Our Eleutheran Adventure (18 – 26 Jan)

When we started our boating travels two-plus years ago, every day was an adventure. We hadn’t been anyplace on our boat and everything we did was new. Once we had been somewhere, though, while we could still have a great time there, returning wasn’t exactly an adventure. For the past year or so, we have been having a great time but we haven’t really adventured. Yes, we went new places and did new things on the ICW – but we had been down the ICW before; yes, we loved taking the kids to see some of our favorite places in the Abacos but we had also been there before. Well, on 18 January of this year we started adventuring again. After visiting Little Harbor and Spanish Wells, we began exploring, we started, exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilizations, boldly going where no man has gone before. And we started with Eleuthera.

Eleuthera is an odd little island. It is 110 miles long and, except for its northwestern corner which resembles a hummingbird’s head and its southern tip which looks like a whale’s tail, it is 2.5 miles at its widest point. The island is very hilly with steep cliffs rising out of the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Exuma Sound on the other. Its highest point is 168 feet and it has a population of 11,165. That population, however, must grow in the spring and summer when vacationers occupy some of the magnificent mansions along the coast and fill some of the many mini-resorts (that consist of maybe a half-dozen cabins and a possibly a restaurant) along the beaches and in the towns.

Eleuthera’s modern history began in 1648 when a group of Englishmen, seeking an end to religious oppression in Bermuda (of all places) left one island paradise for another. They called themselves the “Eleutheran Adventurers” (“Eleuthera” being ancient Greek for “freedom”) and originally settled close to Harbour Island, near current day Spanish Wells, where their ship had wrecked and all their provisions were lost. Later, after a division occurred among the Adventurers, a group of them departed and went to a location half-way down the island which is now called Governor’s Harbour (about which, more later).

[A little side note: After they had lost all their provisions, the leader of the Adventurers, one William Sayle, went to Boston to ask the churches there for assistance. They responded affirmatively and sent over 700 British pounds worth of provisions. The assistance was a godsend for the Adventurers who later repaid the debt by sending a load of brazilwood to a new school just getting underway in Massachusetts – a school called Harvard. At the time it was received, the contribution by the adventurers was the third largest in the school’s history. Even today, Eleutherans are proud of the contribution they made to Harvard.]

Though we weren’t among the original 100 hardy souls, our particular Eleutheran adventure began at a place called “Current Cut.” The Cut is a narrow waterway that separates the Northeast Providence Chanel from the Exuma Sound. Based on the tidal currents, water can flow through the cut at amazing speeds – potentially up to 6-8 MPH. Now if you have a medium-sized engine on your sailboat and are normally capable of moving at only five or six miles per hour, you can see the challenge of moving against 6-8 MPH current – you don’t. It could be even more dangerous, however, if you had following seas and the flow pushed you through the Cut. About halfway through you have to make a sharp turn. If the water is behind your boat and pushing hard, you can imagine what might happen when your boat turns broadside to the moving water – it could push you past the turn and into the shallows where you don’t want to be. The trick, therefore, is to traverse the Cut when the tide has slowed and is between moving in and out – it is called “slack tide.”

Technically, slack tide does not necessarily occur at moments of the highest and the lowest tide, but most of the time it is very close. We planned on moving thorough at 1030, just minutes after high tide. As we were on our way we saw a sailboat that would probably arrive at the Cut about the same time we would. Because I am so courteous (and because on my first time through, I would prefer to follow than lead) I told him we would fall in right behind him. In the event, we passed through the Cut just a little after high tide and, though there was a little more current than I thought there would be, it wasn’t that bad – maybe 2-3 MPH.

Homer Winslow's 1895 painting of the GlassWindow -- before a hurricane took it out.

 

After Current Cut we headed to a place only a few miles away called “Glass Window.” As late as 1885 Glass Window was a natural bridge connecting Eleuthera’s “head” to its “body. The structure was exactly like the natural bridges you see in National Parks where you can look through the arch (hence the term “window”) from one side to the other. At the Glass Window you can see from the Exuma Sound on one side to the Atlantic Ocean on the other. Winslow Homer, a well-known 19^th Century American artist painted a famous picture of the Window in 1895. Sometime afterwards (we don’t know the exact date) Eleuthera suffered a hurricane that brought down the arch. As a result, the government re-connected the two parts of the island with a man-made bridge. In 1991, a rogue wave slammed into THAT bridge – which looks to have been about 100 feet above sea level – shifting it eleven feet to the west – and making the road impassable. The government rebuilt the bridge, which is the structure we saw when we visited. It is part of the Queen’s Highway which runs down the 110 mile backbone of the island. Man that must have been a large and powerful wave!

We had anchored about half of a mile away and dinghied over to the Window. We debarked, climbed the hillside and took all sorts of pictures.

Our next stop was Hatchett Pond, which was right next to Hatchett Bay. The Pond has a small man-made opening – maybe 60 feet across – that opens into a huge pond-like anchorage that has a diameter of around ½ mile. Most of the pond is about ten feet deep and, although it has 10-15 mooring balls, it could easily hold 100+ boats. It is termed “the safest harbor in the Bahamas.” I am certain it would protect you from just about any weather you might find. Although we didn’t need it, we entered it as a waypoint in our GPS – just in case.
 

We stayed on one of the mooring balls for two days. The local settlement is called Alicetown and we visited it a couple of times.  A few things struck us about the town. Most importantly, we were reminded that the Bahamas is definitely a Third World country. Although there were a few large vacation homes, most of the houses were run-down cinderblock structures with plywood covering the windows. There is no such thing as a zoning law in the Out Islands and most of the shops and “variety stores” are one room of a house that has been dedicated to commerce. Typically, the shops carry a few canned goods, a few touristy mementoes and hair products for the locals. Yep, that’s what I said, hair products. Lots of hair products.

We never did find a decent sized grocery store, but we did find a great restaurant called the Front Porch. Other cruisers had praised it in Active Captain and/or some of the other cruising guides we had read so we decided we had to give it a try. We had a pretty expensive lunch of fresh fish fingers (me) and cracked conch (Ann) that was very, very good. In addition, the Front Porch had a great internet connection. In fact, everything about the place was so good that we decided we would have dinner ashore the following day. Then, we made a mistake. Dinner at the Front Porch was very expensive, so, after checking out menus, we decided to eat at one of the newer restaurants in town. It was Twin Brothers, which is kind of a local chain out of Nassau that has been featured in the New York Times, on CBS, NBC and on Top Chef (or so the signs outside tell you – ad nauseum). In case you were wondering, the music was too loud, there were too many no-see-ums, the drinks were bad and the food was terrible. Oh, and the internet was out all evening. In short, we won’t be back to Twin Brothers in either Alicetown or Nassau. And I hope they lost on Top Chef!

The next day we made up for our disappointment of the night before. We went to Alabaster Bay, a beautiful, nearly deserted beach a few miles south of Alicetown. I am guessing the beach was a mile long with twenty or thirty yards of fresh, white sand between the low tide mark and the tree line. There was a mini-resort on the south side of the beach, Casa di Mama, that looked like a very nice place (and is rumored to be very kind to cruisers), but it was closed for the season. There was one vacation home in the middle of the beach, but other than that, it was pretty deserted. We saw a total of three couples there the entire time we were anchored. We went ashore, strolled the beach, and picked up all sorts of seashells.

