Irish Eyes to the Bahamas

2012-01-31T17:21:00.000-08:00

January 31, 2012

We backed out of our slip at Northwest Creek Marina and left it empty for the next five months. The boat on the right, Freedom, is a Crealock 34 like ours. One of the owners of the boat on the left was a student of Bill’s aunt Liza in Kinston decades ago.

The camp stool lets Bill sit high up so he can see over the dodger. It saves him from standing for eight hours each day. Doesn’t he look regal on his throne?

Although it was January it was warm in the sun. The turtles in the Waccamaw swamp woke up from hibernation to enjoy it.

This spoil bank island north of Charleston is the first spot with naturally growing palm trees. Bill messed with the color to make the water blue. He thinks it looks like the Bahamas. Not!

Well, we are off again, fifth time, can you believe it? Five winter trips to the Bahamas.

On Sunday, January 15 Olivia, our youngest granddaughter, was baptized in Kingsport. Our house was full of family and friends all weekend. Most thought the party was for our fifth grandchild, but really it was for us. What a great send-off we had!

Captain Bill wanted to leave on Monday, but that would not work. It takes me a while to decide exactly what I will wear for the next five months. I mean, it is hard to choose between bathing suits with snow on the ground. We both worked as fast as we could crossing things off ‘The List’, and with one exception, we were ready to leave on Thursday at noon.

Bill’s prescription dive mask was our dilemma. Neither of us could remember which boat he had left it on. Just to make sure the mask wasn’t on our little sailboat, Canary, we decided the smartest route to New Bern should be by way of Watauga Lake. That proved to be a good idea; Bill found his mask where he left it, sitting on the shelf over his bunk on Canary. The distance to New Bern via Watauga Lake and Boone was about 25 miles shorter than the usual Interstate highway through Wytheville, Va. The only problem was that it took eight long hours rather than the usual seven because of the curvy mountain roads.

It was after dark when we arrived in New Bern. We unloaded everything in the car that night, then spent the next three days getting things stowed away and doing our last minute grocery, West Marine, and WalMart shopping. We were ready to go on Monday, January 23. We were ready, but the weather wasn’t. It was foggy; really, really foggy. It was so foggy we could not see the river bank across from the marina. Bill used the opportunity to take some things back to West Marine and to WalMart. It gave him something to do while I waited for the fog to lift.

At noon we did the hardest of our jobs; we untied the dock lines and left. It was something like jumping off a high dive. So much can go right. So much can go wrong.

Just like every other trip, our first night was spent anchored in Adams Creek, three or four hours from our slip. The short first day made us feel that we are on our way, but if we had forgotten something major or something vital broke, we could easily go back. I say that, but it would have to be very serious before Bill would ever backtrack.

We next anchored in Mile Hammock Bay then in Carolina Beach Harbor before spending two nights dockside at the Coquina Yacht Club in Little River, SC. My sister Elaine and brother-in-law JP (who live in nearby Little River) came to Irish Eyes the first evening for drinks, and we went to their house the next evening for a great dinner. My Aunt Mary Ellen and Uncle Ken joined us for dinner. It was good to be with family we had not seen since summer.

The trip from Little River to Georgetown, SC went through two very different parts of the ICW. The first part was in the dreaded “Rock Pile”. The Corps of Engineers blasted an arrow straight canal through old rock leaving jagged limestone ledges just below the water surface at the edges of the channel ready to tear holes in wandering boats. It was a good idea to stay in the middle of the canal while passing by the lovely backsides of the Myrtle Beach restaurants, bars, and sewer plant. We managed just fine. The second part of the trip was down the winding Waccamaw River which makes up for the un-lovely first part. It was beautiful. The leafless but moss draped cypress and gum trees in the swamp were set against the light brown reeds in the abandoned rice fields. In the unusually warm January weather the turtles were out of the mud sunning themselves on every available log.

We made it to Georgetown before sunset and had a pleasant quiet night at anchor. Up to that morning the weather had been pleasantly warm. After a brief attempt to get by in light clothes, I gave in and wore my heavy coat and light long underwear bottoms. Still, it was warmer than previous years.

With another 50 miles behind us, we anchored just north of Charleston, SC in the part of Deweese Creek that is on the west side of the ICW. The Ben Sawyer Bridge does not open during the morning rush hour, and its first morning opening is at 9:00. We got up early and timed our arrival perfectly hitting 9 o’clock on the nose only to learn that the bridge was broken and an electrician had been called. We anchored and waited. Finally, after a couple of false starts and with apologies from the bridge tender, the bridge opened, and we passed through just over an hour late. I could have slept later. Although it was cool in the early morning, the light weight long underwear was off by noon.

We passed through Charleston and wound our way through the creeks and rivers behind Johns, Kiawah, Seabrook, and Wadmalaw Islands anchoring for the night along the Fenwick Island shore in the South Edisto River. Bill started to fret about fuel; worrying if the last 5 gal jug along with the last bit in the tank would get us to Beaufort and a fuel dock. Well, it did with gallons to spare. But, we did not get there fast. Unknown to us the Ladies Island Swing Bridge did not open from 11 to 1. So, once again we anchored and waited for a bridge before passing through, stopping for fuel, and continuing on to Hilton Head where we are anchored tonight.

So far the weather could not be better, at least not for January; no snow, no ice, no frost. Georgia tomorrow, Florida in just a few more days.

2011-06-13T12:59:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 13, 2011

During one night while I was asleep two flying fish landed on our deck. I don’t think they meant to. Bill took this picture holding one’s wing out before tossing them both back into the sea.

Off the Florida coast ten or more small porpoises swam over to visit with us. Here are two of them; one coming up and the other going down.

The Charleston pilot boat accompanied us into Charleston. He goes faster than we do.

Near McClellanville, SC we were invaded by swarms of horse flies. There were no horses nearby so they came after us. We killed hundred in the cockpit. Most blew overboard. These landed dead on the boat where I vacuumed them up. I have not counted them yet.

We are back in the USA.

We left Marsh Harbor on Tuesday May 31. That wasn’t the original plan, but the online weather forecasters (guessers) were talking about a tropical low pressure system off Panama that could possibly turn into a tropical storm. We were itching to leave and the local weather while windy was not too bad. Bill dingied over to the Marsh Harbor Marina with our three fuel jugs, bought 15 gal of diesel, and we were off, headed to Bakers Bay on Guana Cay for a change of scenery. When we got there Bill revised his plans and decided to go north through the Whale Cay Passage and stop at Green Turtle Cay. Going out Loggerhead Channel, around Whale Cay on its ocean side, then back in through Whale Cay Cut can be a bit scary if the wind and tide are opposing one another or if there are swells in the ocean. I don’t know what was going on when we went through, but it wasn’t a smooth passage. We took at least two waves over the side of the boat that wet me and washed one of my small conch shells overboard. Oh well, I still have a few of my shells left.

As I said, the revised plan was to stop at Green Turtle Cay. That didn’t happen. The wind and waves were good, so we continued on to Powell Cay (revision two). Captain Bill got me to sail there by telling me there were nice beaches and trails on the island. There may have been, but we never left the boat. After spending a very pleasant night at anchor, Bill said the weather forecast was good for a crossing to Florida. Chris Parker‘s shortwave radio forecast said there was a two day or maybe a two and a half day weather window for crossing the Gulf Stream. It was time to go. So, off we went headed to Fort Pierce, Florida (revision three). We were sailing downwind which made the ride very pleasant as long as the waves weren’t too big. It was going good for the first day and part of that night as we sailed across the Little Bahamas Bank.

When we left the banks behind and entered the Gulf Stream, it became way too rolly and bouncy to suit me. Bill said “Let’s change course and head north as an experiment to see if the ride will get a little more comfortable.” We did, and the boat settled down. The course change meant we were now headed to St. Augustine and would have to spend another day and night underway (revision four). Oh well, it was more comfortable; not a lot better, but better. As we got near the middle of the Gulf Stream our speed increased to 9 knots. We were really flying. The wind, and more importantly the waves, died down during the night as we moved over to the Florida side of the Gulf Stream.

That night as we were sailing along in the dark, I was on deck alone and Bill was asleep below when something began flapping about in the rear of the cockpit. It scared me, and not just a little. I dove below and woke Bill. He came on deck and picked up the flapping thing. It was a storm petrel; a brown dove-like sea bird with black webbed feet. It seemed confused and could not stand up without falling. I guess it had flown into us in the dark. The second time Bill put the bird on the stern of the boat, it seemed better and flew away.

At noon on Friday June 3, we were at the sea buoy off St Augustine, Florida. It was hot. There were wildfires in Florida and Georgia. We could see the smoke plumes from miles offshore. St Augustine was bathed in smoke. We decided that even though we had been at sea for 48 hours we would not stop in St Augustine but keep going (revision five). Bill called Customs and Immigration to clear us into the US using our Florida Frequent Boater cards. The cards show that we have passed a background check. They should exempt us from having to appear in person before a customs or immigrations officer. At first my Frequent Boater Card number didn’t work. The agent said I would have to appear at the federal offices in Jacksonville. Bummer! But, after Bill’s persistent prodding, my records showed up in the system, and we were cleared into the US without ever touching land.

We motored sailed on until late afternoon when the wind picked up and we shut the engine off. Several times during the day we had dolphins swimming along with us. The dolphins we saw at sea were different from the ones we saw in the Intracoastal Waterway. They were shorter, a fatter, and spotted. They seemed really happy to see our boat. They would race over to see us, jump completely out of the water, and swim in formation very fast alongside the boat crossing from one side of the boat to the other by passing under the boat. They put on quite a show in the crystal clear water.

When the wind blew, we sailed. When the wind died down, we motored. Friday night, Saturday, and Saturday night crept by slowly with each of us catching two hours sleep as the other sailed the boat. We passed Jacksonville, Fernandina Beach, Brunswick, Savannah, and Beaufort, SC as we sailed north toward Charleston. With the autopilot steering the boat, there was little to do except watch for ships and other boats. My Kindle kept me entertained and awake as Bill slept. I could read a book, or I could play some of the word games I had downloaded. When we were within cell phone range, I could check my e-mail. With its nice little light I could do it in the dark. I probably would have been terribly bored without the Kindle. During one of Bill’s nighttime watches, two flying fish landed on deck; one just outside the cockpit. Rather than waking me up, he took lots of pictures then threw the two fish back into the sea.

Early Sunday morning we were off the entrance to Charleston Harbor. We were ready to have a full night’s uninterrupted sleep, so we came in through the jetties, turned north on the ICW, stopped, and waited the longest drooping eyed 45 minutes for the Ben Sawyer bridge to open. By noon we were anchored in Deweese Creek. Captain Bill lifted the ship’s temperance order, and we each had a couple of beers with our lunch. I was instantly asleep. It was good not to be moving. If fact, it was so good that we planned to remain for two nights and savor the sleep. During our trip from Powell Cay we had covered 500 miles in 100 hours. Whew, we deserved a rest.

Another sailboat, Tranquility, was anchored with us in the creek. Around midnight a thunderstorm passed by to the north of us. We got a fireworks show, 30 knot wind gusts, but very little rain. Our anchor held, but unknown to us Tranquility’s anchor dragged. In the morning we discovered she was very much aground; heeled over 45° with her hull and keel high and dry. But by the time Sea Tow arrived, the tide had risen and she was refloated with little effort. We spent the day being lazy. Gary McGraw, who lives on Deweese Island and has sailed with us in the past, came out with a friend for a drink that evening. I am afraid that after being alone for over a week Bill and I nearly talked them to death.

Tuesday morning Gary came by in his boat and waved, and we headed north. The plan was to anchor before we got to Georgetown, SC. There we would have to decide whether to hop outside for a quick trip up the coast or to continue up the ICW stopping in North Myrtle Beach to see some of my family. That day was hot in the ICW, and there wasn’t any wind. We spent the day killing greenhead flies. There were hundreds and hundreds of them. Bill would swat, and I would suck up the carcasses with our Dust Buster. It was a regular fly Auschwitz. In the midst of the mass killing, I baked a loaf of bread. With the current speeding us on, we arrived off Georgetown earlier than we had expected. Since the forecast offshore winds were light and variable and since we find the Waccamaw River so delightful, we abandoned our offshore plans, slowed down, and spent the next two nights on the river and the following night in a marina in Little River.

Our first night anchored on the Waccamaw wasn’t very peaceful. Bill forgot to put a screen in one of the open ports. The bugs found the opening in our defenses, and they found me. Our second night we anchored in a bend of the river behind an island near Bucksport. It was lovely. We could see three osprey nests from the boat and could hear them calling to one another. Several times an osprey would fly by dipping down into the water for a drink. They weren’t fishing, just getting a little water to drink or to cool off. We too took a refreshing fresh water swim. With the sweat washed off and the sun awning and wind scoop up, it was nice and cool. This time Bill got the screens in all the port holes, and it was a really lovely night.

Thursday we motored up the ditch to Little River. We saw my aunt, uncle, and cousins as well as my sister Elaine and her husband JP. It was good to catch up with family.

After refueling at the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club, we were on the way north Friday morning. We motor sailed out of the Little River Inlet headed for Carolina Beach. The outside run from Little River to the Cape Fear River only takes a couple of hours. The plan was to go up the river to Snow’s Cut and then into an anchorage at Carolina Beach. There we would spend the night, move up the ICW to Wrightsville Beach, anchor there for the day, and head out Masonboro Inlet late in the afternoon for an overnight trip to Beaufort, NC. Well, once again Captain Bill changed his mind. We listened to the NOAA offshore forecast. It said Friday night would be the best night of the next three. We never stopped.

We sailed in the ocean until the wind died in the early morning then motored arriving off Beaufort at sunrise Saturday morning. From there we motored through Morehead City’s ship turning basin and up the ICW to Adams Creek where we anchored in Cedar Creek. Our friends Robert and Susan Banks on Impetuous III sailed down from Oriental to spend the evening with us. We dined on the last of the dolphin fish we caught in the Exumas. It was cooked on the grill along with the fresh corn on the cob that the Banks brought. The evening wasn’t as hot as the local radio had led us to believe it would be. We had a good breeze, and in the shade of our sun awning lots of sea stories and boat adventures were told and retold.

Sunday morning Robert ferried us over to Impetuous III for Susan’s great breakfast of ham and bacon and eggs and grits and toast and tomatoes and fruit, and juice. Stuffed, Bill and I raised our anchor and headed up the Neuse River to Northwest Creek Marina. We were safely tied up in our slip by 4pm. The boat’s air conditioner was waiting in the trunk of my car, but the car’s battery was completely dead. Bill got the car running. We installed the air conditioner on the boat and then drove to the Little Italy Restaurant for a celebratory pizza. We were back on board Irish Eyes and sound asleep by 10pm.

Today will be a work day. We have lots of cleaning, fixing, packing, and sorting to accomplish. We should be at home in Kingsport within a week. Our trip was 143 days long. We have no idea how many miles we covered. It was great… and, we are still speaking to one another.

2011-05-29T19:55:00.000-07:00

Sunday, May 29, 2011

I have taken plenty of pictures of sunsets. Bill tells me that sunrises are just as pretty and took this picture looking east across Great Guana Cay to prove it to me. Someday I’ll get up in time to look for myself.

We caught this dolphin fish trolling in the Exuma Sound. Within a half an hour it was in the freezer - ten meals for two people.

Isabella (along with her parents, Julia and Josh) came to George Town and spent a week with us on the boat. She spent most of her time developing her digging-in-the-sand skills.

On the rocks at Spanish Wells we saw two of these yellow-crowned night-herons. It was the middle of the day, but they were night herons just the same.

We are anchored in Marsh Harbor, Abaco, the Bahamas, and we are now moving north and officially headed toward home. Things have calmed down for a few days, and I have time to write.

We saw Haynes and Laura off in Staniel Cay back on April 30. After a day’s rest, we pulled up the anchor and sailed south to White Point on Great Guana Cay where there is a beautiful sand beach and nothing else. Along the way we noticed the genoa sail UV protection strip was coming loose. The sun had rotted the thread that held it in place. Between long walks on the beach, we took the genoa down, Bill sewed the UV strip back on by hand, and we raised the sail again. That took us two days. Life is tough when you are cruising.

A few days later, we motored the 4 miles south to Bay Rush Bay, another beautiful beach without so much as a single footprint in the sand. We walked the length of the beach in the morning, and Bill later crossed the island to the Exuma Sound side of the cay. There he found a Plexiglas bottomed, two person sea kayak washed up and overturned on the ocean side beach. Bill talked about this kayak all night. In the morning, I followed him across the rocky island to see the boat. It really was a nice kayak, but there were 300 yards of the sharpest, most jagged, loose limestone rock that would have to be crossed to get it to our side of island. Julia, Josh, and Isabella were to meet us in Georgetown in a few days, and it would have been perfect for paddling about with our grandchild looking at the fish and coral below. But… We were 60, the boat weighed 80 lb, the rocks were sharp, and a single slip and fall would have ruined everything… If you need a glass bottomed kayak, it is plainly visible atop the grass covered sand dune at 23°59.2’N 076°19.7’W. That is where we put it down. It wasn’t for lack of trying. Maybe its owner will find it.

May 8 brought Mother’s Day, and both kids sent notes. We motored south to Cave Cay and anchored between Cave Cay and Musha Cay. It was a nice spot. Cave Cay has a marina and the beginnings of a resort development, but it looks like the money ran out before the development was finished. Musha Cay is owned by David Copperfield, the magician. The whole island can be rented for $375,000 for a week, maximum of 20 guests. Sounds like a great place for a family Thanksgiving or Christmas holiday, don’t you think? That’s only $16,000 each exclusive of food and transportation.

Monday we motored out of Cave Cay Cut into the Exuma Sound headed to George Town. The wind picked up a little in the morning allowing us to raise the sails and motorsail south. The sea was fairly flat, so we put out a fishing line. We hooked and lost one dolphin fish (mahi-mahi), but landed the second, a 42 inch, 14 pounder. Bill cleaned and filleted the fish making a huge bloody mess in the cockpit. I put 10 packages of fish with two servings each in the freezer. A few hours later, we were anchored off Hamburger Beach near George Town in time for a supper of fresh fish, peas and rice, and the bread I had baked along the way. Suitably stuffed, we joined the other cruisers ashore for a bonfire and a few drinks. Among the cruisers was a couple from Tennessee, Trevor Wilson from Kingsport and Sara Magee from Chattanooga. They had quit their jobs, and still in their twenties, took a year off cruising on her 27 foot Hunter sailboat. We enjoyed their conversation at the bonfire that night and again a few days later over beer and hamburgers at the Sand Bar Grill.

Getting ready for Self family occupied our next several days. We moved Irish Eyes to the town side of the harbor, did our laundry, got propane, fuel, and groceries. While getting fuel at the Shell service station, Bill was approached by a man selling local mangoes. The smallest note Bill had was $10, so he got $10 worth of mangos. That turned out to be twenty four mangoes. Some were soft, red, and sweet; some were yellow and firm and fibrous. All were rapidly ripening, and they were more than we could eat. We shared our ripe mangoes with Trevor and Sara.

Sunday, May 15 Julia, Josh, and Isabella arrived bringing with them the sandals, camera, and book we had ordered over the internet and sent to them. It was like Christmas; gifts and family. We hung out on the boat for the rest of the day chatting and letting Isabella explore our 34 foot universe.

While they were with us, Irish Eyes became our Mobile Beach House. The harbor at George Town, Elizabeth Harbor, is formed by the large Great Exuma Island to the north and the narrow and long Stocking Island to the south. Stocking Island has beaches and beach bars. Exuma has George Town. We moved from one spot in the harbor to another as the mood struck us. Isabella wanted to go to the beach twice a day, so we did. We had lunch at the Chat and Chill on Volleyball Beach and days later at Alvin’s Sand Bar on Hamburger Beach. Isabella dug in the sand, we searched for shells on both the harbor and sea sides of Stocking Island, and everyone swam both at the beach and at the boat. Bill took Josh on a jungle hike and later took both Julia and Josh out to the Lilly Cay reef to see the fish, sea fans, and coral. Julia filled two cream cheese containers with shells to take home. Sadly, the week ended, and we took our guests to George Town, put them in Rudy’s Taxi #9, and sent them to the airport and home. Isabella in her three year old voice declared the ‘hamas to be a good place.

Our original plan was to hang around for a few days of R&R for us and restocking for the boat, but the wind was from the southeast, home was to the northwest, so off we went in the morning. The first day took us up the sound side of the Exumas through Dotham Cut to the Blackpoint Settlement, the next day north on the Exuma Bank to Roberts Cay, and the third day across the banks and through Current Cut to the Current Settlement in north Eleuthera. These were all-day trips – sun up to near sun down; that is if we could have seen the sun. With a trough of low pressure over Cuba the sky was cloudy, the sun was blocked out, and the water was gray. It was like the Exumas with their blue sky and clear water were leaving us before we left them. On that third day without sun we had real problems seeing and avoiding the underwater coral heads north of Beacon Cay that threatened to reach up to grab our boat. That tiring three day marathon was capped off with the shallow approach to Current Cut between the sand bars on one side and a rocky coast on the other ending in the aptly named narrow cut with its fierce current flowing against us. We anchored near a beach north of the cut in preparation for some time off from our mad dash north and for a day a trip over to Spanish Wells to look around and buy a few groceries.

Spanish Wells is on an island at the northern end of Eleuthera and was about five miles from our anchorage. We had never been there before because the harbor is narrow and shallow. We needed a little rest, so we motorsailed over and anchored off the harbor entrance. The dinghy was in the water and ready to go by late morning. Bill and I watched a ferry from Nassau go into the harbor as we were readying the dinghy. The harbor channel is very, very narrow and the ferry used up every bit of the width. Bill steered our little dinghy along in the shallow edge of the channel. He said if another ferry came along we could just step out and run.

We walked around town looking at all the industrious people working on the boats in the two full service yards. We were reintroduced to road traffic by the constant stream of cars, motor scooters, and golf carts that whizzed up and down the streets that lacked sidewalks. Since Spanish Wells is a Methodist community, our lunch at the Generation Gap restaurant was accompanied by iced tea rather than beer. There were banana and mango trees among the houses reminding us that we still had some ripening mangos from George Town aboard our boat.

The wind picked up while we were in town, so we moved into the lee of a small island called Meek’s Patch. It must be a hopping place on the weekends. There were chairs, tables, hammocks, grills, and all kinds of other stuff in the shade of the trees along the beach. But on Wednesday it was all deserted, so with the island to ourselves, we had a nice walk and a refreshing swim before supper. With the wind from the northeast and blowing a little more than we like, our plans were to stay put for a few days and enjoy goofing off.

I woke up at 5:30 in the morning to find Captain Bill already up, dressed, and ready to go. The wind had died down a little and gone to the southeast evaporating my dream of a lazy day. “Let’s head for Abaco”, he said before even the sun had gotten up. Short of munity what could I do but go along? The sailing was pleasant enough, although at 65 miles, most of which was in the open ocean, it was a long day. We came through the Little Harbor Cut and were anchored behind Lynyard Cay in time for supper.

We sailed and motored up to Marsh Harbor on Friday morning. It looks like we will be here for a few days. The weather is not going to be good for heading to Florida this week. That’s okay. I am getting my chance to goof off, and if need be, there are lots of things to do in and around Marsh Harbor. The Abacos are different from the Exumas. In the Abacos there are far more restaurants, shops, and bars and far fewer cruiser organized events. In the Exumas there is more public land to explore and fewer private property signs. It is just more civilized here. We like them both in their own way.

2011-05-02T06:48:00.000-07:00

Monday, May 2, 2011

There were tropic birds soaring overhead the entire time we were at Conception Island. They have the longest tails imaginable and their white wings at times take on the greenish blue color of the water below.

This 5 ft barracuda came out of the Conception Island reef to swim with Bill and me. We swam to the dinghy and got out of the water. He stayed in the water. We went elsewhere.

When we stopped, I stayed in the dinghy and used my glass bottomed bucket while Bill, who was braver, swam alone. We did not see the barracuda again.

This smooth trunkfish became Bill’s best friend posing over and over for pictures until Bill got a good one.

Almost inside the Cambridge Cay mooring field is a small rock island surrounded by coral and fish. This is a queen triggerfish.

This French angelfish would dart away every time Bill got close. Finally he posed for a picture.

Two spot fin butterfly fish chased each other round and round in a tight circle. They are the size of the bluegills at home.

Haynes and Laura, Bill’s brother and sister-in-law, relax on Big Major’s Spot’s Cocktail Beach after a hard afternoon of feeding the nearby pigs. The pigs were not too thrilled with our offerings.

We have been busy since my last writing. We left Georgetown early on Monday, April 11. The wind was light and almost straight ahead of us, so we motorsailed the 37 miles past Long Island’s Cape Santa Maria and onward to Conception Island. The trip took most of the day and was pretty boring. The depth of the water increased to as much as 2400 meters, far beyond the 50 meters that our depth sounder can measure. The water color was a deep dark navy blue. Bill towed a $10 lure behind the boat. We hooked something, but after a tough 20 minute fight, it chewed through the leader and took the lure. I had a feeling it was a large barracuda or shark. I’d rather the fish had the lure than I had the fish.

Conception Island is part of the Bahamas National Trust; no buildings, no roads, and no people; just beautiful sand, colorful coral, soaring tropic birds, and a creek full of sea turtles. We walked all the beaches several times. North of us was a small beach that had tons of shells. East of us was the long Exuma Sound side beach with rocks where the tropic birds were nesting. On the Atlantic Ocean side of the island were some very nice shallow coral heads. One afternoon, we took the dinghy there for a little snorkeling. The coral was fantastic with large elkhorn and brain coral heads soaring up from a white sand bottom all surrounded by colorful fish. Bill was swimming along the bottom twelve feet below and saw a five foot long barracuda emerge from its hole. I was floating on the top of the water and saw the fish at the same time. I decided to retreat to the dinghy. The barracuda followed me! Bill wasn’t far behind me, and we both met in the dinghy. The barracuda can keep its territory. We left and moved to another spot where Bill continued swimming. I stayed in the boat and just used the glass bottomed looky bucket to watch the goings-on below. Big fish with big teeth are not for me.

Later, we were chatting in our cockpit with Ann and Bob from Baloo (a boat from Oriental, NC) when two local fishermen came alongside. They wanted to know if we had any cigarettes that we would trade for fish. When I said no, they asked if I have any catsup or tomato sauce. I traded four small cans of tomato sauce, two cans of potatoes and two cans of corn for a fifteen pound grouper and a huge lobster tail! I don’t know how long the cans lasted them, but the fish and lobster fed us for three days. Bill got the bright idea of leaving a baited line out during the night. Just before he went to sleep, the reel started singing. In his underwear he reeled in a large (30”) horse eyed jack. Our freezer was full of grouper and lobster already. Our chart of which fish are good to eat gave the jack a low food score, so we tossed it back. I was glad to avoid cleaning a fish in the dark.

On our last morning at Conception Island, we took the two mile dinghy trip down to Turtle Creek. The shallow creek twisted and turned through the mangroves. The sun warmed gin clear water was full of sea turtles. We saw at least a hundred swimming around the dinghy. A turtle would first appear to be a rock, and then all of a sudden it would zoom off when we got too close. When we sat quietly drifting, the turtles would forget we were there and surface to breathe, holding their heads up to look at us. We saw a six foot long lemon shark cruising on the sandy bottom only two feet below us, and quickly motored away. On the way out of the creek, the rapidly outgoing tide flushed us over the rocky bar at the creek entrance banging the outboard motor propeller across the sharp rocks. It was pretty scary traveling sideways through the waves in our tiny out-of-control dinghy. Although no damage was done, I don’t want to do that again soon.

Sunday, we sailed from Conception Island to Calabash Bay, Long Island. Along the way we again passed by Cape Santa Maria. A monument at the very edge of the cliff marks the spot where Columbus is said to have lost the Santa Maria. From below it looks like a big storm could wipe the monument over the edge and into the sea.

We had intended to cruise along Long Island for a day or two, but the wind went to the southeast, making that an upwind trip, so the next day we set sail instead for George Town. It was a lovely downwind sail to George Town with the mainsail on one side and the genoa poled out on the other. Two British boats were behind us most of the way finally passing us after we were in the George Town Harbour. One of them, the catamaran Amazing Grace, had an interesting spinnaker with a big smile shaped hole in its middle filled with a parasail. Three dolphins escorted us into Sand Dollar Beach. It was a nice sail; drinks were served all around for the captain and crew.

