Passport's Adventures

Renovations

2011-06-01T08:48:00.018-04:00

When standing on the brink of demolition to begin renovations, there is a point where the question must be asked: Will I make it better or worse? Of course the goal is to make it better, but will something get damaged unexpectedly in the process of taking it apart? Are there unexpected surprises, not necessarily good ones, lurking under the surface? These are all questions that must be faced and evaluated, or just completely ignored and hope for the best. We had a couple improvement projects that were touch and go for a little while.

When we began evaluating moving the quarter berth shelf and found that it was recessed into both bulkheads, it was a little hard to tell what it would entail moving it. As it turned out it was not so difficult, and only left a few areas that needed trim. The contemplation of how much worse we could make it, turned out to be far more stressful than the actual process that went very well.

Our biggest surprises came in more unexpected areas. The nav station desk was one of the first items we stripped to re-varnish. Our first surprise was finding that the wood was a very different color. If it’s teak, it’s a very white teak, I think it more likely that it is spruce and was disguised as teak under the factory finish. The original finish was colored and somewhat opaque to hide the grain. Once we saw what we had, this became one of the last items to get varnished. In the end it turned out well, but it took some trial and error mixing stains into the varnish and getting a color that at least blends in with the boat.

And then we come to the dining table. We contemplated long and hard as to what to do with it. The varnish had deteriorated over the years, leaving many small black dots where the wood was exposed. When the rest of the varnish was finished and turned out well, and the nav desk was under control, we chose to jump in; strip the table and re-varnish. It didn’t take too long till we discovered this was an “oh s*#%” project. It turned out that the veneer was as thin as paper, and in a lot of places came off with the varnish. After much rum and contemplation it was decided to buy some veneer and re-do it. Our table was not just a solid sheet of veneer though, rather it radiated into a center point. So of course we wanted to replicate the original. It turned out that all my unused quilting tools came in very useful for cutting and fitting the pieces of veneer. In the end the new table has turned out very nice, although it was an extra project we could have done without. I will assure in the future the varnish remains in good shape with refresher coats, never to be stripped again.

The Quarter-berth with new trim varnished.

The quarter-berth new shelf varnished.

The original nav desk.

Starting to varnish the nav desk.

The completed nav desk.

The original table.

The stripped table.

The now missing veneer.

Piecing together new veneer.

The finished table.

The finished galley.

Boat Yard

2011-05-24T07:50:00.021-04:00

Day 92 of our 30 day stay in the boat yard. So for everyone that thinks we are floating around in tropical waters sipping rum … life is currently a very different story. There’s not a whole lot of fun involved at the moment, unless you consider sanding, varnishing and crawling in small spaces to install a generator fun, then by all means get down here, this is the time of your life you are missing!

The decks took nearly a month, but they are officially done. We hired Flavit and his crew to do the work, they do a good job, are hard workers, always happy and easy to get along with. The big however is that any project really needs to be supervised very closely, and there are quite a few issues that need to be looked out for to avoid problems with the finished result (or time in a redo). Flavit and his crew may not get it just right on the first go around, and they may make some seemingly novice mistakes, but he will do anything you ask to make it right.

Just as we came into the boat yard we had the opportunity to talk with two other cruisers who just had their decks done by Flavit, and were given the pitfalls to avoid, we learned a few more in the process. We were warned to check the tape very closely when they taped off the deck to spray the gel-coat. I did. I re-taped much of it. We were also warned to mix PLENTY of gel-coat, and make sure it was mixed well throughout the process. They ended up with the color changing as they got to the end of the bucket, as it wasn’t mixed thoroughly, and ran out of gel-coat having to remix and repaint the entire deck. The mixing process here is standing over a bucket of gel-coat, with red, yellow, blue and black: mix till you like the color. If you have ever stood over paint chips picking out the perfect not quite white, white, then you know how hard it can be to choose a shade. We wanted a not quite white similar to our hull. So a little red, a little yellow .. mix .. compare to the last sample etc, until you can’t tell what any of them look like. When we finally got a color we were happy with, I certainly didn’t want to repeat that process again. On that go around, we did have plenty of gel-coat and were able to finish the job on one mixing. It would have been nice if it was one spray as well. The spraying went okay, but he chose the windiest day we had out of the month to spray, which blew a lot of dirt into the gel-coat. A bad decision. Spraying should only be done on days with no to little wind, it’s still a dirty place so dirt is an issue, but why not minimize. When they sanded down the gel-coat, they went through all the layers in several places and those had to be taped off again and repainted, it turned out okay, but not as well as if it had been right to start with. Faced with it again, I would insist he spray twice, once the first day and again the day after to assure a good coat everywhere. And then we get to apply to nonskid. The choices here are a very very fine nonskid that he sprays on, and the other is a much larger texture. We went for the larger, which has to be rolled on. Mixing grey was every bit as much fun as mixing white. The first go around, black was added to the white and put on the deck. The next day we looked at the deck, it was grayish with a very strong blue tone. The nonskid was very rough and very sharp. After a while of talking we found out that it would be better if it was sanded a little, this wasn’t just done or offered we had to ask. So it gets sanded we mix up a new color, trying to make sure there was no blue tone to it, we erred on the side of green, but just barely and it looked okay, however there were places that stayed soft and never dried right. When wet there were places that had been sanded too hard and were just plain slick. So once again tape off and re-do the non-skid. This time we forgot to mention ‘get plenty of gel-coat’, apparently it’s a reminder that has to be said every time. The painstaking process of mixing grey, resulted in a very nice grey, no blue, no green, just a nice light grey. We got down the first coat, with new non-skid compound. On the previous applications when rolling the gel-coat, they would put the gel-coat in a tray add a capful of activator, to harden it, mix it around with the roller and apply. I’m sure you can imagine that it was quite easy to get spots of gel-coat on the deck that would contain little to no activator, not harden well and get ground in with dirt. We had them mix in a separate container and pour into the tray, even then they had to be watched closely to make sure they didn’t use any right out of the mixing container. By this point we want to be done with the decks and not have any more mistakes. At the end of day the decks looked great, the color was perfect. Day two would be lightly sanding the non-skid and applying two new coats. But we didn’t have enough mixed gel-coat! We were able to mix a nearly exact match of the grey, but that hour could easily have been spent doing something else if we had enough to start with. The first go around with the nonskid many of the edges where the tap had been were also ground with dirt and didn’t look so good, it may have been the tape residue rubbed into the gel-coat before it set completely, we are not really sure as we didn’t watch them take the tape off the first time. We opted to take the tape off ourselves the second time and mostly not walk on the gel-coat at all for a couple of days to let it fully cure. The tape removal process was very slow and tedious. Some places the gel-coat was quite thick over the tape and hard to break/cut with a knife to peel up the tape. It would have been better if they were more careful in the application near the tape, keeping the edges thinner and barely overlapping the tape. The green tape that is available here will leave a very sticky residue just after a day, if possible the blue tape is much better to use, bring some from the states or another country if you can, I have seen some available in one of the marine stores here in Cartagena. In the end, the decks look great, and Flavit did a great job, we would highly recommend his work to other cruisers.

As with most boat projects it’s not a far leap from one project to lead to yet another project. While we had Flavit working on our decks, we had him do some fiberglass work for us. When we repaired damage from the lightning strike in Grenada we moved some instruments from the cockpit up to a Navpod over the companionway. This was a big improvement, making them much more visible and accessible, but didn’t look the best. Flavit fiberglassed a custom navpanel over our companionway, it looks great and gave us more space to mount cockpit speakers. And since we were into fiberglass…. When we bought the boat she had a deck mounted life raft, which was well out of inspection. Instead of shelling out the money for an inspection that may or may not pass we replaced the life raft with a Winslow that stows below decks. Instead of getting rid of the life raft deck box we used it to store our folding kayaks. This worked well but was not the easiest to get into, so we had a new deck box built, with a hinged lid it’s easy to access, and a little bigger in the same space.

One project leading to another … for the past two years we have had trouble with our windlass blowing breakers, not going up or down at very inopportune times. IB had added a new breaker mucked with wires and other stuff. We were contemplating getting a new windlass when we took the old one off the deck and discovered no main bearing at all, it was completely worn away, and the mount was completely corroded through on one of the three legs. So a new windlass went onto the project list; one of the quicker projects to complete.

I took advantage of not using the dingy and having a room to work in to make a set of dingy chaps to cover the top of the dingy. Saving it from damage due to UV and not so great dingy docks. I even found a bit of Spectra fabric hiding in my fabric supplies, after quite a bit of effort getting it cut I reinforced the front panel with it, nothing is going to abrade through that!

The other sewing project to take advantage of the extra space was replacing the UV cover on the staysil, and repairing a few rips. I got one place repaired, only to find two others harder to reach. I spent a day removing the old UV cover, taking out all the threads and cutting out the new cover. When I started assembling and sewing I had some trouble with the machine jamming and breaking needles. When I saw the amount of area that would need hand sewn because my machine could not stitch through it I gave up and went to a sail repair shop. Using all my supplies, even my thread since it was better quality than what they have available, the cost was $40 USD. That was very much worth letting the repair shop sew it for me.

The interior varnish has just been time consuming. We completely stripped the galley. The varnish had completely worn through in spots, and just didn’t look good. Luckily most of the boat was still in good shape and just got/ is getting a good cleaning, sanding and refresher coats. It seems my life for the past month and a half or more has been; wake up, sand, varnish, repeat. I am finally nearing a point where there is an end in site.

Since we were here, and found a good way to ship items in from the US, thinking of future plans to spend time in the San Blas islands and possibly head into the south pacific, we decided to install an AquaGen (a DC generator and watermaker). The watermaker makes 24 gal/hr, the luxuries of abundant clean fresh water, and no need to worry about the water source. Many times we fill up with water at marinas but don’t really know how safe the water is. IB has been working on the generator install for the past two weeks or so. A space had to first be made for it, by moving the autopilot. Once he got it physically mounted, and we started looking for a place to mount the control panel. The decision ended up with building a box and mounting it over the shelf in the quarter berth, which led to moving the shelf up 6”. Something I had wanted to do for a while, I just didn’t have a good enough reason to make it a priority project for IB. The control panel did the trick! And it’s great news for any guests, since they will now have space under the shelf to actually roll over. I’ll never understand the original reasoning to put that shelf so low over a bed. The generator install sadly will not be finished. We have long overstayed our intended stay and will have more to do when we return from the US in the fall.

I’m quite sure there are smaller simpler projects that got done as well; I just can’t remember what they are right now! And it’s time for me to head out and start sanding.

Flavit spraying the gel-coat on the decks.

Applying the non-skid compound.

The finished decks.

The space created for the generator.

The generator in it's little cubby hole.

The new deck box.

The new instrument panel with speakers.

The new Maxwell Liberty 2500 windlass.

The completed dingy chaps.

Replacing the UV cover on the staysil.


The completed galley varnish .. what doesn't look finished? We may have a different definition of finished these days!


The quarter berth shelf moved up 6 inches.

A mini shelf built into the cover trim.

Capital One: A Rant

2011-03-08T14:03:00.000-05:00

Credit cards are an important part of cruising, we use them for everything we can. It’s easier and more convenient than keeping cash around. I am fortunate to have inherited USAA benefits and have never had a problem with banking from abroad with them. I have on a few occasions had them cancel my credit card and reissue a new one when a credit card server has been compromised. This can be a hassle but is also a good safety from having my card number stolen and used. They will FedEx a new card to any location in the world, as I’ve known cruisers who have encountered this with them while in the Bahamas. That can alter plans as even FedEx can take a while to arrive in some destinations. I solved the problem simply by having a spare card I can activate if needed. The only drawback is that there is a 1% foreign transaction charge. This is really not a large amount of money, but eventually over the year it does add up, especially if any large purchases are made. When I heard that Capital One has no foreign transaction fees it sounded like a good reason to get a Capital One card. I had no idea what I was signing up for.

I signed up for a card in my name and added my husband to the account. This however means they will not talk to him about the account at all, even though he’s authorized to make purchases. Since I’m usually the one dealing with the banking this is not really a problem. When I called in to activate the card, I had the most annoyingly thorough verification process I have ever experienced. I lost 40 minutes of my life that day.

We happily used the card a few times and then poof it was declined. Half an hour later after a phone tree and being on hold, I could talk to someone who turned my card back on. It was used in a foreign country so that automatically triggers a possible fraud alert. I informed them that I would be traveling in foreign countries for the foreseeable future and please note that on the account. I should have realized I’d be in for trouble when they wanted to know how many days that would be.

I never considered my credit limit on my card since I always pay it off right away, but when were struck by lightning in Grenada and looking at paying out nearly $20000 until we got the insurance settlement suddenly the credit limit was important. I called to ask for a raise and they simply said it was declined. No reason would be given. Google helped me find out that they simply have a policy of never increasing a credit limit when asked; it would have been nice if they could have told me that. So we just signed up for a second card, I put it in IB’s name and poof we got a higher credit limit. This is when the real fun began.

They allowed us to use the new card to charge over $4000, and then chose to put a hold on the account for possible fraud. So now we can’t use the card, we can’t access the account online to pay the bill and if we don’t sort it out it will go to collections and reflect on our credit score. Eventually they did send a paper bill and I had my ‘secretary’ back in the states mail a check to pay it. When we called to sort it out, they won’t speak to me, because it’s IB’s card. They run him through the various security questions and then tell him they don’t believe he’s IB and he needs to identify his identity. What? I don’t know if they already had something flagged on his account or if he answered a question wrong, which can happen a lot with us. Since we have a skype phone number, a local (whatever country) cell phone, and sometimes I’ve used my mom’s number. Usually we always use our PO Box address from WV, expect some things still have our land home address, but Capital One insists on a physical address, as if we all are supposed to fit into this “American” mold. So I used my mom’s address. It’s really easy to be confused over security questions with our lifestyle; sometimes it can take me three tries. Either way they now want a utility bill, his social security card and his drivers license or passport faxed to them before they will even speak to him! Of course no one understands why we can’t produce a utility bill, that’s unfathomable. And no bank account with a physical address?? Unheard of! And really does everyone carry a social security card around these days? Well he actually did that for many years, which is why you can’t actually read it anymore. Eventually we did change the address with our bank, wait for a new bank statement and faxed that to them with the illegible social security card over an internet fax site with the credit card number .. and this is more secure than asking a few questions on the phone??? Well they apparently got the documents because they called, but of course wouldn’t speak to me, even though they called, and know my name since it’s listed on his account. They would not even tell me if they have all the required information to turn the account on or not at this point. We are seven months into this and still don’t have a useable card. During this time my card has been turned off three times for suspected fraud, luckily they seem to always believe I am who I say I am when I call in, but it still means always carrying a second card because I never know when it will work. I’ve never experienced such ridiculous frustration; perhaps I’ve just been spoiled by USAA. I’m starting to think 1% is not so bad, at least I know my card will work, and my bank will work with me not against me.

On Dry Land

2011-02-24T16:39:00.000-05:00

It comes around every few years, like it or not. We procrastinate, push back deadlines, and scrape the bottom to get by for just a few more months, but inevitably in the life of every cruiser comes the day that the boat must be hauled out of the water. A year ago we were forced to switch to a new insurance company while in Georgetown, Exumas, when we discovered our current company did not insure the Caribbean. We were fortunate to find a company that would insure us for one year before requiring a new survey, a very good thing since Georgetown was not known as somewhere you wanted your boat hauled out unless absolutely necessary. A year sounded like plenty of time … that was a year ago. Last fall, while in Grenada, we were supposed to complete our haul out for our survey, install a new transducer and inspect for lightning damage after our strike. We managed to put it off till Colombia. We almost tried to extend it for another few months and go to Panama first, but finally bit the bullet and hauled out two weeks shy of our one-year deadline.

