And finally, our voyage back to the US. It took several hops, with our first stop at Lyford Cay on New Providence. New Providence is home to Nassau which was the last place we wanted to go, but Lyford Cay is much more away from the hustle and bustle of Nassau and made for a pleasant stop with only one downside. My god it was expensive. $5.25/ft Yikes! I think that's the most I've ever paid and cost almost as much for one night as I paid for a full month at Sea Spray on Elbow Cay.
Needless to say we only stayed one night and the next day made the run to Chub Cay which is part of the Berry Islands. At Chub we elected to anchor in the bay/cove outside the harbor and had a great afternoon snorkeling around.
Our next hop was a long one from Chub to Bimini so we set out at first light and arrived at Bimini mid afternoon. Originally we were hoping to anchor on the west side of the north island of Bimini, but the wind had kicked up and it would have been very uncomfortable, so we continued down to the south island to Bimini Sands which is a well protected harbor and development/resort. We didn't go by land to see the north Island, but from the water on our way down is looked like one large abandoned construction site with idle cranes and half build houses and condos. It was another reminder how hard hit the Bahamas were (at least parts of it) by both the boom and bust of the real estate market. Hopefully in time it too will recover.
We hung out in Bimini for a couple of days waiting for the weather conditions to improve for our final crossing back to the US. From Bimini it's a short 40nm or so across to Miami, but Miami is a good bit further south than our planned destination of Palm Beach Gardens. The more diagonal direct shot to Palm Beach is around 75nm, but has the advantage of the gulf stream helping to push you along. We were hoping for conditions favorable enough to make the direct route to Palm Beach, and sure enough we got them. It was a stark contrast to our trip over 6 weeks earlier, and was so calm that we decided to burn some fuel and just blast through it. By early afternoon we were working our way through the Lake Worth inlet and heading up the ICW to the marina where we would leave the boat for a couple of months before continuing the trip north back to Gloucester.
In summary, the trip was a great success, and we both really like having a waterfront home that we can more around and position wherever we want for the cold winter months. It's nice not to be stuck inside so much, and great to be able to extend the boating season to be year-round instead of the meager 6 months that we stretch out of New England. And I sure don't miss all the work associated with winterizing and recommissioning over and over again.
Showing posts with label Bahamas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bahamas. Show all posts
Friday, February 21, 2014
Highborne Cay
Heading back now, a reasonable stopping point appeared to be Highborne Cay. As you may recall, we tried to get into the marina there not long after we first arrived in the Exumas, but they were full and we ended up in a nice anchorage spot outside the harbor.... Anyway, Highborne has one of the few marinas and restaurants in the norther part of the Exuma chain, and we were ready for some eating out and exploring, so in we went. It's a nice little resort that appears to take up the whole island (it's all private property and they chase you away if you are not staying at the marina) with a bunch of rental houses, bar, restaurant, and a small store not unlike a small New England general store. And a short walk away is a really nice beach on the ocean side. We enjoyed a great meal and the next day walked across the island to check out the beach.
One thing we heard were visible from the beach were a number of stromatolites. According to Wikipedia "Stromatolites provide the most ancient records of life on Earth by fossil remains which date from more than 3.5 billion years ago". Apparently it's a pretty recent discovery that these buggers are still growing and not just rocks, and an even more recent realization that they have been sitting right in front of us in a number of places around the world, including the Exumas.
One thing we heard were visible from the beach were a number of stromatolites. According to Wikipedia "Stromatolites provide the most ancient records of life on Earth by fossil remains which date from more than 3.5 billion years ago". Apparently it's a pretty recent discovery that these buggers are still growing and not just rocks, and an even more recent realization that they have been sitting right in front of us in a number of places around the world, including the Exumas.
 |
| Stromatolites as much as 3.5B years old |
 |
| Stromatolites at Highborne Cay, Exuma |
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Warderick Wells Cay
Wow, Warderick Wells is really spectacular, and a great choice for the park headquarters location. There is a small staff that lives on the island, presumably in shifts, and other than their accommodations, a generator house, and the park office, there are no facilities at all. They do, however, offer wifi in slow, paid chunks of 100MB. It quickly became evident how spoiled we have all become expecting unlimited internet. We were not connected for more than 15 minutes and 30MB was already gone from our first card. A single load of the NY Times web site is 3-5MB! But enough of technology. That's not what this place is about.... it is about wonderful beaches, well marked hiking trails, interesting terrain, a multitude of snorkeling opportunities, fish galore, and just a spectacularly beautiful setting.
Over the course of our stay we saw countless varieties of coral, 4 giant rays, a smaller ray, a barracuda, a trumpet fish, three nurse sharks, a school of about 30 yellow tail snappers hanging out under our boat, and a zillions different small fish. On shore is an amazing field of coral with dozens of pockets that collect rain water, and give the Cay it's name.
