got to Wrightsville Beach and anchored for the night, the Memorial Day boat crazies were in full bloom. Lots of boats operating at high speed and many with the alcohol factor really kicking in.

Sunday we moved further along but had a close call at the Onslow Beach Bridge when the current wanted to sweep us into it and I couldn't use the starboard engine to maneuver. Oh well, we cheated death again.

It was a fairly short day and we were into Swansboro with time for George to jump into the shifting problem. He had hoped it was a linkage problem and not in the transmission itself. After all, this is the transmission (sail drive) we had completely overhauled last year in Myrtle Beach when we cut the return voyage short when it failed.

George's preliminary judgment is that linkage is not the problem. It appears to be in the transmission. We are fairly close to home and the boat yard where we pull the boat each year to do annual maintenance. While we are still looking at options, we will probably motor to an anchorage near there and take the boat in tomorrow when the yard is open. Our neighbors will take our car there and that will be the final stop on Cruise #5. So close to our home slip.

I can't believe a complete rebuild went walk about so quickly and am hoping that something is just out of adjustment. Still the boat has to come out of the water to pull the unit for inspection.

Frustration is high in captain and crew. Mexican food and margaritas ashore didn't lighten the mood as much as hoped.

Check back. We will post at least once more so that we don't leave everyone hanging, wondering what happens.

We have a couple of new pictures that we will post at that time.

5/20/09
Charleston, SC

We cast off the lines a little before 7:00 am this morning and fought the ebbing tide and strong winds for the first several hours. Once we were into the Stono River, currents were better and we got through Elliot Cut and the Wappoo Creek bridge near slack water between 11:30 and 12:00. Along the way we called the Ben Sawyer Bridge which is north of Charleston on the ICW. It does not open in high winds and since winds were strong, we wanted to know their definition of high winds. Turns out that is 25 mph and above. Unfortunately that means we can't continue beyond Charleston today.

As we transited the Stono River, our friend Jim came down on his dock to wave at us as we passed. Thanks Jim.

Once we were in the Charleston Harbor, waves were about 3 feet and very choppy. We made reservations at Charleston Maritime Center. When we got up in the Cooper River it was apparent that the west bank of the river, where they are located, was far rougher than the east. We bit the bullet and opted for the much pricier Charleston Harbor Marina on the east bank. Our friends Don and Peg who live near here are always asking us to stay here because it is so close to their home. We tell them it is just too expensive for our cruising budget. Well here we are and they are out of town! Have a good trip Don and Peg.

The weather forecast for tomorrow has somewhat lighter winds and hopefully we can get through after the bridge comes off restrictions at 9:00 am. It is far too rough outside to take that option. Winds are well into the gale force range.

5/18/09
Rockville, SC

If you’re following our position reports, you must be wondering why we are holed up in a small creek south of Charleston. It’s a long story, but here goes.

On Thursday the 14^th we departed Thuderbolt shortly after 6:30 am. We had mostly favorable currents and were making good time. We had a fortunate timing issue as we crossed the Savannah River. There is a narrow cut that allows very limited maneuvering as you leave the river north bound. Just as we got to the river, ready to cross, we saw a large dredge in tow coming out. We turned down river and allowed the long train of barges and work boats to clear the channel before we went in. This is one of the largest tows we have seen in our years transiting the ICW. Had we been 15 minutes earlier, we would have met them in the narrow channel and I have no idea how we could have passed. We would probably have reversed course and gone back to the river to let them get by.

As we passed through Beaufort, we saw the American Glory an American Cruise Line ship that does river cruises along the Atlantic Coast. More about her later.

We continued beyond Beaufort and went to Dataw Island Marina, a new stop for us. While it is about four miles off the ICW it was nice. We enjoyed dinner at their dockside café. We had considered Dataw Island as our retirement home when we were in the market and it was on the short list of places we liked. We laughed as we sat at the dock, “if we lived here, we would be home.”

Another early start had us back in the ICW proper in the Coosaw River shortly after 7:00 am Friday. Soon we saw the American Glory gaining on us from behind. We considered loitering before entering the Coosaw, Ashepoo cut to let her pass, but she stopped in midstream for a while. We proceeded. Later she caught us again and we did pull out of the channel at another cut, then we pulled in behind her. She goes slower in restricted waters than we do, but much faster in open water so I was lamenting letting her pass as I loafed along behind her.

Then the excitement. I noticed hydraulic fluid running down the bulkhead that the helm. We have hydraulic steering and this is not a good thing. I call Lynn from the cabin to check the chart for a nearby anchorage so that I could stop and access the situation.

Fishing Creek was only about a mile away and we pulled in and dropped the hook. I checked for the source of the leak and determined it was leaking around the seal on the shaft attached to the wheel. Not something that I could fix with parts and equipment on board.

We did have good cell phone coverage and started calling to check on options. We found a yard with a good reputation at Rockville Marine on Adams Creek, just off Bohicket Creek near the South Edisto River inlet. It was only about 10 miles away. Before raising the hook we did a dry run on assembling and mounting the emergency tiller, just in case we lost steering on the way.

We might have continued the voyage and arrived home OK, but hydraulic leaks only get worse over time and we felt the risk was too high.

We went into Rockville Marine and their mechanic had the unit off before the end of the day. After watching the mechanic, I was glad the job was his instead of doing myself. The hydraulic unit was bonded to the bulkhead very firmly. I think my hands would have been bloody by the time I go it off had I tackled the job.

With the weekend ahead, it was apparent we wouldn’t see parts until early the next week, best case. We opted to rent a car and drive to New Bern, taking winter clothes and a few other unneeded things from the boat.

We have spoken to the yard and parts should be in tomorrow, Tuesday, and the boat should be ready to go late in the day. We will drive back tomorrow and assuming their estimate is right, be back underway early Wednesday. It will take several more days to get the boat home with gale warnings off the coast keeping us in the ICW. If the weather moderates, we may make an outside hop or two to save time.

We left home 6 months ago yesterday and had really planned to be back home by then. Now we have about another week. Keep your fingers crossed so we don't have any more delays.

5/12/09
Thunderbolt, GA

Mid morning we walked to the entrance of Savannah State College to catch the #24 bus to downtown Savannah, at a cost of $1 for the two of us.  The driver dropped us just across the street from the huge visitor's center in the heart of Savannah.  We picked up some maps and quickly learned about the "DOT" bus, which transports folks for free to all the tourist spots.  This in lieu of the trolley tour which would have been expensive.  We had Claiborne Young's cruising guide which had a good write-up about Savannah.  We picked out our choices since we only had a few hours, went to the City Market Square, where we poked through shops, tasted wine, tasted pralines, bought wine, and had a nice lunch of shrimp po-boys in an upscale cafe.  Bread pudding for desert was almost as good as George's. Then we walked to Bay Street and the Riverfront area, for more shopping.  Later in the afternoon we caught the bus back to the marina, having had an easy first visit to Savannah. 

It is a very historical city, and beautiful with Spanish moss hanging from live oaks and blooming magnolia trees, historical statues, old buildings, and of course the Savannah River.

We both agreed we had a good day, but we do think the bus rides in Nassau are much more eventful - no drag racing today, no preaching, no reggae, no jump seats to pop down when the bus is full.  Nevertheless, fun and the price was right.

Check out a few pictures from today on the photo page.

5/07/09
Titusville, FL

Winds were nice today and George had the Genoa out most of the day, reefed to one point so we could see oncoming boats.  The replacement depth gage appears to be working ok, but George is tweaking the calibration and unfortunately we won't know if it's exact until we actually are aground.  Not anxious for that to happen.

We almost made the NASA causeway bridge before it went on restriction at 3:30, but missed it.  So we anchored south of the bridge and took Toby ashore on the causeway.  There is road construction there, and a high sea wall.  The water is shallow, mostly sand and grass but ikky.  I waded Toby ashore in bathtub temperature water, and George reminded me to watch for alligators.  We had seen huge ones along this road when we did our Space Center tour years ago.  This is not my favorite dog ashore spot, to say the least.  Back at the boat, we stowed the dinghy - Toby has been advised he will have no shore trip tomorrow morning because we have even further to travel than today.

Our autohelm (the self steering thing on the boat) has been going walkabout for years, and we have kept track of when and where this happens.  Usually it's when the sun is in the cockpit, and we think it's an overtemp issue with the sun beating down on the gage.  It happened again today when we got back from our dog trip.  George cooled it down with a damp cloth, a small fan, and in about a half hour it was working again.  The list of things to work on gets longer every day, and might include installing a fan in these instruments.

Backing up, yesterday we did a little boondoggle, driving up to Sebastian which is near Vero Beach to the Mel Fisher museum.  Back in the 1970's, he discovered one of the richest Spanish galleons, and we have followed his treasure hunting activities for years.  The museum was small but interesting, and George bought me a pendant made from one of the silver bars - documented to the number of the bar stamped on it by the Spanish.  It has a gold edge with a dolphin, and is very nice.  What a guy.  We had lunch at Capt Hiram's, Sand Bar, a funky little beach bar with sand floors.  I had mussels with garlic bread (ala Phils in Moss Landing) and George had a Mahi sandwich.  These two activities were a nice break after laundry, shopping, etc.

