Bike Ride

Hi all,
It's Sunday and the wind has finally started to subside. Thank goodness!

Several boats left the harbour this morning but we're going to wait until tomorrow. We're going over to Hope Town to spend a few days.

We took our fold up bikes to shore today to explore the island a bit more. Friday we rode them out to the Marsh Harbour International Airport to get tickets to and from Nassau for our flights back to the US in a couple of weeks. Man, were my legs burning. Today we rode in the other direction just to look around. We stopped at a small beach alongside the road and had a picnic lunch where we were visited by Zoey, a local girl of about 5 that was very cute and very talkative. Once another girl about her age arrived she was off to make new friends and we were left like yesterday's news. 

As we were finishing our lunch several bus loads of people arrived. The beach was the location for today's baptism of two Haitian girls- wade out into the water and be fully immersed baptisms. It reminded me of my good friend T Moore's baptism at Lake Bardwell, a lake he and I have skied on a multitude of times. Some of today's service was in Creole so we didn't get much but we did stay to watch and congratulate the girls as they dried off.

Our latest new friends; Richie and Jane from Vancouver on Panthera. We had them over for a sundowner the other evening and have run into them several times in town. We got off to a great start when Susan spilled the pitcher of gin and tonic they had brought to drink. Oops, party foul.

That's it for now. I'll leave you with a couple of picture of the beach today. The pictures just don't do the water justice.

Take care.
Brian

Howling

This post is titled howling not because it is a full moon but because the wind has been howling for several days. I think it started Sunday and it's not supposed to let up until this coming Sunday, night. The one word that will sum up our time here in Marsh Harbour so far is "howling".

The forecast is for winds between 20 and 30 kts. Last night I turned on the instruments to check and it was blowing between 26 and 30. And it never lets up. It blows just as hard during the night as it does during the day. Going anywhere in the dinghy always involves getting wet with the wind and waves.

But there are a few other things to report. Last night we joined several other couples on Satori for a sundowner. Due to the aforementioned wind we didn't actually get to see the sunset because we were all below deck. Besides ourselves and previously introduced Sargo, we met the folks on Jubilee and Satori. We had a nice time and enjoyed meeting everyone.

This afternoon we went ashore and had Thanksgiving dinner at Wally's. It was a great dinner; turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, candied yams, dressing, vegetables and a piece of pumpkin pie. All very good, but a bit odd to have Thanksgiving without family but with temperatures in the 70's and watching the palm trees sway. For sunset we want back ashore and met John and Shelly on Planet Waves for a beer and to watch a bit of the Cowboys game at Snappa's.

All along I've said it's the people that have made this trip so enjoyable and it still is. Common practice is to take a dinghy ride over to a boat anchored near you, knock on the hull and introduce yourself. Invariably an invitation is extended to have a sundowner on your boat or their boat. From there new friends are made and the entire experience is enhanced.

A post wouldn't be complete without a comment about bread. We found a bakery and bought a loaf of coconut bread. Oh my. It was half gone before we made it back to the boat. The next day we finished it off. Another trip there is on the agenda for tomorrow.

We have gotten a few things done on the boat over the last couple of days. We made a new anchor snubber, seems everyone here has longer ones made as bridles. In this wind it seemed like a good idea so now we have one too. We also used some more of the fire hose (thank you, Allen) to make chaff guards for the snubber as it rubs against the rub rail.

That's it for now. We hope y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Take care.
Brian

As promised, pictures from today

Hi All,
 Even though the wind was blowing between 20 and 25 kts today we motored out of Marsh Harbour for a couple of hours to run the water maker. Here is a picture of a house on shore just as we re-entered Marsh Harbour.

Here is a picture of the marinas in Marsh Harbour and some boats at anchor.

Here are a couple of boats that are anchored near us. Not modern looking fiberglass boats.

Here is the aluminum boat Sargo with our new friends John and Laurie. This is their second or third sailing adventure having already crossed the Atlantic in their previous boat with their then young children to sail the Mediterranean.

And finally, a few pictures of tonight's sunset. Goodnight Soli!

