17 - 21 May: Inside, Outside and Up the ICW

NOTE: Before you read the following paragraph you MUST find someone with a deep, coarse voice. James Earl Jones’ is deep enough, but far too smooth; Lee Marvin, now Lee Marvin could make it work.

AARGH! Thar we wuz, anchored in the marshes near Fernandina Beach, ready to run the line and stay ahead of the King’s Navy. We were in a good anchorage; it was quiet and so were we. Neither of us had any desire to hang at the end of a yardarm – which is what we suspected them Limey Tars had in store for us. We could see one of their boats. It crawled forward slowly, looking into each little creek and all the little rivers. As they sailed by we could see them; they wuz  just  polishin’  their cutlasses and cleaning their pistols.

Aye, if they caught us, we knew it would be a hard fight, but we also knew if we could just make it past the inlet and onto the high seas that our superior seamanship (and 1100 horsepower contained in two Detroit Diesel 6V92s) would give us a better than even chance of escapin’ them scalawags. We waited until they tacked to port – then I gave the order to “raise the mains’l, the jib, the mizzen-thingie that they raised on Master and Commander,” and I reminded the crew “to set the topgallant studding sail ( … really, that is the name of a sail!) Most of you have already realized that when we did all that we had exactly zero inches of sail up because … well … Traveling Soul is a power boat, not a sailboat.) Anyway, I then had the crew “stoke them boilers;” and that did it. That day, Traveling Soul might have been the fastest ship in northern Florida (or at least the fastest recreational motor vessel in the Fernandina Inlet.) And though it was a close-run thing, we made it into the glorious North Atlantic and away from our tormentors.

Okay, maybe that’s not exactly how it was, but I was just trying to spruce up a discussion of our foray into the Atlantic. With one or two exceptions, it was really a boring trip. What were those exceptions you ask? To learn about those, you will have to keep reading.

You are probably asking why we went into the Atlantic in the first place. Well, some of you will remember the Deadly Georgia Attack flies! Since our adventure last year and Ann’s victory over the flies in the Battle of Kilkenny Marina, we have maintained a nervous cease fire with the flies. We thought, therefore, it would be best if we recognized their sovereignty in the state of Georgia and skipped that part of the ICW altogether. In addition, of all the states along the ICW, Georgia seems to care less about the depth of its Waterway than any other. As a consequence, running the Waterway in Georgia leaves the captain with the “ICW hunch,” where he holds on to the wheel and leans over the instruments, keeping one eye on the depth gauge, one eye on the GPS chartplotter and one eye on the waterway. Yes, I realize that makes him look like a three-eyed hunchback goon, but that’s exactly how he feels sometimes. Anyway, in addition to the flies, the hunched-back captain pose, and Kilkenny Marina itself (dum da dum dee dum dum dum dee – to be hummed to the tune of Dueling Banjoes from the movie Deliverance) there is the simple math.

Because of the winding nature of the ICW, it is 314 statute miles from Fernandina to Georgetown, SC.  Because we go about 80 miles per day, it takes us roughly 4 days to make the trip. If we go into the Atlantic, by contrast, we can travel 178 miles from Fernandina to Charleston, then 40 miles on the ICW from Charleston to Georgetown for a total of 218 statute miles. Moreover, since we go 24/7 on the outside, it takes us about 18 hours on the outside and another four on the inside– or one very long day. It also saves us about 100 gallons of fuel. The logic for us was inexorable; we went on the outside.

I am not sure you can read it, but this is our Lat/Long
list for the night of May 17 - 18

The last time we went outside we made a mistake.  We left Charleston at about 10 AM and arrived just outside Fernandina Inlet at 6AM. Even though the channel markers were lit, at 6 AM it was too dark for me to feel good about running the inlet and making it to the anchorage we had planned. As a result, we hung around the outside of the Channel for about 2-3 hours (it was November) until it was light. This time, before we left Fernandina, we calculated when we would have to leave our anchorage to arrive outside Charleston at 8AM. In the event, we timed it perfectly. We filled up with fuel at 12:30 PM or so, and left Fernandina at about 1:30 in the afternoon. We arrived at Charleston’s outer channel markers at 8AM. We then cruised into Charleston harbor and headed another 40 miles up the ICW before we stopped in Georgetown, SC for the night.

Prior to leaving Fernandina, we filled up at Port Consolidated (cheapest fuel in the area by nearly $1 per gallon) there was one other boat also filling up – the trawler Carolina, a 44 foot Defever. We followed her for a while heading out the inlet, until we figured out that Carolina was going the same direction we were. We called her on the radio and found that she used to make the run from Fernandina to Charleston but now she only goes as far north as Savannah. The reason she doesn’t have to go to Charleston anymore is because the owner’s new insurance company only requires that the boat be north of Savannah for the hurricane season, whereas our insurance company requires we be north of Hatteras. Hmmm. The name of his insurance company is Ace. We will definitely be checking out Ace over the next few months. It is odd how, when and where you learn about insurance companies in this lifestyle.

I had deliberately plotted a course that kept us less than 15 miles or so from the coast. The good thing was that most of the time we could see the coast line. Although not entirely necessary, let’s face it, seeing the coast does give you a sense of security – even if you are not likely to be able to swim the fifteen miles to safety if something happened. The bad thing is that, the closer to the shoreline you are, the more buoys, navigation markers, private navigation aids, ships, recreational boats and other “blips” there are on the radar screen. On the radar, a blip, is a blip, is a blip and it is very difficult to discriminate a boat from a small ship from a navigation aid.

The sunsets can sure look beautiful when you are
off in the Atlantic looking westward. I guess in this shot
we were a little beyond visual distance from the shoreline.