Aside from the park buildings, the only sign of humans is the heap of boat signs up on Boo Boo hill. Apparently it's tradition for visiting cruisers to leave behind a piece of drift wood inscribed with their boat name. I took a walk up the hill to see this, and to see if I could find plaques from any of the people we know who have been through in the past year or so.
But I have to admit to being a bit put off by the whole thing once I saw it. The only signs that are visible and legible are those from the past 3-6 months, and even that's pushing it. Everything else is buried and/or faded beyond recognition. It struck me as more of a junk heap than any kind of memorial, and I couldn't bring myself to contribute to it.
But once up on the hill, there are some great views back down over the cove. Keep in mind that this "hill" is probably a grand total of 50' above sea level, but for the Bahamas, that's a lot.
 |
| Warderick Wells Park Office and Staff Residence |
 |
| Warderick Wells North Mooring Field |
Over the course of our stay we saw countless varieties of coral, 4 giant rays, a smaller ray, a barracuda, a trumpet fish, three nurse sharks, a school of about 30 yellow tail snappers hanging out under our boat, and a zillions different small fish. On shore is an amazing field of coral with dozens of pockets that collect rain water, and give the Cay it's name.
 |
| Nurse Shark circling our boat |
Aside from the park buildings, the only sign of humans is the heap of boat signs up on Boo Boo hill. Apparently it's tradition for visiting cruisers to leave behind a piece of drift wood inscribed with their boat name. I took a walk up the hill to see this, and to see if I could find plaques from any of the people we know who have been through in the past year or so.
 |
| Boat plaques left by cruisers |
 |
| More plaques piled high and deep |
But I have to admit to being a bit put off by the whole thing once I saw it. The only signs that are visible and legible are those from the past 3-6 months, and even that's pushing it. Everything else is buried and/or faded beyond recognition. It struck me as more of a junk heap than any kind of memorial, and I couldn't bring myself to contribute to it.
But once up on the hill, there are some great views back down over the cove. Keep in mind that this "hill" is probably a grand total of 50' above sea level, but for the Bahamas, that's a lot.
 |
| North mooring field and cove |
 |
| North tip of Warderick Wells Cay |
Hawkesbill Cay
Next stop south was Hawksbill Cay which is just barely around the corner from Shroud. Hawksbill has two mooring areas, one more to the north with only 4 moorings, and one further to the south with a bunch of moorings. We decided to go in and check out the smaller area and found it deserted, calm, and generally very pleasant, so we grabbed a mooring and settled in. We had a very relaxed day and did a bit of snorkeling, but generally just slugged out.
The next morning we again participated in the reservation radio-fest for moorings at Warderick Wells, first reconfirming that they had us on the list for that night. Indeed they did, and we stood by patiently waiting to see if we would get a mooring or not. Warderick actually has 3 different mooring fields, and the preferred one is in the north field in the "bay" and near the headquarters building. It's the most protected, and has the best access to land to explore the Cay. Worst case, we figured we'd get into one of the secondary fields with no trouble. Luck was with us and we were assigned a mooring in the Northfield, and only had an hour or so cruise to get there. I went out for another quick snorkel to a nearby reef, then we hauled anchor and made our way to Warderick.
The next morning we again participated in the reservation radio-fest for moorings at Warderick Wells, first reconfirming that they had us on the list for that night. Indeed they did, and we stood by patiently waiting to see if we would get a mooring or not. Warderick actually has 3 different mooring fields, and the preferred one is in the north field in the "bay" and near the headquarters building. It's the most protected, and has the best access to land to explore the Cay. Worst case, we figured we'd get into one of the secondary fields with no trouble. Luck was with us and we were assigned a mooring in the Northfield, and only had an hour or so cruise to get there. I went out for another quick snorkel to a nearby reef, then we hauled anchor and made our way to Warderick.
Shroud Cay
Next stop south in the Exumas was Shroud Cay, and our first stop within the Exuma Land and Sea Park. Throughout the park there are well maintained mooring fields, but at Shroud we elected to anchor in a more remote spot a little south of the field.
Shroud is about 80% mangrove, and 20% dry land, and is criss-crossed by several estuaries which made for great kayaking. We found one up at the north end that wound all the way through to the back side of the dunes on the ocean side.
The Exumas are largely unpopulated and undeveloped with a few exceptions, so cruising involves anchoring (and moorings in the park), making your own water and electricity, etc. I don't think there are any marinas, places to get water, or fuel stops anywhere between Highborne and Staniel. But, despite being more remote, we found the Exumas to be decidedly more crowded than the Abacos. The mooring fields all filled up each afternoon and the latest arrivals had to anchor (which is no big deal.) And even our more remote anchorage ended up with 1/2 dozen boats. It wasn't as tight as Allen's Cay, but there were still a lot of boats around.