That's all for now. Take care.
Brian

Marsh Harbour, The Abacos

Hi All,

We kept waiting for the weather window and finally got one Friday night. We left off the east side of Great Harbour Cay about 4:30 pm and motored all night around the south end and then up the east coast of Great Abaco. It didn't take us as long as we thought so we got to the channel before sunrise. The North Bar Channel enters the Sea of Abaco about at the midpoint. The wind and swells were coming from the east and the tide was going out (moving west) so we hung out in the Atlantic doing circles for a couple of hours waiting for better conditions in the channel before entering.

About 9:00 am we entered the Sea of Abaco and meandered our way north. I say "meander" because a good portion of the Sea of Abaco is too shallow for us. Having already run aground more on this trip than I'd like, we took the long way to Marsh Harbour. We dropped anchor a bit after noon. After a quick bite to eat it was time for a nap.

I know I've said this before but we are still looking for something about overnight passages that we could label as fun. I don't think it exists. At least on this trip we did pass several cruise ships at night. When I'd see a floating city coming our way I'd check the AIS info on them. Some boat lengths are shown in feet, some are shown in meters. The cruise ships are shown in nautical miles. The Oasis of the Sea is .194 nautical miles long. In other words, get out of their way! Sail boats have the right of way on the water, but don't confuse that to mean they have to get out of our way. Tonnage wins.

Now we're in Marsh Harbour and will be staying here for a while. We'll be doing day trips and that to sail around but we'll call this our base through the end of the year at least. Today we went walking on shore and found they have a grocery store here that is unlike anything we've seen since we left the US. They have fresh produce, meats, a deli and a gluten free section. The ice cream aisle has Haagen Dazs, Bryers and Blue Bunny along with many others. Are you sure we're in the Bahamas?

The wind and rain is coming so I'll wrap this up for now. I PROMISE I'll try to take some pictures this week and post them.

Take care.

Brian

Monday, November 16

Another windy day. Chris Parker said the winds would ease a bit today but be back up tomorrow. Actually, what he said was, "if you think today is bad, wait until tomorrow."  We can tell the winds are a little less today than yesterday. A little.

Another day for taking care of maintenance on the boat. We replaced the intake water hoses for the air conditioning and refrigerator pumps. In addition we completely removed the sea strainer housings and cleanded them to get rid of all the barnacles that had taken up residence there. We also put a back flow preventer in the bilge hose.  Susan made use of her new Sailrite sewing machine and adjusted a zipper on one of the cockpit side curtains and did a little work on the screen that she made for the companionway. The screen has done a great job of keeping bugs out from below deck at night.

From Chris' forecast it looks like we'll be here until Thursday or Friday before heading to the Abacos. But the alarm goes off at 6:30 every morning so we can listen to the latest forecast for the Bahamas. We'll see what tomorrow's forecast brings.

Tonight we had some of the tuna we caught. Susan didn't care for it because it was rare but I thought it was very good. Next time I need to clean it differently as the blood line was still in it and that part isn't as fresh tasting as the rest.

Brian

Sunday, November 15

The wind is up. We're in a very protected harbour and the wind is blowing 15 - 20 kts, gusting to 25. There are no waves to speak of because we are tucked up close to shore but the boat is swinging back and forth on her anchor. We put out another 25 feet of anchor chain just to be safe. We're the only boat around so no worries about swinging into someone else. We do have an anchor alarm set but it has been silent. The purchase of our Rocna anchor was well worth the money, it makes it possible to sleep at night in a blow like this.

Not a particularly good day to be out and about so we spent several hours changing the oil and filters in both the engine and the generator. This job is not difficult and it's one I've done on a car countless times. But this is a boat. There just isn't room to move around and get to everything without being a contortionist. And why the engine manufacturers mount oil fliters horizontally I'll never understand. It's impossible to remove the filter without oil running everywhere.  Remember, the engines are in the middle of our house. Just for fun, next time you're going to change the oil in your car drive it into your living room and change the oil there.