In fact, just as it had turned dark – about 10 PM or so – the radar showed maybe twenty different blips on the screen.  I tried to match up all the blips to the buoys and other kinds of navigational aids on the charts we had, but it was really too hard and I finally decided that there weren’t any boats or ships out there, that they were all NAVAIDS. Well, I was wrong. For some reason I stuck my head out of the hatch (doorway) and about 200 feet in front of us I thought I could see … yes .. I think that is a green light … hmmm, I wonder … YIKES, it’s a boat!!! I immediately turned hard to port (so I could pass behind the ghost boat in front of me) and took Traveling Soul out of gear (to slow her down). I then hit five beeps on the horn (the sound signal for danger). The sports fisherman crossing in front of me didn’t even slow down and continued on his merry way as if nothing was the matter.

As a result of that little experience we made two changes to our routine. First, I took us a few miles further into the Atlantic. I don’t think we went more than two or three additional miles into the ocean, but it took us away from all but a few navigation aids. Now we wouldn’t have more than a few blips on the screen at any one time and would no longer face the problem of the impossible-to-read radar screen. Second, we agreed that every five or ten minutes or so, one or both of us would look out both of the hatches to make sure some sports fisherman wasn’t sneaking up on us.

Other than that, the seas were only about 2-3 feet and the wind probably less than 10 knots. Every hour or so we plotted our latitude and longitude on our paper charts, just to make sure we knew where we were and where we were going.

About 8AM we pulled level with Charleston’s outer channel markers and headed into Charleston Harbor. We had stopped in Charleston on every trip through the area and had stayed for over a month at least twice. This time we decided to keep going until we hit what looked like some really cool anchoring spots up the ICW. We looked and looked and couldn’t find those great anchoring spots. We found a few but in each instance decided to keep going. Eventually we decided that we would go to Georgetown, SC. Georgetown is a hot spot for cruisers and just off the ICW. We called and reserved a slip (it was Saturday and pickin’s were slim). We found one at the Harbourwalk Marina. A number of Active Captain’s reviews swore that this was a five-star marina. It really wasn’t too bad, but I am here to tell you it didn’t deserve five stars. (I have noticed, over time, a decided inflation in the scores reviewers give marinas on Active Captain. They just don’t seem as useful as they once were.)

Anyway, according to Wikipedia (most of the following is straight from Wikipedia) Georgetown is the third oldest city in the state of South Carolina and the county seat of Georgetown County. It is located on Winyah Bay at the confluence of the Great Pee Dee, Waccamaw, and Sampit rivers. In 1526, the Spanish, under Lucas Vasquez de Ayllón, arrived here with North America’s first load of African slaves and founded San Miguel de Gualdape, the first slave-based colony in North America. The colony failed for multiple reasons, including a fever epidemic and a revolt of the African slaves, who fled to join the Cofitachiqui Indians in the area.

 
After settling Charles Town (Charleston) in 1670, the English established trade with the Indians . Trading posts in the outlying areas quickly became settlements. By 1721 the colonial government granted the English residents' petition to found a new parish, Prince George, Winyah, on the Black River. The Indian trade declined soon after Georgetown was established, as planters cultivated indigo as the cash commodity crop with rice as a secondary crop, both dependent on slave labor. Profits were so great between 1735-1775 that in 1757 the Winyah Indigo Society, whose members paid dues in indigo, opened and maintained the first public school for white children between Charleston and Wilmington.

I know, I know. This plaque and the Wikipedia
discussion do not necessarily agree. I guess we need
to pay historians more money to figure out the
truth so we cruisers can always be perfectly correct
in our blogs.

During the American Revolution, the father and son Georgetown planters, Thomas Lynch, Sr. and Thomas Lynch, Jr., signed the Declaration of Independence. During the final years of the conflict, Georgetown was the important port for supplying General Nathanael Greene's army. Francis Marion (the Swamp Fox) led many guerrilla actions in this vicinity.

Following the American Revolution, rice surpassed indigo as the staple crop. It was cultivated on the swampy lowlands along the rivers, where enslaved labor built large earthworks: the dams, gates and canals to irrigate and drain the rice fields during cultivation. Large rice plantations were established around Georgetown on its five rivers.

By 1840, Georgetown County produced nearly one-half of the total rice crop of the United States, and Georgetown became the largest rice-exporting port in the world. Wealth from rice created an elite European-American planter class; they built stately plantation manor houses, bought elegant furniture, and extended generous hospitality to others of their class. Their relatively leisured lifestyle for a select few, built of the labor of thousands of slaves, lasted until 1860.

Main Street in downtown Georgetown, SC.

Nowadays, Georgetown is a perfectly laid out little town. It is not dissimilar from Fort Collins, CO in the 1950’s (my birthplace), from Saugerties, NY (Ann’s hometown) in the ‘50’s or from the hometown that many of you remember from your youth. You get the feeling that you could safely stroll the streets at any time day or night – though why you would want to stroll around after they rolled up the streets at 7PM, I don’t know.

Having arrived a little late on Saturday we decided to wait ‘til the next day before we went downtown to explore. Now the stores and shops in many small towns are closed on Sunday, and that is especially so in the American south. However, our experience is generally that the tourist spots, like restaurants, gift shops and even museums are open on Sunday afternoon. Apparently that general rule doesn’t apply to Georgetown. About half of the restaurants were closed on Sunday, and only a couple of gift shops were open at any time during the day. Well, we decided that since we kind of liked Georgetown, since we didn’t get to see much of the cool touristy stuff and because we were ahead of schedule that we would stay an additional day.

The next day? Of course it was raining all day long. Ann managed to get to a few of the museums and to get a pedicure, but I stayed on the boat. I really don’t like walking on my bum foot in the rain.