The other interesting thing - and perhaps some of our readers can shed some light on it - was the predominance of boats from Canada. I'd say Canadian boats out numbered others by 4 to 1, and of the Canadian boats, more than half were from various parts of Quebec. With the Bahamas so much closer to the US than Canada, I'd expect the opposite. One thing I was wondering is whether there is a longer winter holiday in Canada that makes it easier for folks to come spend a month down this way? Or perhaps they are just smarter than us and more quickly figured out the pleasure of escaping a cold winter. I know I've been slow to figure it out.
But getting back to the number of boats, most of the mooring fields are first-come-first-serve. Except Warderick Wells, home to the park headquarters, operates on a reservation system. It all takes place over VHF because there is no cell service, wifi, or anything else. Every morning at 9:00 the process begins, conducted by the park "manager". First, there is a call to find out which boats will be leaving that day. Then there is a call for reservation requests. Most requests are for that same day, but while we were there they also accepted requests for the next day. It's a bit of a free for all to get your request in, fueled by the first-come-first-served nature of the reservations, but I can't think of any better way to conduct it. Once all the requests have been voiced, the manager goes off line for a few minutes while she sorts out the requests. Then she comes back on and calls the boats one at a time to give each their mooring assignment for the night. All in all, it works pretty well.
We listened in while at Shroud key, and although our reception was marginal at that distance, we put in a request for the next day, the decided to head a little further south for the night.
Shroud is about 80% mangrove, and 20% dry land, and is criss-crossed by several estuaries which made for great kayaking. We found one up at the north end that wound all the way through to the back side of the dunes on the ocean side.
The Exumas are largely unpopulated and undeveloped with a few exceptions, so cruising involves anchoring (and moorings in the park), making your own water and electricity, etc. I don't think there are any marinas, places to get water, or fuel stops anywhere between Highborne and Staniel. But, despite being more remote, we found the Exumas to be decidedly more crowded than the Abacos. The mooring fields all filled up each afternoon and the latest arrivals had to anchor (which is no big deal.) And even our more remote anchorage ended up with 1/2 dozen boats. It wasn't as tight as Allen's Cay, but there were still a lot of boats around.
The other interesting thing - and perhaps some of our readers can shed some light on it - was the predominance of boats from Canada. I'd say Canadian boats out numbered others by 4 to 1, and of the Canadian boats, more than half were from various parts of Quebec. With the Bahamas so much closer to the US than Canada, I'd expect the opposite. One thing I was wondering is whether there is a longer winter holiday in Canada that makes it easier for folks to come spend a month down this way? Or perhaps they are just smarter than us and more quickly figured out the pleasure of escaping a cold winter. I know I've been slow to figure it out.
But getting back to the number of boats, most of the mooring fields are first-come-first-serve. Except Warderick Wells, home to the park headquarters, operates on a reservation system. It all takes place over VHF because there is no cell service, wifi, or anything else. Every morning at 9:00 the process begins, conducted by the park "manager". First, there is a call to find out which boats will be leaving that day. Then there is a call for reservation requests. Most requests are for that same day, but while we were there they also accepted requests for the next day. It's a bit of a free for all to get your request in, fueled by the first-come-first-served nature of the reservations, but I can't think of any better way to conduct it. Once all the requests have been voiced, the manager goes off line for a few minutes while she sorts out the requests. Then she comes back on and calls the boats one at a time to give each their mooring assignment for the night. All in all, it works pretty well.
We listened in while at Shroud key, and although our reception was marginal at that distance, we put in a request for the next day, the decided to head a little further south for the night.
Friday, January 31, 2014
The Exumas - Allen's Cay
Sorry for the long gap since our last post, but we have been down in the Exumas which are largely void of any communications other than Marine VHF.
When we last left off, we were wrapping up a few days' stay in Spanish Wells which is part of Eleuthra. From there we made a day-long run down to the beginning of the Exuma chain ending up at Allen's Cay. Allen's is a really pretty little hidie-hole between two cays - except for one thing. It's really crowded. Not only is it one of the closest points of arrival from a number of directions, but two of the cays are home to giant iguanas which serve as an irresistible attraction. We managed to nuzzle in and anchor for the night after one day-visitor departed.
Just a touch south across the entrance channel to the main anchorage is SW Allen's Cay which sports a nice, if not small cove with room for not much more than one boat. It was occupied when we first arrived, but the next morning they departed and we quickly weighed anchor and went over to grab that location. It was very, very nice, away from other boats, and a short dinghy ride or swim to the beach to visit the iguanas. We also found excellent snorkling around the edges of the cove.
However, paradise didn't last. That evening a strong wind came through and although we were well protected from the wind, the swell came right through the channel and around the corner to where we were. Because the cove was so small, we were not more than about 100' away from the coral edges, so any anchor dragging would quickly become a disaster. I set a variety of anchor alarms and spent the night in the salon propped up where I could see the anchor alarms and display of our position by just opening my eyes. Between the constant watch and heavy rolling, it was not a restful night. In the morning we awoke to find another boat had come in over night and anchored about 50' away from us, so we decided to move back over to the other anchorage. It was still pretty full, but we found a spot - at least for a while.
