Adventures of the Sailing Catamaran Kuhela

Staying in Florida

2011-11-30T10:04:00.001-08:00

We have returned from Hawai’i to our olde stamping ground: Altamonte Springs in Central Florida north of Orlando. We’ll stay here until we return to Hawai'i for my sister’s memorial service. Yes, she died while we were there and is in a far better place than she was. There was no way she could recover even a modicum of her past life, so it was a blessing. There will be a memorial service on the 14th of January off shore from the park we grew up next to in Kahala.

Our good friend, Steve (and Sue) Pinhey has offered, and we have accepted, to come to Fajardo and SunBay Marina, install both rudder hydraulic pumps, sail or motor Kuhela back to Culebra, put her on a DRNA “free” ball, and watch over her ‘till we return in late January. What a guy! Muchas gracias, Steve (and Sue)!

Honolulu, Hawaii

2011-11-06T19:25:00.000-08:00

My sister Suzy is in hospice in Kaneohe, Oahu, HI. She is generally comfortable depending on how long ago the pain meds were administered. She wakes occasionally and is in fine spirits, joking and chiding the nursing and hospice staff and reminding them to keep the noise down so as not to disturb her room-mate, Mrs. Alfanso. It is a tough time for us all, but she seems to be going along as expected and as she wanted.

She fell three times recently and on the last fall dislocated a disk in her neck which the doctors believe is inoperable due to her advanced osteoporosis and scoliosis. The pain from the previous failed back surgeries (the osteoporosis defeated anything the surgeons could do) and now the neck has her in constant pain (9 or 10 on a 10 point scale). Added to this is liver failure due to alcohol and the scoliosis creating pressure on it and her other organs. We have a terminal situation.

She has had a very happy and full life since her "flower child" days in San Francisco "in the day". She lost her soulmate, Ned Von Geldern, three years ago and never quite recovered. Hopefully she'll soon be with him.

Marnie and Aimee, our daughters, will be here tomorrow from Florida. They'll add more decorations to Aunty Suzy's room from the Arnold side. It is now well decorated with pictures of friends and relatives over the years.

Please keep Suzy Arnold Von Geldern in your prayers.

Waiting…again…

2011-10-26T15:01:00.000-07:00

THIS GOT SIDE TRACKED BY ACCIDENT: PROBABLY AUGUST, 2011

We’re still in Dakity, Culebra, Spanish Virgin Islands E of Puerto Rico. This anchorage is nearly perfect with its barrier reef, clear blue waters, and hilly, green backdrop. We’ll be here probably another week even though we have (or will as it got sent Thursday) get our mail from the Caltriders in Florida. We’ve been doing maintenance and projects when we’re not reading, socializing, or playing Spider solitaire on the computer: yah, loads of fun. The winter weather (winds) have started. They’re off and on 25+ knots mostly from the E and NE. Makes for great sleeping (mid-70’s). The sun still shines and there is little rain which makes it more than bearable given the North American alternative. We heard the groundhog came out and thumbed his nosed at Al Gore. Given our nightly display with Jupiter at our stern, Venus at our bow, the Milky Way, and thousands of stars to include around dawn the Southern Cross, we truly don’t have it so bad.

Our friends on Arita, Aussie Rob and Jacksonville Lauren Dehaan, are having a ball according to their blog, aritacruising.blogspot.com, which you shouldn’t miss. You’ll see why when you get there. They are headed down Islands ahead of us and we hope to catch up before we get to Granada or Tobago. I don’t think we’ll sail all the way to Trinidad for the Carnival in March, rather take a ferry. We hear that the oil rigs around the Gulf of Paria near Port of Spain are rife with fishermen/pirates waiting to pounce of us cruisers. It’s just too close to Venezuela and senior chavez (yes, lowercase, ze leet’l plik) to take any chances, especially after talking with a couple who were boarded, terrorized and burgled a month or so ago. A terrible, terrible experience which they thankfully lived through is spite of the pirates’ plan to torch the boat. Poverty sure is a bitch.

We’re off to COSTCO, West Marine, Wally World, Homo Depot (yah, we saw tee shirt in Key West at Fantasy Fest), etc. on Monday with Zoya, Albanian Jim and Chicago Debbie Alimi, to provision. This entails taking the 6:30 ferry to Fajardo, renting a $25 car (with $25 for insurance from our AmEx card), driving 75 miles, and taking the 5:00 p.m. ferry back to Culebra. It is mitigated by being able to BUY, BUY, BUY!! all of our favorite things, plus the essentials.

Behold and lo, Thursday’s Priority Mail arrived before noon, and fortunately West Marine dropped one of the orders, the in-line fuel (gas) filter for the outboard. Oh, well, Monday for that is probably better as there are two necessary fittings not included in the package. I did install the new Hellamarine port light (red). Unfortunately, it was just ever so slightly smaller than the original. Otherwise, I could have just put the new lens cover on and been done with it. The dingy navigation lights (bow: red and green; stern: white) did arrive and now work perfectly. I even put dielectric grease on the AAA battery ends hoping that it will protect the circuits/workings from the leaking batteries that destroyed the previous light set we had.

Hawaii Bound

2011-10-26T14:52:00.000-07:00

My sister Suzy Von Geldern is in the hospital in Honolulu. Her condition is not so hot, so we are making a pilgrimage to Straub Clinic and Hospital, an institution my Grandfather was a founding partner of and my father was also a partner of. Lot'ta Arnold history there. We'll be there a few weeks to sort things out and then be back in Orlando for Thanksgiving with Linda's Mom, the daughters, the grand children, and our friends.

The port engine is back on line. Needed two washers to create enough pressure on the injectors to keep the fuel in the cylinders. Lesson: when using used parts from another engine, even if it is the same as yours, BEWARE. They can be different.

Gave up on making a DIY water maker and send in our Katadyn for repair and refurbishing. Four to five week backlog: thankfully we'll not need it. DIY turned into a nightmare trying to figure motor horsepower, size and number of membranes and vessels, pump size, etc. So much B.S. and non-helpful information. Getting even freshwater output amounts is like pulling teeth! Duh, like what are we trying to do?!?! Also the prices have gone through the roof. Can't even begin to make one for less than $3,500 that makes 30+ gallons of product an hour.

By the way the latest storms have, so far missed us. We're into the "R's" and still OK. Let's hope the next two months are quiet as we are leaving Kuhela in SunBay Marina, Fajardo, PR for the duration.

Still Sitting...

2011-09-17T07:27:00.000-07:00

Could not get on the ferry yesterday to go shopping for parts and meds. There was a protest by the Culabrians, all ten of then, over the terrible service and mismanagement of the ferry operation, and it is atrocious. They stood around on the cargo loading ramp - the passenger ferry had broken down again - while the ferry captain, port employees and the local police in this Federally restricted embarkation point stood around helping the protesters on and off the premises. No singing; no chanting; no signs; no T.V.; no press; no nothing except standing around talking. What a bore, so we went back to the boat thus hurting the economic fabric of P.R. . A week ago, at least, a very large woman drove her car cross-ways onto the ramp, got out locking the vehicle, pulled open her shorts and panties and dropped the keys therein. "Come and get 'um if you want the car moved!", she jeered the authorities. Once again no one was willing to do anything - no dah - and she finally left several hours later after getting hot and tired. What a country...what a third-world, Hispanic country.

Sitting at Culebra

2011-09-15T10:35:00.001-07:00

It took 4 days for Maria to finally leave the area. She slowed down to almost nothing and has been showing us her SE bum squalls thru yesterday when the skies cleared and the sun came back out. The wind has kept up a steady 15+ knots which produces lots of electricity for us.

I have had the pleasure this week of working with internet sellers. They are distinguished by not having telephone numbers, or ones they answer, or email addresses that they reply to. You'd think by their actions that the economy is so booming and robust that they just don't have enough time to get to everyone. Yah, sure! No one seems to want to do business, or has drooling imbeciles who don't have a clew. I had one tell me in writing that my description of my inflatable (West Marine name and dimensions in centimeters) was "gibberish"; two others never returned my initial call after I asked a question. What is the business world coming to? My longest bout still continues over making a water maker myself. I've spend days on the internet and phone trying to get answers to questions on building the system: Does the pump come with a pressure regulator? How much freshwater comes out of the membrane? This one I suspect is the "dirty little secret" 'cause it looks like 800 gph really produces 0.7 to 5 gph fresh, the rest being brine. But get a straight email, phone call, or spec sheet: not a chance. Oh, well, I can still scrape the bottom of the hulls and haul water by the jug. By the jug means 23 trips to the faucet with a 25 liter jug: yes, 152 gallons. At least I know now what our water tanks hold.

Ya know, it just occurred to me that the no-service bums in Washington probably got everyone fired with their idiotic make jobs stimulus packages. They'll never figure it out: You can't make jobs, only employers can; so get out of the way and remove the impediments/regulations to doing business. And while your at it, quit bickering and sandbox fighting: work together and make friends for Heaven sake. Work for the people, not the silly little party.

Enough griping...we're fine and making repairs or doing upgrades and maintenance.

X-Tropical Storm Maria

2011-09-11T06:13:00.000-07:00

It's 7 a.m. in the mangroves at Ensenada Honda, Culebra, Spanish Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico with mostly cloudy (high) skies and no wind: calm! Maria really did fell apart from the wind sheer that started yesterday. Last night was to be her debut, but she was, thankfully, wanting having changed her mind and turned farther N than predicted even as late as yesterday morning. Today's prediction is for her to change her mind again, reform, and head out above the Bahamas and E of the U.S. coast as she grows in strength over the last week or two of her life. But, fear not, another bunch of storms (so far) are right behind her headed this way (N of us? S of us? Who the H... knows?) So here we sit with balmy skies and Trade Winds waiting for Tuesday and our next go around with presents from Africa. I am living me dream!

Would you believe - yes, you would - the port engine is still on the fritz. Mister "Muskles" managed to over tighten the hold down bolt on #3 injector stripping out the aluminum threads with the metal 10mm X 1.5 bolt: see, I am learning all about diesel mechanics, even metric stuffs. So, I'll Helicoil (put in new 10mm X 1.5 threads) it and try again to seat the currently leaking injector. If that doesn't work, I'll have to tap (cut in new threads) it to 11mm for a new bolt.

And, not to be out done, the water maker died. Leaks not only water from the piston, but also oil (from the gear box). So, I'll now learn all about desalination. You know, high pressure pumps, 12 volt electric motors to drive same, and osmotic membranes to filter sea water. Thank God I have the basic assembly knowledge and piping from the first one. The one good thing is that I'll up fresh water production from 6 gallons per hour to 40 g.p.h. Man, with production like that I can wash the boat with fresh water any time and sell the remainder to my fellow cruisers. Nothing like a little side job for extra income.

I doubled (double up) all the lines into the mangroves so I could just pull them back on board with out having to climb back in again. Smart!! Not only did it make it easy to untie, but also doubled the strength holding us in.

Culebra Continued

2011-08-25T06:09:00.000-07:00

The sun is out and we are making electricity!!! 30+ amps/hour, NET! Zowie!

Cat 3 Irene is over Eleuthra and Rum Cay Bahamas with TS winds out 225 miles...look out FL as even a near miss is going to be WET if not windy. Keep an eye on Wunderground.com's blog by Dr. Masters. He seems to have one of the best handles on it. Good luck and keep thinking NORTH today and tomorrow and then EAST for the weekend.

Culebra, Puerto Rico

2011-08-24T11:41:00.001-07:00

When we saw that Tropical Depression Irene was headed our way, we decided to bug to Culebra. We were still on one engine as I was unable to get the injector tubes connected, even though Fernando: The Boat Doctor had put the "new" injector pump and left the hook-up for ich. Irene was supposedly headed below St. Croix to our SE, then NE from there to the western tip of Puerto Rico and on to the W towards Hispaniola. Culebra is ENE of Fajardo and seemed to be a good place to hide out. Well as you know, the predicted course was just an intelligent guess and the ichtbay did her own thing and turned north faster than expected. Once we saw that we headed for the mangroves where our friend Jim Alimi on Zoya catamaran guided us to a shallow, narrow arm where we nosed in to a stand of mangrove roots. One small, shallow-draft sloop, Meander, beat us in and another sloop and a "stink pot" trawler, Mombo. , followed behind. We pulled the anchor into the root system and tied on five more lines to the larger trunks. From the beams and stern cleats we tied four more lines to more mangrove trunks. After lashing the sail to the boom and adding two more lines to augment the mail sheet, I spread the jib lines out to the mid-beam cleats to prevent the jib from moving. All of this took about three mosquito-less, dry hours in cooling breezes…man, what unbelievable luck. The only hard part was pumping the heads with the sulfur laden mangrove water. On reflection and further discussions with Jim, we should have put our no less than double the amount of lines we did: minimum of 20. Thankfully it turned out OK with the highest wind gusts in the early hours of Monday, 8/22/11, at 44 kph 67 feet above us. Down where we were snuggled in I doubt it got above 25 kph: a great spot with a hill to the E of us. Heavy rain filled but didn't swamp our new dingy. Dewey on Culebra 1.5 miles W of us saw sustained 67 kph winds, lost power, telephones, and water all due to poor planning and engineering: typical Puerto Rican as I'm told. Even the Post Office closed down for two days. What happened to "Neither rain, nor snow, nor dark of night…"? We came out to the lake in front of our canal unscathed at 3 pm (high tide) on Monday and anchored in the higher, cooling breezes, but still sheltered from the E and S winds and waves. On Tuesday we moved one bay closer to the entrance of Bahia Ensenada and across from Dakity where we normally hook up to a mooring ball. Still a little breezy and rough from Irene's bands: she's over Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas now! Huge! Monster! Hope she doesn't pull any more pranks and turn W again and hit FL.

One of the things we got done in the mangroves was to hook up the pressure and return lines to the injectors on the port engine. Hallelujah the engine started. BUT, the injectors leak so we can only maintain about 1,500 rpms. BUT, again, we can maneuver!!! What a wonderful feeling to be back in almost complete control.

We'll hang here under cloudy , wet skies 'till Thursday to hopefully pick up our mail and packages. Then back to SunBay in Fajardo to have The Boat Doctor remedy the leaking injectors, Papo install an injector on the outboard, and have the old injector pump rebuilt for a spare. So, come one, come all starting next Monday when we'll be in San Juan for a pickup: we gots da space.