We saw this sign in one of one of the little
shops the only little shop opened in
Georgetown on Sunday. I want to change it to:
Boat Rules

ANN’s NOTES: Michael pretty much summed up this part of the trip. What he did not mention was that we were awake for 26 hours and 20 minutes.  We left Fernandina Beach FL on Friday the 17^th of May at 1:10 pm. Arrived in Charleston Harbor SC on the 18^th of May at 8am. Then kept going on the ICW, arriving at Georgetown, SC at 3:30 pm. That is a lot of hours to be awake, we both got a ``second wind” and we were fine. Plus docking in Georgetown was a slow moving nightmare, they put us in an inside slip by the fuel dock , very close quarters getting in by some very large shrimping boats, where we had to turn into the slip. Add a lot of wind, strong current and two dock hands that were less than skilled and two tired people… a fun time was NOT had by all. I pretty much strong-armed the boat into the slip and the captain was yelling at the dock hands and not me.  To top it all off the marina knew a larger boat was coming in (the boat did dock next to us – all 200 feet of her!) and we had just arrived and were asked if we wanted to move …. Ugh … I don’t think so … FYI … we stayed in our slip.

When we were out in the big blue and very dark Atlantic, I got a lot of practice doing lat/long on our paper charts. Every hour or so we would check the course on the paper chart with what the GPS on the Garmin said we were. Not only was it fun but it made me stay awake and I felt like I was helping in some way. Watching the radar makes me cross-eyed and is sort of boring, but needs to be done in order to stay safe.

OK…I know you have been waiting for the next section….the WILD LIFE COUNT…

• ·         Friday May 17^th 2013    1 domestic yellow finch (sad but true … the poor thing was lost about 20 miles into the Atlantic – well out of sight of shore. He flew and was in our bimini on the second deck)

Michael saw a Sea Turtle (funny how only HE sees them)

• ·         Saturday 18^th of May 2013    2 single Dolphins to greet us at Charleston inlet

2 playing dolphins in our wake

                                                    1 pod of  dolphins

                                                     1 pod of 3 dolphins

Stay tuned for our next blog….thanks for reading…

Traveling Soul…OUT

11 - 16 May: West Palm Beach to Fernandina Beach

Because of my Achilles issues we have fallen behind. We are determined to make it all up, however. Here is Section I of our three part trip up the ICW - 11 May to 16 May from West Palm to Fernandina Beach.

Yesssss! I have finally done it. I am prepared to die and go to heaven for I have seen an alligator in the wild. I know! You are thinking how brave I must have been, as this thing was huge. Ok, maybe not huge, but he was big. Ok, maybe not big, but he certainly wasn’t small! He was at least bigger than a breadbox – maybe as much as four feet long. Yea, it was death-defying: facing such a challenge in my 52 foot power boat, fifteen feet above the water on the flybridge. Well, you just keep thinkin’ that way and we’ll get along just fine! Once again, though, I am ahead of myself. I need to tell you about the nights in West Palm Beach, Vero Beach, Marineland Florida and the Shrimp Capital of the world, Fernandina Beach Florida.

The dinghy on the left, equipped with an external engine and wings, becomes the airborne dinghy on the left -- at West Palm Beach Florida.

When we got back from the Bahamas we left Traveling Soul in West Palm (as we cognoscenti in the boating world call West Palm Beach, Florida) and headed up to the DC area to see more doctors – and this time we finally had some luck! No, the infected area is as bad as ever, but we found a doctor who seems to know what he is doing. I have surgery scheduled for 3 June at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. Present will be an orthopedic surgeon, a plastic surgeon (to close the wound after the operation) and an infectious disease doctor.  OK, enough about that.

While in West Palm, we completed Phase II of our three-phase Head Recapitalization Plan. We have the following:

o   Forward Head: New toilet, old Lectra San waste processing system and new macerator pump.

o   Mid-Ship Head: New toilet, new Elecra Scan waste processing system (basically the same as the old Lectra San, but it now costs more) and new macerator pump

o   Master Stateroom Head: Old toilet, new macerator pump, and new Pura San waste processing system. (While the Electra Scan creates hypochlorous acid from seawater and electricity, the Pura San uses a tablet so you don’t need sea water. We got one of those so we can go places where the water is brackish and use the head without adding salt as we flush).

The plan is to replace the forward head with a new waste processing system next year. Then we will have replaced almost everything that can be replaced.

We also had the bottom cleaned by a diver. Later this year we will have the bottom repainted. I will wait until then to explain how the paint keeps marine life from growing on the boat’s bottom. But the diver, as you might imagine, just kind of scrapes the algae, other tiny sea creatures and barnacles off the hull. Keeping the bottom clean makes the boat cut through the water more easily, increasing speed and/or saving fuel.

On 12 May we left West Palm and immediately headed to Port Consolidated in Fort Pierce, Florida to fill up with fuel. Port Consolidated sells diesel at a substantial great price; it is sort of the Costco of the marine fuel industry in Florida. At Fort Pierce, we got it for $3.85 per gallon, about 50 cents less than all the competition within 50 miles or so – and believe me, I checked.

Lobstah roll, homemade potato chips and Killians ... MMMMMM

After our fuel stop we continued our trip north to Vero Beach. Some of you are thinking, “hmmm … I think I have heard something about Vero Beach before,” and you would be right. According to Ann, Vero Beach is the home of the best lobster rolls outside Maine … excuse me, that should have been “lobstah rolls.” Anyway, Ann’s Mother’s Day present from me was a lobster roll from the Red Onion. It is a good thing we went because, sadly, the Red Onion is closing its doors and moving. We won’t be able to walk from the mooring area to its new location and, as a consequence, may have to forego their Rolls forever. (Deep Wistful Sigh.) We’ll continue to visit Vero Beach, however, as the mooring balls are plentiful and they only charge around $12 per night. I know, I know. After I just dropped nearly a grand on fuel, why am I so happy save a few bucks by tying up to a mooring ball as opposed to staying in a marina? I’ve got no idea – but I am!

