Crossing, West End, Port Lucaya and Great Harbour

Crossing the Gulf Stream is not an event to be taken lightly. Going east, we have crossed seven times now. Sometimes we have had a great crossing and sometimes not-so-great. For those who have not done it, the key to crossing the Gulf Stream is finding the right weather window. Personally, I watch the weather like a hawk, catching the updates from as many sources as I trust as soon as they are issued. Most update about 1600 daily. Chris Parker (a weather guru who focuses on forecasts for cruisers – particularly in and around the Bahamas) sends his e-mail updates about 1700. I study them pretty hard, trying to tell exactly what they say and what they mean for the following week or ten days AND where the various forecasts agree and where they disagree. I started watching the weather closely about 10 Jan and saw two possible weather windows opening up, one around the 14^th and 15^th and one around the 18^th and 19^th. After that, nothing looked promising until the 26^th or so; that meant paying at least an extra week of marina fees.  Not good. As discussed in our previous entry, the 13^th-15^th were taken up transporting Spot back to VA, so we were trying very hard to make it the 18^th.

On the 17^th we turned in our rental car and made our final run to the grocery store (and, of course, Starbucks). By that evening we were at anchor in Lake Worth and on the 18^th we were off. The crossing was probably the second or third best we have had – even Spot would have approved. The waves were 2-3 feet tops and they had a period that was long enough that we didn’t feel any chop. At about 2PM we arrived at Old Bahama Bay Marina, told them which slip we wanted and pulled in. It was great!

Normally we try to leave Old Bahama Bay within a day or two after checking in with Immigration and Customs. Often, however, we get caught by a cold front coming in from the US. They do call it a “weather window” for a reason – it is the space in between two frequently nasty weather events. We arrived on Friday, vegged out on Saturday, and planned to leave on Sunday. Mother Nature, however, had different ideas and produced one hell of a wind storm. Winds were sustained at 30kts and gusted to 38 (that I saw) inside the marina. In fact, the wind pushed us so far from the dock that we were unable to get off the boat the next morning. Only when it calmed down a little that afternoon could we pull the boat closer to the finger pier and get off.

The Freeport News headlines. We were on the

front lines of Bahamian politics for a day or two.

We are glad we left when we did!

When we finally got off the dock, we saw a flyer stapled to various pilings telling us that Old Bahama Bay Marina was closing effective 21 January and that everyone would have to leave the marina! Apparently there are two owners of the marina and they were having a spat (kind of like Trump and the Congress) with both acting immaturely. At any rate as we learned the following day there is no small spat in the Bahamas as you can see from the one billion font headlines in the Freeport News. And to think, if we would have stayed at the marina one more day, we, too, could have been interviewed and memorialized in the News. 

Just before we left on the 21^st, Tracey, a young lady in her mid-thirties or early forties with flaming red hair, also decided to leave. We didn’t get to know Tracey very well but we do know that her boat – a low-slung, sleek catamaran that looked to be designed more for speed than cruising – was new to her and that she didn’t have much experience with her boat or with sailing in general. She had two crewmen who, it would turn out, also knew very little about boat operations. She asked if we would help her leave the dock and of course we did. It was pretty clear, however, that Tracey didn’t know what she was doing. She didn’t have a steering wheel, instead she had a steering bar – and didn’t appear to know how to use it. She kept hollering in a very loud, almost panicky voice, “I can’t turn right!!” But she was the one on the boat in the captain’s chair and none of us could help her. In the event, four dock hands literally walked Tracey’s boat out to the main channel and let her go – at least I hope they let her go. We gave up after about 20 minutes of trying to assist; four dock hands is plenty, and besides we wanted to leave the marina at a reasonable hour as the weather was supposed to get worse that afternoon.

We also got reacquainted with Charlie and Peggy aboard Tranquility Base. They had a problem. One of their engines needed to be repaired. Charlie had identified the problem and ordered the part – but it was not going to arrive until the 24^th, several days after the date by which we were all supposed to leave. I really don’t know what happened, but I am pretty sure they just stayed in place until they could repair her. Charlie and Peggy have an interesting approach to provisioning. During the summer, Peggy cooks 85 meals which are promptly vacuumed pack and frozen for the Bahamas. They have two large freezers on board from which they extract their meals when the time comes and voila, dinner.