Tomorrow we hope to make it to Palm Coast marina, south of St. Augustine, a distance of about 75 S.M.  It's a nice marina in a lovely area with nice shopping nearby, but we are only there for the night.

5/6/09
Vero Beach, FL

We departed Nassau Harbor at 8:20 am Saturday and were in the Lake Worth inlet and up to the anchorage by about 11:00 am Sunday. There were a few other boats crossing at the same time and we touched base by radio every few hours so it didn't seem quite so lonely out there.

Lynn caught a beautiful Mahi Mahi just before we sailed onto the banks about 8 hours out of Nassau. She was a happy girl. Her fishing luck has not been good this year and I think she was beginning to get envious of the success of a few other cruisers. The is a picture of Lynn and her catch on the photos page.

Our radar went out during the night, just when you need it the most, but we got through that just fine.

We had an encounter with the USS Forrest Sherman coming to the inlet. See the pictures and a little description on the photos page.

Then we started having depth meter problems. If we had stayed outside and were sailing in deep water, it wouldn't really be an issue, but we are going to spend part of the north bound trip in the ICW and that is not a place you want to operate without a depth gauge. It is amazing how lucky we were in getting the problem diagnosed and a replacement unit in the boat quickly and reasonably cheaply. Wow.

Without the depth gauge problem, we would have left Vero today, but with the delay, we weren't quite done with chores so we stuck around. We had a rent car spent a little time driving up the coast to the Mel Fisher Treasure Museum. It was about what we expected but we both really enjoyed it. Lynn got a replica piece of eight made from silver salvaged from the Nuestra Senora De Atocha. I had to kind of twist her arm to buy it but in the end I think she is happy she did.

Lynn is now gone to turn in the rent car and I am trying to catch up on our internet stuff. How am I doing?

We plan an easy night and an early departure tomorrow. We will try to get as far north as Titusville, FL and should make it. There are only a couple of bridges between here and there and conditions could be favorable to get the sail up instead of just motoring.

Now that we are back in the US we are anxious to get on home.

5/02/09
Nassau
Bahamas

Position reporting has been changed to 4 times per day so you can see our progress about every 40 miles or so.

Our next update should be from somewhere in the US. Plan A is to run from here to West Palm Beach overnight, arriving tomorrow mid day. We plan to fuel and the next day hop back outside and come in at Ft. Pierce, then up to Vero Beach to do Customs and Immigration.

Plan B is to be so thrilled with the weather and the smoothness of the voyage that we turn north in the Gulf Stream and keep going another day or so. Who knows where we will come in if that happens.

We will send Skymate emails to family if we abandon plan A in favor of B.

4/29/09
Nassau
Bahamas

There is, however, a good looking weather window this weekend. Each day we check the forecast and instead of deteriorating, the normal state, it is holding pretty firm and our hopes are soaring. We think we will leave Saturday morning and should be in West Palm Beach mid day on Sunday. Assuming the forecast holds we will then jump back outside on Monday and sail north to Ft. Pierce and motor up the ICW to Vero Beach. We will stage there a couple of days to check in with Customs and Immigration/Homeland Security. We will fill with fuel and water and then start working our way north. We probably won't go out and either into or around Cape Canaveral. We aren't wild about that inlet. That means we will probably motor over a few days north to St. Augustine.

We shouldn't be talking about things that far in the future because our plans always change. We are anxious to be back in US cell phone coverage and get really caught up with family and friends.

4/25/09
Nassau
Bahamas

It is great to be able to walk Toby without dinghying in the harbor chop and traffic to take him ashore or to make him suffer on the boat.

Yesterday, George went diving with the dive shop located at the marina. Could be the worst dive ever. Conditions outside the harbor are what are keeping us tucked in here. The selected dive spot was not in the lee of an island and protected. It was out in open water north of Paradise Island. Seas were 5'+ and breaking. The dive boat was rocking and rolling with the swim platform and ladder slamming. I said I wasn't going to do the dive, but let the crew convince me the reentry to the boat would be OK. Shame on me.

The dive was unexceptional. Visibility 60', three small ships are sunk there to form an artificial reef. Wrecks are so so and have little growth on them. There were a lot of lion fish. A lot.

The dive boat was anchored on the wrecks with a grappling hook anchor and a small amount of chain on the anchor rode. The rode chaffed on one of the wrecks as the boat bounced and surged above. Then it parted. When our bottom time was up, the boat was maneuvering above us trying to stay on station. That's exactly what you don't want to come back to, a surging boat with props turning. A great way to get hurt. Everyone did get back on board OK, but I decided I was right the first time and there was an unnecessary level of risk for a recreational dive. I skipped the second. It is fortunate no one was injured.

Lynn did not go diving and did some provisioning and ran a couple of loads of laundry. Perhaps not as exciting, but certainly safer than the dive trip.

Weather still doesn't look good for several days so we will be on wifi a while longer. That means more frequent updates with less to report. :-)

4/22/09
Nassau
Bahamas

Another possible weather window failed to materialize today. Yesterday morning, it looked as if we could make an over night run to the east coast, but each time we checked the forecast, it deteriorated a little wind closer to the nose, stronger and for a longer time. We knew when we sacked out last night we wouldn't go today. This morning two boats left and returned because there was too much wind on the nose.

We are doing a few boat chores and had the crew of Soul Mate III to dinner for pizza night last night. A good time was had by all.

I have been meaning to dive on the boat and clean the bottom and just haven't found the right time. I don't want to dive in Nassau harbor. Even though the water looks clear there is a log of junk in it and the tidal currents rip through here. So, today I hired a local diver to give it a little attention. It wasn't in bad shape, mostly just the sail drives and props needed attention. The ablative bottom pain on the hull does a pretty good job of staying clear when we move fairly often.

We have TV at the dock here and after watching a little realize how little we miss it when we don't have it. We did by a couple of cheap movie DVDs to watch in the evening.

The quest for alternator drive belts continue. We have hit several places without finding the right belts.

Our mechanic emailed us to see how things are going. He thinks maybe we need to fabricate new mounts for the alternators so that we could get some additional adjustment. We will do something once we are home.

4/18/09
Nassau
Bahamas

When we sailed into Nassau on Tuesday, it looked like we might have a weather window Sunday or Monday to leave and cross to the US. Well, it is now Saturday and that window continues to deteriorate. The story of our cruise this year. Sea state in the Tongue of the Ocean (Northwest Channel) between Nassau and the banks continues to increase and would be right on the beam. We could do it, but it wouldn’t be comfortable. So, we will hang out here for a while.

We have been doing tourist stuff around Nassau and riding buses where ever we go. After so many trips to the Straw Market downtown the reasonable souvenirs and gifts for folks at home are pretty much done. To buy anything different than we have in the past we are looking at carved coconut heads and woven caps with Rasta braids. Somehow we doubt the folks at home would value them highly.

I did see a T shirt that said “Of all the things I lost in the Bahamas I miss my mind the most.” That pretty well expresses our current mental state.

Our excursion yesterday was lunch at the Cricket Club and a trip to Ardastra Gardens. The Cricket Club is a bit run down but most enjoyable. The food was wonderful and the prices very modest. I’m sure it won’t be our last visit. We walked from there to Ardastra Gardens, a small zoo featuring mostly birds. We like it there and it was much cooler than our last visit which was nice. Memory said that their gift shop was nice and we hoped for something to bring home other than stuff at the Straw Market. Either they have changed their product assortment or we are getting harder to satisfy.

We have been pretty frugal on this trip and the budget has room for sticking it out here in the marina for a while. We have Wi-Fi, cable TV, and can use all the electricity and water we want. There are more places we would like to go for meals both new and old favorites.

Our favorite weather forecaster, Chris Parker is on the Marine Single Sideband radio and we have had reasonable reception here, but now there are two mega yachts fore and aft of us and they have so much stuff running the interference is terrible. This morning we could hear nothing but static.

We also have time so there is no need to rush into uncomfortable conditions if we can avoid it.

4/15/09
Nassau
Bahamas

We had a choice of (1) higher than desired winds but from the right direction on Tuesday; or (2) flukey winds and a chance of 30-40 kt squalls today.  We took Tuesday, and had a nice day on the water, jib sailing with the wind behind us, about 20 knots plus or minus, and 4 foot seas behind us, for our trip of 48 NM.  We secured permission to enter Nassau from the Harbourmaster, fueled at the Texaco dock, and tied up at Nassau Yacht Haven.  All the docking, undocking, fueling, and dog walking warmed us right up so we had some cold white wine in the cockpit, then walked to a nearby Chinese restaurant we like for a nice dinner.  A good day, and we have leftovers for supper tonight.

Our new high output alternators have been chewing up belts.  I call them the Belt Eating Fiends (ala Christopher Moore).  Today we took a jitney bus to the big NAPA store here, called AID.  They only had one of the belts we need, but George bought it.  We took another bus back, with very loud reggae music, a very loud Bahamian driver and a Rasta guy for an assistant.  George said it may rank as his best bus ride here ever, because the two guys got in a loud discussion, a big Bahamian lady ordered a little old guy around because she wanted his seat, the bus got in a drag race with another bus (hard to do on busy Nassau streets), and we got a loud lecture from the driver on our choice of lunch spots because he thought they had gotten too expensive. 

