Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010 mhmmmm - still in Lauderdale but at a diff. mooring now.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
After all the rain and bumping last night and yesterday we bailed out the dinghy, then moved to another mooring ball closest to the ICW channel, the middle of three mooring balls. After being woke up at 4:30am as we swung into whatever is down there – we thought it prudent to move. Then we caught the bus into town to go to West Marine and Sailor Man. Bus fare is $1.50 for me and $.75 for Wayne. Age has its perks I guess… Wayne picked up a small solar panel to try and keep the batteries topped off this summer when we leave the boat. We need to make sure that if any water gets in from rain, that the bilge pump will keep up with it to keep the bilge empty. After seeing the damage that can happen on another boat, in another boat yard, we decided better safe than sorry.
After that we walked over to Joe’s Café. Wayne got a burger and I got a gyro with a Greek salad. Good food once again! Then with our energy levels revived, I went to Publix to pick up a few items and left Wayne to sit and people watch until I was done shopping. The bus doesn’t come into the shopping center so we had to walk out to the main road to catch it back to the marina. It was really a pleasant day for walking. Temperatures in the mid seventies and a nice sunny day.
It looks like tomorrow we’ll head north again, so we took one last shower here and checked out (returned the card key, etc…). While waiting for Wayne in the lounge I was watching the weather. It looks like major flooding and rain in the northeast. My goodness! Maggie and Jonathan got hit by two tornados yesterday in the Bahamas, we have major thunderstorms and winds here and flooding in the northeast. It’s definitely a crazy weather year.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010 Still in Ft. Lauderdale
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Goodness! The winds really whipped up over night and we had some vicious thunderstorms. The winds felt like they were trying to tip us a few times and the thunder was so loud and sudden, I swear I levitated like a shocked cat out of the bed.
It really came down in buckets throughout the day. Literally. I put out a couple of buckets for rainwater and they were filled within the span of a few minutes. We heard from Maggie and Jonathan – so glad they’re alright. Some people never see one tornado in their life. They saw two and their boat while a mess, is alright – it’s still floating. Needs work, but it’s still floating and they’re safe. After this season, they’ll never want to return to the Bahamas!
After our storms, it looked like it was going to clear up, then things started up again off and on all morning so we stayed on the boat. Around 4:30pm half way between high and low tide we started hitting something hard underwater. We both shot up top to see what ran into us but couldn’t see anything in the water. So it was something in the water, beloooow the surface. Whatever it was, was hard and whenever we swung parallel to the bridge between the 3rd and 4th bridge span, we swung into it. I don’t know what it was but surmised it must be part of the cement bridgework that we’d never hit before because we’d never swung this way. Our depth was reading 6 ft. on the instruments so whatever it was was not being picked up on the instruments. I called the marina office to see if they knew what was under us in this section but they never returned my call. They probably thought – she’s sitting on the bottom from low tide. The problem was, a – it wasn’t low tide, and b – we weren’t sitting on the bottom but swinging with the current into something. As the current shifted us back around we stopped slamming into whatever it was… Until… around 4:30am…
At our mooring in Ft. Lauderdale
It really came down in buckets throughout the day. Literally. I put out a couple of buckets for rainwater and they were filled within the span of a few minutes. We heard from Maggie and Jonathan – so glad they’re alright. Some people never see one tornado in their life. They saw two and their boat while a mess, is alright – it’s still floating. Needs work, but it’s still floating and they’re safe. After this season, they’ll never want to return to the Bahamas!
After our storms, it looked like it was going to clear up, then things started up again off and on all morning so we stayed on the boat. Around 4:30pm half way between high and low tide we started hitting something hard underwater. We both shot up top to see what ran into us but couldn’t see anything in the water. So it was something in the water, beloooow the surface. Whatever it was, was hard and whenever we swung parallel to the bridge between the 3rd and 4th bridge span, we swung into it. I don’t know what it was but surmised it must be part of the cement bridgework that we’d never hit before because we’d never swung this way. Our depth was reading 6 ft. on the instruments so whatever it was was not being picked up on the instruments. I called the marina office to see if they knew what was under us in this section but they never returned my call. They probably thought – she’s sitting on the bottom from low tide. The problem was, a – it wasn’t low tide, and b – we weren’t sitting on the bottom but swinging with the current into something. As the current shifted us back around we stopped slamming into whatever it was… Until… around 4:30am…
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010 Ft. Lauderdale, FL
It was a loaf day… spent a leisurely morning of sleeping in, then made breakfast and read before talking Wayne into going for a beach walk. I decided not to walk in the surf after seeing a mammoth amount of jellyfish all washed onto the beach. I’m still looking for the elusive sea beans and thought that maybe after all the winds and waves we’ve had I might find some. No luck but I did find a couple of pieces of sea glass. One light green piece would make a beautiful piece of jewelry.
In one area we saw part of the beach roped off with caution tape. It looks like they had some sea turtles lay eggs there and were making sure that nobody bothered the nesting area. It did my heart good to see that!
We made coleslaw and barbequed pork chops for dinner, then loafed some more. Just a loaf kind of day. Bread dough is in the oven to rise overnight.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Ft. Lauderdale, Fl
Wow! Spring Break and a nice sunny day in Ft. Lauderdale. The beach is packed and traffic crazy all along the beach drive. The parking lots are filled to capacity and siren after siren keeps trying to get through the traffic. The buses and trolleys that normally run every 20 minutes are lucky to get through in 45 minutes to an hour. But what a beautiful sunny day it is. Bare chested youths in flipflops, roar by with hair blowing in the wind on motorcycles with bikinied babes on back. What a change from the Bahamas and the conservative people there. You do not wear beachwear into the towns and dang near not even on the beaches. You can tell the tourists in the Bahamas because they are in beach wear on the beaches and boats (hmmm guess that’s the same here). The native Bahamians would be embarrassed to see the dress code here. Bikinis and heels walking into the stores and restaurants - a very relaxed dress code exists on the streets. The people watching here is amazing. Wish I’d have brought my camera today – I left it on the boat thinking I was just going shopping.
We waited on the corner near the 7-11 store for 45 minutes to catch the trolley to the shopping center with the Ace Hardware and Publix. On Fridays and Saturdays the trolley only costs 50 cents. We decided to try a place called Joe’s Diner for lunch. Wow! This was the largest burger I’ve had… I think ever! It was very good – grilled onions, swiss, mushrooms, tomato, lettuce on a Kaiser roll and the rest of the food I saw coming to other tables looked quite good too, all at reasonable prices. This is a definite “come back to” place. Then we replenished our fresh produce and waited for the trolley to come back to the shopping center.
While waiting for the trolley at the bus stop with two other ladies, there was a beautiful large black bird perched on the sign, singing his heart out. I noticed a female not far by. I thought, hey, she’s looking for food and opened up a loaf of bread to grab a piece of the crust. As I pitched it towards the bird, the wind caught it and I ended up hitting one of the ladies in the arm with the bread. OOPS! How embarrassing… I told her I was aiming for the bird. She said, “oh, I thought you heard me talking about how hungry I was and were trying to feed me”… Oh my gosh – how embarrassing. She was a skinny little thing too. She nudged the bread that had hit her out for the bird and the female bird came for it. You meet some strange people at bus stops. In this instance – I was the strange person throwing bread at people…
Traffic was definitely grid locked. The trolley driver said it was a combination of spring break and the first nice weekend day in a long time. Seems like everyone has cabin fever – even the native Floridians. He said he’d be at the beach today too with a cold one if he weren’t working and was thinking about heading to the Pirate’s Lair after work to watch traffic go by on the beach LOL!
After putting the food away, I had to jump onto Facebook and catch up with things. It looks like we may be here a couple more days or so before heading up the coast – I think the next stop will be Lakeworth. We’re both quite filled still from those burgers at lunch so it will be a snacking night I think.
We waited on the corner near the 7-11 store for 45 minutes to catch the trolley to the shopping center with the Ace Hardware and Publix. On Fridays and Saturdays the trolley only costs 50 cents. We decided to try a place called Joe’s Diner for lunch. Wow! This was the largest burger I’ve had… I think ever! It was very good – grilled onions, swiss, mushrooms, tomato, lettuce on a Kaiser roll and the rest of the food I saw coming to other tables looked quite good too, all at reasonable prices. This is a definite “come back to” place. Then we replenished our fresh produce and waited for the trolley to come back to the shopping center.
While waiting for the trolley at the bus stop with two other ladies, there was a beautiful large black bird perched on the sign, singing his heart out. I noticed a female not far by. I thought, hey, she’s looking for food and opened up a loaf of bread to grab a piece of the crust. As I pitched it towards the bird, the wind caught it and I ended up hitting one of the ladies in the arm with the bread. OOPS! How embarrassing… I told her I was aiming for the bird. She said, “oh, I thought you heard me talking about how hungry I was and were trying to feed me”… Oh my gosh – how embarrassing. She was a skinny little thing too. She nudged the bread that had hit her out for the bird and the female bird came for it. You meet some strange people at bus stops. In this instance – I was the strange person throwing bread at people…
Traffic was definitely grid locked. The trolley driver said it was a combination of spring break and the first nice weekend day in a long time. Seems like everyone has cabin fever – even the native Floridians. He said he’d be at the beach today too with a cold one if he weren’t working and was thinking about heading to the Pirate’s Lair after work to watch traffic go by on the beach LOL!
After putting the food away, I had to jump onto Facebook and catch up with things. It looks like we may be here a couple more days or so before heading up the coast – I think the next stop will be Lakeworth. We’re both quite filled still from those burgers at lunch so it will be a snacking night I think.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010 Ft. Lauderdale
Ft. Lauderdale, U.S.
I found a very nice piece of sea glass. That really surprised me considering all the people out combing the beach for shells, etc… This one would make a nice piece of jewelry! We looked in quite a few shops for some Ray-Ban sunglasses but this isn’t the place to buy them. The costs are outrageous! I think I’ll wait until we get to Vero Beach. I’m not sure where we bought ours when we were with Patti & John but I think it might have been Walgreens… Anyhow – I’d like another pair like the ones I lost. They’re the only polarized ones I’ve ever owned that I could see correctly out of…
We splurged and stopped at Haagen-Dazs for ice cream! I’m not overly fond of ice cream but that was a treat. Back at the boat we had hot dogs & chips & beans for dinner. It was quite a junk food day. Glad I made scrambled eggs, ham and potatoes for breakfast!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010 Across the Gulf Stream again
Gun Cay to Port Everglades to Ft. Lauderdale, Fl
From: Honeymoon Harbor, Gun Cay N25 38.458 W079 18.762 at 9:00am
To: Port Everglades, Florida N26 07.179 W80 06.615 moored at Las Olas at 5:30pm
It’s a nice clear morning once again. It’s a good day to cross the Gulf Stream with the winds on our quarter stern from the SE 8-15knots. We can pick up the weather from the U.S. again. It’s kind of reassuring to hear that computer generated voice spewing out the weather statistics when we turn on the weather channels on our VHF. After getting up and having a cup of coffee, we put the dinghy on the deck, listened to the weather and hailed Shining Star. We noticed that he was up and about and since he was familiar with Gun Cay and the rocky path out, we followed him out in the deep water close to the shore, then we each plotted our separate courses across the Gulf and to our chosen ports of entry. It was really nice of them to invite us to share their dock at their cooperative to clear in, but Wayne wanted to go to a different destination. Maybe we’ll catch up with them again sometime in the future. Fair winds Shining Star. It was nice sharing parallel courses, parallel lives for a brief time.