While at Vero Beach we saw our friends Vic and Gigi aboard Salty Turtle. We didn’t get to visit with them for long, but are looking forward to seeing them again next year. Also, we saw Jim Guy aboard Ocean Dance. Jim is heading west through the Okeechobee waterway to the west coast of Florida. We hope to see him again next year, too.

Our next stop was Titusville, FL. Within the cruising community there is something of a Buzz around Titusville. The Municipal Marina there is trying to make itself a natural stop for cruisers like us. They have taken a number of steps including adding a huge mooring field and charging only $10 a night for tying to a mooring ball, making a courtesy car available, and several other things. We had intended to stay there for a couple of days so we could see what the hubbub was about, but we really didn’t have the time. We needed to keep moving north, so we only stayed one night. We’ll be back and try again, but I gotta tell you that it is very wide open with nothing to break up the wind. In Vero, the mooring field was between a wooded island and the mainland creating a somewhat cozy mooring field; in Titusville, not so much. Well, maybe if they have a courtesy car …

We saw more dolphins on this trip than just about any other. Moreover, the dolphins liked to play in our bow wake! Ann always goes out and talks to them. Me? I nod, thank them for keeping my crew happy and drive on.

Although we are very good at catching mooring balls, the wind made it somewhat difficult and a little piece of their Styrofoam float – technically called the mooring “pennant” – came off and is now proudly displayed in our curio cabinet.  In mooring, the difficult part is not so much catching the pennant and bringing it on deck, but keeping the pennant on deck while you run the snubber lines through the pennant (for both sides) and then back to the cleat can be a major issue – especially if the wind is blowing.  Anyway, we got it done and spent the rest of the night in Titusville.

The next day we were on our way to Marineland, Florida. We had passed Marineland a couple of times on our way up and down the ICW, and lamented that we did not have time to stop and check it out. This time, we decided to heck with time schedules, we needed to find out about it. Financially, it was a pretty good deal at $1 per foot – certainly more than a mooring ball, but $1 per foot isn’t bad. Now most of you think you haven’t heard of Marineland Florida; but you have. Formed in 1938 it was the first “marineland” and apparently did very well. It was the first oceanarium in the world and the predecessor to all the “Sea Worlds” and “marinelands” that exist today. Moreover, it was the backdrop for several episodes of the TV show Sea Hunt, starring Mike Bridges, and it was the set for … (drum roll please) … Creature for the Black Lagoon.

After Marineland, it was on to Fernandina Beach. It was during this section of our voyage that I reported last year on the historical significance of Fernandina Beach and won’t go into it again this year. I will say, however, that Fernandina is important to us for four reasons. First, it has a very pricey marina. Second, it has an outlet to the ocean. Third, at Port Consolidated, it has the cheapest diesel fuel in the state of Florida and finally, it has several very nice anchorages. Put that altogether and it gives us an opportunity to ignore the overpriced marina by staying at one of the anchorages (take that you greedy *%#$#$&@#^*@#&) and still make it in time to fill up with fuel and get into the ocean to head north to Charleston. And that is what we used it for. Next time I’ll tell you about our adventures on the high seas. But I want to get this entry out before you thought we had disappeared.

ANN’S NOTES:   Michael did a good job summing up the past month or so…we were on a mission to get back into the VA/MD waters and get settled into a slip before the surgery.  Glad we are here with family and friends close by and our little Miata to get us around.

Vero Beach and the lobster roll were wonderful and it will NOT be the last one I have…I have the new address and the number for the local taxi. I can be one determined woman when it comes to lobster.

I do have a very large wildlife count so I will get to that and let Michael send this off tonight.

§  Saturday 11 May 2013 Ft. Pierce

o   Dolphin pod of 5

 

§  Sunday 12 May 2013 Vero Beach FL Mooring field

o   4 dolphins seen on two different dinghy rides

o   2 dolphins in the mooring field 

§  Monday  13 May 2013 Vero Beach FL to Titusville FL on the ICW

o   Pod of 2

o   Pod of 3 x2

o   5 singles

o   Pod of 5 following us on the side of the boat

o   1 very pink Flamingo flying

o   1 single dolphin playing in our wake 

§  Tuesday 14 May 2013 Titusville FL to Marineland  FL on the ICW

o   Lots of butterflies all  over the place

o   Pod of 4 dolphins

o   11 single dolphins

o   Pod of 3 dolphins

o   Pod of 3 playing dolphins x2

o   1 stingray

o   1 very Large manatee

o   3 smaller manatees 

§  In the Haulover Canal

o   11 Manatees some in small pods, some single

o   4 very playful dolphins that I sprayed water on from a wash down hose on the boat. They loved it, jumped into it, and generally had a great time!!!! 

§  Thursday 16 May 2013 Marineland FL to Fernandina Beach anchorage

o   7 single dolphins

o   Pods of 3…4…6…10 x2…12

o   Playing dolphins  1…2…3…4

o   1 Bald eagle

o   1 GATOR!!!!