We did go there anyway for lunch (Sailor's Choice) it's a short walk from our marina.  It was supposed to be mutton curry day, but turned out to be chicken curry day.  The cook let me into her kitchen to show me how to cook plantains - hers are always so good.  Becky you would be proud of me :-)

We didn't even get up at the crack of dawn to listen to weather today, but we'll start watching for a window to cross.

4/10/09
Warderick Wells
Exuma Park
Bahamas

We have been Internet Starved, and finally we have wifi, so here is a little update:

We spent about two weeks at Long Island, mostly at Thompson Bay with two nights at Stella Maris, and one at Calabash as we moved up the island.  We were able to connect with our friends who live there at High Cliff, and had a nice Bahamian dinner out with them one evening.  We had a good sail to The Bight, but New Bight was lumpy, so we anchored for the first time at Old Bight.  From the surface, the bottom was black!  A little unnerving, but George found a sandy spot, and when we checked with our look bucket, the black was actually a thin layer of orange algae with nice sand beneath.  We stuck well and had a smooth night. 

Winds were kicking up, and we treated ourselves to a few nights at Hawk's Nest Marina on the south end of Cat Island.  When winds let up, we really treated ourselves and went out on their dive boat one day.  We were the only folks, with two people to treat us like royalty.  We did a 93 foot dive on The Jagged Edge, and a 24 foot dive at The Fish Bowl.  We even lucked out on the dive boat.  We thought we were going out on a panga type boat with the dive shop name on it, but instead we were on a 42 foot center cockpit boat with two huge four stroke outboards.  Very comfortable, and very quiet.  .  I am 24 minutes from 300 hours under water.  At the rate of one or two dives every couple of years, it may take me a while to get there.

While at Hawk’s Nest, Toby cut several of his foot pads on some sharp rocks, one of them was a fair sized cut.  He is healing well and we have stopped the daily activities of cleaning it with hydrogen peroxide.  He had a nice run on a dry-at-low-tide sand bar yesterday.  We didn't give him a toy, but he ran anyway, and there was a 3 or 4 year old boy who ran after him.  He seems to have no ill effects from his first exercise after his injury.

We had hoped to move on to Eleuthera by way of Little San Salvador, and then to Spanish Wells and the Abacos.  However, this is the year of no plan, and we had a flat calm motor sail back across the sound to Big Rock Cut at Staniel Cay.  We spent one night at Big Majors, then had another busy sailing day on the banks to the south anchorage of Warderick Wells.  On the way, we were almost run down by a big black and white tennis shoe style motor yacht.  He was going so fast and there was so much wake we couldn’t read the name on the boat.  Of course, there was a bikini clad sunbather on the sun bed on the stern.  He never came on the radio, or acknowledged us in any way.  Just left a huge wake that tossed us around and threw things inside the cabin.  This boat intentionally cut right across our bow at high speed.

Coming through Staniel Cay, we saw the catamaran Papi, with our friends Ev and Nancy - we met them years ago in the Abacos and have kept in touch.  We didn't have a chance to get together during our short stay, but we had a nice chat on the radio. .

We spent two nights on the notorious Mooring Ball #1 in the South Mooring Field at Warderick Wells, where our dinghy was punctured in 2005.  Winds were not as high, and our dinghy was well stowed on davits.  We did bang on the ball and swing on the strong current in the South Field, but it was not too uncomfortable.  I did some baking, and George worked on entering many waypoints in the new chart plotter (there are numerous re-entries because when we had the problem in George Town and had to do a hard boot, we lost all those that were entered).  The Research Vessel Coral Reef II was moored behind us, and when George noticed the hailing port was Chicago, we guessed it was from Shedd Aquarium.  George dinghied over and had a chat with the captain, and in fact that was the case.  I think George will be posting more information about this interesting boat.

The short trip through the Warderick cut to Park HQ was lumpy but George did a great job of managing it - we did not leave until slack tide, and we had a comfortable trip of about 4 nautical miles.  We had nice sundowners shortly after our arrival, Bruce from Zingara came by and we caught up.  Then George did a multi-grill session (chicken, steak, and kielbasa, to maximize our remaining charcoal).  We are lucky to be on this mooring ball - only one boat left and we got the spot.  It helps to be a park supporter, and to have volunteered here for various things. 

Exuma Park puts on a big Easter spread here - there is a sea plane load of goodies coming in, and the cruisers bring side dishes and desserts.  They set up a big tent on the beach, and many folks come from nearby islands.  George is planning to make his wonderful bread pudding, in our new red ceramic dish.  We are managing our eggs until we get to Nassau, but we will have enough for this terrific dessert. 

George volunteered for the Park yesterday, helping to put a rail on a house at Cistern Cay.  He enjoyed it, and I spent the day on some long delayed boat chores.

4/04/09
Hawks Nest
Cat Island
Bahamas

We decided to duck into the marina at Hawks Nest. We have enjoyed taking shore showers everyday and using all the electricity we wanted.

Today we went out on their dive boat for two dives. We had the whole boat and crew to ourselves. It was our first dive in a while and it was nice to have good conditions to check everything out. We did a wall dive called Jagged Edge, and a second shallow dive called Fish Bowl.

Tomorrow winds are down and based on what is expected after that we will either sail across Exuma Sound to get some shelter from strong westerlies or move north as originally planned,

We hate paying marina fees but this has been very nice.

3/29/09
Stella Maris
Long Island
Bahamas

The weather forecast is moderating. Yesterday we had a nice down wind sail along the west coast of Long Island to the Stella Maris marina and resort. We had planned to move further up the island to Calabash Bay today but the wind is not abating as quickly as forecast so we hope to stay here another day and leave tomorrow. We need to come and go at or near high tide, especially when it is choppy out.

Last night we had dinner with Bob and Joan, friends we met here 5 years ago. They fell in love with the island then and bought a house here. They had us up to the house, located on a bluff overlooking the Atlantic. We can see why the like it so much. Then we dined on fresh grouper at a local restaurant in Burnt Ground, a village near here.

After Calabash we plan to cross between islands, going north to Cat Island and then continue to work our way north as the weather allows. We want to spend a little time in Spanish Wells and will then go to the Abacos to spend a few weeks.

The Abacos being further north and closer to the US are sharing some of the severe weather the States have suffered this winter. While they haven't had snow and ice it has been stormy and colder than normal. We hope with spring arriving that both the US and the Northwest Bahamas will get some relief and we can enjoy our time there.

3/23/09
Thompson Bay
Long Island
Bahamas

3/16/09
Hole #2
Stocking Island

Amazingly we have been here almost 6 weeks and I am not going nuts. There have been some days we could have moved but no real great weather windows and we have been well protected. Tomorrow, however, it looks like time to move on from George Town. Our destination is not set, it depends on wind direction but if the forecast is close, probably Conception. A favorite uninhabited island. Then later in the week, another front moves through and we hope to scoot south to Rum Cay for fuel and water. We have never been to Rum and always enjoy getting to know new locations and new people. That will probably be our turn around point. Our tentative plan is to work north along the far Bahamas chain and then into the Abacos. But remember this year is the no plan year, so if the weather is not cooperating, we will change routes.

Saturday was a big day. Lynn’s dad Frank turned 90. Quite an accomplishment. She wishes she could have been there to give him a big hug. We did use a borrowed cell phone to call and wish him a happy.

Last night we played trivia again and came home with a bottle of wine as a prize. We have played 4 times and finished in the money twice, winning outright once. We have finished no worse than a tie for 4^th. It has been lots of fun. We have never had a planned partner boat to make a team of four so have played with four different boats, Belltane, Son of a Sailor, Albino Wino, and Euphoria.

3/09/09
Hole #2
Stocking Island

We aren’t normally in Georgetown during the Cruisers’ Regatta but the weather has been so blustery that we have stayed.  We have even signed up to participate in some activities and be spectators at others. We view the cruising life as getting away from it all but there is a sizable community of folks here who have brought their professional skills in organizing to full bear on the Regatta. There is so much going on one can’t keep up. Cruising World magazine has a photographer here shooting pictures. It is not likely we will be in them. Our boat is tucked in away from the mass of the fleet and we will not be in any races.

George played in the Conch Horn Orchestra on opening night, part of the No Talent Show. Our selection was Aaron Copland’s Ode to a Waxing Moon. :-) Keep in mind that conch horns are not tuned to any given key, they play only one note, and the whole orchestra blew at the same time. Cacophony?

We watched the pet parade but Toby’s behavior toward other male dogs gave us pause and we declined not to let him participate. We allowed him to attend registration wearing a red bandana and a short leash. The theme of the opening was “Red Hot Nights” so he was among the majority wearing red attire or accessories.

We attended the softball game between cruisers and the Bahama Bashers last night. The cruisers had a few players who could run, hit, and catch, but were mostly a geezer team. The Bashers could run, catch, throw the ball fast and far, and hit the ball a mile.