Cartagena, Colombia has three options for haul out yards: Manzanillo Marina Club, Todomar CHL Marina, and Ferroalquimar. We had several very high recommendations on hauling out at Manzanillo and they have a couple of rooms to rent, so we decided to go with them since we really don’t want to live on the boat for a month on land. A boat on land means, no refrigerator, no toilet, and climbing a ladder to get on and off. Generally not a fun experience, and add some messy dirty work to the mix and you get the picture. Our initial plan to paint the bottom, maintenance that needs done every couple of years to prevent the bottom of the boat from becoming a reef, and survey has grown and taken on a life of it’s own. Somewhere way down on our project list was to repaint the decks. The nonskid was worn off in places, most of the rest is very oxidized, and a few fiberglass repairs need done. Even though this is expected to be a very expensive job, we had a quote of over $20,000 in the US on our last (smaller) boat, we figured why not just get a quote and see. Well, when the quote came back for about $4000, to have the decks gel-coated it was hard to say no. Gel-coat is usually harder to apply and often found just on new boats, but it’s something they do here and do relatively well. So we are taking stuff off the decks, taping things up and getting it done. The bottom paint is getting done, but going one step farther and stripping all the old paint off, adding some barrier coat and new toxic paint to keep the marine life in the sea and off our boat. Inside the boat, we have a great opportunity to refresh the interior wood with a nice coat of varnish while we don’t have to sleep in the boat; as well as some other small projects.

We are getting settled into our apt, it’s no 5-star resort, but it does have A/C, a small kitchenette, and enough space I can get some sewing projects done out of the heat.

Moving the travel lift over the boat to place the straps underneath.

Pulling the straps up tight and making sure the boat is centered.

Lifting the boat out of the water.

Moving her onto land.

Moving her to her new parking space.

Parked on land.

Pirates!

2011-02-24T13:31:00.002-05:00

I am not the type of person that is glued to the news, generally I don’t hear any news until it’s either posted on facebook by one of my friends or my Mom calls to tell me. Just a few weeks ago the disappearance of Don North aboard s/v Windancer in Panama was brought to my attention by email. The story was close enough to my lifestyle and current geographic location to catch my attention. I started scouring the web, following the unfolding story that within days quickly led to the capture of Javier Martin; serial murderer and pirate.

Just this past week I heard of the hijacking of s/v Quest by Somali pirates. Although not a location near to where I am, with confusing vague reports initially hitting the media, I once again turned to the internet to scour news reports and cruising forums. My initial response to hearing of their capture is very much like that of many people; why the heck were they there, don’t they know better.

For a sailor or cruiser, piracy is a part of lifestyle. How big the risk is to any given vessel depends on choices made and sometimes just dumb luck. When we first announced to friends that we were heading south to cruise the Caribbean the most common question we heard was; “What about pirates?”. My husband’s joking reply was always, “Arg, we are okay for now, but if finances get tight we might consider it.” Although there can be pirate attacks in the Caribbean and Bahamas, it’s not common, usually the biggest problem is petty theft, which is frustrating, annoying and can be expensive it’s not life threatening. Our first real concern of piracy is when we decided to leave Grenada and head west. Venezuela has had an increasing number of pirate attacks over the last few years, and they have become increasingly violent. We had a choice to make; to go to Venezuela or not. Sitting at home only looking at news reports it could make the decision look really simple; pirate attacks = don’t go. However, sitting in Grenada only a few hundred miles away from Venezuela the decision was not so black and white. We talked to cruisers that had been going there for years, and even given the increase in attacks they were still going back this year. They all had advice, several areas to keep clear of, travel with a buddy boat or two, avoid traveling near shore at night. There were some contradictions to their advice, as we were told there was one part of the mainland to stay away from and the rest was okay so long as you were careful, travel during the day and with other boats. One area we were told was “okay” to go, we were told was also the site of an attack and murder of a cruiser earlier in the year. It does make you go.. hmph… Our decision went from definitely don’t go… to sounds like it may be okay .. to only go to the out islands.. to don’t go. Meanwhile we had friends that did decide to go, avoiding the mainland but visiting the islands. While they were in Isla Margarita, we heard about a cruiser whose boat was boarded at anchor and he was killed. When asking our friends about the event their response was that he was in the wrong anchorage and they were relatively unconcerned, and enjoyed the rest of their time in the Venezuelan Islands with no problems at all. We still chose to not go, for us the possibility of dealing with a violent attack was more of a risk than we wanted to take, even though we had quite a few friends who did go.

I imagine for s/v Quest, they had a similar story behind their decision to go. It just so happens their decision was the wrong one. I still do not understand their decision to go through pirate-infested waters and I don’t agree with it. But I do try to understand that it is not necessarily a black and white decision, as it would appear to those sitting in their comfortable homes, not seeking adventure or travel and looking only at the limited news media they are presented with. Although pirate attacks in the area are prevalent, I’m sure they knew that rarely is a private yacht hijacked. The pirates are interested in large commercial ships that they can get high ransoms for from corporations. Which brings the question to mind, are we aiding the problem of piracy off Somalia when we choose to pay upwards of $2 million for a ransom? I don’t pretend to have a solution or even an idea of what to do about the situation, but it seems that for every large ransom paid we are just supporting and encouraging their “business”. Back to the subject; I expect s/v Quest also knew private vessels that were successfully transiting the area and making it to the Mediterranean. I’m sure they read blog accounts, talked to people who have done it, possibly even close friends. They probably knew that very few pirate attacks off Somalia end in death, they want money for ransoms, and a dead body won’t get that. Perhaps they thought that the risk of capture and eventual release was small enough to risk the trip. The convoy of 30 boats they had been traveling with split up and abandoned their plans to sail to Oman when they were unable to obtain a naval escort. The boats then made their own plans to continue on or change direction. I doubt the s/v Quest knew that 2 days before they were hijacked the US sentenced, Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, the pirate apprehended for hijacking the Maersk Alabama in 2009, to 33 years in prison. This act changed the tactical plans of the Somali pirates, no longer were they just getting ransoms but now they want to make a statement of retaliation against the US. At this point in the events s/v Quest, despite their planning and good or bad decisions, encountered bad luck.

The situation with Somali pirates has gotten out of control. They are not attacking just along the coast of Somalia, but operating from “mother ships” that allow them to be hundreds of miles out to sea. There are reported attacks clear throughout the Arabian Sea; from Africa to India and even as far south as Madagascar. How long until their range goes even farther? Where will it end?

Back in Panama, authorities are still investigating the murder of Jean Pierre Bouhard and Don North, collecting evidence to obtain a certain conviction on as many counts as possible of Javier Martin. A very different pirate tale from those in Somalia, but the outcome is not so different. Javier Martin did not board their boats by force, but actually had some form of professional relationship with both of these men, gaining their trust to get on their boats then murder them at sea in an attempt to take their boats as his own. These events were set into motion after Martin sunk his own boat in the San Blas islands. It’s very possible that he also gained possession of that boat by murder back in 1997; that is still under investigation. Don Winner at the panama-guide.com has been instrumental in the capture of Martin and has current articles on the investigation. Before he sunk his boat and started the search for a new one, Martin carried backpackers aboard his vessel from Panama to Colombia. I can only wonder what some of those backpackers, who may have learned of his arrest, now think of their experience at sea with a pirate.

Santa Marta

2011-01-07T11:10:00.004-05:00

Santa Marta was not originally on our planned itinerary. Whatever exactly a planned itinerary is when cruising, I think it’s more of a vague concept of an idea of something that could be done should we so choose to do it. We quickly found ourselves very comfortable and sad to leave. With guests arriving in Cartagena we had a week to enjoy Santa Marta and then move on. If we make it back again we will plan to stay longer, maybe next year we will return. We’ll just add that to the “planned itinerary”.

We did have just enough time to sample the food and mojitos. It seems that most of the good restaurants with a nice atmosphere to hang out in are generally well hidden until you stumble upon the right streets. Our first day out, we wandered the streets for several hours and just managed to miss the ones with the inviting restaurants. We did find several plazas, the gold museum, the chapel and the main shopping district. Our second day out we were given some directions and discovered Agave Azul. It’s a great little Mexican restaurant, with 2 for 1 happy our drinks. It’s not a US tex mex restaurant, but they had amazing dishes full of flavor all for the price of…. Well had I written this when I should have over a month ago I could probably tell you an accurate price, as it is I’m going to take a really good guess and say the meal was about $10 US. Just a few days before we left we managed to find a walking only street that was just bursting with small café’s. We wandered into Lulo for some more happy hour (2 for 1) mojitos. They may have been some of the best in Santa Marta but it will probably require more research to be sure.

Marina Santa Marta felt both comfortable and safe. The marina just opened this year and many of its facilities are still under construction, but the slips were completed with power and water. There were no restrooms or any other facility yet completed but they did pick up trash right at your boat on the dock. Every day we would see a security guard patrolling the docks. The floating docks and finger piers made getting on and off the boat very easy, which is not always the case with the marina’s down here. We were given a discounted rate for the week and paid $162.00 for our stay. The negative aspect of the marina and the stay in Santa Marta all has to do with the wind. The wind will whip down off the mountains and we often saw 30 – 40 kts of winds for days at a time. The boat felt safely tied up so this was not too uncomfortable, but the beach is located upwind from the marina and a super fine dusting of sand would coat every surface of the boat inside and out daily. The sand was highly annoying to say the least, but it wouldn’t stop me from going back, it may however convince me to close up the boat and run the air conditioner next time.

Aruba to Colombia

2011-01-02T09:32:00.000-05:00

The seas behind our boat.

Christmas winds. Growing up in landlocked West Virginia I never heard the term. Sailing down to the southern Caribbean, if I heard it I paid it no attention. Researching information on the Internet about the passage from Aruba to Colombia the term started popping up more frequently. When we finally left Aruba, I understood: Christmas winds. For those of you still living a non-seafaring landlocked life who may be unfamiliar: Christmas winds get their name because of the time of year they arrive ... Christmas time. During the late summer and fall the trade winds weaken with periods of light winds. Around Christmas time the trade winds blowing all the way from Africa pick up and intensify, bringing strong winds across the Caribbean at a sustained 25-30kts or more, lasting for weeks at a time.

They say experience is the best teacher, and it certainly makes concepts sink in deep. We had heard about these Christmas winds, even talked about them as we planned our passage from Aruba to Cartagena, Colombia. Somehow though the reality of them didn’t quite sink into our little brains very solidly. We had experienced week after week of mild weather and somehow thought there was still more yet to come, tossing the whispers of Christmas winds to the back of our consciousness. The passage from Aruba to Cartagena is known as one of the five worst passages in the world. In heavy winds the seas can build quickly and become dangerous. Many boats have left Aruba with what sounded like a good weather window and found themselves in 40-50kt winds, 30ft seas, even seeing breaking waves and confused seas with waves coming from different directions. As we watched our weather windows, to make the 400-mile passage, disappear we started to realize the true meaning of Christmas winds. We also realized that we had broken our own rule, and made plans to meet visitors in Cartagena on a specific date. Although they did have fair warning that buying their tickets in advance there was a possibility we wouldn’t make it there. However even though they were warned I really want to see them and I don’t want to spend another month waiting for a weather window! So instead of the 10–15kt winds and 4 ft seas we had hoped to have for a 4-day passage, we were now looking at 20-25kt winds for the foreseeable future. Time to change our plans.

We chose to take advantage of a 2 day weather window of 20kt winds and 6 ft seas, that would get us to the coast of Colombia where we would duck into an anchorage for a day or two until we got more “settled” weather. It seems that once the Christmas winds kick in 20kts is about as “settled” as we can hope for. Since leaving Grenada we had been traveling with Dave and Wendy on Elysium, although we had planned to make the passage to Cartagena together at this point we both made different decisions. Elysium wanted to wait for a 4-day window that would allow them to stay well offshore and travel straight to Cartagena, and we decided it would be best to take advantage of the 2 day weather windows and hop along the coast to assure we would arrive in Cartagena before the 13^th of January. Sadly we said good-bye to our traveling companions, but at least we look forward to seeing them again soon in Cartagena.

With the winds behind us, we had an easy passage with the boat gently rolling from side to side. Unfortunately my stomach does not appreciate the gentle lolling and retaliates until I medicate. We made to into the anchorage at Bahia Honda the next morning and were recommended by our weather guru, to stay put and not continue on, as the winds were to build during the day and overnight. So stay put we did; but not happily. We had trouble finding a good spot to anchor. The bay is very wide, about 6 miles, and the mouth is also very wide, allowing the ocean swell to roll in and nearly fill the bay. We had read a post from other cruisers who were recently in this bay and loved it, of course I didn’t know exactly where they anchored and I don’t think they saw the sea conditions we did. It is a pretty area, very remote with nothing around but arid desert plateaus. We finally settled on a spot in the northeast corner that was out of the swell. The water got shallow while still a couple of mile from the land, getting as close as we could to shore we anchored in 9’ of water choosing to deal with the wind chop that was blowing in. It was not perfect but it was comfortable enough for a night of sleep. So we thought. We thought wrong. During the night as the seas built so did the swell in our anchorage, wrapping around the edge of the bay 4ft waves rolled in directly toward our boat. At first light we were up, we needed to leave. We waited long enough to get a weather forecast, pulled up anchor and headed to sea. The forecast didn’t thrill us, but it was better than where we were and Chris Parker gave us the go ahead to head to Santa Marta. We had 20-25kts of wind with 12ft seas behind us. With 10-second intervals the seas were comfortable, much better than the anchorage we just left, and we settled in for the 160-mile journey.

Throughout the day the wind and seas subsided, and eventually so did my stomach. By the end of the day I was no longer medicated and even cooking, well sorta .. I put stuff in the oven and turned it on till it was hot; at sea I think it counts. We were even visited by a pod of dolphins, the first we had seen in a very long time. One had a young calf with her, and one had no dorsal fin, he must have an interesting story.

The following morning we checked with Chris for the possibility of continuing on to Cartagena, but he recommended staying in Santa Marta over the weekend as conditions were going to be building throughout the day. Within 2 hours the seas were building up to 9ft and winds gusted up to 30kts and above. We were happy to stop. As we pulled into the bay the water was calm and the mountains blocked the winds. We contacted Marina Santa Marta on VHF 72 and got tied up to a slip: our home for the next week.

Leaving Grenada

2010-11-13T08:18:00.011-05:00

Leaving Grenada

I remember a day sailing through the Bahamas still bundled in a blanket at night , even with the warm days the nights on the water with a constant wind were chilly. I would read books about other cruisers in the tropics sailing naked through long stretches of open ocean and I would wonder … under my blanket and winter hat .. how hot does it have to be … I no longer wonder .. I have arrived! I do however find a loose shirt necessary sun protection (preferably with a useful pocket to hold my ipod), no matter how warm it is.

As we prepared to leave Grenada for our four-day voyage to Bonaire, we went through the boat storing away anything that may slide about or fall. I made sure I had my “sea bag” packed and ready to go. Since I am sometimes prone to seasickness I pack a small canvas tote bag with things I may need/want during the voyage, so I can avoid multiple trips below decks for something I may want. My ipod, kindle, journal, water bottle, eye mask, snacks and motion sickness drugs all go in, along with anything else I may find necessary. My bag goes everywhere with me so my stuff is always close at hand. I set one out for IB as well, but I find other than when he grabs it for snacks it tends to sit on one location and his things are always in multiple locations. The last thing we did was to deflate the dingy and lash it down on deck. For short jaunts we leave it hanging on the davits, but for a multi day passage it is safer to have it on deck and besides that leaves our wind vane (that we have never used) accessible for use.