Our next two days were spent getting groceries, fuel, propane, and water. Food, fuel, and water were easily done. We had one empty propane tank and 7 lb in the other. Bill tried for two days, without success, to get the empty propane tank filled. In Exuma Markets, the largest grocery store in Georgetown, were a freshly arrived shipment of potted Easter lilies and potted tulips. The ladies who work in the market were not impressed with the lilies, better ones grow wild there, but they had only seen tulips in pictures. I had a good time chatting with them about tulips. Bill bought a hand of bananas from a farmer which later, of course, all ripened at once giving us bananas for every meal.

On Thursday, April 21, the weather forecast was for 15 to 20 knot northeast winds and 6 to 8 foot seas. We needed to be back in Staniel Cay on the 25^th to pick up Bill’s brother Haynes and his wife Laura, so off we went in spite of the forecast. Before we got the anchor up, we had a phone call from our daughter Ann. She had given birth to our fourth grandchild (her third), Scarlett Ann Zangri, early that morning. I had lots to ponder as we sailed north. The wind stayed at about 15 knots, but the seas were rolling us around quite a bit for the 46 miles of the trip that we were in the Exuma Sound. We needed to go through Dotham Cut to get back on the more sheltered southwest or banks side of the islands. We had read the chart description of the cut’s extreme current and were trying to time our arrival for slack tide. We were within sight of the cut when a rain storm came up assaulting us with 22 knot winds and flying spray. Motoring around in a circle for a short while gave the rain time to go away and for the wind to die back down. The cut ended up being very easy, and once we were on the banks side the water was smooth as a lake. The anchor was down at Black Point in time for a much needed sundowner.

The next day was Good Friday. We weren’t sure what was planned for the Black Point Easter Festival. We went ashore only to discover that this year’s festivities were being overshadowed by a wedding. A local boy was marrying the daughter of the mailboat captain. While we were waiting for suppertime to roll around, we walked out to the ocean side of the island. The wind and waves of the day before were still there, but they did not look nearly as bad from the top of the 100 ft cliff as from the deck of our boat. We had supper at Lorraine’s Café and entertained ourselves by watching the local girls compare their just done wedding hairdos. Their hair was fancier than any clothing I had on board and really did not match the tee shirts and blue jeans they had on that evening.

Saturday morning Bill got in touch with Isles General Store at Staniel Cay. They had just enough propane to fill our empty tank. We pulled anchor and sailed the short distance to Staniel Cay where Bill dropped off the propane tank. The all age school was having a lunch time meal fund raiser at the public beach, so we went. The local ladies showed up with big pots, each pot full of conch chowder, fried fish, fried chicken, or chicken souse (chicken stew flavored with whole allspice) along with a pile of Johnny bread. I made instant friends with the ladies when I told them I cook in pots just like theirs for our church and sailing club. The food was excellent and plentiful. My $7 serving of souse was enough my lunch and later for supper for both of us. We talked to several boaters and some of the locals. Bill retrieved the full propane tank late in the afternoon.

We spent Sunday getting ready for Bill’s brother Haynes and his wife Laura’s arrival on Monday. The morning weather forecast was for scattered showers and strong winds from the south. Bill and I were up and at the airport waiting when they arrived. It rained a little on us as we were walking back to the dinghy but not really enough to get anything wet. As soon as they got aboard we headed north intending to go to Warderick Wells Cay. Because of the wind we decided to shorten the trip a bit and go instead to Cambridge Cay through the south entrance. That entrance is narrow, shallow, and winding. You have to be able to see the bottom to stay in the deeper water, the charted depth is 1.6m in one place and 1.7m in another (we draw 1.5m) , and there is a rock called (appropriately) Kiss Rock that you have to almost scrape by. It isn’t a hard thing to do when the tide is right and the light is good, but if you don’t… Just as we arrived a cloud appeared, it got dark, and the rain began. This time it really rained for a good hour as we slowly circled outside the entrance. Finally the rain stopped, the sun came out, and we breezed through the entrance and picked up a mooring. After we were safely moored another storm came up with lightning, thunder, and lots of rain. Bill caught twenty gallons of rainwater in our jugs which we used later in the week. Around sunset the clouds disappeared and except for the wind, it was beautiful.

Tuesday, April 26, was spent walking over to the sound side beach and up the hill to take in the view of Bell Rock. The wind was still strong and the surf was crashing against the beach. It was a pretty nice view. After lunch we took the dinghy to Two Bush Cay (as we christened the nearby small rock with two bushes growing on its top). This was a great place to snorkel. The water was clear, the little rock was small enough to easily swim around, and the fish were abundant. The four of us had a wonderful time playing Jacques Cousteau. There was some kind of coral I had never seen before that looked like purple rope. After a quick salt water soap-up and a fresh water rinse, we all went over to a sundowner party on the beach with the other cruisers moored at Cambridge Cay. The people we meet were as always interesting. One couple were farmers from Montana of all places, and we finally meet the crews from the two British boats that had sailed with us from Long Island to George Town several days before.

The next morning Haynes had a tooth that was hurting, so we headed back to Staniel Cay to the local clinic for some antibiotics. While we were waiting for the clinic to open, we lunched at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club which is always fun. Haynes got his amoxicillin, and we went back to Irish Eyes for a little rest. When we thought the tide would be slack, we headed to Thunderball Grotto for a little snorkeling. The current was not slack and the tide was high. I couldn’t get to the almost submerged cave entrance. The current swept me right past it and around the end of the island where the current was not quite as strong. I held onto a rock outcropping waiting for Bill to come out the back side of the cave. He didn’t come out. Instead, he went twice into the cave looking for me. Haynes next came bobbing around the end of the island and joined me holding onto the rock. Laura had stayed with the dinghy hanging onto the outboard motor, smart woman. Bill and Laura got into the dinghy, and came around to pick us up. I wasn’t afraid of drowning; I just wasn’t sure where the current would take me. We made a note in our cruising guide; “go to Thunderball Grotto when the tide is low and the current is slack”. Later back on Irish Eyes, Bill and I discovered the battery door on my underwater camera was open and the camera was flooded with sea water. The camera was dead. No more underwater pictures; it is cell phone photography from here on.

Thursday we left Staniel Cay headed south to Bitter Guana Cay to see the iguanas. That did not work. The wind was from the southeast, the direction we wanted to go and fifteen knots or more. We made an attempt to stick to our plan, but changed our minds after about ten minutes of water washing over the boat. We turned 180°, put the wind and waves behind us, and sailed quietly north to Sampson Cay where we anchored off the Sampson Cay Club. We went ashore for lunch and walked the trails around the island. Afterwards, sitting in the bar for a little refreshment, we ran into the crews of two boats both named ‘Oasis’ which had been in Cambridge Cay with us a couple of days before. We solved the riddle of why the two boats had the same name painted in the same font on their sterns. After a quick swim at our boat, we were ready for a sundowner. Unfortunately, Bill’s ice crop had failed, and we only had enough for two drinks. Haynes saved the day, taking the dinghy back to the bar and getting a cooler full of ice. The ice in our drinks and a pork tenderloin Haynes brought and cooked on the grill made it a perfect evening.

Friday was Haynes and Laura’s last day with us. We made a short motor trip to anchor off Big Major’s Spot and its famous Pig Beach. We went to the feed the pigs. They didn’t like my rotten broccoli any more than I did, and they gave our banana peels a pass. They did let us scratch their ears, and one tasted the moldy bread before the birds carried it off. From there we toured the rocky cave ridden shore until we got to Cocktail Beach. It has a collection of abandoned and partly broken chairs and a plastic table. We were resting in the shade when Dave and Linda from the sailboat Sandpiper came over to the beach for a swim. Bill and I first met them last year in South Beach Miami. They were again there when we were in Miami Beach this year, but we did not see them then.

We were up by 6:30am on Saturday to motor around Big Major’s Spot to Staniel Cay. All four of us dinghied over to the public beach and walked the few blocks to the airport. Haynes and Laura flew Watermakers Air back to Fort Lauderdale. Believe it or not and strange for the Bahamas, the plane arrived and departed on time. Bill and I stopped at Isles General Store for a few groceries and at Emil’s Bakery (actually her kitchen) for fresh coconut bread. We took the boat back to the Pig Beach side of Big Major’s Spot where we are now. We have read, knitted, and piddled about all day. A couple from a boat anchored nearby came over for an afternoon beer and a chat. Sharing sea stories never gets old.

We are going to head south in a few days. Julia, Josh, and Isabella are due for a visit. We have a while before they come, so until then we will go wherever the wind blows us.

2011-04-10T17:08:00.000-07:00

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Bill carved 2011 into our sign atop Boo Boo Hill on Warderick Wells Cay. It is one of hundreds of signs left by cruisers there.

The Pirate’s Lair on the south end of Warderick Wells Cay is a spot ashore where pirates lounged about between raids on ships passing through the cut to the north. The nearby anchorage offered 6 meter depths and concealment behind high hills. The palms and grasses are not native to the Bahamas but rather to the gulf coast. There is a fresh water spring in the foreground – a real oddity on these desert cays.

These sergeant major fish were so numerous as to almost be pests at a reef called the Sea Aquarium.

Nearby were a variety of corals.

Bill saw this trumpetfish there. It is almost a foot long and less than an inch high; more like a pipe than a trumpet.

The Honeymoon Beach at Cambridge Cay is framed at each end by rocks. The surf that looks so romantic on the beach breaks on the incredibly sharp ironstone with violence. It is not a place you would want to be caught swimming.

This is my view out of the galley porthole looking at Sand Dollar Beach on Stocking Island across the harbor from George Town. I was kneading bread and got some of the dough on the camera.

Yes, the beach sand is pink. No, Bill is not mad.

I live in some fear of this tree. I know what poison ivy does to me, and I don’t want to learn what effect this tree has. (Most of them are not labeled, but I am good at picking them out.)

When last I wrote, we were tied to a mooring ball in the Warderick Wells Cay north mooring field where the Exuma Park headquarters are located. We spent a lovely Sunday, March 27 there enjoying the park. Bill hiked to Boo Boo Hill to see if the sign we left last year was still on the pile. (Cruiser’s leave a sign with the boat name, crew’s names, and the date in a big pile which is supposed to give the vessel and crew fair winds.) Bill found our sign, brought it back to the boat, and carved another year (MMXI) on it. We both walked back to Boo Boo Hill and replaced the sign on the pile. It is interesting to see what other cruisers have used to make their signs. Some are lettered with fancy paint, others embellished with colorful shells, still others are elaborately carved. There are lots of artsy cruisers. Ours is rather ordinary. The only rule is the materials have to be natural; no plastic debris allowed.

Monday morning we decided to move to Hog Cay at the south end of Warderick Wells Cay where there are five moorings. Bill was on deck getting the dinghy ready for a trip to the park office to pay for a mooring. I was still below. I heard a huge gasp and flew up on deck thinking Bill had fallen in the water. But thankfully no, it was just a huge sea turtle coming up for air. It was the third turtle and largest we saw there. The other two had greeted us as we were coming into the Warderick Wells harbor. Bill paid for one night’s mooring at Hog Cay. With little wind, we motored out the cut to the ocean side of the cay and down to the Hog Cay or south mooring field where after a few misses I finally hooked the mooring line and got it aboard.

Hog Cay is beautiful. The beach is called Pirate’s Lair supposedly because pirates used to hide their ships in the tight little anchorage. They would go ashore to party near a fresh water spring before sailing out to pounce on ships entering or leaving the cut to the north. It makes a good story. We walked around the beach and the snorkeled the shallow reef. There were lots of fish and really neat looking coral. We took a dinghy tour of the shoreline around the anchorage. It was another pleasant day in paradise.

Tuesday, we made a motor trip to Cambridge Cay, about 5 miles to the south. Cambridge Cay is the south-most cay in Exuma Park. There a mooring field host collects the fees and keeps boats from anchoring on the nearby coral or anchoring too close to the moored boats. Connie and Roger onboard Down Time had been the host since January. They really liked Cambridge Cay. They came over and had a beer with us and gave us a map of the nearby snorkeling sites. That afternoon we went to a place called the Sea Aquarium and to another spot with a wrecked airplane. The sergeant major fish at the Sea Aquarium were very tame swimming straight into Bill’s face. I think they had been fed. Bill saw a trumpetfish; his first. A trumpetfish is a long skinny fish with a long snout. Bill snorkeled. I used the glass bottomed bucket because we had forgotten to bring the dinghy boarding ladder. With the cut on my chest, I didn’t think I could get myself back in the dinghy without a ladder.

A cold front was forecasted to pass over us giving us wind from the west. Most of the anchorages here are on the west sides of the cays, and a west wind makes them very uncomfortable with lots of waves. Cambridge Cay is protected from the west, so we stayed for another three days. One afternoon we took the path across the cay to the lovely Honeymoon Beach. There I found a very nice cowrie shell. We also picked up a couple of live conch, but because it is in the park, we threw them all back. The next afternoon we walked over to the Exuma Sound Beach near Bell Rock. We walked to a camp in the shade of casuarinas with hammocks, a table, chairs, and lots of decorations all fashioned from trash washed up on the beach. We were joined by two other boating couples. We shared a beer with them and told lots of stories. One couple was from New York and the other from Cape Cod. It was an odd mix of accents.

With settled weather returning, most of the boats at Cambridge Cay would be leaving; we would go south while most of the others (the unlucky ones) would be going north to the states or Canada. The new mooring field hosts, Chris and Kim aboard a Cabo Rico 40, Synergy, arranged a beach happy hour. Everybody dinghed over to a small sand island so we could see the sunset. I made an onion tart. It was well received; every bit was quickly eaten. I spent a long time talking to a Brazilian couple who live in South Beach when they are not on their boat. From their description they live in one of the towers in one of the last blog’s photos. Bill and I both enjoyed the party, at least until someone noticed that the rising tide had picked up our dinghy floated it away. He was kind enough to give Bill a ride out to retrieve it.

Saturday morning, April 2, we headed out into Exuma Sound bound for Staniel Cay and the nearby Big Major’s Spot. We started off with the wind on our beam, but the wind soon moved forward heeling the boat and driving some spray aboard. We sailed most of the way, but we took our sails down before entering the Big Rock Cut with its twists and turns. The cut was pretty turbulent with the wind blowing against the outgoing tide, but it was not unmanageable. We anchored at Big Major’s Spot in time for a noon time anchor down beer. That afternoon and the next day we watched people go to the beach and to feed the pigs. We didn’t bother to do that spending our time catching up on the e-mail, reading, and knitting.

We needed clean clothes, food, fuel, and water. That meant Georgetown where there is a laundry, a real grocery store, a Shell service station, and free water. The trip would take three days.

Monday we motored out onto the banks side of the Exumas and headed south. The 20 knot wind and 3 foot waves were both on our nose making it a bumpy and wet, but short, five mile ride to Black Point. We motored the whole way. We anchored, but we didn’t launch the dinghy because of the strong wind. I baked some flat bread, and Bill wiped the salt off the boat.

Tuesday we again motored into the wind, but the wind wasn’t nearly as strong as before. The 10 mile trip to Little Farmer’s Cay was much smoother. We picked up a mooring ball off the Big Harbor. The moorings at Little Farmer’s are owned by either Little Farmer’s Cay Yacht Club, or Little Jeff, or the Ocean Cabin. We did not know which we had. Bill and I inflated the dinghy, and he went into town to find out who to pay. After some consultation with the locals, Bill determined that our mooring ball belonged to Ocean Cabin. He walked over to Ocean Cabin and spent about an hour talking to the proprietor, Terry Bain. Terry is quite a character. A one man Chamber of Commerce, a ceaseless promoter of Little Farmer’s Cay (pop. 53) , a world traveler, and a self proclaimed philosopher; Terry rules the top of his hill. Ocean Cabin itself is a restaurant where Bill made dinner reservations for us. We were the only guests that night, but no matter, Terry’s conversation provided entertainment while I had fish and Bill had conch. The food was great as was Terry’s specialty drink, the OCS or Ocean Cabin Special. It was the color of the aqua water outside beyond the palm trees. Best of all it contained ice, lots of ice.

We were up early on Wednesday April 6. It was about 35 miles from Little Farmer’s Cay to Georgetown. We deflated the dinghy and were underway by 9am. The wind was light so we started motoring but soon added the mainsail and then the genoa, but we kept the motor ticking over to keep up 5 knots so we could arrive at Conch Cay Cut in Georgetown while the light was still good enough to see the submerged reefs at the harbor entrance. We navigated the cut without a problem and anchored off Sand Dollar Beach in time for a sundowner.

After moving for three days in a row, we were looking forward to a little down time. Thursday noon, right as my loaf of bread finished rising, a boat from New Bern, Sea Monkey, came into Sand Dollar and anchored in front of us. They had left Northwest Creek Marina in January five or six days before we did. Mike and Bree came over for a beer. Unfortunately, our fridge was a little low on the beer, and a second round of cold beer was not to be had. Once the bread was done, we dinghied over to the Chat and Chill Beach Bar, met Mike and Bree again, sat on pastel colored Adirondack chairs at the water’s edge, had a few more beers, and ate some conch salad as the tide rose and slowly wet us. A three foot sting ray kept swimming across our feet in case we dropped anything edible. We got back to Irish Eyes just as the sun was setting. It was tough doing nothing.

Friday was restock day. We moved Irish Eyes across the harbor to be closer to town. Bill ferried 90 gallons of water and 25 gallons of fuel to the boat while I did the laundry and shopped for groceries. It had been so long since I did laundry, there was a pair of socks to be washed! I could hardly remember socks. Once our chores were completed, we went back across the harbor to re-anchor off Sand Dollar Beach. The anchor was down in time for a sundowner followed by hamburgers on the grill. We were pooped.

On Saturday we made up for all of Friday’s work by beach walking and swimming. I found a sand dollar and a few small shells. While we were walking on the sound side beach, we could see two large dark blue angel fish swimming in the surf on the shallow reef. They were really neat to watch in the crystal clear water as the breaking waves magnified them to far more than life size then shrunk them to mere dots. We returned to the boat, swam, scrubbed ourselves off with Joy detergent, then using the extra fresh water took a shower in the cockpit. Clean clothes, clean sheets, and clean us.

Today, Bill has puttered about fixing things while I have knitted. When the sun is a little lower we will take a walk and bring the dinghy on board. If the wind cooperates, we are planning on heading for Conception Island tomorrow.

2011-03-27T08:32:00.000-07:00

March 27, 2011

On one of our last days in Miami Beach we went to South Point Park and walked along the paved paths gazing in awe at how much money could be poured into one spot.

This is dawn over the Gulf Stream. Most of the time we had several ships in sight, but there are none in this photograph. The closest we came to any ship was two or three miles.

Thirty miles from land, this little fellow, a bananaquit, landed on our lifelines for a rest on his way to wherever he was going. The breeze has ruffled his feathers a little. While he gave us plenty of time to take his picture, he did not spend any time primping for the camera so he looks a little unkept.

At Normans Cay we were greeted by roaring RIBS as we found ourselves at the finish line of a 30 mile race.

Bill doing what he does best - relaxing in the cockpit shade drinking a beer.

The interior of Shroud Cay is filled with mangrove lined shallow creeks. They wind around and around. Two pass completely through the island to beaches on the Atlantic side of the island.

There are areas inside Shroud Cay that the mangroves have not colonized. At low tide they are desert-like expanses of dry sand.

This is Irish Eyes anchored at Shroud Cay. The boat leaving had been anchored nearby the night before.

We crossed Hawksbill Cay to walk on the beaches there. But, when we arrived we discovered that our flip flops were not really suitable for climbing down the cliffs to the beach. We just walked along the cliff tops and took in the views.

Hello from the beautiful, warm, and sunny Bahamas.

It has been a while since I updated this blog. When I last wrote we were preparing to leave Miami for the Bahamas. While we waited for a cold front to pass over Florida and the sailing weather to improve, I shopped for food and did the laundry. I got a haircut which ended up being very short proving that I was not good at giving instructions to Latinos. At least it will last a long time. We took a day trip to the Aventura Mall, supposedly the 4th largest in the world. It was a two dollar, hour long bus ride from South Beach. The bus drove along Collins Avenue, A1A, right along the beach. We saw all the ritzy hotels and condo towers. The mall was big and expensive. If you wanted a pair of fancy tennis shoes or a piece of trendy jewelry or clothing, Aventura Mall was the place to go. We had lunch there. Bill bought three t-shirts at JC Penny’s, certainly not one of the fancier stores, and I bought a small wooden spoon at Sur La Table. We had an enjoyable and economical day. On the bus ride back, we went by the Fontainebleau Hotel where President Obama was staying the night. There were lots of barricades and police cars, but they just waved the bus through.

Planning on a Monday (March 7) Gulf Stream departure, Saturday became the marathon grocery shopping day. Since we couldn’t carry all the groceries at once, I bought the non-perishables on our first trip to Publix. We got all that put away and decided to run the engine to cool the refrigerator down before I went back for the perishables and frozen food. Bill noticed that the red run light on the fridge was not lit. I flipped the switch on and off, but nothing happened. Bill looked into the engine compartment and discovered the suction line had broken in two at the compressor and all the Freon had escaped. The engine drive refrigeration system was dead. Without refrigeration our trip would be a bad camping experience with all canned food and warm beer. Not good. While we do have backup 125v refrigeration, we would have to stop in a marina every night to get the electricity to use it. We definitely couldn’t spend every night in a marina! We go to places where there aren’t any. Bill was very upset. He could have fixed the system himself, but his vacuum pump and gauges were in the trunk of my car in New Bern. Fortunately, we had talked to a fellow from Awesome Marine Services at the Miami Boat Show and had kept his business card. Monday Bill called Orlando Barreto, and made arrangements to meet him in the Publix parking lot to give him the broken hose to duplicate. Then things got worse. When Bill unscrewed the broken end of the hose from the compressor, he broke the nozzle off the compressor. Bill took Orlando both the hose and the compressor. On Thursday the parts were ready, and we went to Cramden Park Marina on Key Biscayne so Orlando could work on the system. By nightfall the repairs were complete and the refrigeration was working again.

On Friday morning we decided to go back to our South Beach anchorage to buy the last of the groceries and once again catch up on the laundry. It would be more convenient than doing the chores at Key Biscayne although we would have to return to Key Biscayne to leave for Bimini. The weather forecast was good for either a Monday or Tuesday crossing. We shopped and laundered on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday afternoon we motored and sailed to the anchorage outside Key Biscayne’s No Name Harbor to be ready to leave before dawn on Monday.

The alarm woke us up at 3am on March 14th. Bill and I ate a quick breakfast and were underway in the moonless dark by 4:15. The channel to the ocean was not very long, but it has two shallow spots, five or six navigation marks, and lots of worrisome things that crept out of the dark and into my imagination. The waves were a little larger than I would have liked, but they settled down as we went along. This wasn’t our smoothest crossing, but it was our slowest. It was 4pm before we were tied up at Weech’s Bimini Dock. Bill went to customs and immigration and cleared us in. I rested.

I needed to call Julia and Ann to tell them that we had arrived safe and sound. In spite of having been assured by T-Mobile in Florida that I had international roaming, my phone did not receive any service. I borrowed an AT&T phone from another boater and called Julia. Truly frustrated, I went to the liquor and bought eleven bottles of rum. The stuff is very cheap in the Bahamas. After supper we were able to get a WiFi signal. I logged onto T-Mobile’s site and waited 45 minutes for a “live chat” with a customer service representative. I explained the problem. The service person said to switch the phone off, then, after he made a change in their system, he said to switch the phone back on. Presto, change-o the phone worked! I will never understand things like that! While I was waiting to chat, the lobster salesman came by and greeted us warmly. He remembered us from last year. We bought 12 lobster tails for $40. I think we bought the last of his day’s catch. No matter, tastes good. Into the freezer they went.

After a lovely hot shower (my first ashore with unlimited water in five weeks), we set out for the Berry Islands. In years past we have sailed 25 or 30 hours without stopping to reach Nassau. This year the wind was light and the waves were small, so rather than sail overnight we anchored at sundown. We had seen others do it. We just went a mile or so south of the usual route from North Rock to the NW Channel Light to get out of the way. We anchored in a shallow spot called Mackie Shoal with nothing in sight but sea and sky. Although the waves were small, they were large enough to make the boat uncomfortable. I first went to sleep, but later I woke up to lots of boat motion. I decided a Dramamine tablet would help with boat motion anytime, so I got up and took one. It was also a good sleeping pill. I slept like a baby the rest of the night.

Wednesday March 16 dawned bright and calm. We had a Bananaquit, a little yellow and black bird, perching on our life lines. This was truly amazing as the nearest land was Bimini, behind us and 30 miles away! The bird flew away and came back several times. When it finally left for good, I did not see where it was headed. I hope it knew where it was going. This little bird was about the size of a wren. I will never understand how little birds can fly as far as they do.

The fridge broke again. The mount that held the compressor on the engine cracked in two, the compressor fell down a little, and the vee belt went flying off. Bill tried fastening it back with three hose clamps. That lasted about half an hour before they broke. He tried wiring it back with bailing wire. He could not get it tight enough. Finally, he clamped the broken pieces back together with a pair of Vice Grip pliers. That did the trick. It was not perfect, but it worked.

We were headed for Frazer’s Hog Cay, but we were late getting away and our progress was so slow. By mid-afternoon, we knew we would not arrive by dark. We again anchored out of sight of land, this time north of Northwest Shoal. The wind was so calm it was like anchoring in a pond – a pond that reached to the horizon in every direction. Early in the morning we had several boats pass close enough to rock us with their wakes. Once we were underway we saw lots of sport fishing boats taking advantage of the calm seas at a spot where the water depth goes from 6,000 ft to 6 ft in a couple of miles. I hope they caught lots of fish.

We went to the Berry Islands Club and picked up a mooring. Bill took the dinghy to their dock to pay for our night’s stay and get diesel in our fuel jugs to replace what we had burned since Florida. We left early the next morning as the wind and current had us fighting with the mooring ball. Our plan was to head for Rose Island which is just east of New Providence Island (Nassau). The course was an uncomfortable point of sail, hard on the wind with too much heeling for me. The boat went so far over at times that Bill’s new stern mounted bronze bell would ring. It made a pretty good “we are heeling too far” alarm. We changed course and headed for New Providence Island’s Southwest Bay. That ended up being a lovely sail the entire way. We anchored off Tiger Wood’s newly built Albany Resort. From what we could see it looked expensive. A 100+ foot sailboat left the marina at sunset and came out to anchor with us. We have since listened to two mega power yacht captains talk on the radio about Albany Resort. They said it was too expensive and in the middle of nowhere. I don’t think we will make a slip reservation anytime soon. The resort uses about 20% of the island’s fresh water supply just to keep its golf courses green.

The weather forecast for Sunday and Monday said the wind was going to be very strong from the Northeast. We decided on Saturday morning to head for Highbourne Cay which would offer some protection from the wind. The wind was nice, and the sail across the banks was pleasant. There is something about sailing that really makes me tired. Maybe it is just keeping upright on a moving boat. After our 5 days of travel we were pooped. It was nice to drop the anchor and know we didn’t have to move the next day. Sunday we read, knitted, and lazed around. The wind did pick up blowing steadily at 20-25 knots. Monday the wind was still howling. Bill had a new toy – an anchor riding sail. He spent lots of time adjusting his sail. It did help keep the boat from weaving back and forth around its anchor. I baked bread. Since we were confined to the boat, we watched a movie.

The wind died down during the night. We pulled up our anchor and headed for Norman’s Cay on Tuesday. That ‘long’ trip took us about 2 hours. As we entered the anchorage, we noticed a center cockpit motor boat anchored just off the beach. The people on board had lots of fancy cameras and the boat had several flags flying. There was a group of people on the beach who seemed to be talking to the people in the boat. The folks on the beach had fancy cameras too. Bill spotted a little remote control helicopter with a camera flying above the beach. It looked like something from outer space. Our VHF radio picked up the conversation between the beach and the anchored boat. That didn’t help us figure out what was going on because the conversation was in Dutch. All of a sudden a 25 foot RIB boat came roaring into the anchorage followed closely by five more. Someone on the motor boat waved a flag as if this was the end of a race. Well it was. The RIBS had raced the thirty miles from Nassau to Norman’s Cay. The whole group was called Rib Rally. The boats had been shipped over from Holland and the crews were folks paying to play. I managed to get online briefly (ribrally.com) with my Kindle, but I never did find out how much a vacation like that costs. Cruisers from two other anchored boats came over to see the action, and we later ate dinner with them in the Normans Cay Beach Club.