The umpire was a cruiser and was by no means impartial. He called some Bahamians out for illegal bats (the same all were using) and required them to bat left handed in the last inning. The Bahamians were good sports, holding up throws so runners could make the base, letting balls go through their feet, and trying hard to keep the cruisers in the game. The score board showed an 11 to 10 win for the cruisers, their first win in the series, but I suspect the official score keeper has it lopsided the other way. There was a lot of comic relief.

Today we signed up for Beach Golf. It was more fun than I could imagine have with one golf club on the beach. Both Lynn and I did OK but finished out of the money.

Wednesday we are in the Trivial Pursuit contest.

Tomorrow or Wednesday we will probably make a town run, do laundry and buy a few more fresh provisions. I will hitch hike to the NAPA store and buy a couple of spare fan belts.

If the weather holds we will depart on Thursday, destination unknown, to be decided on wind speed and direction

3/07/09
Hole #2
Stocking Island

When crossing the harbor to George Town, we noticed that our fancy new high-output alternator on the starboard engine was not generating voltage to charge the batteries. The next morning we found that the port side had also stopped.

We read the product manuals and all the trouble shooting guides and started collecting the tools we would need. We even borrowed a 12 volt test light from another boat. Note to self, build or buy one of these for our tool box.

Once we were securely back in Hole #2 we emptied all the stuff off the engine compartment in the starboard side, moved our mattresses on the port, and Lynn emptied a linen locker so I could get behind it to the controller that is supposed to share the load between the two alternators.

Then I opened the engine compartments. The first thing I saw was that the fan belts were loose. As soon as I adjusted the tension, everything worked just fine.

Moral: Always check the simple stuff first.

3/05/09
Hole #2
Stocking Island

2/28/09
Hole #2
Stocking Island

It’s a good thing our plan for this year is no plan. If we were set on moving on, the weather would be most frustrating. As it is, there always seems to be a good weather window 3 to 5 days out and then it deteriorates as the days get nearer. We are like the donkey following the carrot at then end of a stick and never getting closer. We have now been in the George Town area since January 30, a month.

The first week was waiting for things to be shipped in and we were tied to the dock with the wind blowing hard. We did not fuel then since we figured we would do that just before we left. Since, we have been on the hook or a mooring. Where we are now is close to activities and extremely well protected. We have turtles popping their heads up around us every day. We have seen dolphin and rays around the boat. If you have to be stuck somewhere, this is a pretty good place.

We think we may get off the mooring on Tuesday, go across the harbor to buy fuel and make a final town run, spend the night on the hook and then depart for Long Island on Wednesday. However, we have had similar plans at least twice before, only to see the weather window break down. We still have enough fuel to go to Long Island if we must but REALLY hate to take off on the half of our fuel we like to consider the reserve.

Today winds were down to 15 kts. so we made a town run in the dinghy. We bought 5 gal of diesel (our only diesel can) and 9 gal of gasoline. I hit the hardware store for some new epoxy and Lynn grocery shopped. The market was crowded with all the cruisers who have been hunkered down on the east side of the harbor in the lee of Stocking Island. There were no eggs to be had but we got most of the other stuff we needed. Most businesses are closed on Sunday and the market is on limited hours so today was the day to go.

Monday another frontal passage is due and squalls with gale force winds are in the forecast. The weather gurus keep saying that this long period of unusually strong winds will end and a more typical pattern of occasional fronts with nice periods between and or the SE trades will build in. It’s always only about a week away.

Tomorrow we plan to attend beach church, then enjoy a pig roast at the Chat and Chill on Volleyball Beach, and wrap it up at the trivia night at St. Francis. Last week a couple, Doug and Pat from the boat Belltane and we were the winning team. Each of our boats received a jug of good rum as a prize. We thought we would be gone this week and they would be free agents, but we contacted them on the radio and since we are still here we plan to team up again. I guess we better get started drinking the rum to make room for another bottle.

We are always interested in boat names and theirs in one we had not heard before. Belltane is one of the four pagan seasons starting about May first so it included about the last ½ of our spring and the first ½ of our summer. A very nice time of year indeed and a boat name we like.

Toby continues to charm people but requires close control around other dogs. As he gets older, he is less tolerant of other canines. Now even some females irritate him. This seems odd since Lynn and I seem to become more tolerant and easier to get along with as we age.J

Except for dog hair, which is not noticeable from a distance, Sunspot Baby looks great. Her sides are clean and shiny and Lynn’s work on the stainless is really paying off. She would look better with sails up and a wake streaming behind.

We left November 17, so have been gone a little over three months or about half of our planned cruise duration. We are certainly in no hurry for it to end.

2/26/09
Hole #2
Stocking Island

There was a great weather window to go to Long Island on Saturday.  We planned to leave our cozy mooring, do some town stuff, head for a night at Red Shanks and leave for Long Island Saturday morning.  However, the opportunity has pretty much gone away, and the next one looks like mid week.  We could go, but it would be lumpy and even though we are ready to leave George Town, there are lots of things to do here. 

We are wishing our kids and grandkids were here with us – there is much going on.  Today there is a conch horn making workshop on the beach.  I would like to go, but two part epoxy is one of the requirements, and ours has dried up.  The marine hardware store probably has it, but it would be a rough and soggy dinghy ride to town, and I my desire to make my own conch horn isn’t all that burning. 

And thinking about dinghy trips across the harbor, we met a new cruising couple at the Rendezvous in New Bern last fall –from Oriental.  They came by to say hello a week or so ago.  Then in the night from wherever they were anchored, their dinghy drifted away in high winds.  As I recall it was a nice one – a RIB, with a good motor.  It was last sighted outside of the cut, and numerous cruisers conducted an extensive search for it in rough waters.  So far I don’t believe it has turned up.  This morning the harbormaster sent word that a gray dinghy with a 15 hp motor had drifted across the harbor to George Town, and the owner was asking on the radio for transportation to retrieve it.  We try to put a secondary line on ours when winds and conditions aren’t great, and we could lift it up on the davits, but I do admit we get lax sometimes and it certainly could happen to anyone.

Casuarina trees are beautiful shade trees with soft needle like leaves.  Many of the cruiser activities take place under the casuarinas at Volleyball Beach.  They are really a scourge, and many areas are trying to get rid of them because (1) they are not native, and (2) the needles make a thick blanket under the trees, allowing nothing else to grow.  However, they are allowed to flourish on Volleyball Beach, and make a nice canopy.  There is usually a kid or two or three climbing above the activities, and there are several swings hanging from thick branches.

Speaking of tree climbing, our friends Pam and Don in California have citrus trees, and on Valentine’s Day Pam fell out of an orange tree and hit her elbow hard, dislocating her shoulder but thankfully not breaking her elbow.  She is recuperating under Don’s tender care.

We bought two small hams before we left home – ate one at New Years with our black eyed peas and the leftovers for sandwiches.  Just dug the second ham out of the freezer, and this morning we had M&X for breakfast, with toast from home made bread and fig jam.  It was pretty tasty.

On the cruisers’ net in the mornings, there is a “boaters general” section, where folks announce that they need help or advice with a boat issue, or have something to offload.  You really can’t “sell” anything unless appropriate duties have been paid, so you have to be careful how you word your announcement.  However, yesterday George acquired a different and hopefully improved wifi antenna – this one is omni-directional, and is a RadioLabs brand, and came complete with receipt, software, mounting bracket, etc.  So far it doesn’t work as well as our unidirectional “cantenna”, but George has some ideas about that, and Radiolabs is supposed to be high end.

Well hope this isn’t too rambling – but we are hoping to get Internet today so wanted to type something before hand.

2/24/09
Hole #2
Stocking Island

We are still in George Town, in the same place, on a mooring ball in Hole #2.   The forecast is for wind and squalls the next several days, and then if the forecast holds we may have a window to move on to Long Island.

There are over 300 boats here now, the Cruisers Regatta is the first week of March and there is a lot going on.  Chris  Parker the weather guru will be here next week, and there are lots of kickoff festivities.

Sunday night we participated in Trivia night at St. Francis – they were astonished to have 31 tables of four people each.  We played with a couple even older than us, from Nova Scotia on a home built boat named Beltane.  And…drum roll…we won!  Each winning couple got a bottle of really good rum, Bacardi Anejo.   It was fun, and we would do it again if we ended up staying here.

We are enjoying the turtles in Hole #2.  They are big, about laundry basket size.  They are curious, and generally pop up a time or two before sounding deeper.  One has big bulging eyes.

Sunspot Baby has used up about half of her diesel fuel supply.  We like to operate on the top half of our supply, and there is no fuel at Exuma Docks.  However, we have enough to get to Long Island, which at least at this point has fuel available. 

I made a Dutch Baby pancake for breakfast this morning, and George is making his famous pasta for supper tonight, so you can see that we are eating well.  We are reading a lot – George is deep into a book about Teddy Roosevelt and I just finished a chick book from Peg Higgins.

Way off in South America or sometimes Africa, trees shed leaves and fruit and the seed pods float in the currents, sometimes landing in the Bahamas.  We are getting a little collection of “sea beans” and George is researching how to polish them.