We knew that the next day a cold front was coming through that would have some pretty strong westerly winds. (See our previous entry on the impact of cold fronts on cruisers in the Bahamas.) Eleuthera is a very long island running north-south, that has very few places that offer protection from westerly winds. We studied the charts and saw three places near Governor’s Harbor that might offer blocking at least some of the wind. The problem was that the charts said all three have “Poor Holding.” I had noticed, however, that some of the other locations where we had stuck our anchor up to its shank had also been listed as having poor holding. Besides, other than going back to Hatchett Pond we didn’t have much of a choice. As we passed the first location we had identified as a possible anchorage we got a radio call from a boat called Lutra. Its captain pointed out that she was in a pretty good location and that there was room for several more boats in the anchorage.  We went on forward to check out the other two locations we had identified as possibilities before turning around and heading back to join Lutra behind Levi Island.

Levi is a small island, about 400 meters long and about ¼ mile due west of Eleuthera proper. We hoped Levi would block the worst winds from the west and that Eleuthera would block as they clocked around to come from the east. Together the two islands formed a north-south channel that allowed some swells from the south, but because of a sandbar to the north, the swells were diminished (though not stopped) from that direction. We checked our anchor with our glass-bottomed bucket and decided it was as good as were going to get it. Then we went to visit our anchorage-mate, the captain of Lutra.

Patti is the captain of Lutra and her first mate is her dog, Myriah. She invited us aboard and, like all good captains, offered us a beer! As we talked we learned that she has been single-handling her boat for the past seven years working during the summer as a marine biologist and spending winters in the Caribbean. She is a very nice, very sweet young lady but if I were a novelist I know exactly what I would do … Patti would be a pirate … AARGH! Eh Patti? And Myria could be her vicious eye-patched mate. It would really be a good story.

Later in the afternoon winds started coming from the southwest. We knew they were going to clock around to the west so we hunkered down. All night the winds were constant at 20-25 MPH except when they gusted to the mid-30’s. The winds weren’t as much of an issue as were the swells; they rolled the boat back and forth all night and part of the following day. Ann slept through it, but with the sound of the winds and the roll of the boat, I spent most of the time from 0300 forwards on anchor watch. I know, I know, we could have split the watch. But, to be honest, I am not going to sleep until and unless I know the anchor is doing what it is supposed to do, so why should Ann have to stay awake too?

After “The Blow,” we went to Governor’s Harbor. It was only a mile or so away from Levi Island and, once again the Charts indicated “poor holding.” I will only point out that ships have been anchoring in this harbor for nearly 400 years and I am not sure they would have done so had holding really been THAT poor.  Governor’s Harbor was the first capital of the Bahamas in the 1700’s and is now the best developed city in the interior of Eleuthera. It has a substantial government presence and a wonderful library. It only has a few hundred residents and was the center of the island’s pineapple trade until the US started subsidizing Hawaiian and Cuban pineapples. We visited Governor’s Harbor a couple of times and even walked across the island to see the Atlantic Coast’s pink sand beaches.

Two days later we headed out to Powell Point and Cape Eleuthera Resort and Marina. We kind of wish we had moved a little more slowly down the island and stopped at a couple other settlements. We also bought a book that discusses Eleuthera’s history that it would have been nice to have read before we embarked. Oh well. Now we have an excuse to come back next year! But for now, we move on from our Eleutheran Adventure to our Exuman Adventure!!

 


Sunset from Point Eleuthera

Ann’s Notes:  As Michael has explained we have been to many new places and it has been an adventure. We have met some cruisers traveling with their children. One family cruises through the winter. They are from Maine and she home schools the two girls on the boat. Another family has two boys, they also home school. I was thinking what an adventure it must be for those children, to be so young and see how other people live and to e able to draw on that experience when they grow into adulthood. I remember what it was like growing up with my grandparents in France and then also our children spending time in Berlin and Belgium. I really do feel it makes for a much more well-rounded person.

Meeting Patti was so good for me. There are times when I miss the sound of a female voice. Patti really is a free spirit and I admire her in many ways. She is one of those physically strong women who is also very female. When the wind was blowing at 20 to 30 miles per hour she was in her dinghy ROWING ashore to walk her dog. I am not sure I could do that…first of all I row in circles…never did get the hang of rowing even at Girl Scout camp. In my own defense I do handle Big Bertha…all 110 pounds of her…yes…I do have the windlass but I need to strong arm her on deck since she won’t fit through the bowsprit hole. Patti does everything the old fashion way and I love that about her. We had her and her puppy over for dinner on the boat and just really enjoyed her company. If you read this Patti…please keep in touch.

Eleuthera is really a beautiful island, we have done a lot of walking…almost hiking up and down hills. I wish I could say the beaches are pristine but, sadly, they show signs of civilization. “Take out” boxes, plastic bottles, glass containers and such. In my utopian island there would be no bugs or trash…just FYI.

I am amazed at seeing the contrast of colors difference between the blue of the Atlantic Ocean and the calm blue/azure water of the Exuma Sound … and at the Glass Window only a few feet separated the two.

So…dear readers…I need to go start dinner…

Thanks for keeping track of us…

Wild Life Count… we have seen a few turtles, a very large sting ray, a small pod of dolphins, small fish with larger fish trying to get them. Today I saw a small wren-type bird with a bright yellow chest.

Traveling Soul….OUT

 

 

On to Eleuthra

The kids left on 4 January, my birthday. Although we loved having them visit, after they departed Ann and I needed a day or two to decompress. So for the next two days, other than a visit to the Jib Room’s streak night, we did very little. One thing we did do, however, was to invite our generator guru and friend Martin (from August Sun), over for dinner. His wife Kathy had gone back to the States for work (yes, she still does that four-letter word).

After our two days of rest, though, we had three tasks to accomplish. Each takes the better part of a day.

·         We had to clean the boat. No matter how careful they are, seven people can track a lot of sand and sea grass on board. Besides, it had been nearly three weeks since we had given her a good scrubbing. We did that on Monday.

·         We had to re-provision. Seven people, especially when three of them are growing teenagers and one is a hard-charging Marine, can eat quite a bit. Moreover, we were used to handling two people for dinner, not seven. We re-provisioned on Tuesday.

·         We had to change the oil in each of our main engines. We try to change it about every 150-200 hours. This, of course, is Ann’s favorite job. I have described it before, but sucking 5 gallons of oil out of the dipstick tube of each engine is a time-consuming chore. We changed the oil on Wednesday.

Then we started waiting. At first it was for the weather. It seemed we couldn’t get a break. There were two back-to-back cold fronts that came through the Bahamas and they both postponed our departure. I guess I should explain why cold fronts are such a pain in the neck even when they don’t bring seriously cold weather and that white-stuff-whose-name-will-never-be-mentioned-on-this-boat.

A cold front has three effects. The first, as you might expect, is that it gets a cooler. What amazes me is that the cooler temperatures don’t come over a few hours or a day, the come literally in a “front.” At Marsh Harbor, for example, I was outside working on the boat and a gust of wind came through. It was probably 75 degrees. Another gust came through seconds later and – I swear – it was ten to fifteen degrees colder. The coolness will often pass within a day or two unless the cold front stalls. In Marsh Harbor for the first week in January the first cold front stalled and a second cold front came right behind it. You know this because it was the same set of cold fronts that caused such terrible weather in the eastern US early this year.

What happens when a colder air mass meets warm, moisture-laden tropical air? You got it – rain. Sometimes it comes down in buckets and sometimes it’s just kind of a long-duration heavy mist. At any rate, cold fronts generally mean rain.