 

Travelling Soul ... Out

Complaints about Paradise: Marsh Harbor to West Palm Beach (13 – 17 April)

Imagine this: we are in one of our favorite beach bars in the world, Coco’s, in Treasure Cay, Bahamas. Now, until the day we arrived the temperature had been, and was supposed to continue to be, a balmy 82 degrees. The day we were there – BAM – it went up to at least 85! AND, we couldn’t get our favorite seats! We had to sit further back on the patio, which meant we didn’t get the breeze that we usually get and that made it seem even hotter. AND, the beer was at least two or three degrees above the perfect temperature. AND there were at least three flies that attacked Ann’s burger and my conch when the server set it down. Now, I know all of you are sympathizing with us and don’t know how we made it through the afternoon. Don’t worry. We can be tough when we need to.  I am, however, getting ahead of myself. Let me go back to the beginning of the week.



Top Row: Guy, Mike and Ann.
Bottom Row: Ray Diane, Joy and Steve

You may recall that the day we sent the last blog entry we were planning to leave the Marsh Harbor Marina. We had already been there for three days and had accomplished most of what we had planned (like buying the ten pounds of lobster we would need for the coming year). But, the day before we were planning to leave, our friends Jim and Dianne Guy, aboard Ocean Dance, arrived at the marina. They, in turn, introduced us to their friend Ray, who single hands his huge sailboat Forty More. Moreover, we had just met Steve and Joy in their new (to them) Fleming 55, Meandering Joy, but didn’t really get a chance to know them. In short, we had done all the physical things we needed to, but had not given ourselves time to do some of the social things that we wanted to do. So, we decided to stay one more day at the marina and to ask all these folks if they wanted to go to one of my favorite restaurants in Marsh Harbor, Mangoes Café. They did, so we all went and we all had a good time. In fact, I personally, had a great time. EXCEPT, my “Grouper Special” was a bit on the dry side. Now, don’t get me wrong, I ate the whole thing, of course, and it was good – but it wasn’t great. In retrospect, this should have made me realize that this might be the beginning of a week in Paradise in which I might have something about which to complain!

We finally left Marsh Harbor Saturday morning about 10:00 and got to Treasure Cay in about 2 hours. When we got there, though, the anchorage was very crowded; I am guessing about twenty-five boats in an area about a quarter mile in diameter. (It is an artificial anchorage surrounded by a stone wall.) You see, all the sailboats planning on returning to the States in the next few days were lining up at Treasure to cut through the Whale Cay Passage the next day so they could hit a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream on Tuesday. (An explanation of all this is below; I didn’t want you to get the idea that it is always that crowded,) Anyhow, we went looking for a place to drop our anchor … and looking … and looking … and looking. We ended up dropping it about four times before we finally found a place where I was comfortable that our anchor was going to hold and that we weren’t going to disturb our neighbors (nor would they disturb us). Poor Ann. She was the one on the bow dropping the anchor and hauling it back up (okay, she wasn’t doing it by hand, we do have an electric windlass, but still, she was on the bow and like I said, it was starting to get hot).



A few of our many friends at the Treasure Cay Anchorage.
I wish I had one of those panorama cameras so you could see the rest.

The next day was our Treasure Cay day. I have already hit all the complaints we had about our day in Treasure Cay so I won’t cover them again. But all was not lost, for just as we were getting ready to weigh anchor, we saw them. I haven’t mentioned it before as I didn’t want to jinx her, but you may have noticed that Ann’s wildlife count has been pretty sparse. I think, she was going through some kind of withdrawal because she hadn’t seen any dolphins lately. In fact, she hadn’t seen any since we entered the Bahamas! Well, the morning we left Treasure she saw two of them in the anchorage. Later, on the way to Great Sale, she saw three more and one of them even played in our wake. Whew! Maybe our luck was changing.

As I discussed last year, the Whale Cay Passage is the next to last obstacle that remained between us and Florida. The Sea of Abaco gets so shallow just west of Whale Cay, that boaters are forced into the ocean for a few miles. Because of the underwater topography around Whale Cay, the ocean can be a bit unruly. In fact, “The Whale,” as it is known, can, in certain weather conditions, actually exhibit elements of a “rage” where the swells and the breaking waves on top can make it hazardous for boats of any size to cross. As a result, everyone is very careful about crossing The Whale, the smaller your boat, the more careful you are. Because we kept our eyes on the conditions, the crossing was a non-event. Indeed, it was probably the smoothest of the three we have done. From the Whale, we only had to get to Great Sale Cay, then to West End before crossing the Stream.

The trip to Great Sale was long and, actually, kind of boring. On the way we did see a few areas that might be interesting to explore the next time we come; a couple of deserted (or nearly deserted) islands that, without doubt, have pirate booty buried somewhere ashore. Anyway, Great Sale Cay is a completely deserted island with an excellent anchorage and is about halfway between Treasure and West End. We have stayed there every time we have gone to or come back from the Abacos. If you will remember, the first time we came to the Bahamas we stayed at Great Sale for a couple of days and downloaded our Whaler just to open the thing up and see what she would do. We were in more of a hurry this time and didn’t want to take the time to lower the new dinghy. Moreover, we were a little worried about weather coming over from Florida. We could see on the Garmin (which has Sirius Weather on it) that there was some really nasty stuff on its way so we got everything ready on the boat. We moved as far into the inverted “Y” of Great Sale Cay as we could (giving us some protection from westerly winds), dropped the anchor into the direction from which we thought the weather would come, double checked the set on the anchor it and let out about 150 feet of rode. We prepared the inside of the boat as well, then, well, then we went to bed. I figured that as soon as the weather hit, I would have time to get up, check the boat out and stay awake for the rest of the night to ensure that we didn’t drag. Well, as so often occurs when you are thoroughly prepared, nothing happened. Nothing. Nada. Zip. The weather that was on its way kind of dissipated over the Straits of Florida. As a result, we both slept all night and prepared for the trip to west End.