Fajardo and Salinas, Puerto Rico

2011-08-15T06:26:00.000-07:00

Over the past month we have had both daughters (sans husbands, unfortunately), four grand kids, and Kathy and Lee Maidenberg (dear friends from Clearwater, FL) stay with us. Kathy and Lee had the pleasure of riding out tropical storm Emily at Yobos just E of Salinas. Lee was most helpful helping me survey the nooks and crannies for a snug hiding spot in the mangroves. Thankfully we didn't have to "repair" to them and the skeeters as Emily never quite got up to speed as she passed to the S and W of us. One early morning of high winds and torrential rains and she was gone over Hispaniola. We made it to the bioluminescent bay at Las Carobas near Fajardo with Aimee and the g-children, and Mosquito Lagoon, Viequez with Marnie and the boys. Now that's a sight to be seen: light blue "fire" as you cut through the water with hand or paddle. The boys had to try peeing, but without success as the dinoflagilates were under the surface a few inches.

Our port engine has been out the whole time. We finally believe it is the injector pump that needs to be rebuilt. I have been trying to get out, but have had to tap and spray (Blaster: it really works, but slowly) because of the corrosion caused by the raw water pump's (it's situated over the engine so when it failed several years ago, it sprayed the entire engine with sea water) failure. Anyway I'm down to one more nut which should come off this morning. Then I'll put in a pump I got with the purchase from the local Volvo dealer of another engine for its parts. We HOPE this will do the trick. The Boat Doctor, Fernando, has been immensely helpful through all of this.

So hear we sit at SunBay Marina monitoring the weather every morning watching the waves pour off Africa waiting for the engine to be fixed and debating whether nor not to flee back to Salinas and Yobos, a days sail (10 hours) S and W of Fajardo. It rains on and off so we have the AC going at night in our cabin and endure the heat in the salon as we button up periodically. Truly is isn't as big a deal as I make it sound.

Oh, let me bring you up to date on the dingy. After a call to West Marine HQ in California I got not only satisfaction but a new, upgraded RIB 350 for a nominal price. Yes, it comes with a five year warranty which should outlast the glue as, yes, it is still a Zodiac. Much better boat which is a foot longer with a seat, oars and oarlocks, and a forward, built-in locker. Only downside is the self-bailer which leaks like a sieve. I'll call WM to see what their "fix" is. I must say that when HQ learned what was going on, they stepped up and did the right thing without any hesitation. Let's hear it for West Marine and Port Supply!

Fajardo, Puerto Rico

2011-06-27T11:16:00.001-07:00

We got back to PR and Culebra June 10. Our tip to central Florida - we stayed with Jackie and Duane Williams - was successful: doctor appointments seemed to work for both of us; money was well spent at West Marine and Harbor Freight; the kids were all fine as were the g-kids and mother-in-law; the "Hood" was open-armed and gracious; and the weather was mostly good. As some like to say, "A good time was had by all." While we were lounging around, Jim Alimi, Zoya, was refinishing our interior saloon woodwork. He did such a great job we hired him to redo our saloon cushions, too. Wow, what a difference. You'll love the sight if you ever stop by.

After our return we waited a week trying to fix the dingy which has sprung the seams that glue the pontoons to the hard bottom. In other words the glue failed and it leaks water, not air, like a sieve. No amount of 5200 (sealant that dries in 24 hrs.) seems to do, so I found the 5-year guarantee (thank God!) and took the collapsed sinker in to the repair shop in Carolina (San Juan) in a rental pickup. Of course this necessitated sailing back to Fajardo on a lovely downhill run in squally weather, where we took up residence again in SunBay Marina. We were greeted as long lost family by Doña Olga, the owner and manager. What a place: single slip pricing (we usually have to pay 1.5X or 2X 'cause our 28' beam takes up more than a single slip), free water, free electricity, free Wi-Fi and Cable, and patrolling security: almost too good to be true.

Debbie and Rick Lehto, Miss Heidi, came back with us, but are staying at Puerto del Ray Marina S of us by a few miles: much more expensive and far less friendly and secure. They are having warranty work done, too, on their transmission. Seems when the new one was put in no one looked – and who would – to see that the drain plug was put in correctly. We've also made a few runs to dinner, Wal-Mart and COSTCO together since.

We have been thru three tropical waves (basically windy rain storms lasting less than 24 hours) to date and have not made up our minds what we'll do for the rest of the season: stay put in PR; sail around PR, SVI, USVI, and BVI; or head back S slowly towards Grenada. We want to be close to Salinas in case we have to duck into the mangroves at Lobos 'cause of a hurricane alert. I think we can make it back in plenty of time from the Leewards or Windwards which are basically "full" and no good places to hide left. Linda feels they're too far off. We both agree that the PR, SVI, USVI, BVI sail plan is doable. We'll keep talking.

While waiting for Zodiac to make up their minds – fix or replace, and we're sure it'll be fix and a 1 year warranty – we've been doing projects. We installed a HDTV, Dri-Decked the cockpit in Kuhela green, set up a wireless network with a 1 terabyte (remember 16 byte computers from Texas Instruments?) wireless hard drive, put in a security camera, ordered more paintballs and cayenne pepper balls with 200 round hopper for my long barrel paintball pistol, ordered an ozone generator, and cleaned, straightened, cleaned, straightened, cleaned...

At Sea: May 4, 2011

2011-05-06T13:57:00.001-07:00

It has been a very long time since I last wrote…I have been bowled over by Lauren and Rob Dehaan's aritacruising.blogspot.com. I have been so out classed by them that I got into a blog funk. But, I realized that there a few people that simply want to know where Linda and I are, so, here goes again. BUT, PLEASE do go to Rob's BLOG for details missed here and Lauren's PICTURES! He and she have the gift…fabulous!!

Since last I wrote back in P.R., we buddied up with Debbie and Rick Lehto of Miss Heidi and set sail for parts unknown to us, but not to them. Via St. Thomas and the northern BVI to gain an edge on the mostly easterly wind, we headed SE to Majors Bay, St. Kitts. This was a long and arduous over-night trip where we couldn't keep our course because the wind veered a little SSE forcing our course further S. We crossed the Saba Bank – a shallow area which pushes up the wave heights – at night in 5-6' choppy seas ending up 38 nm S of our target anchorage. The book said we should make the first tack the longest, but not how to compute the next tack. Anyway we motored into the wind the final leg to Majors Bay where we met up with Miss Heidi and spent the night. Next morning we sailed windward of Nevis and Montserrat down to Deshaies, Guadeloupe. Montserrat is stunning with its perpetual steam vents and mud flows that buried an entire town. In Deshaies we rented a very expensive car and went S to Basse Terre where we had a very French lunch overlooking The Saintes. On March 23 we checked in to Antigua at English Harbour to await the arrival of the Vaughn family (Marnie & Mark and our grandkids, Kyler, Dalton, and Parke)r. We had a fun time with them for 9 days of fishing, snorkeling, sailing and their favorite, swimming with the stingrays. We stayed for the Classic Race week after they left and then the following week's just plain old races, "come one come all". We also had the boat hauled at North Sound Marina for a bottom job and work on the port rudder which had developed a wobble: seems the key had either slipped out or had not been replaced when we had work done on it in P.R. We also took a side trip N to Barbuda, a flat and uninteresting place famous for its frigate rookery: woo, woo!

Today we are headed back to Culebra completing a wobbly circle. We have just passed windward of steaming Montserrat and Redonda. I can see Nevis with St. Kitts behind. Once again we are heading for Majors Bay for sundowners (G&T for Linda; R&T for me), dinner and some sleep. From there it is a 165.6 nm shot past Saba (missing the bank this time) to Dakity, Culebra, Puerto Rico. At 5 knots we should get there in 30+ hours.

We are planning a trip back to the good olde U.S. of A. on the 16^th so we can share a car to the aeropuerto with Debbie and Rick. We could be in Orlando for up to 2 months if Linda has her knee worked on. It's been giving her trouble for a couple of years and has now progressed to the "maybe it's time" stage. Only the doctor (and Blue Cross) can tell. We'll be staying with our dear friends Jackie and Duane Williams who have offered to nurse Linda if need be. We'll activate our phone again: (772) 559-9375.

Waiting…again…

2011-02-05T15:22:00.001-08:00

We're still in Dakity, Culebra, Spanish Virgin Islands E of Puerto Rico. This anchorage is nearly perfect with its barrier reef, clear blue waters, and hilly, green backdrop. We'll be here probably another week even though we have (or will as it got sent Thursday) get our mail from the Caltriders in Florida. We've been doing maintenance and projects when we're not reading, socializing, or playing Spider solitaire on the computer: yah, loads of fun. The winter weather (winds) have started. They're off and on 25+ knots mostly from the E and NE. Makes for great sleeping (mid-70's). The sun still shines and there is little rain which makes it more than bearable given the North American alternative. We heard the groundhog came out and thumbed his nosed at Al Gore. Given our nightly display with Jupiter at our stern, Venus at our bow, the Milky Way, and thousands of stars to include around dawn the Southern Cross, we truly don't have it so bad.

Our friends on Arita, Aussie Rob and Jacksonville Lauren Dehaan, are having a ball according to their blog, aritacruising.blogspot.com, which you shouldn't miss. You'll see why when you get there. They are headed down Islands ahead of us and we hope to catch up before we get to Granada or Tobago. I don't think we'll sail all the way to Trinidad for the Carnival in March, rather take a ferry. We hear that the oil rigs around the Gulf of Paria near Port of Spain are rife with fishermen/pirates waiting to pounce of us cruisers. It's just too close to Venezuela and senior chavez (yes, lowercase, ze leet'l plik) to take any chances, especially after talking with a couple who were boarded, terrorized and burgled a month or so ago. A terrible, terrible experience which they thankfully lived through is spite of the pirates' plan to torch the boat. Poverty sure is a bitch.

We're off to COSTCO, West Marine, Wally World, Homo Depot (yah, we saw tee shirt in Key West at Fantasy Fest), etc. on Monday with Zoya, Albanian Jim and Chicago Debbie Alimi, to provision. This entails taking the 6:30 ferry to Fajardo, renting a $25 car (with $25 for insurance from our AmEx card), driving 75 miles, and taking the 5:00 p.m. ferry back to Culebra. It is mitigated by being able to BUY, BUY, BUY!! all of our favorite things, plus the essentials.

Behold and lo, Thursday's Priority Mail arrived before noon, and fortunately West Marine dropped one of the orders, the in-line fuel (gas) filter for the outboard. Oh, well, Monday for that is probably better as there are two necessary fittings not included in the package. I did install the new Hellamarine port light (red). Unfortunately, it was just ever so slightly smaller than the original. Otherwise, I could have just put the new lens cover on and been done with it. The dingy navigation lights (bow: red and green; stern: white) did arrive and now work perfectly. I even put dielectric grease on the AAA battery ends hoping that it will protect the circuits/workings from the leaking batteries that destroyed the previous light set we had.

Awaiting our Next Jump-off

2011-01-23T10:15:00.000-08:00

Since I last wrote we have been sailing with our dear friends (and hopefully someday co-owning live-boards) Betty and Byrle Raper to St. Thomas, St. Croix, Vieques, and back to Fajardo and SunBay Marina. St. Croix was the most fun. We sailed down on a beam reach (wind blowing on our Port (left side looking forward) with winds gusting to 26 kph and seas 3-5’…”we be smoking!”... averaging over 8 knots the whole way. The weather helm (tendency for the sails to turn us into the wind) was strong so we put in a reef (made the sail shorter) and still flew.

Sea plane

Cops at Frederiksted parade

Christiansted was lovely and we went into a marina, (Jones Maritime for $55/night) just across from the seaplane commuter terminal. There are multiple flights daily between Christiansted and Charlotte Amalie, St. John. We rented a car and toured the island absorbing its Danish heritage. We went to the Estate Whim Plantation (museum) and were regaled as to the sugar/rum history of the island. We visited the Cruzan Rum distillery and found some Danes we had befriended on the way to the car rental agency on Centerline Rd. who told us to forget the tour and just see if we could have a rum drink instead. Low and behold, for a dollar less ($4) we could drink all day sampling their various rums: banana, pineapple, cream, amngo black cherry, etc., a great deal without the walk.

Christiansted Marina from fort

Christiansted Government

Frederiksted was holding the last of the Christmas parades consisting of two flatbed 16-wheelers decked out in huge boom-boxes and dancing people plus crowds of marchers also dancing fore and aft of each truck. We stayed as long as possible (about 45 minutes) and had to turn the car back in.

St. Croix rain forest

Los Palominos

From there we motor/sailed to Puerto Ferro, Vieques in calm seas with light winds. This “luminescent” bay turned out to be a bust even on a night with no moon. Very few luminescent critters even in the toilets (we flush with salt water): quite disappointing for all of us. From there we sailed back to Fajardo and took the Rapers back to the aero Puerto via El Junque, the PR rainforest.

Los Palominitos

From there we took Kūhela back to Salinas on the south coast to rent a car to go back to the aero Puerto to pick up Steve Pinhey who had taken us there when we returned to Florida at Thanksgiving. On the way to pick him up we stopped not only at Fuddruckers and COSTCO, but also at the Arecibo Observatory. Wow, what an interesting place. Their Visitors’ Center is a two story affair that is spell bindingly full of fascinating displays of the planets, solar system, galaxy and beyond. Well worth the hike up from the parking lot to the rim of the huge sink hole they constructed it over. It’s a definite “Don’t miss”. I finally got Volvo aboard to fix the oil leak from the oil sensor when we got back to SunBay. It took them 5 days to do a one day job, but at least they did it right. Also had the zipper replaced on the sail cover as it had slipped a tooth and broken off trying to re-seat it.

Linda and Betty at Los Palominos

We are back in Culebra, Spanish Virgin Islands waiting for the playoff football games this afternoon (nah, really the weather). Our plan is to head for St. Maarten (the French side as they have their entry procedures down pat compared to the Dutch side) to catch up with Arita on her way down islands to carnival at Trinidad in the first week of March. After that we will probably come back up the islands to Antigua for Classic Race week where classic wooden sail boats congregate in April to race each other.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T14:41:00.000-08:00

Richard & Shara \Waas at Crown Bay, St. Thomas, USVI

Two days before Christmas and we haven’t even “Decked the Halls”. It seems that cleaning and painting have overtaken Kuhela. Boy does she look sharp!

Main (shopping) street, Charlotte Amalie

Last week we sailed over to St. Thomas to meet the Wasses from Miami on their cruise aboard the Allure of the Seas: 7,000 passenger ship. We toured Charlotte Amalie together visiting shops; the second oldest sand floor synagogue - symbolic of the 40 years the Jews wondered in the desert - in this hemisphere; and Wikked, a wings restaurant at Havensite Marina.

