When we left you we had just arrived in West Palm Beach
Florida and were thankful for finally being in the land of sun and sea. For
those of you who don’t know, it gets cold up north. I know Virginia isn’t too
far north, but it is north enough for me! We know because over the holidays we
went back to northern VA to visit family and friends to make what are becoming the never-ending
doctor’s appointments. We had a lot of
fun with family and friends (not so much with the doctors) and got lots of very
nice Christmas and (for me) birthday presents. Probably the best was the
Christmas present Ann gave to me, an oil painting of our boat, done by one of
my West Point classmates, John Everett. Ann learned on Facebook that John is a
hell of an artist – who’d a thunk it – and asked him to paint Traveling Soul. Thanks, Ann and thank
you John. It is a wonderful painting. But now, Christmas is over and it’s time
to focus on the future.
Although we may have to make some health adjustments (this
damn foot infection just won’t go away), right now our intentions are to head
for the Bahamas, host my mom and sister on Traveling
Soul – and everybody else who wants to come visit us – and stay in the
Bahamas until mid-April. Before we take off on this adventure, though, we have
to make preparations. That includes provisioning, repairs and a few
improvements. So, that is what I am going to talk about in this entry. At the
conclusion of this entry I will also talk about how we will handle the blog in
the future.
Provisioning
Ann came back to Traveling
Soul on 9 January, a few days before I did, because she needed to start
provisioning even while I had to see the doctor. She hit the ground running.
Most of you know, or could probably figure out, that we eat pretty well on the
boat – mostly because Ann is a wonderful cook. Well, to cook on the boat we
need to have ingredients. One thing we learned last year is that, in the major
towns and cities, the big Bahamian grocery stores will have just about anything
you might want. There are, however, two important caveats to that observation.
First, we intend to spend quite a bit of time away from the major towns and
cities. Most grocery stores that we will be visiting are about the size of your
living room (really!) and have a lot of canned goods and dry goods, but not so
much in the way of fresh produce, frozen foods or refrigerated stuff. Second, in those locations where
stateside-like grocery stores are available, food can be very expensive. Our
goal, therefore, is to bring the kind of food that we think will be hard to
find in the out islands AND to bring lots of the food that will be expensive in
the Bahamas. We are stocking up, for example, on frozen steak, hamburger meat,
chicken thighs as well as some ethnic dishes like pasta and Italian sauces,
Mexican food and spices, and some Chinese food.
In addition, of course, we raided the local Costco and Wal-Mart for
non-food provisions like laundry soap, toilet paper (we need special TP for the
boat’s toilets), razor blades, deodorant, etc.
When I got to West Palm on the eleventh, we went to West
Marine and Boat Owner’s Warehouse. In addition to people provisions we needed
to pick up some boat provisions. In the Bahamas I will need to change oil in
the main engines so we needed 10 gallons of SAE 40 motor oil. We also needed
some cleaning supplies, miscellaneous spare parts, some parts for projects I
hope to accomplish over the next few days,
Improvements
It wasn’t all about provisioning, as we also made some
improvements on the boat. First, for my birthday Ann bought me a kayak! It is a
12 foot long, sit-on-top, fishing kayak with several extra stowage compartments
called a Pompano 120. I should have already taken it out, but I haven’t, primarily
because I didn’t know how long we were going to be sitting here. But it is
ready to go; it’s tied down on the forward deck awaiting the crossing.
Also for my birthday, our kids bought me a computer program
called “HomePort.” It goes with my Garmin chartplotter and allows me to
download the charts (from the chartplotter) onto my computer. It then allows me
to plot courses on a (relatively) user-friendly computer interface rather than
the clunky, user-unfriendly chartplotter interface. I have already plotted our
course from West Palm to Bimini and am chomping at the bit to plot one to
Nassau.
Ah, but that’s not all! You will probably remember that in
October we bought a new dinghy. Well, we didn’t have time to buy a proper
cradle before we headed south, so we kind of jury-rigged one. While I am
usually pretty and honest in this blog, one thing I either forgot to mention (or
was too embarrassed to talk about) was how close we came to losing the dinghy
on our nighttime ocean trip. Although we had used some pretty strong rubber
straps to hold her down, at some point we apparently had seas that were rough
enough to tear apart the rubber and knock the dinghy askew in her makeshift
cradle. We didn’t discover the problem until later and determined, then and
there, that we needed to find a better method for tying the dinghy down. Since
Ann and I weren’t going to have time to take out the old one and put in the new
one before we left for the Bahamas, we asked Rick, our friend, broker, and one
of the few boat-repair-people-we-trust-completely to put one in for us. He did
and I’m tellin’ ya, that dinghy ain’t goin’ nowhere!
We also bought a cover from the dinghy to protect it from
all the sun and salt to which we will continually expose it over the coming
years. (Note that I didn’t say we needed to protect it from the cold – as I am
hopeful we have seen the last of cold weather for quite some time!) We also
bought a bridle so we can tow the dinghy when we are just traveling a short
way, and we made a cable so we can lock it up if we need to. Usually, you only
need to tie the dinghy to the dock and no one will try to take it. There are
some places in and around Nassau, however, that are a bit sketchy and we have
heard that there are people who think they need your dinghy more than you do.
Now the cable and lock we made are not going to stop a determined thief, but we
are hopeful that it will convince him to try the next little boat at the dock.
There are two more things I count among our improvements.