Time happens differently at sea. The hours and days blur together. Time passes: sleeping when you can, eating, thinking about what you want to eat and working up the energy to actually cook it, reading, listening to audio books, sleeping. Even basic meal preparations at sea can be an exhausting challenge. With the boat constantly rocking back and forth, nothing can be left on the counter without being secured. A knife can NEVER be set down, except in the sink. And the whole time you are juggling all the pieces of your meal, you also have to balance yourself. And hopefully when it’s all done you will still feel like eating J

Sleeping is definitely a highlight of the day. Since someone always has to be on watch, we sleep in shits, Every yacht breaks up shifts differently. We used to setup a time schedule but have found working with our natural sleep tendencies work better for us. If I can sleep at 6:00pm, I do or as close to that as I can. IB stays on watch until he gets really tired, usually around midnight, then I’m up till nearly dawn. We take turns napping as needed during the day. The schedule worked so well on this trip we arrived in Bonaire feeling relatively refreshed, rather than the typical sleep deprived. Of course we also spend time navigating, setting the sails and checking weather updates.

On day 2 .. or was it day 1 .. I think it was day 2 .. . either way IB opened the engine room to find smoke rolling out .. the alternator had overheated and fried. Our new alternator, from after the lightning strike, arrived DOA, we could not get the damaged one from the lightning strike repaired in Grenada, so the original one we had rebuilt in the states was installed and working before we left Grenada. It lasted about a week. No alternator, means no charging the batteries from the engine. The solar panels and wind generator do a good job of keeping power up pretty well but we still loose a lot at night. Running the chart plotter, radar, autopilot, refrigerator and freezer all add up. The first thing we did was turn off the freezer. Then we finally got out the lines and hooked up the monitor wind vane. It seemed an appropriate time to finally start using it. Once we got it set up right, (and I read the directions on how to use it) we had it steering the boat beautifully .. and power free! IB did managed to hobble together an alternator and get it working so we didn’t have to be too worried about our power use, I’d hate to have turned off the radar and chart plotter! It will still need to be replaced/repaired, but for the moment it is working.

The rest of our trip was relatively uneventful, other than dodging some squalls on our last night as we neared Bonaire. We pulled into the harbor at 9:00am on the 13^th of November and picked up a mooring. It’s great to be somewhere with clear water again, where we can see the sand under the boat.

Our Sails

Sunset at Sea

The view at sea

The Monitor Wind Vane that is steering the boat

Grenada

2010-11-09T08:07:00.000-05:00

Downtown St. Georges

Grenada. Adult summer camp for cruisers. That about sums things up nicely. From Mt Hartman Bay there is a “bus” (all the buses on the island are just vans) that leaves from Secret Harbor Marina every Wednesday and Friday at 9:30am to take cruisers to the grocery, hardware, chandlery or nearly anywhere else they need to go for just $10 EC. ($1 US = $2.7 EC) The bus is a great benefit that allows easy transportation to get into town and buy supplies. The bus is also a real PITA, during many trips a lot of time is spent waiting for someone at a store you don’t need to go to, and resulting in a long day with many stops. So it’s good, it’s bad, we all love the marina bus and we all grumble and complain about it. Every morning except Sunday there is a local cruiser net on VHF channel 68. They have a weather forecast; information on local businesses including any specials happening; treasures of the bilge that gives cruisers a chance, to sell, buy, swap, or give away items unwanted on their boats; and different cruiser events. Tuesday is movie night at Clarks Court Marina; it’s also 2 for 1 pizza night at La Phare Bleu Marina. There are watercolor classes, yoga classes, tutoring kids in reading at the Mount Airy Young Reader program on Saturday morning, and French and Spanish lessons. If you lack something to do here it is simply because you are not doing something. The first couple of weeks we zipped around from one activity to another, meeting new friends and enjoying being “settled” for the first time in a long time. It didn’t take long for the demanding social schedule to become too much so we slowed down in our participation level.

We went with a group up to the Seven Sisters falls. IB and I had been up there on our own once, but taking the public bus and hiking in to the two main water falls. We were rained on as we left and had a hard time getting a bus back to town although we finally did. When we found out a group was going and hired a bus to take us and wait on us it sounded like a good day to get off the boat and enjoy some cool air and fresh water. Although summer in Grenada is hot and humid every day, just up in the mountains the air is cooler, less muggy and the waterfalls very cool and refreshing. The group we were with hired a guide, and once we reached the main two waterfalls he took those that wanted on up a rugged path to the top of the seven falls. From there we followed the water down, jumping down each fall as we went, ending with the highest fall of about 35 ft.

After our first week on Grenada we decided to go into the marina to be able to run our air conditioner and have the dock and extra power to work on some of our summer boat projects. I also made plans to go back to the States to visit my family while IB worked on some of the dirtier projects. It turned out to be a good plan, he got a lot of work done while I was gone, and I didn’t have to live in the dirty chaos while he did it.

Rebecca jumping Seven Sisters Falls


IB jumping Seven Sisters Falls

The hike to Mt Qua Qua over looking Grand Etang Lake

The kids at the Mt Airy Young Readers program

Yoga on the docks

Our "home" at Secret Harbor Marina

The anchorage at Mt Hartman Bay

The Grenadines

2010-06-23T07:36:00.000-04:00

After our departure from St Lucia we had 12 days to reach Grenada before Fred needed to catch his return flight to the states. We chose to give St Vincent a pass and go straight to Bequia. Some cruisers still stop at St Vincent, and I hear it is supposed to be a nice island, but theft has become such a big problem there we chose to pass it by and not deal with the hassle. The options there are to always leave someone on your boat or hire someone to sit on your boat while you are ashore. The island doesn’t seem to be trying very hard to stop the crime, so we chose to not support them. I have talked to some cruisers who stopped there and didn’t experience any trouble at all.. you just never know.

We stopped at Bequia for a couple of days and then heard our first tropical cyclone warning of the season. A 60% chance for a formation over the next 48 hours. Depending on if a tropical storm / hurricane would form we may need to be ready to change our plans and run straight down to Grenada. As it turned out, the chances of formation decreased everyday until it just fizzled out and our plans were not hindered.

We continued to buzz through the islands: Canouan, Mayreau, Tobago Cays, Union Island, Carriacou and then to Grenada. We spent long enough on each island to sample the town, food and see what was beneath the water. Mostly it was a very enjoyable trip and a great time hanging out with Fred, who was not only great to hang out with but was excellent at cleaning the galley! We ended the trip with Fred in Mt Harman Bay, which was to be our home for the next four months.

St Lucia

2010-06-11T06:46:00.001-04:00

The new Avon dingy

I would like to tell you all about the island of St Lucia, but we hardly saw any of it. We arrived in St Lucia, after a short sail down from Martinique. With ten days till we picked up our guest and continued on south we thought there would be plenty of time to explore the island. We were wrong; it was just enough to deal with a leaking dingy and explore the marina.

Shortly after arriving at Rodney Bay we heard over the local cruisers net that Rodney Bay Marina was hosting a cruisers BBQ that included two free nights in the marina on Friday and Saturday. Whoo hooo!!! Free marina nights… no way we were going to pass that up, and since the marina was only $25 USD a night we opted to go in a day early.

As it turned out that was a slightly fortuitous decision as we discovered a leak in our Achilles inflatable dingy on Wednesday evening. Since we already planned to go into the marina Thursday that seemed to be sufficient time to patch it and allow the glue to dry before moving back out to the anchorage on Sunday. It sounded like a nice plan anyway, and even seemed to go okay, until IB inflated the “repaired” dingy on Saturday. His patch, that was in the seam held just fine but a new spot busted out along the seam. Plan B consisted of just buying a new dingy. Since we had our davits installed in Florida we had discussed the benefits of a rigid bottom dingy, one less place to worry about leaks, and better performance. So we asked around for 10’ rigid bottom dingys but there were none to be had. .. onto plan C: have the dingy professionally repaired. The Liferaft & Inflatable Center located right in the lagoon would be able to look at it on Monday and hopefully have it repaired and be on our way mid week. It sounded like a good plan, but once they had a chance to inspect it, the entire seam was giving out. They suspected it was the result of a bad batch of glue, and would cost more than replacing the dingy to repair it. Since the dingy was only about a year old this was not happy news. We took pictures and contacted the warranty department of Achilles, who actually did a good job of sending us a new replacement dingy, only the process took longer than we had at the time and was not completed until we were in Grenada. The good news was that the Liferaft & Inflatable Center also sold dingys and had just what we were looking for in stock in their warehouse. An Avon 310 Lite Rib, they drove IB to the warehouse and customs to complete the purchase. With our pockets a little lighter, but with reliable transportation we left the marina to spend a pleasant evening with friends out in the anchorage.

Although we were not happy about our circumstances that kept us in the marina over a week we were quite happy with the marina. Nice secure floating docks made getting on and off the boat easy, several good restaurants right at the marina as well as a pool that we frequented everyday. For the first time on our trip we met many different cruisers that we would continue to see over the summer months. By this point south the part time cruisers had mostly gone home, and the charter boats were not around, what we were mostly left with were those that would be spending the summer in a hurricane safe destination.

The pitons in the distance

The following day we pulled out of the anchorage and headed down to Soufriere to pick up Fred; our friend / guest / glorified mail carrier. As soon as we knew he was planning to visit we started some Internet shopping. All of our guests get to bring us packages; it’s much cheaper and more reliable than having things shipped.

The night before we collected Fred we spent on a mooring near the bat caves and it was a very rough rolling night with the boat constantly beating against the mooring ball. As soon as Fred was aboard we moved over between the pitons, two tall mountains on either side of the bay, and spent a very calm evening before heading on south the following day.

Martinique

2010-06-01T13:31:00.000-04:00

St. Pierre and the Mt. Pelee volcano. On May 8, 1902 erupted releasing a giant fireball that destroyed the town and 12 ships at anchor in the bay. Only two people survived. Several minor eruptions and grumblings from the volcano in the preceding weeks had been ignored resulting in the deaths of nearly 29,933 people. As the town was rebuilt they tried to preserve a part of the old buildings in the new structure. The ships still rest at the bottom of the sea and are visited by divers. Most are at a depth greater than 100 ft. Most of the bay is very deep leaving a narrow shelf near the town dock for anchoring.

Canal de Beauregard. We went with our friends Shadowfax and Spirare by bus up into the mountains to the small town of St Denis. We had lunch at a small restaurant overlooking the valley full of lush greenery. After lunch, we parted ways and hiked down the road to the start of the canal walk as our friends went to catch the bus back to town. IB was intent on walking the canal, I was much more reluctant but agreed to go along. The guidebook warns that you should be comfortable with heights to walk along the 18-inch wide canal wall. Not quite so comfortable with heights, I have a good idea of what I’ve gotten myself into as IB tries to assure me the areas will high drops by the wall are only a few feet long, I didn’t believe him. I was right. The walk starts off easy as it meanders through a tunnel, but we do eventually get to the drop-offs, they are long sections and a long ways down. The view is breathtaking… if you can manage to look. I don’t think I saw anything but the wall and my feet, until I took that last step off the canal, and started breathing again.

The following morning we had planned to hike to the top of Mt. Pelee, however as we looked up toward the volcano all that could be seen were the clouds surrounding it. As we drank our coffee and contemplated what to do, the winds began to shift to the WSW, blowing us toward shore and blowing in waves. That made our decision for us and we pulled up anchor and headed south to Fort de France.

Fort de France may have been a nice place to see, stores to actually go shopping, but as it was we arrived on Saturday afternoon. The one inconvenient thing about French islands are the opening times for businesses. Weekends are not a time they like to open, just forget about Sunday, I think you are really supposed to stay home and rest then. And restaurants… well I’m still trying to figure out their hours, I think you are supposed to eat dinner after 9 at night. We enjoyed the evening on the boat in a calm anchorage and headed on south the next day.

On our way to Le Marin, we made a brief stop at Anse Noir where the guidebook claims there is really good snorkeling. Really good is really relative. There were certainly some creatures to see, some coral alive and a wall, just a little too deep for snorkeling, but it was definitely a big whatever. Just after pulling into the anchorage we spotted our friends on Elsyium.

Our one-day in Le Marin was spent getting checked out at customs, spending some time with our friends and making a huge mistake we wouldn’t realize for several days yet and would regret for islands to come. Having been hop-scotching down the French Islands we got quite comfortable with good cheese, inexpensive wine and a variety of other goodies from the grocery. Somehow we didn’t stop and think that this was our last French Island and we chose not to go to the grocery store. In two days we will realize that the great selection of really good wine at really cheap prices does not exist after Martinique. The great deli cheese and fresh goat cheese .. forget it. We won’t even talk about olive oil. We’ll just mark this down as cruising lesson #243.

Dominica

2010-05-29T06:44:00.003-04:00

Eco-tourism. That about sums up Dominica. We knew the anchorages were not going to be fabulous, there are not very many, and there are a lot of restrictions. It’s true. Scuba diving can only be done with a dive boat, and many of the snorkeling areas we are not allowed to even dingy to, requiring a tour operator. There is a lot of hiking on the island, and the national parks are the main draw to the island. Never being built up most of the island is still wilderness with small towns, no large hotels or resorts are found here.

Our first stop is in Portsmouth, before we even make it to the anchorage we are met by the boat boys. They are a part of an organized group of certified tour operators, PAYS. In addition to being tour guides, the boat boys will buy ice and bring it to your boat among other services, provide you with information, and they monitor the anchorage that has really helped to reduce theft problems that have been a big issue in the past. We met up with Alexis and agreed to go on an Indian River tour the following morning. No motors are allowed on the Indian River, and no yachts are allowed to take their own boats, you must go with a guide. During The one mile paddle up the river, Alexis tells us some of the history of the island, points out different flora and fauna, birds, and even a filming site from Pirates of the Caribbean. The trip ends at a riverside bar; from there we take a walk through a plantation, where Alexis points out the different local fruits and vegetables. Alexis was friendly and a very knowledgeable guide.

The country really does it’s best to hide trail maps, bus routes and schedules and pushes taking a guided tour to visit it’s many destinations. The guides do provide a lot of information about the area but at $160 price for two to go on a 3-hour hike is a bit more than our budget really allows for. I’ve never really thought too much about eco-tourism until now. I realize that the government is trying to create jobs for the people and I would be happy to help the economy but not at US prices. In a place where the cost of living is fairly low, these tour guides are making more money than many of my friends back home.

Although the anchorage feels safe in Portsmouth, and the PAYS guys are friendly and helpful, there is also a constant barrage of other guys paddling out in boats or on surfboards trying to sell fruit take trash or anything they can make a buck on. These guys are mostly just annoying. If trying to take a nap, read a book or relax inside they will hang on the boat knocking and calling, refusing to leave until someone comes out. One day of that was really quite enough so we didn’t stay long, and headed down to Roseau.

Roseau is the southern most anchorage available, below it everything is a marine sanctuary and no boats are allowed, well except dive operators. The anchoring space was a bit limited and we opted to pick up a mooring for $10 a day, a very reasonable amount. With a nice southern swell at night, the anchorage is not the most comfortable. I wake up with my arms and shoulders sore from constantly bracing my body from rolling in my sleep. Aside from that it’s a pleasant enough place to be.