The next day we had another ‘long’ sail, about an hour this time, to Shroud Cay. We anchored near the south creek so we could dinghy up the creek and through the island to the sound-side beach. Our dinghy ride ended up being a dinghy tow. The water was very shallow; to shallow for the outboard. Bill walked along in the water pulling me for a while, and then I got out and walked too. We did make it to the beautiful beach. Bill found an old piece of plastic pipe washed up on the beach which helped him pole the dinghy back to Irish Eyes. He wouldn’t make it in Venice, he can’t sing… and he is not too good at poling a boat either.

We spent another day anchored at Shroud Cay and took the dinghy into a second creek to explore the two beaches that were on the creek’s banks. Among the plastic trash on the beaches Bill found two deflated Happy Birthday balloons that probably blew over from Florida and a restaurant-sized sweet and sour sauce bottle from Lancashire in England. It is sad to see the huge amounts of plastic garbage and fishing gear that washes up on the beaches here.

The wind although light was from the southwest. With no land but Cuba in that direction, our boat pitched up and down with each wave making life aboard a little uncomfortable. We made our third ‘long’ trip, this time to Hawksbill Cay, hoping for a little smoother water. Rather than anchoring we grabbed a mooring ball provided by the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. We did not find smoother water, but we did spend two days walking the beach on our side of the island and hiking across the beach to the Exuma Sound side and taking in the gorgeous views from the tops of the cliffs there.

Yesterday, we first motored then sailed to Warderick Wells Cay where we are now. We bought 24 hours of internet access from the park, but I exceeded the 100 Mbytes limit in an hour of looking at pictures of the grandchildren. We went to a party on the nearby beach and met some of the other people here. It was interesting. They ranged from the crew and guests on the 97 foot long “Hooter Patrol” to a couple touring the islands in a folding kayak and from the two Bahamas Defense Forces soldiers stationed here to a newly married couple on a yearlong honeymoon – six months of backpacking in South America and six months sailing.

Today I paid for another day of internet access. Maybe I’ll use it up shopping…

2011-03-03T09:16:00.000-08:00

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Anchored in Lake Boca Raton we were treated to a rainbow which brightened our spirits after a frustrating day of motoring down from West Palm Beach and dealing with the drawbridges and other boats.

Fidelity retirement advertisements always have gaily painted Adirondack chairs in their pictures. This house along the ICW south of Boca Raton has the necessary chairs. Also, notice the concrete walls. Like the palatial houses, they are continuous on both sides for miles and miles. Boat wakes reverberate back and forth in the enclosed concrete canyon making it a very rough place to be.

Too big for one photo, Navigator of the Seas is one of the four largest cruise ships in the world. It was docked at Port Everglades.

This drawbridge stayed stuck in this position for two hours or more. We just anchored and waited.

The walls in Mango’s Tropical Café in Miami Beach were colorful and matched the atmosphere of the place.

From our boat we have nice view of the Miami skyline to our west. One day the Goodyear blimp entertained us as it flew over the city.

Espanola Way in South Beach came alive at night. We ate at a sidewalk café there.

The house and gardens at Vizcaya were impressive to say the least. The house was built in the early 1900s and now belongs to Miami-Dade County.

Hello from warm and sunny South Beach, Miami Beach, Florida. We have been anchored here for ten days or so soaking up the warmth, enjoying the area, and attending to a medical issue of mine. More on that as we go along.

The trip on the ICW between Palm Beach and Miami included 31 bridges, 27 of which were drawbridges that had to open for us. There was a small craft advisory for wind and waves in the Atlantic so rather than sail outside and avoid the bridges we opted to motor down the waterway. It was a long two day trip spent waiting for bridges to open, jockeying with other boats at the bridges, and dealing with faster boats. More than once a faster boat would first get in front of us and then slow down preventing us from going the necessary speed to make it to the next bridge’s opening. And then, when the faster boat knew how fast he needed to go to make the opening, he would speed up and pull ahead leaving us running full speed but unable to get to the bridge in time. We would arrive late and have to wait a half hour for the next scheduled bridge opening. It got old fast. The trip took us two days. We spent the night anchored in Lake Boca Raton and left early the next morning mistakenly hoping to beat some of the boat traffic and shorten the trip. It did not work out that way. The faster boats were back in force. Their wakes bounced back and forth between the concrete sides of the canal. At times it was worse than the ocean. To add insult to injury, one drawbridge broke! It was stuck part way open with no electricity. There was nothing for us to do but toss out an anchor and wait. The bridge tender called in reinforcements from the maintenance department. Those guys looked at this and that, tried to start an emergency generator, then called for more help. A fellow wearing a white shirt arrived. All the other workers gathered around him and whatever he did or said got the generator going again and the bridge open. At another bridge, the gates holding the cars back were down, the lights were flashing, and the bells were dinging when some idiot driver went around the gates and slowly drove across the bridge just before the bridge tender raised the leaves! We were amazed. The bridge tender was amazed. Again, we had to wait. We finally made it to Miami Beach and anchored. Whew! What a trip. A beautiful full moon was rising as we grilled our dinner. That made up for hassles of the previous two days. Maybe, just maybe, it was the moon that brought out the crazies.

In Miami Beach we became total slugs. We lazed about on the boat all day. We did launch the dinghy, but we didn’t go anywhere. Saturday, we packed all our winter clothes and bedding into two large duffle bags. We carried the bags to the UPS store and sent them to the Julia. It was good to see the down jackets, socks, and comforter go somewhere else. It gave us room on the boat to move around until Bill buys beer and fills up all the space again. We filed for a six month extension for our income tax then went over to the Lincoln Road pedestrian mall for a beer and pizza lunch. We walked around in the Art Deco District, took a little stroll on the beach, and bought a few groceries before heading back to Irish Eyes.

The Miami International Boat Show was going on that first weekend. No excuses Bill says. We are on a boat. We have to go. We spent all day Sunday looking at sailboats, boat stuff, motors, dinghies, big metal things, little metal things, big plastic things, and little plastic things. A day of that and I was ready to drop. We managed to buy nothing but lunch. Can you believe Bill didn’t buy a thing? It’s a miracle! We went aboard a 48’ catamaran that had four sleeping compartments; each with its own head and separate shower. Four separate enclosed showers; I was awestruck.

At Christmas time I developed a red spot on my chest. Whatever my reasoning, I chose to ignore it. As time went on, the spot grew into an ugly growth. Bill urged me to have it looked at by a doctor. Monday morning I called and got an appointment for that afternoon with a dermatologist at Mount Sinai Hospital. Rather than sit around on the boat waiting, we took the dinghy into town. We wandered down the Espanola Way. It was a quaint old Spanish area with small hotels, restaurants and shops. A mile or so later we were in the Art Deco District and it was lunch time. We stopped to eat at Mango’s Tropical Café with its overly made up and suggestively dressed waitresses. We ate at an outside table where we could watch both the sidewalk outside the dance stages inside. It was a perfect spot for people watching. Our sandwiches and beers weren’t bad either. We took a cab to the doctor’s office where he removed the growth and sent samples off to be analyzed. The doctor left the wound open and said it could be closed in a few days when the pathology report came back. We took a bus back to the boat, and other than a red blood stain on my yellow shirt that looked like I had been shot in the chest, everything went well.

I spent the next three days recovering, knitting, and waiting to hear from the pathology. Bill worked on a shower system for our head. He made a trip to the hardware store and came back with a shower curtain, a spring loaded rod, and little thing to hold the telephone shower head on the wall. It works just great and keeps the water mess in the head to a minimum. Only half of the compartment now gets wet. (I keep thinking about that boat with four separate showers.) Bill sanded and varnished the starboard side of the boat interior. He got three coats of varnish on the teak woodwork and it looks much better.

The pathology report came back on Friday saying all was well. The dermatologist suggested I see a plastic surgeon to have the wound closed. After spending most of Friday on the phone, we finally found a surgeon who had Saturday hours and was in our insurance network. At that point I was getting a little stir crazy and was ready for some excitement; anything to get off the boat and off the telephone. We took the dinghy into town and walked around sticking our noses into the shops but buying nothing. It isn’t that the stores didn’t have anything I liked; if I bought something, there would be no place to put it. The boat is already full. We had a delicious Mexican dinner at a sidewalk café on Espanola Way. We put navigation lights on the dinghy and zipped back in the dark to our cozy floating home.

We trooped to the plastic surgeon’s office at Mercy Hospital early Saturday, but he decided that rather than doing the procedure that day in his office he would do it Monday in the hospital – more waiting. We left and started walking north toward downtown Miami. Along the way we found Vizcaya, an Italian style villa built by James Deering, vice president of International Harvester. The house and gardens are now owned by the City of Miami and are open to the public. The house is huge with great views of both Biscayne Bay and the gardens to its south. Bill and I spent several hours wandering through the house and gardens. We continued our walk, passing through a section the signs called “Historic South Miami Avenue”. The houses were pretty and the yards colorful. It was hard to believe it was February with all the flowers. We stopped at a restaurant for a sandwich then caught a ride on the free elevated bus-on-rails thing to the Omni Center. There we caught a bus back to South Miami Beach and our boat.

Sunday was a chore day. I did laundry while Bill transported 50 gallons of water in plastic jugs from the nearby park to the boat. We were back on board Irish Eyes in the afternoon and were “entertained” by the jet skis and motor boats that zoomed through the anchored boats while the 2000 hp 100 mph speed boats flew by at a distance. Fortunately, they all go home at dark to watch TV and then go back to work on Monday leaving us in peace.

For us Monday was surgery day. We took a taxi to the outpatient surgery center at the University of Miami Hospital (our third hospital in one week), and I had the week old wound closed. The medical care was first rate and everyone we met was more than kind. Leaving the hospital, my wheelchair pusher turned to Bill and told him to bring the car around. Bill said it would be a long walk to get the car. We convinced him I could walk across the street to the train station, and although he objected, he let us go. A trip on the train, the bus-on-rails thing, a bus, and the dinghy brought us back to the boat. My brain was a still little befuddled from the anesthesia, so Bill brought back a pizza from town for supper while I just sat around. What a saga!

Tuesday, we began shopping for food in preparation for the Bahamas. It rained during the night, but it is sunny and warm again. It is too windy and the ocean waves are too big for us to cross the Gulf Stream right now, but that should fix itself in a few days. For now we will do the shopping and listen to the weather forecast. Hopefully, we will be able to leave soon.

2011-02-15T18:21:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

We have seen lots and lots of birds. Bald eagles, great blue herons, tricolored herons, oyster catchers, snowy egrets, great egrets, white ibises, roseate spoonbills, brown pelicans, white pelicans, hooded mergansers, common mergansers, red breasted mergansers, buffleheads, black skimmers, and more kinds of gulls, terns, sand pipers, and plovers than I can name. I wish I had a telephoto lens to make them look as good in a photograph as they do in my binoculars.

The lights of North Palm Beach don’t look a thing like the salt marshes of Georgia.

Oh Happy Day. We are in Palm Beach, and it is warm. We are so lazy we are just sitting here on the boat doing nothing constructive, nothing at all.

We left our anchorage north of St. Augustine in cold, gray, dreary weather. We had only gotten started when Bill said “$#!T, I forgot to check the fuel tank this morning.” He dove below, raised the floorboards, looked at the gauge on the tank, and said, “We are down to less than ¼ tank.” It is not a good thing to run a diesel engine out of fuel. It can take hours to get it running again. Fortunately, we carry 3 five gallon jugs on deck. We turned off the engine in a wide spot and drifted along as Bill quickly (but not quickly enough for me) poured the three jugs’ contents into our tank. I made a mental note to ask every morning how much fuel we have left.

We motored on for the rest of the day which grew warmer and brighter. We anchored in Daytona Beach which for some reason every year is like a line drawn on the temperature map. It was sunny and warm as we were anchoring. The next morning we only needed our light jackets; not our thick puffy coats. Wooly caps could stay in the drawers. Yippee!

The layers continued to slowly come off as we went south. The Titusville drawbridge at the NASA Causeway has restricted opening times so folks can come and go to their jobs at Cape Canaveral. We arrived at the evening rush hour and anchored north of the bridge which would not open for an hour and a half. It was really warming up. We left our main hatch open till after supper.

The next morning it was warm but cloudy. We left after the morning rush hour and motored on south. The temperature suddenly fell, rain started coming down in buckets, and the wind speed climbed to 25 kts. I left Bill in the cockpit and went below for a few hours until it all blew over. Because of the bad weather, we made it a short day and anchored early in Melbourne.

In years past we had just gone by Vero Beach not stopping at all. Lots of other cruisers told us we needed to stop and spend a few days. Besides the weekend was coming up, and the small boat traffic on the ICW can be really annoying for slow boats like ours. So, we decided to spend a few days in Vero Beach and picked up a mooring at the city marina.

We had a great time in Vero Beach. In spite of one guidebook’s admonishment that the ocean beach was a long walk but short taxi ride, we several times made the pleasant 20 minute stroll to the Atlantic beach side of Vero. The beach strip is not full of Wings beachwear shops and firecracker stands but rather high end fancy boutiques and jewelers. The neighborhood between the marina and the ocean is not at all what I think of as Florida. The houses were mostly small and ranch style; about 50 years old. The yards were full of huge live oak trees and small palms. It was all very quiet and well kept. I liked it.

Vero Beach has a free public bus system which takes you to all the shopping areas. We caught the bus right at the marina dinghy dock and went to the grocery store (and of course Bill’s favorite place -- West Marine). On our first walking trip to the beach, Bill and I found an Ace Hardware store which we visited several times. On the last visit the clerk gave Bill a piece of chocolate candy that was an entry into the grand prize drawing later that evening during the street fair on the beach front. First, we stopped off at a local restaurant for a beer and supper. Then suitably stuffed, we went to check out the street fair and win what would certainly be our prize. It was windy and cool outside in the crowd, so after a while we dropped into a beachfront bar for a drink before the prize drawing. Well, one drink turned into two and before you know it we had missed the drawing, but we did catch the band’s last three numbers before everyone packed up and went home.

Sunday, I did laundry and Bill piddled about on the boat repairing wiring or something like that. With all that out of the way, we walked to the Vero Beach Museum of Art to view a traveling exhibit, “American Masterworks: 150 Years of Painting from the Butler Institute of American Art”. Staying in an artsy mood we walked back to the beach and toured the local artists’ less highbrow ‘Art in the Park’ display and sale. We bought postcards for the grandchildren, but this being Vero Beach we could not find the usual Hello-From-Sunny-Florida sort in the shops and had to settle for 100% cotton paper Kate Spade designer cards. If we had paid for them with dollar bills, the money would have weighed more than the cards. As it was, it took a Visa card to settle the transaction.

Fearful of staying forever, we fueled and watered the boat, had the holding tank pumped out, and left Monday morning. South of Fort Pierce we hoisted our sails and did our first serious sailing on this trip traveling down the Banana River on a reach to south of the St. Luce Inlet where we anchored in a wide spot in the waterway, Peck Lake. Just as we finished anchoring, we were hailed on the radio. Lincoln and Florence from the nearby sailboat Chelsea offered to dingy us over to the sand strip that separates the ICW and Peck Lake from the beach. We took them up on the offer and saw one of the few shell covered undeveloped Atlantic beaches in Florida. I had just finished baking a loaf of bread, so we had them over for drinks, cheese, and fresh bread in Irish Eyes cockpit. It was a lovely evening.

During the night a cold front passed through changing the wind direction and rearranging the positions of all the anchored boats. Irish Eyes bumped on the bottom at low tide which is disconcerting to say the least, and in the morning we found ourselves too close to an anchored motorboat. We woofed down our breakfast of fresh baked biscuits, jam, and butter. We pulled up the anchor and departed leaving the washing of the dishes and ourselves ‘till after we were underway. By lunchtime were anchored in Palm Beach’s sunny, warm, and deeper Lake Worth. We are doing nothing; nothing at all; just taking an afternoon off. I told Bill I didn’t even want to launch the dinghy. I’ll knit, read, and snooze. We are here; it is 74°F, bright, sunny, and warm. In the last 25 days we have burned 80 gallons of fuel, traveled 850 miles and gone from the dead of winter to the beginning of summer. Nice.

2011-02-07T19:27:00.000-08:00

Monday, February 7, 2011

The fog kept us from seeing more than 0.1 mile ahead. That is a daymark appearing out of the gloom less than 50 yards ahead of us. Scary.

This is all that remains of the fort at Fort Frederica. There are foundations of a walled town of about 800 inland of the fort.

We walked on the bicycle path from the marina to the historic area of Jekyll Island. Along the way we saw deer and birds as we passed through woods and marshes.

Across the croquet court is the Millionaires Club Hotel on Jekyll Island. We stopped at their bakery for breakfast sweets.

Outside Jacksonville the Star Wars like USS Independence was undergoing repairs. This assault ship trimaran can travel at better than 40 knots. Odd looking isn’t it?

Florida at last! We crossed the Georgia-Florida line yesterday about noon. It is warmer but still not warm. In the last few days the primary word ‘Cold’ has been replaced with the word ‘Fog’.

We left Little River after a wonderful two night visit with my family. The sun was shining and while it was a bit warmer it was still cold. The trip down the Waccamaw River was uneventful but easy. We anchored behind Butler Island for the night. Friday morning was again sunny but still cold. We scooted down the waterway to Price Creek north of Charleston. Price Creek was a lovely place to anchor amid the marshes with not a person or house in sight.

At sunrise I woke up (note: woke up, not got up) to the sound of gunfire. The duck hunting season was in full swing. There were decoys and hunters all along our creek. One john boat passed us with a collar of marsh grass tied all around its edges and with a black Labrador retriever in a camouflage life jacket standing in the bow. Rafts of decoys were arranged where flocks of birds had been the evening before. There seemed to be hunters behind every knot of spartina grass. It was sunny, windless, and fairly warm as we passed through Charleston. I took my coat off for a little while. We anchored in the South Edisto River at sunset which was quiet and very pretty.

This stretch has the most delightful names for the islands, rivers, and creeks we pass through. Let me just rattle off a few of them. Wapoo Creek, Stono River, Wadmalaw River, North Edisto River, Dawho River, Whooping Island, Jehossee Island, Watts Cut, South Edisto River, Fenwick Cut, Ashepoo River, Ashepoo-Coosaw Cutoff, and Coosaw River.

With only 10 gal of fuel left and exhausted from pronunciation, we stopped at the Beaufort, SC Downtown Marina for the night. The dock helper greeted us in a short sleeved shirt. I still had on long underwear but quickly began to shed layers. Great! Bill and I each took a shower and then strolled around downtown Beaufort. We went to a book store where Bill bought a book about game wardens and I bought postcards for the grandchildren. Dinner was at Luther’s and then a fairly early bed time. The two-lane highway bridge south of Beaufort was becoming four-lane. The Coast Guard had closed the waterway from 9 to 12 and 2 to 5 so the contractor could put the bridge beams in place. We passed through as work started at 8.

For once the current was in our favor, and we made excellent time. We went by Hilton Head Island and crossed the Savannah River uneventfully. The bridge at Cranston Bluff opened for us without our ever even slowing down. I always like to look at the cemetery that sits above the water near the bridge. It is really pretty, but this year it went by in a hurry.

Two of the shallow spots in Georgia are aptly named Hell Gate and Florida Passage. Both are south of Savannah. The tide was going out, and afraid of running aground, we anchored in the Vernon River just off the ICW to await the morning’s high tide. (Last year we met the folks on Oo-La-La, a motor boat, while we were in Florida. They told us we had anchored in front of their house in the Vernon River. This year Oo-La-La was tied to a dock, and the house behind it was dark.) In the morning we got both high tide and fog. We traveled less than a half mile before we re-anchored not being able to see two shrimp trawlers also anchored less than a tenth of a mile ahead of us. In an hour the fog lifted a little, the shrimpers appeared, and we started again. Bad move. The fog came back worse than ever and there was no good place to stop. We pressed on; passing through Hell Gate by GPS, radar, and prayer unable to see any of the daymarks, lights, or buoys until they jumped out of the fog only yards in front of us. At the southern end of the Florida Passage the ICW turned right; we turned left and anchored. Although the fog went away in the afternoon, we stayed put. Hidden in the marshes we watched the movie ‘The African Queen’ again.

In the morning after we started we got fog again but not as bad as the day before, and with the radar on, we continued. The weather turned partly sunny and warm enough to take off our coats but not all the under layers. Late in the day we passed through the shallow and narrow Creighton Narrows just before low tide and arrived at the (again aptly named) Little Mud River at low tide. It was again time to stop and wait on the next morning’s high tide.

It was a good thing we waited for high tide. We saw depths in the Little Mud River as low as 8 feet and that just shy of high tide. With a four foot tidal range, at low tide the water would have been as shallow as 4 feet! Irish Eyes needs 5 feet to float. The weather was once again, cloudy and grey. We took a little detour from the ICW and went down the Frederica River along the west side of St. Simon’s Island passing the Fort Frederica National Monument. The British defended the island from the Spanish at this site. We anchored off the ruins of the fort even though it was only noon.

The National Park Service has a dock for boating visitors with a ladder that reaches down to the ground below the dock. We anchored close to the shore planning on rowing to the dock thus saving us the trouble of putting the outboard on the dinghy. We inflated the dinghy, hopped in, and Bill began rowing. He was going half the speed of the current. The dock and more importantly our boat were receding ahead of us. By going over to the edge of the river where the current was slower, Bill slowly ever so slowly crept up to the dock and its ladder. The falling tide left three feet of mud between us and the ladder. Bill stepped into it and covered his boot in mud. He stuck one of the paddles into the mud. It had no bottom. We had a muddy boot and a muddy paddle. Bill rowed back to the boat, and I managed to catch it as he rowed forward, the dinghy went backwards, and the boat rushed by.

In the morning, after breakfast, at high tide and with a slack current, we again rowed over to Fort Frederica. This time the water was up to the top most rung of the ladder. We paid our admission fee, watched the video about the Fort, and wandered around the ruins. The folks who came from England were a hardy lot; oysters on their plates, oyster shells in their walls, bugs eating them alive, and Spaniards trying to kill them. I don’t think I would have made the grade.

The Park Service had planted orange trees along the remains of the central street. Oranges were plentiful on the ground, so we stole a couple and left for the boat before the falling tide reviled the mud again. Who says stolen fruit is best? The oranges were horrible. There was a reason Anita Bryant never sang about Georgia orange juice.

We left St. Simons Island for Jekyll Island and its Jekyll Island Harbor Marina planning on spending one night there but actually spending two to avoid traveling in the second day’s fog. We twice walked the mile and a half bicycle path to the historic area of the island to explore the hotel and shops. We borrowed the marina’s car to drive to the grocery store and explore the northern end of the island. The grocery store had a cake for Bill’s 60th birthday. Catching up on missed bathing, we both took three showers in two days. Smelling especially sweet, we had dinner both nights at Seajay’s Restaurant having low country boil off the buffet the first night and crabcakes and steamed oysters the second. The entertainment there was great… a one-man-band-guitar-playing-Bob-Dylan-type who was far better than his audience. He was the reason we came back the second night.

With a forecast one day break in the weather, we motored across St. Andrews Sound, along the back side of Cumberland Island, into Florida at the St. Mary’s River, through Fernandina Beach, anchoring in the St. George River in front of the Kingsley Plantation. Today we had planned to run through St. Augustine and anchor in the Matanzas River near the fort, but the rain, wind, and limited visibility made the day un-fun. Tonight we are anchored just north of the St. Augustine Inlet out of the way beside the ICW. If it is pretty tomorrow, we may be in Daytona Beach; if not…

2011-01-26T19:15:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

We are leaving Northwest Creek Marina behind. We think we are the last boat to leave this year for the Bahamas.

Sunday morning found the boat covered by up to a foot of snow. Even Bill’s new bell got its share of snow.

This is the inside the boat. Outside it is even colder. There is frost on the portlight frame, frost on the varnished woodwork, and frost creeping up onto the headliner. Dimly through the frosty glass you can see the snow piled up outside over the port.

Our 2011 sailing adventure has begun.

Since I last wrote in this blog lots has happened with the boat. Our oil consumption did not cure itself. After replacing the exhaust mixing elbow with no benefit, we bit the bullet and had the little Japanese diesel engine rebuilt. In August Bill and a mechanic pulled the engine at the marina, put it in our 1978 Chevrolet Blazer – rust holes, 262,000 miles, but reliable – and Bill drove it to Union New Jersey home of the Yanmar distributer, Mac Boring. Bill then went on a 150 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail expecting the engine work to be completed in ten days. Not. Giving up on it, he came home to wait. We both rode in the Blazer back to New Jersey to pick up the engine and brought it to New Bern where Bill and the mechanic reinstalled it in October. To test it out we motored down the river to Oriental and back. Everything was fine for another trip to the Bahamas except the bank account.

If I had to choose one word to describe this year’s trip so far it would be, cold !

We left Kingsport January 13 at noon. It was cold, 18° on the bank’s thermometer, and snow was falling as it had for the entire previous week. A couple of inches of snow lay on the ground. It stopped snowing when we passed through Wytheville. The sky turned from gray to a beautiful blue and the sun was shining when we crossed the mountains into North Carolina. By the time we were on the eastern side of Raleigh the snow on the ground was gone as well. Things were looking up.

Irish Eyes was cold when we opened her up. Our little electric heater ran all night trying to warm up the boat. The low temperature in New Bern that first night was 22°, which while it was 4° warmer than the 18° in Kingsport when we left, didn’t feel like it. When we stepped outside Friday morning we had a real shock, the water in the marina was frozen. The birds were standing on the ice! Sea Monkey, another boat in our marina, left that morning for their trip south. They had to break through several hundred yards of ice to leave both the marina and the creek. While the ice in the marina did melt as the day went on, it was back again the next morning.

It took us a week to buy groceries, get extra boat parts, and do some of Bill’s boat projects. We finally decided that all of his things just weren’t going to get done and untied our dock lines Thursday morning, January 20. The predicted high temperature was in the fifties. It may have been that warm, but we still had on lots of clothes. We spent our first night of the trip anchored in Adams Creek.

Friday morning was clear and cold, but not unbearably cold. We motored south hampered by the wind and current which always seemed to be against us anchoring near the idle Hatteras yacht works in a creek, Factory Creek, just south of Swansboro. The weather forecast for Saturday was for cold with a snow advisory for the coastal areas north of us. In the morning we rolled out of bed and put on our numerous layers of clothing. Being prudent sailors just this one time, we decided to listen to the morning weather forecast. We were now in the Weather Bureau’s snow advisory area. It was gray, dark, and cold with snow forecast to start at 10 am and last till 10 pm – not a good day for traveling in an open cockpit boat. We made the unanimous decision to spend the day anchored; reading and knitting. The snow started at 11 am, and it was still snowing when we went to sleep. It was frigid in the boat, but we were warm as long as we were under our bed covers. Did I say it was cold? It was really cold everywhere in the boat but under our covers.

Sunday morning we could hear lots of groans from Irish Eyes. The creek around us was frozen and the boat was groaning as it swung on its anchor breaking up the ice! The radio said Atlantic Beach had 7 inches of snow and Newport saw a morning low temperature of 10°. The inside of our unheated boat looked like the freezing compartment of a refrigerator with frost on everything from our breath and from the general wetness of being on the water. My comforter even had frost on it just inches from my face. Outside the snow had blown around and was as much as a foot deep on the side decks. As soon as we got up and started the stove for a breakfast of muffins and tea, the inside of the boat warmed, and the frost started melting causing great drips everywhere. I asked Bill if we were having fun. He thought so.

It was a bright and sunny day. After the creek thawed a bit we shoveled the snow from the cockpit with the dust pan, pulled up our anchor, and motored south. We stopped for the night just outside Topsail Beach. It was a much warmer night.

Monday morning the snow was still 6 inches deep on the shady side of the boat. We made great time with the current behind us and nearly flew past Wrightsville Beach and down the Cape Fear River. We anchored in a canal just south of Southport, NC. In the morning the snow was finally gone, washed away by the rain. It was almost warm; just two pairs of long underwear and four shirts with nighttime temperatures now finally above freezing. Whoopee.