The third effect of a cold front is the wind that comes with it. In the Bahamas the trade winds are generally from the northeast. Before a cold front they change and start tracking in a clockwise pattern from NE-E-SE-S-SW. These winds can get kind of nasty and in moderately bad circumstances can have gusts over 30 MPH. With a really strong front they can be even more. Now, sail boaters like some wind, but not the kind that comes with a strong cold front. We power boaters prefer just enough wind to cool off on a warm day – not the kind that can capsize your boat! Wind, of course, can generate waves and waves can be really nasty. One of the worst effects is to have current going in one direction and wind moving in another; that makes it choppy. It can get choppy to the point the waves are many feet high – something no self-respecting boater, sailor, seaman, captain, admiral or anyone else wants to see.

So, back to Marsh Harbor. We saw one relatively weak cold front come through – with the accompanying rain, wind and cooler weather – just as the kids were leaving. It was followed by a stronger front two days later. The effect was to make miserable weather for nearly a week. Now if we had been planning on cruising within the Sea of Abaco we might have gone anyway. The Sea of Abaco is protected by numerous islands that cut the wind and waves substantially. But our plan was to spend a day cruising south through the Abaco, spend the night at Little Harbor, then head into the big ocean for the 50 miles trip to Royal Island. So we needed a couple of nice days in a row that we could predict a day ahead of time. So, we waited.

Just as the weather started to improve, I was checking the batteries to make sure they would be ready the next day when we started south. Ooops! One of the engine starting Batteries had literally blown up. I know. You hear that batteries can blow up, but I am not sure any of us have ever seen one. Well, I am now one of the few humans alive who has seen it – though I will say that I wish I weren’t. As I started thinking about it, I remembered a day a week or so earlier – while the kids were here – when we all heard a big BANG – like a door slamming. Well, we checked out the boat and could find nothing. We decided that it must have been just that – a door slamming – though we couldn’t determine which door it might have been or what might have caused it. It was no big thing. Fast forward one week. I just realized that I had solved the mystery. The engine cranking batteries are located under the floorboards. Apparently, one of the batteries blew up, lifting the floor board and allowing it to slam down – and it all sounded like a door slamming.  



One of these days we are going to publish a blog consisting
solely of Ann's pictures of flowers. This is one of them.

We disconnected the battery, cleaned out the battery compartment with baking soda and water and found that the engines would start just fine on two batteries. At first we were going to go ahead and leave the following as we had planned, but as I thought about it, I realized we would not be anywhere we could buy a new battery for several weeks, so I figured that maybe we should go ahead and get one in Marsh Harbor. We did.

At this point all I am willing to say is that the installation process did not go well and we had to hire an electrician to finish the job. Since all this happened on a Saturday, of course, we had to wait until Monday for the electrician. (To keep you gear heads interested let me just say that the battery saga is not over. Read on.)

On Tuesday we took off. The weather reports were a bit sketchy for later in the week, but it looked like we might be able to cross the Northeast Providence Channel on either Wednesday or Friday. We figured that even if these reports were wrong, we would be able to wait at Little Harbor until we could go. Finally, we were out of Marsh Harbor.



The cemetery at Spanish Wells

After we arrived at Little Harbor, I started looking at the weather reports in earnest. We had pretty much decided that we should stay at Little Harbor and wait for the front to pass – which would mean we wouldn’t leave until Friday. However, we figured we could wait until the following morning (Wednesday) to make the final decision. On Wednesday morning the weather reports were just as “iffy” as they had been all week. Just as we were ready to decide to postpone our departure we heard two boats on the radio, a sail boat that had just crossed into the ocean and a trawler that was just about to do so. At that point we figured “what the hell,” if they can do it we could too. So, off we went. We also decided that, since Wednesday night and Thursday were supposed to be such terrible days weather-wise that we would go to a marina in Spanish Wells rather than anchor at Royal Island as we had initially planned.

Yes, it was “lumpy,” much lumpier than I like it. Still, it wasn’t a terrible ocean crossing – except for one thing. Shortly after we started the trip I went down to the engine room to check the engines. While there, I noticed that the fuel system wasn’t behaving like I thought it should, so I made some adjustments that I would need to check every hour or so throughout the day. Although I don’t usually get seasick, I have just learned that when I have to go down into the engine room where it is hot and stuffy AND I have to stay there for any length of time AND the boat is rocking and rolling, apparently I can get very queasy. Moreover, when I have to go back several times throughout the day – every time, as a matter of fact, when I started to feel a little bit better – I can continue to feel queasy all day. In short, this was not one of my favorite ocean journeys.

Bonefishing on the sand flats at Spanish Wells

Finally, though, we passed through the Egg Island Cut and were on our way to Spanish Wells. We had been here last year and had stayed for several days so we knew it fairly well. Still, we discovered two things. First, we discovered a new restaurant, the “Shipyard.” I am here to tell you that it is somewhere between very good and excellent. Unlike any of the other restaurants in Spanish Wells, it is on the water (which automatically gains my favor) and it overlooks some shallow sand flats. It just so happens that shallow sand flats are where people fish for bonefish – with fly rods, no less. The food was good, the service surprisingly fast and the entertainment (watching bonefishermen ply their craft) was great!

As I said, though, we discovered a second thing. Remember the battery saga? The “old” battery in the new bank was heating up. I mean it was really heating up. While the other Batteries were about 80 degrees, this one was 130+. Okay, so we turned off the charger and it didn’t help. So we disconnected it, waited until it cooled off and took it outside. We reconnected the other batteries and decided that we would go with two batteries in the port engine bank. So far, so good.

I know that many of you aren’t going to have much sympathy with our battery story. “Everyone” knows that when you replace one battery in a bank you should replace all of them. Ok. But the batteries are $300 each, and I know that I am going to have some electrical work done this summer that will probably result in new batteries anyway. Can you blame me for trying to save a buck – or nine hundred?

 

ANN’S NOTES:    OK….I have been told that I only have a limited amount of time to get my two cents worth in…we have to take the computer into town to one of the local Wi-Fi hot spots and send this edition on its  way.

I do want everyone to know that the Christmas visit with Lisa, Dave, Nik, Trent and Maddy was wonderful. Yes, we did need some time to regroup   but we have earned that right as parents and grandparents of a very active family.

Changing the oil, when we did it the first few times was a pain in the a**, but now we are much more organized and patient. We know how long it will take, how many rolls of oil sucking rags we need and as long as we have ten, one gallon empty jugs, we are good to go. We also need two very large oil filters, that Michael has figured out how to take off with minimal amount of mess. I think one of the things we are going to do this summer is hook up a pump on both engines that will suck out the oil; we have the set up, just not the pump part.

Does anyone have any questions about batteries, that I may be able to answer for you? Remember Radar from MASH? He could hear helicopters before anyone could see them? I have very good hearing and I was the one that heard a faint sound coming from under the battery compartment. It sounded like my pressure cooker before it starts to choo-choo and begins cooking the meal. Anyway…I pulled the hatch cover and went to get my stethoscope to listen to the battery making the noise. I found five, silent batteries and one that was boiling. You know…once a CNA....always a CNA. I never thought I would use my stethoscope to listen to batteries but it sure did come in handy and confirm it was boiling and that was NOT GOOD.