I think I am beginning to learn French by osmosis.  There are many Canadian cruising boats here, of which many of them are French speaking.  They have had French Day on the beach, and there is a bocce tournament as part of the Regatta.  I think I can understand the channel numbers as they chat on the radio.

So you can see that this is pretty mundane news.  We think of you often, and hope you are thinking of us.

2/20/09
Hole #2
Stocking Island

We have not updated the web page for quite a while because our internet access has been virtually nil. This is written in the hopes that we will get on tomorrow 2/20/09.

For the last week we have been a mooring in Hole #2 but have had no Wi-Fi. We came across the harbor today planning to sign on but no such luck. I walked to the shack/pet shop to buy a card for service but they had none. This was after I called them on the radio and asked where to go to buy a card and got directions.

We will probably haul a computer to the dock in the dinghy tomorrow and try to get caught up at the computer store. We will post a picture of the building so you can see what passes for a computer store here.

We had planned to sail to Long Island on Saturday 2/21 but the weather forecast is getting less certain. Still we planned to fill with fuel when we came across the harbor today, but guess what, no diesel at the dock. We have enough that we could go but one tank is nearly empty while the other is nearly full. Still we prefer to travel on the top ½ of our supply, keeping the last ½ in reserve.

We have opted to go back on a mooring in Hole #2 for another week. If a weather window opens, we will just forfeit any time remaining and take off.

We enjoyed Valentine dinner ashore and had rack of lamb with a glass of complementary champagne plus a bottle of red we bought. The crew of Mon Ami joined us for after dinner drinks aboard Sunspot Baby. A fun evening but not cheap.

Two nights a week they play Texas Hold’em and last Sunday we participated and had a great time. The buy in is $5.00 and it is probably the most fun you can have for 5 bucks on the island.

Sunspot Baby is looking pretty good. We have spent some time scrubbing her sides and water line and Lynn has been spending about 20 minutes a day on the stainless steel.

On Wednesday we had sundowners on Grateful Attitudes along with two other boats from Northwest Creek Marina. There are about 300 cruising boats in the harbor now and while all the activities and socializing are nice, we would like to be someplace a little more sparsely populated.

At this point we have been gone 3 months on a cruise targeted at 6. No need to turn around now, we always get home more quickly than we go south. Longer days, better weather for traveling off shore, etc.

2/10/09
Monument Beach

The weather gurus, however think that we will get some moderation Thursday and have a few days of milder weather. Ordinarily, we would be itching to use the weather window to head to a new location. This time, we are signed up to sell Regatta T-shirts on Friday or Saturday and have reservations for a Valentine Day dinner ashore. We are trying to get a mooring near Gaviota Bay for a week or so. We will join in a few of the Regatta activities and then look for decent weather to move along. We have several possible destinations in mind and will wait to see what conditions prevail as we get ready to go. Then, based on those conditions we will choose our next stop.

Our new Raymarine C120 chart plotter went into a continuous rebooting loop Saturday. Fortunately, another cruiser had experience and could guide me through a hard reset. We lost waypoints and other user entered data, but it is back up and running. Why Raymarine didn't include this procedure in their user manual is beyond me.

Our Wi-Fi signal is tenuous at best as we are over a mile from the antenna, so I don't think we can use Skype from here.

We plan to attend the HAM radio lunch for HAM amateurs and wannabes tomorrow and then move to another anchorage or a mooring on Thursday.

2/06/09
Escape from
Exuma Docks

We have had blustery winds for days, mostly around 20 knots.  Tied to Exuma Docks where we have been before, this time we were bouncing on the bottom at  low tide, probably because the wind was blowing the water shallower.  Not a great thing.   We came here to do some Internet transactions, organize a shipment of prescriptions coming in on Reggie Express, run a bunch of errands, do laundry and ok…watch the Super Bowl.

But it’s time to go.  George planned to leave on the top ½ of the tide.  While waiting for this to happen, we searched out Perez Murphy (a Rastafarian…go figure)…and subscribed to another week of wifi.  Whether or not we’ll get it on the hook we’re not sure, but it’s only $15 for a week so worth the risk. 

David on Liberty, a catamaran we have met before, came in and rather effectively blocked our passage out.  The docks are so shallow, especially on the south side where we were on purpose so we would be blown off the dock in the prevailing winds.  Fortunately Liberty was only there to get their outboard serviced, take on water, and get some provisions and they too planned to leave at the top of the tide.  Two powerboats were on the opposite side of the dock, one of them is Fine Romance, from Fairfield Harbour where we live in New Bern.   Oh, I forgot to mention that Liberty was aground, and although tied up, was about 8 feet off the dock.

We did a few things, lollygagged, and went for lunch at Sam’s.  “Gag” is a good word, because I was about ½ seasick all day from all the knocking about (not a usual situation for me).  I ordered a club sandwich and a ginger ale, and brought ½ of it home, wrapped in foil.  Back at the boat, Fine Romance was leaving and I tossed the sandwich far back on the freezer top and ran to help George cast them off.  “Ran” isn’t exactly the right wording.  To get off the boat in these conditions, I swing both legs over the lifelines and perch on the toe rail until we’re in the bottom of a wave trough.  Then I sit my butt down on the dock, which is a reach of several feet  if we’re blowing off.  From there I get on all fours and then try to gracefully stand up.  George, on the other hand, stands up, hangs onto a stay or two, steps across to a bracing board below the dock, wraps his arms around a nearby piling, and swings himself onto the dock.  I can’t bear to watch.  Toby jumps, crawls, flies, and sometimes his little feet barely hit the dock or the boat, depending on which way he is going, but so far none of us has fallen in this cruise.

Back from helping Fine Romance get off the dock I found a square of foil and a lettuce leaf on the floor, and nothing left of my sandwich including the two toothpicks which were missing and probably inside the dog.  No time to worry about that, because Liberty was finally ready to go.  Getting on the boat was David’s first problem.  His son and nephew had been agilely if unconventionally walking a tightrope on the dock lines to come and go.  David, about our age, missed and was clinging to his boat’s stern rail with his feet in the water.  The boys launched him onto Liberty and he said he was glad he did yoga because he felt ok.  We removed the two spring lines, and George and I cast off the bow and stern lines simultaneously, a critical move for the situation.  He backed out like crazy, churning up the bottom, and got away ok.  Our turn was next but we had helped everyone leave and now we were alone.  So Fernandez the dock master and his helper cast us off in a similar manner.  George did a great job of backing us out (a longer distance than Liberty), and getting us headed in the right direction. 

We anchored off Sand Dollar Beach in 20 knots of wind, and just after anchoring I went below and Toby had upchucked, the contents of which included the two toothpicks, which started out life with little frilly tops on them but I didn’t look for those.  I was just happy to see the toothpicks.  Toby doesn’t seem any worse for wear. 

As I finish this, winds are blowing 22 knots and it’s lumpy but nothing like crashing and banging on the dock.  We are in over 15 feet of water so we shouldn’t hit bottom here tonight.  We are having a glass of wine and planning a pork chop dinner cooked in the galley because we have a loose rule not to try to barbecue in over 20 knots of wind.  It’s been a long and eventful day.

2/03/09
George Town
Great Exuma

We haven’t posted a web update for a while, so here goes.  But first, a commercial:  Have you checked out our photos?  George has posted some from our recent travels, including the Perry Institute tour mentioned below.

We finished our visit to Lee Stocking Island with a tour of the Perry Marine Institute (Caribbean Marine Research Center).  Meredith lead about 20 intrepid cruisers all over the property – we saw their recompression chamber, scuba tank control room, docks, lodgings, laboratories, outdoor tanks, indoor tanks, and learned many interesting things about the Center.  They may have a reputation for being a little standoffish about letting folks come ashore, but they were friendly and welcoming, and are very interested in developing a rapport with cruisers.  If that happens, we’re sure the cruisers, in turn, would volunteer their services as they do in many other places.

Then we motored down to Rat Cay (not a beautiful name for a lovely spot).  The chart notes “surge” and we could see how that would happen because it’s adjacent to a small cut.  But winds were light and the anchorage was beautiful.  Rat Cay Cut is one of the better ones for exiting these cays because it is oriented north and not open to the easterly winds and swell.  We were out the cut by 9 Friday morning and had a nice motoring trip of about 25 nm into George Town.  Lynn fished all the way with our big trolling rod and a new pink lure, but no luck.  When is this skunk streak going to end?

We have been at Exuma Docks since then.  We have enjoyed much time on Wi-Fi, eaten out a few times (more about that later), watched the Super Bowl on a big projection screen (the first half, anyway), and taken Toby for dock and shore walks.  Our water tanks are full again, the fridge is bulging (we are close to a nice grocery store), and soon we should have our dinghy fuel tanks topped off (the island has been without diesel for over a week and without gas for several days).   However, the fuel ship is on the way and we are hopeful that will be soon remedied.

We are waiting for a few things to arrive from the States via Reggie Express (they fly in an Aztec plane Tuesdays and Thursdays).  Our stuff will include prescription refills which should get us through the rest of the cruise.  We had hoped for today’s flight, but it now looks like Thursday.  