In drizzly rain we motored to Little River, docked the boat at the Coquina Yacht Club, and helped the dockmaster hose the pelican poop and cormorant crap off the dock so we could step ashore. With electricity we now have heat, and even though it rains on and off, it is warmer… 70° in the boat. The first night here we had an absolutely delicious dinner at my sister and brother-in-law’s house (Elaine and Jean Pierre) with my aunt and uncle (Mary Ellen and Ken). JP took us shopping; me to WalMart for food and still more gloves and Bill to West Marine for boat stuff. I have done the laundry and Bill has changed the engine oil and re-set the engine valves. This evening we went out to dinner with Elaine and JP. Tomorrow we will leave for Georgetown. I’ll miss my electric heater, but we will be another 50 miles farther south and 50 miles closer to warmth.

2010-06-22T14:16:00.000-07:00

In Charleston we met James and Sandra Little from Kingsport on their boat Ragtime.

This alligator cruising down the waterway is wearing some reeds on his nose, probably as a disguise. We were not fooled.

Spring is the nesting season for the ospreys. The nests are huge and sometimes can make it hard to see the markers along the waterway.

This is Bill with his Spanish mackerel. He caught it on that pink and white skirted lure.

Hello all. Bill and I are back at home in Kingsport.

We left Beaufort, SC June 5 headed for Charleston where our Kingsport friends James and Sandra little keep their sailboat. We hoped to meet them the next day and anchor together somewhere close to Charleston. Saturday was very hot; hot enough that the boat traffic was light even though it was the weekend. We left the ICW at the North Edisto River and anchored in Steamboat Creek. No sooner was the anchor down than we were both cooling off in the water.

We talked to the Littles by cell phone, and we both agreed to head for Dewees Creek. We passed through the Wappoo Creek bascule bridge, entered the Ashley River, and found the Littles in their boat, Ragtime. We motor-sailed together across Charleston Harbor. Just after we pasted Fort Sumter, we had a BIG PANIC. Our oil pressure gauge fell to zero… very scary for people whose engine burns large amounts of oil. Our heart rates returned to normal when Bill found that something had hit the engine controls circuit breaker turning all the gauges off. The fix was easy; flip the breaker back on. We left the harbor, motored down the ICW stretch behind Sullivan’s Island and the Isle of Palms, and anchored in Dewees Creek. Bill and I dinghied over to Ragtime for a drink or two and then ferried the Littles back to Irish eyes for dinner. We had fun catching up with the Littles. Monday morning Bill and I raised the anchor and continued north.

The stretch of the ICW between Charleston and Myrtle Beach is full of birds and alligators. I spotted at least 10 alligators. If you know what to look for they are easy to spot. Sometimes the alligators look like a log floating in the water, but if you look at them with binoculars you can see their eyes, and logs don’t have eyes. I didn’t go swimming. We anchored in the North Santee River on Monday night. It was a very pretty spot among the acres and acres of green marsh grass dotted with the occasional darker green tree or bush.

Tuesday we continued motoring north in the ICW passing Georgetown around noon. In the evening we anchored in Cow Pen Creek, a side water of the Waccamaw River. The water was fresh there. Cow Pen Creek had lily pads, flowers, and basking turtles along its edges. It was all much different from the salt water areas where we had been for the last five months. A motor boat came into the creek and anchored nearby. The captain, who only had his cat for crew, rowed over in his dinghy to chat with us. After he left, Bill went for a swim in the warm fresh water. Later when the sun was going down, I noticed a large log in the water which had not been there before. Its eyes appeared, and it swam from one side of the creek to the other crossing right behind the boat where Bill had been swimming. I think that was the biggest of all the gators I saw.

We headed to Little River planning to tie up in the Coquina Yacht Club for two days expecting to visit with my sister Elaine, brother-in-law JP, aunt Mary Ellen, and uncle Ken.

The ICW between the Waccamaw and Little Rivers is in a dug canal; a ditch lined with houses, condos, golf courses, and businesses. Only here and there is a spot of natural green. Just south of Little River is a stretch called the Rock Pile. The waterway was blasted through limestone ledges and there are rocks just below the surface of the dark brown water. The guidebooks are full of warnings, and we have heard tales of boats grounding on the rocks and suffering serious damage. Half way through this section our engine overheated. The alarm was very loud and contributed to our panic. Bill looked at the engine and found the pulley on the engine fresh water pump had cracked in two and the vee belt had fallen off. We quickly unfurled our jib sail so we could continue moving, but most importantly, so we could steer the boat. There was nothing we could do but shut down the engine and call TowBoatUS as we glided along under sail past the North Myrtle Beach Sewer Plant. The towboat arrived in twenty minutes. He tied up along our port side and brought us safely through both the last of the Rock Pile and the Little River Swing Bridge before depositing us gently against the tee dock at the Coquina Yacht Club. He (and a Visa card) changed what promised to be a nerve wracking ordeal into a pleasant (well, almost pleasant) experience. Bill looked at the water pump while I took a shower. He found that the pulley was pretty well shot. The middle of the pressed steel pulley had cracked away transforming the four evenly spaced nice round holes into a silhouette of Mickey Mouse. The pulley was trash. Thankfully, while the local Yanmar Diesel dealer did not have a replacement pulley, he was able to have one shipped to him from a dealer in Chicago (where it was not yet 5 o’clock) by overnight UPS. We left the boat and had a nice dinner that evening with my family.

The parts man called at 9:30am the next morning and said our pulley had been delivered. JP took Bill to get the part, and Bill had it installed shortly after lunchtime. Bill wasn’t sure if the pulley was the only thing wrong with the water pump but, yippee, it was all that was wrong. We had a second delightful dinner with Elaine and JP that night.

Bill and I left Little River early Friday morning. We decided to sail out the Little River Inlet into the Atlantic and come back into the ICW at the Cape Fear River missing the shallow spots in the ICW at Shallotte and Lockwoods Folly. This ocean trip was very tame. Although we were five or six miles offshore, we could see the buildings on Sunset Beach, Holden Beach and Oak Island on the horizon. The wind was light and seas were calm making it a smooth trip. Off Oak Island we caught a 3-1/2 lb, 26” Spanish mackerel which became supper for the next several days. We motored up the Cape Fear River and through Snows Cut to Carolina Beach where we were anchored by supper time. The mackerel went on the grill.

The next day promised to be unpleasant. It was Saturday, the weekend, and we were near Wrightsville Beach, the boat capital of North Carolina. The ICW between Carolina Beach and Atlantic Beach is narrow and in places shallow. For the next two days it would be filled to overflowing with kayaks, motorboats, fishing boats, sailboats, water skiers, innertubers, and swimmers. In spite of my natural reluctance to get up early in the morning or to sail at night, we decided to start early the next day to pass the shallow spot near Carolina Beach Inlet at high tide, continue on to Wrightsville Beach, anchor there until the afternoon, then head out into the Atlantic for an overnight run to Beaufort, NC (bow-fort) expecting to arrive there just after sunrise.

We were up and underway from Carolina Beach before 7am. Although the sun had just come up, it was already hot and lots of folks were on ICW. Both of us were glad we were going out in the Atlantic where it would be cooler and where we would avoid all the ICW traffic. Not wanting to arrive in Beaufort before sunrise, we lazed around at anchor in Wrightsville Beach until 2, then we motored out the Masonboro Inlet, raised our sails, and headed to Beaufort.

When we started off, the wind was light coming from behind us and the sea was dead calm. As the afternoon wore on, the wind increased and the sea rose. At suppertime I looked at the stove swinging back and forth in the galley and got instantly queasy. Bill the captain became Bill the cook. He made fried potato pancakes filled with bacon, onions, and some of the mackerel we had caught off Oak Island. The pancakes were really pretty good. With the sticky rubber placemats on the table the plates, salad bowls, and glasses did not slide around as the boat rolled. But, if I set my fork down on my plate, it would instantly launch itself across the cabin. As the sun was setting a pod of spotted dolphins swam along beside us. They were really showing off, jumping completely out of the water and doing little twists in the air. It was better than SeaWorld. While I was well fed and entertained, I still was not happy. The boat motion was unpleasant, and I could not sleep when I was off watch. As Bill will tell you I am not much of a shift worker. I get kind of cranky at night, and I do not like the boat rolling, so I must admit I was not the best travelling companion that evening.

We made good time, arrived early, and were going through the Beaufort inlet in the twilight an hour before dawn. The wind died, and we took down the sails as we passed through the Morehead City ship turning basin. We motored through the Newport River, Core Creek, Adams Creek and the Neuse River. Northwest Creek Marina was calling us home. Bud Ellis, the dockmaster, helped us tie Irish Eyes in her slip at 1:30pm. The first thing we did was to retrieve the air conditioner from the trunk of my car and hook it up. It was heaven; cool air, a stationary boat, and a nap.

We spent the next two days moving stuff from the car to the boat and from the boat to the car. We tidied up the boat and packed our clothes. Bill had to replace the battery in my car and to talk with two mechanics about rebuilding or replacing the boat’s engine. We got to use real flush toilets, and we took long hot showers with lots of water. We soaked up the air conditioning in the marina and ate ice cream from the marina store.

It was time to go home. The road trip was a little scary at first; cars go faster than sailboats and there are more cars on the road than boats in the water. We made it home without any problems, but there were problems awaiting us there. One of our 30 year old heat pumps would not cool, and while now repaired, we were told that it and its twin need to be replaced. Bill’s car had a dead battery and the back window motor on our old Blazer burned up the first time Bill drove it. Oh well, I guess you have to expect some problems when you’ve been gone over 5 months.

The 2010 trip was wonderful. The scenery was spectacular and the friends we made even better. We don’t know what we will do next year. We will both turn 60…

2010-06-04T18:25:00.000-07:00

The rainbow in Marsh Harbour was complete, but my camera did not have a wide enough lens to include it all, so here is one end. By May the rainy season had started. Every day there was a chance of an afternoon shower.

These are the shells I picked up on the beaches at Great Guana amd Spoil Cays. I’m only picking up the ones I really like.

We sailed around the ocean side of Whale Cay. These are the waves breaking on the north end of the island. For scale the top of the light tower is 8 meters (about 26 feet) above the water. …and it was a calm day.

Back in the USA. Actually, I’m looking out across the mashes and the Beaufort River from Port Royal, SC. The white dot in the center is an egret wading in the marsh. It is not a thing like the Bahamas.

Greetings to one and all from Beaufort, South Carolina

Yes, we made it back to the US, and yes, we have been moving rapidly north.

We left our Lynard Cay anchorage on May 21 and headed north to Marsh Harbor. Bill needed to find the cause of our overheating engine, and I needed to buy a few groceries. Marsh Harbor is the hub of the Abacos: the biggest town on the island. It even has a stoplight! How is that for big? Bill took apart the engine cooling water system; the raw water strainer, engine driven pump, and heat exchanger. There was a small plastic barcode label stuck in the inlet to the engine heat exchanger. Other than that he found nothing. But, the engine exhaust still seemed hot, and there just was not the usual amount of water coming out with the exhaust. Bill didn’t know what else to do, and I certainly didn’t. While he was working on the cooling water, the regulator on the alternator stopped working. Another downer. We needed a change of pace. Since it was Saturday, we went to the Jib Room for a drink (or two), their steak night special, and the Rake and Scrape music show.

The steak was good and the music show was, well, ok. The same guy who was there two years ago was there again doing the limbo. He was something to see (once). His head actually dragged on the ground as he went under the bar. We did enjoy talking to several new couples we met. Our night out helped us forget all the mechanical troubles.

Bill spent most of Sunday working on the regulator. He came up with an ingenious way to make the alternator work without the regulator by hooking up some light bulbs in one of the wires. I had the completely *untechnical* thought that perhaps while working on the cooling system he may have knocked something loose or splashed a little water on the regulator or some such thing. Bill took my suggestion quite well and cleaned and tightened several electrical connections the last of which got the thing working again. He put his light bulbs away.

In Marsh Harbor there is a cruiser’s net every morning on the VHF radio. The weather forecast is read, businesses tell what is going on, and cruisers introduce themselves and ask questions. On Monday a plea for help was broadcast. Someone had poured used motor oil on the ground behind the dumpster at the local seafood store, and the owner suspected it was a boater. Bill and I went over and helped clean it up. It really wasn’t that big a mess and we enjoyed working with the other boaters. Bill went to the Buck-a-Book store and came back with three books and two conch salads. Buck-a-Book sells donated books for a dollar apiece raising money to care for the wild horses on the island. The conch salads came from the local conch salad man, Steamboat, who sells his wares from a brightly painted street-side stand. He is a colorful local fellow who is always featured in any article or travel documentary on Abaco. We left Marsh Harbor after lunch and headed to Baker’s Bay on Great Guana Cay. When we arrived, the conch salad made for a great supper.

The Baker’s Bay Resort has really changed the looks of the northern end of Great Guana Cay. They have built a nine hole golf course, condominiums, and a marina for mega yachts. The beach is still pretty, so next morning we walked its length. I found several nice shells. Trying to be picky this year, I am not keeping everything I see this time. After lunch we made a long dinghy trip to a little island called Spoil Cay. It sits just inside the Whale Cay cut and is covered with shells that wash in from the ocean. Bill and I walked completely around the little island. Bill knocked a coconut down from a tree and opened it when we got back to the boat. We drank the juice, and he diced the meat. I made chicken curry with coconut that evening for dinner.

To go farther north you have to go around the ocean side of Whale Cay. The cuts that take you out into the ocean and back again can be very rough at times. Wednesday morning seemed like a good day to go out around Whale Cay. We left early and had a fairly smooth trip. Listening to the radio it was apparent that both cuts got worse after we passed through. We anchored off Settlement Harbor at Green Turtle Cay. It rained that afternoon, and the wind picked up from the west making it a rough whitecap filled unprotected anchorage. The downwind dinghy trip to town would have been fairly dry, but the upwind (and upwave) return would have been like taking a swim. We decided to wait till the next morning before venturing to the Settlement.

Green Turtle Settlement is a very neat and attractive town. Most of the buildings are well painted and the gardens well tended. We walked around town and went to the local museum. We had a personal tour led by the elderly museum caretaker. She was a Green Turtle Cay native and had graduated from Lee College in Cleveland, Tennessee of all places. She was very proud of Green Turtle Cay. The dinghy trip back to Irish Eyes was, as we expected, very wet.

It was Thursday, and the weather forecast was for winds to switch to the south in a couple of days and the seas to be less than 3 feet in the ocean. It was time to head back to the US. We took the motor off the dinghy, deflated the dinghy, and brought them both on board. With the west wind, it was still windy and rough in the anchorage. We figured if we got to the other side of the Sea of Abaco in the lee of Great Abaco Island it would be calmer. This sounds like a long way to go, but we could see Great Abaco Island from Green Turtle Cay. We were right; it was not nearly as rough on the other side. We motor sailed north along the coast to Hog Cay anchoring in its lee for the night. It was a lot calmer there. Bill again took apart the strainer for the engine cooling water, but this time with a flashlight he found the white mud and sand that was clogging the strainer’s inlet hose. After cleaning the mess out of the hose, the amount of cooling water coming out with the exhaust was back to normal and the engine temperature dropped 30 degrees. Finally that problem was behind us.

Friday morning we were underway by 8am. The wind was perfect for sailing. We put up all three sails and headed east across the Little Bahama Bank toward Florida. We sailed until sunset then turned the motor on to motor sail through the night. The moon was full, so we had plenty of light. As we were crossing the Gulf Stream, a thunderstorm to the south caused us some worry because it had lots of lightning in it, but it never caught us. We saw several ships and a couple of sport fishing boats headed in various directions, but none came near. The most interesting ship had “Dockside Yacht Transport” written on its side. It was headed north in the Gulf Stream filled with at least 25 large boats. That looks like the best way to go back home. Maybe next time…

At 5:30am we took down all the sails as the wind died. At this point it was either motor on to Port Canaveral or turn slightly north and head for St. Augustine. That sounds fairly simple, but the trip to St. Augustine is another day and night of travel. Bill convinced me it was a good thing to keep going. He was right. It was Memorial Day weekend, and Port Canaveral would be a zoo filled with naval ships, cruise ships, jet skis, spot fishing boats, and joy riders. As the day wore on the waves increased and the rocking back and forth became truly annoying. We sailed some and motored some. While sailing we had a pod of spotted dolphins stay with us for almost an hour. We saw a 3 foot long turtle swimming along. Then, when the sun set, everything became just dark and boring. The thunder showers stayed over the land, so we got to see the fireworks but didn’t even have to deal with them ourselves.

Sunday morning found us within sight of the St. Augustine lighthouse and the beach. Bill called the US Customs and Immigrations’ 800 number and gave them our Florida Frequent Boater Card numbers. We were cleared over the phone and didn’t have to appear in person. Thanks goodness. We were under the Bridge of Lions and anchored by 10am. It had been a long 3 days.

We rested all day Sunday not even putting the dinghy in the water until Monday, Memorial Day. Bill went to the St Augustine municipal marina and paid for dinghy dockage which allowed us to use their facilities. Our last unlimited hot water showers were in March. I stayed in the shower for 30 minutes and scrubbed off half my tan. We spent the rest of the day walking around St. Augustine like the rest of the tourists and ending our day with a restaurant meal. By the time we got back on board Irish Eyes, we were ready for bed. It was 8pm. Like I said, it was a long 3 days getting back to Florida. Even after a day and a half, I had not recovered.

Tuesday I did our laundry at the marina while Bill went shopping. Of course that meant walking to the West Marine store and the local used boat stuff store, Sailors Exchange. Among his “finds” was a slightly used but much larger rod and reel. Maybe it will help our fishing. Ever helpful, he also picked up diet cokes, beer, and snack food… his steady diet.

Wednesday, when we began to raise our anchor, someone else’s anchor with 25 feet of chain and lots of nylon rope came up with ours. I did a quick look around to be sure we had not hooked out the anchor of any of the nearby anchored boats, but no, it was just junk lying around on the bottom. Bill had me lift it and its bit of bottom ecology onto the deck with the staysail halyard, and we took the creature covered mess to the marina for them to put in their dumpster. The Bridge of Lions opened for us, and we left St. Augustine through the inlet and headed north under sail in the ocean.

Bill’s original plan was to sail until we got tired of it and duck into say Jacksonville, Fernandina Beach, or Cumberland Island for the night. That did not happen. In the spirit of “Always a Distant Horizon” we kept going through the afternoon and the night and the next day. Once again we were treated to thunderstorm fireworks, but we never got the wind and rain, just the show. We entered South Carolina north of Hilton Head Island at Port Royal Sound having missed Georgia entirely. We could have gone on to Beaufort (Bew-Fort) but chose to stop in Port Royal instead. We have never stopped there before, but more importantly had we gone onto Beaufort we would have been late for our 5 o’clock G&T time.

Today we inflated the dinghy, went over to a restaurant dock in Port Royal, and took a walking tour of the town. We came back to the boat with a pound of shrimp bought from the local shrimpers, then motored over to Beaufort and anchored off the town. In Beaufort I bought two more tee shirt dresses (I’m wearing the things out.) while Bill looked at used books.

We are now slowly heading back to New Bern expecting to be there by June 15. I can’t believe it is time to go home! Hope to see you soon.

2010-05-20T19:12:00.000-07:00

I picked up these conch shells on the beach at Shroud Cay. It is in the Exuma Land and Sea Park, and it is against the rules to collect shells. I left them all behind.

Bill took this picture of a Lion Fish. The spines are poisonous. The fish is about a foot long.

This is a Giant Caribbean Anemone. It is about 12 inches across and sort of pretty with the purple tips on the light green columns.

You can see our fish is about 36 inches long. It weighed just over 8 lb. The dolphin was much more brightly colored before it died.

This is the Ocean Hole in the Rock Sound Settlement in Eleuthera. It is round, completely enclosed, and connected underground to the ocean about a mile away. It is filled with fish and large turtles. Around it is a nice park surrounded by a road and picnic tables.

We went to church at St Luke’s Anglican Parish Church in Rock Sound on Mother’s Day. The building dates from the 1860s.

The Haynes Library in Governors Harbour is the largest library in the Bahamas outside Nassau. It was filled with kids working on projects when we went inside.

The Bahamas have an unusually large crop of Portuguese Man of War this year. We have seen them from Bimini to here on the pink sand beach near Alabaster Bay (which has white sand).

Above the pink sand beach were these Agave or Sisal plants. The bases are 6 ft high and the stem seems to be 20. They are really impressive.

Our boat is 10 feet wide. The guidebook says the man-made entrance to Hatchet Bay Harbour is 90 feet wide, but it looks more like 30 to me. Bill steered, but I could not watch after I took this picture.

Bill found this six pointed star fish in the Royal Island Harbour. It is a Reticulated or Cushion Sea Star (Oreaster reticulatus). All of the ones in our books have five arms like starfish should. We figure this one must be Jewish.

Hello one and all. We are slowly, very slowly working our way north and back to New Bern. Yes, we are still having fun and still speak to each other.

On April 28th our friend Richard Barr arrived at the Staniel Cay airport. He enjoyed the view flying to Staniel from Nassau, but like Julia and Josh, thought the small plane a bit of a risk. Bill picked Richard up and they did my shopping at the Isles General Store, the largest grocery store in the Central Exumas. I stayed on board Irish Eyes making a loaf of bread. Richard caught us up on all the Kingsport news over supper.

We left next morning and sailed north to the south anchorage at Hawskbill Cay. The wind was fair, so we used all three of our sails. It is good sometimes to look like the cutter we are. We picked up an Exuma Park mooring, launched our dinghy, and went ashore. The walk across the island was not long, but the terrain was something else. First the 100 yards of sand flat, next a quarter mile of bare sharp coral rock, then a small ankle deep stream, and finally up and over a sandy palm covered hill to reach the Atlantic side of the cay. The walk was worth it, but I still don’t like walking on the coral rocks in my bathing suit and flip flops. The risk of being cut to hamburger seems all too real. For my effort I found a perfect Cowrie shell. One of my books says they are a rare treasure. So far I have found three on this trip.

Friday, April 30th we sailed under genoa alone with the wind behind us to Shroud Cay. It was a short trip, so we had time to take the dinghy and go up a creek through the island to the Atlantic side of the island. As we were motoring along in our little dinghy we noticed a float plane. All three of us thought it was anchored. Bill decided to go closer to check it out. Well, the plane was actually moving. It taxied out past us, then it waited for us to slowly get out of his way. Our little 3.5 horsepower dinghy motor doesn’t let us make a hasty move in any direction. It was really neat to watch the float plane lift off in a cloud of spray from its propeller. The trip down the creek was beautiful. I believe that mangroves are the heartiest plants on earth. They grow in sand and salt water with roots reaching in all directions sprouting still more plants and growing where nothing else will grow. Richard thinks kudzu is even heartier. He could be right, but I don’t think so. The Atlantic-side beach was all pink sand and blue water backed by cave filled stone cliffs and sand hills. The tropic birds were nesting. They were swooping everywhere trying to keep us away from their nests - some in the rocks, some in caves, and some just in little holes in the rock.

The next morning we heard Irish Eyes being hailed on the VHF radio. Ray and Kath Boush from Piney Flats, like us members of the Johnson City Power Squadron, were close by on their motor catamaran. Richard knew the Bouchs from years past, but Bill and I had not met them. They came to Shroud Cay, and we spent the morning visiting first on our boat and then on theirs. It was a beautiful Exuma day with clear blue sky, clear water, and lots of sunshine. The Irish Eyes crew let go of our Shroud Cay mooring and sailed north the ten miles to Norman’s Cay. We anchored without any problems and went ashore for dinner at McDuff’s Beach Club. Bill and I like going to McDuff’s. The food is good and the staff even better. We watched the Kentucky Derby at the bar over cocktails on their satellite TV.

Sunday morning found us motor sailing south into the wind. It wasn’t that rough in the beginning just a little bouncy. I decided to make a batch of rolls, half regular and half sweet. I was doing fine until I leaned over to light the oven. That was enough for me! Bill had to finish the rolls with my instructions issued from the cockpit. I don’t often get seasick unless I stay below too long or keep my head below my belly. We picked up a mooring at Emerald Rock at the Exuma Park headquarters. Lots of other boats were on the way back to the US from farther south, so the mooring field was pretty full. The next morning Bill and Richard dinghied into the Park Office to pay our mooring fee and get a wifi password. We hung around till noon checking our e-mail before motoring the few miles south to Pipe Cay.

We explored the island on foot and by dinghy. The anchorage is subject to surge - waves rolling in from the Atlantic. And, it surged all night making us all uncomfortable as the boat rocked and rolled. In the morning Bill and I snorkeled around the nearby rocks where Bill saw a Lionfish. They are poisonous fish and are not native to the Bahamas. You are supposed to kill them, but with their fierce looking poisonous spines and with the spear in the boat, we just took a picture.

It was Tuesday, and Richard was to leave Wednesday on the morning Flamingo Air flight to Nassau. We motored first to Big Major’s Spot to show Richard the swimming pigs, then we went around the corner to anchor off the Staniel Cay Yacht Club for supper in their restaurant. It was again a very good meal.

We got Richard to the airport in time for his 8:45 flight. Without the US hassle of check-in and security, we did not have to be there early – just watch the plane land, walk up, hand the pilot your ticket and luggage, hop on, and leave. On our way back to the boat, Bill and I did some grocery shopping. It was a little tough finding what we needed. The mailboat had engine troubles and was still in Nassau days after its scheduled departure. We did find a (out of date) case of Diet Coke at the Blue Store, but no frozen orange juice anywhere. Bill got 25 gallons of drinking water and 15 gallons of diesel from the yacht club to top up our tanks. We were then ready for the long trip to Eleuthera and the Abacos.

The weather forecast for Thursday May 6th was for winds from the south; perfect for sailing the 30 miles across the Exuma Sound to Eleuthera. This was a 30 mile or so trip across open water. It was a beautiful day, and we sailed along happy as could be. Bill put out our fishing lines. We caught an 8 pound, 36 inch dolphin fish, dorado, mahi-mahi or whichever else you want to call it. We hooked another one about the same size, but it got away. Bill said the knot the factory tied in the lure failed. Probably just as well. We filleted the one we had and put most in the freezer. Supper was fresh fish while anchored in Rock Sound. Wonderful!

Our stay in Rock Sound lasted longer than we anticipated. The wind was at first too light to bother trying to sail and then it was to strong from the north and east, the direction we were headed. Rock Sound was a good place to wait for a week. There was a proper grocery store with aisles and shopping carts, several liquor stores, two good restaurants, and an Anglican Church. We bought groceries, some rum, ate in both restaurants, and went to church on Mother’s Day. I received a carnation corsage along with all the other mothers. In honor of all the mothers, the men in the congregation sang a hymn. Bill did not participate. If you have ever heard him sing, you know why. We sang the hymn ”Faith of Our Mothers”... same tune just different words. The service was very nice but long - two and a half hours! I had an enjoyable Mother’s Day.

Finally on Thursday 13th, we decided to bite the bullet and just sail into the wind. We first were going to go to Tarpum Bay to anchor, but when we got close enough to see the harbor, there were whitecaps everywhere, even under the Government Dock. It didn’t look at all like a comfortable spot to spend the night. On we went to Ten Bay. It was much calmer in this little harbor. There was a beach with several attractive houses in the trees along its edge. Bill and I found numerous sand dollars and several good shells on the wide sandy beach.

Friday morning we left to make the short hop to Governor’s Harbour, the original capital of the Bahamas. Governor’s Harbour is a pretty place. The houses are painted bright colors and many have beautiful flowers in their yards. I was almost out of clean underwear - a sure sign that it was time to do laundry. I looked after that task while Bill made a walking tour of the town. He found a bakery, shops, an art gallery, big houses with gardens, and little houses with chickens. He also found a sign nailed to a tree advertising a Friday Night Fish Fry. It sounded like fun, so we went.

The Fish Fry was held on the beach in the open. The guys in charge, all Bahamians, showed up about an hour after the advertised starting time. They unloaded booze, bags of fish, chicken, and pork chops along with all the fixings. They had a huge iron skillet that I would really liked to have. It probably held at least 10 lb of fish frying over a roaring wood fire in a 55 gal drum. The chicken and chops were cooked over another wood fire in a 55 gal drum. The signature drink for the evening was Rum Bubbas, Bubbas being…uh, well, you guess. I don’t have picture of the sign. They were served from a water fountain with an inverted 5 gallon blue water bottle of the mixture on top. What we found most interesting were the customers for the event. They were for the most part Americans. The area seems to do a big business in resort hotel and vacation home rentals. Bill and I were a novelty as we were the only boaters. There were only three boats in the harbor but maybe a hundred people at the party. One woman asked incredulously,”You just go from island to island in a sail boat?” She hadn’t a clue. We ate conch salad, fried fish, peas & rice, and potato salad, but left long before the party was over and the music stopped.