As far as the cold fronts go…I LOVE them. As most of you know I am not really a hot and humid kinda girl so any type of cool/cold breeze is more than fine with me. I can even wear a little make up when it is cooler and I don’t look like a zombie with big round red circles around my eyes.

The one day we spend in Little Harbor was nice, we saw more than a few turtles. They looked like big dinner plates floating in the water and then you would see them come up for air.

Well…I think my time is about up…

Thank you for reading our blog and following us on this adventure….Blessing to each and every one of you…

Traveling Soul…OUT

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Final Letter from the Abacos (22 Dec - 4 Jan)

From 22 December until 4 January we had our first set of visitors for the year!!!! Our visitors were the West Coast members of our clan. They were:

·         Daughter - Lisa,

·         Her husband - Dave,

·         14 YO Grandson - Trent,

·         18 YO Granddaughter Maddy and

·         18 YO Grandson Nik

(Collectively, they will henceforth be referred to as “the kids”). The kids arrived at Marsh Harbor on Sunday 22 December after about 20 hours of time in airports and on airplanes. Dave is a Marine stationed in Twentynine Palms, CA so they started the trip at the nearest airport – Las Vegas – then they flew to Houston and Fort Lauderdale, and finally to Marsh Harbor. That’s what happens when you start from the Left Coast!

Dave and Maddy I told you
we let them rest

Nik and Trent: I didn't know we let them
rest THAT much, thugh

Mom - Lisa.
As you can see, it is true that mothers never sleep.
 (They take pictures of people taking pictures)

We let them rest on the 22d, but were on the way to Treasure Cay shortly thereafter. Treasure Cay, as you will remember, is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world – azure waters half-surrounded by clean, cool sand. Just as the beach was beautiful, the trip from Marsh Harbor to Treasure was picture perfect. The water was like glass and you could look through the ten to fifteen feet of water and see the bottom of the sea. You could see starfish as well as finned fish swimming away. It was really great.

We arrived at Treasure and anchored. We could choose anyplace we wanted because, for the first time ever, we were the ONLY boat in the anchorage. A sailboat came in shortly after we arrived and anchored … well … a little bit closer than we would have preferred, but it was okay. The next boat was even closer. Now look, the anchorage is about 1000m x 500m; and everybody wanted to anchor near us! Actually, in boating they have a term for it – snuggling. Why people want to snuggle is beyond me, but they do. Oh well, no one was so close we had to move. We just gave them dirty looks and drove on.

We went ashore and the kids seemed to enjoy the restaurant (Coco’s), the beach, and the swimming. The swells were about six inches and everyone could get wet and stay cool. I do love beaches so … .Plus, Maddy turned into a serious shell collector and found some pretty ones over the next several days.  Ann made sure that we washed them and kept them outside long enough to ensure there were no little creatures growing inside them. We have made that mistake before.

We couldn’t stay at Treasure very long and had to leave the next day. Anybody? Does anybody know why we had to leave? You might be thinking we had to be somewhere else – Nope. Maybe someone got sick – Nope. Maybe we ran out of food, drink or soda – Nope. Nope. And Nope. It was the generator … The friggin’ generator went on the fritz … AGAIN! I wanted to get back to Marsh Harbor so our friend, diesel guru and generator savior, Martin, from August Sun could take another look at the *$%^&*thing.

In the event, it took two more “looks” by Martin before we finally got it fixed. It turned out to be the same solenoid that failed last summer and that we had Rudi (another generator guru) replace. We did, however, discover a work-around that makes the system work without hunting for a new solenoid in the Bahamas; if we jump two of its external terminals it starts right up. To make sure we weren’t damaging the system, we e-mailed Rudi, told him what we were going to do and asked him if he thought it was okay. He told us, “yep,” just to make sure we used 10-12 gauge wire for the bridge. We are going to order a new one (actually, we’ll probably order two), but not until we get someplace where we trust the delivery system (which we don’t here in Marsh Harbor).

Christmas Festivities.

Santa at the anchorage at Treasure Cay ... He goes EVERYWHERE!

Ever since I was a kid we have had pizza for Christmas Eve dinner. I know, I know that sounds crazy to some of you, but listen to the logic. My family opened its presents on Christmas Eve. (Don’t ask me why, we just did.) So, it stands to “kid reason” that we should eat Christmas Eve dinner as early and as quickly as possible. Moreover, since we had to have the dishes washed and put away before we could open presents, we wanted to use paper plates for the meal itself (there could be certainly be no utensils) and we wanted to keep the serving and cooking dishes as few as possible. The answer? Pizza, of course. Now that we are grown-ups we do the same thing. Why? Because it is a tradition, of course!

Anyway, our daughter, with moral support from her father, insisted that we have pizza for dinner. Ann made individual pizzas so each person could craft his or her own. They were scrumptious! The next day we headed back to Marsh Harbor so we could be at the marina for Christmas dinner where the owners hosted a Christmas dinner. They furnished ham and turkey while the boaters provided side dishes. I convinced Ann to make her patented macaroni and cheese. (Actually, I had a great deal of help in this from Maddy who is also a mac and cheese fan.)

Great Guana

After Christmas we headed to Great Guana. There, we visited the “world famous” Nipper’s Bar and Grill as well as some lesser known establishments. Nipper’s overlooks a nice, clean beach on the Atlantic side of the island. The kids thoroughly enjoyed the beach on the Atlantic side which had some relatively serious waves that could knock you down and were (almost) big enough for body-surfing.

The soon-to-be, kinda-semi-official SCUBA divers.
The only problem was that Dave has more muscle
 than fat -- which means he sinks to the bottom.

However, we hadn’t gone to Guana for Nipper’s, for the eating, the drinking or even for getting knocked down by waves. We went to Guana because Ann and I had arranged for the kids to take a “resort” SCUBA dive. (Actually four of them had to take the resort course; Lisa was already a certified diver.) That means they spent an hour or two in the pool with SCUBA gear and an instructor, then an hour or so in the water actually SCUBA diving. It is not a replacement for a serious SCUBA course, but allows you to get into a wet suit, strap on an air tank and try it out. Anyhow, our plan was for them to leave from Great Guana and go with a company called Dive Guana. The weather of course, did not agree so we had to wait a day. Now Great Guana is a nice island and has two great restaurants/bars, and a nice beach, but not that much else. So, while we easily kept everyone busy for the first two bad weather days, we were not sure we would have enough to do for the third, so we headed back to Treasure Cay. There, we arranged for Treasure Divers to take the kids out the following day. It worked perfectly. They got extra time in the pool and plenty of time on the reef. While in the water they saw turtles, lobsters, sharks and a whole bunch of other kinds of fish. I think the dive was a success.

Hopetown

After Treasure Cay and the dive, we went to Marsh Harbor for a day or so to catch our collective breaths and then headed out to Hope Town. Hope Town was kind of fun for everyone. It was more decorated than Marsh Harbor with the Lighthouse – as well as many of the boats – still adorned with Christmas lights. We ate twice at Captain Jacks and had a drink or two at the marina bar. (The kids over 18 and under 30 were allowed to drink, but preferred to take a sip or two from mom or dad’s cocktail and let it go at that – a very mature approach. I just hope they can keep the same attitude at college next year.) Everyone went up to the lighthouse, into Hopetown and over to the Atlantic beach on the other side Elbow Cay.