We try, unsuccessfully to find a trail map and see if we can hike on our own. We do find the forestry office and they tell us where we can find a trail map, but the store is already closed for the day. They also mention a number of hikes that are marked well enough to not need a guide (the first time we’ve heard this). In the meantime our friends find a taxi driver that will take us to Middleham Falls for $100 and claims we will need a guide there that is available when we get there. Splitting the cost 3 ways we decide to go along with the plan, since we need at least another day to figure out a trail map and transportation on our own. We should have known we were in for a ride when the next morning the taxi driver raises the price because he didn’t know there were 6 people :-/ Then he promptly hands us over to someone else, he wasn’t even taking us. Once up at the park, we see the Ranger who is collecting the required park permit that our driver has failed to acquire first. We keep going into town to get the permit, stop at one location that is closed, turn around and go back. This time I hear the conversation with the Ranger who informs our driver that he told him to go to all four locations before coming back and he should know the regulations, the Ranger than informs our driver that he will drop us at the trail and go get our permits while we are hiking. Good Ranger. Bad cab driver. The supposed available guides are no where to be found.. thankfully as the trail so did not require either a guide or a trail map. The trail was very well maintained with good signs at any intersection. The falls were beautiful and were too tall to fit in a photograph. A refreshing dip in the cold fresh water was wonderful. On the way back we detoured to the stinking hole. Which was exactly that, a hole that stinks. We find out later for $1.50 a bus comes up to this area. Great information to know for next time. It was a successful adventure; don’t think I’ll be keeping that cab drivers number though. Next time we’ll just spend a few days getting appropriate maps rent a car and go where we want.

Skipping the rest of the islands natural beauty to visit on the return trip the following day after a particularly rolly night we take off bright and early in the morning for Martinique. As we head out of the bay there is hardly any wind at all, seems as though it will be an easy trip down. A few miles later as we near the southern tip of the island, the wind and seas start to build and we start to wonder if we should have checked the weather forecast. As we clear the tip of the island, the wind is 25kts with gusts to 30kts, the seas are 6-8 ft with some occasionally higher, and we wonder if we should go back and wait for another day. There is a squall in the distance and we wonder where it’s headed. We do keep going and eventually the wind drops down to a very civilized 15kts and the seas subside to a very reasonable 3-4 ft. As we sail into the lee of Martinique our wind all but dies and we complete our trip into St. Pierre motoring.

Guadeloupe

2010-05-28T11:38:00.002-04:00

Our first island that feels like a foreign country. Although almost all the islands we have visited are foreign countries Guadeloupe feels like it; a French department, the official language is French and English speakers are rare. We are fortunate to be here with our French Canadian friends on Spirare who are able to do some translating for us. When we are not with them we are glad to have bought French for Cruisers to help stumble through the language. The entire time I’m trying to pick up words, phrases and thinking it’s time for a language school. Speaking Spanish on a French island just doesn’t get me very far, although sometimes it does help.

Dashaies is a comfortable town to be in, except for all the rain we had there. We read through our cruising guide and decided to take a recommended “walk” up the river. The recommended walk consisted of hoping rock-to-rock up the river and occasionally bushwhacking along the banks. At least there was a road at the other end, although we had to leave the river and find it over the top of a hill, at least we had an easy walk back to the boat. Although we got along just fine, I think the “walk” was a little understated in our guide.

Guadeloupe leaves us with time decisions. There is supposed to be a beautiful waterfall on the southern end and nice national park. The Saints are supposed to be very nice. We are looking a bit at our time schedule. There are also language schools here I wouldn’t mind visiting, but I know we don’t have time for that. We decide to spend a few days at Les Saints and skip the rest. With this decision we also decide (very definitely for now at least) that next season we will return back up the island chain (at least to the VI’s) and have time to take in everything we are missing on the way down. With this in mind we head to the Les Saints stopping briefly overnight to break up the trip.

Les Saints are a small group of islands just south of Guadeloupe. They have different anchorage choices that are all very close together, clear water, decent snorkeling, a very pleasant friendly town (that is even open in the afternoon), and some sites to hike up to. We chose to hike to the highest point, the old watchtower. A rational planning person would start this hike early in the morning to avoid the heat of the day; we started at noon. There is a paved road the entire way, although it has been closed to all motorized traffic, it’s fairly steep and up all the way. On the way up we pass the local trash dump that falls steeply down the edge of the mountain and is constantly lightly burning and smoldering. Approaching it we see a cat dart out of a pile very close to fire, a hen and her chicks precariously pick their way through the smoldering garbage narrowly missing the flames, and another poor chicken that looks half roasted already with it’s tail feathers completely singed off. At the top we find the old watchtower with metal ladders we can climb to the top where the views are worth the hike up.

For our last night here we go out to dinner to sample some French cuisine. Our friends do not join us, so we are on our own. Right off the dingy dock we head to Linsolente, get out French for Cruisers and start stumbling through the menu. We manage to order and mostly know what we ordered. The food was great; since we ended up with two seafood dishes and no land meats we considered our night out a success.

Antigua

2010-05-17T10:44:00.002-04:00

A night at sea provided steady winds and a great sail to arrive bright and early in the morning at Jolly Harbour, Antigua. That is Antigua in the West Indies, not to be confused with Antigua, Guatemala a very landlocked town. After a nap and breakfast we head to the customs office. In addition to figuring out business hours, another conundrum is customs fees. Checking in and checking out within hours of each other the fees we paid and Spirare paid differed from slightly to a lot. I’m not sure I’ll ever understand.

From Jolly Harbour we head north and spend a couple of days at Deep Bay. There is the wreck of the Andes that can be snorkeled , but the visibility was poor and the jelly fish ever present. There was also some snorkeling near the point that was nice enough, the best being the thousands of tiny fish you could swim among as they moved in unison in their shimmery dance. A hike up to Fort Barrington provided a beautiful view of the anchorage and surrounding area.

Planning to cut our stay a little short, feeling anxious to be moving south we head on down to English Harbour, home of Nelson’s Dockyard. Completed in 1745, and providing good hurricane protection, it was Britain’s main naval station in the Lesser Antilles. The main road of town runs from English Harbour to Falmouth Harbour, and is full of restaurants. Once again, don’t go to dinner before 6:30, it’s uncivilized. We’ve almost got it this time.

Our stay here was extended by a few days as a tropical wave in the area deteriorated our weather. Clouds and rain every day. At least the rain doesn’t stay all day, but when it clouds over and the shower starts, closing all the hatches on the boat becomes a sauna. The first day of such showers found me below sweating and finishing the rain tarps that will just cover the two main hatches and allow some air even during a rainstorm. That is unless the 30kt gusts blow the rain in anyway. With the forecast not looking great for the next week and a half, we pick the day that looks like it has the lowest (ish) wind and least chance of squalls to sail the 40 miles to Guadeloupe. Sunday appears as a beautiful morning, with 20kt winds and 5-6ft seas. A great day for a beam reach to Guadeloupe. All went great but about 10 miles from the coast we were enveloped in the outskirts of a squall for about 15 minutes life became exciting. Watching it’s arrival, IB put a second reef in the main, pulled in the jib, donned our lifejackets and were ready when the 30kts gusts blew in soaking us in rain.

We arrived in Deshaies (pronounced Day-ay) wet but happy, and anchored before the next rain cloud settled overhead. Of course it’s a Sunday, most of town is closed and no customs till tomorrow.

St. Barthelemy

2010-05-17T10:41:00.004-04:00

A mere 15 mile cruise, on a nice day lands us in the waters of St. Barthelemy. We make our first stop at Île Fourchue, just off the north east of the main island, and rendezvous with Spirare and Shadowfax. A very nice little anchorage, they actually have free mooring balls to protect the seabed, by a beautiful rocky island. The water is clear, and snorkeling is okay, although there is not a lot of coral. We end up staying two nights, and spending each evening hanging out with our friends. The second day everyone, but me, heads to shore in the afternoon to hike around the island. I have the sewing machine out, making flags, and too far into the project to stop.

We say our goodbye’s to Shadowfax, we will probably meet up again in Guadeloupe or later, and head down to Gustavia for the afternoon. There we check in and out with custom, see the town, buy some groceries and get ready for another overnight sail to Antigua. Spirare calls as they get near, we pull up anchor and head to sea with them.

St. Martin / Sint Maarten

2010-05-17T10:39:00.002-04:00

Of course we arrived during a holiday! Apparently we have a real knack for arriving at destinations during holidays. We were able to check in with customs the same day, but that shopping list for the marine stores … forget it. Not only is it carnival, but on the Dutch side no one is working in reverence of the Queen’s birthday. God Bless the Queen.

St Martin is French and Dutch (Sint Maarten for the Dutch). The smallest island that is two countries. Each country has different fees for checking in by boat. We checked in on the French side, as we were warned that the Dutch have extra fees, and it’s just as easy to visit the Dutch side by dingy. Although the language spoken is French and Dutch respectively, English is still used everywhere. Of course signs are in French of which I don’t speak a lick; that will need to go on my study list. I often find myself wanting to speak Spanish, since that’s the only foreign language I know. Not actually helpful.

Since there will be no shopping till next week, we decide to spend the weekend exploring a bit of the island. According to our guidebook the small island of Île Tintamarre has some nice mud with great exfoliate properties. Always up for a little home spa on the beach we head over to check out the mud. The mud did not disappoint, must be something from the volcanic origin of the island, after 20 minutes of basking mud caked in the sun with a salt water rinse, our skin feels soft, smooth and rejuvenated.

Next stop, Orient Bay. A lively and well-known beach, also the location of St Martin’s clothing optional beach on the east end. And of course that is where we anchored. Most of the afternoon was spent lounging and swimming off the boat, later in the day we decided to head to shore, which brings up the question; Where to land the dingy? Our cruising guide claimed there was a location on the east end, we looked and didn’t see it. Finally we found a mooring near shore that didn’t look very used so we just tied to it, stowed our gear in a dry bag and swam to shore. We were not really sure if this was an acceptable place to leave the dingy or not, but watched for several hours on the beach, eventually deciding it was fine and an unused mooring. At one point there were two other dingys there as well, guess they figured we knew what we were doing. First we head to the east end, past the sign welcoming us to the clothing optional beach resort and the sign forbidding the use of cameras, plopped our stuff down on the beach and headed in for a swim.. with suits.. mostly. Now that we had swam at the nude beach, it seemed to be getting on cocktail hour and time to see the rest of the beach, find a tasty drink and think about some food. I can see why this is an attractive beach, the water is calm and beautiful, restaurants and stores are right on the beach complete with chairs and umbrellas for rent. We found a pleasant spot, ordered a few margaritas and sat down to enjoy the beach, putting off dinner for a while. About 5:00 it seems time to look for some food, so we think. I’m not sure I’ll ever quite get the hang of business hours in the Caribbean. Everything on the beach closes up at 5:00, even though it is still quite sunny out. We are told to head downtown, of course the restaurants downtown don’t really open until 6:00. Hmm. We hang out a while, shop for a restaurant and eventually get dinner. Time to head back home. The dingy is still moored off the beach, and since we are all dressed for dinner, off come the clothes, into the dry bag they go and we swim back to the boat.

The next day it’s time to start heading back toward Marigot Bay, stopping for the night to visit Grand Case. About the only thing in Grand Case are restaurants; this is where people come to eat. Of course we go to shore too early, 5:00 is a very unreasonable hour to want to eat, we should know this by now. But this gives us plenty of time to shop for a restaurant, walking up and down the street, one by one, reading the menu’s, and time to stop for a glass of wine to discuss the menu’s. Eventually we opt for one that has a happy hour special buy one meal get one free. Maybe not the best meal in town, but definitely half the price.

Once back at Marigot Bay, we are able to get our shopping done, the marine stores have most of the items on our list. What we didn’t find our next glorified mail courier can bring down from the states when he meets up with us in St. Lucia. After shopping, we head back to customs to check out and try to stop back by the Spoon Café where we had some wonderful crepes. But alas it’s 2:00 and who would eat lunch at 2:00, they are closed. Tomorrow we head to St Barthelemy.

Virgin Islands

2010-05-03T11:06:00.007-04:00

Our big crossing of nearly 15 miles brought us to St. Thomas, USVI. Our first stop, Charlotte Amalie, cruise ship dock and tourist mecca. In Puerto Rico we were issued local boater cards at the customs office that would theoretically allow us to call a number and report our presence when arriving in US waters. However when the internet bites, skype calls can’t be made, with no cell phone, calling is not possible. Really starting to miss that cell phone. So off to find the customs office we go, well tomorrow anyway. We have managed to arrive on Easter Sunday, a few restaurants are open but most of the town is closed up. The next morning when we get to the customs office we find that since we just came from a US waters we don’t actually need to check in at all, even though we were told in Puerto Rico we would need to, but what does Puerto Rico know about St. Thomas anyway.

We have almost a week here before my mom flies down for a visit. That’s just enough time to see town, grocery shop, scout out a few anchorages, and find some good snorkeling sites.

When Mom arrives we walk to the airport to collect her and our packages she brought along. I had a little trouble convincing her she wanted to come down and visit, and eventually ordered enough stuff that was sent to her house she had to deliver it!

The first night stay in Charlotte Amalie, walk around town and go out for dinner. The next morning we pull up the anchor and head to St. John. We pick up a mooring in Francis Bay, get into swim suits tell mom to jump overboard and take off for mom’s first snorkel. And of course we made her swim to the snorkeling, I did hold onto her though, and it’s a good thing as she kept trying to swim out to sea. She had a great time and by the end of the trip got quite comfortable in the water. From Francis Bay, we hopped around the corner to Waterlemon Cay for more snorkeling and a short hike to the Annaberg Sugar Mill Ruins. The mill ruins were in one direction and the ruins of the master’s house in another. The master’s house is on top of the hill with a great view of the anchorage, surrounding islands and the sugar mill.

We contemplated circumnavigating St. John, but decided since mom came prepared, like a good girl scout with her passport, we would visit the BVI’s at Jost Van Dyke. Anchoring at Great Harbor was a bit of a challenge, after the 8^th attempt the anchor finally caught on something on the rocky bottom. After the captain went to shore and checked us in we headed to shore to see town and visit Foxy’s for a painkiller. We had the pleasure of meeting Foxy who never lacked for a story to tell. As soon as he heard we were from WV, he told us of his friend from WV, Joe Manchin, the governor.

We moved around the corner to Long Bay the following day and passed the time snorkeling, swimming and took a short hike to “the bubbles”, a small pool surrounded by boulders. The waves would crash in through the boulders and… well.. bubble.

With the week nearing the end we headed back toward Charlotte Amalie. Mom had one more first before flying home, parasailing. So the day before she left, we put her on a boat, strapped her to a parachute and hauled her (and me with her) up into the air 600ft. She loved it. But alas that put an end to the week and we had to send her to the airport and back home.

While we were in Charlotte Amalie, we looked up some friends of friends, after all friends of friends are basically already friends right? We found Kris and Carroll downtown at their store Fishface. They came out to the boat one evening for cocktail hour and some music playing.

With a quick stop at Coral Bay on St. John, we headed over to Roadtown on Tortola. Of course we arrive on a weekend, so most of the town is closed. We did managed to have someone come out and look at our refrigerator that is acting up a bit, that is after we finally managed to locate the compressor that was hidden under the floorboards, in the rear cockpit locker. We’ve been looking around for a year trying to find that, although I don’t think that locker has ever been completely emptied. Turns out our problem was just a failing fan, since the freezer compressor is identical we just swapped them out and were working again. We’ll need to get another fan but for now we don’t need to use the freezer.

The rest of the time in the BVI’s was a brief whirlwind trip, so we could make use of a weather window to make our last overnight jump east into the trade winds. We stopped by Marina Cay, Virgin Gorda, and visited the Baths; before heading out to sea.