A change of plans. Not that we have many plans. We've decided that rather than head south to the Exumas and Georgetown we're going to head north to the Abacos. We may well make it to the Exumas yet this winter as there is a land and sea park there that is supposed to be amazing.

The winter weather pattern here in the Bahamas is for a cold front to show up about once a week. There will be three or four days of very windy conditions followed by three or four days of calmer winds. And then the next cold front approaches and the winds are back up again for three or four days. In the nice days you need to get where you want to be for the three or four days when the wind is up. At least so far, the aforementioned cold fronts are not cold. My guess is it has been a very pleasant 75 but with high winds which can make it a bit chilly in the evening. But it also keeps the mosquitos and noseeums away.

Tonight we had our third meal of mahi mahi. We've only eaten half of what we caught but eathing the rest will not be a problem. Susan has prepared it three different ways and each has been great.

Brian

Saturday, November 14

Another trip to shore to find some of that wonderful home made bread that it seems you can find on every inhabited island. Here it is at Cooliemae's. They don't open until noon so we sat outside and used their wifi for a bit until a girl came out and asked if we wanted anything. We put our order in for a loaf of bread and she said it wouldn't be until later in the day but we were welcome to sit and use their wifi. BTC had been down for right at 24 hours. How would folks in the US, UK or Europe cope with that? Not as well as the people in the Bahamas do I assure you. Before we left the girl at Cooliemae's found a loaf of bread for us. Not quite as sweet as what we got on Bimini but it was still wonderful. It does not get sliced and there is no real reason to put butter on it. Just pull off a chunk and eat it.

By afternoon you could tell the weather was about to change, clouds were getting thicker and the wind was picking up. The forecasted cold front was drawing near.

Brian

Friday, November 13

We went ashore and walked around, looking for the grocery store and the beach. The grocery store was only a five minute walk from where we tied up the dinghy but we didn't want to do our shopping until after we had been to the beach. We walked down this street, then down that street, then back the other way. We did a lot of walking.  We were just about to give up when a man went by in his car, stopped and then backed up and asked us if we needed help. He was a nice guy.  He told us how to get to the beach and asked if we'd like a ride. We accepted. We never would have made it. Not because it was too far, because we were going the wrong way. He dropped us right by the beach and told us where to find the Beach Club.

 We swam some and then walked down to the Beach Club. It isn't what you're imagining. More of a small beach bar that also did some food. We had a drink and shared some cracked conch for lunch. Yummy! It was either some of the best we'd ever had or we were really hungry from all of our walking around. Maybe both. We were going to use their wifi to check email but Bahama Telephone Company (BTC) was down. All their services- cell phones and internet. There is only one tower on the island so the service for the entire island was down. We sat there quite a while enjoying the view, wishing we had stayed anchored there a day or two longer. The cold front hadn't yet arrived and it was beautiful there.  No taxis on this island but they do have people that will take you around, a bit like uber. But because BTC was down there was no way for our waitress to call anyone. So we sat. It wasn't really a problem. At some point we would have to walk back but before that time came the waitress said her uncle, who had come to get something to eat, would take us to the grocery store.
Quinton was friendly and talkative. He took us back a different (and much shorter) way than we had come. Our fault, not the guy that drove us to the beaches's fault. He deposited us at the grocery store and said he'd accept a Guinness as his payment so he and I went into the bar next door and I bought him one.

Susan was done at the grocery store, $37 later. Our friend Kelly had told Susan that when you are shopping in the Bahamas don't look at the prices of anything.  If you do, you'll walk out with nothing. It's going to be expensive, get used to it. A bunch of grapes were $8, a bag of romaine lettuce was $6, a half gallon of strawberry banana orange juice was $8.75. All those prices come to you from looking AFTER we were back on the boat.

Brian

Thursday, November 12

Another early morning to listen to Chris. A cold front is on its way and will give us high winds and rain for several days. We decided to move around to Great Harbor Cay where there is a lot more protection from wind and waves. The winds are not forecast to be here until Friday night or Saturday but we decided to be chicken and head for cover early and beat the rush. So that's where we are now. 