Oldest sand floor synagogue

Cruise ships (3) at Havensite, Charlotte Amalie off the back of Wikked

This dock and the one below are the same, just different directions

And where there were none a month ago, now 'tis the Season

We’re still in Culebra at Ensenada Dakity attached to one of the mooring balls provided by the Puerto Rican government. How nice to see where our tax money is going. Speaking of that, Stimulus Funds of over $273,000 were used to renovate the lift bridge at Dewey even though there is a fixed 12” steel pipe protected by a steel superstructure in case hit gets hit at the lowest level of the bridge. Result: even if the bridge is raised, the pipe still blocks the waterway 10 feet above the water. Reminds me of the “bridges to nowhere” we’ve heard about recently. Isn't our government wonderful?

Speaking of our government (yes, the lower case “g” is intended) we all need to read Glenn Beck’s book, Broke. You can get it at your local bookstore. What a great and frightening read! We all need to be re-educated and informed as to what is happening (has happened) to our country AND what we all need to do about it. He documents and footnotes all his observations in great detail. Please do yourself a favor and get a copy. You may think he’s purely an entertainer, BUT… Believe me, you’ll thank me (and Glenn).

Let us take a moment to wish all our family, friends, and loved ones a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Profitable New Year. Even though you are far away, you are always in our thoughts and hearts.

Sunset at Salinas barrier island, Los Rattones

We're Baaaack...

2010-12-07T09:31:00.001-08:00

We returned to Salinas, PR a week ago from a wonderful 6 weeks in the good olde U. S. of A., central Florida to be exact, where we celebrated Linda’s Mom’s 86th B-day and Turkey Day with family and friends. By the way, car rentals are best for a month as the last two weeks are almost the same price as the month: stay one or two months, no fractions. Kūhela was in great shape thanks to Steve and Sue Pinhey on Loose Change, who not only looked after our home, but also had taken her into the mangroves when Tomas turned menacingly north towards Hispaniola and PR. Unfortunately because we weren’t moving except for the once over and back to Jobos’ mangroves which are moderately close, the barnacles and seaweed grew in horrendous profusion. The sound, like crinkling cellophane, of shrimp dining on our hulls was almost deafening as we tried to get to sleep the first night back. Even so, it took two days to get in the water, which was surprisingly warm, and start scraping with a putty knife and scrubbing with a brush. By the time, I got pooped, probably 2 hours, I’d managed to get about 70% of the starboard hull, step and rudder done. The rest was to wait ‘till the next day when I’d get 70% of the port hull done. Then the NEXT day, I planned to get out my “Hooka” (It’s a 125 psi oil-less electric air pump with 70’ hose attached to my SCUBA regulator) and do the remaining 30% of both hulls that was out of reach from the surface. What a delightful way to spend the next three days! Although it wasn’t planned, we figured our friend Steve could use some cash for his and Sue’s upcoming trip home, so I offered him the work. Thankfully he took me up on it and polished off the rest of the bottom in jig time. Thank you Steve! Now all I had to do were menial chores and make water which is only noisy.

The weather has been perfect the last week, but has turned cloudy with 70% chance of rain today. Eat your hearts out: the day temperatures have been in the mid-80’s, and the nights in the low-70’s; clear skys and lovely sunsets; gentle breezes; warm waters; you know, “I’m in Heaven…” I keep telling everyone, “Come on down!”

Tomorrow we drive Steve and Sue to San Juan and then stock up at Costco for our expected company: Betty and Byrle Raper and possibly Ron Hurtle and his gal Linda and Paula and John Godfrey from Titusville via Canada (they may join us for Christmas). Most everyone is expected on the 29th. By the 15th we will be in Charlotte Amalie, USVI to hopefully meet up with Shara and Richard Waas from Miami who are coming in on the cruise ship Allure, sister ship of the Oasis, one of the largest cruise ships in the world.

USVI

2010-09-26T06:56:00.000-07:00

Looking E to USVI 1/2 way from Culebra

Looking W to Culebra

While Earl only gave Puerto Rico and us a slight shot, it whacked the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) much more severely. We saw way more a dozen sailboat wrecks on St. Thomas and St. John plus devastation to the reefs.

Along the shoreline we saw evidence – mainly brown bushes and shrubs – above the beach of the 12’ to– 18’ waves that swung in from the south ripping up the coral, flinging it onto the shore and discoloring the vegetation. Needless to say the snorkeling was lousy.

After a ride over to Cruz Bay, St. John and the National Park Headquarters for information, we motored into the 20 to 25 k wind past Caneel Bay, too rough; Hawlksnest Bay, too rough; Trunk Bay, too rough; and half way to Francis Bay, also too rough.

Charlotte Amalie

We turned tail and sailed back down wind past Great St. James Island, Jersey Bay, Packet Rock and Barrel of Beef into Charlotte Amalie Harbour where we anchored across from the cruise dock with just one (it can handle two) ship, Carnival Victory, tied along side. I have never seen so much shopping, both at Havensight (east of downtown) and Charlotte Amalie. Literally hundreds of jewelry, liquor, clothing, tourist junques, etc. stores are one right next to another with some stuffs all in the same store. How they survive I do not know, and everything is closed on the 3 or 4 non cruise ship days. It’s all very orderly and friendly with no shop owner hawking his wares from the front of the store.

Linda and Pinheys at 99 Steps

Linda below Blue Beard's Castle

Police are everywhere you turn which seems to have tamped down their poor reputation for crime against tourists. However, the locals do tell you to be smart jus’ like seeing any large city.

Linda's new dress - Woooow!!!

We took the “Dolla’” cab/bus – a heavy truck pickup with rows of seats and a metal roof - to Red Hook on the southeast end of the island. By the way, cab/taxis are quite expensive and heavily and loudly solicited on every street, doorway, shady spot and corner. The ride turned out to be two dollars as the price and distance went up. Very cute place which was in the throes of a chicken wing cooking contest (feeding frenzy) for the benefit of a childrens’ home. We people-watched from a bar overlooking the parking lot where it was held. Boy, those Hooters girls sure are scrimply stacked. Seems there are to be elections shortly as a Democratic candidate for office was glad-handing crowd with his “I’m your best friend and will take care of you” smile.

Brewers Bay

We’ve anchored since yesterday in Brewer Bay, right next to the airport and runway, just west of Charlotte Amalie. It has a park and beach at its head and is very lovely with clear water and a sand bottom. You can always tell a good anchorage if we make water, and we are. The noise which one would think would be terrible is not at all. The planes come in mostly during the day (none after 9 p.m.) and with noise abatement are rather quiet. Don’t tell anyone (the cruising guide hasn’t figured it out either) ‘cause we’re the only ones anchored here very close to Charlotte Amalie. Monday we’ll head back to Culebra where I hope to find my meds at the post office General Delivery as the Rx company screwed up the last order and I’m about to run out.

Pirate ship motoring over to cruise ship dock

OK, it’s time for the Great Haircut Debate to begin. Does Harry’s crew cut win out for convenience (no combing in the a.m.; after a wind tousle; a hat muss; a swim; a rain; etc.) or lose to past beauty (no vanity/conceit intended)? Here are some pictures, I hope, to help you decide. Please comment on the blog and I’ll publish the results after a modicum of time, but not so quickly that it’ll gown out before October 22 if long hair wins.

Culebra Revisited

2010-09-18T17:10:00.000-07:00

Salinas harbour and Marina

Rob and Lauren Dehaan of Arita

Steve and Sue Penhey of Lose Change

We’re baaack! Anchored (on a DRNA free mooring ball behind Rob's head) to the left of the entrance and behind the reef at Ensenada Honda. After our stay in Salinas with all its nutrients Kūhela developed a moss and barnacle skirt. I know, all boats do this, but Kūhela does it twice. So I mask, fin and rub from the surface as low as I can go. Then get out the SCUBA regulator and the oil-less air compressor with 70’ hose and do the bottom ⅔rds. Oh woe is me having to “cut the grass” every month or so, unlike Florida in the day when it was every 4 days in the summer. That’s the price we cruisers have to pay to stay afloat. Oh, hum.

I went into the local post office and retrieved my very late (lost) birthday card from my dear friends Peggy and Jack in Titusville. Seems a very green iguana holding a frozen margarita is asking, “Got lime?” Inside it says, “Celebrate like the cold-blooded party animal you are! Happy Birthday.” Cute, huh?!?! All the rest of the cards seem to have been returned or are still lost. No, I don’t get it either.

The weather has been wonderful this past week, so on top of relocating to Culebra via Vieques we are going to make a 12 nm passage to Charlotte Amalie, USVI and St. Thomas. We might take a peek at the BVI in spite of their cruising permit fee, too. I was sorry we couldn’t stay longer at Vieques – just one night - but Linda is still hurting from the accident and didn’t want to bounce around the island on a motor bike or golf cart just yet. We’ll go back later when she’s better healed.

Although I’ve heard about it I have never seen (been near) someone who came down with a recurring bout of malaria. Rob Dehaan of Arita got his in New Guinea years ago and it’s come back. Poor guy is down for the count with all the classic symptoms. Thank God he has his beautiful wife, Lauren, to nurse him back to health. Too bad she spells her name wrong. Should be like me, “Loren”.

Post Hurricane Earl - Salinas, PR

2010-09-06T10:38:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it to the mangroves at Jobos in plenty of time: that is it wasn’t dark yet. Just inside the barrier islands and channel is a large 50+ acre lake with branches off it driving deeper into the mangroves where we’d normally hide. Listening to the National Weather Service we thought that Earl would keep heading NW of Puerto Rico and not be much of a threat to us on the S side of the island. We were right…winds never got to 40 kph even in the gusts, and we were able to stay in the lake away from the mangroves and their resident mosquitoes and no-see-ums and light airs. While we have “no-see-um screens” (very tight mesh screens), they also cut down the breeze that can pass thru so badly that we don’t like putting them up unless it’s absolutely necessary: hot, hot, and hotter! In the lake they, thankfully, weren’t necessary. At least twenty boats were snuggled down in the mangrove fingers with the skeeters and no-see-um. We went to bed with a stiff breeze and rain bands coming over every 20 or so minutes: no big deal, again very thankfully.

It seems at least that my children don’t understand about “the mangroves”. They lie behind barrier islands (Cayos de Barca) and inland another mile from the sea. They are trees with extensive root systems that thrive in salt water. Boats are able to get in-between the root systems (like into a cul de sac) and tie to them in multiple directions with multiple large lines. Add to this several anchors in the direction and counter direction (the winds switch as the ‘cane passes) of the winds and one is as snug as a bug can be it its rug. The trees block the wind and the roots not only break up the waves but also hold you gently – they are quite pliable - as you move (are pushed) up against them. Definitely better than a marina with all their risks: boats breaking lose; rigid dock lines over-riding the pilings; docks breaking up; etc.

Another question is what do we do when we need to evacuate from the boat to the nearest casino/hotel: hay, gotta go first class in these conditions ya know. Well we have our “Ditch Bag” with all our necessities: insurance and boat papers, cash, credit cards, passports, medicines, toiletries, etc. We dress as if we were going to make a run for it and make sure the dingy is ready to go. Then when we make the decision to evacuate to higher ground we step into the dingy with our bag and make a run for it to the nearest dingy dock and transportation further inland.

I forgot to mention our car accident: yes, Crash Arnold did it again. For those of you who do not know where this moniker came from, let me take you back to the 2004 and my Aunty Sally’s 90th birthday party in Honolulu. Seems I had a little too much to drink there and backing up was a challenge. At Coco Isle where were staying at my sister Suzy’s condo, I managed to back into the power distribution box for several of the condos across, thankfully, the street from my sister’s. Oh, did I mention it was Super Bowl Sunday morning and all the freezers, frigs, and TVs went out! I think you can guess how popular I was that day. So back to the present and we are headed to COSTCO and Homo Depot for some things. Three miles out of Fajardo I decided to change lanes around a PR driver (really, he was doing 30 mph in the 55mph SLOW lane). I looked in the mirror and even turned my head (as Linda will testify) and missed seeing the car in my blind spot. Kias have a very, very tight turning radius and I managed to over steer when Linda yelled “Car, Car!!” As we spun to the right, we went into the concrete bridge barrier, bounced off and headed down the road backwards for maybe 20 feet. The air bags deployed (that’s for you, Jack) and Linda was sure she was in Heaven. She had the wind knocked out of her from the seat belt and the air bag and all she could see was white. In a moment she realized it was just the white air bag in her face surrounded by talcum powder. We both were bruised and Linda discovered a torn intercostal muscle or a broken rib three days later. She’s wearing a back brace that gives some support making the pain mostly bearable. Best part, it was a one car accident and no one was seriously hurt.

Gaston is looming E and S of us, but is having a hard time getting organized. Looks like it’ll just be a tropical storm when it passes S of Puerto Rico. But TS is just one mph below a class 1 hurricane so we’ll keep a wary eye on it over the next few days.

Happy Labor Day to all.

Hurricane Earl...Fiona (?)...etc.

2010-08-29T05:39:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to say we are heading for the hurricane holes 2nm East of Salinas on the South coast of Puerto Rico. It just the smart thing to do. We'll anchor behind one of the out islands to catch the breeze until it is more definate (like Monday) that we're going to get it. We'll then take the high tide into the middle of the mangroves and hunker down.

Fajardo, Puerto Rico - II

2010-08-14T14:13:00.000-07:00

Ensenada Honda, Culebra

Linda, Steve and Sue Phinney at Culebra

Dr. Job & Teresa Andujar with Linda
and Consuelo Adan of Stella Maris

Rob & Lauren Dehaan of Arita with Angelica
Adan of Stella Maris at the Andujar's home in
Luquillo

Us at tower in El Unque Rain Forest

We came ashore for the first time June 29th when we needed to have our sails re-stitched – our feeble attempts on our own SailRite sewing machine finally caught up with us –, our alternators checked (and subsequently rebuilt), the roller furling (a device to roll up the jib) fixed and jib stay replaced with a larger (10mm to equal the main stays); battery alarm (?), and the raw water pump rebuilt (which I can now do thanks to Steve Phinney’s, Lose Change, expert help: just once even and I remembered/learned). We took up residence at the Fajardo Inn for a week running back and forth to West Marine, Wal-Mart and the marina. When they put us back in (splashed us) we discovered that neither engine would start: seems the Volvo guy had a look without a fix. Oh joy and rupture! SeaTow (we have BoatUS, of course) came to our rescue towing us 75 feet to a T-dock (that’s the shape of the dock) across from the splash slip for $350. Linda then asks, “Why am I hearing a pump?” I opened a hatch in the sole of the port pontoon and there it was again: a hull crack just like the one we had on our way to the Bahamas last summer. Well at least we weren’t sinking in the Gulf Stream like last time, and the flow was about the same: three or so gallons an hour controlled by our trusty-dusty dingy bilge pump and outboard battery. After Volvo fixed/rebuilt the alternators and we started the engines, we took the weekend to relax for free at Palominos, a small island off of the Conquistador Hotel, with Stella Maris. Back Monday morning to re-haul and fix the hull again. In the process we learned/discovered that both engines were in pretty bad shape after years of being sprayed periodically with sea water from the raw water pumps that are on top of the engines (some brilliant Volvo designer needs to be fired!) and a sloppy job of corrosion control by yours truly. So we bit the bullet, had the engines pulled (by fork lift) out of the boat and re-furbished by Volvo. And good we did: carbon buildup had nearly closed the exhaust manafold; barnacles and raw water pump impeller blades and nearly closed the heat exchanger along with corroding some of the fittings; and rust had taken over the electrical system and the engine mounts. The only thing that was good were the sail drives, that part that sticks down and has the propellers attached. We met Rick and Debbie Lehto of Miss Heidi, a sloop on the hard next to us who turned us onto a weekly on the beach in the barrio at Playa de Fajardo, not a half mile from the Inn, at 2/3rds the Inn’s fee, and with a kitchen. Not so clean - we had to sweep, dust and mop – but comfortable (A/C no less) and well worth the price. We were next to the Lehtos and had cocktails and pupus every night on the patio/walk facing Palominos and Culebra.

