Crossing the Gulf Stream: From the US to the Bahamas
Some of you may remember how I waxed poetic on previous
crossings. I talked about the blueness, the power, the beauty and the depth of
the ocean; I talked about the magnificence of the Gulf Stream; I talked about
many a thing. This time, though, not so much. The waves were forecast to be 2-3
feet in the morning, then 2-4 with an occasional 5 footer in the afternoon.
Although we weren’t afraid of 2 -4 foot seas we left early in the morning so we
could get more of the 2-3 footers than the 2-4 footers. Well, folks I am here to tell you that we
couldn’t see the two, three or four footers because of all the 5+footers!!!!
AND they were head-on. That meant that every six foot wave lifts the bow of the
boat six feet in the air just in time to drop it into the trough and run
straight into another six-footer. Bang!
Bang! Man that was rough. Oh! Since I am doing sound effects I forgot the
squeeeel of the bilge
alarm telling me that the bilge pump was pumping all that water overboard. (I
like the pump part, just not the screeching part.)
Now you shouldn’t get the impression that we were in any
danger or felt threatened. My whole crew (Ann) spent much of the crossing in
the saloon splitting her time between reading and sleeping. I guess she just
inherited her grandfather’s nautical disposition.
Anyway, I tried all the tricks I knew to reduce the impact
of the waves. I “tacked” at up to 30 degrees (meaning we zig-zagged 30 degrees
off course northward, then 30 degrees off course southward. The net effect
should have been to reduce the impact of the waves and still get us where we
wanted to go – though much more slowly). I also reduced speed just before we
were to hit a wave. I was trying to make it so we weren’t driving ourselves
into the next wave, but were just falling into it. None of this worked very
well. The only thing that worked was time. We eventually ran out of the Gulf
Stream and made it to West End. “Whew!” as they say, “what a ride!”
Our time at West End (one night) wasn’t very eventful. We
did go to the restaurant for the first time. We both had cracked conch and
enjoyed it. There did seem to be fewer boats at the marina than had been there in
our previous visits. I think the dockage fees were a little less than the first
time we were there, but the cost of water and electric seem to have gone up. Oh
well.
Great Sale Cay
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| Some of the boats near us at Great Sale Cay. |
In contrast to our crossing of the day before, the water on
the Little Bahama Bank was wonderful. There might have been one foot waves, but
we didn’t notice them. We just put the boat on auto pilot and kept track of
where we were. At about 1600 we arrived at Great Sale Cay – a wonderful
anchorage we have used every time we traverse the bank. We dropped the anchor
(using Big Bertha, the new 110 pound anchor that Ann named, for the first time), opened up the liquor
cabinet and talked about the northern Abacos islands we would explore over the
next several days. Then it happened. The generator conked out.
Now imagine. You have had almost the perfect boating day;
tomorrow you were going to explore some cool islands that are off the beaten
path – and maybe catch your first lobster; you had just eaten dinner and were
completely relaxed. Then, the one system for which you have no back up fails.
For most of the systems on the boat we have either redundant systems or work-arounds that will keep us up and running for a few days. Not so for the
generator. If the generator fails, we have no way to recharge the inverter
batteries. If we can’t recharge the inverter batteries we can’t run the
refrigerator. If we can’t run the refrigerator, we stand to lose a lot of
provisions that we have accumulated over time. I was … how can I put this
delicately … royally pissed off. If I would have had a gun, I would have shot
this boat and been done with it. (Now I know why boats and firearms don’t go
together.) Anyway, now we had to change our plans. We had enough of a charge to
make it to Green Turtle Cay the following day. There, they would have a
mechanic, we were sure, who could either fix our generator or help me throw it
overboard.
Green Turtle Cay
We made it to Green Turtle Cay and made it to another
near-empty marina. It was a Saturday, of course, and we were concerned that we
would have to wait to Monday to have someone look at the generator so we called
ahead and the marina assured us that someone named Cameron would be there and ready to work
on the generator. He got there about an hour after we did and worked on it for
an hour or so. He couldn’t solve the problem. He was almost as frustrated as I
was and was very apologetic, but it still wasn’t fixed. He said he would go
straight to his car and call a friend of his who would know what to do. We
hadn’t heard anything from Cameron by 1000 the following day so we called him back and
asked him if his friend was coming, He told us that he was in the States but
would be back in Green Turtle later that day. Meanwhile, Ann had searched for a
Westerbeke generator distributor in the Bahamas and – lo and behold – there was
one in Green Turtle Cay. (Westerbeke is the brand name of our generator.) It
was Sunday, of course, and no one was there, but we had a lead for Monday morning
in case we didn’t hear from Cameron’s friend.
On Monday, we finally connected with the Westerbeke
distributor who told us we should call their technician, George. It turns out
that Cameron’s friend’s name was also George. (In case you hadn’t guessed, it
is a small island.) George said he would be out later that day, so, even though
we had been invited to a party, we stayed on the boat waiting. He didn’t show.