We were close to a sand bar and as the tide shifted, despite the strong wind, we started getting pushed towards the bar and were shortly going to be aground, so up came the anchor once again. This time we moved to a spot between two boats that was a bit tight, but also about the only choice. As we were positioning and dropping the anchor, one of the neighboring boat owners came out and stood at his bow, arms crossed, pouting. He eventually started yelling over to us so I got him on the radio. He complained that he had 100' of chain out and that on the next tide swing he would run into us. Now mind you that we were in maybe 8-10 feet of water, so 50-75' of chain would be plenty, so he was taking up a lot of room. We debated repositioning again and instead decided to just get the hell out of there, so out we went.
Our first call was to Highbourne Cay Marina which is pretty much the only marina anywhere within about 50 miles. No big surprise, they were full with boats escaping the blow. So instead we went in near Highbourne where there are some small cays that looked like they might provide shelter from the westerly winds, and sure enough they did. We found a very nice spot with good protection and excellent holding and settled in for the night. Leaving Allen's ended up being a blessing in disguise.
Much to my amusement, a week or so later someone came by our boat down in Warderick Wells and said he was in the Allen's Cay anchorage when that guy was giving us a hard time. He said that as soon as we left, the guy moved to exactly the spot he said we shouldn't be in. Fortunately most cruisers aren't jerks - just a few of them.
When we last left off, we were wrapping up a few days' stay in Spanish Wells which is part of Eleuthra. From there we made a day-long run down to the beginning of the Exuma chain ending up at Allen's Cay. Allen's is a really pretty little hidie-hole between two cays - except for one thing. It's really crowded. Not only is it one of the closest points of arrival from a number of directions, but two of the cays are home to giant iguanas which serve as an irresistible attraction. We managed to nuzzle in and anchor for the night after one day-visitor departed.
Just a touch south across the entrance channel to the main anchorage is SW Allen's Cay which sports a nice, if not small cove with room for not much more than one boat. It was occupied when we first arrived, but the next morning they departed and we quickly weighed anchor and went over to grab that location. It was very, very nice, away from other boats, and a short dinghy ride or swim to the beach to visit the iguanas. We also found excellent snorkling around the edges of the cove.
 |
| SW Allen's Cay |
 |
| Giant Iguana |
 |
| Giant Iguana |
However, paradise didn't last. That evening a strong wind came through and although we were well protected from the wind, the swell came right through the channel and around the corner to where we were. Because the cove was so small, we were not more than about 100' away from the coral edges, so any anchor dragging would quickly become a disaster. I set a variety of anchor alarms and spent the night in the salon propped up where I could see the anchor alarms and display of our position by just opening my eyes. Between the constant watch and heavy rolling, it was not a restful night. In the morning we awoke to find another boat had come in over night and anchored about 50' away from us, so we decided to move back over to the other anchorage. It was still pretty full, but we found a spot - at least for a while.
We were close to a sand bar and as the tide shifted, despite the strong wind, we started getting pushed towards the bar and were shortly going to be aground, so up came the anchor once again. This time we moved to a spot between two boats that was a bit tight, but also about the only choice. As we were positioning and dropping the anchor, one of the neighboring boat owners came out and stood at his bow, arms crossed, pouting. He eventually started yelling over to us so I got him on the radio. He complained that he had 100' of chain out and that on the next tide swing he would run into us. Now mind you that we were in maybe 8-10 feet of water, so 50-75' of chain would be plenty, so he was taking up a lot of room. We debated repositioning again and instead decided to just get the hell out of there, so out we went.
Our first call was to Highbourne Cay Marina which is pretty much the only marina anywhere within about 50 miles. No big surprise, they were full with boats escaping the blow. So instead we went in near Highbourne where there are some small cays that looked like they might provide shelter from the westerly winds, and sure enough they did. We found a very nice spot with good protection and excellent holding and settled in for the night. Leaving Allen's ended up being a blessing in disguise.
Much to my amusement, a week or so later someone came by our boat down in Warderick Wells and said he was in the Allen's Cay anchorage when that guy was giving us a hard time. He said that as soon as we left, the guy moved to exactly the spot he said we shouldn't be in. Fortunately most cruisers aren't jerks - just a few of them.
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Gangsta Carts
Spanish Wells is an interesting and likable town. It's a vibrant, working community with what appears to be a sound economy based on fishing. All the fishing boats and working piers remind us of our home port of Gloucester, MA. It's nice to see a place that doesn't live exclusively on tourism.
Also shared with our home town are Gangsta Cars, except here they are Gangsta Carts. You know the cars that drive by you with thundering base and rattling fenders and bumpers that rap by? Well, the have the same thing here, except like everywhere in the Bahamas, they mostly drive gold carts. But well into the evening last night we heard cart after cart thundering and rapping down the road. I guess some things are universal.