We had originally intended to go north, then east to get to the Abacos. However, after a brief respite the wind was due to pick up and come from the north the following day. A trip to the Abacos would have exposed us to winds on our beam and would likely have been somewhat uncomfortable. Instead, we decided to head south to Port Lucaya, staying in the lee of Grand Bahama Island. We were thereby protected until we got to the marina itself. So, we left Old Bahama Bay just before 1000 and pulled into Grand Bahama Yacht Club early that afternoon. The trip was surprisingly uneventful. Given that there were still substantial winds, the cruise was as smooth as any we have seen recently. Apparently my plan of keeping to the lee of the island worked perfectly (said with a good bit of smugness).

At Lucaya we met our fellow cruisers Ian and Lynn aboard Windward, Steve and Jill aboard Jillaroo and Agnes and Oliver.  We had a small gathering aboard Traveling Soul where we all ate, drank and made merry. We discovered that Ian and Lynn charter their boat four times during the year in the Exumas. It makes a little extra money for them and sounds like a great way to get a fresh look at the Bahamas – from a newcomer’s perspective. Steve is an Aussie, as you might expect from the name of his boat which is Jill’s name with “roo” as a suffix. Kind of cutesy, huh? I looked it up. I wonder if Jill knows that a Jillaroo is “a woman who is a trainee worker on a sheep or cattle farm.” Next time we see them I’ll ask. J

We also met another of our temporary dockmates, Vince, on the way to the grocery store. Vince kind of keeps to himself (with his two kids and – I think – a wife, though we have never seen her) aboard his 67 foot Nordhavn. For those of you who don’t know, the Nordhavn is kind of the Rolls Royce of power boats. A slightly used 67-footer would cost between three and four million. In case you are feeling sorry for the kids, you need not. They speak three languages and when they are not on the boat, they are in one of Vince’s houses – the big one in Cancun or one of several in Europe. Yea, it is this kind of people with whom we hobnob – on our way to the grocery store.

"The Big Girl Special" at Daddy Brown's

Conch 

Port Lucaya is kind of fun because of the marketplace. There may be twenty restaurants, ranging from Daddy Brown’s conch stand to some fairly high end restaurants, like Flying Fish or Luciano’s. On Tuesday’s we went to Daddy Brown’s, ordered the Big Girl special consisting of cracked lobster, cracked conch, some excellent fried shrimp, some conch fritters and of course a Kalik (the local beer). We finished up at Zorba’s Coffee, Pastries and Greek Cafe. Zorbas coffee is really good. As I pointed out to Ann, “it may not be Starbucks, but we are drinking it in 75-degree weather in the middle of January.”

 We had visited the marketplace last year and had gone to Flying Fish, one of the high end restaurants. It was good, but not as extraordinary as we had been led to expect. Last year, too, we downloaded the dinghy and explored the canal system in the area. This year, the wind kept the dinghy in its davit and we didn’t get the opportunity to explore. Finally, on Sat the 26^th the wind abated enough for us to depart Grand Bahama Yacht Club and head to Great Harbour Marina.

The view from the restaurant at CarriEarl.

We left Grand Bahama about the same time that Jillaroo did, and we became buddy boats for the crossing. The first half of our 70 mile trip to went just fine. Although there was a little rain, the seas were 2-3 feet, the wind was abaft our port beam and all was right with the world. As we went further, however, not only did the rain continue, the wind seemed to pick up, the seas increased to maybe 3-5 feet, and the winds shifted so they were almost directly on our beam. Beam seas means they were coming directly from the side of the boat, so when a five-footer came at us, it would raise the port half of the boat several feet in the air until it passed under us, then it would drop the port side and lift the starboard side of the boat in the air. The result was a rolling from side-to-side. It was NOT comfortable, so, we decided to tack a little. Rather than follow the direct route (the rhumb line) to our destination we headed 20 degrees to starboard (to put the seas off abaft our port beam, then turn 20 degrees to port, whence we would be taking the seas on our forward port quarter. While it did not eliminate the problem, it reduced the roll considerably. It wasn’t until we reached the Bahama bank and, simultaneously, the protection of Great Stirrup Cay – which was between us and the wind (hence, for any landlubbers out there, we were in the lee of Great Stirrup) – that the roll disappeared. We arrived at Great Harbour Marina at 1530 or so on Monday.