It was finally time to make sure that we had no fresh produce onboard before we entered the U.S. so with a sad adieux, I deep-sixed a bag of onions and some lettuce and we polished off the last two oranges and split the last banana. It seems ludicrous to have to do that, especially since most of the produce originally came over from the U.S. or other ports that import their produce to the U.S. but rules are rules…
We pulled into Port Everglades between close to 5pm with the current giving us a boost in. As we turned past the turning basin we could see the first bridge was already in the up position. Drat. We missed the 5pm opening. We circled trying to hail the bridge to find out it’s schedule and to see if it was true that this new bridge was actually 55 ft. We read that it was but wanted to be sure. It didn’t look that high to us – maybe we’re just not used to the height of the bridges anymore, I don’t know. We hailed him under all of his names with no response. I noticed that we now have cell phone coverage again so looked up the phone number and called. The bridge tender answered and told us that yes this bridge was 55 ft. high and to look at the tide board on the side to see what the current height was (duh), and to stay in the middle for the most depth.
So after circling for 15 minutes, we finally went under the bridge and continued up the ICW to Ft. Lauderdale and the Las Olas Municipal Marina. I called to see if they had any mooring balls left and was told yes – there were two left. By the time we got there, there was only one left – the one next to the bridge, and park wall. Yikes! We swing about 10 feet from the park wall and we’re quite close to the park bench. We could have a conversation with whoever sits there without every raising our voice. The depth at our mooring says it’s 9-10 feet though so with a 2.5 tide difference we should still be good.
Strange but heading down south this year, it got colder the further south we went. Now heading back north, it’s getting warmer… Another boat came by to say hi! They recognized us from Nassau Yacht Club and on the way over when we found ourselves in the middle of that flotilla. I guess there was a group of 18 boats that all left together. Wow! The group had decided to go straight through, and on the way over, his fuel pump bit the dust. Yikes. Glad they made it into the harbor with no mishaps. They used a siphon hose to feed fuel into the engine. Note to self – get spare electric fuel pump and siphon hose…
From: Honeymoon Harbor, Gun Cay N25 38.458 W079 18.762 at 9:00am
To: Port Everglades, Florida N26 07.179 W80 06.615 moored at Las Olas at 5:30pm
It’s a nice clear morning once again. It’s a good day to cross the Gulf Stream with the winds on our quarter stern from the SE 8-15knots. We can pick up the weather from the U.S. again. It’s kind of reassuring to hear that computer generated voice spewing out the weather statistics when we turn on the weather channels on our VHF. After getting up and having a cup of coffee, we put the dinghy on the deck, listened to the weather and hailed Shining Star. We noticed that he was up and about and since he was familiar with Gun Cay and the rocky path out, we followed him out in the deep water close to the shore, then we each plotted our separate courses across the Gulf and to our chosen ports of entry. It was really nice of them to invite us to share their dock at their cooperative to clear in, but Wayne wanted to go to a different destination. Maybe we’ll catch up with them again sometime in the future. Fair winds Shining Star. It was nice sharing parallel courses, parallel lives for a brief time.
Tip of Gun Cay with the lighthouse as seen from Honeymoon Harbor
It was nice crossing today and I’m glad we put in the long day yesterday to be able to cross with the wind and waves following us. We put the auto helm on again (Otto) and set a course 23 degrees south of Port Everglades and watched as the Gulf Stream carried us on a leisurely S course back to Port Everglades. It was quite a gentle day as far as wind and waves – much different from our last trip across heading to the Bahamas. There was a decided lack of sea life for me to watch this trip. Portugese Man of War floated by and one flying fish leapt out of the water and went about 75 ft in the air fleeing from Kolibrie. I watched our speeds climb from 6.5 - to 7.5, then consistently stay in the upper 7s to mid eight knots as we entered the Gulf Stream currents. I thought 8.88 knots would be our top speed until we actually 9.31 knots at 2:02pm. Wow! Our little Bayfield doing 9.31 knots (course over groundspeed) – even if only for a little while!It was finally time to make sure that we had no fresh produce onboard before we entered the U.S. so with a sad adieux, I deep-sixed a bag of onions and some lettuce and we polished off the last two oranges and split the last banana. It seems ludicrous to have to do that, especially since most of the produce originally came over from the U.S. or other ports that import their produce to the U.S. but rules are rules…
We pulled into Port Everglades between close to 5pm with the current giving us a boost in. As we turned past the turning basin we could see the first bridge was already in the up position. Drat. We missed the 5pm opening. We circled trying to hail the bridge to find out it’s schedule and to see if it was true that this new bridge was actually 55 ft. We read that it was but wanted to be sure. It didn’t look that high to us – maybe we’re just not used to the height of the bridges anymore, I don’t know. We hailed him under all of his names with no response. I noticed that we now have cell phone coverage again so looked up the phone number and called. The bridge tender answered and told us that yes this bridge was 55 ft. high and to look at the tide board on the side to see what the current height was (duh), and to stay in the middle for the most depth.
So after circling for 15 minutes, we finally went under the bridge and continued up the ICW to Ft. Lauderdale and the Las Olas Municipal Marina. I called to see if they had any mooring balls left and was told yes – there were two left. By the time we got there, there was only one left – the one next to the bridge, and park wall. Yikes! We swing about 10 feet from the park wall and we’re quite close to the park bench. We could have a conversation with whoever sits there without every raising our voice. The depth at our mooring says it’s 9-10 feet though so with a 2.5 tide difference we should still be good.
View of the bridge sign from our boat
Wayne cracked open a beer and we settled into the mooring and proceeded to call Customs to check in. We were on hold for about 17 minutes during which time Niles from Fair Winds came by to chat. They’re heading for the Bahamas tomorrow morning and are looking for a buddy boat to cross with. This is Niles and Pat’s first crossing and it should be a good one. No north component, and they’re heading for West End. I gave him the scoop on the West End and then we talked journaling before he returned to his boat. 4 am comes early. Wayne finally got through to customs and we used our Local Boater’s Option numbers (I.D. Cards) to check in. I really like this LBO process. It makes check-in a breeze! We’ll wait to check in at the marina until tomorrow morning. They close at 5pm and we have to get the dingy back off the deck and put the engine on it to go across the ICW to check in. I can’t believe how much warmer it feels here. It’s in the 80s.
Strange but heading down south this year, it got colder the further south we went. Now heading back north, it’s getting warmer… Another boat came by to say hi! They recognized us from Nassau Yacht Club and on the way over when we found ourselves in the middle of that flotilla. I guess there was a group of 18 boats that all left together. Wow! The group had decided to go straight through, and on the way over, his fuel pump bit the dust. Yikes. Glad they made it into the harbor with no mishaps. They used a siphon hose to feed fuel into the engine. Note to self – get spare electric fuel pump and siphon hose…
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010 To Sea what we can sea...
From: Nassau Harbor Club Marina, Nassau Harbor, New Providence Island N25 04.489 W077 18.764
To: Honeymoon Harbor, Gun Cay N25 35.155 W079 17.650
Approximately 115 miles
After chatting with a few other boats this morning (we weren’t able to get weather) it sounds like the weather is moving faster. We decided we’d make a run from Nassau to Gun Cay with Shining Star and drop anchor this evening. Then see what the weather looks like in the morning and either put in at Bimini or continue on to Ft. Pierce tomorrow. Ft. Pierce is quite a distance away even with the Gulf Stream helping us along.After putting the waypoints in the chart plotter, we released our dock lines, got permission to leave the harbor from Harbor Control and headed out towards the North West Channel under sunny skies and winds from the NE at about 13. We’re motor sailing and traveling at about 7 knots with our main and Yankee. Otto has the helm and we’re taking turns watching Otto. With approximately 115 miles at 7 knots (if we can maintain that) we should be traveling a little over 16 and half hours. One long day to Honeymoon Harbor. Bob was predicting we’d get in around 9-10pm. I don’t know about him, but we definitely can’t travel that fast. We pulled out just before 8am and looking out towards the west it looks like a fleet all heading westward. I can count 12 masts/sails ahead of us in the distance and on the horizon. I’d say everyone was waiting for the same weather window. going past the cruise ships I noticed one with gems on it - kind of showy for not being a Disney Cruise liner.
2:00am (3/25/10). We’ve gone 115 nautical miles and have dropped anchor in 8.5-9 ft. Good night world… uhm… or good morning – whichever – it’s time for bed…
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 Nassau Harbor Club Marina
Nassau Harbor, New Providence Island N25 04.489 W077 18.764
We were going to have Dairy Queen and Subway today (junk food heaven) but Bob from Shining Star quickly changed my mind with the offer of Chinese food down the street. The place is rumored to be the only place around to have Conch Cantonese and it sounded like something I really should try. So I headed over to Starbucks to check and see if there were any emails, etc… Then headed back to the boat. I rinsed the boat down and topped up our water while Wayne jerry canned fuel back to the boat. Then it was time for the showers and to head out for dinner.
We met up with Bob & Angela (Shining Star), Bob & Ann (Jule III), Frank & Joanne (Fantasy Island) and another boat from Europe with a German, a Frenchman and a Dane. I never got the boat name but the conversation was delightful. The restaurant (East Villa Chinese Restaurant on E. Bay Street) opens at 6pm for dinner and we were there at 10 minutes before the hour. We were pretty much the only patrons until the time we were ready to leave. Then there were 3 other tables. The place has very good food & when we’re back in Nassau, I’ll have to return. We got Lemon Chicken with a sweet tangy sauce, Conch Cantonese with a black bean sauce and pork fried rice (it had peas – oops for Wayne). The menu was extensive with a fusion blend of Bahamas meets Chinese.
