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.

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.

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…

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.