The next day it was a bit windy outside, but the sun was out and it was a great day. We first went for a walk and explored a little of the ruins of the Golf Clubhouse. In the late sixties, Great Harbour was going to be the “next big thing.” It saw visitors like Cary Grant, Brigitte Bardot, Telly Savalas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Ingrid Bergman, Jack Nichlaus and others. The reason was the nearness to the US and the beautiful, beautiful beaches. What do you put in when you are trying to attract celebrities in the sixties? A golf course, of course. And put in a golf course they did. It was built by Joe Lee, who designed over 125 courses in seven countries. According to one web site, Joe considers the original 18-hole, par 72-regulation golf course to be one of his best. Apparently, it was quite the thing as it was the site for three major tournaments. Over time, however, it became clear that Great Harbour wasn’t “the next big thing,” and investment funding started sliding. The golf course is a shadow of its former self. Great Harbour is another of those “can’t miss” Bahamian developments that missed. It sucked up a lot of money and left ruins in its wake. It is still a nice place, even though Bardot doesn’t visit any more. The marina is nice, the beaches are fabulous and there’s this one restaurant …

After our walk we, along with Steve and Jill from Jillaroo, went to Carriearl, in our opinion one of the best restaurants in the out islands of the Bahamas. Run by Angie and Marty, two British ex-pats, Carriearl is a boutique hotel and restaurant. Unfortunately, since it is open for dinner only Wednesday For the two of us our brunch cost $88, including tip and VAT.

Monday morning was a bit blustery so we just stayed on board. It started clearing up in the afternoon so we borrowed some rather decrepit bicycles from the marina and headed off to the beach. We didn't go on the beach as far as Ann wanted, but we still got some great pictures of the (almost) famous Sugar Beach.

Ann’s Notes:  Well after proof reading the blog, Michael presented a lot of information.

We have been hiding from the wind since we got here, the good news is we meet some old cruising friends and made a few new ones. Stephen and Jill are a very nice couple, I think the both of them are new to cruising the Bahamas, they had many questions and Michael had a few answers since we have done this trip more than once. Having the gathering on our boat, was fun, having four cruising couples on board all talking about different subject make for an interesting evening. I think Michael and I would like doing charters on Traveling Soul, something to think about.

I am still adjusting to not having my sweet little feline on board. Dave and Joan send daily updates and pictures of Spot, they are so sweet. Since Spot is not with us, it has lead to my next segment of the blog.

The Top Five Things That Are Different Without Spot On Board :

1.       I can leave my computer lid open and not have Spot sit on my keyboard and leave strange feline messages on my screen.

2.       I can keep a glass of water on any table without a lid on it, no little paws to stick in the glass and play with the ice cubes, than get bored and knocks the whole glass and it contains on the floor or carpet

3.       No kitty litter to vacuum off the galley floor, steps, hallway or carpet at least twice a day. What will I do with all that extra time I spent vacuuming?

4.       I can now leave the midship doors open and stern door open without snapping in the screens. There is no sneaky Spot to try to escape from the boat and go exploring.

5.       Last but not least, No Spot to say good morning to, or tell her we are leaving, or returning, or time to go to bed. I miss my little space heater at night in bed with us.

Traveling Soul…OUT

Preparing to Depart

This was going to be a very brief and relatively uninformative blog entry and was simply going to serve as a precursor to our Bahama blogs. I was going to discuss the two repairs we had to do – or pay to have done and  the provisioning we had to accomplish. What a difference a week makes!

Last Thursday we were notified that the Bahamian Ministry of Agriculture had denied our import permit for Spot! Apparently last June the Bahamian government in all its glory determined that, for some reason, Bengal cats were not welcomed in their country. It is true that Bengals are a relatively new breed of cat and are only a few generations removed from the wild. Our Spot is five generations removed, and, as a consequence, has about 1.5% wild genes in her. Most of you who have met her know how vicious our 8¼ pound cat can be. I mean she tries to lick you to death, to interrupt conversations by purring so loudly and makes a determined effort to knock you down by rubbing against your leg! Why she might almost be as vicious as her fellow banned animal, the Pit Bull.

Exactly why Bengals were banned, we do not know – although we have several theories. One of my favorites is that because Bengals are well known to be a very intelligent breed, the Minister of Agriculture was afraid of having a cat in the country smarter than he was. An alternative is that the Prime Minister said something like “I hate hangnails.” The Ag Minister misunderstood and thought he said, “I hate Bengals.” And then of course there is the most likely – they are just stupid. I think Ann wanted to sign up to the latter.

Ok, now that I have vented, as you can imagine this presented us with a problem. We could, of course, decide to stay in Florida and pay marina fees for the winter. Alternatively, we could find somewhere for Spot to stay while we make what is likely to be our last trip to the Bahamas. We couldn’t ask our son as he is allergic to cats; we couldn’t ask our daughter as she lives on the West Coast. So, we asked our friends Dave and Joan Wolf. They were more than happy to help. All we had to do was get Spot to Northern Virginia in the middle of a snowstorm.