So, now its 45 days later (August 12th) and we splashed again: wow, how great it is to be afloat again and not leaking! Now we are now about destitute, but what the Hell, “Its just money (that the kids won’t get)!”, the engines won’t fail us, the sails won’t rip and we won’t leek on our fantastic journey.

The weather has been fine up until the last few days with tropical depressions having gone north, sheered apart, developed in the Gulf or Pacific leaving us with only a few thunder storms. Believe me when I say we live and die by weather reports every morning and evening. Why can’t the Africans keep their damn waves?!?! We’re turning into a pair of meteorologists watching clouds, barometers, the web, and discussing hurricane strategies with anyone who’ll listen. If one develops, looks like we’ll beat a hasty retreat back to Salinas and Aguirre where there are a bunch of hurricane holes in the mangroves which we can anchor in and tie off to. After taking everything down from outside, we’ll head for the hills to wait it out: hopefully it won’t come to that.

We still haven’t gotten any takers for a fun filled week or so in the environs of Puerto Rico…we’ll be here until October 20th when we fly back to Florida. Come on down!!!!!

Fajardo, Puerto Rico

2010-07-18T10:41:00.000-07:00

Once again I cannot move or label most of the pictures.

Harry @ spring atPunta Cana

Water spout, DR

Sprinmgs at Punta Cana, DRStella Maris @ Ensenada

Guvate Pork House

Linda at Spring in Punta Cana

El Moro El Moro from SW side of harbor

After leaving Punta Cana, DR, we made a night passage N of Isla Mona to miss the nightly thunderstorms that rumble W off Puerto Rico into the Mona Passage. We arrived just after dawn after a mostly motor sail at Boquerón, Puerto Rico. We checked in with US Customs by phone (we have the Local Boaters cards), but still had to go ashore later for a personal visit to answer more questions. Bureaucratic BS is alive and well! We rented a car with Stella Maris and drove to San Juan for the weekend where we “sight-see’d” and shopped (West Marine and COSTCO). On the way back we stopped at Guavate where they have pig on a spit. After 20+ hours of spinning, it’s almost as good as Hawaii’s luau pork. After a heavy shopping spree for food, we got back to find a gay festival in full swing: beer, urine, and trash everywhere blocking our way to the dock. We left our non-perishable food and “stuffs” locked in the car ‘till morning when we could get them dingyed aboard. Surprisingly, by afternoon the place was cleaned up by the core participants and locals.

El Moro fort,

San Juan

A day trip to Ensenada for the night and we next stopped at Salinas…no great shakes as another rundown, 3rd World town. The Marina was run by a bunch of fools who don’t have a clue re running a marine facility, and this from someone who anchored off and only used the facility as a “guest” of a Stella Maris. Our family (Vaughns and Riebolds except for Chris who had no vacation time) flew in for Father’s Day and a short stay to fish and sight see. On the way to the airport we stopped at El Junque (the rainforest) after driving around the SE coast - beautiful, mountainous country with very old, winding roads like the run to Hana, HI in the old days - past, you guessed it, Fajardo.

At Bacardi with fruit bat company symbol

Off again to Fajardo where we anchored off Isla Piñeros 45 minutes S as the Marina wanted/demanded $108 for the night before we pulled out: another incident/example of poor management/business. Puerto Del Rey Marina is the largest marina in the Caribbean: 1,000+ slips plus a huge dry storage facility and haul-out that can accommodate boats up to 30’ wide and up to 100 tons. It lies several miles south of the town on the E end of the island and faces the Spanish, British, and US Virgin Islands to the E and Vieques to the S. Vieques is the island along with Kahoolawe in Hawaii that drove the locals to demand the US Navy to leave alone and stop using as a training target. Here they were able to close Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, too. We were pulled/lifted out, had the rudder shafts straightened, the two fist-sized dings in the keels filled and re-glassed, the forestay replaced (too small/light when compared to the main stays), the sails re-stitched and repaired, and the sail bag’s 27’ zipper replaced. Sun (UV) damage is impossible to prevent completely. Back in the water and we find the haul out cracked the port hull so we are taking on water again just like we did in the Bahamas last August and the engines won’t start. Seems that there has been an electrical trickle that has caused excessive rusting which has destroyed all four alternators and contributed to the destruction of the starboard starter. Plus my rebuild of the raw water pump on the port engine, ‘though good for the leak, ended up not pumping water (probably due to the impeller being reinstalled backwards). So, we’ve called in the techs, bit the maintenance bullet, and will have everything fixed to include another expensive haul-out to reseal the hull. The biggest problem is the boredom waiting in the rain at dock side for parts and quotes. At least we can stay aboard with AC as it won’t work on “the hard” as there is no raw, cooling water there unless we rent a cooling tower for $400. Otherwise, we have to stay in a hotel, eat out, and rent a car: expensive.

While we are still Hawaii and beyond bound, we have decided to stay in the area ‘till December given the hurricane season predictions plus input from other cruisers. We missed the window for Grenada: all the hurricane holes are filled and the stormy weather makes sailing (rain, waves, and wind direction) miserable and swimming (muddy, churned up water) lousy. So, we’ll putz around the Islands here and head back to central Florida on October 20 through November 30 for Linda’s Mom’s 86th B-day and Thanksgiving with the kids, grand-chillens, and friends.

Porker

El Conquistador Hotel

Salinas

Rat Island near Salinas

Cayo Largo (Isleta Marina) from El ConquistadorSpring

2010-06-06T10:11:00.000-07:00

I am unable to place the pictures, so you'll just have to figure them out: SORRY!

Hola todo el mundo! We are in our first Spanish speaking country working with our Lingo to translate and calculate the rate of exchange (36.1 pesos to the buck). W e left South Side Marina at Provo, Turks and Caicos Islands on Monday May 17th for Ambergris Cay (approx. 23 nm SSE) where we stopped over night to check on the weather. We should have gone in the water ‘cause the bottom turned out to be covered in conch. But we didn’t and left Tuesday a.m. for Big Sand Cay 23 nm, again, SSE. This time we had to motor as the wind was once again on our nose. I managed to get us onto an elk horn bed of coral and bent the port rudder up against the hull where it stuck fast. Out came the anchor aimed at a sand patch, but of course not with any luck or accuracy. By hooking a block and tackle around the bottom of the rudder I managed to straighten it where it would once again turn: simple. Now came the fun part: getting the anchor up from under a coral head 28’ down. In the day, 28’ was nothing; today it is a different story. I had managed to break the windless trying to pull it up. So, I got out the hookah (electric, oil-less air compressor) hooked to my SCUBA regulator with a 70’ hose, my mask and fins, and weight belt. As I’m huffing and puffing and bouncing around the trampoline at the bow Linda saw a T&C fishing boat nearby and flagged them down (no she didn’t take off her blouse). In 10 minutes I was able to pull the heavy 3/8 chain up and bring the anchor aboard. Just before I collapsed, Linda brought the guys alongside and thanked them with two pint bottles of Ronrico rum and two $5 bills. We were as ecstatic as they were. Three hours late we decided to make the passage after all and arrived at Big Sand Cay at around five o’clock having crossed with nose on the 20-25 k wind through 6’ seas. Oh, joy. We were very glad to get into the anchorage and put the Rocna down attached to a nylon line: the heavy chain was back in the locker. Wednesday we listened to and spoke with Mr. Parker. He suggested the passage would be ok with 15-20 k winds from 100⁰T and 5’ seas 6 seconds apart. Not!!! Our course was 177⁰T and we couldn’t maintain it as we can only get within the27⁰ of the wind. Added to that were gusts to 32 k over the steady 25 k all night: yes, a night (5 p.m. departure) passage so we’d arrive off Luperon in the early a.m. We averaged 5.4 kph and arrived 12 nm E of Luperon just at the “red sky” dawn. We turned on the motors and headed once again into the wind crossing the swells and waves at about 45⁰ so the ride was a lot more pleasant than the slamming we did all night.

The DR is fantastic to see in the early morning as compared to the Bahamas and T&C. High, green mountains rise out of the sea to greet you, but no land smell as the wind is from the ENE. Stella Maris was 8 nm behind us also beating into the wind to get to the harbor entrance. Another boat, Loose Change, was 30 minutes in front of us having left BSC 6 hours before we did. We followed Van Sant’s guide and promptly ran aground because some G.D. fool (on board a tourist cat named Tip Top) put in a RED buoy (“We didn’t have a GREEN one.”) where a GREEN one should have been. Again the port rudder was slightly bent and will have to be straightened as soon as we find clean water. Yes, clean water as Luperon Harbour is a cesspool for the city: runoff, gray and black water, animal waste, etc. However, it is still very pretty with green mangroves ringing the harbor with steep green, lightly wooded hills behind. We missed Marina Luperon Yacht Club which sits atop a hill on the N side of the N finger of the harbor. Frankly, it is a very small (room for less than 15 barcos) with fixed (tree trunk pilings) plank docks that have seen much better times. Most of the “docks” have cleats that are pulling/pulled out, nonexistent electrical (50 amp) outlets (they open to the wood they are made of), no potable water, and electricity that is on maybe 8 hours a day (not their fault as he DR can’t seem to produce reliable, constant electricity). For this we were told by the owner’s son that they get $1.90 per foot and double for a cat “as we are so wide” even though we take up only one 45’ alongside slip! “Bull pucky” says Linda and launches into Javier with great gusto telling him what a dump this place is (no showers, no laundry, no water, no fuel, etc., etc., etc.), and he’d better think this whole deal over or we and Stella Maris would go out and drop an anchor and he’d get NOTHING. Well, someone called “Dad” and the proverbial s..t hit the fan. We now think we’ll get down to $1.00 a foot on a weekly rate.

Luperon is a what I would call a typical third world town with gravel streets lined both sides with trash-clogged gutters; some wood and mostly concrete block, sheet-metal roofed, mostly single and two story shops and homes built a long time ago and mostly ill maintained; populated with motor bikes and a few cars; lots of dogs, pigs, chickens, and goats; lazy policemen (speed bumps) every three blocks; above ground utility lines and non functioning street lights. The people are very friendly and helpful. Meals are on the cheap: breakfast with a large pineapple or passion fruit jugo, two large eggs, home fries, ½ lbs. sausage, and a slice of pineapple: $130 p or $3.60; full dinner $300 p or $8.25; Presidente (22 fl. oz. beer)$90 p or $2.47). Hot, hot, hot; high humidity. We are using the A/C mostly on our generator because the DR gives electrical power sparingly: maybe 6 hours on a good day. Still don’t know what the cost of diesel is. But, so what: pay/cool or die!

We made a road trip by Toyota SUV with nearly 200,000 miles on it with Stella Maris (Luis and Consuelo Adan, Luis, Jr. (17) and Angelica (14). Consuelo is a young retired merchandiser and Luis is a retired 20-police captain both from Tampa. Consuelo was born and reared in Puerto Rico and Luis was reared in a Spanish speaking family. What luck for us gringos! Anyway with Luis driving we wound our way to Santiago, the second largest city in the DR, had lunch and went to the banco. From there we rode the autopista Duarte to Santo Domingo, the oldest city in the New World (listen: the sound of French horns!). What a wild ride in each city consisting of maneuvering on two land roads with three lanes of cars with motorbikes sliding past on all sides. “He who hesitates is lost.” Give even

an indication that you might fall back a few inches from the car in front of you, and the guy in the next “lane” dives in. Everyone is changing isles constantly to “get ahead” at 2 mph. I’ve driven in Paris and Amsterdam, and they don’t hold a candle to this: thank you Luis for driving! Our hotel, Duque de Wellington, was on Avenue Independensia a block or two above the Malacon or seaside boulevard where all the expensive hotels and casinos are. Road maps are a joke especially in Spanish, and finding a turn off is nearly impossible. At one point on the way to the hotel we ended up in a very poor section of the “old Town” when the A/C quit for the fourth or fifth time and the engine died in the middle of an intersection. You’d have thought we were an invading army bent on keeping the traffic grid-locked. Luckily Luis was able to get it restarted before I had to push us out of the way. We toured the sites and paid the entrance fees (Dominicans do not have to pay) and suffered the police trying to give us a ticked for not wearing our seat belts in the back seat: oh, look, no one is wearing a seat belt; cute little trick/trap of radioing ahead as the tourista drives around a monument. Consuelo was able to shame the woman cop into not giving us the ticket. Anyway we toured for a day and a half seeing all the sites (forts, traffic, caves, traffic, cathedrals, traffic, ports, traffic, etc.). We did a little shopping for supplies at the local hardware stores and headed back to Santiago for more shopping and car dodge-ball. Once back on the road, and missing a turn, of course, we sailed through beautiful green forested mountain and valleys studded with palm trees and little villages (beautiful as it reminded me of mauka Kona; volcanic origins, too. Lovely!) back to Luperon.

Back in Luperon, we fuelled up via a fuel boat ($4.50/gal; 103 gals.), paid our $7/ft/ week, said our goodbyes, and headed out for Rio San Juan a short sail away. Missed the shallows and left the “Red” mark to starboard this time. From Rio San Juan, a sleepy, but much more prosperous fishing village (must be the European influence from the Jews during WWII that were deposited along this coast ‘cause Uncle Smiley wouldn’t take them in), and made our way on to Samaná, another beautiful port with overhanging hills covered in green. Our Dispacho expired here and we had to get another one for Punta Cana, our last stop. It’s a “Get out of jail free card” from the DR Navy, at a small cost of course. After two swell days and nights of sailing and motoring, we got it once again with 3-4’, short period waves/swells and 20 k winds: the weather forecast said 5-10k. But, Samaná exuded a feeling of unwelcome and higher prices as this is a tourist cruise ship destination, so we bugged out probably faster than was needed.