I could imagine myself in Hong Kong in this well-designed house down the street from the Nassau Yacht Club. It's somewhat upscale with an ambiance about it. It has a bubbling aquarium (that has a lion fish) and a baby grand piano in the bar area. On the way out I had to stop and give the “almost” life-size Pu-tai’s (Laughing Buddah) belly a rub for good luck. I think we were all pleasantly stuffed!
On the walk back to the dock I was chatting with Ann and it sounds like they’re going straight from Nassau tomorrow to Ft. Pierce. The weather that is supposed to be coming in Saturday has been stepped up to Friday so I’m not sure of our schedule. We were planning on the 3 days to get first from Nassau to Frazer Hog Cay, then from Frazer Hog to somewhere on the banks west of Mackie Shoal, and the third day crossing from the banks across the Gulf Stream and to Ft. Pierce/Vero Beach. We may need to re-evaluate once again. Things keep changing…
Monday, March 22, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010 - Nassau Harbor – Starbucks Coffee House
We had tons of rain, thunder and lightening last night but no wind. Strange front. It’s been a rainy and gray day so here I sit in Starbucks posting my blog, playing catch up on the internet. We’re waiting for the weather to break (again) and for the winds to shift east to move out of here towards the Berry Islands then either toward Lucaya or Bimini to cross back over to the states. Either way we’re looking at 4-5 days before we cross back to the coast of Florida – it’s all weather dependent. The winds are still from the west but not enough to generate power on the boat. I guess I’ve been sitting here for several hours and it’s getting busy. Time to pack up and go back to the boat. The nice part is that it’s not far to walk – just across the street to the Harbor.
Can't wait until I can post more pictures - there are quite a few piling up on my camera LOL
Sunday, March 21, 2010
From: Nassau Harbor, New Providence Island N25 04.682 W077 19.730
To: Nassau Harbor Club Marina, Nassau Harbor, New Providence Island N25 04.489 W077 18.764
Well with the approach of high tide we’re again swinging out of tandem with everyone else and two other boats have now reanchored. We decided to see if we can get into a marina tonight. Between the approaching cold front and the unpredictable currents, that pull the boats in different patterns, it seems the prudent thing to do.
We hailed the Nassau Harbor Club, they’re the marina we stayed with last spring, and asked if they could accommodate us for a night. Yes they could. So we hauled up the anchor and headed over there around 11:30am (high tide is 12:16pm). They put us in a slip where I had to head into the current so getting in was fairly easy – the current kept me pointed in the right direction. This marina is on the east side of the island so the currents are consistent – unlike in the middle section where we were anchored. At check-in we were able to read the weather sheet and the front is expected to come in tomorrow so we asked if we could stay another day. We were told we’d have to wait for the dock master, tomorrow morning, to ask him. I just remembered another thing about this marina. Last year they wouldn’t let us stay longer… oh oh… and the dock master won’t be in until tomorrow. Well there’s nothing to do about it today I guess.
First item on the agenda – showers! How delicious! Then we walked over to the shopping center and headed to Dominos for pizza (Wayne was craving pizza). It was pretty good and we sat and people watched while eating our pizza. After that we went to the grocery store and then to Starbucks for Internet and a vanilla latte. We had Wayne’s little computer so checked our email and paid bills. I checked out my blog to see when my last entry (online) was. My journal (not on Wayne’s computer) is really behind. It looks like the last entry was around the 9th of the month from Black Point, and no pictures. That tells you that the connections are very slow to non-existent.
Back at the boat we had gin and tonics and chatted with the Island Packet next to us (Knott again). They’re from Halifax and know Beth and Jim (Madcap).
Saturday, March 20, 2010 Spring and Lyric's Birthday :)
rom: Allen’s Cay N24 44.888 W076 50.286
To: Nassau Harbor, New Providence Island N25 04.682 W077 19.730
Left 8:12am Arrived:3:00pm
Happy Birthday little Lyric!!!
I got Basra weather on 4003 USSB at 7:00 this morning and the weather looks good. We left Allen’s Cay and Lone Palm Island under the quiet, sunny skies and 68 degrees through clear turquoise waters. I saw one dolphin and two good size fish – neither of which we caught with our fishing lines dragging behind us – when I went up for bow watch through the Yellow Banks. We zigzagged around a couple of coral heads, avoided the jutting rocks at Porgee Rock and arrived at the east entrance of Nassau Harbor close to 2:30pm. There was boat traffic that was buzzing every which way and in every manner. I noticed we had the current with us and even though we were throttled up only to 1500rpms we were even zipping along at 7.81 knots. Yikes! In a crowded harbor entrance! Houseboats, pontoons, commercial fishing boats were all zipping about with over packed boats of tourists; dive boats packed to the gills with bare chested, white bodied college boys and their girlfriends clad in bikinis - also with tender white skin waiting to turn lobster colored by the end of the day. Tour boats were booming out of the gas docks at full throttle and mega yachts were charging towards the entrance to the Atlantis Casino/Marina. The harbor was crazy with activity. Reggae and oldies tunes from the 70s were booming from boats competing with each other to be noticed. Fried food smells wafted from the marinas and restaurants on the shore. There were quite a few sails on the horizon behind us all vying for space to enter and anchor in the harbor. Looking toward the west end of the harbor, 4 huge cruise ships were tied to the docks waiting for, or dropping off thousands of passengers. Welcome to Nassau, spring break 2010. This is officially the first day of spring and this place is hopping with people on spring break!
We anchored next to two small sailboats that are rafted together close to the Green Parrot Restaurant. As we were anchoring, Star Shine a sailboat that was also at Allen’s pulled in and anchored on the other side of the two rafted boats. I was amazed to watch 10 people fit into a little zodiac and dinghy out from the dinghy dock to the two rafted boats. One boat was no more than a little day sailboat; the other is a 30 ft hunter. With two people already on board (if not more) how on earth are they going to sleep 12 people there? I decided that it was time for a gin and tonic while we waited for the anchor to do it’s magic and dig into the sand in this strong current. Two gin & tonics in hand, one for me and one for Wayne, and topside to watch all the activities while waiting to see if the anchor would hold. We’re in pretty tight quarters and more boats keep coming in. Watched one boat with a broken mast come into a fuel dock, then anchor off of it. No room at the inn in the attached marina/boatyard.
As the tide came in all the boats started moving in different directions. There are some wildly unpredictable currents in here that I don’t remember last time. We kept swinging towards the other boats, and they towards us. Normally we all swing in the same pattern, but here we do not. I’m thinking that because this harbor is long and narrow that when the tides come in, they meet in the middle creating interesting currents in the middle. So the boats all go every which way – which they do. It looks like each boat is doing it’s own thing and not synchronized with any other boat. Wayne shortened the scope twice on our chain (to shorten our swing) but it didn’t help much. Maybe it did – we never ran into another boat. We came close quite a few times but never touched. We sat up top watching the boats swinging about and watching the festivities at the Italian restaurant next to the Green Parrot. It looked like a wedding or something because everything was being decked out in white table clothes, the waiters were in formal wear and when the guests started arriving they were in formal wear too. The music was loud and it sounded like they had a DJ spinning tunes as well as a band setting up. It turned out it was a fund raising event for the rotary club. They had an auction and the guy wasn’t having much success as he kept belittling the people for not bidding for items that were over the starting price “Do I hear $2100, 2100? Come on people – what are you a bunch of cheapskates?” Come on you cheapskates, lets spend some money – it’s for a good cause – do I hear 2050, 2050?” Good way to get people to bid I guess – but it didn’t work, each time, the item went for the original asking price. Then the James Bond themes started playing from Thunder Ball, Diamonds are Forever, etc., and music from the seventies. The music blared out to the anchorage and a few times it sounded like the Reggae from the freighters at Potters Cay decided to try to silence them by drownding them out with their own music, then another with Rap Music. It all started settling down around 1:00am though…
It looks like the wild currents and swinging in here become more consistent with the tide going back out too. It’s 3:00am and time for some shuteye?
To: Nassau Harbor, New Providence Island N25 04.682 W077 19.730
Left 8:12am Arrived:3:00pm
Happy Birthday little Lyric!!!
I got Basra weather on 4003 USSB at 7:00 this morning and the weather looks good. We left Allen’s Cay and Lone Palm Island under the quiet, sunny skies and 68 degrees through clear turquoise waters. I saw one dolphin and two good size fish – neither of which we caught with our fishing lines dragging behind us – when I went up for bow watch through the Yellow Banks. We zigzagged around a couple of coral heads, avoided the jutting rocks at Porgee Rock and arrived at the east entrance of Nassau Harbor close to 2:30pm. There was boat traffic that was buzzing every which way and in every manner. I noticed we had the current with us and even though we were throttled up only to 1500rpms we were even zipping along at 7.81 knots. Yikes! In a crowded harbor entrance! Houseboats, pontoons, commercial fishing boats were all zipping about with over packed boats of tourists; dive boats packed to the gills with bare chested, white bodied college boys and their girlfriends clad in bikinis - also with tender white skin waiting to turn lobster colored by the end of the day. Tour boats were booming out of the gas docks at full throttle and mega yachts were charging towards the entrance to the Atlantis Casino/Marina. The harbor was crazy with activity. Reggae and oldies tunes from the 70s were booming from boats competing with each other to be noticed. Fried food smells wafted from the marinas and restaurants on the shore. There were quite a few sails on the horizon behind us all vying for space to enter and anchor in the harbor. Looking toward the west end of the harbor, 4 huge cruise ships were tied to the docks waiting for, or dropping off thousands of passengers. Welcome to Nassau, spring break 2010. This is officially the first day of spring and this place is hopping with people on spring break!
We anchored next to two small sailboats that are rafted together close to the Green Parrot Restaurant. As we were anchoring, Star Shine a sailboat that was also at Allen’s pulled in and anchored on the other side of the two rafted boats. I was amazed to watch 10 people fit into a little zodiac and dinghy out from the dinghy dock to the two rafted boats. One boat was no more than a little day sailboat; the other is a 30 ft hunter. With two people already on board (if not more) how on earth are they going to sleep 12 people there? I decided that it was time for a gin and tonic while we waited for the anchor to do it’s magic and dig into the sand in this strong current. Two gin & tonics in hand, one for me and one for Wayne, and topside to watch all the activities while waiting to see if the anchor would hold. We’re in pretty tight quarters and more boats keep coming in. Watched one boat with a broken mast come into a fuel dock, then anchor off of it. No room at the inn in the attached marina/boatyard.