But this sure is a pretty spot
Today we took a day trip over to Dunmore Town on Harbor Island. To get there you take a ferry and transit the Devil's Backbone. There's yet another awesome name for you, just like the Dismal Swap. The Devil's Backbone is a narrow, windy, unmarked passage through the reefs to get to Harbor Island. All visiting boats hire a pilot to lead them through and make the trip slowly and with great caution. But we cranked through at 20kt on a 100' ferry. Pretty cool.
Also shared with our home town are Gangsta Cars, except here they are Gangsta Carts. You know the cars that drive by you with thundering base and rattling fenders and bumpers that rap by? Well, the have the same thing here, except like everywhere in the Bahamas, they mostly drive gold carts. But well into the evening last night we heard cart after cart thundering and rapping down the road. I guess some things are universal.
But this sure is a pretty spot
 |
| Spanish Wells |
Today we took a day trip over to Dunmore Town on Harbor Island. To get there you take a ferry and transit the Devil's Backbone. There's yet another awesome name for you, just like the Dismal Swap. The Devil's Backbone is a narrow, windy, unmarked passage through the reefs to get to Harbor Island. All visiting boats hire a pilot to lead them through and make the trip slowly and with great caution. But we cranked through at 20kt on a 100' ferry. Pretty cool.
 |
| Dunmore Town, Harbor Island |
Heading to the Exumas by way of Eleuthra
With the watermaker working again and the kids back home, it was time to continue on our trip and we decided to head to the Exumas. To get there, you exit the inside waters of the Abacos and head back out to sea for about a 50nm leg south to Eleuthra. From there it's about another 50nm to the beginning of the Exuma island chain.
The crossing was pretty interesting. In general the weather was pretty good, but with a 3-5' swell. It was a gentle, spaced out swell, so not too bad.
The first notable part of the trip is the depth. No more than about a mile or two outside of Abacos, the sea depth plummets. The picture below shows the graph from our sounder showing the beginning of the cliff. Then the next pictures shows the next drop off going from about 1000' down to 1500', at which point the sounder loses it. Charted depths range from 12,000' to 15,000' for the crossing.
The second interesting part was the freighter/tanker traffic. Distance and speeds are so deceptive out in the open water, and you come to appreciate the assistance rendered by the boat's instruments. Just watching this freighter for 10-15 minutes, I would have judged that we were on a near collision course. And, I'm the give-way ship in this case (he has right of way)
The next picture shows us approaching each other on the chart plotter. Still looks like a close call, right?
Actually, in the above picture it's more clear that we are not going to hit. The red arrows coming out of the bows of each boat represent their speed, and you can see pretty clearly that the freighter is going much faster that we are. When the tips of the arrows are near each other, that's when you have trouble. As a side note, you can also see that the charted depth here is about 4000 meters.
Even better than looking at the red arrows, you can click on the other ship and the plotter will tell you your CPA, aka closest point of approach, aka, how close you will come to each other. In this case, we were quite literally going to miss each other by a mile.
And sure enough, he passed well ahead of us, yet close enough to see that he's carrying a yacht on his deck, just the way new boats are shipping over from China.
By about 1:00 we arrived at Royal Harbor which is a very nicely protected anchorage a few miles from Spanish Wells and Harbor Island/Dunmore Town.
The crossing was pretty interesting. In general the weather was pretty good, but with a 3-5' swell. It was a gentle, spaced out swell, so not too bad.
The first notable part of the trip is the depth. No more than about a mile or two outside of Abacos, the sea depth plummets. The picture below shows the graph from our sounder showing the beginning of the cliff. Then the next pictures shows the next drop off going from about 1000' down to 1500', at which point the sounder loses it. Charted depths range from 12,000' to 15,000' for the crossing.
 |
| The first depth drop off |
 |
| Second drop from 1000' to 1500' before depth is lost |
The second interesting part was the freighter/tanker traffic. Distance and speeds are so deceptive out in the open water, and you come to appreciate the assistance rendered by the boat's instruments. Just watching this freighter for 10-15 minutes, I would have judged that we were on a near collision course. And, I'm the give-way ship in this case (he has right of way)
 |
| Crossing ship - will we collide? |
The next picture shows us approaching each other on the chart plotter. Still looks like a close call, right?
 |
| Crossing traffic show on chart plotter |
Actually, in the above picture it's more clear that we are not going to hit. The red arrows coming out of the bows of each boat represent their speed, and you can see pretty clearly that the freighter is going much faster that we are. When the tips of the arrows are near each other, that's when you have trouble. As a side note, you can also see that the charted depth here is about 4000 meters.
Even better than looking at the red arrows, you can click on the other ship and the plotter will tell you your CPA, aka closest point of approach, aka, how close you will come to each other. In this case, we were quite literally going to miss each other by a mile.