We did a little shopping on Saturday, and Bill took me on parts of his walking tour including the bakery and Haynes Library. Sunday morning we were ready for another short hop north; this time going to Alabaster Bay and its sand flat beach which we walked finding sand dollars and lots of milk conch shells. Early Monday morning we decided to walk over to the Atlantic side of the island where there once was a US naval base. Our chart also said there was a pink sand beach, and a Bahamian couple gave us walking directions. The female in the couple remembered me from the laundry in Governor’s Harbour. She had been very helpful. The beach was as advertised and beautiful. The base was overgrown with falling-in buildings. Bill found a jelly coconut, a green one, in the woods under a tree beside the road. It became the mixer for our gin and coconut water that evening. We left Alabaster Bay before noon and made our way to Hatchet Bay.

Hatchet Bay was once Hatchet Pond. Then someone decided to open the pond up to the sound and blasted an entrance through the rocks making a perfectly protected harbor. The guide books all say the entrance is 90 feet wide, but it sure looked narrower when we went through. I let Bill steer while I hid my eyes and the looming rocks went past my floating home and ticket back to North Carolina. Once inside we picked up a free government mooring ball for the night.

Next stop on the agenda was Royal Island, our last Eleuthera anchorage. To reach Royal Island we had to go through Current Cut. This cut has a shallow approach and a fierce current running through it, hence the name. We timed our arrival for slack high tide. All went well, and we were anchored at Royal Island by 4pm. It had been a hot day, so a nice swim was in order. Bill found several urchin cases and a six armed starfish. I looked in all my books but none of them talked about a six armed starfish. All starfish have five arms. We took its picture and put it back in the water.

The next leg of the trip, Eleuthera to Abaco is long. Bill dragged me out of bed at 6:30am, cooked biscuits for breakfast to appease me, and we were underway by 7:10am. Once clear of Eleuthera the water depth in the Northwest Providence Channel rapidly increases. We were only 500 feet off the shore of Egg Island when our depth sounder got to 55 meters and could no longer see the bottom, but that was only the beginning. The deepest charted depth along our route was 4300 meters – 14,200 ft. This is a shipping lane with ships bound from Gibraltar and Europe passing through on their way to Florida, the Gulf States or Central America. We had as many as four tankers in sight at one time. Bill put out the fishing lines. The first fish we hooked we never saw. I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t hear the line singing. The fish got took almost all the line off the reel before it broke costing us both the line and the lure. Bill refilled the reel with 50 lb test line. The second fish we hooked was a Blue Marlin! I know you all think that is a fish tale but it is true. We saw it jump out of the water three times before again with the bare center of the reel spool showing through between the last wraps of line, the line broke. That was the second lure we lost. The next fish was a nice dolphin fish – maybe ten pounds. It jumped off the hook when it was maybe ten feet behind the boat. We then hooked another dolphin. Bill played with it for a long time trying to tire it out. While he was reeling it in, another dolphin fish kept swimming up beside the boat. I had read in one of my cookbooks that dolphin mate for life and sometimes if you catch one the mate will swim along. Bill got the played out fish up behind the boat, but I have never gaffed a fish and just couldn’t bring myself to poke that sharp hook in its skull. We lost that fish when the hook pulled out of its mouth as Bill was lifting it out of the water by the leader. When the lure fell back into the water it was immediately struck by the fish that was following us, but the hook never set. I plan to practice using the gaff before our next ocean passage.

It probably was a good thing we didn’t catch any fish. When we started the engine to go through Little Harbour Cut and enter the Sea of Abaco, both of us had noticed what we first thought was a lot of smoke coming from our engine. It turned out the smoke was really steam. We quickly shut down the engine, and Bill went to work. We were in sight of the cut and were being carried towards it by the wind and current. Bill pulled up the cockpit floor and removed the companionway steps to get to the engine. After cleaning the raw water strainer (and whatever else he did) he found that there was something stuck from outside the boat in the intake for the engine cooling water. He unhooked the hose, blew through it, and water poured from the hose and into the boat. He put the hose back and restarted the engine. With the fishing and the engine problem costing us a couple of hours, we did what we never do; we went through a cut without proper light to see the bottom and gauge the water depth. Once through Little Harbour Cut we turned north, anchored, and turned on our anchor light. This trip made up for all the short ones. It took us over 12 hours from anchor up to anchor down and had lots of excitement both good and bad.

We are anchored where we stopped off Lynard Cay in the Abacos surrounded now by charter boats that appeared this afternoon. We feel like a decoy that has attracted a flock of ducks. Bill spent the morning cleaning the engine cooling water system, and all seems well with it. We plan to spend some time cruising around the Abacos before heading back to the US in early June.

Hope you are all well and happy.

2010-04-28T04:05:00.000-07:00

Bill took this picture while swimming at Cambridge Cay. This goes on for acres underwater.

Julia in a panic threw the food we had brought for the pigs in the dinghy. She jumped out. They jumped in.

Bill hand carved this driftwood sign commemorating our trips to the Exumas.

Isabella liked playing in the sand almost as much as eating it.

This is the view from the window at the Rockside Laundry in Black Point. The boat is Irish Eyes. You could almost enjoy washing your clothes here.

Hey. We are enjoying life in the Bahamas.

After Easter we left Black Point headed north. We sailed to Pipe Cay, a small uninhabited island. A long abandoned US Navy DECCA navigation station was there, but the island was mostly was sand and beautiful water. We stayed one afternoon and night. I walked the beaches while Bill explored a little of the interior of the island. He found two plastic Adirondack chairs. We put them in the shade of a tree, sat and enjoyed the view. We thought we looked like a Fidelity retirement advertisement.

We left Pipe Cay and went to Compass Cay. The channel going there was shallow and winding. When we were looking for a place to anchor, a large ray jumped out of the water and flew by six feet in the air right in front of Irish Eyes. It just flew through the air instead of swimming in the water. It was a magnificent sight. We spent a pleasant afternoon and night anchored off Compass Cay. There was a marina there which did not sell fuel but did sell us a bag of lettuce for our salads. They also charged $8 per person to land a dinghy and walk on their beach. We decided to give the walking a pass, but we did enjoy our salads.

We left Compass Cay through the Conch Cay Cut going out into the deep Exuma Sound sailing north to Cambridge Cay, one of the islands inside the boundaries of the Exuma Land and Sea Park. We picked up a park provided mooring ball for a $15 a night and spent two days exploring Cambridge Cay and its beaches. It was lovely. The only bad part of the Exuma Land and Sea Park is that you can’t fish or shell within its boundaries. Of course, it was there that we saw the largest fish and prettiest shells! Bill found a yellow, net covered, two foot diameter fish float, wrote Irish Eyes, New Bern, NC on it and tied it in a tree to mark the beginning of a trail to the beach on the other side of the island. I was happy to have the float off the boat. Although a nice float, it was too big to fit in any of our lockers.

The weather forecast was not very pleasant sounding, we still needed fuel, and our water tanks were half empty. A cold front was forecast to come through with winds around 25-30 knots. We decided to leave Cambridge Cay and find ourselves a place to anchor off Sampson Cay with its friendly marina. We had a nice sail out into Exuma Sound, back through Conch Cay Cut, through the narrow gap between two rocks, past the Rocky Dundas and out onto the banks side of the islands. I had the chance to spy on Little Hall’s Pond Cay which is owned by Johnny Depp. All looked well there. Hopefully, if he was on his island, he was having as much fun as Bill and I were having sailing past.

Sampson Cay is a resort with a very nice marina, several houses to rent, and a restaurant. They sell fuel, water, and some groceries, and they have a coin laundry. Over the next few days we bought some groceries, filled the boat’s fuel and water tanks, washed clothes, and walked around the island. It was nice to have clean sheets and clothes. Bill mistakenly filled our three diesel jugs with gasoline but caught his mistake before putting any in our fuel tank. He gave the gas in two of the jugs away, and we will use the other 5 gallons in our dinghy outboard before we leave the Bahamas. We spent almost a week in Sampson Cay enjoying the surroundings and waiting out the windy weather.

We left Sampson Cay on April 16 for Staniel Cay. (A long trip - all of about 3 miles max.) We anchored across from the town beach and took our dinghy over to Isles General Store to replenish our fresh food. Isles General Store sells a limited selection of food, hardware, and souvenirs. A tiny Manhattan grocery looks like WalMart in comparison. But, as Bill said, I had to make more grocery shopping decisions in their 40 square feet than in a 40,000 square foot US supermarket. As luck would have it the mail boat had been there that morning so the selection wasn’t too bad. We got lettuce, ripe tomatoes, and some frozen orange juice; luxuries all.

Julia, Josh and Isabella were due at the Staniel Cay airport on the 2:45pm Flamingo Air flight from Nassau. Julia said that when they boarded the plane in Nassau the pilot was adding two quarts of oil to the port engine of the little nine passenger Cessna 402 – not a good sign. The plane delivered Domino’s Pizza and Kentucky Fried Chicken to Little Farmer’s Cay and to Black Point Settlement before landing at Staniel making it almost an hour late. Bill and I sat waiting in the Staniel Cay Airport terminal (an open air gazebo with wooden benches around the sides) worried because it was quite windy but enjoying the whole scene. The Self family arrived a little worse for the wear but ready to go.

We moved Irish Eyes from Staniel Cay to Big Major’s Spot, a trip of about a mile. Big Major’s was the place with the pigs on the beach I wrote about last time. We had our dinner on board, rigged the lee cloth on our single bunk to make a crib for Isabella and had a good night’s sleep. The next morning Bill took Julia, Josh and Isabella over to see the pigs. With a two year old on board who does not clean her plate, we had plenty of food scraps for the pigs. These pigs were aggressive, and when they swam over to meet the dinghy and started to crawl in, Julia panicked, screamed, and threw the food scraps (still in their plastic bag) straight up into the air. They landed inside the bow of dinghy. The pigs got in the dinghy and devoured the food, bag and all. Julia jumped over the side and escaped. Why any of us let Julia be in charge of the pig food remains a mystery.

Leaving the now well fed pigs behind, we sailed north to Emerald Rock, another of the mooring fields in the Exuma Land and Sea Park. There were several beaches around the moorings. Bill took us in the dinghy to the first one. Julia, Josh, Isabella, and I walked the beach and then took a trail to the next beach where Bill was to meet us in the dinghy. It looked like an easy walk, just over the rock outcropping to the next beach, and it would have been if we had taken the right trail. The trail we took went inland instead through the palm forest and over bare coral rock. I am never comfortable hiking over sharp rocks in my bathing suit and flip flops much less with my son-in-law carrying my two year old granddaughter. One slip and blood would be spilled. We saw lots of lizards and a couple of hutias. Hutias look like a cross between a rabbit and a rat. They are not really attractive creatures but are the only land mammal native to the Bahamas. Bill then managed to talk us into hiking to the next beach. Once again it was a walk over jagged rocks only this time up a hill and back down again. We were on top of the hill when we saw Bill landing the dinghy on another beach three more hills away. I nearly fainted. It would have been dark by the time we got to that beach. Bill was just looking around while we walked. He got back to the right beach just after we arrived. The beaches were lovely and Isabella had fun getting sandy.

The night at Emerald Rock was rather uncomfortable. The wind brought waves that made the boat rock and roll. We asked for and got a mooring at the Park Headquarter, Warderick Wells. It was more protected from the wind and waves. We spent two nights on that mooring. We explored the nearby beaches showing Isabella all sorts of sea creatures. The five of us went to the top of BooBoo Hill. On the top of the hill was a pile of signs from boaters. Leaving your memento was supposed to bring safe passages to the vessel and crew. Bill found a piece of driftwood and carved our names and the date on it using a church key can opener and putty knife as tools. It was a nice sign. We left it on the pile.

Tuesday morning we sailed back to Staniel Cay for the Self family to return to the U.S. on Wednesday. Julia and Josh snorkeled in the Thunderball Grotto while Isabella and I played on Irish Eyes. All of us went to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club for dinner. Isabella had her first conch fritter. She said it was good, and it was.

Bill and I sadly watched the Flamingo Air plane leave with Julia, Josh, and Isabella on board. Just like the old days in the U.S., they didn’t have to have to be the airport hours ahead of departure. There was no security check, and no baggage check. They just gave their tickets and luggage to the pilot, got on the plane, and left. We were a little worried though when the pilot had to try five or six times to get the port engine to start.

It was really quiet and maybe a little lonely back on board Irish Eyes. Bill and I sailed down to Black Point to do our laundry, dispose of our garbage, and top off our water tanks. We were the only boat anchored in the Black Point Harbor. It was the Family Islands Regatta in Georgetown so lots of boats were there, and with spring here, some boaters had already left for US. We did our laundry and went to Loraine’s Café for lunch. We met a very nice couple from Cape Cod who were renting a house on Staniel Cay. It was a fun talking with them.

The weather forecast for Monday, April 26 was for a cold front to pass through bringing west winds. Bill and I decided to anchor Irish Eyes in the well protected area between Big Major’s Spot and Little Major’s Spot. Well, Monday afternoon we had a major squall come through the area. The wind gusted up to 43 knots, it rained, and we had thunder and lightning. Thankfully, we did not drag our anchor. It rained steadily until about 9pm. We went to bed only to have the wind pipe up again about 3am. It was a sleepless night. This was the same front that caused the tornados and storms across the south last the weekend.

Yesterday was a picture perfect day with blue sky, lots of sun, gentle breezes, and the always present beautiful sand and water. We did our beach walking, both morning and evening. Today we pick up our friend Richard Barr at the Staniel Cay airport. He will be with us for a week. It should be a fun time

I looked at the Kingsport weather forecast for today. Sorry you are going to have frost.

2010-04-05T13:33:00.000-07:00

Crashing along upwind to Little Farmers Cay. This was after Bill reefed the sails.

We have been asked if we have to get up early to have the beach to ourselves. Well, no. The sailboat is Irish Eyes, and if you look closely on the mile long pink beach you can see the tiny black speck that is our dinghy.

This is a cocoplum bush. It is about ankle high and the two ripe light green fruit are golf ball size. Sam at Little Farmers Cay told us about it.

Costume, police whistle, and rake and scrape... A Junkanoo band musician in the Black Point Easter Festival.

Feathers, sequins, bells, beads… There were trombones, tubas, and trumpets.

Whistle and cow bells… The costumes were fantastic.

A drum fashioned from a skin stretched over an oil drum… These things were loud.

Happy Easter! Bill and I are anchored in the harbor off Black Point Settlement in the Exumas. We finally got to the beautiful clear water surrounding the Exuma Islands.

While we were in Bimini, we met a young couple who described themselves as boyfriend and girlfriend. They had crossed the Gulf Stream from No Name Harbor in a 23 foot Compac sailboat that they had trailered from Texas. For those of you who know our Tanzer 22, Canary, their boat is about the same size. Only their Compac has fewer conveniences than Canary; no portapotti nor ice box. They were very grateful to be in Bimini as their crossing was a little more adventuresome than they had anticipated. Bill and I had them aboard Irish Eyes for an afternoon of conversation and a few cold beers. I am really glad I never let Bill talk me into coming to the Bahamas in Canary! We purchased five lobster tails from a local fisherman walking down the dock and had the first two for supper. Yummy.

The expected cold front came through Bimini Sunday night and Monday. Tuesday the 23rd was beautifully clear with winds from the west. We paid our bill at Weech’s Dock and left bound for Nassau and the Exumas. The first hour of this leg was not fun. We were motoring into the wind and waves as we ran out through the cut leaving Bimini. This is my least favorite way to travel; into the waves with water washing over the deck, spray everywhere, bouncing up and down, and unmarked shallow sand bars on both sides. I was ready to fly home! We turned first north to sail to North Riding Rock then east across the Great Bahama Bank finally putting the wind behind us which is much, much more pleasant. It was so peaceful on the boat that I was able to knit. Several boats that had been with us in Bimini left when we did. We chose to sail all night, but they basically pulled off to the side and anchored in the middle of nowhere with no land in sight. I don’t know which would be better – sail at night or anchor. Ships headed from Nassau to Florida use this route. It can also be pretty rolly in the ocean swells. I don’t know if I would sleep any more rocking away at anchor than I do between my stints keeping watch while we sail at night. The night passed uneventfully except the passing in the dark of five or six ships and any number of sailboats headed for Florida.

We arrived at New Providence Island around sunrise. The wind was still out of the west and the sun was shining… so on we sailed toward Highborne Cay. The wind died down a little, and after Bill did some of his calculations, we figured we would be in Highborne after dark. Not wanting to anchor in the dark, we turned on the engine. We were anchored before sunset after 36 hours on the move. Whew!

Next morning we decided to move down to Big Major’s Spot near Staniel Cay. We were trying to meet up with our nephew Seth, and Staniel Cay has an airport, cell phone service, and WiFi. The trip from Highborne to Staniel took us about 7 hours. We anchored and agreed the next day was going to be a rest day. It took us two days to get up enough energy to even launch the dinghy.

The beach at Big Major’s Spot is called Pig Beach. There are pigs that live on the island and have been fed by so many boaters that they even swim out to greet the dinghies. I didn’t trust the beasts with their little hooves and teeth around our rubber inflatable dinghy but of course went to see them anyway. They are pretty unattractive but a novelty. We finally made contact with Seth, and sadly he couldn’t make it to the Exumas.

Yet another cold front was to pass over the Exumas which brings wind from the west. This leaves many of the anchorages exposed to wind and wave, Big Major’s Spot one of them. We upped anchor and sailed to Little Farmer’s Cay. The night before we had watched the video Dove. It’s, the story of a young man who sails around the world alone. Of course there are scenes of sailing fast with water coming over the deck and waves crashing into the boat. Well, Bill must have decided we needed to have some heavy weather sailing. The wind was blowing about 20 knots directly in our faces. Skipper Bill unfurled all the sails, except the staysail, so we were sailing at a 30 degree angle with water pouring over the deck! The fuel jugs on the deck were floating and water was spilling into the cockpit. I really don’t like having to hang onto something, anything, to keep upright. I fussed enough to convince Bill to reef the mail and pull in some of the jib. He is never watching another sailing movie! We felt our way through the shallows into the harbor at Little Farmer’s Cay and picked up a mooring. We hadn’t been settled long when the folks from Sea Fox X came over to tell us the other moored boats were going to the Farmer’s Cay Yacht Club for dinner. We radioed the Yacht Club and added ourselves to the reservations list for dinner.

The Farmer’s Cay Yacht Club is a cinder block building painted a vivid coral color. It has tile floors and lots of windows open to the breeze. Perfect. We had a lovely dinner of fish, cracked conch, peas and rice, and slaw. It was another boater’s birthday so we had carrot cake for desert.

The predicted cold front whizzed by with high winds and some swells. On the advice of the mooring ball owner, we put out our anchor in case we pulled the mooring’s anchor out. We were fine, and it wasn’t too rough at all. After the frontal passage we dinghied over to Great Guana Cay, the cay across from Little Farmer’s that helps form the protected harbor. It is on the ocean side of the islands and we were trying to find a path to the beach. Along the harbor shore were several houses; all but one uninhabited. We met Sam who lives in a house that is under construction. It has walls and the windows in place, but it doesn’t have a roof. Sam is quite the dreamer. He is building the house himself. It has a great view - just doesn’t have a roof. He may get around to it one day. Sam showed us the way over to the beach which was beautiful. He found two big cowrie shells for me. We ate a few of the wild cocoplums that Sam pointed out to us. They are okay but not my favorite.

We left Little Farmer’s headed back north to the Black Point Settlement for Easter weekend. Black Point is about 10 miles from Little Farmer’s. To break up this ‘long’ trip we anchored off Bay Rush Bay for two nights and for one night off White Point. We went ashore to the beach every day to walk and look for stuff. Bill walked over sharp rock and through waist high vegetation across the island to explore an ocean side cove. He has hiking boots and jeans; I have flip flops and bathing suits. I declined to go along walking the beautiful pink beach on the sound side instead. I did not see another soul all that day.

We arrived in Black Point on Saturday, April 3rd. We had heard via the VHF radio that Black Point was having an Easter celebration with all sorts of contests and a Junkanoo parade on Saturday night. Lorraine’s Café in town advertised on the radio that they were having a BBQ dinner before the Junkanoo. We called and added ourselves to the list. Lorraine’s also has free WiFi. Bill packed the computer into our new waterproof bag, and off we went to town.

The WiFi was incredibly slow, so we gave up on that and joined the couple from Sea Fox X and some folks we hadn’t met for our BBQ supper. I had mutton, which we suspect was goat, and Bill had chicken. It was really good. Our dinner party broke up, and we all went out into the street to wait for the parade. There were food and drink stalls along the street. We tried to purchase drink tickets, but we were told the bar was out of mixers. Bill asked if they had ice and rum. The answers were yes and yes. He purchased tickets for four drinks. We had triple measures of coconut rum over ice; very tropical and very intoxicating.

Black Point has a population of about 300. I believe all 300 were out on the main street along with about 100 boaters and a film crew from ZNS, the Bahamian TV station. The Junkanoo band arrived about 9pm. The band was a small version of what I have seen of carnival bands in Buenos Aries. Loud horns, feathered costumed pounding drummers, rake and scrape players, whistles and cowbells. The parade went about half a block down the street and back, but it took them nearly an hour. All the onlookers were walking, jumping or just keeping the beat while following along. It was great! The young kids were out with their friends; you can’t get away with much in a town of 300. Some of the kids were chanting Obama, Obama in time with the beat. Why, I don’t have a clue. For us the whole thing lasted about an hour and a half. Bill and I set off from the town dock in our dinghy in the pitch black dark, but for reasons we do not fully understand, had a little trouble finding Irish Eyes among the hundred or so anchored boats. Other boaters were still coming home and having problems finding their boats at 3am. We just lay in our vee berth, listened to their shouting, and laughed.

On Sunday evening we once again dined at Lorraine’s Café and then attended the awards ceremony for the fishing, basketball, pool, and dominos contests. They drew ten winning tickets from the raffle. Thankfully we didn’t win anything. After the awards a young gospel singer from Nassau performed. Sunday evening was much calmer than Saturday. The drinks stand wasn’t open.

We somehow have a WiFi signal on board today, so we are spending the day doing our on-line business and updating all of you.

Have a wonderful spring!

2010-03-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

Monday March 22, 2010

The weekend party on Monument Island. The locals didn’t invite Bill.

The Miami skyline as we were leaving. In a few days the scenery will be different.

A conch horn blowing statue. A monument to all conch horn blowers everywhere.

Weech’s Bimini Dock. Home for a few days.

We finally made it to the Bahamas! We are tied to the dock at Weech’s Marina in Bimini. The water is beautiful, and it is finally warm, around 80°.

Our trip down the ICW in Florida was a long-motoring-waiting-for-34-bridges-to-open kind of trip. Every day the temperature was warmer, so like snakes we shed our clothes layer after layer.

We anchored one night in the Matanzas River south of St Augustine. In the morning we left, and I was steering. I was following the markers, about 50 ft from a green buoy, and should have been in the middle of the channel, but ooops, we bumped the bottom and stuck. The depth sounder showed 5 feet, but the boat was in the channel and there should have been 12! It took several tries to get off the bottom and several more ooopses, but we finally found deep water near the starboard side bank where both our paper and electronic charts showed shallow water. A week or so later we found several websites with tales of boats being stuck in the same place. We feel so proud… we did not have to call a towboat like the others.

In Vero Beach I noticed that our oil pressure gauge read no pressure (like almost 0) although the alarm had not yet sounded. I told Bill, and he shut the engine off and checked the oil. Although low, there was still oil in the engine. Whew. Bill looked back at his log and realized the engine had been using much more oil than usual since the last oil change. We hadn’t noticed any strange engine noises or clouds of exhaust, but we decided when we got to Miami we would go to the local Yanmar dealer, Anchor Marine, and have a mechanic look at the engine.

Bill called Anchor Marine while we were motoring through Miami. He talked to the Service Manager who asked if the engine started easily (yes), was it making funny noises (no), or emitting embarrassing clouds of smoke (no). His advice was to buy some oil and go to the Bahamas. No matter what might be wrong, the fix would be the same: overhaul or replace the engine. Since that would take a couple of weeks and $$$$, we decided to follow the guy’s advice. Also, Anchor Marine is a working boatyard in a pretty poor neighborhood on the Miami River and not the sort of place where you go on long quiet solitary walks. I could envision several weeks confined to my bunk staying out of the mechanic’s way while he worked making a greasy mess of my home. We bought 10 gallons of oil.

We did a little celebration jig and continued toward the Venetian Causeway anchoring where we did last year. The wind changed direction during the night making the spot rough, so we moved to the other side of the causeway to discover lots of anchored boats. We picked a spot and dropped our hook. The Venetian Causeway connects Miami and Miami Beach. From where we anchored it was just a short dinghy ride into the city of Miami Beach.

Miami Beach has two nearby Publix grocery stores. One is an old, ethnic one and the other a newer, larger one with lots of variety. In the old one lots of stuff was kosher. They also had several brands of guava paste. I am not at all sure what you do with guava paste, but it did look interesting. I shopped in the newer store. It was more like home. Bill bought oil at Advance Auto.

Near where we anchored, was a small manmade island with a 110 ft high white monument to Henry Flagler, the original Florida land developer, thus the island’s name - Monument Island. Since we were there on Saturday, we got to see the big weekend party on Monument Island. There were Miami Vice type boats, jet skis, loud music, booze, and girls with skimpy bikinis. Bill watched through binoculars wishing someone would invite him over. That evening the City of Miami had a wonderful fireworks display. From where we were anchored we could see the whole Miami skyline silhouetted against the lit up sky; a perfect view. But, we don’t know what was being celebrated.

On Sunday we decided to walk down Lincoln Road, which is a pedestrian mall, to the beach. It was warm and the beach was full. Lincoln Road has lots of shops, mostly shoes and sunglasses, with a restaurant every few feet. We stopped at an outdoor pizza place for a pizza and a beer or two. The people-watching was the most fun. People of every shape, size, color, and manner of dress were out strolling. Having a leashed dog with you seemed to be a near universal requirement for admission. We had fun watching.

With all the anchored boats at Miami Beach, some of the ladies who had wintered there started a cruisers’ radio net. They announced every morning what social events were planned for the day. We went to a pot luck supper in the local park and a cocktail party on Monument Island. Our Monument Island party was during the week, and our group had the place all to ourselves. It was fun to make new friends and hear what other boaters are doing. Several of the ones in Miami Beach had been there all winter. The weather had been cold and windy. Some, like us were waiting for good weather to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. Others had given up on crossing and are just going to stay in Miami before heading back north. Some boats have insurance that requires the boat to be north of Savannah or some other point by June 1 to avoid hurricanes. We are lucky that we don’t have to worry about that.

Friday, March 19, we moved (along with about 17 other boats) from Miami Beach to Key Biscayne. The weather forecast for Saturday was good for the run to the Bahamas. After we got to Key Biscayne, Bill made one last dinghy trip to shore mailing a form to the IRS requesting an extension to file our 2009 income tax after we get back.

We had a beautiful sunset; Bill and several others blew their conch shell horns, and we went to bed early. We decided to get up at 3am to leave. Bill set the alarm on his radio for 3, only he also mistakenly set the timer to go off every 180 minutes. It did not make for a restful night. We were anchor up and underway by 3:45 in complete blackness. I didn’t like moving the boat in shallow water close to shore in the dark, and I really didn’t like motoring among the other anchored boats. I could see all kinds of things that weren’t there in the dark. The landing lights of an airplane at 10,000 feet ten miles away became the imagined anchor light of a boat 50 feet away, and I turned to avoid it. Ships miles away looked like they were nearby. We motored all the way to Bimini with the wind straight on our nose and with 4 ft swells rolling the boat. Every few yards we saw a Portuguese Man of War. The first one I saw I thought was some sort of balloon. Good thing we didn’t want to swim! Once across the Gulf Stream the swell and rolling went away. We arrived in Bimini at about 2pm, docked at Weech’s Bimini Dock, and cleared customs and immigration. I slept well that night. Even the live band at the bar did not keep me awake.

We are spending a couple of days here enjoying the stationary first hot showers since Myrtle Beach and waiting for a cold front to pass us by before we continue on to Nassau and the Exumas.