After Hope Town it was back to Marsh to prepare for departure. Everyone got out of Marsh Harbor easily enough, but if you will recall, there was a cold snap in the States and all the airlines were cancelling flights. The kids had their flight cancelled, too, but they were lucky in that they were only delayed a day or two. Anyway, everyone is now back in Twentynine Palms, wishing, I suspect, they were still in the Bahamas!

 ANN`S NOTES:   It has been a busy couple of weeks and Michael and I have had time to re-group and talk about how much fun we had with the `kids`

I must say that Traveling Soul did rather well with an extra five people on board, even with generator problems. I must thank the kids for being so accommodating when it came to taking showers; whenever possible they went to the marina bath house and took their showers. I know that does not sound very important but when our boat only carries two hundred gallons of water and seven people want to take showers, the fresh water tank can empty very quickly. We also had to share Wi-Fi time and we worked that out rather well also.

The Christmas holiday was different and wonderful. The pizza on paper plates continues and our tradition of having family to share the holiday is also safe.  We all enjoyed the small table top Christmas tree decorated with my hand-made sea shell ornaments. We also had a Skype session with Tim, Carrie, Caylin and Gavin which we all enjoyed. A few phone calls to and from Dave and Joan, Michael`s mom, and my mom and sister made the day complete.

We have become very good friends with Martin and Kathy on Autumn Sun. Martin has been so very helpful with solving generator problem and Kathy and I just became instant friends. She and I can just sit and girl-talk for hours. Martin is about ready to retire and Kathy is still working via computer and a few trips every once in a while. They plan on staying in Marsh Harbor for a year and see what happens next. It turns out they are good friends with Lee-Ann and Jerry from Bella. Jerry was the Ortho surgeon that we meet last year in the Exumas and advised Michael on the Achilles tendon surgery he had done at Walter Reed. We plan on seeing them later this session in the Exumas.

We did not send out a Christmas newsletter this year but we want you to know that you are in our thoughts. We wish you a very Happy 2014, full of health, happiness and new adventures. Blessings to each and every one of you…

Traveling Soul….OUT

Second Letter from the Abacos

After the wind aborted our planned nights at Tahiti Beach, we went to the Marsh Harbor anchorage. It is pretty well protected from all directions and, since the wind direction was confusing us, we thought that would be a good refuge. We anchored, and, although we eventually got the generator started, knew that we would have to get someone to fix it – again. So, we decided to go to a marina in Hopetown, on Elbow Cay.

We had been in Hopetown before and really liked it. It has the big lighthouse that is one of only two hand-lighted lighthouses in the world. In fact, my original John Everett painting has the Hopetown lighthouse prominently featured. We arrived at the Hopetown Inn and Marina on Friday the 13^th and called Richard from Cook’s Marine Services. He said he would be by the following day.  So we spent the balance of Thursday ashore in Hopetown looking around. We only went into the northern half of the town, where we checked out some gift shops and … Oh, there happened to be a restaurant/bar that we also decided to check out! We had beer and some homemade potato chips (which were very, very good). While we were eating, we saw Al and Michelle, the folks from Kindred Spirit. That we had originally met on the ICW in Georgetown, SC – outside of the Rice Museum as a matter of fact and saw them again later in Vero Beach where we had Thanksgiving. We like Al and Michelle because they keep their AIS system on almost all the time – and we know when we are getting close to them. They had initially intended to head all the way down to the Exumas, but have changed their minds and decided to stay on a mooring at Hopetown. And … who can blame them? It is a lovely location.

Richard, our repairman, called to let us know he couldn’t be there until the following morning, so we took part of the second day in Hopetown to explore the southern half of the town. We walked across the island and spent a half-hour or so strolling on the Atlantic Beach. It was beautiful as always. We also discovered a new restaurant on the Atlantic side. We certainly haven’t been to all of the restaurants in Hopetown, of course, but I thought we knew where most of them were; of this one, though, I hadn’t even heard. I guess we‘ll have to try it out next time!

On Saturday, Richard finally came, spent maybe fifteen minutes on the generator, and had it running again (just so you know, the story is not over – stay tuned). He charged us $20. I mean I couldn’t give him $20. He had taken time out of his schedule and had come across the harbor to visit the boat. I was expecting to pay him at least $100. But, since he only expected $10, I gave him $40. He was happy, I was happy, all God’s children were happy … until the generator broke down again the following day.

We also saw SeaSparrow. We seemed to be going the same places. However, they were now on their way south to the Exumas and beyond. They are a fun couple and I hope we see them again.

There was one other event that occurred on Saturday the 14^th. Army lost to Navy (AGAIN … FOR THE 12^th YEAR IN A ROW!) It wasn’t a surprise in that the previous week Army had lost to Hawaii, which had a 0-11 record until they played the cadets. I know many of you think it is funny. To me, it is not. Can you imagine any of the great generals allowing one of his subordinates to lose battle after battle … without being fired? Can you imagine the losing spirit being built into the Corps of Cadets – or at least those cadets who played on the football team? Well, there was one positive outcome that derived from our scrubbing by Navy. West Point FINALLY fired its coach.

On to more pleasant things. The generator was repaired, so we decided to set out for Great Guana, about an hour-and-a-half away. The wind was blowing at 15-20 MPH, from the SW and we only had a little protection so we huddled into the shore as closely as we dared, found a sandy spot and dropped the anchor. The boat drifted backwards a little, then, wham – Bertha grabbed the bottom and we suddenly stopped. Yessss! This is how it is supposed to work! Over time the wind clocked around – just like the forecasts said it would we only had a little protection from the wind, so we had more and more protection as time went on. By the morning, the island was blocking most of the heavy wind.

The reason we wanted to go to Guana was because the (in)famous restaurant/bar “Nippers” was having one of its Sunday Pig Roasts. We had heard a lot about them, but had never been to one. So we went to Great Guana, anchored and ate pig. They had roast pork, barbecued pork, macaroni and cheese, xxx and a few other things. Needless to say I spent my time on mac and cheese and the two types of pork. Actually, it was surprisingly good – but very expensive. Though it was all you could eat, it was $24 per person, and that was without the semi-mandatory drink!

Monday morning when we tried to turn on the generator to bring up the dinghy – you guessed it – the generator wouldn’t work. We were going to anchor in Marsh Harbor for a coup-le of days, but in light of the generator-from-hell we decided we would go to the marina at Marsh and get someone to fix it once and for all. When we got there, we called Richard (who had repaired it in Marsh Harbor) to see if he could recommend anyone. He told us that he had some errands to run at Marsh Harbor and he could come look at it on Tuesday if we wanted him to. That was great – or so we thought. Actually, he told us late on Tuesday that he wouldn’t be able to show up after all, that it would be Wednesday. On Wednesday we left three messages for him, but didn’t hear anything back. On Thursday AM we finally got a call that said he would be over in a few minutes. On Thursday he looked at it and basically decided he didn’t know what was wrong with it. AAARRRGGHHH! He wasted so much of our time!

Earlier in the week, we had re-connected with Kathy, from August Sun. Her husband, Martin, was back in the States wrapping things up from his former job. Martin, it turns out, used to be a Marine Engineer. He was to large ships, in other words, what Scotty was to the Starship Enterprise. He used to fix big diesel engines for a living. Although I really don’t like asking fellow cruisers for help on a project, Martin volunteered to take a look at our generator.  I explained the symptoms – as I had for each of the THREE different repairmen who had worked on it previously – and I told him what each of them had done. He nodded his head and said (in a classic Australian accent) “Did you change the filter in the lift pump?” I looked at him with my classic dumb look … “Lift pump?” I asked. ”Filter?”