As the tide came in all the boats started moving in different directions. There are some wildly unpredictable currents in here that I don’t remember last time. We kept swinging towards the other boats, and they towards us. Normally we all swing in the same pattern, but here we do not. I’m thinking that because this harbor is long and narrow that when the tides come in, they meet in the middle creating interesting currents in the middle. So the boats all go every which way – which they do. It looks like each boat is doing it’s own thing and not synchronized with any other boat. Wayne shortened the scope twice on our chain (to shorten our swing) but it didn’t help much. Maybe it did – we never ran into another boat. We came close quite a few times but never touched. We sat up top watching the boats swinging about and watching the festivities at the Italian restaurant next to the Green Parrot. It looked like a wedding or something because everything was being decked out in white table clothes, the waiters were in formal wear and when the guests started arriving they were in formal wear too. The music was loud and it sounded like they had a DJ spinning tunes as well as a band setting up. It turned out it was a fund raising event for the rotary club. They had an auction and the guy wasn’t having much success as he kept belittling the people for not bidding for items that were over the starting price “Do I hear $2100, 2100? Come on people – what are you a bunch of cheapskates?” Come on you cheapskates, lets spend some money – it’s for a good cause – do I hear 2050, 2050?” Good way to get people to bid I guess – but it didn’t work, each time, the item went for the original asking price. Then the James Bond themes started playing from Thunder Ball, Diamonds are Forever, etc., and music from the seventies. The music blared out to the anchorage and a few times it sounded like the Reggae from the freighters at Potters Cay decided to try to silence them by drownding them out with their own music, then another with Rap Music. It all started settling down around 1:00am though…
It looks like the wild currents and swinging in here become more consistent with the tide going back out too. It’s 3:00am and time for some shuteye?
Friday, March 19, 2010 Allens Cay N24 44.919 W076 50.285
Happy Birthday James! It’s a cool, sunny day out with winds out of the west about 15 knots. We’ve been having trouble getting weather here lately – two days in a row! Tomorrow we’re expecting NE winds so we’ll head towards Nassau.
It’s been an incredibly rolling anchorage. Wow. I did a little cleaning today and we watched the tour boats bringing in people to feed the iguanas. They’ve been doubling up on the boats the last couple of days and have been loaded with a lot of young people. I’d say its spring break. All the marinas, etc… have been filled to capacity if the radio chatter is any indication. Even the park is over booked for the next week or two. Wow.
Jim and Christine came by to say hi (Baroness). They’re going exploring finally. It’s still quite choppy, but most everyone (10 boats here) has been in the water and out exploring now. We’re guessing that most of the boats are waiting for the weather window tomorrow to head out (things are supposed to calm down). Another front is moving in the beginning of the week with more 30-40 knot winds…
Thursday, March 18, 2010 Allens Cay
Allens Cay N24 44.952/W076 50.261
At 6:15am with the help of the rising tide, waves and engine, I was able to motor and twist the boat to back off of the sandbar. Coffee time.
At 10:30am after swinging and bumping into the sandbar again in the shifting wind and currents we decided it was time to re-anchor. (24 44.919 076 50.285). It would appear that the sandbar has shifted further south than it was last year (according to my chart plotter waypoint).
It was still a choppy day in the anchorage so we stayed aboard watching boats swing and shift. Wayne couldn’t see putting the dinghy in the water to work on it in this chop. I don’t blame him. It’s all I can do to keep my footing below deck.
I made bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast, then read some. Wayne read and did a few Sudukos. Then I decided that I needed chocolate. Baking time… Brownie making time, with walnuts! mmmhmmm… The idiosyncrasies of my oven - Half the pan came out terrific, the other half, the brownies were welded to the pan. The flame is definitely hotter on one side than the other. Next time I need to turn the pan around half way trough the cooking process… No matter, chocolate is chocolate and after jackhammering the overdone side of the brownies out of the pan – they were all mine!
We had leftovers for dinner (with of course brownies for dessert). Now some reading before bed.
11:45pm. I’m up trying to figure out what the heck happened. I was woken out of a deep slumber by a loud twanging bang. I thought we’d collided with the other British boat that anchored to close to us this evening and ran up top. When I got up top they looked a bit ahead of us and to the side. I checked out the chart plotter, depth sounder and did a quick survey of our surroundings and the other boats. We didn’t run aground into the rocks. There were no other boats that were close to us, save the other Brits that had come in earlier. We figured out that their boat crossed over our anchor chain that was tugging taunt. After looking at the chart plotter and seeing a pronounced 90-degree L shape pattern of our movement it made sense. Especially after the boy came topside to checkout their anchor chain and look around. We hung around up top to make sure they hadn’t jerked out anchor loose and we appear to be okay. Time to go back to bed.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
From: Big Majors Spot N24 1.327 /W076 27.537
To: Allens Cay N24 44.952/W076 50.261
Miles Traveled: Around 48nm Winds: Light & Variable from the NE
Start/Finish: 9:08am/5:00pm
It was mostly cloudy all day today. We originally started out for Shroud Cay but the weather was so mild and seas so calm we ended up going further to Allen’s Cay. This year you need to take advantage of the nice weather for traveling whenever you can get it. This has been the year of ducking out of the fronts and hiding from the weather!
It was so calm out; I could walk to the bow, look down 20 feet into the clear, emerald green water and see yellow sand with tufts of sea grass and large orange starfish crawling along the bottom. Later in the day, the gray cloudy skies blended with the water so well that you couldn’t tell where the sky ended and the water began. It was so strange to look out and not be able to pick out the horizon. The calm gray afternoon got me to thinking about what awaits us back home. Home… There’s an interesting concept. How do you go back home when you no longer know where home is? I feel so divided. How does the thought go? Home is no longer a place but a concept that exists somewhere in time and space?
What do you do when you can no longer envision the future, see the present or care about the past? It feels like there’s no binding to the ties that remain back home. There are no bindings to the people that we meet here so many hellos and goodbyes…
I hate goodbyes… Some goodbyes come so hard because you know that it’s permanent. I heard one guy on the radio saying goodbye to another guy. He said that they’d meet their next new best friend in the next anchorage. What a strange state to be in, in this vagabond way of life. What do you do when you can no longer envision the future, see the present or care about the past? Only the present exists. In the absence of dreams we don’t really live, we only exist. I want to live. I want to continue to dream. I hope that the end of this trip is not the end of a dream that was started…the path home feels difficult this year. At least spring awaits me. I do love spring in the hills. Okay – enough of my moping…
I made a beef with mushrooms and onions in gravy and we had that on top of mashed potatoes with corn on the side. During dinner, we saw a boat coming in with a Great Britain flag. The voice was so familiar, I had to look over and watch them come in. “Up there dear, next to Kolibrie. Not to close though…” He looked familiar… As the boat turned to come around and anchor, I had to laugh – It was Baroness from Deltaville! We hadn’t seen them since we were on the hard in Deltaville! We shouted out greetings and quick catch-ups then let them settle in - in peace while we finished our supper. They made it in right before dark and are still in the process of moseying down toward Trinidad for Hurricane Season.
It was quite a rolly evening… and managed to get more so. At 11:00pm we swung the wrong way and were pushed onto the sandbar. So now it was a rolllly and bumpy night. Tide goes out, we go bump – there was a 3.9-foot tidal difference tonight. We must be coming off a new moon or at a new moon. I’ve been negligent in checking lately…
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 On to Big Majors
From: Little Farmers Cay 23 57.221 76 18.998 8:45am
To: Big Majors Spot 24 1.327 /76 27.537 1:21pm
Miles Traveled: 19.9 Winds: NW15-20 Partly Cloudy; 70s/80s
Happy Birthday Patricia! Hope it’s spectacular weather for you. If not, it’s gorgeous here for you.
High Tide was 8:25 am. We dropped the mooring and hoisted our anchor at 8:45am shortly after Solitaire (heading north to Eleuthera) and Madcap (heading south toward Georgetown). The winds and chop were on our nose all day but the sun was shining brightly with green bottom and gray-bottomed clouds in the sky.
I thought I spotted my first dolphin in a long time as it came zipping past the boat under the water at a high rate of speed, heading south. I pointed it out to Wayne thinking how unusual, they usually turn and follow or lead us and break the surface for air. It turned out to be a 7-foot shark zipping by southward as we head northward. A premonition of what awaits us in the north? If so, it was my first shark with others waiting in line when we get back home…
I gave the helm to Captain Wayne and lay in the sun enjoying the warmth while the boat periodically thumped on the waves. We got into Big Majors and dropped the hook next to Solitaire around 1:20pm. They’re heading out at first light and their dinghy is lashed to the deck. Ours is up in the davits and after it conked out on us last time, didn’t feel like messing with it. So we waved at each other and I chatted with them on the radio. This is a nice anchorage. As I recall this is the beach with the swimming pigs (I hear there are new piglets too). It has quite a few caves on shore that are quite obvious at low tide and an alternating rocky and sandy shore. You can look down into the clear aqua and sea green water and see the grass and sand. Very pretty anchorage.
Flat iron steak and salad are what’s for dinner tonight.
To: Big Majors Spot 24 1.327 /76 27.537 1:21pm
Miles Traveled: 19.9 Winds: NW15-20 Partly Cloudy; 70s/80s
Happy Birthday Patricia! Hope it’s spectacular weather for you. If not, it’s gorgeous here for you.
High Tide was 8:25 am. We dropped the mooring and hoisted our anchor at 8:45am shortly after Solitaire (heading north to Eleuthera) and Madcap (heading south toward Georgetown). The winds and chop were on our nose all day but the sun was shining brightly with green bottom and gray-bottomed clouds in the sky.
I thought I spotted my first dolphin in a long time as it came zipping past the boat under the water at a high rate of speed, heading south. I pointed it out to Wayne thinking how unusual, they usually turn and follow or lead us and break the surface for air. It turned out to be a 7-foot shark zipping by southward as we head northward. A premonition of what awaits us in the north? If so, it was my first shark with others waiting in line when we get back home…
I gave the helm to Captain Wayne and lay in the sun enjoying the warmth while the boat periodically thumped on the waves. We got into Big Majors and dropped the hook next to Solitaire around 1:20pm. They’re heading out at first light and their dinghy is lashed to the deck. Ours is up in the davits and after it conked out on us last time, didn’t feel like messing with it. So we waved at each other and I chatted with them on the radio. This is a nice anchorage. As I recall this is the beach with the swimming pigs (I hear there are new piglets too). It has quite a few caves on shore that are quite obvious at low tide and an alternating rocky and sandy shore. You can look down into the clear aqua and sea green water and see the grass and sand. Very pretty anchorage.
Flat iron steak and salad are what’s for dinner tonight.