The beach at Petit Cay is just across the island so hopefully we can walk to it during our stay as there is no beach here. But there are some mangroves so we'll see if our fishing luck is still holding out. We toured the harbour some in the dinghy. Not much at the marina but we did find a place to tie the dinghy up so we could go ashore closer to town.

Wednesday, November 11

Once again listened to Chris Parker before heading off. TS Kate was out of the picture. Soon after departing we were off the Great Bahama Bank and were in water over 1,000 feet deep. Our fishing lines went back over the side. We picked up a hitchhiker somewhere along the way, a sparrow. How it got that far from land I'll never know. He made himself at home above and below deck while we motorsailed almost due east. There was enough wind to help us sail a little, but not enough to turn off the engine.

In the early afternoon both fishing reels started singing at the same time. We slowed down an reeled them both in. Two Mahi Mahi! We brought the biggest one, about 20 pounds is my guess, aboard first and kept the other in the water. Once he was filleted we brought the other one on board. Unfortunately he spit the hook out lying on the cockpit floor and slid back into the water before I could gaff him. Oh well, we still had enough mahi mahi for several meals. We put the lines back out and a little later thought one had caught some seaweed so we reeled it in only to find a small black fin tuna on it. Cleaned and cut him into steaks. As we got close to the Berry Islands we got back in shallow water and our time fishing was marked as over as we caught another barracuda.

We passed Big Stirrup and Little Stirrup Cays, the northern most islands in the Berrys.  Eeach is owned by a cruise line- one by Norwegian and the other by Royal Caribbean. After passing the two cruise ships anchored there we turned south and tucked up under Petit Cay for the night.  There is a great beach here on Great Harbor Cay (always pronounced "key") and were treated to quite a show by 20 dolphin / porpoise playing all around us. There appeared to be quite a few adolescents in the group and one baby about two feet long that never left its momma's side. I tried to take pictures but never caught them. Besides the baby the highlight of the show was one dolphin that jumped out of the water and did a flip before going back in. We thought we were at Sea World. Not sure where our hitchhiker jumped ship but he was no longer with us when we anchored.

Brian

Tuesday, November 10

Got up at 6:30 to listen to Chris Parker to confirm that today was the day to go. It was. Wind was light and variable all day. We motored all day and dropped anchor north of Mackie Shoal. We did some trolling and proved what we had been told- on the Great Bahama Bank you won't catch anything but barracuda when you're trolling. Caught a two foot one and  a four foot one. What a fight that was getting him in the boat. Forty miles from the nearest land it is very quiet and there are many thousands of stars in the sky.  It was odd to drop our anchor in what felt like the middle of the ocean, nothing for miles around.  But the water was only 23 feet deep. It was another calm night. We laid up on deck and marveled at the stars for an hour or so.  I counted eight falling stars. No bugs!

Brian

Monday, November 9

We've been offline for quite a while so I'm going to make separate posts for each day. Some are pretty short, like this one, and some are may usual long winded self.

Left the Bimini Blue Water Marina in the afternoon and motored up to the north end of North Bimini to stage for the next day. That night we put a few well placed screws in the bulkhead and have eliminated most of the creaking. Ahh, a blissful and quiet night's sleep.

Brian

While in Bimini

Hi All,
We're still in Bimini, waiting for better weather. The weather here has been great but our next passage will be two days with anchoring on the Great Bahama Bank for the night. We'll be out with no land to protect us from wind or waves so we're being picky and hoping to find a time where we can get a nice calm night. It is soooo nice to not be in a hurry and not on a schedule.

Our first night here we were anchored on the west side of North Bimini. We did the same the second night but didn't get much sleep that night. The wind was out of the East while the swells (waves) were out of the north. Even though the swells weren't more than 2 feet we were rolling all night. The truth is the rolling wasn't the problem, the problem was all the creaking we heard all night from the rolling. I tried to find the source and though I narrowed it down to the bulkhead between the salon and forward cabin, I could never fix it. So now we're at the Bimini Blue Water Marina in a slip. The marina is on the East side of the island and protected from the swells. Much better sleeping.