There really isn’t much to say about West End. We had hoped to stay a day or two, but the weather reports indicated that the weather would be decent to cross on Wednesday and would deteriorate after that. It might be the following Monday before we could get across – if then. So, we decided to spend only one night at the Old Bahama Bay Resort and Marina and move on. Encouraging our departure was the cost of electricity. Now they can charge anything they want for dockage. But one assumes that the water and electricity charges would relate to the costs the marina pays for water and electricity. But $30 for electric and $15 for water? We didn’t even use any of their water and still had to pay. As for electric, thirty dollars for one night of electricity is atrocious. Oh well. As the sign in our salon says, “Paradise Ain’t Cheap.”

The crossing wasn’t as good as some we have had. We had beam seas that kept us rolling back and forth pretty well. My guess is that they were about 2 – 4 feet with an occasional five footer. Again, it was nothing we couldn’t handle, but it wasn’t especially comfortable.

I don't know what to say about this one, but it was right off
the ICW as we were coming in. I simply
HAD to take the picture.

We arrived at West Palm Beach at about 2:30 on Wednesday. But before we actually arrived, Ann had un-suspended her phone, sent a text message to everyone with whom she normally texted and was basically into the “phone mode” once again. Shortly after arrival, Ann called in our arrival to Customs and Immigration so we are now legally in the country once again.

 

 

ANN’S NOTES: Michael has pretty much summed up the events of the past few weeks.

Our time in Marsh Harbor was wonderful, it was nice to see the dockhands from last year that remembered us … and of course the BLT and onions rings. We had a good time making some new friends and reconnecting with some old ones. The dinner at Mangoes was fun and full of stories and lots of laughter.

Treasure Cay is still one of the most amazing and beautiful beaches I have ever seen. We took a long walk on the white sand beach. The color of the water is turquoise and in perfect contrast to the blue sky with just a few clouds, breath taking is the only way to describe it. However, getting the boat to anchor and stay in place in that anchorage is an adventure. It may take six drops of the anchor get it to stick but eventually we get it done.

The crossing of the Whale and the Gulf Stream were fine, I guess I am getting accustomed to the waves and the rocking and rolling that comes with living on a boat. Now six or seven foot waves would be a problem, we have only experienced those once and we made it just fine … not much fun but we were safe on Traveling Soul.

We are now waiting for the 26^th of April to arrive and then fly back to Virginia to keep some doctor’s appointments for Michael. His heel is still not healing and we are hoping one of the many doctors we have seen will take notice and make his incision site and open infection heal. Send positive thoughts and since I am now connected by phone and e-mail, I will send updates.

Just before we left West End we were visited by a TRi-colored Heron )At least that is what we think it was)

Wildlife Count:

Sunday 14 April 2013:   Ann 2 Turtles   Michael 3 Turtles   many curly tailed lizards    Treasure Cay

Monday 15 April 2013:  1 Dolphin (happy me)  Treasure Cay anchorage

                                           4 Dolphins…3 playing in our bow wake (happier me )   Sea of Abaco

Tuesday 16 April:    1 Spotted ray   West End Bahamas

Wednesday 17 April 2013:  1 Tricolored Heron ( he/she bade us farewell as we left the slip) West End

                                                  Lots of flying fish as we crossed over to Florida

Thanks for reading…

Traveling Soul ….OUT

 

Spanish Wells to Marsh Harbor (3 - 12 April)

We left Spanish wells on the third of April and headed to the anchorage at Royal Island. This particular anchorage is famous as a jumping off point to go from Eleuthera (or Spanish Wells) to the Abacos. From Royal Island to Little Harbor – the nearest safe harbor on Great Abaco – is, for sailboats, about one good days sail. Spanish Wells is another hour or hour-and-a-half that can be just a little too far. There are times, we have heard, when there are twenty or more boats waiting to cross. The night we were there, I counted only seven, some of which were dinghy-ing over to Spanish Wells during the day. Moreover, it is a cool anchorage. It is almost completely enclosed except for two small inlets, only one of which is large enough for a boat. The anchorage is almost like a lake. The night we were there the wind was blowing, probably 20 – 25 MPH. We were snug in our little harbor and didn’t feel too much of it at all.

Unfortunately, you can’t go ashore at Royal Island. Some years ago a development company (among whose investors were Jack Nicklaus and Roger Staubach) bought the island with the intention of developing it into a luxury island resort consisting of five villas which they would rent to you for the trifling sum of $12,000 per night. Let me say that again – $12,000 per night. Now, I have to admit that I have never stayed in a luxury villa that cost $12,000 per night, but I can assure you that for that much I would want the whole island (not 1/5 of it), a gourmet chef and Roger Staubach as my next door neighbor. As is the case with so many endeavors in the Bahamas, however, this one stalled a couple of years ago. That said, when we were there, there was something going on. Could it be that, with the end of the recession in sight, they think they can make money? Or could it be that the Canadians are using Royal Island as their staging base for the forthcoming invasion? (You will have to see one of last year’s blog entries for the full intelligence analysis.) There was some pretty big machinery, some men who stayed on the island and about a half dozen that commuted from Spanish wells on boats.

The temptation to spend $12,000 at Royal Island notwithstanding, on April 4 we left and crossed another portion of the Northeast Providence Channel. The seas were 3 – 5 feet with an occasional 6-footer. The problem was that there were coming abaft our starboard quarter. That means they were slightly behind on our right side. The problem that created was that the seas would tilt us over sideway s and then let us fall backwards. The boat didn’t have a problem with it – and neither did Ann – but I sure did. I didn’t get seasick or anything but I sure hate tilting sideways. I keep thinking we could tip over. (Actually, it would take a lot of water to tilt us on our side, but it sure feels like we could go over!) Anyway, we had to move about 10 MPH because we had to get to Little Harbor, our next destination, at high tide.