Monday, March 15, 2010 Farmers Cay (N23 57.219 W076 19.001)
Strange day. It’s one of those days where things don’t seem to go right. But it’s just pesky stuff. We were hoping to go to the caves across the channel and do some shell and sea bean hunting but the winds whipped up last night and it was quite choppy in the cut. By low tide it was still choppy – not the white caps of this morning but enough that none of us wanted to venture over there.
We went over to the Ocean Club for Internet to see if we’d had any good news from home. No luck. That means we need to start heading back north. We had burgers and Wayne checked out some of the boat yards that we’d gotten responses back from, then car rental places. We’ll narrow it down once we have better Internet connection and are closer to the states. Nancy (Solitaire) opened the convenience store so we could get supplies. I got some eggs and a few other items. Then Jim (Madcap) gave me a lift back to the boat & I left Wayne to do research on the Internet. While I was on the boat, Solitaire came by with the torque wrench that we’d lent to Lapiduz. I hope they were able to finish hooking the engine up and have it running again.
Beth and Jim took me back over to shore again on their trip back for water and blogging. I’m so glad we got the chance to meet each other and get to know one another. They’re a great couple that I hope we get to meet up with again. They also have great taste in their boat LOL! It was great to meet up and get to know fellow B-36r’s! This was a Bayfield trip to be sure. It’s to bad we didn’t get to meet Liberties’ the Burgundy trim B-36 that was across the anchorage here at Little Farmers.
We finished up the computer searches, paid up for the connection, lunch and mooring fees for 5 days (we didn’t pay for the night the mooring line broke). Said our goodbyes to Terry & Ernestine and he gave us another ball to attach to the mooring when we unhook in the morning. Then we walked back to the dinghy to return to the boat. It started and took us 50 ft out then conked out. We started rowing and another dinghy came out to rescue us with a tow as did Madcap. Back at the boat, we said a fond farewell to Beth and Jim (God I hate Goodbyes) and I started sorting through the shells and sand dollars to stash away safely so they won’t break. This is our furthest point south this year. We were heading from here to George Town then Long Island. One more time that Long Island will have to wait until next time…
Sunday, March 14, 2010 Little Farmers
Little Farmers Cay (N23 57.219 W076 19.001)
It was a nice quiet morning. I’m kind of sad that Marge isn’t going shelling with us we’d talked about it and I’d thought they were going to be here, but do understand. When the weather is right to leave, you have to leave… It is what it is… She hailed us to tell us they were getting set to weigh anchor. So we watched them head out. They’re heading northward to be in Eleuthera for the end of the month festival. I’m glad we got to run into each other again & hope if we don’t run into each other again in the islands that we’ll see each other in Michigan during Hurricane season. It sounded like she was going home to visit this summer.
I’m not sure if Lapidus is finished working on the boat yet or not but figured that they might want a break by 5pm & put a call out to them for Happy Hour on Kolibrie. The boat is still being worked on, but it sounds like they might take a break to go shelling and do happy hour. That’ll be fun!
Around 1:30pm Nancy, Jim, Beth, Jim, Wayne and I headed over to the sand bar to look for shells. Wow! It was quite a ride by dinghy – farther than we all thought. It’s quite an extensive sandbar and has to be a couple miles long! A long sinuous white island that breaks up the green water from the blue sky - it looks like a mirage in the distance. We all found some delightful shells and a ton of sand dollars. Nancy found a couple of sea biscuits and we all seemed to find milk conchs. Nancy’s was still occupied, so after observing it a bit, reaching out of its shell trying to escape, we put it back into the water. Half way through our shelling, a tour boat dropped off people to go shelling. I didn’t know that any of the tours did that. It was kind of neat to see, because this is a bit off the beaten track for the tour boats.
After going through all the shells that we found, Nancy busted out some delicious cookies to munch on before we headed back to the boats and the trek back to Little Farmers Cay. We never did see Lapidus and when we got back to Kolibrie, Paula was hailing us on the radio. They had someone show up that knew something about their engine. Engines always take precedence over shells and happy hour – to be sure! I just hope they’re able to get their engine working again! They’ve been here a while now waiting for parts.
Solitaire and MadCap came by for happy hour and we brought out the Marti’s sipping rum for everyone to try. It was nice having them aboard this evening and made a great end to another wonderful Bahamian day. Good weather, good shelling, good company!
It was a nice quiet morning. I’m kind of sad that Marge isn’t going shelling with us we’d talked about it and I’d thought they were going to be here, but do understand. When the weather is right to leave, you have to leave… It is what it is… She hailed us to tell us they were getting set to weigh anchor. So we watched them head out. They’re heading northward to be in Eleuthera for the end of the month festival. I’m glad we got to run into each other again & hope if we don’t run into each other again in the islands that we’ll see each other in Michigan during Hurricane season. It sounded like she was going home to visit this summer.
I’m not sure if Lapidus is finished working on the boat yet or not but figured that they might want a break by 5pm & put a call out to them for Happy Hour on Kolibrie. The boat is still being worked on, but it sounds like they might take a break to go shelling and do happy hour. That’ll be fun!
Around 1:30pm Nancy, Jim, Beth, Jim, Wayne and I headed over to the sand bar to look for shells. Wow! It was quite a ride by dinghy – farther than we all thought. It’s quite an extensive sandbar and has to be a couple miles long! A long sinuous white island that breaks up the green water from the blue sky - it looks like a mirage in the distance. We all found some delightful shells and a ton of sand dollars. Nancy found a couple of sea biscuits and we all seemed to find milk conchs. Nancy’s was still occupied, so after observing it a bit, reaching out of its shell trying to escape, we put it back into the water. Half way through our shelling, a tour boat dropped off people to go shelling. I didn’t know that any of the tours did that. It was kind of neat to see, because this is a bit off the beaten track for the tour boats.
After going through all the shells that we found, Nancy busted out some delicious cookies to munch on before we headed back to the boats and the trek back to Little Farmers Cay. We never did see Lapidus and when we got back to Kolibrie, Paula was hailing us on the radio. They had someone show up that knew something about their engine. Engines always take precedence over shells and happy hour – to be sure! I just hope they’re able to get their engine working again! They’ve been here a while now waiting for parts.
Solitaire and MadCap came by for happy hour and we brought out the Marti’s sipping rum for everyone to try. It was nice having them aboard this evening and made a great end to another wonderful Bahamian day. Good weather, good shelling, good company!
Saturday, March 13, 2010 Little Farmers Cay
Little Farmers Cay (N23 57.219 W076 19.001)
Today the front was supposed to come through in the late afternoon but came through in the late morning. After coffee, Wayne and I were able to catch some rain and a shower in the cockpit. The water was cool, fresh and delightful.
Marge & Dave (Winfield Lash) came by for a visit & we talked about shelling & happy hour tomorrow, then they headed to town & we hung out at the boat. Since the front still “supposedly” hadn’t come through yet we thought we’d stay put today. I’m going to see if anyone would like to come over to happy hour tomorrow after shelling. I experimented with asparagus to make a dip similar to Beth’s artichoke (using similar elements) but am not sure – we’ll see. I’ve never heard of an asparagus dip before.
The severe weather that was supposed to come in the afternoon never materialized. It was very calm all afternoon & would have made a great day for shelling. I probably could have gone out dinghying around today and having Happy Hour. I spent the afternoon looking for our flagstaff in the storage areas. I can’t believe how still the water and weather was. It hasn’t been like this all year. I heard Winfield hailing Nike and talking about leaving tomorrow. Sigh…
Today the front was supposed to come through in the late afternoon but came through in the late morning. After coffee, Wayne and I were able to catch some rain and a shower in the cockpit. The water was cool, fresh and delightful.
Marge & Dave (Winfield Lash) came by for a visit & we talked about shelling & happy hour tomorrow, then they headed to town & we hung out at the boat. Since the front still “supposedly” hadn’t come through yet we thought we’d stay put today. I’m going to see if anyone would like to come over to happy hour tomorrow after shelling. I experimented with asparagus to make a dip similar to Beth’s artichoke (using similar elements) but am not sure – we’ll see. I’ve never heard of an asparagus dip before.
The severe weather that was supposed to come in the afternoon never materialized. It was very calm all afternoon & would have made a great day for shelling. I probably could have gone out dinghying around today and having Happy Hour. I spent the afternoon looking for our flagstaff in the storage areas. I can’t believe how still the water and weather was. It hasn’t been like this all year. I heard Winfield hailing Nike and talking about leaving tomorrow. Sigh…
Friday, March 12, 2010 Little Farmers Cay
Little Farmers Cay (N23 57.219 W076 19.001)
Well this morning it was Winfield Lash’s turn for their mooring to break. The winds were still high all night and expected to remain high throughout today as another cold front comes through tomorrow.
Solitaire hailed us on the radio to let us know that Winfield had broken loose. Dave heard them on the radio and kicked on the engines so they hadn’t gotten to far. I’d noted that they were coming our way so we probably could have grabbed them, if Dave hadn’t heard, and they wouldn’t have gone far. I later found out that after our mooring had snapped, they’d put out an anchor. I was glad that the mooring had waited until daylight before letting them loose! They tried anchoring & had a rough time finding a suitable anchoring spot. Terry showed up and they reattached to the mooring and dropped an anchor. Then Terry went to Madcap and took an anchor out for them, and then on to Solitaire. Better safe than sorry with the strong winds expected tonight and tomorrow. The weather is calling for near gale winds and possible water spouts from the front that’s heading our way.
After things settled down Marge hailed me to see if I’d like to go for a walk & see if we could find any seashells. Wayne wanted to tear the garage apart to see if the flagstaff was there and it sounded like a splendid idea. Dave was going fishing at 11:00 so we all went to the beach at the same time. We hailed Beth and Nancy to see if they’d like a girl’s day ashore (Madcap & Solitaire). Nancy had a ton of things to do but Beth joined us and we had a nice afternoon checking out the nooks and crannies of the beaches for shells. It was a beautiful day for a walk. The sun was out and it wasn’t really to hot – it was quite comfortable to walk along and in the water. While cutting across the island, we checked out one young man’s artwork (composed of shell and driftwood). He beckoned us into his house to look at it to see if we might be interested in any of it or in purchasing some peanuts. I enjoyed looking at his shells and work but we weren’t interested in buying anything. We walked to the other side of the island and down the airstrip to the Little Farmer’s Yacht Club.
We could see Dave and Olli fishing off the tip of the airstrip and they took off as we neared the Yacht Club so they must have had good fishing. We got cold drinks at the Club and met Oscar – he owns the round, pink house over on Big Farmers - before heading back towards town. A plane had come in after we’d left the airstrip and it took back off again as we were leaving the Little Farmers Yacht Club. It’s thrilling to watch planes come and go from these islands on the small landing strips! I imagine trying to line up with the strip and touch down without bouncing to much and breaking a strut.