Puerto Rico

2010-05-01T08:51:00.003-04:00

Our expected weather window, fell a little short of the predicted north winds. We expected a shift in winds during our first night out. They didn’t shift. But they were very light and variable and the seas were very calm, to the point of having a glassy surface at times. We are fortunate to have a reliable motor as it ran for 3 days, nonstop. Except for listening to the motor (which I’ll take any day over beating into the wind and waves), our trip went by uneventfully. Uneventful is always a bonus on a crossing or anytime for that matter. We put our trolling lines out during the day and reeled in a small skipjack tuna and our second dorado that measured 37”.

At 1:00pm of our 3^rd day we dropped anchor in the bay at Boqueron, Puerto Rico. Arriving in a new country the first stop is always customs to check in, technically your vessel is only supposed to anchor at a check in port, that would have been Mayaguez. We had heard however that here it was possible to get a cab that would drive you to customs and back and skip the not as pleasant harbor of Mayaguez. We had a little trouble reaching Raul, (the cab driver) on the VHF and for the first time since we left the states started missing having a cell phone. We did finally reach him, and very efficiently got checked in at customs and dropped back in town. Boqueron is known as a local college party town, being the wrong season and not a weekend the town was mostly empty, many places not even opening till evening if at all. I hear in peak season you can barely walk down the street for all the people. We made our way to Galloway’s, recommended as the best restaurant in town. Not only did they have good food and quiet relaxed dining on the water, but also a bustling friendly pub. The owner’s son, Eric, happened to be in town for the St Patrick’s Day festivities and we had an enjoyable time meeting him and his girlfriend.

After St Patrick’s Day, we headed around the corner to La Parquera and had our first encounter of the trade winds. As soon as we rounded the point to the east coast, the winds hit us head on, the seas picked up and we beat into wind and waves for the couple of hours to our destination. At least it wasn’t far. After this day we would learn to leave before dawn to arrive at our destination around 7am, this would allow us to take advantage of the night time lee as the winds coming down off the land would reduce the trade winds, making for a slightly more comfortable trip. It was still rough. La Parquera is a quaint little town, that comes alive after dark on weekends. We were serenaded to a variety of music late into the evening.

And moving on, before dawn, we headed over to Cayos Caña Gorda, locally known as Gilligan’s Island. The island acquired it’s name as someone decided it looked a lot like the set of Gilligan’s Island. Upon visiting the island most of the similarities were lost on me, there was a nice shallow lagoon though. We had heard that it was often crowded on weekend’s as a ferry from the mainland would bring locals over for the afternoon, we went on a Monday not realizing it was a holiday. The place was packed. A large portion of the small island is all mangroves and inaccessible. Near the lagoon is a sandy beach and picnic area. People were everywhere, packed in like sardines, so we went back to the boat. Tuesday had no ferry’s running so we headed back to the island; it was barely recognizable without a single person in sight. Two small rivers flowed through the mangroves and opened into the lagoon; empty of people it was quiet and relaxing just setting in the calm water.

Onto Ponce. Ponce was not particularly special, although the historic downtown is supposed to be nice, we didn’t make it there. We did however rent a car for a day and do some shopping. Wal-Mart, Kmart, groceries and Pizza Hut. It was great to be able to pick up the little things on our shopping list that we had been unable to find for a while, but were easy to locate in Kmart. The following day before returning the car we decided to drive up into the mountains to see the Radio Telescope at the Arecibo Observatory. With what sounded like easy directions, we were glad to have a gps as the roads were a bit hard to follow, winding and curving up through the mountains. The scenery was beautiful, thick tropical foliage everywhere, and steep mountains. We just had enough time at the observatory for a brief look and a few pictures before heading back down the mountain to return the car.

After Ponce all of our other plans fell apart with a break in the trade winds. We ended up with one quick stop overnight and then headed straight to Vieques and the Spanish Virgin Islands. One of Vieques main attractions are the bioluminescent bays. They are said to be a spectacular sight, however to enjoy the underwater light show a dark sky is necessary, since we were here during a full moon and didn’t want to wait a week or more for a bit of dark sky we skipped by this experience. We also found that a couple of the nicer bays on the eastern end of the island were closed to anchoring during the week due to the military performing artillery cleanup form when the US Navy used this as a practice firing area up until 2003. Of course we were here early in the week, oh well, with still having some settled winds we popped up north to Culebra.

Having skipped a large section of Puerto Rico to take advantage of calm winds to get here we decided to take a ferry, costing $2.50 one way back to the mainland. There we rented a car with our friends on Spirare, and drove into Old San Juan for a day. Along the way we stopped at a West Marine and picked up a few much wanted boat items. In Old San Juan we toured the Castillo de San Felipe del Morro. A fort built in 1953 under orders of the King of Spain to defend San Juan from naval attacks. It was a good trip and a long day, having arrived at the ferry dock at 6:00am and not arriving back at the boat until 11:00pm.

Our overall view of Puerto Rico was a very pleasant one. We enjoyed the small towns along the coast, found the people very friendly, and equally enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the coast and mountains. Traveling east along the southern shore in a sailboat…. Not fun at all, every mile was hard won. The water was not very clear at all and snorkeling was a disappointment, but there were some pretty beaches. As for the food: We usually enjoy trying local fare and are drawn to local restaurants, however it did not take long to discover Puerto Rican food = pork. I think they have managed to find a way to put it in everything. Since pork, chicken and beef are not a part of our dietary menu, we quickly shied away from anything advertising “local”. Pizza Hut was a welcome change.

Turks & Caicos

2010-03-19T20:20:00.003-04:00

How hard can it be to check into a country? Well apparently when you arrive on a Sunday and Monday is a holiday it can be very difficult. Sunday, following our early morning arrival, knowing we were too tired to do anything, but not quite ready to sleep we broke out the bottle of rum for a little celebration. Normally I would be concerned about us choosing a bit of rum at 9:00 am, but after 48 hours at sea and a random sleep schedule that didn’t take notice of day or night it seemed a good day for an exception. And besides our only plan for the day was to go to sleep. And we did just that, waking up briefly for a bit of dinner and back to sleep. Monday morning we dug our bicycles out of the forward locker where they have been stored for the voyage. I do mean dug, it seems our forward locker has accumulated quite a few items, most of which I believe are the various pieces for my sewing projects not yet finished, or started. We then loaded the bikes into the dingy and headed to shore in search of customs. This is the first time we had used our bikes since being in the States, the Bahamas islands being small enough to not need them, we were very glad to have them on this island. After being accustomed to everything being within a very short walking distance it was surprising to find the island much larger than expected and everything spread out over miles. At least the exercise felt good after days of being cooped up on the boat. Our first stop, after taking the wrong road and backtracking, was at customs only to find out that is was a holiday and no one was there. The next day when we checked in with customs we were told they had a ship come in and they were actually there at 2:30pm but the workers at the gate, “Don’t know anything.”

As we were checking in the next day, we were informed that our $15 fee was good for 7 days; if we wanted to stay longer we would need to go downtown to the immigration office and get a 30-day cruising permit for $75. Decisions, decisions, deciding how long to stay. We figure we’ll talk to your weather guru, procrastinate a few days and decide later.

We rode downtown to the marine store and amazingly enough they actually had the spare part we were looking for, too bad they didn’t have the charts we wanted, oh well. How important are charts anyway? I’m sure we’ll find some eventually, since we somehow managed to leave home without paper charts for the Turks & Caicos, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

We headed on up to the northern coast for some lunch at da Conch Shack. It is a charming little shack of a restaurant painted in colorful hues of pink, green and blue, sitting right on the beach. As we waited for our meal and sipped on their “infamous” rum punch, we watched the men on the beach cleaning conch. IB went down and got a few pointers. Since we were out of conch and not allowed to take any in the T&C’s he’ll just have to wait to put his new information to use. After our pleasant meal and a few rum punches we were ready for our 5 mile ride along a busy highway back to the boat.

A word about dingys. Our dingy is essentially our family car. It is how we get to and from our boat, how we get to reefs to snorkel, it’s well our lifeline to land. We are careful to make sure it is tied and even locked with a steel cable when we leave it at a dock. The possibility of having our dingy stolen is always there, even if we lock it, as thief’s are known to cut cables and take dingys, sometimes even from the boat at night. Knowing of this possibility, and dreading ever being faced with it, we were completely dumfounded as we rode up to where we left the dingy tied to find the dock gone. It took a few minutes as we looked at each other, looked at where

the dock used to be and our little brains tried to process what our eyes were seeing. Never did we imagine the possibility of someone taking the dock! We walked down the small steps to small section of dock that still remained, and then we started breathing again as we saw that someone had moved our dingy and it was still there waiting for us. They didn’t even cut our cable, but broke off the cleat it was attached to. No swimming back to the boat that day.

Back to the big debate. Pay the $75 and stay a few weeks, or head on down to Puerto Rico. The winds are going to be shifting to the southeast, so we need to leave this anchorage as there is no protection to prevent the wind and waves to beat on our boat and rock us around. There is supposed to be a short window with light winds from that north that could get us to Puerto Rico. The window seems like it will barely be long enough. After a bit of thought we decide to just stay for a few weeks and head up to the north side of the island. We had initially wanted to go to the north side as the bay there has lots of coral, snorkeling and diving nearby, as well as stores and restaurants in the vicinity. We ended up in Sapodilla Bay, on the south side, because the day we arrived with our north wind, the north swell was breaking across entrance channel to Grace Bay and would have been very dangerous to attempt getting in there. We pulled up the anchor and headed over to North West Point for the night and anchored just

off the beach where Columbus anchored in October of 1492. The beach used to be the site of Tiki Huts where the French game show Pago Pago was filmed. During the show contestants would dive down to about 35 feet, swim into a large cage and collect pearls from artificial sponges. They had “mermaids” under water with scuba tanks and the contestants could exchange bracelets for air. There was however a “bad” mermaid that would swim away and refuse the contestant air at the last moment. The show did not last long. The next morning we moved over to one of the nearby dive moorings and got out our scuba gear. The cage was just at the bottom of the mooring, although it is now collapsed and laying in pieces. The fishes still like it though. From there we swam in about 40 feet of water to the wall drop off. Floating over nothingness, with the bottom too many hundreds of feet down to see.

After our dive, we quickly stowed our gear and headed around the point to Grace Bay. We wanted to be sure that we entered the bay while the sun was still high in the sky to allow us the visibility needed to dodge coral heads. The banks of the Turks & Caicos are littered with coral heads that could cause big problems if we accidentally ran into one. Fortunately, the black spots that show on the surface from the sun are easy to identify and avoid. Once inside we anchored just off the beach in front of the beach resorts. The people in the resorts are paying a lot of money to sit on the beach and swim in the clear water; we’re not paying anything to anchor here.

Remember when we decided to stay for a while? That was just two days ago right? Well we’ve listened to the latest on weather and the window looks longer than we expected, so we’ve changed our mind we’re going to leave before spending the $75 on a cruising permit. Into the marina we go, to fill the diesel tanks, top off the water, charge the batteries and get some groceries. Since I still had yet to get that romantic dinner out I wanted on Valentine’s Day, this seemed like a good night for it. After searching the internet for restaurant reviews, I made reservations at Coyaba. It was finally warm enough in the evening to wear my summer dresses without getting chilled, so I pulled out my little white dress; my wedding dress to be precise, I knew there was a reason I made it oh so practical. We were not disappointed by the review I read. The restaurant was not oceanfront, but had a very pleasant and relaxed atmosphere. The food was truly outstanding, and I had the best company in the world. The evening was perfect. Our last one on the island, tomorrow we head back out to sea.

Bye Bye Bahamas

2010-03-10T09:26:00.002-05:00

The Exumas turned into a whirlwind trip. Wasn't really planned that way, but weather had it's way with us and that's what happened. The northern Exumas really seem like a great tropical place, and someday maybe we will enjoy them a bit more! As it was, we transited through the islands in a weeks time only making three stops before Georgetown. Our first stop, Royal Harbour, Eleuthera. It was just an overnight stop after crossing from the Abacos, time for some cocktails and dinner before bed. The following day took us across the banks to arrive at Allen's Cay in the Exumas. We stayed put here for a couple of days, visited with the Rock Iguana and spent a day in the water hunting lobster and conch. We were successful, returning to the boat with 10 conch and a large lobster. Dinner was very good.

A bit about Rock Iguana. They were once found throughout the Bahamas but were wiped out as a food source. They are now protected by Bahamian law and there are two colonies in the Northern Exumas. These are the relatives of the iguanas that were used as dinosaurs in the old horror movies.

From there we followed the western coast south to Norman's Cay, two nights there, then on to Staniel Cay. We got stuck in here for a few days with weather blowing us around, as soon as it cleared we headed out the cut into Exuma Sound and spent the day sailing down to Georgetown. We arrived the day before Chris Parker's weather seminar. We explored Georgetown, didn't take very long, learned a little more about reading weather fax and gribs, and met our weather guru. What we didn't realize before arriving in Georgetown, was that we arrived the week of the Regatta. Basically meaning there were bunches of boats, well over 300. We enjoy meeting and spending time with other cruisers, for us, this number was a bit daunting. There were quite a few people there we knew and didn't get to spend too much time with, although we would have liked too. Of course there was also the weather, it turned around to the Northwest and blew for three days, and the anchorage was a rockin. One morning I got out of bed, stumbled outside, looked around at the clear blue sky, beautiful turquoise water, and wondered how this could really be a day of bad weather. The I looked at the waves rolling under the boat, the white caps on top of them, sunk back down below, felt a little queasy from the rolling about, went back to bed and said, yep it's a bad day.

I was quite elated after three days of this weather when our weather guru, Chris Parker, announced to us that it would be a great opportunity to sail straight down to Puerto Rico. We had planned on taking our time and visiting the southern Bahama islands, but they are 250 miles of islands scattered about to the southeast. That would be the usual direction of wind. With a little issue of boat insurance, resulting in us changing our insurance company and needing to wait a week for all the changes to take effect we needed to stop in the Turks and Caicos till the insurance was finalized. Not quite Puerto Rico, but still about half way, besides we did want to see it anyway. For just over 48 hours we had some beautiful Northwest winds gently pushing us straight to our destination.

Parting is such sweet sorrow

2010-02-17T16:49:00.002-05:00

After two and a half weeks of some ridiculously windy weather and great times with friends, it is time for us to move on southward. Last night we said good-bye, tomorrow morning we leave the Abacos and head to the Exumas via Eleuthera.

One of the best things about meeting new cruisers while traveling is that it’s just like summer camp as a kid. Friendships that can oftentimes take months or years to develop happen overnight. But since we are all traveling in different directions, we are often saying good-bye to our newfound best friends. On this trip we were able to re-visit with friends we made last year, and enjoy the company of new friends. With email, blogs, and facebook it is easier than ever to stay in touch, looking forward to the day we will meet up again. Tomorrow will just be me, IB and Passport alone on the great big fishpond, knowing new friends and a glass of rum await us somewhere ahead.

February 14, 2010

2010-02-16T17:22:00.003-05:00

Day after day of being stuck in Marsh Harbour as fronts keep rolling through, we think we may have found a day to leave, until we listen to the morning weather report. Tonight would be fine somewhere else but tomorrow we would just have to be back, the weather is not so fabulous anyway, so put we stay. Friday morning we awake to a beautiful, calm, sunny day, could this really be the day that is forecast for gale force winds? At least the morning looks good. In desperate need to stretch out our legs and get off the boat, we head over to nearby Mermaid Reef with our friends on Makani for a little snorkeling. It’s a protected reef, so the spears stay on the boat, no fish for dinner tonight. The sun is warm, the water is completely calm, it all made for an enjoyable snorkel. Heading back to the boat less than two hours later, the winds have picked up to 10kts and getting stronger. It has begun. The winds slowly build all day, the gale force winds are expected to arrive as the sun set. It was late… but it did not disappoint. While IB was on anchor watch, I drifted off to sleep for a short nap. I was abruptly awakened, as the boat heeled over to port, dumping the contents of the galley counter on the floor. We were battered with steady 35-40 kt winds with gusts up to 50. Fortunately, the strong gusts only last a couple of hours and the wind settled down to around 30kts for most of the night.