Revisiting the dining out comment, today we had lunch at the Towne Café – it’s adjacent to the out-of-fuel Shell station.  Very nice, with cable tv and air conditioning.  You go in mid-morning, order your lunch, and they write your name and order on a white take out box.  You reappear sometime after noon, and your lunch has been put in the box for either dine in or take out.  We opted for the “minced lobster” lunch.  It was delicious, cooked in a tomato sauce with a trace of green pepper flavor, and served with yellow rice, corn, and a mixture of broccoli and cauliflower.  At $15 each, it was an expensive lunch, but we are still stuffed and planning a light dinner.

Once our shipment arrives from Reggie we will get off the dock and pick the most comfortable anchorage to enjoy the George Town activities.  We think of you often, and hope you are thinking of us. Then, on to who knows where.

1/27/09
Lee Stocking Island

We discovered we can get a weak Wi-Fi signal here at Lee Stocking Island, from the Research Center.  So after several days without our “regular” email, we have been able to check messages, and spend a little time on the Internet, even though we get knocked off every few minutes.

This island is “private” and they are pretty restrictive about letting folks go ashore.  We try to take Toby twice a day, about a 15 minute dinghy ride, to a beautiful beach called “Coconut Beach.”  But some days it is too rough.  Winds are still quite high, and in addition to large chop out in Exuma Sound (where we need to go to move to George Town), there is a nasty swell of probably 5 – 7 feet.  So we are staying put.  Maybe we will be here for the Thursday tour after all :-)

Actually, we will probably have moved a little further on by Thursday.  It looks like Thursday or Friday might be possible to go to George Town, but the weather will undoubtedly change by then.  The weather drives our lives.

This morning we went snorkeling, in a small bay that is protected from the winds.  It was quite shallow, but we saw several kinds of fish, a long string of egg case type stuff, sponges, conch…enough to have an interesting time and to get wet.  No sign of any Lion Fish, which are invading these waters.

And here is a message from George to our family and friends in the snow and cold “It’s really been cold here.  It got down in the 60’s for a while.” ;-)  Actually the water temperature when we went snorkeling was about 75, so it was perfectly comfortable with our 3mm wetsuits.

When we get somewhere with a better connection to update our web site, we have some nice pictures to post.

We miss you all, and hope you are thinking of us.

1/27/09
Lee Stocking Island

We haven’t been good about updating because we haven’t had internet access since we left Exuma Land and Sea Park. Well, that isn’t quite accurate, we had access at Staniel and Lorraine’s Café in Black Point, but the computer I carried ashore didn’t have my program to manage the web site.

We filled with Fuel and added some water to the tanks at Staniel on the 18^th. Tied to the dock for a night and had a nice dinner ashore. The next day, the blustery westerlies blew in and we had to get off the dock quickly. Lots of excitement with dock hands and crew. The Captain of course was calm and in full control of the vessel at all times.

We spent a couple of days riding out the frontal passage between the Majors (Big Major and Little Major islands) with 27 other boats, then motored down to Black Point for a day of laundry and errands. We like Black Point a lot.

From Black Point our plan was to island hop to George Town over the course of a couple of days. We upped anchor on the morning of the 23^rd and headed out Dotham Cut on an ebbing tide, a passage we have made many times. There was a moderately large swell coming from the east and brisk winds, both against the current. The conditions became fairly severe quickly and once into it, there is no turning back. One doesn’t want to get sideways to the angry seas. We had major water over the bow of the boat a couple of times, but eventually worked our way far enough out that the effects of the ebbing tide diminished.

Even then the swell had a much shorter period than any of the weather forecasts had predicted and we had an uncomfortable sail down island. We had never used the Adderly Cut where we intended to get back onto the Banks and in the lee of Lee Stocking Island. At one point we decided that since we were familiar with the cut going into George Town that we would change course and go all the way there rather than attempt an unknown cut in aggressive conditions. The devil you know versus the one you don't.

As we came in view of Adderly Cut, conditions looked OK from our position a couple of miles off shore. There is a marine research center on the island (see the link at http://www.perryinstitute.org/research/). We radioed them and they said the cut, while it had some 6’ swell was doable. I told Lynn it would be just like going into Oceanside Harbor and away we went. As soon as we turned downwind and with following seas, things got a lot more comfortable and we had a good entry.

We thought the center might have a Wi-Fi signal we could pick up but saw none. Then today another cruiser told us they had a signal. We hooked up our directional antenna and have a weak, unstable signal, but can at least post this update.

We are hoping for a better sea state on Thursday or Friday and we will complete the run to George Town. We have some detail stuff to attend to, getting prescriptions for the States and the like. We need some provisions and marine hardware. We might spend a day or two at the dock, or just hang out on the hook and do dinghy trips to town to take care of business.

1/16/09
Warderick Wells

We offered to be volunteers working the Hawksbill Cay mooring field for a couple of weeks, but most of the time we have been holed up here at Warderick Wells riding out one kind of weather or the other. Now it looks like next week is full of west winds and there is no protection from the west at Hawksbill. We are considering moving on. We feel guilty hanging out here and not really doing much of the volunteer stuff.

George did volunteer on shore one day and reinforced some benches from a boat that is being restored. He built braces and legs of Ipe wood, a Brazilian hardwood, the first time he ever used it or even heard of it.

Since our plan is not to have a plan, we aren’t sure what we will do. First we will probably go to Staniel Cay and fill with fuel although we still have about 70 of our 110 gallon capacity. We just hate to run low because sometimes one or more of the limited sales locations run out of fuel and have to wait for the next delivery.

We have had trouble with our single sideband radio transmitting, although we can receive well. Our current diagnosis is that it is not getting good power. There are some old connectors in the circuit that we will replace when we find the parts. Isles General Store in Staniel is a possible source; otherwise we will wait until George Town.

We traced wires yesterday and cleaned some connections and were able to transmit this morning, but not our usual booming signal.

Our position reporting web site was on the fritz for a couple of days, but Bret has it humming along again.

1/12/09
Warderick Wells, Bahamas

On Saturday a pair of kayakers from Boulder, CO decided the paddle back to Staniel Cay from Hawksbill was likely to be a lot rougher than plan and they joined us on Sunspot Baby until the Warden's patrol boat came to pick their boat and crew up and transport them to park HQ.

Other boats mooring in the area also increased and we met lots of nice folks as we handed out literature and advice while collecting the modest mooring fees.

Today we are back at Warderick because weather is forecast to get a lot more aggressive. We will hang out here until that blows through. That cold be several days. We have limited Wi-Fi although probably no Skype. We are not sure how many pictures, if any we can post, also because of the limited W-Fi.

1/11/09
Hawksbill Cay Bahamas
Lynn's Report

1/02/09
Nassau, Bahamas

Just because we aren't posting, doesn't mean we have forgotten all our friends who follow our trip through this site.

12/30/08
Nassau, Bahamas

If celebrating well means eating well, then we celebrated Christmas in style. Tied to the wall on the New River, right in downtown Ft. Lauderdale, we started the day by opening presents and then a brunch of Eggs Benedict and Bloody Marys. We played carols and other traditional seasonal tunes on the stereo both in the cabin and the cockpit. Strollers stopped to chat and we wished everyone the best of the season. Dinner was roast duck with asparagus and mashed potatoes washed down with champagne.

The day after, we motored inside to No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne. It was a holiday weekend and the place was crowded with local boats. None the less we found a good anchoring spot and watched the activities from Sunspot Baby. In past years the local talent has been represented by a lot of bikini clad chicas many well lubricated within and without dancing and cavorting on speed boats. Less so this year, it was more of a family show but there were enough examples of the former to keep me on watch. On Sunday we breakfasted at  the on site cafe with eggs and Cuban coffee. Gee I love that stuff.

A weather window opened on the 29th and we left No Name at about 7:30 am. Motor sailing over night, we were in Nassau this morning at about 10:00. We fueled, then tied up in our favorite marina here to wait for Customs and Immigration. They came to the boat together and by 11:30 we were cleared in and walking to the Sailors Choice cafe for a lunch of cracked conch.

This was one of the smoothest crossings ever. We experimented with our new AIS (Automated Identification System) to track shipping traffic and evaluate the risk of collision. I don't know whether it eased Lynn's concerns because she can now see information on the ship and how close is it likely to get to us. Closest Point of Approach (CPA). Or if it increased her concerns because she now has to worry about ships she can't see as well as those she can.

Our radar quit working just out of Bimini. We probably just pushed a wrong button and when we get the manual out will get it going again, I hope.

We had a little more excitement just after crossing onto the Banks from the Gulf Stream. I was using the new GPS/Chart Plotter to go to a specific way point. When we got there, the Autohelm has a nervous breakdown and quit working, rewarding us with a piercing, high pitched alarm when turned on. We have suffered similar problems in the past, but thought we had them diagnosed and fixed. This is a first time that interfacing with the new chart plotter has caused a problem. We thought we would have to manually steer through the night, but then, as it has before, it self healed and we had Autohelm. Whew, were we relieved.

Lynn is now walking to City Market to by a little fresh produce, eggs, and a few special items like her favorite jerk seasoning. I am hooked to wi-fi, checking email and posting updates.