Back at town we’d stopped at the store for bread and fresh fruit then went over to the conch shell pile to see if there was any good specimens. We all found a couple of nice shells and then ran into Olli and Dave as they were unloading their catch – a merchant fish, a couple porgy and another couple I can’t recall their names. Three stingrays were hovering in the shallow waters near the cleaning tables waiting for the scraps as they cleaned the fish. The rays were not disappointed and got a plentiful amount of the scraps.
Marge stayed with the guys to wait for Dave to finish up and Beth and I headed back to the beach with our booty from the sea to hail Wayne then Jim for a lift back to the boats. “Kolibrie, Kolibrie, Kolibrie, this is Swee’pea, Swee’pea…” No response so we tried Jim. “Madcap, Madcap, Madcap, this is Crazy Lulu, Crazy Lulu… Oh, this sounds more like Swee’pea…” That cracked me up. Wayne heard us after we got a hold of Jim and switched to channel 17. Somehow the radio on Kolibrie had been left on channel 17 instead of 16 so he never heard my call & wondered why I called Jim LOL. He missed a good hailing!
Happy hour on Solitaire was amazing. I didn’t know you could fit that many people on a boat! Solitaire, Lapidus, MadCap, Winfield Lash, Kolibrie and Oscar. 11 people in the cockpit! I’d have never thought you could fit that many people in a cockpit – what a great boat! Nancy & Jim’s boat has so much room – quite wonderful and their kitties really made me miss ours. Other than Winfield Lash breaking loose this morning, we had a terrific time and it was a wonderful day. The weather, water, company… it was a good BAHAMIAN day :)
Well this morning it was Winfield Lash’s turn for their mooring to break. The winds were still high all night and expected to remain high throughout today as another cold front comes through tomorrow.
Solitaire hailed us on the radio to let us know that Winfield had broken loose. Dave heard them on the radio and kicked on the engines so they hadn’t gotten to far. I’d noted that they were coming our way so we probably could have grabbed them, if Dave hadn’t heard, and they wouldn’t have gone far. I later found out that after our mooring had snapped, they’d put out an anchor. I was glad that the mooring had waited until daylight before letting them loose! They tried anchoring & had a rough time finding a suitable anchoring spot. Terry showed up and they reattached to the mooring and dropped an anchor. Then Terry went to Madcap and took an anchor out for them, and then on to Solitaire. Better safe than sorry with the strong winds expected tonight and tomorrow. The weather is calling for near gale winds and possible water spouts from the front that’s heading our way.
Back at town we’d stopped at the store for bread and fresh fruit then went over to the conch shell pile to see if there was any good specimens. We all found a couple of nice shells and then ran into Olli and Dave as they were unloading their catch – a merchant fish, a couple porgy and another couple I can’t recall their names. Three stingrays were hovering in the shallow waters near the cleaning tables waiting for the scraps as they cleaned the fish. The rays were not disappointed and got a plentiful amount of the scraps.
Thursday, March 11, 2010 Little Farmers Cay
Little Farmers Cay anchorage.
(N23 57.219 W076 19.001)
12:15am: I was laying in the berth and heard a loud pop. I told Wayne that the mooring line broke and he thought it was just us going over the mooring ball as we sometimes do.
12:30am: thump, thump, thump…
We’re bouncing off the bottom and both jump up out of bed.
Instruments on.
We race up top, engine on.
The depth meter is reading 4.2, bump, 4.0, bump, 3.9, bump 4.2 and I see the shoreline lit by a crescent moon.
I now have us in reverse. The nose of the boat is pointed to shore; the waves are slapping us from the side. We’re not moving except for bump, bump, bump…
Shit, shit, shit!!!
Harder reverse, turn the wheel to figure out which way we nosed in when we came into shore so we can back out the same way. It’s so frigging dark though and with the wind whipping my hair into my face, blocking my vision, it doesn’t make it any easier to see. Winfield Lash is to our port, Madcap is to our starboard.
Both are further out than us and are away off the shore from our stern. I’m keeping an eye on them and on the shore. Something from my view is changing. My sight of land is getting a different perspective. That means we’re moving, if ever so slowly. My stomach is in knots as I picture all the derelict boats we’ve passed, shattered on the shore along the waterway and the other anchorages we’ve visited. I don’t want to see Kolibrie dashed on the shore, damaged on the rocks. I find I’m holding my breath as I keep playing with the steering and with the throttle in reverse. The depth sounder is now at 4.5, 4.7, 5.3, we’re backing and going sideways at the same time so I throw the throttle to forward and spin the wheel hard. We’re moving off of the sand and rocky shore! Wayne races to the bow to drop an anchor and we’re now sitting with the engine running and anchor alarm turned on waiting for dawn. Ahh living the good life! Yep. If the folks back home could see us now! I can periodically feel the tug of the chain and see the silhouette of Winfield Lash as we come closer to them. Then we’re closer to Madcap. We swing closer to one then the other. Now the stupid anchor alarm goes off… I can feel the anchor chain pulling as I type this waiting for the coffee to finish. Come on dawn! 2:00am – 4 more hours until daylight….
3:30am: We’re both sitting topside watching, waiting, listening to the anchor alarm periodically go off as we move 75 ft, 100 ft… Wayne lets out a little more scope. I come below and try to sleep. The chain keeps yanking us as we swing, and yanking hard. We must have snagged something which means we’re not going to drag. Sleep doesn’t come. To much coffee; to much adrenaline…
Come on sunrise… I’m laying in the berth looking at the stars through the hatch, listening to the anchor chain. Wayne’s is sitting up top watching our position in relation to the other boats, shore, and the chart plotter.
6:00am and our surroundings are visible. We contemplate taking the mooring that’s about 40 ft away from us and decide to wait until we talk to Terry at the Ocean Cabin. I don’t think it’s one of his moorings. The markings on it say “Call Ch 16” the one we had said Ocean something. I heard Terry respond to a caller and I hailed him on the radio to tell him we needed to talk to him. He said he’d be out in half an hour. When he showed up he had us give him a line and he attached it to his mooring line. He asked how we had tied up to the mooring line and we told him the bridle style. He said “oh the last person must have damaged the mooring line where you were attached and it sawed through”. Wayne showed him that the loop that we had tied to was still intact. It was the mooring line under the loop to hook our line to that broke through. He said “oh!”.
Anyhow he got the look bucket out and told us we weren’t going anywhere. Our anchor had snagged a rock head and we were wrapped around it. Sooo I got to maneuver around until our chain let go of the head then maneuvered while Terry and Wayne got the ropes attached to the mooring. Terry then took our anchor out and dropped it for us so we’re now on a mooring AND have our anchor set. So theoretically we’re set for the blow that’s supposed to come. The picture below is our mooring ball on the rocks...
I watched Jim and Terry trying to put a ring on a hook on the wall while we were sitting around after dinner. Terry’s pretty good at it so after they vacated it I thought I’d try my hand at it. I managed to swing it on when nobody was looking. BUT! I did it LOL.
Tonight we didn’t get AS drenched getting back to the boat. We put the dinghies on the beach near the boat and walked to dinner then walked back to the dinks in the dark. The boats were closer to where we parked the dinks and it was kind of fun to walk back with Jim & Beth (MadCap) in the dark. The waves were still high but we only got half wet this time LOL.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Fom: Black Point, Guana Cay (N24 06.151 W076 24.131) 9:00AM
To: White Land Beach, Little Farmers Cay (N23 57.219 W076 19.001) 12:30PM
Miles traveled: 13.2 NM
Happy Birthday Jacqueline! I won’t mention how old, but suffice it to say that you’re making your dad feel reaaallllly old today LOL. Hope you have a terrific birthday!
Yes cruisers plans are scattered to the winds. After plotting in a course to Lee Stocking, examining the anchorages there, then listening to the forecasts, we changed our course again. We have strong winds coming and building until the weekend. Because the winds are coming from the ESE from 15-20 knots today (we’d be banging into the winds the whole time), we decided to go back to the original plan of anchoring or mooring at Little Farmer’s Cay. Madcap and Solitaire are also going there but are stopping at White Point to do some swimming and wait for the tide to come up. We were going to stop with them, but after venturing out into the chop, we decided to go on. We figured the fetch and winds would continue to build and wanted to get in. Madcap told us that they’d already made reservations with the Ocean Club for moorings on the South East side so we thought it might be a good idea to do the same. Last year it was pretty much first one there picked up a mooring ball and called in to see whose it was – Ocean Clubs or Little Jeff’s. We were told to pick up one of the first two we came to and it’s labeled the Ocean Club’s.
Well, things went a little better coming in this time. The course through the deeper water once again was not deep and we bumped a few times on the sandbars but quickly found deep water close to shore and made it around the point and to the mooring. We watched another Bayfield 36 circling around the cut and going back and forth. I originally thought it was leaving but I think it was avoiding some shoals and seeking a path around them. They anchored half way up the island. We also heard a boat hailing Winfield Lash – it sounds like they might be coming into Little Farmers :) They’re on the outside – on the sound side. We came in on the bank side. I would imagine it’s a bit choppier there!
I heard Winfield Lash hailing the Ocean Club and we made contact with them. They pulled into the harbor the same time Madcap pulled in. Solitaire pulled in shortly after that. We dinghied over to the Ocean Club to check in and Finisterre was just leaving. We stood at the dock chatting a bit, then Winfield pulled up and MadCap and we all headed over to the Ocean Cabin for Kalicks and conch fritters. Solitaire and then Lapidus joined the group at the Ocean Cabin. Tom (the guy building the dome house on Big Farmer’s Cay) brought his ukulele and played tunes and it was a very nice evening. Going through the guest book I noticed that last time we were here it was March 30th 2009 – on our way back home. This time we’re still heading south. It was great to touch base with Marge and Dave again. I’m only sorry we couldn’t have caught up with them sooner at Georgetown and talked them into going down to Long Island. Excuse me Terry – I mean up to Long Island. The closer to the equator the higher in altitude… We had a very nice evening with a group of awesome people. As dark approached we headed back to the dinghy. I wanted to be able to navigate the rocks and waves while we could see. It was a very wet ride back to the boat and we were soaked. We stripped off all the wet cloths in the cockpit and left them there to dry overnight and I brought towels up to dry off (salt water in the cabin isn’t a good thing). Now to wait for my hair to dry before going to bed…
To: White Land Beach, Little Farmers Cay (N23 57.219 W076 19.001) 12:30PM
Miles traveled: 13.2 NM
Happy Birthday Jacqueline! I won’t mention how old, but suffice it to say that you’re making your dad feel reaaallllly old today LOL. Hope you have a terrific birthday!