The following day anxiously hoping to get off the boat, I went outside and what did I see, but 20kt winds, choppy seas and white caps in the harbor.. I went back to bed. The day passed with naps, movies and a wonderful dinner my husband cooked for me. At one point in the day as I had recently awoken from a nap, IB looked up from his book to find me contentedly staring at the walls.. he suggested maybe we should play a board game.

Finally, Sunday morning greeted us with not only a pleasant looking day, but also a pleasant weather report, at least for a couple of days anyway. It’s time to leave. We pulled up the anchor, and prepared to head up to Guana Cay, today is the day we get off the boat. Before leaving, our first mission is to fill the water and diesel tanks. That of course, required waiting for the marina to open at 11:00am. Oh well, no hurry. Since we added a water maker to the boat this year it may be a wonder why we need a marina to fill the water tanks. The answer is simple, the water maker… not hooked up. That’s a project still waiting for mañana. Calm winds and an empty fuel dock made tying up easy and uneventful; filling the fuel tanks was seemingly uneventful. No problems? No way. Everything went great until we finished and I went below decks to find a puddle of diesel on the galley counter and seeping into the freezer. Apparently there is a leak somewhere in the overflow line. Guess that’s the next project.

We had tentative plans to have a nice romantic dinner out at a restaurant, being Valentines Day and all, but plans are made to be changed. We hopped up to Bakers Bay, to visit our friends on Windfall. Our restaurant plans were scrapped when we decided to have dinner together on our boat. There will be many opportunities for romantic dinners for two yet to come, a great evening with good friends we will be leaving soon as we head farther south, is not to be passed up.

Building a Hard Top Dodger

2010-01-19T16:03:00.004-05:00

We have several reasons for wanting a hard top dodger. IB’s top reason: to be able to stand on it to reach the boom. My top reason: less canvas to replace, it’s so much easier to make panels of windows rather than a full canvas dodger. I’m glad IB has his own reasons, since I’m still trying to explain the finer aspects of sewing and why it’s so much harder to sew the full dodger. After all, everything is easy when someone else does it, as I’ve often commented on his projects.

Never having tackled fiberglass, our first step was getting a quote to have it made… professionally. We were quoted a figure around $4000. Somehow the summer slipped by and a decision was never made, there was not enough time left for the professional route. Decision made through indecision. In the meantime, I ran across a website of a cruiser who made his own fiberglass hardtop and he gave us some simple directions. It didn’t look so hard, so we figured we’d give it a try. Our total cost: under $800.

The plan: reinforce our existing dodger frame with four stainless supports; bend an FRP panel to fit the frame, fiberglass and paint. It was one of those super easy projects, since circumstance took me home to visit my family while my husband tackled the project.

Since we were fortunate enough to have the use of a friends backyard the entire project was completed off the boat. (Thanks Paul and Rachel!) The frame was attached to a wooden base and the FRP panel then bent to the shape of the frame and secured to the frame with fishing line. The panel was then marked and cut to size. Our choice for fiberglass materials was biaxial mat with epoxy resin. The mat was laid over the panel and cut to size. We pre-cut three pieces, planning to lay three layers the first day. The first piece was laid over the FRP panel, slathered with epoxy resin, and any bubbles were smoothed out. This process was then repeated two more times. Sort of like making baklava, but not so good to eat when it’s done. Now comes one of the most important steps that must be executed with the utmost precision: crack open a beer, drink and enjoy! Tomorrow the fiberglass process is repeated again, or in the words of our dear friend Frank, “Same f*&%#@! Thing!”

The rough edges get cut to size and sanded to a nice round edge. Now begins the faring process. Epoxy resin I mixed with glass micro bubbles, not to be confused with microbrew, that’s what you get at the end of the day. Apply the faring compound with a roller over the surface and smooth with a squeegee. In this case, the bigger, the better. Allow to dry; repeat as necessary until happy with the result. Prime, paint and it’s done. The finishing touches include the track to hold the canvas windows, and the canvas windows; my job, that’s not yet done. I have a good excuse; by the time I got back to Fort Lauderdale it was time to leave, so nothing else got done. Before I can pattern to make the canvas, the track needs to be in place. That’s IB’s job. He has a good excuse too. Before he can take the hard top off to install the track we need a day (preferably two) that the winds are not blowing 20 kts. And so the project will get completed .. mañana

The FRP Panel bent over the frame and cut to size.

Cutting the fiberglass sheets.

Applying the resin.

Sanding and faring.

The finished project, well almost.

Arch and Davits

2010-01-17T16:24:00.004-05:00

We told them we wanted an arch and davits. The said, “We’d love to help you.” We said, “We want to keep our wind vane.” They said, “It can not be done. We put the idea aside.

At the Annapolis Boat show, we saw a display at Wells Marine, it looked just like the arch and davits we had in mind. We told them what we wanted. They said, “No problem.” They showed us pictures. We thought they looked good. The next day, they came to our boat and took measurements. Several weeks later we received drawings of the arch they would like to build us. The drawings were nothing like the pictures they showed us, and did not look like they would result in a functioning product. When we asked them about our concerns the reply we received was, tell us what you want, give us measurements and we’ll build it. Not quite the expertise we were planning to pay for. We scratched them off our list.

In a last ditch effort we tried to call stainless manufactures in Fort Lauderdale. No one returned our calls. A canvas shop recommended Alex Castro, with Ocean Tops, and gave us his number. Our attempt to call left us with no new result. Living and traveling on a boat has a way of allowing one to forget about conventional schedules and holidays, our life is scheduled around the weather. Given we tried our calls just after Christmas, we were a bit surprised when first thing after the New Year Alex returned our call. By then we wanted to leave in two weeks time and didn’t think there was anyway to get an arch built in that time frame. Alex surprised us again when he told us he could not only build what we want but he had some time available and could complete it in two weeks. He showed up that afternoon to take some measurements, evaluate the project and give us a quote. We shared our ideas, concerns, and goals; he knew just what needed to be done. The next day, he showed up with his tools and got started.

The bones of the arch were built in one afternoon on our boat. Alex worked with us, involving us in the design, position and function of the arch. We are typically do-it-yourselfers, but on this project; we did not have the knowledge, skills, experience or the time to acquire them. Being so closely involved in the construction assured us that the result would be just what we wanted.

IB did appear a bit concerned when Alex first brought out the grinder and began cutting apart the stainless rails on Passport. The point of no return, after the rails are cut apart there’s no backing out. At the end of the day we cold see what the arch would look like, and no guessing as to how it would fit. Until the day of installation, the remainder of the work would be completed back at Alex’s shop. As he packed up his tools and loaded the arch in his truck, we looked at our boat, where there used to be rails and said, “See you soon.”

We were quite impressed with the quick efficiency in which he completed the project. Within a week he returned with the arch finished and ready to do the installation. For the arch and rails around the cockpit to flow together as one unit, the cockpit rails were completely replaced. The end result is not just a strong functional arch, davits to lift and carry our dingy, or a rope swing, but a work of art.

The back of the boat before we started.

Another view of the back before the destruction.

IB's expression when the grinder touched the first rail.

That would be our boat being torn apart.

Deciding how to attach the rails.

Boat with no rails.

Unloading the arch.

Welding into place.

The finished product.

Freezing in Florida

2010-01-07T08:57:00.008-05:00

I realize that all you northerners that are covered in snow are not at all sympathetic with our sub 60's temperatures, but it's cold down here! I feel that after our great effort, and slow travel by boat to southern Florida we deserve to at least put away the sweaters and down. But oh well, perhaps next week.

We have arrived

at our "final" US destination, Fort Lauderdale (that is a very loose final, since I'm not so sure that any our decisions are really final until they are executed). We actually managed to leave Vero Beach on December 27th (Velcro Beach, and yes we stayed at least a week longer than planned). Our stay at Vero was great, we met some wonderful friends that we hope to see again down the way. The trip to Lauderdale was easy and uneventful, we had great sailing for half the trip before we

had to turn on the motor as the wind died. Early monday morning we arrived at Port Everglades inlet and

headed up the New River to our home, for now. We are very grateful to John and Susan for letting us tie up at their house and enjoy this beautiful river. We even had a welcoming party come out to greet us.

Since we found ourselves in Fort Lauderdale over New Years Eve we decided to take the dingy out and see what the town had to offer on this celebratory evening. The evening began with a very pleasant and warm (the last warm day we had for quite some time) boat ride down the New River. Along the way there were many decorated houses and yards full of lights for Christmas. We arrived downtown earl

y in the evening to enjoy dinner out before the night life fully enveloped the streets. As we sat at our outdoor table on the street, we were able to watch as the streets slowly filled with people and the bands began to play. At midnight we witnessed a balldrop and fireworks.

Some of the night life.

When pine trees are not available, decorate palms for Christmas.

Florida

2009-12-03T08:22:00.008-05:00

We thought we were leaving late when we pulled out of the slip on November 15th, but here we are in Florida by December 1st. We left Maryland with three main goals in mind: get south, get warm, and avoid the intercoastal. We have done quite well. We followed the intercoastal down to Beaufort, NC (That is 'BOW-fort', not to be confused with 'BU-fort' which is in SouthCarolina ). Once there we looked for our weather window to jump out in the big pond and head to florida. Ideally, we would be able to go to sea for about five days and end in Florida. Life however is rarely ideal. We did however get a two day opportunity to go down the coast to Charleston, SC.

We had some great sailing for a while, but then the winds died off and we had to turn on the engine. We even had a chance to pull out the new fishing gear and give it a try. In no time at all we had an Atlantic Mackerel for dinner. According to IB it was around 18" when we caught it, but it's probably up to 30" by now depending on how many times he's told the story. It was a smooth, easy trip and after two nights at sea we arrived at our destination.

We were laid over in Charleston for a couple days, same old story, waiting on weather. While there we did get off the boat to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner out with our friends on Clear Day. We had been traveling with them since we left Norfolk, VA.

The Charleston anchorage is not one of those places that feels comfy and safe to hang out, especially with strong winds. The strong current, with strong winds sends the boats moving about every which way. The tide change is even less fun, causing even more confusion among the boats. After a particularly uncomfortable night at anchor, with slightly less than ideal weather conditions we headed back out to the pond to continue south. Just out of the inlet, everything seemed okay, moderate waves, and steady winds. It wasn't too long before the winds, that were forecast to be more north, were mostly all west, sailing sent us too far from the coast and into bigger waves. Down came the sails and on came the motor. Crashing into the waves trying to stay close to shore and still head south, my stomach sent us to the closest inlet, the North Edisto River. There we found a calm anchorage, peaceful evening and even better sleep. There's not much better in life than a calm anchorage on a nice evening. The following morning we headed back out to sea, thankful for a good nights rest and made an uneventful trip to St. Mary's Inlet on the Florida border.

Knowing that there was another front coming through the area we went up the river to St. Mary's and waited out the weather before traveling again. We listened to weather reports and studied our charts, trying to decide if we should go down the ditch or back out to the pond.

Due to the wait required for weather and a desire to stop by Sailor's Exchange in St Augustine, FL we opted to do the ditch for a day and wait out the next front there.

After our shopping was done and the weather cleared we pulled up the hook and headed for the inlet, another night at sea. Although we had 4 - 5 ft seas, there was a nice steady breeze and the sailing was great. At least it was great for everything but my stomach, the contents of which were left in the sea. Sometime soon my stomach and I need to have a serious conversation about this, or much better drugs.

We were not quite sure how the winds would shift in the morning, leaving us with the question to come in Cape Canaveral or be able to continue down to our intended destination of Ft. Pierce. With some nice cooperation of the winds and subsiding waves (happy tummy), we made Ft. Pierce. It's finally, really warm! About midway through the trip we slowly started peeling off layers: first the hat, then the foul weather jacket, the fleece, the extra pants and finally shorts! We'll now be taking a rest at Vero Beach for the next several weeks, getting some boat projects done and enjoying the weather before jumping down to Ft. Lauderdale, currently our last US destination.

Empty Slip

2009-11-16T08:11:00.000-05:00

Finally the boat was loaded, our storage locker on land was cleaned out, the rental car was returned, and if we forgot it at this point it’s too bad. Although I’m sure it will take us quite a while to figure out if we actually forgot something or not, by then I doubt we’ll even care. We pulled out of the slip Saturday afternoon, taking the docklines with us, not planning to return. There is certainly something definitive about pulling the dock lines off the pilings. For the first time in weeks we breathed a sigh of relief, the preparations are over, they are either done or not, we are on our way. Our way on Saturday took us a whole half a mile to the Rhode River. Where we dropped our new Rockna anchor, it sure is big but it stopped us fast and held tight all night. Although we didn’t go far at least we got our tanks full of diesel and felt like we were on our way.

Our preparations of the past few weeks have certainly been paying off. The new upholstery makes for a very pleasant living environment, the new stove easily lights and makes cooking a joy, the new bimini is not torn and is a nice cheery white, but best of all is the diesel heater. No more cold nights at anchor!

We spent Sunday night at Solomon’s Island, MD and are now on our way to Deltaville. It’s a beautiful day, not much wind so there is no sailing, but at least the overcast, cold dreary, rainy weather has passed... For now. We hope to get to Norfolk, VA after the Great Bridge Lock has reopened and all the backed up boat traffic has had a chance to clear out and head on south.

Relaunched

2009-11-04T18:07:00.000-05:00

Passport is wet again. Take a look at the new trailer used to do the job. Not your standard travel lift but it worked just fine. Got the new solar panels mounted while we were on the hard. They are not yet wired, but no longer on our berth. The higher priority is the Espar diesel heater. We should be ready to head south by the middle of next week after the next front.

Homeless

2009-11-01T08:50:00.000-05:00

Last week we sold the car, packed up the house, locked the doors and walked away. While that may sound simple and easy it was a week of utter chaos. Last minute errands (while we still had a car), visiting with friends we'll not see for a long time, and the seemingly endless packing. We sent carloads of stuff home with friends, we put carloads in storage in several locations, we sealed some in storage at the house, and yet we arrived in Galesville with a car stuffed full.

The morning my parents showed up ready to load our stuff in the car and leave, we had about half the house emptied. My wonderful parents spent the next six hours helping us pack, sort, and clean before driving us to Maryland. Somehow my Dad managed to get everything we were taking in the car, I'm still not sure how he did it. Perhaps he has a magical bag that things disappeared into as he packed.

Although we managed to meet our deadline and get out of the house so the renters can move in, the boatyard is behind schedule, due to unforeseen circumstances and acts of nature (rain), our beloved Passport is still on land getting her bottom painted. While she is on land there is no heat, no toilet, no water and no drains. Not a very comfortable place to stay especially in Maryland in November. We are fortunate to have some very generous friends that are allowing us to stay on their boat until Passport gets back in the water (hopefully Tuesday).

We still have a few projects to get done before we untie the dock lines, a heater this year being a high priority. We hope to be on our way by the 15th at the latest if not before. And there is all that stuff we brought to sort thorough, put away and get rid of what is not needed. Although I got rid of garbage bags full of clothes I still have way too many. It's astounding how things accumulate!

That time of year again.