Hope Spring arrives soon for you all.

2010-03-05T19:08:00.000-08:00

March 5, 2010

The new Ben Sawyer Bridge

High tide

Low tide

White pelicans

Florida at last!!! We crossed the St. Mary’s River and passed into the Sunshine State at noon Thursday.

For a while I had begun to doubt that we would make it. So much has happened – all unexpected. Bill’s brother, Worth, who was hospitalized when we left Kingsport died leaving behind a wife and young son. We rented a car to return to Salisbury for the funeral leaving the boat tied up in the marina at Little River. We spent a week in Salisbury visiting with family including Julia, Ann, their husbands, and our three grandchildren. As always it was a good time. I enjoyed being called Mommy’s Mommy.

When Bill ordered the winch parts, he had them shipped UPS to the marina not realizing that the marina had no sign, no staffed office, and no address on the door. On the appointed morning we took turns sitting in a chair on the marina sidewalk waiting on UPS. Bill flagged down the brown truck as he drove by, showed an ID, and got our parts. Unfortunately, the gearbox did not have the right flange to bolt to our windlass, but after several phone calls, e-mails, and an exchange of photographs on the internet another part was sent. This time we had it sent to Elaine’s house, and when it came it fit.

On our way back to Little River from Salisbury, we learned of the death of Bill’s uncle Frank. He was a retired Major General and, a D-Day Battalion Commander, and the last surviving WWII Regimental Commander. His funeral service will be June 4 in Arlington.

While we were in Little River, JP and Elaine treated us like royalty… we ate like kings at their house, and for a Valentine’s Day treat we went to a very nice restaurant in Myrtle Beach. They took us on hunts for the bits and pieces needed to repair the boat and on trips to restock the food and supplies we had used or forgotten.

It was February 23 when Bill attached the last wire to the windlass, we took a shower, Bill filled the water tanks, and we left Little River. Going south through Myrtle Beach was a boring crawl through a dug canal filled with rock before entering the beautiful Wacamaw River. We anchored north of Georgetown behind Butler Island watching a huge dredge with 300 feet of pipes, tugs, barges, and boats all attached pass quietly by on the other side of the island.

Our next stop was Deweese Island north of Charleston. It was a nice anchorage, and we stayed there all the next day waiting on the wind to die down following a cold front. The Ben Sawyer swing bridge connects Sullivan’s Island to the mainland. It was in poor condition, and for over a week the ICW was closed to boat traffic for replacement while we were in Little River. Rather than a modern high rise bridge, the new bridge is almost exactly like the old even down to using round headed bolts to simulate the old bridge’s rivets. It is almost cartoon-like. Having an exact replica of the old bridge must mean something to somebody. Boats on the ICW still have to wait for the bridge to open and vehicles on the road still have to wait for the bridge to close. Oh well… progress.

In the Charleston Harbor we were shadowed by a Charleston Metropolitan Sheriffs boat. Later in the day in the Wadmalaw River, they finally turned on their blue lights and stopped us. They wanted to board, search, and inspect us. Bill offered the February 3 boarding report from our US Coast Guard boarding in Morehead City. The deputies spent 15 minutes copying the information from the USCG form to their form before letting us go. These guys were very nice and their departing comment was that with so little traffic on the waterway “pickings were slim.” I am still in amazement that we must allow all official people to get on Irish Eyes without any real reason. I won’t argue on the spot, but it does seem a bit unfair. We don’t think we look like outlaws!!

There is a spot in the South Edisto River near Finwick Island that I don’t like, but where we seem to anchor every time we go by. Bill did it again this year. It is just off the waterway - sort of like pulling over on the side of the highway and parking for the night. I don’t like the thought of nighttime boat traffic so nearby, but this year with temperatures in the 30s we were the only fools out on the water.

We stopped at Hilton Head Island and anchored between Seabrook Lodge and the Skull Creek Marina. The full moon was impressive. The radio said the moon was at its closest to the earth which not only made it big, it also made the high tide extra high and the low tide extra low. At high tide most of the marsh grass was underwater making it hard to figure out where the edges of the channel were located. Adding to the confusion there were big mats of reeds lifted out of the marsh and floating around looking just like islands where there were no islands at all. At low tide there was just no water. The next day in Georgia we were worried about low tide at the shallow Hell Gate, so we turned off into the Vernon River to anchor for the night. Bill was steering and confirmed that our boat draws 5 feet. I say the bottom of the river came up and grabbed the boat. It took us a few minutes to get off, but we managed.

The next day we got through Hell Gate at high tide with no problem, but worrying again about shallow water we anchored in the Back River north of the shallow and aptly named Little Mud River to wait ‘till the next day’s high tide. During the night we watched Blazing Saddles on our 12v TV/DVD player while it rained and blew outside as another front came through on its way north to dump snow on New York. Around noon the rain had stopped, and we continued south. We had two short days stopping first in Brunswick anchored behind Lanier Island and again at Jekyll Island waiting for rain, a thunderstorm, and high winds to go away.

We arrived in Florida this year 17 days later than last year and stopped at Kingsley Plantation north of Jacksonville. Tonight we are south of St Augustine in the Matanzas River. It may be Florida, but it is still cold with freeze warnings inland and morning lows in the lower 30s here on the coast.

2010-02-14T10:22:00.000-08:00

Sunday, February 14, 2010

This year it has been cold. In New Bern we had an ice storm that covered the boat and dock in ice while the rest of North Carolina was buried in snow.

Away at last. Four hours down river from New Bern we anchored in Adams Creek arriving just before sundown... perfect.

It’s Bill’s birthday party; no guests. He is enjoying his Moon Pie topped with whipped cream. There is no need for refrigeration. It is 48°F in the boat.

It is not the sort of weather that the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce prides itself on. We got three inches of snow.

Hello from snowy, yes that is snowy, Little River, SC. Bill and I have been here tied to a dock since Monday, February 8. We have had a slow start to this year’s Bahamian adventure.

We left Kingsport as scheduled on Wednesday, January 27. Irish Eyes needed new life lines. They are the wires that go around the deck. Bill had ordered them from a boat yard in Oriental, NC before we left home. Although originally promised for the Wednesday before we were to leave, they weren’t actually ready ’til Friday afternoon. The weather forecast for Friday night through Saturday night was for wind, rain, freezing rain, and sleet. And well, that’s exactly what we got. Bill & I were warm inside Irish Eyes with our little electric heater that works just fine (so long as we are tied to a dock with 125v electricity). It was so cold Monday morning that ice formed on the salt water between the boats in the marina. With ice in the marina and all of North Carolina covered in snow, it did not seem like a good time to leave the marina with its electricity, so we drove back to Salisbury for a two day visit with Bill’s brothers. I did our major grocery shopping on Wednesday morning, Bill bought spare parts (or whatever all those expensive little bits are), and after filling the fuel tank and emptying the holding tank we were ready to leave right after noon. We did our usual first day trip to Adams Creek, dropped the anchor in time to see the sunset, and begin enjoying winter time in an unheated boat.

On Thursday February 4 the morning weather forecast was once again not good for the weekend – two days of gale warnings and inches of rain. We made the decision to head to Mile Hammock Bay, anchor, and spend the next 2 days and 3 nights there. It was a cold cloudy day. The sun really makes a difference in how many layers of clothing I wear. On the coldest days I wear silk long underwear, wool long underwear, sweat pants, a long sleeved tee shirt, fleece sweater, heavy coat, knitted hat, coat hood, fingerless gloves, gloves, 2 pairs of socks, and fleece lined shoes. If the sun is warm I might, just might, unzip my coat or take off my hood. I will really be glad to get to a warm climate. As we passed through Morehead City, we were greeted by the Coast Guard’s flashing blue lights. They boarded and inspected the boat, found nothing amiss, and went on their way.

As planned we stayed 3 nights and 2 days in Mile Hammock Bay. It rained buckets, the wind howled, and the boat danced about on its anchor. Without heat we dressed up like we were outside when we were inside and slept under 5 blankets. One of our new toys on Irish Eyes is a HDTV with DVD player. Since Friday, February 5 was Bill’s 59^th birthday we celebrated with a DVD, Dr. Stranglove. He got his favorite treat - a Moon Pie topped with whipped cream. Bill says it was a good birthday.

The sun came out on Sunday, so off we went. Other than waiting for bridges to open, it was another day on the water. The anchor was down in Carolina Beach before dark. Next day, Monday, was clear and warmer still with very little wind. The current was with us, so our trip down the Cape Fear River was quick. At Southport we checked the sea forecast and decided to go out into the Atlantic for the 25 mile hop to the Little River Inlet. The waterway has a safety zone at Sunset Beach because they are replacing the old floating pontoon bridge with a high rise bridge. By going out into the ocean rather than following the ICW, we missed that hassle along with the two shallow inlets, Lockwood’s Folly and Shallotte. We motored all the way from Cape Fear to the Little River because the wind was very light. We had an uneventful trip except for a bit of excitement when Bill discovered a pool of black oil under the engine right after we left the Cape Fear River. It turns out that all that was wrong was that the master mechanic did not get the oil dipstick tightly into its hole and some oil was blowing out. I did see a bird I had never seen before, a Northern Gannet, a huge bird with a gray bill. We tied up to the dock at Coquina Harbor Yacht Club in time for a quick shower before having dinner out with my sister Elaine and her husband JP.

Our anchor windlass, the electric winch that raises and lowers the anchor, had been sounding like a grumpy old man. Tuesday morning Bill decided to take the thing apart. It came out of the boat as a collection of corroded metal bits. The drive motor and the gear reducer were both shot. After several phone calls to the distributer in Massachusetts and waiting a day while they were closed due to snow, new parts are now on the way abet with a significant dent in the Visa card! The package is due to be delivered tomorrow, Monday, so we hope to be on the way on Tuesday.

We are in the best place possible to have to wait a week. We have been royally entertained by Elaine and JP, and we have seen my Aunt Mary Ellen and Uncle Ken. Oh yes, we saw snow at Myrtle Beach! It’s following us. The docks and boats were covered with 3” of snow when we woke up Saturday. I want it to be at least a year before I see any more of that white stuff.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you!

Adair

2009-06-10T06:04:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

The cruise ship Disney Magic passed us headed back to Port Canaveral during the day. Two others passed us during the night. They are much bigger and faster than we are. It is scary enough during the day and much more so at night.

This submarine was leaving Port Canaveral as we were coming in. She was surrounded by flying helicopeters and armed boats.

The USS Farragut was leaving the navy dock in Port Canaveral as we motored by. We were escorted at this point by a boat with a man standing beside his machine gun.

Eli can not yet walk on his own, so he crawled along the beach collecting sand samples on his face.

Isabella and Kaelyn enjoyed their time together on the beach at Cocoa Beach.

This pitiful little fort with a garrison of five or six protected St. Augustine for attack by the British for a hundred years. Pitiful.

Sunset on the Waccamaw River in South Carolina. It is one of my favorite places along the Intracoastal Waterway.

Hey. We are safely back in the US and tied up in our slip in New Bern 129 days after we were last here.

We sailed overnight from West End, Grand Bahama to Port Canaveral on May 17 leaving Sunday morning. The overnight trip was fairly uneventful. The wind was coming from behind us and the seas were about 2 to 3 feet. We passed several cruise ships during the night, or I guess really, they passed us. The ships were ablaze with so many lights, we could not make out their red and green port and starboard navigation lights. It made it hard to figure out which way they are going. Bill got to use his radar to track these big ships. It gave him something to do in the dark.

We arrived in Florida around 11am, entered Port Canaveral as a Trident submarine and an Aegis guided missile destroyer were leaving, docked at Cape Marina, then walked a little over a mile in the rain to the US Customs and Immigration office. The man who checked us into the country issued us a Local Boaters Option registration card. With this card we won’t have to appear in person next time we come back into the US on Irish Eyes so long as we come back into Florida. Although the card is federal it isn’t valid anywhere but Florida. At least we won’t have a repeat of this year’s long wet walk or last year’s $100 taxi ride.

As we were walking back to the marina it started pouring rain so we stopped for lunch in hopes that the rain would stop. It did not. This was the beginning of the Florida monsoon. It rained most of the week we were in Port Canaveral. The children and grandchildren were coming to meet us May 23, so for the next few days we just rested, read, knitted, and did a few little chores on the boat while over twenty inches of rain fell. One day we caught the local bus and went shopping. Bill found a used boat parts place a block away from the marina. He, of course, found some irresistible things to buy and add to the clutter on the boat.

On Saturday the family arrived… in the rain. We all sat in the salon while four year old Kaelyn toured Irish Eyes. She liked our boat. She found it just about right for a child’s playhouse; little stove, little refrigerator, little bed, and a working toilet; perfect. The weather cleared up enough in the afternoon to take a short trip to the Cocoa Beach beach. Kaelyn and Eli, from Middle Tennessee, had never seen the ocean. Both of them enjoyed playing in the waves and getting completely covered in sand. Isabella, the Florida native, was already an old beach pro, but she liked the beach better this time because she could now walk on her own with adults chasing after her.

Sunday was not a beautiful day, but for a change it wasn’t raining. We untied Irish Eyes and with all nine of us on board motored out through the ship channel into the Atlantic. Julia and Michael were not big fans of the waves. Julia looked very ill in the swells, and Michael worried about sharks, sea monsters, and giant fish. Kaelyn sat on the bow just loving the ride as we plunged into the waves driving the water spray above her head. We cut the trip short, returned to the marina, and all went back to the beach. We had a ringside seat to watch several cruise ships leave the harbor. ‘Freedom of the Sea’ was the largest with 4000 passengers and 1300 crew! We also saw two Disney ships, ‘Disney Magic’ and ‘Disney Wonder’, come and go. The recession hasn’t hurt their trade.

On Memorial Day the Selfs and Zangris left to go back to Winter Haven, and Bill and I left to go west through the Cape Canaveral Barge Canal to the Intracoastal Waterway. We made it through the Port Canaveral bascule bridges without having to wait. We navigated into the lock, tied up, and shut the engine down. I was sitting on deck watching the fish swim around the no fishing signs ready with my boat hook to fend us off the wall. Bill said, “That was a real non-event.” I was very puzzled by his comment because we hadn’t moved up or down (or so I thought). I looked around and the exit gate was opening. If we went up or down at all I never saw or felt it. The next bridge was stuck in the closed position, so we had to circle around for a half hour or so while the bridge tender struggled. Whatever was wrong was eventually righted, and we finally got through. We motored north on the ICW past Titusville to Mosquito Lagoon and anchored there for the night.

Tuesday was a fairly long day of motoring. The weather had been clear, but around 5pm a humdinger of a thunderstorm came up. We were headed into the Matanzas River to anchor near Ft. Matanzas. It was raining fairly hard, but after just one bump (?) on the bottom we made it into the anchorage. The storm thankfully didn’t last too long. Wednesday morning we put the dinghy in the water and went to the National Park Service Dock to take their pontoon boat to the fort for the free tour. It was an interesting place. The Spanish managed to keep the English away from St. Augustine’s southern entrance for a long time by simply keeping a lookout and several old guns at Ft. Matanzas – a complete bluff when you take a close look at it.

After our history tour, we moved on to St. Augustine and anchored in the harbor. The weather forecast for the next few days was fairly benign, so we decided to go out into the Atlantic to Beaufort, SC. By sailing outside, we could avoid all the shallow spots in Georgia. Bill went to Sailor’s Exchange (a used boat stuff store), West Marine, and Winn-Dixie. I did our laundry at the municipal marina then walked around the downtown for a bit.

Thursday we were up early to make the 8:30am opening of the Bridge of Lions. Construction work on the bridge was still ongoing. The old bridge was beautiful and the locals tell us the new one will use parts of the old. But, for the last couple of years it has been an ugly mess with lots of rusty old barges, tugs, pile drivers, and cranes all around in the water and a temporary steel lift bridge in the middle. Once we were out of the St. Augustine inlet, the wind was perfect for sailing, and we headed north staying about 20 miles offshore. All was well until about 8pm. A huge thunderstorm blew up and stayed with us for 4 or 5 hours. All I will say is the lightning was spectacular, all around us, and constant. Our 45 ft aluminum mast was the highest thing in miles. In spite of my earnest pleadings I was not levitated off the boat.

After midnight the weather improved, and we sailed on till morning. We passed Jacksonville, Fernandina Beach, Brunswick and then Savannah. The sun was finally up and shining when we crossed the Savannah ship channel. We watched the Coast Guard board a foreign ship for inspection. At least it wasn’t us this time! As usual Bill and I did not do formal watches. We both stayed in the cockpit until one of us couldn’t stay awake any longer, and then that person slept for an hour or two. I listened to my pocket-sized radio when I was awake, and Bill watched the ships coming and going on radar which for him was sort of like TV without the ads. We made it into Beaufort, South Carolina in the afternoon, anchored the boat, and took a well deserved nap.

During the next two days we motored north on the ICW in South Carolina. We anchored in Church Creek south of Charleston one night and then in Whiteside Creek north of Charleston the next. We saw alligators, wood storks, and ibises between Charleston and Georgetown. I wouldn’t have been able to identify the birds without my super deluxe gyroscopic binoculars. They really are a “good thing”. Once we passed Georgetown the wind returned, and we again hoisted a sail. I really liked the Waccamaw River section of the waterway. The scenery changed as we went along, the water was fresh, and the creek anchorages are numerous and isolated. We went into Thoroughfare Creek, dropped our anchor for the night off a sandy beach, and stayed until the afternoon of the next day. We twice watched dragon flies catch and eat horse flies; simple entertainment while enjoying a gin and tonic.

Since the water was fresh, I took a bath in the river. The current was extremely strong, and Bill put out a 100 ft floating line behind the boat so I would have something to hold onto. That was a good idea. I hopped in, was immediately swept away, but managed to grab the line because I couldn’t swim against the current. Seriously, I couldn’t make any progress at all against the current. It was hand over hand up the rope and back to the boat; not a good feeling.

In the late afternoon we sailed and motored the 10 miles to Bucksport. The Old River which branches off the Waccamaw at the Bucksport Marina was lovely, and we went as far into it as we felt was safe. That night we had a perfectly idyllic anchorage all to ourselves among the cypress trees and water lilies.

We motored to Coquina Yacht Club in Little River to spend the next two nights visiting with my sister, Elaine, and her husband, JP. Friday was my aunt Mary Ellen’s 80^th birthday. Elaine made a cake and had Mary Ellen and Ken as well as Elaine’s neighbor, Agnes, whose birthday was also on Friday, and her husband Tom over for desert. We had a good time.

I need to make a confession about a minor incident that occurred on the way to Little River. As we were circling waiting for the Little River Swing Bridge to open, I ran Irish Eyes aground. I mean seriously aground; four feet of water on one side of the boat and ten feet on the other. We could not go forwards or backwards. We were pinned against an underwater rock ledge by the current. Bill and I inflated the dinghy and were ready to launch it so we could put out an anchor upstream of the boat and pull ourselves off. A very jovial group in a small motor boat asked if they could help. Bill passed them a line, and with one quick tug they pulled us up-current and away from the rock. Now, we just have to see how much damage the rock did to the keel and rudder.

Saturday we motored all day through the notoriously shallow spots in both Shallotte Inlet and Lockwood’s Folly Inlet, up the Cape Fear River, and through Snows Cut to Carolina Beach. That night we anchored in Carolina Beach where it was very pleasant and cool. We had intended to do another off shore run from Wrightsville Beach to Morehead City, but the wind was from the northeast and we would have to have motored rather than sailed outside, so we just motored on the waterway.

Our plan was to anchor in Mile Hammock Bay, an anchorage within the Marine Corps’ Camp Lejeune. Along the way, another sailboat told us that the anchorage was closed. Bill called the Coast Guard on the cell phone and they said they didn’t know anything about Mile Hammock Bay being closed. We looked in all our guide books and charts and couldn’t find a phone number for the Marines to ask them. On we went. It was about 7pm when we turned into Mile Hammock Bay. There were several landing craft moored to the wall and some tanker trucks on shore but nothing major. We have anchored here when the Marines had a full sized tent city on the shore. Just as Bill was ready to drop the anchor, a pair of grey inflatable boats each complete with three machine guns and four camouflage clad young men came out to greet us. The guy in charge told us the anchorage was closed to civilians until June 30 or maybe longer. Ok, no problem, we just continued on to Factory Channel, a two hour motor trip away, and anchored there in the dark. The Hatteras Yacht factory was closed, so there was no one there to bother us. It was a late supper but a nice calm night disturbed only by the no-see-ums.

Our last night at anchor was spent in Adams Creek. It was a beautiful evening with a nice breeze during the night. Today we motored to Northwest Creek Marina and into our slip. We were just ahead of another thunderstorm, and the temperature was creeping up close to 90°. Waiting in the trunk of my car was our air conditioner. It wasn’t long before we had it installed and running.

So after 2500 miles of travel we are once again in New Bern. We don’t feel like we have been gone over 4 months, but the trees are green rather than bare and the mercury is at the top rather than the bottom of the thermometer. We have had a wonderful adventure, I’ve got my shells, and we still are a happy couple. Like the tee shirts say, “Life Is Good”.

2009-05-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

Saturday, May 16, 2009

This is St. Joseph's Anglican Church in Thompson Bay. Our boat is anchored in the distance. We came over in the dinghy and attended Sunday services.

We chased this turtle in our dinghy in the shallow creek inside Conception Island. The creek was just full of turtles enjoying the sun warmed shallow water.

This is elkhorn coral on the reef north of Conception Island. The coral heads rise up 25 feet from the white sand bottom almost to the low tide water surface. There are fish everywhere.

This is the Hermitage on Cat Island built by Fr. Jerome in the 1930s. The buildings are just big enough for one person; sort of like a playhouse. It is very impressive both for its architecture and location.

We hooked four dolphin fish, but all eventually got away. If only we could have gotten even one in the boat...

You ought to see the teeth in this baracuda's mouth. Bill got him first.

Hello. Bill and I are headed back to the US. We are currently anchored at West End, Grand Bahama Island near the Old Bahama Bay Resort. The resort did not have an empty slip for us, but that is okay. It is probably quieter (and certainly cheaper) here.

After waiting a week after the George Town regatta for favorable weather, we were finally able to leave and sail south on May 2. Before we weighed anchor we went to the Peace and Plenty Beach Club a for their Happy Hour and Supper, made our last trip into town for food, fuel and water, had the crews from Dot’s Way and Euphoria over for a farewell beer, and walked Sand Dollar Beach one last time. The wind was right, so we sailed south to Long Island which is south of the tropic of cancer and thus well and truly in the tropics. At Long Island we anchored in Thompson Bay off the settlement of Salt Pond. On shore just off our bow, was the pretty St. Joseph’s Anglican Church. The next morning, Sunday, we decided we would go to church. Bill took the dinghy to shore early and walked to the church to check the time of Sunday services. The sign said “Services Weekly”. I decided to knit in the cockpit to keep an eye on the church parking lot. When the acolytes arrived, we left for church making it in time for the 11am service.

The church service was a laid back Anglican service but with lots of incense and bells. Everyone knew the hymns but us, including the singing of the Lord’s Prayer to a Caribbean tune. Bill and I stood up and introduced ourselves to the twenty or so others in attendance. The priest has four churches where he holds services each Sunday. One of the churches is on another island. The times of the services rotate beginning at 7am. The people on Long Island are a mixture of African and Spanish heritages. The Hispanic women were beautiful. Everybody in church was more dressed up than I was. I wore my one dress, a knit polo dress. Bill fit in with his khakis and short sleeve dress shirt. It was interesting to try and wear decent shoes and long pants when we had to land the dinghy on the beach and wade ashore.

That afternoon we walked through the settlement where all the businesses were closed then continued down a lane across the island to the ocean side beach. One of the men who had been in church was there with three boys. The kids were having a blast swimming in the surf. Bill and I enjoyed talking to the man about his experiences working in Alberta in the winter and watching the boys play. The poor guy had to get the boys out of the water when it was time to go home. I’m glad I didn’t have to be the meanie.

Monday was a beautiful day with great wind. We sailed north along the island’s shore with all three of Irish Eye’s sails flying and anchored in Calabash Bay near Cape Santa Maria. There is a monument to Christopher Columbus on top of a nearby hill. Legend has it that Columbus’s Santa Maria was lost on the reef off the coast here. (There are lots of legends about the great explorer’s exploits on Long Island and the nearby cays.)

The wind was not as favorable Tuesday morning, so we motor sailed north to Conception Island. Conception was uninhabited and a Bahamas Trust land park. There were lots of tropic birds with their outrageously long tail feathers on the island. We walked the beaches. One on the south was a very nice shelling beach. The north side beach was pretty much a junk beach - lots of shoes, plastic bottles, rope, and floating junk of all sorts. There was a small sandstone cliff where a rope was tied so you could drag yourself to the top where there was a really nice view across the offshore coral reefs.

Conception Island had an interior mangrove lined creek which was home to sea turtles. The creek was very shallow. Even dinghies couldn’t get into the creek at anything but high tide. A boat we met in Georgetown, Loafer’s Glory, was anchored at Conception too. We took our slow dinghy and they took their fast one around to Conch Creek. Loafer’s Glory got there first – of course. We saw lots of turtles and followed one around until I was afraid the poor thing was going to have a heart attack. Those little guys can really fly when they swim.

There are several coral heads on the ocean side of the island with all kinds of fish. Bill and I made two snorkeling trips in the dinghy. The water where we were anchored was so clear I could see the sand dollars on the bottom six feet under Irish Eyes’ keel. A nurse shark and several trunk fish swam around the boat. We had the people from two other boats over for drinks; Chris a single hander from Virginia and Paul and Deb from Canada. Paul and Deb were our hosts the next evening.

Saturday May 9 found us motor sailing to the settlement of New Bight on Cat Island. Along the way we hooked four dolphin fish or mahi mahi. We struggled with all four fish but didn’t manage to land a single one! One straightened the hook, one broke the hook, one shook the hook off, and one dove under the boat and breaking both the line and a guide on the rod. We did manage to get two of them alongside before they escaped, but with a gaff that is only two feet long we just couldn’t get them on board. I did get some pictures. But, I am not at all sure where we would have put all the fish if we have landed one (sour grapes).

The main attraction at New Bight were ruins. We visited the Armbrister Great House site first. At one time Cat Island had plantations where loyalist settlers from the US tried to raise cotton. I am quite sure the lack of soil was a big surprise. The highest hill in the Bahamas, Comer Hill at 206 feet, is the site of the Hermitage. This is the self-built monastery of Father Jerome Hawkes a student of architecture, an Anglican, and later a Roman Catholic priest. He was pretty much a hermit at the end of his life, and he built it to resemble hermitages he had visited in Britain and Europe. I was afraid we might get altitude sickness up there (ha ha) after being at sea level for so long.

When we left New Bight I managed to catch one of the lines to the dinghy in the propeller. After I went swimming and untangled the mess on the prop, we motored to Pigeon Cay for a nice evening beach stroll. I found a few more shells.

Monday May 11 we sailed to Little San Salvador. We went inside the little harbor and anchored in flat water which was beautifully clear. Little San Salvador was purchased by Holland America Cruise Lines and renamed Half Moon Cay. They built a fake Bahamian village, trails and tram tracks through the bush, and a netted and buoyed swimming area (so you don’t swim with fish I guess) all to provide their passengers with a day at the beach. Yachtsmen were not welcome on shore. We knew that, but our guidebook said that if a ship isn’t there anchoring is fine. We were anchored snugly with about eight other boats by 3pm. All seemed well, and gin and tonic time was approaching. About 5:30 we were all told we had to move to the northwest corner of the harbor as a cruise ship was due in early the next morning. The northwest corner is exposed to the ocean swell and was a pretty miserable place to spend the night. My complaint was the instructions to move came too late to make the 42 mile journey to Eleuthera.

We got up early on Tuesday to sail to Eleuthera, and saw the cruise ship coming towards Little San Salvador. It seemed a shame for those people to come all the way to the Bahamas and only see a newly made “Disney-fied” island instead of the real thing. We’ve had a much better trip.

Our fishing did not improve. We did hook and land a large fish, but it turned out to be a Great Barracuda! It had lots of teeth. Bill and I each had our task. I job was to slow the boat, clear the cockpit of things we don’t want wet, and get my squeeze bottle of vodka to give the old fish a good welcoming drink on his arrival. Bill reeled the fish in and gaffed the poor thing. I gave him a drink and Bill cut his spine. It went like clockwork; all for a barracuda which we just threw back into the sea after taking its picture. Why could we have not done it for one of the dolphin fish? Our sail was downwind to Tarpum Bay. We had a peaceful night off the colorful town and left just after sunrise for the long days sail to Royal Island. It was another downwind trip. To get to Royal Island you have to go through Current Cut, a narrow cut through the land with menacing rocks on both sides. The current was very strong and we blasted through with the current going in the same direction as we were. It was sort of like being flushed in a toilet.