Punta Cana is the heart of eastern DR’s all inclusive resorts. Club Med is here. It is an ecological reserve within which development is very controlled and thoughtful. Old marina, but friendly staff. First time we had a cabbie give us one price before we got in ($25) and then said the fare was $35, (veinte cinco v. treinta cinco) Yah, I fell of the turnip truck this morning. And all this in dollars for a 20 minute ride and wait for us to a over- priced grocery shop on the resort property. Anyway we’ll be here probably until Friday afternoon when we’ll make the run to Boquerón, PR. I also learned there is a conference here of 30 nations trying to figure out what to do for Haiti. The USA method of throwing unsupervised money at a problem isn’t working apparently.

4/26/2010: Good Bye Georgetown

2010-05-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

Yul and Linda at Baycayneer with junkanoo costumes

Junkanoo costumes

Bone fishing flatsConceptionDanielle Solan at RumDC-3 at MayaguanaFawn, Linda and Bobby @ salt pond inlet. Bobby

cutting up the conch with his mud mask on.

L-R John & Linda and Chris Lone Star; Dave & Heather Mann Wild Hair; L&H at Sumner Pt. Marina dinner

Salt pond inlet, RumFlat Mayaguana L&H at BaycayneerSumner Pt. Marina, Rum. Kuhela in foregroundBone fish flats, MayaguanaAnother drug wreck

0700 and the alarm went off…Linda has been up for an hour listening to Chris Parker, the weatherman, and will make the coffee when she hears me rustling around. Our 0800 departure is on Bahamian time (“later mon”) and we emerge into the Exuma Sound at around 0830 to find 15-18 K SE winds, seas 1-2 ft. also from the SE, and us on course to Conception Island cutting across the waves at about 50⁰: nearly perfect sailing. Clear, blue skies with cottony cumulus clouds over Long Island and inky blue seas; what more could a cruiser ask? At 1640 we dropped the hook off a western beach south of Southampton Reef. Tomorrow we’ll snorkel the reef which is said to be spectacular as Conception Island is one of the national parks and thus protected.

Well it didn’t happen…Mr. Parker informed us that another front with 20-30K squalls was due in this evening and would put us on a lee shore (the shore being down wind), so we hightailed it out first thing in the morning to Rum Cay 20 km to the ESE. Unfortunately, there were 2-3 ft. swells 3-4 seconds apart and winds and currents nearly on the nose, so we had to tack and motor sail. Oh, well, can’t have a great sail every day, right? We snuggled in at Sumner Point Marina at Port Nelson, the only settlement of this 9 mile by 4 ½ mile island/cay. The highest point is 121 ft. so it’s virtually flat as are all the Bahamian islands and cays: good for bicycling mon. We met Danielle Solan, a 30-ish South Beach (Miami) model who was a close friend of Bobby Little the marina owner. They took us under their wing and showed us their rather beautiful and quaint island sites: the salt pond entrance where we slathered spa mud all over us and had beer and wine with a conch salad lunch from conch we caught wading in the pond; north beach paddle boarding collecting Whelks, a black and white conical snail attached to the iron rock shore. This is a great place to vacation and lie-back, especially if you love the sea: conching, shelling, diving, snorkeling, deep sea fishing, etc. One night we had dinner “in town” at Kay’s Restaurant and Bar owned by 78 year old Delores and her daughter Donna. The other daughter, Judy, ran the “grocery” store and made shell jewelry. The rest of the nights we dined high on Mahi Mahi, Wahoo, Snapper, Tuna (all provided by the sport-fish boats to accompany our sides), Peas-n-Rice, Mac-n-Cheese, Whelks (like fishy escargot)and crabs. We stayed a week.

Samana Cay was an interesting stop. I re-read the National Geographic (November, 1986) – thanks again Jim and Jane – article and re-learned the extensive reasoning that declared Columbus must have stopped here first in 1492 and not at San Salvador or Whatling or Plana or… The Acklin islanders come here to fish and gather conch and bark from trees that is used in making Compari: Kathy, maybe you should move here. The entrance to the anchorage was not nearly as treacherous and difficult as the charts lead us to believe. We anchored in sand behind Propeller Cay in 12 ft. of clear water where Columbus probably anchored, too, over 500 years ago. We were the only boat in this idyllic spot. We didn’t go ashore and left the next morning for W. Plana Cay in 5k of easterly wind: not so good for a sailor and we had to motor/sail once again. From there we motored straight into the wind (known as having it on the nose) the 40nm to Mayaguana arriving on Friday, May 7, our Aimee’s birthday: “Happy Birthday, Aimee Arnold Riebold!!” We expected to collect from the post office our courtesy flags - 1 X 2 country flags a boat flies after clearing in (presenting oneself to customs, immigration and health) - that had been mailed here a month ago from a flag company in the US of A. No show, maybe on the mail boat Monday, or Sunday, or Tuesday or BahamasAir on Monday or Wednesday. Dimes to doughnuts we’ll end up calling Nassau’s main post office to (hopefully) find them. Yul Charlton (“Papa Charlie” and the first really enterprising entrepreneur we’ve run across in the Bahamas) called on the VHF next morning having heard we asked about renting a car and offered to take us around the island for $30 less than the rental. Deal! Turns out this island is even flatter than most with an old US Army Air Corps airfield littered with confiscated drug aircraft to include a DC3: all stripped of course. They still use the strip 3X/week for flights from the rest of the Bahamas. We had a few Kaliks along the way at T.N.T. bar with owner Jingles and pork chop or fried chicken and Kalik lunch at the “Baycayner” resort near Pirate Wells. This north side of the island is a bone fisherman’s paradise with a mile out reef fringing shallow sand bars under aqua/gin-blue waters.

Today, Sunday, we’ll do projects: laundry, dive the boat for barnacles, change out the starboard fresh water pup (it keeps tripping the breaker), defrost the Engle (freezer), and go ashore to send this to BlogSpot and get email for free. It turns out the flag company cancelled the order ‘cause they didn't like the shipping address: huh?? So, we’ll buy them as we go along instead. The zincs had the barnacles, not the props. Yahoo!! It took 10 minutes to clean. We then took up the dingy, had dinner and went to bed. Back up at 2030 and pulled up the sails and motor/sailed back out through the reef following our bread crumbs on the chart plotter (the chart plotter leaves little dashes – bread crumbs – showing where we’ve been: really convenient for moonless night passages). We sailed all night in 20 k winds gusting to 25 k and 6 ft. seas 5 seconds apart making an average of 6.7 k/hr. Arrived at Sandborne Channel, Providenciales (Provo), Turks and Caicos around 7 am as directed by the Van Sant cruising guide to have the sun in our eyes and no chance to see the bottom/coral heads. Made it handily, however, to South Side Marina by 0830. Given the weather forecast we got on our way in from Simon at the marina, looks like we’ll be here a week.

Oh, we finally got OCENS (satellite weather and email) up and running. Seems the handset which I thought was the way to the satellite wasn’t right (and the “experts” at OCENS and Vizada – the satellite provider - didn’t catch it either) wasn’t the way.. Turned out just ‘cause I happened to look behind the cradle in the cupboard that the 9-pin cable connected to the DTE socket was the way in. Bada-bing it worked with a little adjustment on timing-out! So, now we can get both weather and our email – not daily ‘cause it’s expensive to use the satellite – when we don’t have a Wi-Fi connection.

PLEASE REMEMBER we are ready for company. Send us an email to let us know your desires. We can then let you know approximately where we’ll be. But, remember there is little accuracy in that the further out in time you want to come; like we stay a week in Rum ‘cause it’s fun, or don’t explore Conception because of the weather. But don’t let this stop you: COME!

Near Georgetown, April 9, 2010

2010-04-14T06:58:00.000-07:00

As I started to write this I asked Linda what was the date we went to the party given by the Watsons (owners of Indiantown Marina, FL) at the Chat ‘n Chill on Volleyball Beach, Stocking Island, Exuma, Bahamas. Holy Cow! We are starting to forget days and dates. We’ve already taken to looking at one of the battery clocks to remember which day of the month it is, but forgetting what happened when is new. Guess we’re really getting into the swing of retirement cruising. Anyway, since our last post, we’ve been hanging around Georgetown, anchoring between Volleyball Beach and Kidd (yes, the real deal) Cove at Georgetown. Took in a local music fest with some pretty bad bands, but good food (BBQ ribs, mac-n-cheese, and coleslaw for $10), Kalik beer ($3, usually $5), and a fair junkanoo: like Mardi Gras or the Philadelphia Mummers (see the pics); $20 to get in and $10 for the food: not bad for the Bahamas. I’ll bet Linda knows how the Bahamians make their mac-n-cheese, but let me tell you it is the best ever: almost crispy on the top and lightly moist thru-an’-thru.

Three Sundays ago, we hopped a SkyBahamas flight to Nassau connecting to Marsh Harbour ($148 each), taxied ($80) to the Green Turtle Cay ferry, and then on board to New Plymouth at Green Turtle Club ($22). We hung around the club after lunch to meet with Lee and Kathy Maidenberg (our dear friends whom we had cruised with annually since our Ionian adventure in 1998), Tony and Trixie DiDiminico (we’d met them 11 years ago here at G.T.), and Pat and Shirley (ya, ya, “Don’t call me Shirley”) Payne (Likewise 11 years ago plus a week’s cruise in St. Maartin). A week of food and drink debauchery coupled with sunning, beachcombing walks, and electric cart exploration. “A good time was had by all!” New Plymouth hails back to 1780’s when American Loyalists fled the brand new U.S. of A. for Canada and the Bahamas to set up a fishing, wrecking and sponging village. My “relies” also fled PA for Ontario, Canada to set up a grist mill. The trip back took all day having to layover at Nassau for four hours. It was great to dingy back across Elizabeth Harbour to the Second Pond at Stocking Island where we had left our home well tied to a mooring ball ($15/day) provided by the St. Francis Resort and Marina. They are somehow affiliated with the St. Francis catamaran of St. Francis Bay, South Africa. St. Francis is a cat similar to our Royal Cape in design and cost: both lovely and comfortable.

Jose and Bill left us this morning to head back N. They need to be in Indiantown, FL by the first week in May. Their friends Pierre and Diane left yesterday after 10 days of sun and fun aboard Caper and Kuhela. A delightful couple also from Canada whom we were sorry to see leave, too.

Chris Parker, our weather guru on the single side band radio (4045 MHz) at 0630 daily except Sunday, says we may be down to one more front in a week or so. So, it looks like we can take off for parts east and south: Conception, Rum Cay, Samana where Columbus may have first landed in 1492 (according to National Geographic), Mayaguana, Turks and Caicos, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. Winds are probably going to be out of the E and NE which are conducive for sailing most if not all of the way in this direction for the rest of the Spring and into Summer.

The way things stand we’ll probably start out on April 17, ‘though we could go on in the 16th even if it is bad luck (Christ was crucified on a Friday, don’t-cha-ya-know) to start a journey then. In actuality we are just continuing a journey that started in January however slow it is going so I ‘spect we’re ok. We’ve hooked up with two other boats, both sloops: Lapidus, Larry and Paula Waller; and Solar Eclipse, Doug and Marlene Ridgewell. We will be chasing another cat, Naughty Naughty, Alan and Patricia (?) whom we haven’t met except on the radio and a steel trawler Peking, Jerie and John Miici. We hope to catch up with them in Luperon, D.R. We would have gone with them except that we had to repair our jib using our Sailrite sewing machine which kept breaking needles on the very stiff and thick cotton strapping at the head, foot and clew. We ended up drilling needle holes and sewing through them by hand

Dingy dock at lake Victoria, Georgetown, Great Exuma Island, Bahamas

Linda’s B-day celebratory hat at Bollinger’s home on Green Turtle, Abacos, Bahamas

Junkanoo at Georgetown

New Providence, Green Turtle, Abacos, Bahamas from Pineapples

Party! Party! Party! At Pineapples: (L-R): Shirley Payne; Trixie (Shirley’s sister); Pat Payne; Kathy Maidenberg; Linda; Lee Maidenberg; and Tony (Trixie’s better half)

Georgetown, Grand Exuma Island, Bahamas

2010-03-10T14:20:00.000-08:00

Nurse Shark at Staniel Cay Staniel Cay Marina

Harry at BooBoo Hill, Warderick Wells Cay Farmers' Market, G'Town

Fowl Cay Sunset

Dinner guests at Fowl Cay: Bill, Ted, Jose, Suzanne, Linda, Harry

Staniel Cay Anchorage between Big and Little Majors Spot

Arnold's Eggs Benedict and Dress-up breakfast

From Marsh Harbour, Abacos, Bahamas we slipped between fronts and low, green and rocky cays to pull in to Buckaroo (no kidding) Bay for the night with Caper and Harlequinn as part of our little fleet. Next stop was Little Harbour just down the way where Caper couldn’t get over the 3.5 ft. bar across the entrance. Pete’s Pub has a delightful rum concoction whose name escapes me, but wonderful just the same at $6.00. The weather continued to be cooperative and we headed out at first light for the Exumas. This is across the N.E. Providence Channel which we have crossed before going NE. Wind and waves were a little high, but all in all a good sail through beautiful blue waters; unfortunately no fish rose to our lure. We arrived at Little Egg, turned N and sped up to Royal Island Harbour under full sail and a delightful NE fresh breeze.