We plan to depart later this week, probably New Years Day, weather permitting.

12/29&30/08
Nassau, Bahamas
Lynn's Update

We departed No Name Harbor at 7:30 am Monday, having raised the main at anchor.  We passed Stiltsville, a unique town-on-the-water village south of Key Biscayne and the Cape Florida lighthouse as we departed the channel.  Winds were east (on our nose) all the way to the North Rock waypoint, so we didn’t put up any more sail.  Seas were great!  About 2 feet or less, amazing conditions, which decreased to 1 foot by he time we approached Bimini.  We say many of the beautiful and dangerous Man-O-War jelly fish.  We fished all the way to the Great Bahama Bank but had no luck, and we saw no birds, which often indicate fish. 

We were making good time, and the newly overhauled engines were happy.  The new C120 Chart Plotter with AIS ship ID is a welcome addition to the helm area.  I had a little time period of getting used to the anxiety of the ships-you-don’t-see as well as the ships-you-do-see, but I am working through that.  The CPA (closest point of approach) and TCPA (time to closest point of approach) are good features, as well as a vector which shows if the ship suddenly turns, and it even shows the name, destination and other pertinent information about the ship.  They are more likely to answer on the radio if called by name.

We ate food I had made and arranged in Florida – baked chicken, ham and cheese sandwiches, orange wedges, cheese, crackers, cookies and so on.  Once on the banks it was still daylight and the water was so flat and clear we could see the bottom – just like snorkeling without a mask and snorkel.

Then the auto helm (which will steer the boat for us) had one of its fits and stopped working.  We were steering by hand now, and faced with the prospect of hand steering through the night or dropping anchor and delaying our Nassau arrival.  We pressed on and set up the laptop in the cockpit and the helm chair was brought and reassembled so at least we could steer sitting down.  We flicked the autohelm “On” switch periodically, and miraculously, as it has in the past, it started working again.  We ate a hurried dinner and started our night watches – me from 6-9, George 9-12, me 12-3, and George 3-6.  I had to wake George several times, once when we approached Chub Cay and I thought the lights were boats when in fact it was the island (this has happened before and I have taken some teasing for it).

The channel between Chub Cay and Nassau was lumpier than the first part of the passage, but still pretty mild for this area where conditions can kick up pretty good.  We arrived at Nassau around 9 am, took our time getting the sail down, and lines and fenders ready.  Discovering that our favorite marina, Nassau Yacht Haven, no longer sells fuel, we filled at Texaco before taking our slip at NYH.  We have had a cracked conch lunch at Sailor’s Choice, and we are tired, but life is good.

12/24/08
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Lynn's Update

We are tied to the side of the New River in downtown Fort Lauderdale, just east of the Third Street Bridge (which is pink, of course).  It’s very pretty here, tall, modern buildings, many holidy decorations, and boats moving up and down this narrow piece of water most of the time.  There are huge luxury yachts, day-tripper boats, kayaks, small motor boats, sailboats, water taxis, and tourist excursion boats.  We don’t need tv, we can just watch the boats.

Yesterday it was cool, in the 70’s, and windy.  We stayed at the boat most of the day.  I finalized the provision list (at last!), printed and punched it for my galley notebook.  George worked on some financial stuff, and some of Ray’s issues.   We took toby for short walks, and in the evening we walked to the Downtowner Saloon for dinner.  It’s a casual gathering spot – George had steak and I had fish.  Nice.

Today we plan to walk to Publix.  Even though we did our final provisioning in Vero Beach, we always could use a few things, and there is a big Publix grocery just a few blocks away.  Maybe we’ll find one of those delicious sweet potato pecan pies like we bought at the Publix in Mount Pleasant for Thanksgiving J. 

I got the duck out to thaw for Christmas dinner, and can’t find the duck sauce!  I emptied both freezers and it’s not there.  I will miss it most, it was duck drippings, orange juice, cointreau and nutmeg.  Darn!  Maybe I can find a small tub of cranberry relish at Publix to suffice.

On our past couple of days underway, we saw two big iguanas.  Each was about three feet long.  One was green, and one was red.  I suppose they can change colors like most lizards.  Both were out in the open and loose.

Becky has texted that they arrived in Tulsa yesterday about 5 am.  We know they have a great Christmas with Dick and Jody.

If there was a Bahamas crossing window, it’s gone now.  It’s very windy and easterly for the next several days (mostly East 15-20).  After Christmas we’ll move a little further south, find an anchorage and wait.  Probably Crandon Park if they have any moorings available, or No Name Harbor, our jump off spot, which is probably packed with other waiting boats.  Both of these are protected from the East.

That’s about all of our news – hope you have a terrific Christmas Eve.

12/22/08
Ft. Lauderdale, FL

After we were at anchor they continued blasting down the ICW sending wakes into the anchorage and banging the boats around.

Toby who had not been off the leash to play in over a week went bananas and drove George to the brink of murder. While this was going on, a big wake swamped the dinghy and George expressed his displeasure in several words which the censors have deleted.

Sunday we were knocked about by more large, fast boats, and went through 19 bridges getting to Boca Raton just at sunset. We had difficulty getting the anchor to set and on the fourth try got hooked up with the last of the useable light. The first time the hook came up with a beer can speared on the point. The second we pulled up enough mossy grass to feed a family of manatee for a month. Don't have an excuse for try number three.

Today we caught all nine bridges right on schedule, a couple of times pushing the engines pretty hard to keep the boat at or near hull speed (about 8 knots).

We are tied up in the New River Municipal Marina, which is just assigned spots along the sea wall in the New River, downtown Fort Lauderdale. We are just east of the 3^rd Street bridge for those of you familiar with the area.

The current plan is to stay through Christmas Day and leave Friday for Key Biscayne. There is a forecast window in the weather for Sunday and if holds we may cross then. So often those windows disappear before the date arrives.

12/18/08
Vero Beach, FL
Lynn's Update

Shirley left this morning.  We thoroughly enjoyed her visit, and think she did too.  Her sister Pat, who runs a dive shop in Fort Lauderdale, came up for a few days to stay with Shirley in the time share.  We hadn't met Pat before, and we had them both to the boat for a pork chop dinner, with chops grilled by George, roasted asparagus, and a salad.  We went to a wine and cheese party hosted by the time share folks on the deck, and last night we went to see the movie Australia.  It's a three hour epic, and it had good music and nice shots, and we like Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, however, for an epic movie it was a little thin and a little long.  But it gave us something to do for an evening and the price was right - $4.75 for a senior  movie ticket.

Mostly, we talked and talked and talked.  We did lots of reminiscing about crazy things we have all done in the past, and it was good for all of us.

Pat, the mechanic, arrived on target first thing this morning.  We hope this is his final visit, and that the engine issues will all be done by the end of this session.  The weather is looking like it might be pretty good in the next few days, and several boats have started leaving our mooring field, heading further south to stage up to cross over to the Bahamas or move down to the Keys.

Once the engine work is done, we could do likewise.  We did laundry yesterday - 4 loads in an open air laundry, and bought groceries at Wal-Mart which would suffice as final provisioning.  We will probably fuel and fill our water tanks before we leave Vero Beach, or maybe we'll go a little further south to do that so when we cross we have full tanks.

We hope you are all enjoying various Christmas activities, and not getting too stressed out with the holiday season.

12/15/08
Vero Beach, FL

We had a time share reserved from the 12^th to the 19^th and the plan was to meet our daughter and son-in-law here and spend some time with them. Unfortunately, she is going through a job change and had to cancel at the last minute. We called a old friend, Shirley, on the West Coast and invited her. Who says spontaneity is dead? She jumped on a plane the next day and we are enjoying spending time with her.

Our list of to-do's is long but we have rented a car and are running errands and working on boat chores. We still don't have a date for the mechanic to rework our port engine head but will work that in soon (we hope).

We had an unexpected and very pleasant experience in the harbor. Just before sunset we saw several kayakers, many with Christmas lights. Shortly after dark, the all lit up and began to paddle from mooring to mooring caroling. They sounded good and looked great. What fun.

We plan to depart here about the 20^th and head further south. We will start watching for a weather window to head east to the Bahamas. If we get an early window we would cross to the Abacos otherwise we would keep working south and do our usual crossing from Key Biscayne.

Several friends have sent us email or internet links with their Holiday letters and we are enjoying them. We are waiting for a package from Lori which we hope will have more of them.

We have not had many photo ops so there are no new pictures at this time.

12/9/08
Melbourne, FL

Today we had a nice run down the Indian River to Melbourne. There is a dock side pub here and I think it feels like a dinner ashore night. It was windy on the water today but it was straight on the nose so no help. We plan to move to Vero tomorrow and meet the kids. Stacy's job search might interfere with their visit but we do hope everything works out.

We met another member of Cruisers' Forum member, Intentional Drifter, It's always fun to meet people with whom you have corresponded on the Internet.

12/7/08
Daytona Beach, FL

We have our fingers crossed for warmer weather which the forecast promises. I have changed from warm hiking boots to sailing shoes and hope to stop wearing so many layers of clothes.