If you've ever been to the Bahamas you may know about the bread here. Wow is all I can say, wow! A short walk from the marina is "A Taste of Heaven and Take Away". The lady there does know how to bake some bread. Yum! Our first full day here Susan, Allen and I walked by and bought a loaf of bread. It didn't make it back to the boat. We pulled off hunks of it and ate it while we explored. Later in the week Susan and I went back by there and I can now report that the Guava Cinnamon Roll is outstanding as well.

Bimini is an interesting place. It is definitely a much slower paced life here. Some of the people have been very nice yet others are far from friendly. When I was walking around looking for the Customs office when we first arrived I saw a sign that read "Say Please. Say Thank You." It is obvious some effort is being made to get the people to be friendlier but you can't help but feel some of the people are not glad to see you. The first lady I spoke to at Customs was this way and I think somehow my attempts to be friendly and talkative put us on the list of boats that must be boarded in order to clear customs. I've talked to many others that have never been boarded when clearing in here yet she told me that all boats must be boarded. Maybe it's just my beard and shaggy hair. I must admit I do look a bit like Ted Kaczynski.

Where next? The next stop, after anchoring overnight on the bank, are the Berry Islands. Our departure date was originally going to be Sunday. Then Monday. Now Tuesday. THE weather guru in these parts is Chris Parker,and we've subscribed  to his service. When I talked to him this evening he said he would feel better if we stayed in Bimini through tomorrow and then headed to the Berrys on Tuesday. So we are...      going to do exactly what he says. If you watch the weather as closely as we do you know there is a tropical low that has moved up into the Southeast Bahamas and there is a good chance it will develop into a tropical storm. It isn't coming anywhere near us and we aren't going anywhere near it.

Two quick updates. I FINALLY got the AIS working again. I had to splice the cable when I installed it and one of the splices had come loose. Today we went fishing and though Susan caught more fish than I did, we caught the same number of edible fish. I think mine was bigger than hers. :-)

That's all for now. Take care.
Brian

Bimini!

We've made it to Bimini!

It was a long night and a bit rougher than we had hoped but nobody got sick. The Gulf Stream treated us well but didn't push us North as much as we anticipated. We motored most of the way (took about 20 hours) but were able to sail the last 2 or 3 hours.

Customs started off a bit rough but that smoothed out and we got checked in and were able to drop our yellow quarantine flag and put up the flag of Bahamas on the flag halyard. We got here Tuesday morning and Wednesday Allen flew back to the US. It was fun and very helpful to have him along. Thanks again Allen! I think he really wanted to stay. Who wouldn't? The water is gorgeous.

We're getting phones and wifi figured out so this will be short but I will add a couple of pictures for your viewing pleasure. More to come.

Take care.
Brian

We are away!

Or is that aweigh? No AIS but doing fine. Not as many crab pots on this side. Oops, spoke too soon.

Brian

TIme to go

Hi All-
We've been in Marathon for a couple of days now, got here Friday and now it's Monday. This is the jumping off point to head to Bimini in the Bahamas.

I signed up for weather routing with Chris Parker, THE weather expert in these parts. I talked with him on Saturday morning and based on that conversation we decided to postpone our departure until Monday, today! I'll give Chris a call again this morning to makes sure it all looks good and if it is I expect to be letting go of the mooring ball about 3:00 this afternoon. Recommendations have been to leave early enough to have daylight until we're passed the reef and all those dang crab pots! I so hoped we were done with them.

While we were here in Marathon we got quite a bit of stuff done. Besides a provision run to Publix (grocery store), we've been to West Marine and Home Depot. Can't be on land and not got to West Marine and Home Depot.

We had a list of stuff for Allen to do while he's with us and he's been knocking things off the list pretty well. He and I finished up the last few connections on the water maker and we are now making fresh drinking water out of sea water! And it tastes good, as much as water tastes. There was one leak in one of the high pressure hose connections I put together. Once that was fixed we were done! Yeehaa!

