Dolphins off the Bow

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

    

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

   

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

 

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.