On Saturday we found out the weather might be good enough to travel to the Bahamas late Thursday and/or early Friday. On the same day, we met some friends (Rick and Lynn Nissen) who had just driven from Maryland to Palm Beach in one day. We decided if they could do it, we could do it. We would get up at 0430 on Sunday morning, drive all 968 miles, and arrive in Woodbridge, Virginia later that evening. We would leave Spot at Dave and Joan’s then we would drive back on Tuesday. It was a brilliant plan and it almost worked.

Spot, waiting for her human prey to appear. Count]d it be the 

Bahamian Minister of Agriculture?

On Sunday morning I got up to do what old men do at 0230 in the morning. When finished, I turned on the tap to wash up and get a drink of water. Nothing came out. Now, there were several possibilities. Unfortunately, one of them was that the water pump was broken. If the water pump was broken we were not going to the Bahamas until we replaced it and that would not be by Thursday/Friday, so there would be no need to drive to VA in one day. Clearly, I needed to find out what was wrong. 

To make a long story shorter we found that our water tanks were bone dry. We partially filled them, but the water still wouldn’t flow. It took me a minute to figure out that I might have to bleed the tanks. Once I did, everything worked.  That was, of course, a blessing and a bane. It was a blessing in that nothing was seriously wrong; it was a bane in that we now had to drive to Virginia in one day.

Now you might be expecting me to say that we went up, dropped off Spot, spent a day recovering, then drove back down. You would be wrong. I have worn glasses for nearly 50 years and, over that time have lost maybe two, maybe three pairs. On our “recovery” day I lost my glasses. The rest of the day was spent getting new ones, i.e finding an optometrist open after the snow storm, getting to Lenscrafters, having the glasses made and picking them up. We finished just prior to Lenscrafters’ closing and were on the way again at 0400. Whew! As John Wayne once put it, “Life is tough, but it’s tougher if you’re stupid.” And I was stupid.

We got back to Palm Beach Tuesday evening. On Wednesday we did some last minute provisioning and today (Thursday) are sitting at anchor in Lake Worth waiting for tomorrow morning’s departure.

I know, I know. I promised the gearheads among you a little information on the two maintenance issues we had – our watermaker and two of our three heads.

Before we got to Palm Beach, we stopped at Whitakers – a boatyard we have used before that does pretty good work. We asked them to fix our watermaker, to make the davit work so it is easier to raise and lower our dinghy and to give us several estimates on work we may want to have done in the spring. They determined it would cost $6000+ for bottom paint, $8450 to varnish the little teak we have on the boat and $4120 for a new holding tank. (As for the teak, they put something like six coats of varnish and another six coats of a protectant.) I think l can do just about as well with three coats of marine cetol.) Needless to say, we are not going back in the spring. I can do some of that myself, and for that which I cannot do, I think I can find someone in the Chesapeake to do for a lot less.

Anyway, Whitaker’s took the watermaker pump and motor to their expert and he decided it was too old for him to repair and warranty. Really? I must admit that I was a bit disappointed in a boatyard to which we had sent some business over the years. They did give us the name of an individual who used to work at Whitakers who now does work on his own. He took up the challenge, found someone to rebuild the motor and he put everything back in place. It seems to be working as well as or better than it used to. We shall see.

As far as the davit is concerned, all they did was to lift the crane up and apply copious amounts of grease. But since I didn’t even k now you could just lift the crane by hand, it might have been worth the hour or so they charged me. Anyway, we’ll find out how much good they did in the coming days.

The real story was the heads. Our Purasans had not had a problem in over two years. Somehow and for some reason, they both failed within a week of one another. As you may remember, the only people I trust to fix our Raritan products (Raritan’s motto should be: Cool Science, Poor Engineering) are the folks at Marine Plumbing Services. Bob, their Chief Technician, is like one of the family. We see him for one reason or another just about every time we go to Palm Beach. It turns out that one of the systems failed because a small meshed basket dissolved. Raritan’s response, “Yea, we had a batch of those things go bad recently.” No offer of recompense. Once the $0.50 basket failed, it necessitated about $1200 in repairs. The total bill was $3558. Oh well, it is less than 4 Boat Units.

On Friday, we will be on the way to the Bahamas.

Ann’s Notes: Ok ….dear Readers, here is my side of this story/blog…coming from the one that makes all the phone calls and organizes the paper work, reservations and keeps track of our calendar.