We left Royal Island early - again. Our next sail was across the 14,000 ft deep Northwest Providence Channel to Sandy Point on Great Abaco Island. It was another beautiful downwind trip. Since we were headed north and the weather was in our favor, we were on the move. Our fuel tank was full but we didn’t have anything in our jugs on deck as back up and we had used half of our fresh water in the two weeks since leaving George Town. Sandy Point seemed like a good place to top off the tanks and buy some groceries. Sandy Point looks like most of the settlements we have seen, some houses looked better than others, but all the people were friendly. Everyone spoke, smiled, waved, and tooted their horns as they drove by. Everybody looks well fed and well dressed. I am sure the economy with its reliance on tourism is not that great. Bill and I got a few groceries, water, and fuel before we up anchored and headed off on our overnight passage to West End.

The wind was behind us all the way. We sailed with only the genoa moving it from one side to the other as the wind shifted directions and furling it a little at a time as the wind speed increased during the night. Even with only a quarter of it showing our speed was still between 4 and 5 knots. The waves were kind of scary at times and there was lots of ship traffic, but we made it. I got the opportunity to cook on the stove with it swinging back and forth on its gimbals and with the pot clamped to the burner. We put up the lee cloth on the starboard settee and took turns napping during the night. We were past Freeport when the sun came up and were anchored off West End by 9 in the morning. The autopilot was the most appreciated crewman on the boat.

Our intention is to leave here around mid morning tomorrow (Sunday) and head for Port Canaveral, Florida. That will be another overnight sail. All our children and grandchildren are to meet us next Saturday in Cocoa Beach. Bill and I both are looking forward to seeing all the kids and having them on board Irish Eyes. Oh yes, not everybody is sleeping on the boat!

2009-04-28T12:30:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, April 28, 2009
The 57th Annual Family Islands Regatta
Elizabeth Harbor, Exuma

The first gun was 30 minutes before the race. Like most things here, you couldn't count on the race starting on time. It happened when it happened. The boats all anchored along the starting line with the help of the Race Committee. The second gun was a warning a minute before the start.

The third gun started the race. The crews hauled in on their anchors to get some forward motion, hoisted their sails, and fell off on starboard tack. The rightmost boat could choose to go port tack and often did. Occasionally, a mid-line boat fell onto port tack and rammed a couple of starboard tack boats to his right.

This was a fairly clean start. See the one port tack boat. The course was windward-leeward; windward mark to port, leeward mark to starboard, sometimes one lap but usually three. The start and finish were in front of the town. There were three races a day for four days.

The boats were small and the sails large. They were kept upright by the crews on the pry and 50 lb lead bars along the keels.

This was a Class C boat and was the smallest of the classes (except for the few even smaller Class D boats). The larger Class A and Class B boats had a jib in additioin to the mainsail. The hulls and spars were wood and the sails were cotton.

Notice the sail's headboard. Anything for some more sail area.

Even on a reach the crew had to be on the pries to keep the boats upright.

This was a full size sail. They were used the first day. Then the wind picked up to 20 knots and smaller sails were used.

This was Chase headed out to the starting line. They passed right behind us.

In spite of the smaller sails there were a half dozen capsizes, three sinkings, a couple of broken booms, several broken or cracked masts, and innumerable torn sails.

Only the helmsman and a spotter were excused from duty on the pry.

The sails had a second clew that was used to reef the sail. In addition the sails were sometimes not raised to their full hoist.

In the camera the boats were small, but in my 14x binoculars I could even see the grins on the racer's faces. The binoculars were a good Christmas present.

This was the scene at the leeward mark in a Class C race.

The best seats in town were along the seawall on Regatta Point. The best of the best were also in the shade. A lot of money is getting ready to change hands.

This was one of the 40 or so temporary 2x4 and plywood shacks set up anong the road on Regatta Point selling beer, booze, fried food, and conch. The music was unbearably loud.

The Exuma Band was composed of musicians from the several schools on the island. They marched up and down the road and had a sort of mini halftime show in front of the park.

The Royal Police Band from Nassau was also there. They were nothing but sharp and really put on a show. The drummers wore leopard skin tunics over their perfect dress uniforms. Even the Prime Minister came to watch.

Bill helped to keep these two little girls balanced on top of a narrow wall so that they could see over the heads of the crowd along the street.

After the last race while everyone else was partying, the crews loaded their boats on the ships to take them home and prepare for the next regatta.

Hey everybody. It has only been a few days since last I updated this blog, but we had so much fun at the Family Islands Regatta that I thought you would like to see some of my pictures.

We anchored near the start/finish line for the first two days. When the wind picked up, we moved across the harbor to Volleyball Beach to get in the lee of Stocking Island. There we then had a view of the boats as they headed to the turning mark. The final day of the races we took the water taxi into town. We had a ringside seat for the final class C race which was great fun. I had my first (and last) Coconut Water and Gin (the local specialty of coconut water, gin and condensed milk). We saw the Exuma Youth Band perform and the Royal Police Band, too. We talked to lots of local people and Bill was even the safety person for two Exuma girls standing on the wall with us. It was a wonderful time. Watauga Lake racers beware; we made notes and are thinking about a pry for Canary.

Bill and I are still in Georgetown, now anchored off Sand Dollar Beach. I have 22 sand dollars that I found on the beach. The wind has been very strong for the last week or more, and we are waiting for the weather to settle before heading further south.

Hope you are all enjoying spring.

2009-04-22T14:28:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The sandstone cliffs above these caves on Bitter Guana Cay were soft and crumbley, so we did not dare walk along their top edge.

The entrance from Elizabeth Harbour into Lake Victoria in George Town is through this narrow cut in the limestone rock and under the low bridge.

Looking down on this small beach below the cliffs on Stocking Island, you can see the rock ledges and reefs in the water below.

With Haynes and Laura we snorkeled over this sea fan garden at the northern end of Stocking Island.

Adventures over. Time to relax at the Chat n' Chill. Laura, Bill, and Haynes enjoy a cold beer and a conchburger.

Practicing before the first day of the Family Islands Regatta, this boat used us as a turning mark.

Hello from Georgetown, Exuma. I know it has been a long time since I have written. We have had guests, sketchy internet connections, and been involved in the social whirl of the Georgetown cruisers. Is that enough excuses? I have more. Needless to say Bill and I are both doing just fine. We have really acclimated to living aboard Irish Eyes and being in the Bahamas.
We left Staniel Cay, sailed west around Harvey Cay, then motored south and east to Bitter Guana Cay. We anchored off the banks-side northernmost beach. It was backed by sandstone cliffs and caves. This was a most unusual and uninhabited island. Just above the beach and to the left were the 60 foot cliffs. To the right was a more level spot inhabited by the iguanas. (That was where the Guana in the island’s name came from.) These iguanas are huge and very creepy. Unlike the ones we have seen before on Allen’s Cay, they weren’t looking for food and have no fear of people. I didn’t like the beasts. They snuck up on us without making any noise and didn’t go away when we yelled at them. Bill went back into one of the caves under the cliffs and discovered several sleeping in the shade. He came out before they did. The sandstone was completely rotten. We picked up a fallen piece, threw it in the water, and it dissolved into beach sand. That nixed our planned walk across the top of the cliffs – they might have collapsed. The wind was supposed to move to the east in the afternoon, but it didn’t, making our anchorage a very rocky if not dangerous one for the night. Looking for a better spot, we motored the few miles south to Black Point Settlement which had better protection from southerly wind and waves.
Black Point was a very friendly place. There was a small grocery store where I purchased a can of New Zealand butter and some lettuce. The best thing in Black Point Settlement was the superb, clean, and new laundromat. I misread the sign giving the cost of washing and drying. I thought it was $3.50 for 4 to 5 minutes of drying when actually it was $3.50 for 45 minutes. Once I got that right and realized that I could wash clothes for less than a hundred dollars, we had a very pleasant time doing laundry with several of the other cruisers. One of the women was a writer for the Waterway Guides and had lots of information to share. The harbor in Black Point was rather rolly, so the next morning we got 15 gallons of free R/O water from the village tap and moved on south.
We had to motor into the wind but otherwise had no problems getting into Little Farmer’s Cay. The island is owned in common by the descendents of the original settling ex-slave family. We went ashore to visit The Ocean Cabin Club. As we were walking up the hill, we met a group of the local young men playing dominos. It was shortly after noon and they had all had a few (or more) beers. Bill joked for a minute or two with one who was having some trouble standing up. He was really quite funny to talk to as his friends egged him on. The club on the hill was a bar and restaurant owned and operated by Terry Baines. Terry has travelled, is well read, and is something of a writer/philosopher. Bill and Terry discussed at length the integration of the Salisbury, NC schools. I had read in one of our guides that there was a water taxi from Georgetown to Little Farmer’s operated by one of the local fellows. Haynes and Laura, Bill’s brother and wife, were flying into Georgetown, and we were getting worried that we might not be able to get there on time, so were looking for alternatives. When we asked Terry about the water taxi, he was less than encouraging, actually rolled his eyes. Bill and I left the next morning and sailed to George Town. I don’t think the water taxi would have been a good idea.
All our guide books and charts described the northern entrance to Elizabeth Harbour, George Town’s harbor, as a nightmare if the weather wasn’t just perfect. We must have picked the perfect day as we had no trouble with the entrance. Elizabeth Harbour separates Great Exuma Island on its west from Stocking Island to the east. George Town, the largest town in the Exumas, is on Great Exuma Island. Elizabeth Harbour is roughly a mile wide and eight miles long. Stocking Island has just a few houses and has beaches on both the harbor and ocean sides. Cruising boats anchor either on the town side of the harbor off George Town itself or on the Stocking Island side off Hamburger Beach, Volleyball Beach, or Sand Dollar Beach. We decided to first anchor off the town so we could check it out.
Georgetown’s main business area is along the shores of Lake Victoria, an inland lake connected to the harbor by a narrow manmade cut in the limestone rock that is spanned by a low bridge. In the lake is a dinghy dock with a free water tap. There is a grocery store, two gas stations, several bars, at least three liquor stores, and two laundromats. We spent several days anchored off town filling our fuel and water tanks, buying groceries, and replenishing our liquid stores before moving across Elizabeth Harbor to Sand Dollar Beach.
Sand Dollar Beach had, surprise surprise, sand dollars, and I picked up my share. We walked the trails that laced the south end of Stocking Island, walked on the ocean side beaches, walked along the tops of the ocean facing cliffs, walked along the harbor side beaches… You get the picture; Bill was back into his Appalachian Trail hiking mode. To break the monotony, we snorkeled on a reef in the harbor and swam around the boat. We attended a couple of happy hours (bring your drinks and an appetizer to share); one on Hamburger Beach and another on a nearby 49 foot trawler which was also from New Bern. The motor boat showed us its advantages including a dishwasher, a washer, a dryer, a frig, and an ice maker! We took the dinghy north to the Chat and Chill Beach Bar on Volleyball Beach to learn how to play dominos, drink beer, and watch the volleyball. Not a bad life.
On Easter Monday, Bill and I took Irish Eyes across the harbor and grabbed a cab to the Exuma International Airport to meet Bill’s brother Haynes and his wife Laura. The airport was as laid back as everything else in the Bahamas. Bill and I waited in the departure/arrival lounge (bar) along with several European families who had vacationed at one of the hotels on the island. A Danish family was interested in how we managed to live on the boat, and we spent almost half an hour talking with them. I think we could have sold them the boat on the spot.
We collected Haynes and Laura and moved Irish Eyes back across the harbor to Sand Dollar Beach. The four of us beach walked all over the southern end of Stocking Island before moving the mile or two north to Hamburger Beach. There is a 20 foot concrete obelisk on top of the highest hill (37 meters) between Hamburger Beach and the ocean side beach. We walked up to the monument, but there was no indication of what it is a monument to. We returned to Irish Eyes via by the ocean side beach and a trail through the palms leading to the Peace and Plenty Beach Club on Hamburger Beach just in time for a noonday Kalik beer. That afternoon we took the boat north to Conch Harbor to snorkel on the sea fan covered reef there before crossing the harbor to the more protected lee of Goat Cay for the night.
Haynes very much wanted to cross the Tropic of Cancer and sail in the tropics. So, we sailed out of the southern entrance to the harbor then south until we passed the line on the chart. Nothing much changed. For the afternoon we anchored off Pigeon Cay. This cay was about ½ mile long and was mostly a beautiful white sand beach. We snorkeled from the anchored boat to the beach looking for shells along the way, walked on the beach, and snorkeled along a bit of reef before swimming back to the boat. It was a beautiful day. Bill found a helmet conch shell to go along with the queen conchs we had found previously.
We motored our way back towards Elizabeth Harbour with the wind on our nose. The first overnight anchorage after entering the harbor from the south was just north of Fowl Cay. Our intent was to anchor overnight and snorkel the reef between the cay and the ocean. During the night the wind picked up making it a very rolly spot. Bill slept through the howling wind and creaking boat. The rest of us didn’t.
As it was a bit rough for snorkeling on the reef, we pulled up anchor and went back to our favorite Sand Dollar Beach. Too lazy to fix lunch, the four of us piled into the dinghy and went to the Chat and Chill for conchburgers and beer. Later in the day when the sun was not so high, we took still another walk first across the island, then along the ocean cliffs, then back along the harbor side beach.
Sadly, on Saturday it was time for Haynes and Laura to leave. It had been a good week. After seeing them off, I did some grocery shopping before we returned to the boat. The wind had picked up, and the dinghy trip against the waves and wind was a soaking wet one. I am now waiting to see if flour once wet with sea water but now dried makes salty bread. Once again we returned to Sand Dollar Beach.
Monday after our now daily walk on the beach, we discovered two young women slowly circling Irish Eyes in their dinghy. They were taking pictures of two adult porpoises and one small one swimming under our boat. The water was so clear we could see them when they dove for the bottom. What a sight! The dolphins I mean, not the two women.
This week Georgetown is hosting the 57th Annual Family Islands Regatta. It is a national sailboat race for little wooden boats with huge sails. The boats used to be working sailboats, but times have changed and they just race them now. The boats are very colorful anything from the usual white to hot pink, aqua, or purple. To keep the boat from heeling over too far the crew uses one or two a pries, long boards that hang far over the side with the crew perched on the end. When a boat tacks not only does the crew tack the sails but also the 16 foot long pry. They really hustle and fuss at each other. The verbal harassment between the competing boats is intense.
The main street in George Town is now lined with shacks, and that is the official name, not mine, for the temporary plywood stalls erected to meet the needs of the racers and the crowds. They are all either bars or food stands and most play loud music. It is a sight to see. The population of the place has doubled. It looks like Bristol Race Week. On Tuesday after doing our laundry and filling our water and fuel tanks, we stopped at shack #16 and had a delicious lunch of cracked conch with peas and rice, corn and beets, and of course Kalik beer. (The local concoction of coconut milk and gin will have to wait for another day.) We are anchored off the town again and have a ringside seat at the finish line. The racing continues through the weekend. I will take lots of pictures. It is already a hoot.
Bye for now.

2009-03-31T18:00:00.000-07:00

March 31, 2009

Unlike the iguanas these birds will eat out of your hand without biting.

Waredrick Wells Cay is named after the natural wells that are on the cay. Some are as deep as 40 feet. Some like this one are filled with water. All go straight down into the solid rock.

Bill and I picked these sand dollars up in just a couple of minutes raking our fingers or toes through the sand in the shallow water off Staniel Cay.

Surrounded by fish, I am swimming into the Thunderball Grotto. The cave passes completely through a small island. There is air and light in the top and water with fish and coral in the bottom.

When I last wrote we had just gotten to the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park Headquarters at Warderick Wells Cay. We spent 3 nights there on a mooring near Emerald Rock on the west side of the cay. Bill put a patch over a hole in the dinghy, and we had to wait 24 hours for the glue to set before inflating the dinghy again. That meant a lazy day of reading, knitting, puttering about on Irish Eyes, and making bread. I have just about perfected the “Boat Bread” recipe. Bill doesn’t complain. It is really quite good.
The next day, Wednesday March 24, after lunch we inflated the dinghy and went exploring. We dropped by the park office to pay for our mooring and buy a book on the local flora. We walked across the cay to the ocean side. The trail takes you to Booboo Hill (not really much of a hill to us East Tennesseans but a hill never the less). It was topped with a stack of driftwood graffiti left by boaters to memorialize their being there. Just north on the ridge were two blow holes. These were holes in the rock where the water blows up into the air like a geyser. It was extremely windy and the surf was strong but the tide wasn’t yet high enough to have a good blow. The wind was 25 knots from the east, so we didn’t stay long before we were tired of being blown away and were getting wet from the salt water spray that filled the air.
At the park office building the staff had put out several sugar feeders for the Bananaquits. These are small black and yellow birds that feed on nectar or sugar. I put a teaspoon of sugar in my palm and had as many as six birds eating out of my hand at once. These little guys dip their long beaks in the sugar and either lick it off or share with another bird by rubbing their beaks together. We saw them on the nearby hibiscus flowers dipping their beaks down to get the nectar like a hummingbird. Bill thinks I should try and train the hummingbirds in our yard to eat out of my hand when we get home. I can’t imagine!
We still had our map of the park’s hiking trails from last year. We decided on Thursday to walk some of the ones we hadn’t already walked. The map was very deceiving. The trails start on one beach and go to the next beach. What the map doesn’t show is you have to walk over lots of very sharp pointy jagged rocks before you get to the next beach. I hate the sharp pointy rocks! I also saw a snake, only a small harmless brown snake, but a snake is a snake is a snake to me. Bill left me on the last beach we reached and went back overland for the dinghy then returned to retrieve me saving me from the return trip. In the shallow water on our way back to the boat we saw several live conchs. Since the park is a no take zone we left them alone. Besides I have already found two large perfect conch shells that were empty.
During the night the wind shifted to the south making our mooring at Emerald Rock rocky. We decided to move south to an anchorage with better protection even though south was dead into the wind and waves. Motoring into a 20 kt wind is not my favorite way to spend the morning. Before we left we had the good sense to bring the dinghy on deck. It was a smart move because we had no islands upwind of us, and the waves were surprisingly large. The chart showed moorings off the marina dock at Sampson Cay, but they are gone allowing us to anchor in about 7 to 8 feet of water tucked deeply inside in the very pretty harbor. Several nurse sharks attracted to the fish cleaning station on the marina dock cruised below our boat casting their shadows across the bottom. The spot was perfectly protected from the rough water outside, so we had a restful calm night.
Over the VHF radio the staff at Sampson Cay announced that they were having a beach BBQ party from noon to 7pm on Saturday. We needed to get some diesel, and I needed a pair of flip flops. We went ashore to check out the party and get fuel and shoes. For Christmas I got a very nice pair of mesh and leather water shoes. They looked like the perfect shoe for hopping out of the dinghy into the water and walking the beach protecting my feet from the sharp rocks. Wrong! The water drained out of the shoes but left all the sand behind. The sand then rubbed my feet raw. I would rather have flip flops. Unfortunately, what would be a $1.99 pair from Target were $30 in the Bahamas! I now have a pretty pink pair of expensive flip flops. Getting diesel was another adventure. There seemed to be a dispute brewing among the several large motor vessels waiting for space at the fuel dock – too little space and too many boats. Bill talked to the dock guy and decided not to move our boat over to the dock but rather bring our three jugs in the dinghy and fill our fuel tank in two dinghy trips. Unfortunately, before Bill could get back for the second 15 gallons a motor boat came in to get 1300+ gallons. We had to wait until he was through. The captain on that boat, which I won’t name, was a prime example of the unlikeable American, all mouth and money, issuing commands to anyone and everyone within earshot while refusing to do the simple things he was asked to do. I waited on a chair in the shade of the porch outside the store while Bill was filling the diesel jugs and learned quite a bit. The reason for the beach party was to allow the restaurant to be closed all day for a large group. The NY Yacht Club was bringing in 12 boats for the night and had requested a private dinner for 39. The staff at Sampson Cay had ordered and prepared tons of food and drink. Remember everything has to be brought over from Nassau by air or by boat. It turned out only 3 boats showed up! Two boats were already in the marina that morning and the third finally came at 8pm. Granted the last one could have had 39 people on board; it was that large, but I never saw them. All this reminded me of Watauga Lake Sail Club events and trying to get a head count beforehand! Sampson Cay Marina has houses for rent too. This would be a lovely place for a real get away vacation. We walked all over the cay, spent some time at the beach party and had another restful night.
We left Sampson Cay on Sunday morning and sailed south for Staniel Cay. While the wind was still from the south, this time we were able to sail in two tacks, first to the southwest, then to the southeast. I guess I should explain what sailing on the wind in 20 knots was like. The boat was heeled over (leaned) about 40 degrees, one side was nearly underwater, and the waves were coming over the bow and washing down the deck with only the canvas dodger to keep them out of the cockpit. Going below to the head (bathroom) was a real exercise. Toilets were designed to be level, not leaning 40 degrees forward! Every time the bow went underwater, I was pitched off the seat and out the door. Think of a sailing movie where the boat is really moving along. Ever wonder why the scenes never include the toilet? Anyway it was only about 8 miles or two hours, so it was manageable.
Staniel Cay has several beaches and the famous Thunderball Grotto, a sky lit underwater cave where the James Bond movie, Thunderball, and Disney’s Splash were filmed. The day we arrived was not a bright sunny day because a cold front was passing to the north of us, so we put off snorkeling and walked around the settlement instead. We went out to the airport, just a landing strip and a gazebo for a terminal, and walked down several of the lanes in the village. While we have been told that the winter had been unusually windy and cool and that the Abacos were both windier and cooler than the Exumas, spring here has been near perfect for us - highs of about 80 and lows of maybe 70. Now, if the wind would settle down a bit.
Yesterday we had lunch at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club, my first conch burger of the trip, and went walking on the nearby beach. Bill and I found a dozen or more sand dollars just in a minute or two by digging in the shallows with our fingers or toes. I left them behind, remembering that I am only taking great things, and I already have sand dollars at home. At slack low tide we went to the Thunderball Grotto. It was beautiful. We swam in through its main entrance ushered by a school of Sergeant Major fish. The interior was lit by sunlight streaming in through holes in the limestone roof. The floor of the cave was covered with different varieties of coral and loads of fish. Both of us swam completely through the cave and out another entrance on the other side of the island. It was spectacular. I was just floating along with the current and the fish, watching the sea fans when Bill asked if I was heading to Cuba. Swimming the other way back through the cave was a little hard as the tide had changed and the current was against us. After a short dinghy ride we were back in Irish Eyes’ cockpit in time for an evening G&T as the sun set behind Big Majors Spot. Not a bad day at all.
This morning Bill discovered that we had a leak in our propane system. This was a priority and something that had to be fixed NOW. He worked on it all morning, and he thinks it is fixed. I hope. We planned to go to Club Thunderball for their Tuesday evening “All You Can Eat Pizza and Pasta Supper with a Movie”, but alas, “Da mail boat didn’t come today”, so we went over there for a couple of drinks instead and enjoyed supper on our own boat. Such is island life; one disappointment after another.
Tomorrow may be Bitter Guana Cay, a protected iguana habitat, then the Black Point Settlement on Great Guana Cay to do laundry and buy some fresh vegetables, or then maybe we will just go around to Big Majors Spot and see the swimming pigs. So many things to do, so little time. Miss you all and wish you could be here too!

2009-03-24T18:22:00.000-07:00

March 24, 2009

On the north side of Highborne Cay is a beach. Someone put this piece of washed up lumber between two of the casurina pines above the beach. It made a good resting place.

The sign is at the entrance to the north creek that passes through the mangroves in the interior of Shroud Cay to the beach on the ocean side. Barcardi paid for the sign. Good people.

Bill found these plastic fishing floats on the beach. We left them behind.

Our dinghy on the Exuma Bank side beach at Hawksbill Cay with Irish Eyes (the sailboat) in the background.

Hey. We are currently moored at Warderick Wells Cay. The water is as clear as gin and the sky as blue as anyone can imagine. Our only problem is the wind which has been blowing from the east at 20 to 25 knots for several days and is expected to continue to do so for the few days.
We left Allen’s Cay and made the three hour trip, under sail, to Highborne Cay. Highborne has a marina and a couple of houses. We anchored on the Exumas Bank side (shallow water, western side, in the lee of the island, and out of the 20 kt east winds) with five or ten other boats for two nights. The landscape here is very stark deeply etched limestone with vegetation above the high water line with deeply blue water up to the limestone. Shortly after we had our anchor set, a beat up johnboat with two Bahamian fishermen aboard came along side and asked us if we wanted some lobster. We took two! Sure beats looking for them on our own! We decided to take a short island tour and went to both of the two closest beaches for a stroll. We grilled one of the lobsters which with a bit of garlic butter made for a fabulous dinner.
Our friends on Dot’s Way showed up the next evening, and we enjoyed a couple of beers with them on our boat. After they left we grilled two steaks for dinner. Before dark a large motor yacht (maybe 150 ft), Bad Girl, anchored behind us. The large crew from Bad Girl made several trips to the beach that was 200 yards in front of us. They proceeded to gather wood for a fire then erected two tents, several umbrellas, tiki lanterns, chairs, tables, a grill, a music system, and began working on preparing food for dinner. Around 8pm the dozen or so VIPs from Bad Girl got on one of their three dinghies (all 16 to 20' boats) and went to the beach party. It was all very interesting. The female to male ratio was at least 3 to 1and the age ratio was about the opposite! We got bored with watching until they started the fireworks show! The fireworks were good and entertained the whole anchorage. One fellow on a Canadian registered boat hailed Bad Girl, registered in Bermuda, to thank him for the show. The Canadian asked leading questions about Bad Girl, but the English accented captain was quite secretive never saying much more that she was a privately owned vessel. Maybe it was a rock star, a movie actor, a royal, or perhaps an AIG executive; who knows. Oh well, it was fun to watch and speculate.
Irish Eyes made the long trip, about 5 miles, to Norman’s Cay, the ex home and business location of the drug baron Carlos Lehder. We went into the Beach Club, McDuff’s, for a drink and dinner. Norman’s Cay has 5 year-round residents and about 45 part-time residents. The staff at McDuff’s are usually there for a week and off for a week. Some go to Nassau and some go back to various points in the US or UK. Our waitress told us that some of the young guys are there for a few months; make of that what you may. The food was good and the booze flowed in the evenings for both the staff and guests.
We left Norman’s and headed south for another 5 miles to Shroud Cay which is the northernmost cay in the Exumas National Park where we picked up one of their ($15/night) mooring balls. This is the island with a natural fresh water well where we stayed last year. Bill made three trips in the dinghy bringing us about 40 gallons of water. That was enough for me to wash underwear and refill our forward water tank. Peanuts was wrong, happiness is a full drawer of clean underwear! Shroud Cay was a great place to explore. The island is basically two land masses, one on the banks side and one on the ocean side, with mangrove swamps and tidal creeks in the middle. We took two three-hour dinghy exploration trips through the mangroves to the sound beaches, one through the northernmost creek and one through a southern creek. The scenery was spectacular. At times the water was very shallow and we had to walk pulling the dinghy behind, but the views and the beach were worth the effort. Our little Tohatsu outboard motor was a trooper going through water we thought was deep but really was not. I found pretty things; Bill found stuff. The amount of plastic junk on a deserted beach is mind boggling. Sorry all you plastic guys at Eastman, but it’s enough to make a person want to ban plastic! Bill’s best find was the electronics from some sort of weather balloon. It was a Styrofoam case with a circuit board and battery inside and with lots of wires sticking out. The thing looked like a bomb but was too water logged to be scary. I would also ban Styrofoam if I were in charge.
Today we made a reservation on the VHF for a mooring buoy at Warderick Wells Cay, the headquarters for the Exuma Land and Sea Park. We put the dinghy on the deck, dropped the mooring ball, and sailed southeast from Hawksbill Cay until Warderick Wells was east of us. Then we started motoring, slowly, into the 25 knot east wind that we have had since leaving Florida. It was not fun. The boat’s instruments said it would take 2 hours, then when we almost stopped after hitting a wave and water went all over the boat, 3 hours, then 2 hours as we started moving again. Well, we got here, finally. Near the shore and protected by the cay between us and the wind it is nearly calm if you forget the singing of the rigging overhead. We took the American flag down; it was making too much noise. We got the WiFi working and Bill is re-patching the dinghy. It’s nearly time for a SDG&T. Got to go.