He then asked, “Well does your generator have a lift pump?”

“Lift Pump?” I asked. “I dunno.” We got out the manual and sure enough, there was a lift pump and filter right next to the fuel filter. He got down next to the generator and looked … sure enough the lift pump filter said, “Change every 200 hours.” Since I didn’t even know there was a lift pump in the generator – or that it had a filter – I was pretty sure it hadn’t been changed recently. Moreover, as it happens, we had a couple of extra lift pump filters in our spare parts container. Martin changed the filter and … voila … we haven’t had a generator problem since (knock on wood). So, if you ever visit the boat and, sitting in my captain’s chair, I burst out with, “Martin, I need more power!” You will know I am just trying to emulate James T. Kirk, of the Starship Enterprise, calling for power from Mr. Scott, his Chief Engineer.

Ok, besides getting the generator fixed, we did two other things of note. First, we cleaned the boat. I mean we really cleaned her inside and out. We needed to; after a couple of weeks in the sea air, she needed a good scrubbing. We also cleaned her inside. We used wood polish on our wooden bulkheads and “Barkeeper’s Helper” on all the stainless. In short, we have a very, very clean boat.

The second thing we did was to re-provision. Now this is more complicated than it should be because we are going from running a boat with two persons on board to a boat with seven persons aboard; a boat with 60+ year old people to a boat with two 18 year olds, one 14 year old and two 40-ish year old people. Guess what … we all eat and drink differently.

 

First Post from the Abacos - 2013

Crossing the Gulf Stream: From the US to the Bahamas

 

Some of you may remember how I waxed poetic on previous crossings. I talked about the blueness, the power, the beauty and the depth of the ocean; I talked about the magnificence of the Gulf Stream; I talked about many a thing. This time, though, not so much. The waves were forecast to be 2-3 feet in the morning, then 2-4 with an occasional 5 footer in the afternoon. Although we weren’t afraid of 2 -4 foot seas we left early in the morning so we could get more of the 2-3 footers than the 2-4 footers.  Well, folks I am here to tell you that we couldn’t see the two, three or four footers because of all the 5+footers!!!! AND they were head-on. That meant that every six foot wave lifts the bow of the boat six feet in the air just in time to drop it into the trough and run straight into another six-footer. Bang! Bang! Man that was rough. Oh! Since I am doing sound effects I forgot the squeeeel of the bilge alarm telling me that the bilge pump was pumping all that water overboard. (I like the pump part, just not the screeching part.)

Now you shouldn’t get the impression that we were in any danger or felt threatened. My whole crew (Ann) spent much of the crossing in the saloon splitting her time between reading and sleeping. I guess she just inherited her grandfather’s nautical disposition.

Anyway, I tried all the tricks I knew to reduce the impact of the waves. I “tacked” at up to 30 degrees (meaning we zig-zagged 30 degrees off course northward, then 30 degrees off course southward. The net effect should have been to reduce the impact of the waves and still get us where we wanted to go – though much more slowly). I also reduced speed just before we were to hit a wave. I was trying to make it so we weren’t driving ourselves into the next wave, but were just falling into it. None of this worked very well. The only thing that worked was time. We eventually ran out of the Gulf Stream and made it to West End. “Whew!” as they say, “what a ride!”

Our time at West End (one night) wasn’t very eventful. We did go to the restaurant for the first time. We both had cracked conch and enjoyed it. There did seem to be fewer boats at the marina than had been there in our previous visits. I think the dockage fees were a little less than the first time we were there, but the cost of water and electric seem to have gone up. Oh well.

Great Sale Cay

 

Some of the boats near us at Great Sale Cay.

In contrast to our crossing of the day before, the water on the Little Bahama Bank was wonderful. There might have been one foot waves, but we didn’t notice them. We just put the boat on auto pilot and kept track of where we were. At about 1600 we arrived at Great Sale Cay – a wonderful anchorage we have used every time we traverse the bank. We dropped the anchor (using Big Bertha, the new 110 pound anchor that Ann named, for the first time), opened up the liquor cabinet and talked about the northern Abacos islands we would explore over the next several days. Then it happened. The generator conked out.

Now imagine. You have had almost the perfect boating day; tomorrow you were going to explore some cool islands that are off the beaten path – and maybe catch your first lobster; you had just eaten dinner and were completely relaxed. Then, the one system for which you have no back up fails. For most of the systems on the boat we have either redundant systems or work-arounds that will keep us up and running for a few days. Not so for the generator. If the generator fails, we have no way to recharge the inverter batteries. If we can’t recharge the inverter batteries we can’t run the refrigerator. If we can’t run the refrigerator, we stand to lose a lot of provisions that we have accumulated over time. I was … how can I put this delicately … royally pissed off. If I would have had a gun, I would have shot this boat and been done with it. (Now I know why boats and firearms don’t go together.) Anyway, now we had to change our plans. We had enough of a charge to make it to Green Turtle Cay the following day. There, they would have a mechanic, we were sure, who could either fix our generator or help me throw it overboard.

Green Turtle Cay

 

We made it to Green Turtle Cay and made it to another near-empty marina. It was a Saturday, of course, and we were concerned that we would have to wait to Monday to have someone look at the generator so we called ahead and the marina assured us that someone named Cameron would be there and ready to work on the generator. He got there about an hour after we did and worked on it for an hour or so. He couldn’t solve the problem. He was almost as frustrated as I was and was very apologetic, but it still wasn’t fixed. He said he would go straight to his car and call a friend of his who would know what to do. We hadn’t heard anything from Cameron by 1000 the following day so we called him back and asked him if his friend was coming, He told us that he was in the States but would be back in Green Turtle later that day. Meanwhile, Ann had searched for a Westerbeke generator distributor in the Bahamas and – lo and behold – there was one in Green Turtle Cay. (Westerbeke is the brand name of our generator.) It was Sunday, of course, and no one was there, but we had a lead for Monday morning in case we didn’t hear from Cameron’s friend.

On Monday, we finally connected with the Westerbeke distributor who told us we should call their technician, George. It turns out that Cameron’s friend’s name was also George. (In case you hadn’t guessed, it is a small island.) George said he would be out later that day, so, even though we had been invited to a party, we stayed on the boat waiting. He didn’t show.

The generator wasn't the only thing that went wrong. We also
sprang a leak in our fresh water system. But we have become
 experts in fixing leaks. Here is Ann deeply involved in making our
water flow again!

On Monday, while we were waiting for George, we reconnected with Jeff and Debbie aboard SeaSparrow, who we had initially met at Marineland, later at Vero Beach and then again at North Palm Beach. The reason they were in North Palm, was to take their dog to a vet and get some medicine for what seemed like a lung infection that wouldn’t go away. It is a very long sad story, but on their way across they learned that their dog didn’t have a lung infection, she had advanced lung cancer, was in pain, and wouldn’t make it very long. So, they changed their trip plans and headed to Green Turtle Cay. There was nothing any vet could do so they had to put their dog down. The only good part about their story is that they met many good people in Marsh Harbor and in Greet Turtle that helped them along the way.

On Tuesday we got a call from the elusive George who said he would be there in 15 – 20 minutes. Believe it or not, he actually showed up and, Cameron’s failed efforts notwithstanding, promptly fixed our generator – or at least kind of fixed it. (More on this later.) As soon as George was off the boat, we cranked her up and headed to Treasure Cay so we could anchor, use the generator, and visit one of our favorite spots in the Bahamas. Or so we thought.