Next morning we shot across to Current Cut still with a nice NE breeze and trailing a bright red diving (has a bill on the front) plug with three sets of very sharp tri-hooks. “Fish on!!” and I’m reeling in a large, unfortunately, barracuda: unfortunately because if they are bigger that elbow to wrist the chances are they carry ciguatera, a nasty poison found in the reef fish they eat. Anyway, Harry forgot to get the hook puller so he tried to release the monster by hand. BANG, THRASH, WHAM!!!! And the next thing I know I’m hooked and trying to get us both off. BANG, THRASH, WHAM!!!! And I’m hooked again this time the right little finger. Holy Crap!! And you are not going to believe this (yes you are), but “numba tree” (Hawaiian pidgeon for # 3) BANG, THRASH, WHAM!!!! And now my hands are hooked together. “Linda!” and she’s there like instantly. “Get a pair of cutters!” The stainless kooks are too strong for the dykes we have. “OK, get a razor knife!” She does and we cut thru the one in my little finger freeing my right hand. Somehow I got the hook out of the monster and he slid back into the deep: dead I hope; bugger. Now at least I don’t have the thrasher pulling more hooks into me. Yah, I know, poetic justice. Anyway, we’re coming up on the Cut under full sail and I’m still the “Fish On”. Next thing is to stop the boat by turning into the wind, starting the engines, and taking the sails down. Linda was magnificent. Next, get the Dremel with a cutting wheel and tap-cut, so it doesn’t get hot, through the hook. (Almost) Free Last. I shove the hook all the way thru and pull it out with my trusty, dusty Leatherman needle nose pliers. While I’m cutting, gently the last hook with the Dremel, Linda calls Harlequinn who has gone thru the Cut and asks them for help. They anchor in a small cove just S of the Cut. We whipped thru the Cut at around 12 knots as the tide was running in towards Exuma Sound, swing the right turn and spot our salvation: a doctor (retired) who surely has an extensive medical kit to include drugs and Novocain. James dingys over and produces needle nose pliers! At least he confirms my feeling that going on thru would run the hook thru the nail bed. So, James grabs the cut end of the hook with vice grips and pulls it back out the way it came in. Thank Linda as she had some left-over hydrocodone which helped to dull the pain. Are we having fun yet living the dream?!? Oh, yah. We continued on to Highborne Cay with Linda as Captain, and anchored for the night, just S, at Oyster Cay which had the right price (nada) and better protection from the wind and waves.

We decide two days later, yes another front, to see Carlos Lehder’s x-drug smuggling hot spot and the home of the “famous” MacDuff’s cheeseburger. Boohoo, the place is an abandoned dump with working airstrip and a not-even-up-to-McDonalds’-standard $18 (with fries) burger The Kaliks were $8. Yes, about $3 higher than anywhere else. To beat the next front, we went out the Cut (and caught a 6 lb. grouper, yum yum) next morning and negotiated/navigated NE to Exuma Sound and then SE skirting the leeward islands down to Warderick Wells Cay and the Exuma Land and Sea Park where we took a ball for two days at Emerald Rock, the S mooring field. Unfortunately, the weather is still too cold as is the water for swimming, so we hiked over the Cay for a couple of hours. The water was the color and clarity of Sapphire gin: almost unreal.

Next stop was Cambridge Cay which is still in the Park, so no fishing or taking anything. Hadn’t changed must from our first visit in 2007 except for more $20 mooring balls. Harlequinn left us to head straight to Georgetown. We opted for a more leisurely run thru Cambridge, The Pipes, Staniel Cay (to pick up Suzanne, a friend of Jose on Caper), and Fowl Cay so we could dine in luxury at the Fowl Cay Resort now owned by Sandals. What a meal; what ambience; what great all-you-can-drink booze! Well worth the $100/head. Thunderball has closed. This is the club/restaurant on the bluff at Staniel overlooking the islet grotto featured in the James Bond movie of the same name. We hung out between the Major Spots to hide from another, you guessed it, cold front.

We left Staniel Cut on an outgoing tide which made for a very rough (water over the bows with lots of plunging) 10 minutes until we got into the Sound. Next stop Little Farmers Cay off the southern tip of Great Guana Cay. We tucked in on the SW edge of GG Cay and hooked up to a motley mooring ball that ended up holding for the two days we were there weathering another front. We visited Ocean Cabin and were beered, dined, and regaled by Terry Bain, owner and local color mayor.

Caper decided we should run down to The Marina at Emerald Bay (a Sandals’ property) 15 or so miles N of Elizabeth Harbour and Georgetown to wait out another front (Are you as tired of these freaks of nature as I am?). We rented a van and drove to Berraterre on the N end of the island. Sleepy, little village where the people are very long lived (100+ is not uncommon) and very friendly. We met Julia at the store there who had lived many, many years in Cocoa, FL. She had moved back with her Bahamian husband to take care of his 95+ parents who were still going strong. She said that she’d lost 40 lbs. and reduced per B. P. by30 points both top and bottom in a very short time. We had lunch at Big D’s on the way back. Good prices and the best conch salad and cracked (batter fried strips) conch we have ever had. A definite spot to visit is you are ever down that-a-way.

Once again out the Cut after 5 days of free laundry, ice, and WiFi into an outgoing tide with its turbulent bumps and rolls SE to Conch Cay Cut and Elizabeth Harbour. Lovely sail between fronts – they seem to be getting farther apart – to Chat ‘n Chill at Volleyball beach on Stocking Island. There are not the usual 600 (yes, that’s right) boats this year: probably closer to 300,and another sign of the economy. We’ve seen the Harbour race and the around the island race. Great fun. We were also at the Chat ‘n Chill for Racquel and Scott Watson’s, owners of the Indiantown Marina (FL), advertising/thank you party with free drink tickets. Lovely couple with three small kids. Georgetown in the winter playground for retiree sailors from Canada and the US who come here year after year for 3 or 4 months of games, races, volleyball, bridge, basket weaving, golf, beaning (collecting strange/foreign beans to make jewelry from) etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum; very organized.

Here We Go Again

2010-02-12T14:35:00.000-08:00

After a night of HEAVY drinking at the Jib Room, Marsh Harbour Marina, Abacos, Bahamas and then back aboard while playing Mexican Train, I woke to my first hangover in years and a guilty feeling that I haven’t updated the blog in months. So …

We left, hopefully for the last time this time, Titusville, FL on 1/14/2010. It was 69⁰ and sunny with the wind out of the NE for a lovely sail south to Port Canaveral. From there we sailed down to Ft. Pierce where we anchored and waited for four days for the weather to moderate. We met our Canadian friends, Bill and Jose Andersen on Caper, at Port Salerno (Manatee Pocket)and headed straight for Memory Rock and Great Sale Cay. We beat the next weather front anchored over night and then checked in (Customs and Immigration) at Spanish Cay where we waited out another front. Sadly the marina had only five boats and no fuel for us or their own electric generator. Tough economic times continue for the Bahamas, too. Next stop was White Sound, Green Turtle Cay where there were a lot more boats, but more evidence of the poor economy: the Bluff House Marina was empty and on the verge of bankruptcy. While trying to get into the pocket off the E side of the anchorage there, we had our first bottom encounter and had to wait for the tide to lift us off; thankfully no real damage. From there we made an aborted try to round the Whale, turning back when Caper developed engine trouble and encountered the Atlantic swells. Our second attempt was fine with 18-22k winds out of the NE and four foot swells. We sailed through Bakers Bay, a huge resort with multi-million dollar LOTS (40% sold would you believe!), to Fishers Bay, Great Guana Cay, home of the Guana Grabber (a very sweet rum drink) and our first Wi-Fi hotspot. This is the place we had our dingy “grabbed” the last time we were here. We found it with the help of the Cruisers Net in Marsh Harbour the next day. For the next blow, we shifted off the anchor and went into Orchid Bay Marina, a lovely, sheltered and mildly expensive spot. The number of boats and Canadians has been increasing as we move E, but the atmosphere is still that of hard times. Today we are in Marsh Harbour Marina at 65¢/ft. plus $4/day for water, metered electric at 65¢/Kw, and $3 laundry tokens (one per wash and one per dry). We are still having front after front roar through every three or four days: the one for tonight (2/12/2010) is suspected to have sustained gale force winds (34-40 mph) and gusts to 50!. The Harbour has pretty much emptied out with everyone seeking shelter in the various marinas.

The current plan is to stage to Little Harbour SE of here on Sunday, cross the Northeast Providence Channel and tuck in at Royal Island, Eleuthra, near the site of Bill’s near drowning. From there, weather permitting, we’ll go through Current Cut, and cross the shallow flats at the top of Exuma Sound to the Exuma island chain.

If anyone is using Google Earth or similar program to follow us, let me know and I’ll put the lat/lan back in.

All the boats at Spanish Cay

Looking N at Great Guana on a typical morning

Caper and her new sails off the Whale Cut

TITUSVILLE, FL - December 12, 2009

2009-12-12T05:34:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to say we broke down to our youngest’s angst and will stay put through Christmas. Need to be here for the mother-in-law, the kiddledees and the grand kiddledees. Jim Caltrider has again graciously loaned us his Ford Ranger and even put on two new radials to replace the failed (I’ve never seen or heard of radials delaminating internally) ones: drives like it used to.

The current plan, subject to wind, change, etc. is to head out after Christmas (New Years) and head back to Manatee Pocket to meet-up with our Canadian friends, Bill and Jose Andersen of Caper. From there, south and east to West End, Grand Bahama Island, and on to the Abacos.

Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year to all.

Brunswick, GA (31°09.059N; 81° 29.985 W): 10/16/09

2009-10-22T11:16:00.000-07:00

St. Simon Island Lighthouse

It’s raining today, cloudy and cool. We’re sitting at Brunswick Landing Marine ($2/ft. plus $4 for electricity per day transient rate) just north of the shrimp docks where a fleet of colorful shrimpers with their nets high up on their outriggers are rafted up three deep at the quay. We came in two days ago from Murrells Landing, SC where we spent a long weekend with Betty and Byrl Raper, our (hopefully sooner than later) partners to be. We had planned to refinish the salon sole floor by sanding as the wood was at least ¼” thick. Well, it turns out that the maple strips are at best 1/32” thick and we quickly ground through one as proof. So, now we need to put in a new sole over the old, but the maple cove base was glued on and will only be destroyed if we try to take it off with our experience, actually lack thereof. We need to find some one with the requisite experience to do the job once we get back to Titusville. I wonder of Don Thomas, our friend and resident guru, knows about this delicate “cabinet” work?

Ops, just got hit with another (it’s a boat after all) problem: the mechanic we hired (all I’d do is get oil all over everything) to install our new hydraulic autopilot steering pump went home sick after he found out that the parts he hadn’t ordered arrived. Yes, the supplier didn’t fill the ordered correctly, so the right ones will be here Monday. Hopefully West Marine will have our new main halyard ready to I can go up the mast and replace the original one which lost (ripped) its outer casing. Boy, that was exciting as we tried to bring down the sail in the Brunswick channel with a huge, green RoRo Swedish freighter bearing down on us at about three times our speed. The pilot was very pleasant to Linda who was on the helm (and radio) asking her to keep to the green (port) side of the channel so they could pass. The casing scrunched up as it went through the rope clutch (why “rope” as a sail boat has only one rope which is associated with the sail?) and prevented the halyard and then the hole in the mast from passing through until we pulled it back, straightened the casing out, and then rethreaded it through. All in a days work for a sailor!

Out of the blue last night our Canadian friends, Paula and John Godfrey of Our Way called and said they had just entered Georgia on their way back to Titusville. An hour and 20 minutes later we were all having drinks with James and Roni Redman on Harlequinn (yes, two “n’s” ‘cause it is their son Quinn’s name) and being regaled by John and his story of being “attacked” (shooting antimissile flairs) by USAF fighter jets at 8,500 feet over Pittsburg, PA. Seems he had been misdirected into restricted airspace and was perceived as a threat to the G20 Conference going on there. He was commanded (by the USCG who were the first people he was able to communicate with: the USAF wouldn’t/couldn’t find the emergency frequency he was transmitting on) to land at an airport in OH where he was escorted by a USCG helicopter with machine gunner at the ready. On landing and pulling off the runway he was surrounded by the FBI, Homeland Security, FAA, State and local troopers and ordered to stick his hands out the window to show he was unarmed. He was taken off the plane after telling them at their request that he did have a pocket knife in his carry on bag and interrogated by each branch for four hours. After the Secret Service interrogation (yes, they arrived late) telling him they’d check his story of being misdirected, they let him take off, fly north away from Pittsburg, and then turn north for Toronto where he arrived in the rain after dark with almost no fuel due to headwinds and the unexpected landing. On Monday, the FAA investigator called and told him his story checked out, that the threatened fines and incarceration (and black mark in his record) would not happen, and that he hoped there would be no hard feelings. He even went so far as to give John his telephone number and tell him to call (to shoot the breeze) if he needed anything. They spent the night aboard with their cat, Faye (named after the hurricane she was born it at Titusville), and got back on the road to Florida this morning.

Tomorrow-week we take off for San Francisco, CA with our daughters Marnie and Aimee for my Step-mother’s memorial service on Monday the 26th. She died last month at Villa Marin in San Rafael. She was 94 and led a remarkable and excitingly long life. She married my Dad back in 1983 and we had kept in touch over the years. From there, we’ll visit my 95 year old Aunty Sally Lowrey in Honolulu and then fly back to Orlando (?). That presupposes we get out of here Monday noon-ish and head straight back to Titusville (a 35 hour trip with an overnight at Port Canaveral). If that’s not doable, then we’ll drive back leaving the boat here until our return from Honolulu. We’ll know Monday about the pump installation and the weather.

Monday dawned a cold, at least for us Floridians, 55°with fog swirling off the warmer water. James came by with a friend of his who spliced the thimble into the new 7/16 Sta-Set polyester braid mail halyard. We sent him up the mast in the boson’s chair (yup, I’ve given into hiring out the dangerous stuff whenever I can) to re-thread the line. After that Wayne from the boat yard came by with the correct parts and put in the new (and improved) hydraulic auto steering pump. Now it’s 3:00 pm and we’re getting fueled up: should have been out of here by noon to get to Cape Canaveral by 5 pm (and still light) according to the chart plotter if we maintained 6.5 knots. Well, we did and then some. With 15 to 19 knot winds and a following sea of 3-5 ft. we made great time and got in just at last light. We anchored on the west side of the Florida Barge Canal lock and went to bed. Next morning we motor/sailed (jib only) to the Inter-Coastal Waterway, set all the sails for the NNE 18-24 knot wind, and sailed back to Titusville arriving “home” to E dock (28°37.167N; 80° 48.464W: Remember I am giving you the coordinates so you can go to Google Earth and plug them to see exactly where of I speak.) and a wonderful reception by our old friends and the Westland Marina staff.

Back in Florida

2009-09-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

We left Brunswick, GA (31° 09.52N, 81° 29.59W), June 21after refueling and an overnight stay, for Fernandina Beach Scorpion Marina's 100 ton lift (30° 40.274N, 81° 28.031W) just a few hours away. After going on a ball in the mooring field, we went ashore into this pretty, restored town. Next afternoon we struck out for New Smyrna where we planned to stay for my surgery. This time we made the inlet on a slack tide in daylight: piece of cake. We anchored in our spot north of the north causeway bridge ((29° 2.569N, 80° 54.400W).

After three weeks and surgery to fix my deviated septum, we took off for Port Canaveral and Scorpion's New Port Marina (28° 24.433N, 80° 37.837W) where we were lifted out and put "on the hard" to have a thru-hull put in dedicated to the air conditioners' raw water pumps, the sail drives maintained, the props checked, and stage for our trip back to the Bahamas for our 40th anniversary .