First, I bought a “Hawaiian sling” from Andy and Sharon aboard Finally Fun. A Hawaiian sling is like a
cross between a slingshot and a spear gun; instead of sending a rock at a bird,
it sends a spear at a fish. I know you are wondering why I needed a Hawaiian
sling. Because, my friends, this winter I am going to catch some LOBSTER! And
maybe a few other fish too. I am not going to say anything more until I bring
them to the boat (and then believe me, I will document it ad nauseum), but I
fully intend to catch some in the Bahamas. The second improvement we made was
to put in my rod holders. I bought the apparatus a few weeks ago so I could
keep four rods on the aft deck in case we want to go fishing. I have now put it
up and hung my rods from it. I am now one step closer to catching fish (or at
least one step closer to getting my line wet). Fish, beware … I am coming for
you.
Repairs
We also had three repairs done – and did one repair
ourselves. For the past several months we have not been able to start our
generator from the helm. We have to go down into the generator room and start
the thing from the panel on the generator itself. It is not terrible, just a
pain in the patoutie. In Charleston, we hired a guy to fix it, but he couldn’t.
So, in West Palm we asked Rick, our “go-to” guy to see what he could do.
Although he couldn’t fix it either (apparently we need a factory-trained
Westerbeke mechanic), he was able to give us a work-around. We’ll be trying it
out when on the way to the Bahamas.
We also asked Rick to fix our inverter. The inverter, you
will recall, is the electrical device that changes DC battery power into the AC
power that we need for our refrigerator and other household-type furnishings and
appliances. When we had it put in last
year, the electrician did not hook up the salon (the salon or saloon is the
“living room” of the boat) outlets to the inverter so we could not use, for
example, pour cool entertainment center unless the generator was running.
Anyway, we asked Rick to re-wire parts of the system so we can listen to the
stereo, watch television and actually charge our computers (and other devices)
from the salon outlets. He did and we
can!
Finally we asked Rick to see if he could fix our bimini (the
canvass that covers the flybridge on the top deck). When we had it made in
Charleston, the lady made it VERY tight, so tight in fact, that neither she nor
we could fasten all the zippers and connectors. She thought that when we got to
the warm weather that the canvass and eisenglass would expand and that it would
be easier to connect everything. Well, even in the 80 degree heat of West Palm,
Ann and I couldn’t get everything connected, so we thought there might be some
tricks of the trade that Rick might know and asked him to connect it if he
could. He did.
OK, now the repair that we did. Just before we left
Charleston we sprang a small leak in our fresh water system. We cut out the
offending piece of hose and reconnected the hoses together. It was more
difficult than it sounds (everything on a boat is more difficult than it
sounds), but it really wasn’t that bad. Well, on Monday the 13th we
sprang another leak. We tried to patch it with silicone and duct tape, but it
didn’t work very well. We really didn’t have a choice. We decided we had to cut
out the offending length of hose and replace it. It took about half a day, but we got
everything done and we now have pressurized fresh water once again.
Departure
Our initial plan was to leave from West Palm and travel the
74 miles to Bimini. That route, however, would put us directly in the face of
the Gulf Stream. We then decided to head south about forty miles, then cut
across across sixty miles to Bimini – that way we wouldn’t be heading straight
into the Stream. But it also meant we had to travel nearly 100 miles across the
ocean. So we can up with Plan C. On Wednesday the 16th we traveled
in the ocean from West Palm to an anchorage in Fort Lauderdale – it was about
50 miles. Tomorrow, we will head the rest of the way to Bimini. We’ll leave
early and hope to be there in the early afternoon.
We are going to stay at least one night at a marina in
Bimini, maybe two. The following night we’ll anchor near Chub Cay on our way to
Nassau. And, night after that – if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t
rise – we’ll be in Nassau.
For this trip to the Exumas, our intent is to write an entry
about at least once a week and more often if our adventures dictate. The
problem, of course, is going to be connecting to the Blogosphere (as we
Bloggers call it) to post the entry. We’ll be connected in Nassua, but in the
northern Exumas where we intend to spend most of our time, there are only one
or two WiFi spots. Anyhow, we’ll try to keep this going as often as we can.
Ann`s Notes: I cannot believe that we are starting our
second year on Traveling Soul. I hope 2013 is as much fun as last year and that
we can share this adventure with friends and family.
Christmas in Virginia was wonderful , watching Caylin and
Gavin open presents and listening to their comments was priceless. We also got
to visit with Flo Arndt , Carrie`s mom. While in town I spent some time with
some of my favorite friends and that is always so special. Thank you, Jane for
the movie, watching Parental Guidance with you was fun. Since we are both
grandparents it was a perfect movie. I also had a wonderful afternoon with Rixie,
sharing a pedi and then lunch was what I needed. I love our “talks.”
New Year`s Eve was spent at our favorite French restaurant
with Dave and Joan…we even made it to midnight this year .
Michael is still under the care of a wound doctor and I am
still trying to get those darn holes to heal. I must admit I am getting rather
good at all this, if I was still a girl scout I would have earned my badge by
now.
We are looking forward to our trip to the Bahamas. Heaven
knows we are well provisioned and will never starve to death. It is a lot of
work to think forward 3 or 4 months and what we may need but I think we have a
good starting point.
Wildlife Count
Sat 22 Dec 2012 ICW
Vero Beach to West Palm Beach 4 single dolphins 1
Bald eagle
Pod of 3 playing on the side of boat
1
Playing and jumping in the wake
I want to wish all our readers a happy and healthy 2013,
aren`t you glad the Mayans were so wrong?
Thank you for following us …
Traveling Soul OUTl
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