As we passed through Whale Passage, though, the boat suddenly started a slow vibration. I had felt this kind of vibration before – nearly two years ago when we had picked up a tarp in our propeller. When it happened before, we had to go to a marina and hire a diver who cut it off. This time, we continued on our way to Treasure Cay – albeit more slowly – and anchored once we got there. I then donned my mask and snorkel and went overboard. Sure enough, there was a huge tangle of rope around our starboard propeller. It took a while, but after several dives and several cuts I finally managed to get the rope off.

A turtle near the boat at Treasure Cay.
I took three pictures; this is the best

For the balance of Tuesday and all day Wednesday we lazed around Treasure Cay. On Thursday morning we headed out for Tahiti Beach. Although we had heard about Tahiti Beach, we had not yet been there. No sooner had we arrived and dropped our anchor (Ann is getting better and better at handling Bertha) than the wind picked up from about 5 MPH to a good 25 MPH. We decided that we really didn’t want to stay in this kind of wind and seas, so we decided to head out to Marsh Harbor and drop the anchor again. Although the winds kept up in the Harbor, the seas weren’t much at all.

Next time we’ll tell you about Hopetown and our preparations in Marsh Harbor for Trent, Maddy, Nik,  Dave  and Lisa.

ANN’S NOTES:   Well it has been an interesting several weeks. We have mostly enjoyed ourselves except for that BIG piece of equipment that is called a generator and seems to have a mind of its own. I am sure someone that lives on these island can fix this monster…heaven knows several have already tried.

We have met some wonderful new cruisers and that is so much fun for me. We linked up with Jeff and Debbie on SeaSparrow once before. We first met them in Marineland on the dock, then really got to know them in Vero Beach at Thanksgiving when they sat with Lori and Russ and us. They really are a wonderful couple, from Halifax Canada and so funny. We just all `clicked`. The story on their dog is so sad but also very sweet. Stella was a two-and-a-half year old pure bread golden retriever. She was sick, but was able to pass all the vet exams and get her papers to travel to the Bahamas. She was a real boat dog in that she loved chasing the fresh water from the hose on the deck of the boat. On the way over to the Bahamas, they got a call from the vet, who said that Stella had advanced lung cancer, very rare for a dog so young. They went to the closest island to figure out what to do. This is when the universe stepped up with all the kindness she could find.  Jeff and Debbie had not even cleared customs yet, they just wanted to get Stella to a vet for help. While Jeff was looking for a place to land the dinghy at the Government Dock in Green Turtle Cay, he overshot the dock and was turning around when he ran out of gas. A woman in a golf cart (that is mainly what is used for transportation on this island) was watching. He was trying to row his heavy center console dinghy against the wind and current. He made it to the dock and explained what was happening with Stella and what he needed to get to a vet ASAP. The lady and her husband took over from there.

He explained they had not cleared customs and they told him they would help them with all that. The couple picked up Debbie and Stella from SeaSparrow and took them to Marsh Harbor on their boat, helped them clear customs and waited for them while at the Vet office. It turns out this couple are very active in the animal rescue association on the islands. The vet in Marsh Harbor only confirmed the sad news and at the request of Jeff and Debbie put Stella to sleep. The couple suggested to Debbie and Jeff that they might want to bring Stella back to Green Turtle because Marsh Harbor really does not have a kind way to dispose of their animals. Stella was brought back to Green Turtle, the couple had a place to bury her and helped dig her grave and placed her in it. Nothing was asked of Jeff and Debbie, the kindness of these people and their love of animals was very clear. Jeff and Debbie gave them twenty pounds of food, flea and tick collars and all the medicines they had from the Vets. I just had to tell this sad and sweet story because sometimes we forget that people are kind and loving and do want to help strangers.  

While in Green Turtle Cay we also meet another couple, Kathy and Martin, on a sailboat Autumn Sun. They joined us for a drink while we were having dinner on the terrace at the Bluff House Marina. Another funny wonderful couple that I look forward to meeting again.` Down Island `as they say in the Bahamas.

Traveling Soul….OUT

Vero and North Palm (20 Nov - 4 Dec)

This will probably be our last Blog Entry before we leave for the Bahamas. It covers our stay in Vero Beach (7 days on a mooring ball and three days in a slip), including our penultimate provisioning runs, and our stay in North Palm Beach while we waited for a weather window. After we get to the Bahamas it will probably take us at least three or four days to get to Marsh Harbor and find a decent wi-fi connection. I say at “at least,” because, if everything works out right, we may take an extra day or two and visit some of the northeastern islands that we haven’t yet visited (a couple of them are supposed to have good local restaurants). I am telling you all this so if we appear to have disappeared from the face of the earth, you will know that we are alive and well living on rum and lobster on some remote Bahamian cay.

Vero Beach

Some of you may remember that Vero Beach has a very nice mooring field. It is nice because it is well protected from the wind, has good, strong mooring tackle and costs only $13.87 per day!!! When we arrived the wind was blowing pretty hard so we tried some of our new mooring techniques. We did okay, but we need to take our new techniques back to the drawing board. We intended to stay on the ball for ten days, so we drank a toast, and as we clinked our glasses we swore not to use too much water, electricity or anything else for which we might need a marina. It didn’t quite work out the way we planned – but more about that later.

On 22 November we rented a car and headed to Patrick Air Force Base so we could visit the commissary and Base Exchange. I think Patrick is the only military base of any size in central Florida and we weren’t the only retirees who decided to visit the Commissary on the Friday before Thanksgiving. I have never seen one so crowded. Anyway, we filed up our grocery carts – to the tune of about half-of-a-Boat Unit, loaded our rental car and headed home. We got staples that every cook like Ann needs in her galley and every eater like Mike needs to have in his chef’s galley!), as well as various items that are very expensive or difficult to find in the Bahamas. We weren’t finished, however. Before we got to the boat we hit West Marine pretty hard, too. We spent a little bit less than there, but not much. The good thing was this was going to last us for the next several weeks.

I know those of you in Virginia have had some bad weather while we were down here and folks in other parts of the country have had it even worse. I just want you to know that we’ve had bad weather, too. It must have rained for five of the ten days we were in Vero. Ok, so maybe it wasn’t snow and maybe it was 65-75 degrees most of the time, but we didn’t have it perfect. In fact … I know you are going to feel sorry for us once I tell you this … on Thanksgiving Day I actually had to turn on the heater AND get my long pants out of the closet!!! Yes, for about two hours on Thursday morning it was under 50 degrees Brrr! Ok, so maybe it warmed up later in the day – to the point where we were very comfortable eating our Thanksgiving dinner outside – but for one brief un-shiny moment it was cold in Vero Beach Florida!

Maintenance on the Mooring Ball

On about day 3 we decided to try all the air conditioners to make sure they still worked. One of them, of course, did not; it would have been too much to hope for all of them to work. So, we found a repairman, called him and told him we suspected it was the R-22 refrigerant. He came, looked, fixed a leak, put in the refrigerant and everything seemed to work. (I know, I know, I should have kept you in suspense as to whether it really worked or not … and here, by saying “it appeared” to work I have given away the conclusion. But I have more …)

On about day 5 we decided to go ahead and “unpickle” our watermaker and make a little bit of water. Watermaker membranes are fairly sensitive in that you have to keep them moist all the time. You can make water with them every few days, but if you don’t need water that is kind of a waste, or you can run fresh water through them – but that’s squandering fresh water. The alternative is to put a pickling solution in the system. This solution keeps the membrane moist and kills any germs that might want to grow. We pickled ours last spring. Anyway, when we unpickled it we found out that our watermaker was on the fritz. I got hold of the same repairman who had helped with our air conditioner and he came over and helped me re-prime our watermaker.