2009-03-24T14:24:00.000-07:00

March 16, 2009

When we arrived in the Bahamas we have to attest to the good health of the vessel and her crew. Fortuantely, we had no cases of plague, cholera, yellow fever or small pox during our ten hour voyage from Florida.

Sailing north around Bimini. The covered jugs are diesel and gas.

Bill thinks the iguana will come over and take the grape from his hand. The iguana plans to bite hell out of him, make him drop the grape, then pick it up. Bill does this twice before setting the grapes on the sand for the iguanas to pick up.

The view from the driftwood bench at the top of Allens Cay west over the Exuma Bank.

Greetings from Allens Cay, Exuma Cays, the Bahamas.
We left No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne Monday morning March 9 in the dark headed for Bimini. I have such poor night vision that getting out of the harbor and through the shallow Cape Florida Channel between Biscayne Bay and the ocean was scary. I was steering and Bill navigating. It didn’t help that the full moon set an hour before we left, that we had to go around some anchored boats, and that one of marks that was supposed to be lit was not. We cleared the last of the marks about 6:10am and were in the deep water of the Gulf Stream until we got to the channel into Bimini. This was our third crossing of the Gulf Stream. It was the middle one; not too rough or windy but not dead calm either. Four or five ships crossed our path heading south as we went east. We had a pod of the small spotted porpoises with us for about half an hour as the sun rose. We can’t ask for anything better than that.
Around midday, we heard a dive boat, Pirates Lady, calling the US Coast Guard from near Cat Cay which is just south of Bimini. They were reporting a missing diver. There was lots of radio talk about the search which involved two USCG helicopters and a number of pleasure craft. A large ship finally reported he could see something in the water. The heavily accented captain said he could not get close enough to make sure what he saw was the diver and was having trouble getting smaller boats to go take a look. We listened to the radio until we got to Bimini around 3pm, then switched it off. Bill was filling out the paperwork for the customs and immigrations while I breathed a sigh of relief that we were out of the Gulf Stream and firmly tied to Weech’s Dock. Ahead of us on the dock was Dot’s Way, a sailboat we had seen on and off in the ICW since Savannah. I was enjoying the warm temperature, clear water, blue sky, and a well deserved sundowner while Bill was meeting with officialdom ashore when Pirate’s Lady pulled into Weech’s. Pirates Lady is a 60 foot sailboat from Turk Island. She takes people out for a week of sailing and diving. Bill had finished with Customs and was on his way back from the Immigration Office when he saw a crowd of Bahamian police and rescue workers arriving at our dock. I think Bill was afraid I had gotten into trouble while he was gone and that Irish Eyes was about to be searched! Very regretfully they were there to retrieve the body of the missing diver. It was surmised the fellow had died of a heart attack. It was a fairly sober evening for us and probably a long week to come for the charter party on Pirates Lady.
Irish Eyes and Dot’s Way left about the same time both headed toward Nassau, and we were in sight of each other most of that day. It was a beautiful day with good wind for sailing in the morning before we turned east into the wind and started the engine. It was calm enough on the shallow Bahama Bank for me to make a loaf of bread. The sky was perfectly clear and at sunset we saw our first green flash. As the sun dropped below the horizon, the very last bit turned from the usual red-orange to a very bright pure green for the final second or two before disappearing. Spectacular! Bill had convinced me to sail overnight to Nassau, but Dot’s Way decided to anchor overnight ‘on the bank’. They dropped anchor in the middle of nowhere around midnight as we plowed on. Skipper Bob’s guide “Bahamas Bound” says beware of the 20 foot waves kicked up by an easterly wind in the much deeper Northwest Channel leading to Nassau. He wasn’t kidding. There was very little wind but lots of waves coming straight at us. I thought we would never reach West Bay on New Providence Island, but around 10:30am almost exactly 24 hours after our departure we did arrive and finally got our anchor down. A flying fish had landed on our deck during the night, and after tossing him overboard, both of us immediately took a much needed nap.
Anchored with us in this bay were two motor vessels and one large sailing catamaran. One of the motor boats was what we call a spaceship; white, sleek, fiberglass, lots of art deco windows, 60+ feet in length. This one was flagged (no doubt for tax reasons) in the Marshall Islands. It had an ultralight seaplane as one of its toys. The plane landed behind the boat, the pilot tossed a line to the deck hand and stepped off onto the yacht. An hour or so later he got back on the plane along with a passenger. They had a difficult time taking off, making several attempts, but finally after briefly returning to the mother ship they made it and flew off towards Nassau’s nearby airport. Shortly afterwards the boat pulled anchor and followed. I think I need a seaplane and pilot to take me to the next stop so I don’t have to sail over night.
We left West Bay around 9:30am and sailed southeast on the wind till we were past all the shallow spots around New Providence, then we turned dead into the wind and motored east across the Great Bahama Bank to Ship Channel Cay, another long motoring into the east wind. Sunset brought our second green flash every bit as spectacular as the first. We didn’t get to Ship Channel Cay ‘till after dark which does not make me comfortable, even with Bill watching the radar. But now we are in the Exumas and can go from anchorage to anchorage most of which are less than 5 miles apart. I like that! We spent two nights anchored behind Ship Channel Cay just resting up. The next day we went to Roberts Cay about a half mile south and spent the night. Yesterday, we sailed the 5 miles down to Allens Cay and into the anchorage between Allens Cay, Southwest Allens Cay, and Leaf Cay.
The Allens Cay area has iguanas. They are creepy looking big lizards some as long as three or four feet. We came here last year so the novelty is gone. The iguanas are just as ugly as I remember. Bill insisted on feeding the beasts grapes and got his finger bitten twice in the process! Does anybody else, other than Ann and Julia, remember the black racer snake that bit his finger? The iguanas got the same one. I really hope he doesn’t get some dreaded tropical iguana disease. We walked over the top of Leaf Cay, where most of the Iguanas live, to the ocean side beach. The water is so blue and the sand so white; can't beat that! I found a West Indian Top Snail shell. It was very pretty. I have vowed not to pick up just any shell, only the really great ones. We shall see how long that promise lasts!
When we anchored here yesterday it was high tide and we were closer to a sand bar than we wanted to be last night. There was not much we could do about it then because at low tide the boat would not float over the anchor so we could not retrieve it. This morning we picked up the anchor and moved a few feet to a better spot. Later, we took the dinghy to a small beach on Allens Cay itself and walked up a path to the high spot on the island to take in the view. Bill found a dead iguana, a decayed bird, and a large rotting bird’s egg, but the views were nice from a well placed driftwood bench someone had built. Two Canadian couples joined us and we talked with them for a while before returning to the boat.
All is peaceful tonight with us. We feel very fortunate to be here. God has been good to us! Hope you are all well.

2009-03-08T05:24:00.000-07:00

March 8, 2009

The restored Cape Florida Lighthouse at the southern tip of Key Biscayne. We can anchor in the nearby harbor for $15 a night. Not bad for such a pretty place. I bet the hotel rooms in town are a bit more!

Isabella with her hat and new umbrella stroller taking in the sights on the beach.

Mother daughter and grandaughter sitting in the cockpit. We are anchored. Notice how close the mangrove lined shoreline is behind us. It got closer as the wind shifted and the boat pivoted around its anchor.

This creature, a green iguana, was resting on the ever closer rocks under the mangroves behind us. He is not a spectacularly large one, only three feet. The guidebook says they grow to five feet and can stand up and run on their hind legs. It doesn't say anything about swimming - thank goodness.

We are anchored in No Name Harbor, on Key Biscayne in Florida having arrived here on the 26th. This is a most interesting place. The harbor is part of the Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park which is at the southern tip of Key Biscayne. The park is a natural area with walking paths, nature trails, bicycle paths, a beach, two very nice restaurants, and the beautiful white Cape Florida Lighthouse with its reconstructed keeper’s cottage. Just outside the park gates and down the sidewalk past really expensive houses and condos are a grocery, hardware, post office, drug store, and library with all the things I need, and lots of shops with things I don’t need but which are no doubt necessary for the people who live in the expensive houses and condos.
Bill and I discovered shortly after we arrived that on Key Biscayne English is the second language. People on the street and in the shops speak Spanish first and English second. The local folks are doing more than fine with their incomes, and the place is beautiful. The streets are lined with palm trees set among tropical plantings, the sidewalks are pink, and the soccer fields in the park look like golf course greens. They don’t need our WalMart, K-Mart, Target or other discount stores. CVS, Winn-Dixie, and Ace Hardware seem to be the only chain stores on the island.
Julia, Josh, and Isabella joined us our first Friday night here. Isabella didn’t mind her life jacket, but her ear infection kept her from feeling her best. She was a trooper and viewed the lighthouse and wildlife then spent two nights on the sailboat. Julia brought Bill his birthday present, a 2009 Defender catalogue which he has gone to sleep reading every night since, and a couple of replacement parts for the head (toilet) that is absolutely necessary for me. Josh treated us all to a delicious dinner at the Boater’s Grill.
No Name Harbor is not far from Miami, so on the weekend lots and lots of boats came into the harbor to enjoy the park and dine at the Boater’s Grill at the head of the basin. In spite of the signs saying no tying to the wall between 11pm and 8am, dozens and dozens of boats were rafted up three and four deep Saturday night with their engines idling, blue lights shining underwater, playing Spanish rap while everyone milled about and had a good time until the sun came up the next morning.
Sunday, after Julia, Josh, and Isabella left, we did our usual daily running of the engine to freeze the refrigerator’s holding plate and charge the batteries, only to discover an injector was loose, leaking exhaust and soot into the engine compartment. Bill, the fixer of all things mechanical, tightened the injector hold-down bolts to stop the leak. He said we needed some new gaskets for the injector in case it started to leak again. Those things are not in our spare parts inventory. Bill did an internet search and found the Yanmar dealer in Miami, Anchor Marine. He even found a way to get there with public transportation and just a little walking. On Tuesday we took the bus from Key Biscayne to Miami then the train across Miami to within six or eight blocks of the store. We managed the bus/train part of the trip flawlessly. We got off the train and started walking to the parts store. Little did we know we would be walking through Little Havana! The substandard housing, trash in the streets, cars randomly parked with dudes discussing whatever, barred windows, growling dogs, and razor wire on the top of the chain link fences let me know that I wasn’t in my kind of neighborhood! The internet map also didn’t show that we would need to cross both a canal and a river. The nearest bridge over the canal was barricaded and located in the middle of a fenced off construction area. Bill asked one of the fellows in a hard hat if we could walk through, and we did… right in front of an advancing bulldozer pushing a pile of gravel. To find a bridge over the river, we called the store, and they gave us directions for a six block detour to a four lane drawbridge with traffic whizzing both ways, but eventually we did make it to the shop although we were both dusty and hot. I was shocked to find the two little copper parts that we spent a whole day getting were the size of coins and cost a grand total of $3.00! We safely made it to a somewhat closer train station then back to our bus stop amid the skyscrapers of downtown Miami. Being hungry and thirsty, we decided to have lunch in a pizza restaurant before taking the bus to Key Biscayne. It was a very nice place, a mere stone’s throw from the ghetto. We enjoyed our $20 sandwiches while being served by three waiters. It was an entirely different world. I was happy because the sandwich was delicious, the glass was heavily frosted, and the beer was very cold! A walking trip with Bill is always an adventure, and so far they have all turned out all right in the end.
We have entertained ourselves nosing around the park, walking to the local stores, reading, and, in my case, knitting. I just finished an argyle sweater for Ann’s son Ely and put in the mail to him along with sheet of stickers for his sister, Kaelyn. For mid-week entertainment, Wednesday night, after the rangers left for home, the boaters had a cocktail party in the nearby picnic shelter. It is always fun to meet fellow cruisers. I have never met a boater I didn’t find interesting (and a few are too interesting); Americans, Canadians, couples, singles, people without a nickel to their names, owners of gold plated boats, the sane and the insane, dreamers and doers. I wonder if they find me similarly interesting.
The weather forecast is for the wind to slow down and shift to the southeast Sunday night as an area of high pressure spreads out over us. That should let the seas drop to two feet or less although the wind and waves will still be on our nose. So, we may get to make our crossing to Bimini either Monday morning or maybe Tuesday morning. Anyway, that is today’s plan. We will keep you all posted.

2009-02-26T04:25:00.000-08:00

February 25, 2009 The small beach below the bridge at the north end of Lake Worth is a convienent place to beach a dinghy. Shopping and a state park on the beach are both nearby. Our dinghy is the leftmost one.

Nice little boat, huh? We are waiting fora bridge to open and the wind is slowly blowing him down on us.

We motored out of the gap and around to her stern. Can you make out her name, hailing port, and flag?

The section of the waterway through Miami is a little more developed than the parts in Georgia, but there is actually less boat traffic. It is Wednesday and everyone must be at work. Poor people.

Hello from the Venetian Causeway Islands in Biscayne Bay near Miami, Florida. Since my last blog entry, Bill and I have moved the boat from the Matanzas River to Miami, 300 miles farther south! We have motored most of the way but still sailed a fair distance in the waterway when the wind was behind us.
We anchored off Daytona Beach one night, and we spent the next in the Titusville Municipal Marina where I caught up on our laundry and Bill went to West Marine. In Jensen Beach we had one more cold night, or at least a forecasted cold night. With forecast lows in the forties it was cold enough for the local freeze shelters to open for homeless folks and those living on unheated boats. We decided we would survive on our unheated boat. The low on the thermometer inside the boat was that night 57° which was higher than the in-the-boat high of 53° while we were in Carolina Beach. I will have to admit that we did put on our light weight long underwear in the morning for the trip to Lake Worth. But, by the time we arrived in Lake Worth (Palm Beach Gardens) it was warm enough for just a short sleeve shirt, long pants, and no socks! What joy!
We spent two days in Palm Springs stocking up on the groceries, beer, liquor, and the sundries we need for the next few months. The Lake Worth anchorage had a great little beach for landing dinghies with a wonderful Publix Supermarket just across the road and a block away. I made two trips for groceries, and Bill made numerous trips for beer. Remember he can only carry two cases at a time, one in his left hand and one in his right. The dinghy outboard motor was running poorly, so Bill cleaned the fuel filter and carburetor and replaced its spark plug restoring it to health.
We left Lake Worth Tuesday morning headed as far south as we could go in a day. The guide book said there were 28 drawbridges between Palm Beach and Miami. Most had restricted opening schedules that caused us to stop for up to half an hour waiting for an opening, so there was no way we could make the whole trip in one day. The scenery was varied only by the size of the houses along the way. In Palm Beach itself there were actual estates bordering the waterway. These houses were more than large with several acres of manicured lawns and gardens bordering the waterway... think of Biltmore House but with palms. Continuing south, we saw the now usual overly large houses, the typical Florida trailer parks, the large neo-Spanish style houses, the modern high rise condos, and everything in between.
Irish Eyes had been cruising along without any mechanical problems on this trip until we went under the Atlantic Ave Bridge in Delray Beach. All hell broke loose while we were under the open span. The motor suddenly began shaking enough to jar the teeth from out of my head! I was in the process of making a loaf of bread and said, “What the heck(?) is wrong”. Bill, being more mechanically minded, opened the cover at the front of the engine and announced, “The damn thing is jumping off its mounts. Shut it down”. We coasted through the bridge which closed behind us. Bill pulled up the floor in the cockpit and discovered the coupling between the transmission and the propeller shaft had come apart. Three of its four bolts were in the bilge and the last was holding the two halves of the coupling split, one to the left and one to the right, and the engines was cranking itself around and around the propeller shaft. We tossed out an anchor in the middle of the ICW and Bill disappeared with wrenches into the engine compartment while I waved at the all the boats that went past. Bill got the coupling bolted back together in under half an hour, and we were on our way; no damage done! We anchored that night in Lettuce Lake, actually just a wide spot in the ICW for the night. Bill worked on the shaft packing which was badly treated by the errant engine and was leaking water into the bilge at a good clip.
This morning we began the canal trip to Miami looking at the colorful variety of houses and waterside businesses along the way. It was early with very little traffic which was good because the concrete retaining walls on both sides of the canal make the motor boat wakes bounce back and forth. The total effect can be worse than Boone Lake on a summer weekend. We arrived at the Sunrise Bridge drawbridge all alone with a thirty minute wait and no other boats to go under the bridge with us. Just beside the bridge was Sunrise Marina. We had been circling around waiting for the bridge to open when a 156 foot yacht, Vajolioja (pronounced like The Jolly Roger), home port Bikini and flying a Marshall Islands flag, came out of the marina and into the ICW to wait too. Vajoliroja was absolutely beautiful! We have seen any number of large yachts, but this one was spectacular. Not a spot on her, gleaming white, all wood varnished within an inch of its life, a really beautiful boat. We admired the boat from all sides as the wind blew it slowly sideways down on us squeezing us in the gap between it and a similar size Australian yacht tied to the marina’s outside dock. Bill at the helm got us out of the hole to give the big boys lots of room. The bridge finally opened, and we followed in the stern wake of Vajoliroja to Ft Lauderdale where it went out to sea and we stopped for fuel. In talking to the dock hand I learned the Vajoliroja belongs to Johnny Depp, thus the name. The dock hand was impressed by the $30 an hour wage being paid to the boat’s wood varnishers, one of whom is kept on board as a permanent member of the crew of eight! It really was a beautiful boat.
Irish Eyes continued down the ICW through the northern beaches of Miami with their suburbs full of high rise dwellings set among the older beach houses they are replacing. By late afternoon we had gotten to the Venetian Causeway Islands just north of the port of Miami where we anchored between San Marino and Di Lido Islands. We are planning to go through the last Florida drawbridge in the morning then on to No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne to wait for good weather to cross to Bimini. Julia, Josh and Isabella will meet us there on Saturday. They are to take away our winter coat, hats, gloves, scarves & long underwear. I am looking forward to Isabella’s first stay on Irish Eyes. With a baby on board I’ll be a grandmother for sure!

2009-02-16T18:41:00.000-08:00

February 16, 2009

Turkeys on Cumberland Island. We must have seen 20 or more; some on the ground, some in the trees.

These things are just plane dumb. Bill threatened to hit one in the head with a stick and have me cook it.

Some of the shells I left behind on the beach. In fact, I left them all behind.

Flora of Cumberland Island. Actually, yellow jasmine. Especially pretty in February.

The blue thing in front of the Kingsley Plantatation house is Bill. The house originally had two symetrical chimneys, but the yankeys who bought it tore one down. The next winter they discovered why there were two.

We are in Florida! Yippee! I should be warm, but I’m not. The wind has been blowing from the north at about 20 knots. The temperature would have to be about 90 degrees right now for me to feel warm… and it is not 90.
We made it through all the shallow spots in Georgia: Hell’s Gate, the Florida Passage and the Little Mud River. We timed our passages to be on a half tide or better and rising to help us stay off the bottom. We arrived at Cumberland Island, Georgia on February 13th. The trip down the Brickhill River behind the island was lovely – birds, trees, marsh, water, and not a house or other soul in sight except for a pack of a dozen or so kayakers who we figure paid more for the experience than we.
You may have been asking yourself, what exactly do I do all day while Irish Eyes travels along? Bill gave me a super deluxe pair of binoculars for Christmas, so I find all the unusual birds spending the winter in the south. Some of these birds are really smart to come to Dixieland for the winter; it’s even colder up north. The 14 power binoculars have gyroscopes in them. All I have to do is press the correct button, and the bird I am looking at stops shaking, well, not the bird but its image in the binoculars. I can actually look at the bird and compare it to its picture in the bird book and be sure I saw what I thought I saw. Anyway, it keeps me entertained. (She also reads the For Sale signs, checks out the couples on the beach, spies on the passing boats, and examines the houses along the way. Bill)
We spent two nights anchored off Cumberland Island. On February 14th, Valentine’s Day, we took the dinghy to the Park Service Dock off Plum Orchard, a large house built by some of the Carnages. The house wasn’t open to the public, but we could wander the portion of the island owned by the National Park Service to our hearts’ content. We walked over the Atlantic Beach side. We saw turkeys, armadillos and lots of flora. When we got to the beach, I found several conch shells (some with very recently deceased with smelly animals inside), sand dollars and other lovely shells. I decided we didn’t need smelly shells for the next four months on board, so I left it all behind on the beach. Just as we started our walk back to the other side of the island, it began to rain. It rained pretty hard, but being hardy sailors, we arrived back to Irish Eyes wet, cold, muddy, but not daunted. It was a very nice way to spend Valentine’s Day. All you Boy Scouts, parents, or such; there isn’t enough money in the world for me to sleep on the ground on Cumberland Island. Too many creatures were crawling about for my taste.
Sunday morning we made our way into Florida stopping for the night between Fernandina Beach and Jacksonville in the Ft. George River opposite Kingsley Plantation. Bill and I had been there years before in Canary, our 22 foot sailboat. We inflated the dinghy and went ashore for a brief tour of the buildings and grounds. Not much had changed since our last visit in 2003. The ranger said they were in need of funds to complete the restoration of the main house and open it to the public. Still, it is a nice place for a visit.
Tonight finds us anchored in the Matanzas River near its inlet to the ocean. There is an ancient Spanish Fort off our stern. I can’t imagine why there should be a fort here. If we go to the exhibit tomorrow, maybe I will find out why this miserable, shallow, current infested area needed defending. For tonight we have two anchors down, supper and a warm bed.

2009-02-11T14:34:00.000-08:00

2009 Greetings from Onboard Irish Eyes.

Bill lights the 'Yacht Lamp' in a vain effort to warm the inside of the boat while it snowed outside in Carolina Beach.

This is the last pontoon bridge on the ICW. The part with white house has been floated off to the side. Now that we have passed, it will be moved back into place connecting Sunset Beach with the N. C. mainland.

The Marines keep this old landing craft tied up in Mile Hammock Bay. It must have some historical value.

The Ben Sawyer Bridge to Sullivans Island is typical of the swing bridges on the ICW.

We passed from the Cooper to the Ashley Rivers in front of the Battery in Charleston.

The Wapoo Creek Bridge south of Charleston is a bascule bridge. These are the quickest opening of the bridges.

Bill and I had so much fun in the Bahamas last year; we decided to go again this year. We are on our way to the Exumas, as far south in the Bahamas as we got last year.

We left Kingsport January 26th. We passed through Salsibury, NC spending the night with Bill’s Dad before making our way to New Bern.

Bill did boat maintenance while I did the boat provisioning (shopped). That means I was away from the boat while he pulled out at least one thing from every locker on the boat and made a great mess of everything. It was a good thing for our relationship that I was not there. While we were in New Bern, we had a lovely dinner with Jamie Mills and his roommate John. Jamie has become a very good cook, and John is a sailor, so we had a wonderful evening.

We agreed on Saturday, January 31 as our departure date. That was fine except the temperature was about 28° then we left the dock. Now, 28° is not too bad when we have 120v electricity, but it is entirely another thing when we cannot plug in our little heater.
We had a lovely three hour downwind sail on the Neuse River to the Intracoastal Waterway and Adams Creek where we anchored for our first night out. It was cold, so we were to bed early which was exactly what we needed… warm and restful.

The next day we made it past Beaufort, Morehead City, and Swansboro to Mile Hammock Bay in Camp Lejeune only touching the bottom twice. Score: Bill – 1, Adair - 1. After another full day motoring, (I say we go sunup to sundown, Bill just says quit whining) we anchored Monday night at Carolina Beach. Our next hurdle was to go down the Cape Fear River. That trip is twelve miles of open water exposed to the wind and twice daily tidal currents. Being the cautious sailors that we are, we actually listened to the weather forecast before we left. What a surprise! The high temperature for Tuesday was to be 34°, and on Wednesday NOAA said snow showers and a high of 32°!! And I thought I left the nasty snow stuff behind in Tennessee! We decided to stay put for two days. It wasn’t too bad inside Irish Eyes. Bill worked on the boat, and I read and knitted. If cold old Tuesday was not bad enough, we awoke on Wednesday to gray skies & snow showers! Yuck! The high temperature inside Irish Eyes was 51° which occurred while I had the stove lit cooking supper. I am not sure what Bill did that day, but I spent the day sitting in the vee berth under the covers with my hat on, reading & knitting. Nights weren’t bad at all until we looked up in the morning to see our frozen breath hanging as icicles from the metal frame of the hatch over our heads. I don’t know which is worse, having the cold drops of water fall in to my ear or looking up to see ice looking back down at me.

Bill’s 58th birthday was February 5th. The day dawned bright & sunny. The forecast was for 10-15 knot winds from the northwest. Great wind for a run down the Cape Fear River, and even better, the current in the morning would be with us. The only problem was the temperature! After much discussion, we decided to go on to Little River, SC. The prospect of seeing my sister Elaine & my brother-in-law, Jean Pierre, a hot shower, and electricity for our heater spurred us on. I had on two pairs of long underwear; Bill had three. We each had three shirts, heavy pants, coats, and hats. In addition for me, an ear warmer, gloves, heavy coat, numerous pairs of socks and my coat’s hood. The Cape Fear was a piece of cake, and in the afternoon we made it through the two shallow inlets between Southport and Little River with only one light bounce on the bottom even though it was dead low tide.

We tied up at Coquina Yacht Club and plugged in the heater. We had a great birthday dinner for Bill with Elaine and J.P. at the Mongolian Grill with dessert and drinks later at their house. The next day, Bill changed the engine oil while I had a girly lunch with Elaine and her friends. While I made good use of their washing machine, JP cooked us a spectacular dinner delivering us back to Irish Eyes where the heater was already running and life was good.

It was not nearly as cold on Saturday morning when we got underway. Elaine & JP waved goodbye to us from the road overhead as we passed through the Little River Swing Bridge and began our motor trip down the ICW and Waccamaw River to Georgetown. I made our first loaf of boat bread on the trip while we were underway. We anchored in the Georgetown harbor to warming temperatures. The next day’s journey from Georgetown to Dewees Creek (north of Charleston) was fairly uneventful except for a slow couple of miles around McClellanville where the water was shallow and the tide low. We saw more than a couple or 6 foot spots and never more than 8 in one two mile stretch. (We draw 5 feet.) At low tide it was hard to tell where the mud ended and the water began. Sunday’s anchorage in Dewees Creek was pretty. The porpoises were frolicking around while on one side of the boat the sun was setting and on the other side the full moon was rising.

Monday, we came through Charleston harbor with warming temperatures and clear skies. We could see the bridges across the marsh grass from miles away, and the houses on the Battery shown in the morning light. Bill was even barefoot for a while. We both took off even our light long underwear. We are headed south toward that place where Jimmy Buffett says “the weather suits our clothes”, well not these clothes. That night, we anchored in the South Edisto River off the side of the channel behind marker 157. The forecast was for highs in the seventies the rest of the week, but rain Wednesday and Friday.

The names of Tuesday’s places roll off your tongue. South Edisto River, Fenwick Island Cut, Ashepoo River, Ashepoo-Coosaw Cutoff, and Coosaw River. Suddenly, we are in Beaufort and Paris Island with its underpaid Marines in their barracks, then after a quick sail up Port Royal Sound to the channel behind Hilton Head Island and Calibogue Sound where we are within rifle shot of the overly wealthy in their grand mansions. Past Daufuskie Island, but before Georgia, is the Cooper River, abandoned by the Intracoastal Waterway, where we anchored among the salt marshes with the day’s freshly baked bread, roast chicken, vegetables, salad and wine for supper and the night.

Wednesday took us into Georgia across the Savannah River after a monster container ship crossed ahead of us going downriver. There are two drawbridges in Georgia and we passed through both of them today. In Thunderbolt we fueled the boat, topped off our water tanks, and emptied the trash. We get about 10 nautical miles per gallon. The aptly named Hell Gate connects the Vernon and Ogeechee Rivers. Our guidebook says that the water depth is 2 ft in the centerline of the channel at low tide. We need 3+ feet of tide to get our 5 ft draft through it. Our timing was bad. The tide was +3 ft and falling as we approached, so we have anchored for the night in the Vernon River near some houses in a place the chart calls Montgomery. Tomorrow morning should be a better time to go through. It is the 11th of February and we are four days ahead of ourselves last year.