On July 23, 2009 we left for our party in the Bahamas. I made the decision that given the lack of wind and having to motor we'd head straight (SSE) across the northerly flowing Gulf Stream for the Bahama Banks. Two hours into the Stream, we discovered a leak in the port hull. After pumping and vacuuming I saw we could easily control the flow, so we continued on to the Bank. Turned out there was a crack forward of the keel probably caused by a grounding by the prior owner and exacerbated by the two haul-outs we had had. It was allowing about a gallon of sea water in every half-hour.

On July 23, 2009 we left for our party in the Bahamas. I made the decision that given the lack of wind and having

The Crew: Jackie Williams, Bob and Pat Hoover, Harry and Linda

to motor we'd head straight (SSE) across the northerly flowing Gulf Stream for the Bahama Banks. Two hours into the Stream, we discovered a leak in the port hull. After pumping
and vacuuming I saw we could easily control the flow, so we continued on to the Bank. Turned out there was a crack forward of the keel probably caused by a grounding by the prior owner and exacerbated by the two haul-outs we had had. It was allowing about a gallon of sea water in

As you can see below we did make it to West End (26° 41.440N, 78° 59.590W) by 1600 hrs., July 24, in time to check in with Bahamian Immigration and Customs. Not a good trip boat or weather-wise.

West End: Old Bahama Bay Marina

Next morning we headed down the coast past Freeport to Ocean Reef Yacht Club (26° 30.245, 78° 39.740) where we tied up for the night, checking in with the Club in the a.m. We then relocated to two slips large (wide) enough to take our 28' beam.

Byrl Raper, Kathy and Lee Maidenberg, Linda and Harry

Kyler Vaughn, Marnie and Mark Vaughn, Betty and Byrle Raper

Marnie (Arnold) Vaughn and Marion McGrath at coctail party

"Mama mia" in the kitchenette

Duane and Jackie Williams

Limbo at the Lucaya Market Place. (Note: Kalik bottle)

The anniversary party went off on August 1 after two coctail parties: one at Bob and Pat Hoover's and the second at Marian and Jack McGrath's Taino Beach condo next to the restaurant. It started inside, but the A/C was on the fritz, so we settled out on the varanda with the ocean waves on the beach and a nice SE breeze.

Relaxing the next day at the pool at Ocean Reef

Jackie, Mark, Harry, Linda, Byrle, Betty, Kathy and Lee

Mark, Parker and Dalton Vaughn
fishing at Ocean Reef

We headed back to Canaveral on August 8 slowing at Freeport hoping to have the Discovery cruise ship pass us with the grandkids and Marnie and Mark. No such luck, but we tried. We got back to Scorpion's on the 9th and got hauled out again to fix the leak which I had tried to fix from the inside, but not to 100%. Linda alsao decided we should have the Kuhela painted and the generator fixed, again. We got a great price on the painting and fiber glass repairs, but the generator turned into a nightmare. It seems vibrations (?) on the generator end broke all four the legs on the backend bearing holder allowing the stator to wobble and graze the windings. Kaput! So we priced new generators and settled on a Norpro 7.0 kV with a 3 cylindar Yanmar diesel engine. It operates at 1,800 RPM and is therefor quiet. It comes with a five year warranty.

The weather has not cooperated (lots of rain) and we've been here ever since moving back and forth between Altamonte Springs (the Williams and the 'Hood), Longwood (Jim and Jane Caltrider), and Titusville (Jack Fitzgibbon and Peggy Penridge). Maybe by Wednesday, 9/16, we'll get back into the water and back to our cruising life style.

May 22 to June 16, 2009

2009-06-16T10:11:00.000-07:00

Pushed off the dock at Manatee Pocket with the generator fixed! Finally someone who knew what he was doing: the hydraulic pump had somehow lost its rubber inspection port and gotten a little corroded and was frozen. Luckily with a twist of a screwdriver it freed itself and now works just fine: Yahoo!!! Still gotta replace it. Anyway at 1130 we headed for the Gulf Stream and 26 hours later we watched as a Coast Guard cutter came crashing out thru the 3'-4' chop on an outgoing tide coming out Ponce De Leon Inlet (29° 04.5N, 80° 54.54W) at New Symrna: just like in the movies: Wow, spray flying out everywhere and the Coasties all lined up on the top bridge in their red life jackets. After fueling up, we headed south 2 NM and pulled to the west side of the channel at channel marker Red "20" and dropped the hook for the weekend (29° 2.713N, 80° 54.468W). Jackie and Duane Williams joined us in the afternoon and Jim and Jane Caltrider sailed up from Titusville to raft up with us and bring our mail. We were joined by Pat and Bob Hoover; Jack and Marion McGrath; Missy and Bob for a fun Memorial Day weekend.

Storm over New Smyrna

Up anchor on the 26th - and we managed to bend the shank on the Fortress anchor trying to put up the sail in the current before leaving - at 1500 hrs. bound again for the Gulf Stream (it gives a 2.5 - 3 NM speed kick northeast) and Southport, NC. This time, after 56 hours and 359 NM, we arrived in the dark - great timing - at the outer mark. The chart plotter worked perfectly and guided up into the Southport Marina's (33° 55.038N, 78° 1.728W) fuel dock without incident at around 0030 hrs. Other cruisers who happened to be up at that un-Godly hour helped us tie up to the floating dock. This time Betty and

Summer Wind, Jim & Jane Caltrider

Byrl Raper from Monroe, NC joined us. We spent our time sight seeing the cute, little town to include a run to the Boat US liquidation sale; eating; and drinking .

Betty and Byrl Raper with Linda Southport City Marina

Off to Little River Inlet, NC and the town of Calabash (33° 53.096N, 78° 34.242W) on 6/1/09 where we "moored" in an abandoned marina (Marsh Harbor) by dropping the hook in the mud and tying off to two trees on the shore. When the tide went out, we sat on the bottom (mud) in 2 ft. of water. Betty and Byrl returned for the weekend and I worked him nearly to death. We put in the new main sail traveler and track from Garhauer along with two new cars for the jib sheets. These have blocks and ball bearings so

they can be adjusted under load. We also got Betty to take the measurements for a new A/C panel face as the existing one is full of holes for instruments and switches we used to have. All was not work, however. We did get to the beach where we found a warm salt water pool and took "showers" with boaters' soap and Joy. On 6/10 we were hit by a torrential thunder storm with 30+kn winds which pulled the anchor thru the mud and landed us up against the sea wall where we had tied off. In getting the engines started and moving back out into the middle again, one of the mooring lines fouled the port propeller. But we were successful in resetting the anchor and hanging off one mooring line until morning. Next day I had to dive the prop and cut the rope free. Thankfully I had purchased the necessary fittings at Ace Hardware to hook up my SCUBA regulator to the oil-less electric air pump and was able to "stay down" while hacking the miscreant line. The yucky mud bottom was down just enough that I didn't have to wallow in it.

Man, that was enough for Calabash and we took off for Murrells Inlet, SC, a beach condo enclave (no town that we saw). We anchored at the end of the channel and to one side (33° 33.466N, 79° 01.181W). Winds still steadily out of the SE - S which kept us out of the marsh. Yup, you guessed it: the wind shifted during the night pushing us on the high tide slightly (one pontoon) onto the fringe of the marsh. High and dry, but at only a slight cant: a cat can do that where a sloop would

Murrells Inlet marinas

be a lop-sided mess. No problem, right? Wrong. The morning's high was 1/2 ft. lower that the night's high, so we had to wait until that evening and a higher tide to kedge ourselves off with our new and improved Fortress anchor. Seems it has a lifetime warranty and they replaced the shank for the cost of shipping. Yes! This time we anchored further out in the channel, kept an anchor watch (we took turns staying awake watching for other boats coming back in), up anchored at 0615 hrs., and headed for Winyah Bay inlet and Georgetown, SC (33° 21.768N, 79° 16.925W). Once again we mostly motored into the wind on our nose until we hit the Winyah River. Then for 2.5 hrs. we were able to motor sail up to Georgetown, a deep water port from where they export metal products, paper and lumber. Another cute town with a little history. Seems Mrs. Obama's great grandfather was a slave on one of the plantations there and helped to found the local AME church which was instrumental in educating the slaves to read and write. Apparently she still attends services there

Shrimper

when she's in town.

We decided to try our hand at "sailing" the Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW) south. We'd hoped to get as far as Beaufort and Hilton Head, but were thwarted by a fixed bridge (maximum vertical height at mean low water 65' and our mast is 67') just south of Beaufort. So we opted to go as far as McClellanville, SC (33° 5.064N, 79° 28.040W) where we could cut over thru the marshes to the sea. Holy cow, the yellow headed, monster biting flys were everywhere. Linda, no kidding, must have swatted 3 dozen back to the Hell they came from. But we still got a bite or two with Linda in the lead for most succulent. McClellanville is a very small shrimping/fishing community as far as we could tell scouting up the riverfront in a rain storm. Boats rafted up to wharfs three at a time were all along the riverside: pretty crowded. We anchored in Five Fathom Creek (33° 3.976N, 79° 27.826W) just east of the ICW and just off Clark's Creek which lead to the inlet. Next morning (6/15/09) we headed for sea only to find the entire coastal configuration had changed from what we saw on the chartplotter. The entire barrier island at the mouth of the inlet was gone and the channel went right through where it had been. There was a dredge making the channel deeper and wider. Thankfully the Coast Guard had relocated the buoys so we got back into the Atlantic without incident.

Yup, another short motor (winds under 5 kn from the SE) passage (26 hrs. and 168 NM), this time to the backside of St. Simons Island, GA ((31° 9.807N, 81° 25.083W) near Brunswich, GA where I'm penning this blog.

Back to the US of A

2009-05-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

We made it on time (4/30/09, the day our immigration cards expired) from Sale Cay (26° 59.004 N, 78° 12.842 W) to West End (26° 41.857 N, 79° 59.814 W) to renew our status until the end of August. The Immigration Officer was reluctant (she wanted us to leave and return to pay another $300 for our still good, 1 year cruising permit), but when Linda explained about our 40th wedding anniversary party scheduled for the first of August she relented.

Everyone is invited
and gets a free dinner and free drinks.
BUT, you must pay your way to
Lucaya, Grand Bahama Island, Bahamas
AND get your own place to stay.
We’ll be at Ocean Reef (www.oryc.com).
Please email (harnold@cfl.rr.com) us with questions and RSVP so we can plan the food.

Manatee Pocket and Pirates Cove Marina

After confirming with Brightling Star the next morning who had left West End an hour earlier that the seas were flat and the winds crisp and brisk out of the SE, we upped anchor and set sail for the US of A to refit and fix our various problems: generator that wouldn’t recognize that it is making electricity; our Merc outboard’s broken cover, sticking throttle (boy is that fun when you come into the dock on a plane!), and gas line connection leak; and mutiny of Otto, our autopilot. You guessed it, winds promptly died to less than 5 knots: so, we had to motor the whole way. Couldn’t put up the spinnaker ‘cause the autopilot was in revolt and it takes both of us some time to fly it with only Otto at the helm. All in all, I guess, it’s better to have too little wind crossing the Gulf Stream than too much. We got to St. Lucie inlet (27°10.00N, 80° 8.38 W) at around 1830 hrs. and were at anchor in Manatee Pocket ((27° 08.853 N, 80° 11.671 W) before sunset.

Brightling Star had a scare when they discovered they were taking on water 30 miles out through one of the rudder wells. Seems a fitting on the bottom of the hull had slipped down creating a scoop that shot water up the rudder shaft into a rear compartment. Captain Ron (yes, that is really his moniker) got it under control with an extra bilge pump and they made it to Ft. Pierce with time to spare. One good thing, the USCG cutter lurking in the Stream to board some poor sole, heard Capt. Ron’s and our conversation and headed across our rhumb line (shortest distance between two points) northward to see what was up. Next morning we called Customs and Boarder Protection’s 800 number and learned that the checking in procedure had changed again. The DTOPS sticker we had to buy is now only for the boat even though they have all our particulars (name, rank, serial number, etc.) on file with it for both us. We now must have a new, numbered plasti ccard (Local Boaters Program) for each of us aboard. Thus, rent a car and drive 33 miles to the airport to have an Immigration Officer look at our passports. Dumb. dumb, and dumber! Later in the week we ended up making an appointment in Riviera Beach (yes, another 30 miles in the opposite direction) to hand in our passports and a form with all the info DTOPS already had. In 12 minutes, voila! a new, handy dandy plastic card which may or may not be acceptable in the future as the rules are constantly changing. Frankly, it is easier for a Mexican national to enter this country than its own citizens.

We spent the week visiting family and friends in Orlando and returned to Manatee Pocked Friday to turn in the car and get with a marine mechanic to fix the generator and maybe the autopilot. Well, it is now Monday the 18th and we are still working on the generator (now it might be the circuit board we replaced two years ago in Titusville). But it’s not the water pump (it had a seal leak and had to be replaced), nor the fuel pump (we changed and
cleaned the filters), nor the abraded and or lose wires we found, nor the salt crystals (Salt-Awayed) from the leaking pump. The other parts (West Marine for the Lewmar electric winch switch [under warranty!]; Mercury Outboards (gas valve, throttle spring, and cover: black with no decals as the better it looks the more inviting it is to steal [also under warranty!]) should be in by week’s end at worst, we hope.

Chris Aimee Mark, Marnie Linda, Millie
Caiden Alexis Kyler Dalton, Parker

Oh, I almost forgot Magic, Bill and Jose Anderson’s cat. When they stayed with us for a few days, they brought Magic down from Indiantown where they were putting Caper on the hard (out of the water and on stanchions) ‘till they come back in November. (Canadians have to be in Canada six months out of the year to stay eligible for their socialized medicine.) Magic has the run of the boat except our cabin and likes to wander around to include the sail bag on the boom: nice and high, plus cool, I guess. We were listening to music, talking and of course drinking, in the outside salon when we heard a loud scamper/thud and Magic swept past us headed for the bow. Some how, some where she’d slipped over the side, climbed back up the stern steps and took off as if the Hounds of Hell were in pursuit. Jose almost had a he art attach and Bill had the fun of squirting fresh water from the outside shower on his clawing pussy. Oh, ya!

The generator is fixed! And with just one check of the panel to see if there was 120v on two wires. Yup, there wasn’t any voltage as demonstrated by the lack of a light on the Output Gen indicator light on the panel. I’m going to ask Mase for some refunds, especially for the new relay circuit board to replace my good one. We’ll see. The autopilot, on the other hand was not fixed by replacing the broken tip on the rudder position sensor. Gotta look deeper with the Furuno tech.