I know you are all thinking, “Wow, it sure was a good thing you got all that stuff fixed before you went to the Bahamas!” Not so fast, folks. The next day I tried to start the watermaker again. It didn’t work. Since our efforts to start it had used quite a bit of our fresh water supply to prime the pump, and since it was very loud with the generator running and almost impossible to hear when the watermaker pump clicked on, we decided to get a slip before trying to re-prime the pump again. We got into the slip (about which, more below) and sure enough, the pump wouldn’t turn on, even when it had been primed. Moreover, you remember that air conditioner? It didn’t work either. It seems the repairman we called had a magic touch … as long as he was on the boat. As soon as he left … wham! Things were back to not-working. AARGH! It is enough to make a man angry!

Pulling into the slip was not as easy as it should have been. There were three things that caused a problem. First, it was still very windy – and as I have explained before we have quite a bit of surface area on the boat which, in the face of a lot of wind, wants to turn the boat in directions other than those which I want it to turn. Second, when there is a strong current in the same direction as the wind, this can make the problem twice as difficult. And finally, when the fairway is only 60’ wide a 52’ boat does not have much room to be moved around by wind and current before she hits something. Well, after starting in to the slip twice and feeling the current take me both times, I decided the only way in was to apply a little more power. And power did the trick – almost. In the event, our bowsprit kissed the piling and rubbed the paint and gelcoat off. (The gelcoat is the plastic-like substance that covers the fiberglass and on which the paint is applied.) I now have to fix that as well. <Deep Wistful Sigh>

Oh! And one more thing. I finally yielded to myself (I have been having a discussion with myself for nearly a year) and bought a new anchor. It is the same kind of anchor (called a Bruce or Claw), but it is 110 pounds as opposed to the old one at 66 pounds. Assuming it works as it should, I will sleep better at night. We are going to take the old anchor with us and probably sell it when we get back to the Chesapeake next summer.

Oh and one more thing (on a boat, there is always one more thing). At Vero Beach, a few days before Thanksgiving I lost a crown from one of my teeth. We have found a dentist in North Palm and I have an appointment to get it fixed first thing on  Monday morning.

So, for those of you who were keeping track, we have five tasks to accomplish when we get to Palm Beach

·         Have the air conditioner fixed

·         Have the watermaker fixed

·         Fix the gelcoat on the bowsprit

·         Have the head fixed (I know I haven’t mentioned that, but seawater is not flowing into the toilet bowl the way it should.)

·         Replace the anchor

·         Get crown fixed.

One of the reasons we went to Vero Beach in the first place was to celebrate Thanksgiving with other cruisers. We had heard that the Power Squadron at Vero bought and cooked a bunch of turkey and ham and invited cruisers to bring a side dish and join the festivities. I am guessing we had Thanksgiving with 150, or so, of our soon-to-become best friends. For our side dish I convinced Ann to make macaroni and cheese. We enjoyed the meal and the opportunity to meet other folks. We ate with Russ and Lori from Ortolan. We had met and had them over for drinks when we were all at the Marineland Marina. We also had dinner with Jeff and Debbie on SeaSparrow. We had met them, too, at Marineland while they were waiting for the paperwork from Nassau so they could take their dog with them to the Bahamas.

North Palm Beach

I was going to write more, but it looks like we will be on our way tomorrow. We have accomplished almost everything we wanted to get done and there aren’t any good reasons for staying here and spending money. Moreover, the weather forecast – which initially showed Saturday as a much better day for crossing – has changed. Now, any day between tomorrow and Sunday are forecast to be just about the same (the difference between 2-3 foot seas and 2-4 foot seas). After three days here at North Palm, here is the status of our “to do” list:

ü  Have the air conditioner fixed. It turns out that our previous repairman forgot to tighten one of the fittings on the line, which let the R-22 out.

ü  Have the watermaker fixed. There seem to have been a several things that were not working as they should have been. The high pressure gauge and switch have been replaced and the “start capacitor” (whatever that is) has now been replaced. Also, I have learned that we can add another membrane and double the output of out watermaker! (Maybe a project for next year.)

ü  Have the head fixed. Apparently a bunch of “sea stuff" (barnacles, etc.) made their way into the hoses leading to the toilet. We have cleaned that out and have added a strainer so it doesn’t happen again.

ü  Replace the anchor. The anchor is just a little too big for the slot into which it is supposed to fit. We are going to have to make a few changes in our anchoring process.

ü  Get crown re-glued. Done. Apparently, I have a small cavity next to the crown that can violate the integrity of the attachment. I’ll have to get it fixed better in the future, but it will work for now.

·         Fix the gelcoat on the bowsprit. I will work on the bowsprit later today, but I can also work on it when we get to Marsh Harbor.

Ann’s Notes: My part of this blog is going to be short…it is 8:45 PM and Michael wants to get this out before going to bed…AND…it has been a very busy day for the both of us. So many details to get done and so little time. I spend most of the day helping the local pharmacist at the CVS through the maze of Tricare refills. I brought the refills in the morning when it was light out and biking was not the problem. I picked up said refills at 7:30 PM and it was very dark while riding the bike. The good news is we have our refills and should be good for a few extra months.

Our Thanksgiving at Vero Beach was a lot of fun, our table did lots of laughing and we made some more friends. A few were just voices over the radio and now we have a face to put with the voice.

I have to tell you that Michael more than `kisses` piling, he really is such a great captain so when things go wrong, I really don`t know what to do. I do, however know that my boat pole or hands will not stop our boat from `Kissing` a piling so I just have to let it happen.

The one thing that Michael did not mention on the day that several items stopped working all at once was…our fresh water hoses sprung a leak. After several rolls of `rescue tape` that failed to work, we finally cut the leaking part of the hose and spliced a new section of hose. We are actually getting pretty good at this since we have done it more than once.

I had a few important items on my list for our Palm Beach stay…really girlie ones. I got my hair cut…short and had a pedicure. I feel like a girl again.

Just one more thing before the wildlife count and quotes…

The new anchor is HEAVY !!!    I will tell you more about that in the next blog.

Wildlife Count

Thursday 19 Nov 2013

·         2 Dolphins playing for about five minuets…jumping and showing off

·         Set of 2 dolphins  2x

·         6 single

·         Mom and baby playing on the side of the boat

·         Pod of 6

·         2 Big boy playing at the bow

Sunday 24 Nov 2013

·         Dolphins in the mooring field

·         Pelicans  diving and catching fish

Friday 23 Nov 2013

·         3 Dolphins playing at the bow

·         1 Single

·         3 Playing on the side of the boat

·         Set of 2 dolphins x 2

Quotes from the Water Way

(in this case the shower next door, a little boy, Franklin, with his mom)

In a little boy voice…no real tune, just a sing-song tone…

`I live on a boat…mom said I smell like a goat…

Need to take a shower…

Hope I get a snack…

Want to go swimming…Where`s Dad?

 

There were several more verses and they all made me smile

 

Traveling Soul….OUT