Well, things went a little better coming in this time. The course through the deeper water once again was not deep and we bumped a few times on the sandbars but quickly found deep water close to shore and made it around the point and to the mooring. We watched another Bayfield 36 circling around the cut and going back and forth. I originally thought it was leaving but I think it was avoiding some shoals and seeking a path around them. They anchored half way up the island. We also heard a boat hailing Winfield Lash – it sounds like they might be coming into Little Farmers :) They’re on the outside – on the sound side. We came in on the bank side. I would imagine it’s a bit choppier there!
I heard Winfield Lash hailing the Ocean Club and we made contact with them. They pulled into the harbor the same time Madcap pulled in. Solitaire pulled in shortly after that. We dinghied over to the Ocean Club to check in and Finisterre was just leaving. We stood at the dock chatting a bit, then Winfield pulled up and MadCap and we all headed over to the Ocean Cabin for Kalicks and conch fritters. Solitaire and then Lapidus joined the group at the Ocean Cabin. Tom (the guy building the dome house on Big Farmer’s Cay) brought his ukulele and played tunes and it was a very nice evening. Going through the guest book I noticed that last time we were here it was March 30th 2009 – on our way back home. This time we’re still heading south. It was great to touch base with Marge and Dave again. I’m only sorry we couldn’t have caught up with them sooner at Georgetown and talked them into going down to Long Island. Excuse me Terry – I mean up to Long Island. The closer to the equator the higher in altitude… We had a very nice evening with a group of awesome people. As dark approached we headed back to the dinghy. I wanted to be able to navigate the rocks and waves while we could see. It was a very wet ride back to the boat and we were soaked. We stripped off all the wet cloths in the cockpit and left them there to dry overnight and I brought towels up to dry off (salt water in the cabin isn’t a good thing). Now to wait for my hair to dry before going to bed…
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Tuesday, March 09, 2010 Black Point, Great Guana Cay
Coffee, weather and watching boats leave the anchorage this morning. Everyone is trying to get to a safe anchorage to wait out the weather coming in, in a few days. Flextime is gone, Finisterre is pulling out and I can’t believe how quickly the anchorage emptied back out.
We packed up our computers, grabbed the mail and dinghied over to the government dock. The post office is right at the end of the dock in a cute little yellow building. I love the floral stamps. The postmistress says that the Bahamas have the most beautiful stamps in the world. I probably have to agree with her :0) The mail boat to Nassau picks up the mail on Wednesday from Black Point, so who knows – maybe the mail will make it back to the states within the next 3 weeks. I hope my mail makes it to Gina intact and in a timely fashion!
We went from the post office to Lorraine’s Café for Internet but it was almost non-existent again. I tried to post my blog (up to yesterday) but I’m not sure if it took. I didn’t even try to post any pictures with it – that would have been useless. We’ll try again later and have a late lunch there. We ran into Mad Cap at Lorraine’s. Beth had freshly baked bread – Lorraine’s mom makes it. So I went to the house and bought a loaf of coconut bread and white. I have to get Beth my bread recipe and some starter.
More later.
Took my starter over to Mad Cap and while we were chatting I spotted a Bayfield coming into the harbor (they do stand out). It’s Celebrian (pronounced Kolibrian LOL) We’ve periodically heard them called on the radio and thought someone was calling us. Now we learn that they’re also a 36’ Bayfield LOL! Awesome! We dinghied over to say hi and find out about Lee Stocking Island – yes they appear to be open again (last year they had no funding so were not open). So I’ll have to look at plotting a course there. It’d be a shorter trip than to Georgetown and we’d like to see the research center. We ran into Pat & Wayne (Bum’s Rest) at DeShawns restaurant on the way over to Lorraine’s (home of the conch/lobster pizza)They’re headed north. Seems like we’re running into a lot of people heading north already.
So I’m sitting here in Lorraine’s eating conch and uploading my blog. The Internet is now up and running again :) Tomorrow we'll head South again. I'm not sure - but I think that Lee Stocking is where we're headed.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Monday, March 08, 2010 Black Point, Great Guana Cay, N24*06.128 W076*24.115
After the weather and coffee we headed over to the Rockside Laundry with our laundry bags. While the T.V. doesn’t seem to work now, the laundry facilities are still nice. They’re very clean with an attached store that sells cakes, oil treatment, and hand made trinkets and an attached barber chair. I brought one book to swap but noticed that they had a hefty amount of magazines too. I asked after Miss Eunice – on the walk here I didn’t see her couch out near the road. I was sad to learn that Miss Eunice passed away last May. She was getting ready for her evening bath when she passed on and wasn’t found until later that night. I heard that her funeral was quite large. People from Nassau came to it and her son from Washington made it home too. I’d have like to have met him to tell him how very proud she was of him and how she enjoyed her trip to Washington.
I guess I decided to make you brownies to late Miss Eunice. I’d have enjoyed chatting with you again and hope you can feel the hug I’m sending to you…
Everyone must have been laying in wait for the Laundromat to open. It was a busy morning and I had to wait for washing machines to open up. How busy was it? My last load stopped mid-cycle for half an hour because the Laundromat ran out of water. It seems that everyone on the island waited to do laundry, and water chores until today. The water supply was cut off (I didn’t learn that until later though). Oops. But there was enough in the holding tanks evidently to finish my load. At the time I originally thought we ran out the tanks and they were refilling but that wasn’t the case.
While standing at the window, I noticed that Flextime was anchored outside the Laundromat and called them on the radio. They came up to do laundry too and really had to wait for several hours to have enough water to finish their laundry. After we finished ours we loaded up the dinghy to take the laundry back to the boat and pick up the computers to head to Lorraine’s Café for lunch and Internet. On the way to the boat we spotted another Bayfield coming in and anchoring – It was Mad Cap :) So we buzzed by to say hello and our dinghy quit! After chatting a little, Wayne decided we’d row back to the boat to fix the motor (spark plug cleaning time again). Once it was fixed we grabbed our computers and headed for Lorraine’s.
Conch snacks and a burger for lunch with Mad Cap and Reflection (SSCA Operation Bahamas Project – Books for Boaters). FlexTime and Finisterre (means at lands end in French) were there on their computers already too. I chatted briefly with FlexTime & Finisterre then joined Wayne with Mad Cap and Reflection. Bruce & Marilyn (Reflection) coordinate the books for boaters program for the Bahamas so I had to learn more about it. Hopefully we can bring some books down to Black Point next time.
The conch and burger were terrific, the Internet slow to non-existent, but - I did manage to download email. So today we were able to do 4 loads of laundry and desalt the cloths (4 loads at $28), meet up with fellow cruisers and enjoy a nice lunch and download email. The blog update will have to wait with possibly no pictures posted either. Flextime and Finisterre are heading for Little Farmers Cay tomorrow and I’m not sure where we’re going yet. Wayne had mentioned that some other boaters were going directly from Dotham Cut (just north of here) to Georgetown. So I don’t know if we’re going to Little Farmers or Georgetown. There’s weather moving in this Thursday or Friday and no good anchorages on the western side of the islands. Little Farmers offers some protection but it’s small and sounds like there will be a lot of boats ahead of us. It’s about 52 miles from here to Georgetown – long day against the winds and waves. We’ll see…
This bay holds a lot of boats. I couldn’t believe the amount of boats that have come in here this evening. It’s impressive. For the amount of boats in this harbor, none look like they’re crowding anybody else.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
From: Warderick Wells, Exuma Park North Anchorage N24*23.814 W076*37.943 To: Black Point, Great Guana Cay, Exuma N24*06.139 W076*24.117
The weather is still cool – upper sixties still. We got up and listened to the weather from Highborne Cay and from the kind lady that announces it. I can’t believe that the park no longer gives the weather in the morning. I guess that was a “Judy Extra” when she was here. After coffee and the weather we got ready to leave the park and released the mooring ball. As we were pulling out at 9am Darcy came on asking for “Any boats departing Warderick Wells, come now?” Wayne told her we were leaving as I maneuvered around the boats & mooring balls and out into the cut.
As we turned west into the cut toward the Bahamas bank, I saw Tropic Birds. The north end of the island is a nesting sight for them and closed to hikers. We watched the two Tropic Birds soar up into the air in a mating dance/flight. They were beautiful. They turned about each other in the air in an upward spiral. Their long tails drifting in the air behind them – quite beautiful white birds…oblivious of us but bidding us farewell.
The water is sunlit and aqua turning into a bright aqua and white over the sandbars. Beautiful water. As we approached Harvey Cay, the water took on an emerald hue. Beautiful green water reminding me of emeralds, jade, diastase and when Wayne mentioned malachite, I had to agree. That was a good color description that actually took in the darker greens in the deeper depths of the water.
We pulled into the Black Point anchorage at 2:00pm and are anchored in 10 ft of water at high tide. The charts say that it’s 7-8 ft at low tide so we should be pretty good here. The plan is to hit the post office, do some laundry (they have a wonderful new laundry here as I recall) and get some conch and Internet time at Lorraines Café. I’m wondering if Eunice is still here? She was the woman I met last year on her birthday – 100 years old.
As we turned west into the cut toward the Bahamas bank, I saw Tropic Birds. The north end of the island is a nesting sight for them and closed to hikers. We watched the two Tropic Birds soar up into the air in a mating dance/flight. They were beautiful. They turned about each other in the air in an upward spiral. Their long tails drifting in the air behind them – quite beautiful white birds…oblivious of us but bidding us farewell.
The water is sunlit and aqua turning into a bright aqua and white over the sandbars. Beautiful water. As we approached Harvey Cay, the water took on an emerald hue. Beautiful green water reminding me of emeralds, jade, diastase and when Wayne mentioned malachite, I had to agree. That was a good color description that actually took in the darker greens in the deeper depths of the water.
We pulled into the Black Point anchorage at 2:00pm and are anchored in 10 ft of water at high tide. The charts say that it’s 7-8 ft at low tide so we should be pretty good here. The plan is to hit the post office, do some laundry (they have a wonderful new laundry here as I recall) and get some conch and Internet time at Lorraines Café. I’m wondering if Eunice is still here? She was the woman I met last year on her birthday – 100 years old.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Saturday, March 06, 2010 Warderick Wells, ExumaPark North Anchorage 24*23.814 076*37.943
The winds whipped up a little stronger last night and our wind generator was running most of the night. We decided that since we wouldn’t get into Black Point until later today and tomorrow was Sunday that we’d just hang out here for one more day. Nothing much is open on Sundays and we wanted to hit the post office and do some shopping and laundry. So we’ll head out tomorrow (weather permitting) so we can do laundry, etc., on Monday.