And sure enough, he passed well ahead of us, yet close enough to see that he's carrying a yacht on his deck, just the way new boats are shipping over from China.
 |
| Crossing ship with yacht on deck |
By about 1:00 we arrived at Royal Harbor which is a very nicely protected anchorage a few miles from Spanish Wells and Harbor Island/Dunmore Town.
Fun in Hope Town, Abacos
We had a great family week in White Sound which is just south of Hope Town on Elbow Cay in the Abacos. Our kids and their significant-others came down for a week and took over a neighboring house while Laurie and I stayed on the boat so we could get some sleep.....
The weather didn't completely cooperate, but we all still had a great time. One of our first projects, and the request of our Daughter, was a hair cut for Zagy. Only minor injuries were incurred.
Aside from great food, including amazing rum cake from Vernon's Grocery, we got in a bunch of snorkeling, kayaking, and general goofing around. The boat deck makes for a great jumping platform, we found.
Oh, and I celebrated by 54th birthday. I can't think of a better place and better people to ring up another one with.
The weather didn't completely cooperate, but we all still had a great time. One of our first projects, and the request of our Daughter, was a hair cut for Zagy. Only minor injuries were incurred.
 |
| Zagy gets a haircut |
Aside from great food, including amazing rum cake from Vernon's Grocery, we got in a bunch of snorkeling, kayaking, and general goofing around. The boat deck makes for a great jumping platform, we found.
 |
| Jump!! |
Oh, and I celebrated by 54th birthday. I can't think of a better place and better people to ring up another one with.
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Underway again, to the Bahamas
We flew back down to Florida on December 27th and were back on board by early afternoon. But along the way we learned an unfortunately lesson. Just because you have a car reservation, and just because you have been a customer for 30 years, and just because you are have been a gold member for 20 years, doesn't mean Hertz will actually have a car for you. When we arrived at the pickup lot, they had no cars, and about 50 people waiting for cars to magically arrive. I'm not exactly a fan of Hertz, but over the years they have been less problematic than other companies I've tried, but this was strike three. As they say in Jersey, they are dead to me now. Strike one was when a car we rented appeared to have gone missing from the valet garage at our hotel, so I reported it stolen to Hertz. In the end it turned out the valet has mistakenly given our car to someone else, but Hertz seemed to think the missing car was my fault and refused to rent me another car until the missing one was recovered. They were happy to leave me high and dry. Strike two was a month or two ago when, just for kicks, we reserved a convertible. When we arrived to pick it up, the guy was very apologetic that they didn't have the car, and said that Hertz doesn't reserve to actual inventory. It wasn't a huge deal, but really calls into question the companies operating policies. Anyway, let's get back to boating.
Aside from provisioning and a handful of errands, the big task was picking a weather window to make the crossing to the Bahamas. We've never done it before, and distance-wise it's not a far jump at all, but it involves crossing the Gulf Stream which can be quite nasty under the wrong conditions. The water flows north at about 4kts which is pretty darn fast for current. If you have an opposing wind, it creates short, steep waves that will kick the crap out of you. This phenomenon of current against wind is common in boating, but in this case you are talking about a lot of water moving very fast over a very wide span, and winds that have free reign for a long, long way to build up the seas.
The trick is to get a day where there is no northern component to the wind direction so it's not opposing the current, and winds that are 15 kts or less. It's also good for any past big winds to have subsided for a day or more to give the ocean time to settle back down.
Our choices looked like Sunday the 29th or Monday the 30th. Sunday was supposed to be 15kts +/- out of the west to southwest. 15 kts is a bit high, but with a westerly component it would be more to our backs, so not too bad in theory. Monday was supposed to be calmer in the 10 kt range, but with a northerly component starting to kick back in. We were leaning towards Sunday, figuring that if the northern wind kicked up on Monday is could get pretty bad.
I then checked with a couple of people, including a professional marine weather routing guy to sanity check our thinking. Both thought that Sunday sounded OK. The one comment from the pro was that conditions would be improving throughout the day on Sunday, so whatever we saw in the beginning of the day was as bad as it would get. So we decided Sunday it would be. Plus that would give us Monday to cross the open part of the Bahamas bank when conditions we supposed to be OK.
Sunday Morning we were off, and the waves started as we were leaving the Ft Worth inlet, and never gave up until we entered the cut at West End, Bahamas. It was not a fun trip. Instead of 15kt winds we had steady 25-30kts. And instead of 3-5' seas we had steady 6-8' seas. We figured it should get better as we progressed, but that never happened. The interesting part is that I couldn't tell you where the Gulf Stream started and where it ended. The seas were the same the whole way. But we made it, the boat did great, and it sure was nice to be tucked in a harbor at the end of the day.