Allen built us a new table in the cockpit that we've wanted for some time. And I was starting to have some cooling issues on the dinghy outboard but those are sorted out now. He cleaned the cockpit and put some back rests on the aft seats. All that and kept a sharp eye out for crab pots. It's been fun having him here and very productive as well. There's a chance we may have him up the mast in a boysun's chair later this morning.

Unless Chris Parker's forecast changes when I talk to him in a couple of hours we'll let go of the mooring ball at around 3:00, stop to fill up with fuel and water and then head out. Depending on how much of a push we get from the Gulf Stream we are expecting the passage to take about 20 hours.

Did I mention Fantasy Fest? Since our departure was delayed a few days and we had some time we took the bus down to Key West on Saturday (Halloween) and went to Fantasy Fest. That was quite an experience.

We have some pictures (not of Fantasy Fest) to share but I'll do that later as it's getting hectic as we're preparing to leave. One bit of good news. As I was typing this Susan called an electronics guy here in Marathon and he gave us what's wrong with the AIS. And I know exactly what to do to fix it! I feel a lot better about being out on the open ocean at night with it working.

Once in the Bahamas I'm not sure what kind of voice or data connections we're going to have so it may be a while before I post again.

Take care.
Brian

Crab Pots

Hi All-
From Ft Myers Beach all the way to Marathon, the thought for the day is "crab pots". They are everywhere. From Ft Meyers Beach to Naples, our first stop, there were quite a few we had to dodge. The main issue was the wind and waves, we had more than enough of both. It was some of the roughest water we'd been in. We stayed in Naples for one night and then had a little bit of excitement the next morning when we were leaving. The inlet in and out of Naples is pretty well marked. Unfortunately there is one marker missing and that one is rather important. We had the tide behind us and were moving at a pretty good clip when the water went from 15 feet to 6 feet and we hit bottom, hard. The wind was creating some decent waves in the inlet where the water was going one direction and the wind another. I lost count of how many times we hit the bottom but I cringed every time. We eventually got off the shoal and were on our way with no further excitement. What a difference a day makes. Almost no wind and calm seas after an uncomfortable trip the previous day. No excitement with the exception of thousands of crab pots to dodge.

The next night we anchored just inside Little Shark River in the Everglades. It was beautiful there and we met Ed and Maureen on Manatee that had been on a mooring ball close to us in Ft Myers Beach. It was nice sitting in the cockpit talking with them until about sunset when the bugs came out. The mosquitoes were bad but the noseeums were worse. We all scattered to get below in our perspective boats. The sky was gorgeous that night, seen through screens in the hatches.

The next day was from Little Shark River to Marathon. Somewhere shortly after we left Little Shark River the AIS stopped working. I'm still trying to figure out what's wrong with it. It has to be a cable problem but so far the cable checks out fine. Hope to get that going again soon but it doesn't look like we'll have it for crossing the Gulf Stream to Bimini. More crab pots. We just thought we'd seen a lot in the two previous days. It was about a 7 hour trip and we spent the entire time zigging and zagging to avoid crab pots. No exaggeration, I could sit down for about 10 to 15 seconds and then have to stand up for 10 to 15 minutes threading our way through the pots. Then I could sit down for a few seconds before I was up again. Allen was standing in the aft seats built into the dinghy davits and was calling out everything he saw to make sure I saw them too. Fortunately the water was smooth which made it easier to see the floats.

Getting to Marathon City Marina from the Gulf side requires either going all the way around Key West or going under the Seven Mile Bridge. Reports said the bridge height may not be correct. The charts say there is a clearance of 63'. Our mast is 63' with a VHF antennae on top that adds another 12 - 18". We went through a couple of hours after high tide and the boards on the bridge showed the clearance to be 66'. I'm not sure I believe that as it appeared we had only two or three inches to spare above the antennae.

But we made it and then motored on into Boot Key Harbor and picked up a mooring ball at the City Marina. That's all for this post so as to not make it too long. Next post I'll cover our time in Marathon.

Take care.
Brian