2009-09-15T09:13:00.000-04:00

The temperature is getting cooler, the days are getting shorter, and the crisp smell of fall is in the air. It's time to wrap up life on land and head south with the birds. We have approximately six weeks before we set sail and an impossibly long list of what we'd like to get done between now and then. If we can managed to stay focused on priorities maybe we can get half of the list accomplished.

The Trudge North

2009-04-16T07:12:00.000-04:00

We had really hoped to get some more good weather, jump out in the ocean and end at Beaufort, NC. The good weather did not happen. Plodding up the intercoastal waterway becomes our fate. This morning we awoke with first light, to a balmy 48°. I'm not sure about you, but after becoming accustomed to the 80° temperatures of the Bahamas this is just plain cold. I would have preferred to stay in bed for another hour or two, hoping it would warm up a but, but in 30 miles we will reach the Atlantic Beach Bridge. On our way down the intercoastal, we saw 62 ft clearance at this bridge and had to wait an entire day to go under during a low tide. Hopefully we make it there today while the tide is still low enough to give us the 63 foot clearance we need.

The trip north is much different from our trip south. On the way south, everything was new to us, the boat, the intercoastal, bridges, and shallows. Everyday I would spend hours reading several different guides and studying the charts to prepare for each days journey. During the trip I stayed in the cockpit reading the charts, pointing out marks and navigating for IB. The days were shorter and we weren't sure how far we could push the boat in a day, so we planned 30 mile days. On this trip, I've left IB on his own. I toss him the chartbook, pop my head out occasionally to offer him a hot beverage, food, or more warm clothes. There are still shallows to contend with, we've run aground 3 times, but always motor right off. Besides, we are in the protected inland waters, in event we can't get off a grounding we just call Tow Boat US and take advantage of their unlimited towing. It now feels like quite a luxury knowing that we are not left to our own devices if we make a mistake. Planning 60 mile days, we expect to hit Norfolk on Tuesday.

I'd post a picture, but it's too cold to go out and take one.

Dolphins off the Bow

2009-04-11T14:05:00.001-04:00

There is nothing quite so peaceful as being on a sailboat, in the middle of the ocean on a fair day with steady winds. We left Green Turtle Cay on Wednesday morning with RC's Dream, planning to stay overnight at Great Sale Cay. After listening to the days updated weather reports, our best chance of getting the farthest North was to just keep going. So we did. We left the Little Bahama bank somewhere around 9:00pm and headed North West

toward the Gulf Stream. The winds were predicted to shift south by morning. They didn't. By mid afternoon, we are still beating into the wind, heeled over to starboard with none of the crew feeling all too lively. Finally, when one more trip below decks feels like it will be too much, the winds subside. The light and variable winds are not quite the steady south we were planning on, but the boat is more or less level s

o we'll gladly accept it and start the engine for a while. The batteries could use the charge anyway after running the autopilot all night.

As I think about all the power the autopilot consumes, I glance back at the windvane. It is starting to look like a hunk of stainless attached to the back of the boat rather than something useful. Theoretically, it is very useful, steering the boat off the power of the wind, not sucking a single drop of power from our batteries. Since we bought the boat, there has not been a really good opportunity to set it up and try it out. This does indeed look like a really good opportunity, as I scan the horizon seeing water everywhere. But who has the energy. After twenty-four hours at sea, half of that time heeled over at a forty-five degree angle and beating into the wind, life has become very simple. Set sails, set course, keep watch for ships, eat, drink more water and take turns sleeping. There is a peace and energy indescribable that comes from this simplicity of life hundreds of miles from land. Until we have a chance to level out for a while, I can't imagine eating anything but crackers for the next two days.

Thursday night passes uneventfully. Sit in the dark, watch the horizon for lights and listen to the whoosh of water as we slice through it. Friday morning, I awake remarkably refreshed. I may be getting the hang of this dispersed napping schedule. What a nice day it turns out to be. The winds start off a bit light, but Chris Parker assures us they will pick up. And they do. By noon, we have a solid 15 kts from the south, the seas are only two feet. As the wind builds throughout the day, we have to stop and put a reef in the main sail. With both the main and jib reefed, along with a boost from the Gulf Stream we are heading North at 10kts. I didn't even know the boat could go that fast!

Now as evening approaches, the winds stay steady, the seas are building and I watch the line of fluffy white clouds, the front that is slowly rolling in. Still 70 miles to shore. The seas have gotten rougher by now, we've seen some 8 foot waves roll through. We become increasingly fond of our boat as she accepts what the sea throws at her and rolls right over it.

Suddenly we notice the dolphins have come up to our boat. We think we counted eight of them, but it was hard to tell they kept moving so quickly. They swam, jumped and played in our bow wake for a couple of hours. Staying with us till the sun went down. Strapped into the jacklines I staggered up to the bow to get a closer look and try to snap a few pictures. Holding onto the rail, with the

boat traveling about 9kts, and bucking as the 6-8 foot seas roll by, I lean over the edge to try and

snap some pictures. No time for framing here, it's point and click, or sometimes just click and hope it pointed right. It's amazing to watch such quick powerful creatures swim and play with our boat. Apparently, we were the most interesting thing around this even. Although, with a quick scan of the horizon, best I can tell we are the only thing around this evening. Unless you count the flying fish, which are often jumping from the water and flying like a flock of birds away from our boat.

Friday night turns a little less than pleasant. The winds continue to pick up, gusting 25-30kts. The seas are still 6 feet. It takes constant perseverance to keep the boat on course. We watch the lightning in the distance and hope we will miss the storm. We do mostly miss it, but get wet from some showers. As dawn emerges, we have arrived at our inlet. And very happy to see the large, well marked ship inlet. As we are heading in though the channel markers, bundled up in our foul weather gear, observing the brown water all around us, we have to ask, "Why did we leave the Bahamas?"

Family Visitation

2009-04-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

My Mom and Brother managed to tear themselves away from their cold lives in WV to visit us on our boat. We had hoped to have some nice calm days to do some snorkeling, but unfortunately we had high winds all week. So we sailed instead.

It didn't take long for them to be relaxing with a cool refreshing rum punch in hand.

We made a pretty good circuit of the island along the sea of abaco. Our first visit was to Great Guana Cay, where we walked over to the beach to be pelted with wind and look out over the breakers relentlessly crashing on the beach. (Two days after they left, returned to Guana to see the beach completely calm) With nothing but wind in the forcast, we opted for a sailing day and headed down to Treasure Cay. Treasure Cay has a nice long white sand beach looking out over the sea of Abaco, however it was windy and the water was rough. After a look and short walk, we headed to the pub to try the rum punch.

The following day, once again windy right on the beach, we took a ferry ride over to Green Turtle Cay. We rented a golf cart and explored all over the island. And of course, the last even before getting back on the ferry, try the rum punch.

Over all the trip was a success, maybe next time the weather will cooperate for snorkeling.

Hanging in the Abacos

2009-03-03T16:01:00.000-05:00

Time passes slowly or quickly here I'm not sure which. In all actuality time for us has simply become all about the weather. If the weather forecast is good, we can relax, enjoy the beach, the town, or do a little snorkeling. If the weather is going to turn cruddy we look for a safe harbor to hunker down in until the cold front passes. Every morning, except Sunday, we start our day at 6:30am to listen to Chris Parker's weather forecast on the SSB Radio. We plan our days and activities accordingly. We just spent a couple days in Man O War harbor on a mooring as a significant cold front passed over us Sunday night bringing squalls.

From our stay at Spanish Cay, we headed south to Green Turtle Cay. There we waited several days for weather. The one place in the Abacos that can be highly weather dependent is Whale Cay Cut. Whale Cay lies between Green Turtle Cay and Great Guana Cay. Passing by Whale Cay requires going out of the protected water and being exposed to the ocean waves. So we had to wait for favorable winds, which bring calm seas, so we had an uneventful and easy trip instead of worrying about waves breaking over our boat. Once we navigated Whale Cay Cut, we were in the Sea of Abaco. The Sea of Abaco is a protected body of water, with islands all around. This is where we have been just hopping from one island to the next. So far we have visited, Great Guana Cay, Man O War Cay, and Marsh harbor on Great Abaco Island.

Bahamas

2009-02-18T07:10:00.000-05:00

Just after we made plans to leave Thursday night round about 1:00am, a couple stopped by our boat looking for people to cross with. They happened to have an identical plan to ours with one small exception, they were leaving at 12:00am. One hour earlier sounded like an easy change to our plan, so we agreed to go together. After a few hours of sleep, we were up at 11:30pm, made radio contact with our buddy boats, Wind Dancer and Nido, pulled up the anchor and we were on our way. Our trip across the gulf stream was calm and uneventful. We would have preferred to sail the entire way but we didn't have any wind, so we were stuck with listening to the motor. Once past the gulf stream, the wind picked up a little after sunrise and we had a few hours of nice sailing. It was good to see those sails again!

Our first night in the Bahamas we anchored at Great Sale Cay. After anchoring, there was cocktail hour with our friends on Wind Dancer. We relaxed in the cockpit, happy we all had a pleasant voyage, as we watched the sun set over the clear turquoise water. The following day we woke up to look out on paradise. Not a sound to be heard and beautiful water everywhere. Saturday we headed over to Spanish Cay, so we could clear customs. Customs was very painless and quick. With a front moving in Monday we decided to stay until it passed. Tied up at Spanish Cay Marina, we had access to the private island, the marina bar, restaurant, swimming pool and hot tub. Our first night there, we had cocktails on the veranda with the other cruisers that came in that day, followed by dinner in the restaurant. We made a lot of new friends, many of whom we recognized their boats from traveling down the intercoastal at the same time although we had never met.

We took our bikes out one day and explored the island. All 3 miles of it. There were two little beaches, and we took our first swim in Bahamian waters. We made good use the hot tub, spent a lot of time socializing, and IB surprised me with a proposal. We are now engaged.

Gettin Ready to Go

2009-02-10T11:08:00.000-05:00

The winds are beginning to turn around to the South, and it's nearly time to cross the Gulf Stream and go to the Bahamas. For some time now we have been thinking about when we actually want to go to the Bahamas. Part of the decision depended on if we have everything that we need (food, water, spare parts, working electronics), and the other half of the decision depends on weather. We've been waiting for those nice southerly winds to cross the gulf stream. With any winds from the North that are opposing the current of the gulf stream, the crossing can be difficult, the seas can be high and rough, and at times dangerous. So we wait on weather. According to our current forecast's we should have the weather we want at the end of this week, and we will be on our way.

In the midst of our preparations we have loaded the boat with groceries. Although food will be available in the Abacos, we have been warned that prices can be ridiculously high. So we've bought as many non-perishables as we can. We have flour, cornmeal, pasta, pasta sauce, dried beans, chips, soup mix, beer, rum and wine. We plan to supplement our supply with some fresh vegetables (given we can find them).

After a few days of work, IB re-grounded the SSB Radio and it is now working. We have subscribed to Chris Parker weather, and have been checking in with him in planning our weather window.

After much debate about the performance of our dingy in the islands, we made the decision to upgrade. Just to look at the new dingy, it's hard to tell that it was that much of an upgrade, but riding in it, the difference is obvious. We bought an Achilles, with high pressure inflatable floor and inflatable keel. It's about a foot longer than our old one, which makes hauling our bikes or friends much easier. We also upgraded to an 8hp motor from our 2hp. The motor makes all the difference in the world. From barely moving to going somewhere. We'll have much more confidence that we can go out to a reef to snorkel and make it back to the boat.

All that is left to do is pack the ditch bag, fill up the diesel tanks and wait on weather.

The Anatomy of a Sewing Project

2009-02-10T10:48:00.000-05:00

To do any project on a boat requires a lot of patience, and a lot of taking things out / putting things away. One day I found myself with some spare time, I already had the sewing machine out from a small project and thought it would be a good opportunity to make a new cover for the kayak box on deck. So I gathered up all my materials, took measurements of the box and was ready to start cutting when I realized I need to fold out and use the full table to cut the sunbrella fabric. Since my 50lb sewing machine was already out (the instigation for starting this project) I first had to clean everything up.

There's the salon all cleaned up.

I was then able to lay out the table, lay out my fabric and get all my pieces cut out.

The sunbrella laid out on the table.

Once everything was cut, it was time to put the table back up, (as you can see it's really hard to move around once the table is all the way out). With the table up, I could use the empty surface to pin my fabric together, take it up on deck to make sure it fit the box, and then back down, ready to sew. Of course sewing means I need to get that heavy machine back out!

All ready to sew.

After sewing the main seams and making sure it's the right size, it's time to fold up the hem, which I tape in place instead of pinning. To do this I need a flat surface. A flat surface would be an empty table. An empty table means it's time to put the sewing machine away again. So away it goes. The hem gets taped and folded, and then it's time to sew. Time to sew means getting the machine back out. So out comes the machine, the last seam gets sewn, the elastic gets put in the hem, and I have a finished product.

A finished cover!

The Kindness of Strangers

2009-02-10T10:30:00.000-05:00

Our trip to Fort Lauderdale took us through 12 bridges to land at an unexpected destination. Just before pulling up anchor at Lake Boca Raton, we were met by my friend Rachel who was traveling with us for the day to Fort Lauderdale. The trip that would take us from 10:00am to 2:00pm to complete only took about 20 minutes for her by car. The weather was warm and sunny, which made for a very enjoyable day of travel. Rachel's boyfriend had moved his boats to a neighbors dock just so we could tie up at his house for a few days. Just past Las Olas, we turned into the New River and traveled up the narrow waterway for about 4 miles to arrive at Paul's house. His house is three docks in, in a very narrow canal with boats lining both sides. We arrived at low tide and made several attempts to enter the canal, but there simply wasn't enough water we hit the ground each time. A little perplexed as to what to do next, we tied up at an empty dock right next to the canal planning to wait for high tide and go into the canal then. The docks owners were not home at the time, so we wrote them a note explaining the situation and they were very understanding. Later that evening when the tide was up, we released the lines and gave the canal another go. Unfortunately there was no going in, we hit the ground hard on every attempt. Returning to the dock we had left, we tied up again. John (the owner of the dock) had come out and witnessed our failed attempt at the canal. Very kindly he offered to let us stay at his dock as long as we'd like. We thanked him, and stayed 10 days. We had a great visit with Rachel and Paul, as well as our new friends John and Susan.

Boca Raton

2009-01-25T08:08:00.000-05:00

Waking up early, we pulled up anchor to begin the 30 mile voyage through 13 bridges to reach Boca Raton. Luck was on our side as we managed to arrive at most of the bridges so we didn't have to wait long for an opening that happens every 30 minutes. Had we hit all the bridges wrong, we would have added hours to our travel time. We made it through the last bridge at 12:00pm, which brought us to Lake Boca Raton. Due to a 72 hour anchoring limit we will leave here on Tuesday.

Hogan Marina

2009-01-25T08:03:00.000-05:00

Our initial plan to stay with our friends Cliff and Nancy Hogan just a couple of days turned into nearly a week. We enjoyed some good meals, went for a nature walk, and even watched part of the presidential inauguration. Between their fabulous hospitality and a cold front that came through. Plugged into shore power, we enjoyed turning the heater on the nights the temperature dropped below 40.

After the weather warmed and the winds calmed down, we said our goodbye's and pulled away from the dock to continue our voyage. In one day, we traveled 20 miles, through 10 bridges, to spent the night anchored at Lake Worth.

Breaking Free

2009-01-16T16:53:00.000-05:00

After several weeks of enjoying the comfort of our mooring, we said our goodbyes to our friends on Hawkeye, we tied everything down on the boat and dropped the mooring line ripping ourselves free to once again journey into the unknown. Or about 50 miles downriver. We suffered through a frigid day day of travel with wind gusting up to 30kts. I'm sure everyone will sympathize with us traveling on this blustery cold day of a mere 60 degrees!