Little Harbor is another cool anchorage, or in this case, “mooring-ball-age.” There are about 15 or so mooring balls at $20 per night. The harbor itself is VERY protected and we decided to stay there for three nights. However getting in can be an issue. At low tide the entrance to the harbor is 4 feet deep. Now, our boat draws 4.5 feet – and we really didn’t want to leave the last six inches on the bottom of the sea., so we had to make sure we got there somewhere around high tide. And we did. We arrived right on time to scoot on in, pick up a mooring ball and recover from our crossing.

The first day we didn’t do much but get the dinghy down. We didn’t really want to go ashore as the skies were a bit threatening and we didn’t want to get caught ashore in a rainstorm. Nothing happened that day, but that night there was deluge. It was raining so hard we couldn’t see the other boats in the harbor. I mean it was a gully washer, a deluge, a tropical rainstorm, however you want to describe it, it rained like hell. I think it was the hardest and most rain we have seen since we have been on the boat. The good thing was it cleaned the boat! After the crossing of the day before, we had plenty of salt on the hull, the decks, the hatches, the windows, the portholes, on just about everything. The gully-washer took it all off. There were two bad things, however. First, the dinghy got VERY full of water, I am guessing there was six inches of water in the bottom of the little boat – all of which we would have to bail before we went anywhere. The second bad thing was that we have a leak in our salon (living room). Now usually we can get away with putting down a towel to catch the water. This time, though, we had garbage bags under the sham-wows, under the towels. Eventually, we had to put pans under the leaks to catch all the water. Man it was pouring!!

More examples of sculptures. If you look closely, you can see
a turtle and two rays.



An example of the Johnson family sculptures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to being the first good harbor on Abaco after leaving Spanish Wells and heading north, Little Harbor has another claim to fame. It is the location of the home, workshop and foundry of Randolph Johnson. Johnson is one of the top American sculptors of the 20^th Century. In the early fifties, Johnson had what we might today call a mid-life crisis and moved his family and his work to Little Harbor on Abaco Island, which at that time was not as popular among the vacationing crowd as it  is now. He produced some magnificent sculptures and had a Life Magazine article written about him in the sixties. Although he has passed away, his son Peter has taken up his work. The family now runs the foundry and a gallery to sell the art (yes, we bought a piece, a little turtle. I think it was the cheapest thing there for 90 bucks!). In addition, of course, there is Pete’s Pub. I can hear you now, “What?” you must be saying, “What does a pub have to do with sculpting?” I guess my only answer would be that an artist has to get drunk, too!

Anyway, Pete’s Pub is one of those places you just have to go if you are in the Abacos.  We missed it last year, but we weren’t going to this year. We went twice. The first day we went to visit the gallery and for lunch. It was okay, the conch was a little tough, but the setting was great. It is kind of a classic Tiki bar with thatched roofs, sand on the floor, rough carpentry and articles of clothing (mostly T-shirts) from previous customers. The second day we went for dinner. The food was better and we met some of our fellow boaters. On Tactical Directions we met Tony and Sarah. Tony is from Australia and, based on the name of his boat, loves to race. Sarah just joined Tony’s crew in Nassau. She had spent 20 months there in a Yoga retreat and finally decided Nassau didn’t “speak to her.”Now, she is headed back to the States (hence the ride from Tony) and headed to Micronesia. Although she seems to be a sweet girl (she is about 30, I would guess) and has an interesting story, I think Sarah is about 50 years too late; she is truly a flower child.

We had to leave Little Harbor rather early in the morning on the 7^th because we needed to get out at high tide. North of Little Harbor, the island of Abaco is protected from the ocean by a chain of islands, some little, some not so little. The point is that inside this chain of islands, exists the Sea of Abaco. I know, I know, I almost made it sound like a magical place. Well, it kind of is. For the previous several days we had been in some serious ocean. The seas hadn’t been that bad, but they were 3, 4, 5 and yes some 6-footers. Inside the island chain, the wavelets were around six inches! The seas were beautiful, the weather was wonderful, the wind was just right – in short, it was one of those magnificent days that boaters live for. It was just a great day to be a cruiser!

We arrived at Great Guana Cay about 2 PM or so. Now the anchorage at Great Guana – which is inside the Sea of Abaco – is not choppy at all. Ok, maybe not a piece of glass, but it is much smoother than many of the anchorages we had been in before. However. And there is always a however. The anchorage is known for poor holding. In fact, there are two sandy patches and the guide books suggest heading for one of those. (Anchors, you will recall, work by digging into the bottom. If the bottom is sea grass it is much more difficult to penetrate the root system and grab hold of “the bottom” than if there is sand, mud, or some other great anchor-holding material. That would have been a good idea, except for the fact that there were already about 25 boats in the anchorage, all of whom had read the same advice. Yep, the sand was all taken. As a result, we followed our normal anchoring procedure; we dropped the anchor and let the wind blow us back, then, when the anchor chain was taught, we would put the boat and reverse and try to “back down” on the anchor. If it didn’t catch we would do the procedure again. We ended up dropping the anchor at least three times before it finally caught.



A few of our many neighbors at Fisher's Bay off Great Guana Cay

Typically, if I am not sure how well the anchor has caught, I stay on the boat – especially if there is any significant wind. I don’t mind it if other people go ashore, but I, personally, am staying on the boat until I am 100% confident that we are stuck. I was pretty confident that we were caught, but, since I wasn’t 100% certain, we decided to go to Grabbers Bed, Bar and Grill rather than Nippers World Famous Bar and Grill, which would otherwise be our destination of choice. From Grabbers, you see, we can observe the boat; from Nippers, we couldn’t. Anyway, we had a nice tropical drink and some fries, then headed back to the boat. The following day we did make our trip to Nippers, but Monday at a happenin’ bar ain’t the same as a Sunday at the same place. Nevertheless, Nippers does have a beautiful view.