We went to the office to let them know we’re staying one more day LOL (I don’t think Darcy is taking us seriously) and to get another Internet purchase. No word yet from the person we’re waiting to hear from, but I was delighted to hear from Azaya and Blue Pearl (one heading north, one south). The bandwidth evaporated into thin air searching for boatyards on the web. All these websites with their moving pictures I guess because my 24 hour or 100 mbs – whichever happens first – seemed to expire in 3.5 hours… Wow! You’d think I’d been skyping or something!
So we’re just hanging out today with the sugarbirds…I made a beef and chicken spaghetti for dinner. It came out pretty good. Neither of us felt like going to the beach for the meet & greet. We just watched the dinghies go by.
We went to the office to let them know we’re staying one more day LOL (I don’t think Darcy is taking us seriously) and to get another Internet purchase. No word yet from the person we’re waiting to hear from, but I was delighted to hear from Azaya and Blue Pearl (one heading north, one south). The bandwidth evaporated into thin air searching for boatyards on the web. All these websites with their moving pictures I guess because my 24 hour or 100 mbs – whichever happens first – seemed to expire in 3.5 hours… Wow! You’d think I’d been skyping or something!
So we’re just hanging out today with the sugarbirds…I made a beef and chicken spaghetti for dinner. It came out pretty good. Neither of us felt like going to the beach for the meet & greet. We just watched the dinghies go by.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Friday, March 05, 2010 Warderick Wells, Exumas Park North Anchorage
Got up and turned on Chris Parker & discovered that our tape recorder was still over on Azaya. Oops. We saw Axel jockeying his anchors around, getting ready to leave. Then he hopped into the kayak with the tape recorder and we gave him the water jugs and Blue Pearl’s phone number. I shot both him and Mary a long distance hug and got one back from Mary – deck to deck hugs LOL. Then they were off – headed for Nassau! I hope we meet up again.
I plotted in a course from here to Black Point. Then we both decided that we’d like to spend one more day here. The weather is just tooooo delicious to pass up one more hike on the island. I made some scrambled eggs, fried potatoes with peppers and onions, and smoky links for breakfast then we watched the parade of boats leave. A few were heading north the rest heading south.
We grabbed our shampoo and soap for a saltwater bath, headed for the headquarters to settle up so we can leave first thing in the morning. Then we went over to Emerald Beach to clean up, and then for a hike up to the Davis Plantation ruins. There wasn’t much at the ruins. The bottom wall portion of a stone one-room building was evident. But I honestly don’t know that the one room hut was ever completed. There was no evidence of structural supports for a door, window or any parts of a roof. The view from the ruins was definitely spectacular. It looked out over Emerald Rock and the surrounding area of aqua water. I’d finish and keep the room for the view alone! From there we went over to the east side of the island to peruse the south anchorage (good protection there), then onward to Beryl Beach south of the Emerald Rock anchorage. The water was cold, the air temperature cool and the sun was shining brightly. The sun helped to dry and warm us from our salt bath along our hike.
I made up some more coleslaw and potato salad to go along with the pork tenderloin for dinner tonight. Wayne’s working on a suduko puzzle & I’m contemplating a nap. Last night we heard quite a lot of banging on the hull from the mooring ball. I think we were going in circles again. What’s with this boat? I don’t ever remember her going in circles so much as she’s been doing this year?
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Thursday, March 04, 2010 Warderick Wells, Exuma Park North Anchorage
Well, it looks like we’ll still be here today too. The small craft warnings are still up – strong north winds. Tomorrow is supposed to be better. We’re looking at Staniel Cay or Black Point on Great Guana Cay. It seems everyone that isn’t heading back north in this anchorage is talking about Staniel so we may just bypass it. We’ll see…
I made some cinnamon rolls and we took them over to Azaya this morning & brought oatmeal cookies back with me LOL. They were supposed to head north today. I’m glad they didn’t. They’d really be beating into the strong North winds.
Back at the boat I downloaded Azayas pictures, made some coleslaw for dinner, grabbed some wine and then we headed back over to Azayas for dinner. She made a wonderful chicken curry with rice and Key Lime Pie that was heavenly! I’m really going to miss Axel & Mary. Tomorrow they head northward again. We’re still southward bound. They gave us some salsa and water – trying to lighten their load and stores. I also took some curry powder off her hands. Wayne decided that the curry wasn’t too spicy for him so I may make a few curry dishes along the line. I hate goodbyes… One good hug and into the dink and back to the boat.
I hope they run into Blue Pearl in Nassau :o) It was such fun being in the company of Azaya and Blue Pearl on the southward trip this year. Drat – I forgot to give them blue Pearl’s phone number! I’ll write it down and stick it with their water jugs to give them in the morning.
I made some cinnamon rolls and we took them over to Azaya this morning & brought oatmeal cookies back with me LOL. They were supposed to head north today. I’m glad they didn’t. They’d really be beating into the strong North winds.
Back at the boat I downloaded Azayas pictures, made some coleslaw for dinner, grabbed some wine and then we headed back over to Azayas for dinner. She made a wonderful chicken curry with rice and Key Lime Pie that was heavenly! I’m really going to miss Axel & Mary. Tomorrow they head northward again. We’re still southward bound. They gave us some salsa and water – trying to lighten their load and stores. I also took some curry powder off her hands. Wayne decided that the curry wasn’t too spicy for him so I may make a few curry dishes along the line. I hate goodbyes… One good hug and into the dink and back to the boat.
I hope they run into Blue Pearl in Nassau :o) It was such fun being in the company of Azaya and Blue Pearl on the southward trip this year. Drat – I forgot to give them blue Pearl’s phone number! I’ll write it down and stick it with their water jugs to give them in the morning.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010 Warderick Wells
Warderick Wells, Exumas Park North Anchorage
24*23.814 076*37.943
Stayed on the boat all day. The winds are wicked and we keep swinging around on the mooring ball. It doesn’t seem to matter which direction the wheel is stationed at – we keep going over the mooring ball and whipping around when the wind and tide are at opposition. I have to wonder about the configuration of the hull? What makes us swing about when the other boats seem to hold in a single position? There’s a double ender 3 boats down that seems to swing about quite a bit too.
I finished reading “The Time Travelers Wife”. What an incredibly good book. Needless to say I was sobbing at the end… Hate when that happens, but it was a good book… I wonder if the movie is as good? Wayne’s reading “Journeyer” about Marco Polo. I’m watching the clouds roll in. They’re big puffy, black-bottomed clouds that remind me of snow clouds. Is it possible to have a snowstorm here? Nahhhh… But it is making the sky get dark pretty quickly. A few days ago we thought we might be leaving today. Now it looks iffffy for tomorrow too. Time to put dinner on – salmon, coleslaw, oranges and homemade bread.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 Warderick Wells
Warderick Wells, Exuma Park North Anchorage
24*23.814 076*37.943
I’m sitting on the porch of the park headquarters, with Mary, Axel and Wayne; contemplating the events that are unfolding back at home. It’s been a strange winter. I watch a large ray leap out of the water to soar upward and then back into the water. I’ve never seen such a thing before. What a majestic creature. The only time I’ve ever seen these large sea creatures is floating gently along the sea bottom. This one is about seven foot long. At first I think it might be a small whale as it breaks the surface of the water, soaring up into the air. It’s white underside visible to me, then its long, rapier tail. As it starts its descent back toward the water, I can see it’s dark angular back – the part I normally see patrolling the seabed. Then all that’s visible is the ripples of the strong tidal current, and it’s gone. It was as if it had never happened. Only my loud “Oh my God” as Mary, Axel and Wayne look in the direction that my finger points to. A fraction of a minute caught in my mind, but lost from their sight. One I can still visualize and recall with certain clarity.
Some of the instances I go through, I wish I could hold for a few moments longer. I know that I can’t. But moments like this, especially when you’re with others, you just want to share… then it’s gone and you can’t. It’s only a moment. Your moment. The ray’s moment. I wonder what he was hunting below the surface of the water? Or, what was hunting the ray? Did he catch his prey? Did he escape?
Moments in time,
etched in my mind, lost to the cameras eye.
A moment sublime,
a gasp and a sigh,
then quickly it’s gone,
a goodbye.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Monday, March 01, 2010 Warderick Wells
Warderick Wells, Exuma Park North Anchorage
24*23.814 076*37.943
There was a definite cool breeze wafting through the boat this morning. After a couple cups of hot coffee I decided it was an oatmeal type morning so made some with vanilla, cinnamon, brown sugar and raisins. Then separated the bread dough into 3 loaves to rise during the day, got my recipe, bread starter, spare bread pan and thumb drive with pictures to take over to Azaya and left Wayne on Kolibrie to change the oil and filters.
Axel showed me the program that Scott brought over and it’s awesome. It has charts for the global system. We loaded my pictures for Azaya onto Mary’s computer and uploaded pictures they took of us back onto my thumb drive. This morning the bananaquits were visiting Mary and eating out of her hand. I love those little birds. They’re so little, but fearless.
I came back to the boat & made lunch. After lunch, Mary & Axel came by to see if we wanted to go kayaking. Wayne wanted to stay on board and work on some Sudoko puzzles but I decided that I’d try my hand at kayaking. I must say that I was a bit apprehensive but Axel & Mary both assured me there was nothing to it and the kayak wouldn’t tip. They were right! They were also patient with me and I really enjoyed the lesson in the big ocean going kayak (an Aire) and in the little one that the park let’s you use. We circumnavigated the anchorage basin, and then I tried the little green kayak. Axel warned me I’d get wet, it’s a wet kayak, and he was right. The minute I sat in it my skort got soaked and it looked like I peed all over the backside! It was a cold shock to the tush. It’s a good upper body exercise and a terrific way to snug up to the coral. I like how you’re close to the water and how close to the bottom you can actually be and still be paddling along. We stopped over at Turn About beach and went by the Ranger’s headquarters where there were some pretty fan corals and a parrot fish by one of the smaller reefs. We drifter over the reefs looking down at the fans and corals. I had an excellent time and think that I’d really like a kayak! Easier to get around in than the dinghy with a motor. I could definitely see where it’d be a plus to have one.
After they dropped me back by the boat, I made dinner (a turkey and noodle concoction with green beans) and put my bread in to bake. Fresh bread and warmth in the cabin too! Teatime now and a little reading before bed. The sunset tonight was spectacular. It looked like the sky was aflame in deep red tones that my camera just can’t seem to capture - Another feast of colors for my eyes!
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