We are now tied up at Hobe Sound at the dock of a friends house. We'll be staying till we leave.

Velcro Beach

2009-01-14T12:22:00.000-05:00

For those of you who are wondering what has happened to us, we are still at Vero Beach. Often referred to as Velcro Beach by cruisers who show up here for a short amount of time and get stuck. So we stopped for a night a week and a half ago, and we are discussing the option of leaving.... really soon.

The mooring is inexpensive, there are no worries of dragging anchors or other boats that can't anchor properly. We are right next to the mangroves, there is a free bus system, most stores and the beach are easily accessible by bicycle. We can kayak through the mangroves, our friends on Hawkeye are here right now, although most moorings have two or three boats on them we have been alone the whole time, it's warm, sunny, and we're not in a hurry to get anywhere.

With the tough schedule of the day (wake up, drink tea, make food, eat food, a coat of varnish on the dorade boxes, go to a play, eat dinner, drink wine, go to bed, read in any spare time) I need to get going.

Bugs

2008-12-31T14:07:00.000-05:00

Granted it's not the usual response to be excited when being bitten by bugs while sitting outside in the evening, but we were. Yesterday evening we arrived at Vero Beach and realized we had landed in the bug zone. Although bugs are generally annoying, they mean no more REALLY cold mornings or nights.

St. Augustine, FL to Cape Canaveral FL

2008-12-31T09:44:00.000-05:00

The wind was coming from the wrong direction, the seas were rougher than we'd preferred, and regardless we set out for our first overnight in the ocean. Leaving St. Augustine at approximately 1:00pm on Dec 27, we headed out the inlet, into the ocean, where we would spend the next 24 hours. Going directly into the wind did not lend itself to much actually sailing, the rough water sloshed and churned us up a bit, and we took turns sleeping throughout the night. The next afternoon, we were quite happy to pull into the channel at Cape Canaveral with calm water around us once again. Our 24 hour voyage allowed us to skip 3 days of winding, narrow, shallow water of the intercoastal.

Christmas Eve

2008-12-24T14:05:00.000-05:00

Christmas Eve and all is sunny and warm.

Our friends have gone home to spend Christmas with their families. For my birthday we had a very pleaseant visit from Jim and Sue as they were passing through the area. Our friends on Hawkeye have met up with us again, and we all went out to dinner.

Today we are enjoying a quiet and relaxing day, complete with blue skies, bright sun and 75 degrees. We send our deepest sympathies to those of you stuck in the cold snow.

I finally got some of those long awaited photos posted to the gallery.

Merry Christmas!

Out To Sea

2008-12-20T09:41:00.000-05:00

Finally we got our weather! Leaving Fernandina Beach just after sunrise, we had clear enough weather with small enough waves to head out to sea. We went out St. Mary's inlet and traveled along the coast in the ocean down to St. Augustine FL. The day was a little hazy but warm, sunny and calm. There was a very gentle breeze, we were able to put the sails up but there was not enough wind to actually sail so the motor stayed on all day. After all the days of careful planning and constant attention traveling down the inter-coastal, a calm day on the ocean was a treat. We still had to keep a lookout for other ships and Right Wales (we didn't see any Right Wales, but since they are on the endangered species list if we were to spot one we would need to be cautious to stay 500 yard away). However the autopilot could do all the work, no standing behind the wheel with a firm grip, no watching the depth gage, no being concerned about the next bridge. It was easy and relaxing, with our only concern being the St. Augustine inlet. When we arrived at the inlet the tide was going out (not the best thing for us), our calm seas were suddenly rough, sloshing us around a bit, and there were breakers to each side of us. We found our marks kept in deep water, and made it in with no troubles.

Picked Up Crew

2008-12-20T09:40:00.001-05:00

During our stay at Jekyll Island we picked up a couple of crew members. Keith and Shane McManus are now voyaging with us. We are taking advantage of them as much as we can as; galley chef, cleaning crew, and teak sanders. I'll try to get some new pictures up in the gallery very soon.

Fernandina Beach

2008-12-20T09:40:00.000-05:00

As we left Jekyll Island and headed on down south we continued our discussion of doing a hop out in the ocean. On our brief stop overnight at Cumberland Island, we realized the weather was not on our side. With another small storm front moving through, high seas, rain and wind we moved just south to Fernandina Beach. We hung around there for about 4 days, enjoying the town and doing some work on the boat. I managed to get some pillows made, and we now have all new throw pills on the settee's. A petty thing that makes me really happy. And we have a good start on getting the old varnish off the hand rails, a task that needs completed before beginning to apply the new coats of varnish.

Jekyll Island

2008-12-10T16:38:00.000-05:00

After a couple of days of watching tides, water depth, and weather we landed at Jekyll Harbor Marina. We are safely docked and will be sitting still for a few days letting a storm system pass over and awaiting the arrival of some friends.

Thru Hell's Gate

2008-12-08T15:21:00.000-05:00

We left Hilton Head yesterday and made the decision to continue along the intercoastal thru Georgia rather than make an overnight hop to southern Georgia in the Ocean. We really wanted to skip most of Georgia due to the fact that poor funding has left most of the intercoastal undredged with shallow areas. But due to cold temperatures at night (which would be even colder out on the ocean with a nice steady breeze) and poor forecast for most of the week (rain, high winds, thunderstorms) we thought it best to save our first ocean passage for more favorable conditions.

Our days of travel are fairly short, we can only pass most places at mid-tide rising or higher. One such location we passed thru today, hell's gate. Our charts and books all tell us that parts of Hell's Gate have 1' of water at the average low tide (MLW). Obviously this is problematic with a 6' draft on our boat (Mom, that means at 6' of water we'll be touching bottom). We traversed Hell's Gate at 1.5 hours before high tide and had no problems getting through, although we did see 8' of water at one point.

With that behind us we'll make as many miles as we can today, enjoy the dolphins, and see what treats lay in store for us tomorrow.

Hilton Head

2008-12-05T07:34:00.000-05:00

On Monday we left Beaufort and traveled down to Hilton Head, SC. It was an easy fairly short trip other than the wind being really cold. After 4 days of not getting off the boat we loaded the dingy with our bikes on Tuesday, or was it Wednesday? I think it was Wednesday, and we headed to town. We had a very enjoyable ride as we discovered the bike trails that go all over the island. We even rode several miles along the beach and saw some dolphins swimming near shore.

That's about all there is to say about the past week, we're not moving much right now and life is pretty uneventful. There's always the big question of "Do we get dressed and get off the boat today and do something, or just wait till tomorrow?" IB has fixed some electronics, I made I couple of throw pillows, and we have been monitoring our power. It seems that our battery bank is a bit older and not performing up to par. Basically that means until they are replaced we have to run the motor everyday for a few hours to keep running the refrigerator, and limited computer usage, since the computers use a lot of power to charge.

Shedding Clothes

2008-11-25T09:43:00.000-05:00

In the past two days we've traveled with our friends on Hawkeye and covered the better part of South Carolina. Finally yesterday we saw temperatures over 70, and were able to shed our foul weather gear and several layers of clothes.

Today should land us in Beaufort SC, if all goes well and the Lady's Island Bridge is opening. The bridge has been have some mechanical difficulties and is only opening twice a day for ICW traffic. We should be there in time for the 2:00 pm opening, assuming we don't run aground and get delayed on any shoals between us and the bridge. But at least the temperature is up to 62, the sun is shinning and it's only 9:30am.

Once in Beaufort, we plan to stay at least 3 days, possibly longer. Now that we are clear of the unpredictable weather in North Carolina, we can slow down and work on some boat projects. We may even get started on varnishing teak if the temperatures stay warm enough to work outside.

South Carolina

2008-11-23T09:39:00.000-05:00

We are now into our third day in South Carolina. We stopped over in Surf City for about three days, since we were in a marina and plugged into shore power we had the heater running. Since it was below 30, and the wind was blowing, we weren't in a hurry to leave. Since leaving we have had an uneventful trip. A usual day: wake up at 6:00 am, get up at 7:00 am, put on a lot of clothes (3 pairs of pants, 5 shirts, down jacket and fowl weather gear), start water for coffee, turn on instruments, turn on engine, pull up anchor and start moving. We usually make 35 to 40 miles in a day, depending on tides, bridges, etc. When we choose our new anchorage, we could stop anywhere between 2:00 and 4:00 depending on location of anchorages to choose from, tides, bridges, etc.. Once anchored we have our afternoon cocktail, bake something in the oven to warm the cabin up, eat some dinner, and we're in bed between 6:00 and 7:00.

Today we met up with some friends from our home marina, and we will be traveling with them for the next day or two.

For the questions about how much time we spend actually sailing (the answer being none since we left the Chesapeake) I'll try to get some pictures up of the waterway, as long as my internet connection holds out.

A Practice In Patience

2008-11-18T07:08:00.000-05:00

Having gone aground in our slip at low tide, we woke up bright and early in Morehead City so we could hang out and watch the water rise. Once we were bobbing and could get underway we headed up to our first obstacle, yet another supposedly 65' bridge. They had a nice helpful tide board that read 62' and the tide was still rising. The only thing left to do was turn around and get comfortable somewhere. After dropping anchor for a couple of hours we realized it would be 2:00pm before the tide dropped enough to get under the bridge. So we moved over to the dock at the Sanitary Restaurant and tied up for the night in deep water. 5:30am was our wake up time the next day, we made it under the bridge at low tide, and watched the sun rise behind us.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, we got stopped briefly at Camp LeJeune where the military was having some firing practices and they only open the canal every hour or so. We went aground, but quickly got back under way. And we ended our day at Beach House Marina in Surf City.

Seek Safe Harbor

2008-11-15T17:22:00.000-05:00

Those are the words we heard on our VHF today during a coast guard announcement of serious thunderstorms in our area. And the announcement made perfect sense as rain had just started pouring down, we were heading into 25-30kts of wind, with 4-5 ft waves, preparing to enter a narrow channel in Adams Creek and wondering if we should have stayed put in South River.

As soon as we entered Adams Creek, the winds died down going over the land and the storm system continued North, leaving us with some scattered blue sky. We decided to keep moving, and arrived safely at Morehead City. The wind is still howling, but we are parked in a slip at a local marina.

Hopefully the winds will die in the morning and we can continue south. We are feeling the need to get clear of North Carolina, known for unpredictable weather in November.

Unplanned Delay

2008-11-15T13:51:00.000-05:00

Two days ago, we anchored in South River for the night. Initially we were headed for the small town of Oriental, but stopped just before we got there to avoid a small potentially crowded anchorage. Thursday morning we awoke to rain and high winds, we weren't going anywhere. All day the winds howled and the rain fell, by nightfall all had become dead calm. We rested well wondering if we would leave in the morning. As we awoke with dawn, all sounded promising. Until we looked outside. There was no land, no other boats, no wind, and no sounds. We were completely surrounded by a dense white fog. The genetically modified crocodiles could be climbing aboard any moment now. I think one just passed by the starboard bow!

We patiently biding our time, watching the fog. If it lifts we will leave today and try to get farther south, if not we may be here a while.

Past the Wilkerson Bridge

2008-11-11T17:36:00.000-05:00

We made it through the Wilkerson Bridge without even clipping an antenna. There is an accurate tide board before the bridge, and we were told a boat with a 64' mast made it through earlier in the day. Even with this information, going under was a bit nerve racking. I'm sure we had 6 or more inches to spare! Looking up at the bridge from the deck of the boat there is no clear way to tell if the mast will clear or not.

We anchored at Bellhaven tonight and will continue south tomorrow.

Manteo to Alligator River

2008-11-11T11:46:00.000-05:00

11-10-2008 After a brief visit to Manteo, we decided to take advantage of the pleasant although slightly chilly weather to keep heading down the ditch. We made it to ICW mile 101.1 in the Alligator River. So far we have not seen any alligators, but have been advised not to go swimming.

Tomorrow's destination is yet undecided. Our only concern is for the Wilkerson Bridge, that is a stated height of 64' at mean high tide. The standard for fixed bridges is 65'. Our mast is 63'. During exceptionally high tides there will be less clearance at the bridge. From the information I have read the tidal marker is not present at the bridge. It should be a fun day.

11-09-2008

2008-11-09T19:25:00.000-05:00

After being delayed by weather, we finally left Portsmouth on Friday morning. Our first day in "the ditch" went by without a glitch. Our 12 mile day had the most bridges we've encountered yet, and through gritted teeth we had no problem clearing the 65' fixed bridges. We tied up at Great Bridge and met up with some friends from our home marina. Saturday we got an early start and traveled with our friends approximately 50 miles and anchored at Broad Creek, just before the Albemarle Sound. We jumped in our dingy to socialize on our friends boat, remembered to grab a camera and finally have a picture of little boat. Just check out the photo gallery.

Today we said goodbye to our friends, crossed the Albemarle Sound and veered off the ICW to stop by Manteo. Just before we took our last turn into Manteo we saw a group of dolphins swimming by.

Pull To Inflate

2008-11-06T17:41:00.000-05:00


Winslow Life Raft

The instructions begin, "Do not inflate unless there are no other options." A very sensible instruction indeed. Compared to this 50 lb package, Passport seems like a much better place to be. After a couple days of calling Fedex and finally tracking it down, our liferaft is now safely stowed aboard our vessel. So long as the gods smile upon us, we will tote around this little package on our voyage and never see it's contents. What an expensive purchase for something we never plan to see! But then much of life never goes according to plan, so we have a backup plan, when all else fails "Pull to Inflate".

After stopping in Portsmouth to collect our liferaft, we had planned to journey on down the intercoastal. We arrived on Monday, it's now Thursday, we are still here. So much for plans. For two days we have been waiting for the winds to die down. Maybe tomorrow we will depart and journey further south.

11/01/2008

2008-11-01T17:30:00.000-04:00

We are now anchored on day 3 of our voyage. The day was beautiful for traveling, gentle winds, sunny skies and near 70 temeratures. Planning to do some minor work on the boat, we stopped early in Deltaville. No work has yet been done, and we are enjoying the tranqility of the anchorage, as the sun slowly sinks in the sky.

And We're OFF!

2008-11-01T00:31:00.000-04:00

Our dingy is trailing behind us, we made it out of our slip and we are headed south like the birds. Our departure date was a bit questionable when the night before our planned exit we discovered our out board motor was non functioning. First thing the next morning we got the the motor in working condition (thanks Spike!) and we were on our way just in time. Due to an unusual low tide we just made it out of the slip only dragging a little on our way out.

We are now on night two of our trip, anchored in Mill Creek off the Great Wicomico. We saw a wonderful sunset and two bald eagles resting in a nearby tree.

Getting Ready to Go

2008-10-26T00:36:00.000-04:00

The long awaited time is nearly upon us. After a devastating spring, and an unexpected summer we are officially moved onto our sailboat. Everything we need is aboard (so we hope), our car is safely back in West Virginia, and in a few days we will be leaving port for points south.

So far nothing in the past year has gone as planned and currently our plans don't amount to much. We will be heading south along the ICW (that is the Intercoastal Waterway for those of you who are non boat savy - luv you mom!) We plan to head toward Florida, hopefully we will see some Bahamas, but our plan will have to unfold itself along the way.

I suppose a small introduction could be in order. My name is Rebecca, my partner is IB, and our boat is Passport, a 42 foot Tayana. Last year, after years of weekend sails in the Chesapeake Bay, life awakened itself to allow us the opportunity to live aboard our vessel and travel. So now, only about a half a year later than we planned, (life seems to have it's own plans we don't account for) we are nearly ready to set sail.