On Tuesday the weather was almost as good as it was on Sunday and we moseyed over to Marsh Harbor. We went straight to our favorite Marina in the Bahamas, Marsh Harbor Marina and the Jibroom. We kind of lazed the rest of the day away as the weather was good and … well … we wanted to laze the day away! Oh! I almost forgot. When we pulled into the marina there was a catamaran docked by the fuel dock. Her name was Sun Cat. Hmmm we know that name. In fact we had their boat card. But before we could put everything together Bob and Shirley from the very same boat came over. Sadly, we could spend only about 15 minutes together as they were on their way to the Airport so they could fly home for a month  or so. Next time we see them we won’t let them go – appointments back home notwithstanding.

When Ann dreams about food, this is what she dreams about:
A BLT with onion rings and a Kalik beer.

We felt so badly about wasting all Tuesday that we really got to work on Wednesday. We cleaned the boat from stem to stern. Man it was dirty. While the rain in Little Harbor knocked off the salt it did not knock off the dirt. That was left to Ann and me as we worked our little touches off. You know this boat really looks good when it’s clean. Anyway, Ann’s reward for working so hard on the boat was a visit to the Jibroom. Now for those of you who don’t remember, Ann loves their BLT’s (apparently made on a particularly sinful type of bread) and their onion rings. In fact, she has waited nearly a year to savor this Jibroom delicacy. Well, she did. I had a beer (oops, okay, maybe I had two) and a few of her onion rings, but she really enjoyed lunch.

On Thursday, Jim Guy and his wife Diane pulled into the marina. We had met them last year at this very marina on their boat, Ocean Dance. We had also run into them (figuratively, not literally) late last year at Vero Beach when we were heading north and he was heading south. It was good to see them but since we are leaving tomorrow we won’t be able to. Also on Thursday we re-provisioned our boat. Yea, yea, we bought some groceries and stuff like that. But we also stopped at Skaggs Wholesale and Retail to refresh our lobster supply. Now, today I am not going to rub in the fact that these lobsters have a specially scrumptious taste, because if I did, I could only do it once. But since we now have ten pounds of lobster tails, I can rub it in every time we have one! And yes, I will!

Also on Thursday we went to the Cruiser’s Meet and Greet held weekly at the Jibroom (Happy Hour prices if you bring an appetizer to share), where we met Steven and Joy who are aboard their Fleming 55, Meandering Joy. They are as new to cruising as we were at this time last year so we gave them a tour of our boat (and they gave us one of theirs) and we both passed on some of the wealth of knowledge we had gained since we had started (he said with tongue-in-cheek).

ANN’s NOTES:  It has been a wonderful few weeks of cruising. We have seen many new places, met some new people, re-connected with some old ones and returned to a favorite harbor. What more can you ask for when you live on a boat? Ok…maybe win a million or two in the lottery…

I have to update you on the dinghy… last year the Boston Whaler and our winch was one of our main issues. I have to tell you that since we bought the inflatable dinghy it has been much better, and since we got the winch fixed and we have a new, better, stronger cable on it, I feel much safer getting it on and off the second deck of our boat. It can be a bit of a challenge at times when it is very windy and dealing with rough water. I now have learned where to tie off the dinghy on the boat in order to reduce all the things that want to push me around. It is always a learning experience when you have something new to deal with.



Ann and the sea along our walk at Little Harbor

We had a really nice time in Little Harbor, Michael and I took a nice long walk on the island. The area is not flat so we got our heart rates up on a few good size hills. We also had some very pretty views from the top of those hills. While at Pete`s Pub, I saw the ground moving, it turns out that they have a small army of hermit crabs. They were all over the place, all of them in different size and shapes of shells. The people at the table next to us picked them up and were having crab races, Michael offered to be their “bookie” and give them “odds” but they saw through the scam and passed.

Another interesting thing I saw was after the big rain storm we had. Next to us was a thirty something foot sail boat that had its dinghy out like most of us. After the rain stopped the first mate got into her dinghy, put in laundry soap and dirty clothes and washed her clothes in the fresh rain water. She rinsed them out in another bucket she had caught rain water in and then hung the clothes in the wonderful breeze. She had bed sheets, underwear, shorts, shirts…just a normal wash day on a sail boat. I think she had done this more than once since they more than likely live on the sailboat.

I am enjoying my time in Marsh Harbor, it is nice to be back in a place that you know where everything is: The bread store, the bank, hardware store, all the places that make living on a boat more normal. I also got my BLT-best-onion-rings ever fix. I had to work my buns off before lunch but it was well worth it…plus the nap that afternoon. We also saw LeeAnn and Jerry from m/v Bella. They were anchored out in the harbor and came in for dinner at the Jibroom so they stopped by for a little while. They are such nice people.

It really has been a fun time for us, remember you are welcome to join us ... we would love to share this wonderful life style with you.

Wildlife Count:

4 April 2013    Flying Fish (lots of them )   Northeast Providence Channel

5 April  2013    5 turtles spotted by Michael…I have to trust he saw that many (HEY, I resent that remark! MB)

6 April 2013     3 turtles: I saw them this time

                           5 turtles: again I trust Michel he saw two more than me

7 April 2013      1 turtle

                             Curly tail lizards (a few)

8 April 2013       1 Starfish

                             Curly tail lizards a few more

Somewhere along the line: A billion noseeums!

Traveling Soul….OUT