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| The generator wasn't the only thing that went wrong. We also sprang a leak in our fresh water system. But we have become experts in fixing leaks. Here is Ann deeply involved in making our water flow again! |
On Monday, while we were waiting for George, we reconnected
with Jeff and Debbie aboard SeaSparrow,
who we had initially met at Marineland, later at Vero Beach and then again at North Palm Beach. The
reason they were in North Palm, was to take their dog to a vet and get some
medicine for what seemed like a lung infection that wouldn’t go away. It is a
very long sad story, but on their way across they learned that their dog didn’t
have a lung infection, she had advanced lung cancer, was in pain, and wouldn’t
make it very long. So, they changed their trip plans and headed to Green Turtle
Cay. There was nothing any vet could do so they had to put their dog down. The
only good part about their story is that they met many good people in Marsh
Harbor and in Greet Turtle that helped them along the way.
On Tuesday we got a call from the elusive George who said he
would be there in 15 – 20 minutes. Believe it or not, he actually showed up and,
Cameron’s failed efforts notwithstanding, promptly fixed our generator – or at
least kind of fixed it. (More on this later.) As soon as George was off the
boat, we cranked her up and headed to Treasure Cay so we could anchor, use the
generator, and visit one of our favorite spots in the Bahamas. Or so we
thought.
As we passed through Whale Passage, though, the boat
suddenly started a slow vibration. I had felt this kind of vibration before –
nearly two years ago when we had picked up a tarp in our propeller. When it
happened before, we had to go to a marina and hire a diver who cut it off. This
time, we continued on our way to Treasure Cay – albeit more slowly – and
anchored once we got there. I then donned my mask and snorkel and went
overboard. Sure enough, there was a huge tangle of rope around our starboard
propeller. It took a while, but after several dives and several cuts I finally
managed to get the rope off.
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| A turtle near the boat at Treasure Cay. I took three pictures; this is the best |
For the balance of Tuesday and all day Wednesday we lazed
around Treasure Cay. On Thursday morning we headed out for Tahiti Beach.
Although we had heard about Tahiti Beach, we had not yet been there. No sooner
had we arrived and dropped our anchor (Ann is getting better and better at
handling Bertha) than the wind picked up from about 5 MPH to a good 25 MPH. We
decided that we really didn’t want to stay in this kind of wind and seas, so we
decided to head out to Marsh Harbor and drop the anchor again. Although the
winds kept up in the Harbor, the seas weren’t much at all.
Next time we’ll tell you about Hopetown and our preparations
in Marsh Harbor for Trent, Maddy, Nik, Dave
and Lisa.
ANN’S NOTES: Well it
has been an interesting several weeks. We have mostly enjoyed ourselves except
for that BIG piece of equipment that is called a generator and seems to have a
mind of its own. I am sure someone that lives on these island can fix this
monster…heaven knows several have already tried.
We have met some wonderful new cruisers and that is so much
fun for me. We linked up with Jeff and Debbie on SeaSparrow once before. We first met them in Marineland on the
dock, then really got to know them in Vero Beach at Thanksgiving when they sat
with Lori and Russ and us. They really are a wonderful couple, from Halifax
Canada and so funny. We just all `clicked`. The story on their dog is so sad
but also very sweet. Stella was a two-and-a-half year old pure bread golden retriever.
She was sick, but was able to pass all the vet exams and get her papers to
travel to the Bahamas. She was a real boat dog in that she loved chasing the fresh
water from the hose on the deck of the boat. On the way over to the Bahamas, they
got a call from the vet, who said that Stella had advanced lung cancer, very
rare for a dog so young. They went to the closest island to figure out what to
do. This is when the universe stepped up with all the kindness she could
find. Jeff and Debbie had not even
cleared customs yet, they just wanted to get Stella to a vet for help. While
Jeff was looking for a place to land the dinghy at the Government Dock in Green
Turtle Cay, he overshot the dock and was turning around when he ran out of gas.
A woman in a golf cart (that is mainly what is used for transportation on this
island) was watching. He was trying to row his heavy center console dinghy
against the wind and current. He made it to the dock and explained what was
happening with Stella and what he needed to get to a vet ASAP. The lady and her
husband took over from there.
He explained they had not cleared customs and they told him
they would help them with all that. The couple picked up Debbie and Stella from
SeaSparrow and took them to Marsh
Harbor on their boat, helped them clear customs and waited for them while at
the Vet office. It turns out this couple are very active in the animal rescue
association on the islands. The vet in Marsh Harbor only confirmed the sad news
and at the request of Jeff and Debbie put Stella to sleep. The couple suggested
to Debbie and Jeff that they might want to bring Stella back to Green Turtle because
Marsh Harbor really does not have a kind way to dispose of their animals. Stella
was brought back to Green Turtle, the couple had a place to bury her and helped
dig her grave and placed her in it. Nothing was asked of Jeff and Debbie, the
kindness of these people and their love of animals was very clear. Jeff and
Debbie gave them twenty pounds of food, flea and tick collars and all the
medicines they had from the Vets. I just had to tell this sad and sweet story
because sometimes we forget that people are kind and loving and do want to help
strangers.
While in Green Turtle Cay we also meet another couple, Kathy
and Martin, on a sailboat Autumn Sun.
They joined us for a drink while we were having dinner on the terrace at the
Bluff House Marina. Another funny wonderful couple that I look forward to
meeting again.` Down Island `as they say in the Bahamas.
Traveling Soul….OUT
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