Last night, anchored at St. Augustine, we sat in the cockpit, drank wine, and listened to music on or new cockpit speakers. What a wonderful evening. Shame on me for not fixing the speakers sooner.

12/7/08
Daytona Beach, FL
Lynn's Update

This morning started out very chilly, in the high 40's with a north wind blowing into the cockpit.  By mid day things were warming up, and by the time we arrived here, we had seen almost 70 on the cockpit thermometer.  Tonight is forecast to be cold (40's again), but then tomorrow things start warming up by about 10 degrees.  We are looking forward to that.  George is hoping to change from jeans to shorts soon.

I am not sure how much of an update we have sent, but the engine issues are not all resolved, yet we are able to travel, at least so far.  Pat, the mechanic, is ordering parts (wet sleeves for each of the three injectors on Laverne, the Port engine), and he plans to meet us in Vero Beach to complete the repairs.  George is doing some TLC every night to clean up corrosion from the water leak, and so far so good.

Fuel prices are better - we paid $2.419 for diesel fuel at this marina.

The big excitement today on the waterway was five good sized power boats, all sporting red and white club burgees, who were driving fast, not slowing down when meeting or passing other boats, and not communicating on the radio.  We were lucky, when they passed us they slowed down to an almost reasonable speed.  Yet they didn't communicate with us, as most overtaking boats do.  Other folks didn't fare as well and there was much on the radio.  George looked up the club burgees on the internet this afternoon, and they are the Daytona Beach Boat  Club, based here in Halifax Harbor.  Maybe we'll write a letter to the club commodore, probably not, but it's tempting.  Most boat clubs promote responsible boating, and these people were behaving badly.

Tomorrow we are shooting for Titusville.  It's a favorite anchorage that we have missed for the past couple of years.  It will be a shorter day, about 40+ miles, and while it will be tempting to go farther, I'm hoping we stop there.  The Indian River doesn't have much in the way of tides or currents, and we'll go through the Haulover canal, a manatee haven.  This is always a favorite part of the trip.

Pan seared steak for dinner tonight, with a Harry and David rice mix and avocado and tomato salad.

11/30/08
Thunderbolt, GA
Lynn's Update

We can’t believe it’s the last day of November.  As I write this, it is raining, and we have had our complimentary Krispy Kreme donuts and coffee from the Marina – always a special treat on the waterway.  We have a new batch of bread rising in the galley, and George is reading the newspaper.

This is a different scenario, because we have been trying to move every day in order to arrive in Vero Beach in time for Stacy and Skip’s arrival on December 12.  We’ve had several delays – cold weather caused us to depart from home on November 17 instead of the 15.  We were about to turn out of the Neuse River into the ICW when we broke an impeller and for that reason and cold weather we stayed in Oriental for three nights.  Short days are another factor – less daylight to run from place to place, and more cold weather.    We really thought by leaving ten days earlier this year we would have warmer cruising.  However that hasn’t been the case, and now a “complex weather system” is causing rain and high winds for several days, followed with another spate of cold temperatures.

The trip has been nice, though.  We have seen lots of dolphin, many birds, and stopped in some new places, although for the most part we are stopping in marinas so we can plug in our little heater and not have to do cold dog shore trips morning and evening.  South of South Port, NC, we stopped at St. James Marina – a nice spot in a residential community with a friendly bar and café.  The trout and drum were running so even in this small enclave there were lots of small boats and shoreline fisherman out for their catch. 

In Myrtle Beach, we stopped at Barefoot Resort Yacht Club (across from Barefoot Landing outlet mall).  We didn’t venture out of the marina, but it was another new place for us.  And south of Charleston, we spoke with Jim and Amy by phone, (friends from Dave Garden), who walked out on their dock on the Stono River to wave as we motored past.  Further south, we stopped at B&B Seafood on Mosquito Creek just off the Ashepoo River.

We always talk about stopping at B&B, but usually go on to Beaufort.   However, the Ladies Island Bridge in Beaufort has experienced a mechanical problem and a part had to be sent away to be re-manufactured.  No one seems to have any idea how long that will take, so until further notice the bridge is only open at 10 am and 2 pm – not even any special commercial openings.  We watched workers climb down into a catwalk below the bridge to release the catch, so something in that area is probably the fault.  We could have anchored in Beaufort (Pronounced “Beew-fort in South Carolina), but we had good currents and a few hours of daylight so we scooted down to the east end of Hilton Head Island to Skull Creek.  And yesterday we came from Skull Creek to Thunderbolt, a run of about 30 miles.

We have been working our way through all the pre-prepared dinners made at home – nice to have a hot meal at the end of the day that doesn’t require much preparation.  We have been eating Guinness Irish stew, chicken curry, LBJ chili (red), and a hearty brisket recipe with red wine sauce, carrots and potatoes.  Of course we have our cruising sourdough bread, and for Thanksgiving we had a nice dinner the night before of baked chicken, asparagus, mashed potatoes, and sweet potato pecan pie.  The pie and potatoes were pre-prepared from the grocery store which made things easier, and we had quite a festive dinner.

11/29/08
Thunderbolt, GA

On Thanksgiving day we went further than our usual Steamboat Springs anchorage and tied up at a shrimp dock at B&B Seafood in Bennett's Point SC. This is a stop we have frequently promised ourselves and one we will probably use again. We bought 2 pounds of fresh shrimp for $5.50 a pound and had a great happy hour dinner.

Friday we motored slowly to Beaufort and still arrived early for the 2:00 bridge opening. Then we upped the RPM and ran to Skull Creek Marina on Hilton Head Island. We caught the currents just right going down the Beaufort River and up the Port Royal Sound. The rain also caught us and much of this passage was in low visibility with our steaming lights on.

Today we made a short run to Thunderbolt Marina near Savannah, GA. Heavy rain and possible thunderstorms are forecast for tomorrow so we will probably stay put. One of our newly overhauled engines is spitting oil. She sounds and runs great but we are worried and have contacted the mechanic, He is in Atlanta so this might be a good place for him to visit us. If it works out that he can come, we may stay a few more days. We have about 8 more days of moving to get to Vero Beach by the 11th (drop dead date) so we don't have a lot of time to lollygag. We can always rent a car and drive to the time share to check in Stacy and Skip.

11/26/08
Isle of Palms, SC
Near Charleston

Between Georgetown and this stop we went by McClellanville at near low tide. I don't know how the keel boats found their way through because although we only draw about 4' we were in skinny water and touched the bottom a couple of times. We heard a power boat behind us say he was "plowing his way through." That was yesterday.

Today we plan to stay put here because tonight is forecast to be in the 20s again. There is no conveniently located marina and we would have to anchor out and be colder than we find comfortable. This adventure is not to prove how hearty we are but is to be enjoyed. So, we have rented a car and will run a few errands needed but not critical and tonight we will have a nice dinner aboard and celebrate our Thanksgiving. Tomorrow's forecast is for warmer weather, at least less cold, and we are very thankful for that as well as all our other blessings.

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday and can take the time to be thankful for your blessings as well.

11/24/08
Myrtle Beach, SC

The prospect of dinghy rides with Toby in freezing weather and cold wind off the water has kept us in marinas the whole way so far. Tonight is supposed to be a little warmer but then the forecast calls for more "unseasonably cold weather." Our timing is off a bit so we have stopped at a couple of places not on our usual itinerary. Change is nice.

While waiting for the Sunset Beach Pontoon Bridge yesterday, we chatted with the bridge tender and he informed us they are building a new high rise bridge and when it is done (about 2 years) they will decommission his bridge. It is the oldest bridge on the ICW and is unique in its design. While removing it will make our trips a little easier, we will miss this historic bridge.

Unfavorable currents have been the rule rather than the exception, but today we had a following current all the way down the Waccamaw River and made excellent time getting to Georgetown, SC. The Waccamaw did however present challenges in the form of large floating logs and stumps that had to be avoided. The arm sized branches that could wipe out a prop became not so scary compared to the monsters that could easily hole the boat.

With a hint from the Raymarine tech rep George figured out an apparent problem with the new C120 chart plotter that was really a result of an old GPS instrument wanting to be in charge. He was able to recalibrate it to act as a "repeater" rather than "master." Once done our problems went away without unhooking it as suggested by Raymarine.

11/20/08
Oriental, NC

This morning we departed at sun up to go to Mile Hammock Bay to anchor but the Marines are conducting live firing exercises  so we stopped n Swansboro. The good news is we have Wi-Fi so we are catching up on email and making this report.

This is the earliest we have departed and we are experiencing some of the coldest weather of any of our cruises so far.

11/15/08
New Bern, NC

11/11/08
New Bern, NC

Our target departure is Saturday 11/15 and while it is a BIG stretch it is possible. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

11/6/08
New Bern, NC

Last cruise we had targeted the Dominican Republic as a destination. Family problems required we travel home a couple of times and then truncate the trip. It was frustrating, constantly watching weather and then when a window opened, hurry to make as many miles as possible. This year we are setting few if any goals. Our plan is to stop where we like and don't worry about missing a weather window if we are having a good time.

We hope you have a good time following the cruise on these web pages.