We arrived in North Palm Beach on the 15^th of Dec, docked Traveling Soul at Old Port Cove Marina, North Palm Beach FL and got ready to depart for our Christmas holidays back in VA/MD via car. I always make sure the boat is clean before we go away, it is a pre-gift I give myself, I love coming back to clean sheets on our bed when I return. We picked up our car rental on the 17^th of Dec. On the 19^th, we loaded the car with our stuff, including Spot’s travel bag. What, might you ask is in said travel bag? Everything that a feline traveler and staff might need. 2 Food bowls, food (soft and kibble), spoon for the soft food, water bowl, water, litter floor mat, litter, litter box, litter box liner, little box rake, litter bags to disposal of waste in the little box, Pet Rescue to calm her when she travels, a few toys, her carrying case ( airline approved, her “safe place”), her medical records and of course her ‘Purple’ a baby blanket she has had since we brought her home as a wee kitten. I am sure I forgot a few things, Spot is well loved by an overly organized guardian…oh…and treats…almost forgot her treats. We drove half way to VA, stopping in Santee SC for the night, Spot needed to get out of the car.

We had a wonderful Christmas full of family and friends, arriving on the 20^th, staying at Dave and Joan’s house while in VA and our condo in MD. It was a yo-yo Christmas, lots of driving between the two homes. Michael celebrated his birthday a few days early at Tim and Carrie home. Tim smoked a turkey and it was yummy, I made mac and cheese and a blitz torte for the birthday cake, a family favorite.  

We departed from MD to FL on the 4^th of Jan, staying in Santee SC overnight and we were back in FL on the 6^th.

Now the story get really interesting…while in MD, Spot got her check up and yearly shots so she could get her International Health Certificate. All was well. I was right on schedule…or so I thought.

On the 7^th of Jan, I gathered the health certificate, Bahamian entry request form, a money order to pay for the fee for asking to bring our cat with us…plus a fee to fax the approval. If you wait for the approval by mail, it would take a year to get to the states. Plus a sixty dollar FedEx overnight fee so the Department of Agriculture in Nassau will get the request quickly. Then you wait for the approval to be faxed to the marina. Once you have the approval, you wait for the weather window to cross the Gulf Stream and you GO.

Now picture this, I have just spent several hours at the grocery store, provisioning the boat, groceries have been checked off my list,  bags loaded into the car truck and I was looking forward to putting all these items away…well…not really…but it has to be done.

My cell phone rings on the way back to the marina; I see an odd number on my phone screen so I answer. It is from the Bahamas, Department of Agriculture…can you hold please?  Next thing I know I am talking to a female veterinarian, being told that the Islands of the Bahamas no longer allow the Bengal cat breed into the country. Now I have three … count ‘em … three  permits.. that were issued to allow Spot to enter. Sh*t…dumb *ss government.

Now …I have to tell Michael all this and start the problem solving action. Michael already told you what several of our options were, the hard part was knowing we would not have Spot with us for this, what might be our final trip…the blessing was Dave and Joan, our extended family friendship and their love from Spot .Thank heaven for them saying ‘yes’ when we asked

SO…on the 13^th of Jan …after fixing the water pressure issue at 2:30 AM…we load ourselves into the car around 3:30 AM. This time we had ALL of the items Spot would need while with Dave and Joan. All her food, both soft and kibble…kitty litter and everything that does into and for the litter box, her flea, tick and heartworm Rx ... I think you get the idea. We then drive from FL to VA, 960 plus miles, trying to avoid a snow storm. We almost made it, avoiding the storm, we did get caught in some nasty weather, i.e. Non treated freeway, snow, sleet, and eighteen wheelers passing us on the left. Fourteen hours later we arrived, one stiff bourbon drink and a grilled cheese sandwich later and I was in bed. Spot in her new home for several months…all good.

Next day was a rest day and The Eyeglass Incident…my phone skills and appointment making abilities were test and proven in good working order. The attitude of Do Not Panic has always worked well for me.

4:30 AM on the 15^th of Jan came around rather quickly like it was 4:30 in the morning. Yes...a stop at Starbucks, needless to say we were their first customer of the day, they unlocked the door for us. Coffees in hand, we were back on I-95, heading south again. It was dark and cold but the roads were clear and the snow plowed to the side. Michael had one very upset, crying, pissed off female to travel with. I was ok by the time I got to the NC border.

I know Spot is having a great time with Dave and Joan. They already had a three level cat tree for her, it has been moved into their dining room, looking out their back yard, it has been replaced with a five level cat tree in their family room. Their welcome gift to Spot … Lucky cat.

That is the end of my story… over the years you learn to go with the flow and if you are organized it makes it that much easier.

Talk to you in our next blog.

Traveling Soul…OUT

Danger, Danger, Danger

Vicious Cat on the Loose (In the Bahamas

 we have nothing to do but figure out which

cats to ban!)