Backing up a bit, we need to be in the Marsh Harbor/Elbow Cay area by the following Sunday the 5th because our kids and their significant-others are flying down to join us for a week. So rather than catch a breather on arrival, we have been feeling a need to press on for fear of getting stuck somewhere by bad weather if we linger.
So off we went on Monday the 30th to cross over the top of the Little Bahama Bank to get ourselves over between Abaco and the outer islands. The only way into that part of the Abacos is at the top of the island chain, or you need to go outside, off the bank, and all the way around. First stop was about a 50NM run from West End to Great Sale Cay. Great Sale is uninhabited, but a great stopping point when winds are out of the north which they were. It was a very calm and pleasant trip over, and a nice night on the anchor, and although there were only two boats there when we arrived, there were over 12 when we finally went to sleep.
When we went to anchor, we discovered two problems. First, the anchor wouldn't go down. The windlass would operate, but go click click click. I tried releasing the clutch to manually drop the anchor, but it still wouldn't go down. The Laurie figured it out. In all our thrashing about on the crossing over, the anchor chain had gotten tangled up. The chain locker is accessed from the forward stateroom so I dug my way in and sure enough, the chain pile had shifted so the section that should be feeding out was buried under a bunch of chain that had shifted during the pounding. It took some shoving and digging, but I finally got it moved around and free so we could lower the anchor.
Then we discovered problem two. There is an anchor control at the helm, and also two foot buttons right up in the bow. But the foot buttons weren't working. It's been no problme raising and lowering from the helm, but I'll have to dig into that problem and fix it. Looking at the wiring diagrams, it's probably just a corroded wire, or maybe something else got knocked around during the crossing.
By Tuesday AM there were forecasts of a Gale coming though on Thursday, so we started thinking that we should get to Marsh Harbor/Elbow Cay before that. Just before Marsh Harbor is Whale Cay where the only interior passage (staying on the bank) is a narrow, shallow cut that requires mid to high tide for us, and preferably reasonably calm seas. The other route takes you out through a cut to open ocean, then back in another cut a mile or so away. Neither sounds very appetizing in rough weather, so we figured we needed to get by there no later than Wednesday. From that formed our plan. Tuesday the 31st we would go to Green Turtle Cay, then Wednesday the 1st we would move to Marsh Harbor, passing by Whale Cay, one way or another.
Tuesday the 31st, New Years Eve, we arrived at Green Turtle Cay, settled into a slip, and made reservations for New Years Eve dinner at the local restaurant. The dinner was great, but we were otherwise reminded why we don't favor marinas in our travels. If you are a party animal, I suppose it's great, but we are old fuddy duddies and much prefer a peaceful, natural environment without seeing your neighbor's face every time you look out your window. But it served us well and we are glad everyone had a good time.
Today, New Years Day (Happy New Year!!), we got underway around 8:30 and were approaching Whale Cay around 10:00. I could see a couple of boats coming through the outside pass and radioed to get a condition report. They reported it to be bumpy, but no breaking waves and certainly passable, so we decided to take that route. The inside pass was right into the morning sun making visibility difficult, and we were at a mid and falling tide, so an hour of bumping seemed better than risking running around.
Within about 45 minutes or so we were heading back in Loggerhead cut and the seas were subsiding. Now on the south side of Whale Cay, it's clear sailing to our ultimate destination at Elbow Cay. Wanting to anchor out, we picked a spot not too far from March Harbor with good protection from the East, turning to Southerly winds over the next couple of days. I think we will just stay put here unless the wind swings around further and leaves us exposed, in which case we'll go find another spot.
I have to say I'm looking forward to a couple of down days to just relax and catch up on things. It was race race race for Christmas, then race race race to get down to Florida and get the boat ready to go, and has been race race race to get positioned so we won't miss our rendezvous with our kids. Now it's time to relax and enjoy the Bahamas. And with this view out the back of the boat, wouldn't you?
Aside from provisioning and a handful of errands, the big task was picking a weather window to make the crossing to the Bahamas. We've never done it before, and distance-wise it's not a far jump at all, but it involves crossing the Gulf Stream which can be quite nasty under the wrong conditions. The water flows north at about 4kts which is pretty darn fast for current. If you have an opposing wind, it creates short, steep waves that will kick the crap out of you. This phenomenon of current against wind is common in boating, but in this case you are talking about a lot of water moving very fast over a very wide span, and winds that have free reign for a long, long way to build up the seas.
The trick is to get a day where there is no northern component to the wind direction so it's not opposing the current, and winds that are 15 kts or less. It's also good for any past big winds to have subsided for a day or more to give the ocean time to settle back down.
Our choices looked like Sunday the 29th or Monday the 30th. Sunday was supposed to be 15kts +/- out of the west to southwest. 15 kts is a bit high, but with a westerly component it would be more to our backs, so not too bad in theory. Monday was supposed to be calmer in the 10 kt range, but with a northerly component starting to kick back in. We were leaning towards Sunday, figuring that if the northern wind kicked up on Monday is could get pretty bad.
I then checked with a couple of people, including a professional marine weather routing guy to sanity check our thinking. Both thought that Sunday sounded OK. The one comment from the pro was that conditions would be improving throughout the day on Sunday, so whatever we saw in the beginning of the day was as bad as it would get. So we decided Sunday it would be. Plus that would give us Monday to cross the open part of the Bahamas bank when conditions we supposed to be OK.
Sunday Morning we were off, and the waves started as we were leaving the Ft Worth inlet, and never gave up until we entered the cut at West End, Bahamas. It was not a fun trip. Instead of 15kt winds we had steady 25-30kts. And instead of 3-5' seas we had steady 6-8' seas. We figured it should get better as we progressed, but that never happened. The interesting part is that I couldn't tell you where the Gulf Stream started and where it ended. The seas were the same the whole way. But we made it, the boat did great, and it sure was nice to be tucked in a harbor at the end of the day.
Backing up a bit, we need to be in the Marsh Harbor/Elbow Cay area by the following Sunday the 5th because our kids and their significant-others are flying down to join us for a week. So rather than catch a breather on arrival, we have been feeling a need to press on for fear of getting stuck somewhere by bad weather if we linger.
So off we went on Monday the 30th to cross over the top of the Little Bahama Bank to get ourselves over between Abaco and the outer islands. The only way into that part of the Abacos is at the top of the island chain, or you need to go outside, off the bank, and all the way around. First stop was about a 50NM run from West End to Great Sale Cay. Great Sale is uninhabited, but a great stopping point when winds are out of the north which they were. It was a very calm and pleasant trip over, and a nice night on the anchor, and although there were only two boats there when we arrived, there were over 12 when we finally went to sleep.
When we went to anchor, we discovered two problems. First, the anchor wouldn't go down. The windlass would operate, but go click click click. I tried releasing the clutch to manually drop the anchor, but it still wouldn't go down. The Laurie figured it out. In all our thrashing about on the crossing over, the anchor chain had gotten tangled up. The chain locker is accessed from the forward stateroom so I dug my way in and sure enough, the chain pile had shifted so the section that should be feeding out was buried under a bunch of chain that had shifted during the pounding. It took some shoving and digging, but I finally got it moved around and free so we could lower the anchor.
Then we discovered problem two. There is an anchor control at the helm, and also two foot buttons right up in the bow. But the foot buttons weren't working. It's been no problme raising and lowering from the helm, but I'll have to dig into that problem and fix it. Looking at the wiring diagrams, it's probably just a corroded wire, or maybe something else got knocked around during the crossing.
By Tuesday AM there were forecasts of a Gale coming though on Thursday, so we started thinking that we should get to Marsh Harbor/Elbow Cay before that. Just before Marsh Harbor is Whale Cay where the only interior passage (staying on the bank) is a narrow, shallow cut that requires mid to high tide for us, and preferably reasonably calm seas. The other route takes you out through a cut to open ocean, then back in another cut a mile or so away. Neither sounds very appetizing in rough weather, so we figured we needed to get by there no later than Wednesday. From that formed our plan. Tuesday the 31st we would go to Green Turtle Cay, then Wednesday the 1st we would move to Marsh Harbor, passing by Whale Cay, one way or another.
Tuesday the 31st, New Years Eve, we arrived at Green Turtle Cay, settled into a slip, and made reservations for New Years Eve dinner at the local restaurant. The dinner was great, but we were otherwise reminded why we don't favor marinas in our travels. If you are a party animal, I suppose it's great, but we are old fuddy duddies and much prefer a peaceful, natural environment without seeing your neighbor's face every time you look out your window. But it served us well and we are glad everyone had a good time.
Today, New Years Day (Happy New Year!!), we got underway around 8:30 and were approaching Whale Cay around 10:00. I could see a couple of boats coming through the outside pass and radioed to get a condition report. They reported it to be bumpy, but no breaking waves and certainly passable, so we decided to take that route. The inside pass was right into the morning sun making visibility difficult, and we were at a mid and falling tide, so an hour of bumping seemed better than risking running around.
Within about 45 minutes or so we were heading back in Loggerhead cut and the seas were subsiding. Now on the south side of Whale Cay, it's clear sailing to our ultimate destination at Elbow Cay. Wanting to anchor out, we picked a spot not too far from March Harbor with good protection from the East, turning to Southerly winds over the next couple of days. I think we will just stay put here unless the wind swings around further and leaves us exposed, in which case we'll go find another spot.
I have to say I'm looking forward to a couple of down days to just relax and catch up on things. It was race race race for Christmas, then race race race to get down to Florida and get the boat ready to go, and has been race race race to get positioned so we won't miss our rendezvous with our kids. Now it's time to relax and enjoy the Bahamas. And with this view out the back of the boat, wouldn't you?
 |
| Matt Lowe Cay |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)