Our plan is, once all is fixed hopefully this week, to overnight (26 or so hours cruising) north to New Smyrna and take on more on-order supplies from our mail box, Jim and Jane Caltrider. From there we’ll head north hopefully as far as Southport, NC to see Betty and Byrl Raper: our soon to be owner/partners in this adventure, and then up to the Chesapeake. Weather permitting, we’ll see.

Great Guana Cay: Fishers Bay (26° 40.0N, 77° 07.0W) and Orchid Bay (26° 39.89N, 77° 06.65W)

2009-04-17T09:42:00.000-07:00

Yup, there's Kuhela

Fisher Bay anchorage

Bill’s foot (actually metatarsal) is no better. If anything its worse and he has resolved to stay off it as much as possible. So we have decided to stay put for now back and explore this idyllic little cay. We have re-anchored at Fishers to forgo the $15/night mooring ball fee now that the most recent front has passed. Great Guana has grown up over the years we’ve been coming here with much more development: mostly winter homes ($1+ million). The “Snow Birds” stay several months and then fly “home” for their parents, kids, grand kids, etc. This is typical behavior all over the Bahamas. A new development at Baker’s Bay is under construction: a huge marina with channels cut all over the center of the area; a bulldozed golf course; home sites (lots for $2+ million); paved roads and underground utilities. This is all off-limits to anyone wanting to poke around.

Fishers Bay looking at Grabbers

(Baker’s was originally “improved” by one of the cruise ship lines to create a seaside, beach themed recreation area where passengers could eat, drink, recreate, and make merry on land. They abandoned it all in-place, literally walked away, several years later.)

This is the same stance Orchid Bay Estates has taken at the other end (SE) of the island, so one is now relegated to the central portion of the cay only. As this is the part with the “town” (hotels, bars, marina, grocery, neighborhood, etc.), it is somewhat acceptable. The very rich do not want to rub shoulders with the unwashed peons.

Grabbers looking out into the anchorage

Grabbers after Nippers

Kuhela at Fishers off Grabbers

Easter Sunday was a time to hunt for eggs hidden on the beach for the kids and on the reef for the adults at Nippers up on a white sand dune facing NE.

Nippers

Adult hunt at Nippers

Nippers Beach

Governors Harbour to GreatGuana, Abaco

2009-04-09T05:57:00.000-07:00

Governors Harbour

We spent 8 days in Governors Harbour setting the anchor down four times in four different places in the harbour because of weather/wind direction changes. We did get a few blows from various directions, but nothing to worry about. Bumped into Steve and Ruth Morgan at Tippy's Restaurant abour four miles SE of Governors on the Atlantic side. They are renters in Ten Bay also south of Governors. Steve is a contractor in Maine who built Tom Labrano's (a surety agent in J'ville, FL who I knew by reputation when I was in the bond biz) summer/hunting home in Maine . I mentioned to Steve that Labrano was diffucult to work with but that my past manager, Gregg Alexander, had worked things out with him and was now doing business with him the last I heard. Tippy's was so fine that we celebrated Linda's 61st there with a luncheon: incredible Ahi; wonderful company; terrific ambiance.

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Andersons, Wool, Harry and Linda at Tippy's

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Tippy's

On the 28th, we took off after determining the tide (because of the swift current through there) at Current Cut (25° 24.2N, 76° 47.5W). The difference in times ranged from 1 to 2 hours so we ended up getting there just before the low with a following current of about 5 knots: we screamed through the cut at well over 9.5 knots. We continued on to Royal Island (25° 30.963N, 76° 50.431) where we settled in for the night in 7' of clear water. Royal's anchorage is shaped like a "C", protected all around except for the entrance on the SSE side. In the center of the bay is a ruined mansion dating back as I understand to the twenties and the rail road tycoons. Very sad and depressing to view and one can easily see how glorious it was in its day.

Bill Anderson and I went diving on a wreck (25° 28.3N, 76° 53.3W) that was near by . We tied the dingy off on the rusted steel bow sticking out of the water and went over the side directly above three 60+ lbs. Jacks not ten feet below. Wow!! They and a school of barracuda were just lazing through the current. Unfortunately Bill's spear gun rubber broke, and we didn't get a shot before they were out of sight. Bill replaced the rubber and headed away down current about 40 yards. The next thing I knew the Jacks were back, I'd stayed near the dink, I was yelling for Bill to come back, and he was yelling to me that he needed help. Thinking it was a lost spear, I swam over to him only to learn that he was having extreme difficulty staying afloat because his mask kept flooding and he was drinking sea water every time a wavelet hit him. He'd already dropped his weight belt, so I grabbed his arm, got him on his back to float and kick, and started to pull him up current to the dingy 40 or so yards away. Well that lasted about 30 seconds when I realized I wasn't in good enough shape (and tired) to pull him up current, and he was so tired that he couldn't kick and keep himself afloat on his back without taking on more water. I had to leave him and get the dink. The whole time I raced back to the boat, got it untied, motor started and headed back I kept thinking what would I feel if I got back to find Bill was gone. Holly crap!! Luckily he was still barely afloat, and managed with my help to get back in the boat. Needless to say the Jacks were spared.

3/30/09 - we're off across the NE Providence Channel to Little Harbour , Abaco (26° 19.62N, 77° 59.98W) instead of the Berrys. Light winds, but somewhat smooth seas made us motor for about the last three hours. We took a ball at about 1730 hrs. for $15/day from Pete's Pub and Foundry. Sat there for two days. Again another beautiful little spot.

On 4/1 we headed for Tiloo Cay (26° 28.5N, 76° 59.6W) for the night. Fortress anchor wouldn't hold in the grassy/sandy bottom. When I finally gave up and dove it, the anchor was up on one spade and the cross bar???? I dove down about 12 feet, set it in straight and had Linda back down on the boat to drive the flukes in. Finally!

Still no camera, so these pics are from our fellow cruisers.

Next morning we headed for Marsh Harbour and had the auto pilot (that's crewman Otto) go AWOL. Oh, well, at least we were in a place where we could get it fixed.

At Marsh Harbour we settled in for another front. Winds of 25+/- knots and white caps for two days covered the sandy mud, polluted anchorage. But, the Fortress held even as we swung around it as the winds changed direction. A center console, twin engine open boat was flipped over right at the dock. Easter week was coming up which means that everything shuts down Friday thru Monday, so we took a little sail over to Great Guana Cay where, two years ago, we had our dingy stolen right off the dock. Seems some SOB missed the last ferry to Marsh and appropriated our dingy to get home. He left it floating in the harbour where another cruiser, having heard our plea on the Cruisers' Net, pulled it in and called us. What luck!! Anyway we anchored again in Fisher Bay in about five feet of water: the anchor dug in first time. (Have you noticed we have a thing about anchoring?). In the process of lowering our Mercury engine (25 hp, 164 lbs.), the knot I'd tied on the 6:1 block gave way and the motor plunged into the water with me standing there like a fool holding the line. No screaming and swearing, honest! Thankfully, I had a safety line on it, so it only sank below the dingy and above the bottom. With help I managed to get it back on Kuhela and secured in its bracket on the stern. After a good douching of fresh water, changing the oil and filter and squirting WD-40 in all of the electrical connections, she started up, coughing and spitting, but settled down to her purring self within a few minutes. Wow; what luck again! The Easter Egg hunt at Nippers, another bar on the Atlantic side of the island was a hit for young and old: eggs in the sand for the kids, 60's music for the elders, and lost of scantily clad young things to ogle for the dirty old men. We then repaired to Grabbers, home of the rum drink, the Guana Grabber. Live music, drinking, dancing and boche ball. Yup, bowling in the sand. Linda and the GG are calling, so enough for now.

Long Island to Eleuthra

2009-03-20T06:49:00.000-07:00

Salt Pond on Long Island is a very typical anchorage: rock ledge with run-down houses on the fringe; low. scrub filled hill behind. This is the furthest south we'll get this trip. From here we set sail to Hog Cay(23° 36.251N, 75° 20.590W) a lovely crescent shaped sand beach surrounded by two resorts and several private homes. Poor snorkeling, however.

Next stop, New Bight on Cat Island where Father Jerome (1876 - 1956) build The Hermitage. Seems the converted Anglican, Roman Catholic priest who was also an architect and mule skinner came to the islands to build churches. He did a fabulous job. This was his retirement home.

The Hermitage

Two stations of the Cross

Off for Frenandez Bay (24° 19.076N, 75° 28.421W), around Alligator Point to Bennets Harbour (24° 33.834N, 75° 38.461W) and then on to Half Moon Bay on Little San Salvador. Two huge cruise ships took up a good part of the anchorage along with the swimming designated areas, para sail boats with tourist attached 100 feet up, Hobie cats, wave runners, etc. All pretty uneventful. Rock Sound (24° 51.777N, 76° 09.733W) on Eleuthra was just the same as we saw it two years ago. Water still too cloudy to make water (silt clogs the water maker filters), no fuel except to lug it from the gas station in jerry cans, and no RO water. Good grocery, 'though.

Soon as the weather was right, we took off for Governors Harbour (25° 12.136N, 76° 14.869W: third anchorage we tried due to the hard bottom and the strong (25 - 30 knot) NE, E winds. The passage to Grand Bahama Island and the Abaco's Little Harbour is way too rough for a relaxing sail: waves up to 20'. So we'll wait here at Governors 'till the winds shift around to the S and knock down the seas, probably this weekend.

Well, I managed to dump my butt, and my camera, in the ocean getting back into the dingy. So, no pics 'till I can get a replacement or pics from our friends on Semi-Aquatic and Caper. We're still together, having dinner and Mexican Train almost every night. Even Magic the Andersen's cat comes over to check things out.

Sailing has been great using both the "regular" working sails and the spinnaker. The spinnaker moves us along down wind at about 65% of the apparent wind speed. We even tried a whisker pole on loan from Caper. Although about three feet too short, it still kept the jib out and full getting us up to 9 knots at one point!

Oh, did I mention (No!) we caught two mahimahi of 6 and 7 lbs. We also lost Byrl Raper's pole and reel to something huge just after we landed an Almaco jack of 5 lbs. Must have been a great lure! Sorry Byrl!

Warderick and Beyond

2009-03-06T11:08:00.000-08:00

The sail to Emerald Rock at Warderick Wells was very pleasant: winds and seas cooperated sending us along at over 7.5 knots. Unfortunately, no luck fishing, though there is a no fishing zone all around Warderick as it is a marine park.

Warderick Wells looking N. from the park headquarters

Poor weather sent us south to Big Majors Spot (24° 11.2N, 76° 22.5W) which is just a short dingy ride to Thunderball Grotto (24° 10.8N, 76° 26.84W) where 007, James Bond, jumped through the roof into the water below. The grotto is about 40 yds. in diameter and 10 yrds. tall. Full of little, colorful fish 'cause people bring food for them. Big Majors is the anchorage for Staniel Cay and is also famous for the herd of pigs that run down into the water to greet the cruisers who come by to stare.

Linda and Harry, the guy with a beard, at Staniel Cay (L background) and Thunderball (R background)

From here we set sail for a short jaunt to Black Point settlement (24° 6.15N, 76° 24.1W) 12 nm further south. Weather kept us there for four days. In fact on the third morning (4 a.m.) Linda got up to find the wind had swung around and into 0.8 m of water (we hit at 0.7m) with the beach 30 yds. off. Wow! Pulled up the anchor in 3 ft. seas and a head wind of 20 knots and moved out to deeper water. Mighty cold and wet. More than enough excitement for one morning.

Black Point settlement

Kuhela at Black Point just off the beach/flats

After four days there due to the passage of another front we headed south to Galliot Cut (23° 55.6N, 76° 16.6W) and transited out into the Exuma Sound bound for Lee Stocking Island and the Caribbean Marine Research Center (23° 46.274N, 16° 6.315W) for the night. We had picked up a left laundry bag for another boater which we were able to deliver high and dry.

Next day at 6 a.m. sharp we hoisted our anchor and headed for Hog Cay (23° 25.1N, 75° 29.5W) at the southern approach to Georgetown. We missed G'town intentionally as we were close on the heels of Jose and Bill Andersen of Caper who were already at Long Island where we set down our anchor at 5 p.m. after 11 hours of NE winds at 20 knots and seas up to 4 feet. Sure enough they were there at Thompson Bay (23° 20.451N, 75° 7.504W)

NE shore of Long Island on the Atlantic

I ditched the beard this morning as Jose said I looked like a pedophile.

Nassau, Bahamas (25° 04.550N 77° 18.645W)…..

2009-02-23T04:51:00.000-08:00

We’ve been here for six days waiting for our mail from our mail collectors-forwarders, Jim and Jane Caltrider in Longwood, FL. Seems the box arrived in two days, but was held at the main post office instead of where it was addressed. It was easy to find as it had a USPS tracking number.

Steve and the famous 79 year old Flo, namesake of Flo’s Conch Bar, Little Harbour, Berry Islands, Bahamas

Our trip from Little Harbour was a little more than we expected: from now on we’ll add a negative (bigger and from the wring direction) 25% to any forecast. The waves coming down the Northwest Providence Channel from the NE built up to 4 -5 feet with a period of 6 -7 seconds on the outgoing tide and the shallows as we exited Little Harbour Inlet. Blue-green water was crashing over the bows and rolling back over the salon roof back to the wind screens which we had luckily put up just in case. Once we were able to get the jib up we picked up speed to over 7 knots on our rhumb line of 154° True (T). As the depth sank to its eventual 6,000’ we settled down to the occasional large, breaking wave sweeping over the deck and winds gusting to 27 knots from the SE. The chart plotter was dead on and we motor-sailed to the entrance to Nassau Harbour at around 4:30 pm where we requested permission to enter. Permission was granted by Harbour Control and we motored east through the harbour past five cruise ships tied up at the Cruise Ship Pier, under the twin bridges to Paradise Island, and turned into Nassau Yacht Haven Marina for the night.

Bahamian racer: look at the guys on the hiking boards! Nassau Harbour looking NE over Kuhela

Wednesday dawned bright and sunny and we moved to our present position on a 20’ deep bank ½ north of Potter Cay just east of the last public marina. Steve of Semi Aquatic caught up with us and is anchored 30’ off our starboard side.

Manta at Atlantis Aquarium

On Sunday we took our collapsible bicycles (sold to us by Jack and Marion McGrath of the Barclay neighborhood group) ashore, pumped up the tires and rode (on the left, left, left…) over the bridges to Atlantis. What a spectacular complex: hotel, casino, shops, aquarium, marina, and beach facilities.
<On Sunday we took our collapsible bicycles (sold to us by Jack and Marion McGrath of the Barclay neighborhood group) ashore, pumped up the tires and rode (on the left, left, left…) over the bridges to Atlantis. What a spectacular complex: hotel, casino, shops, aquarium, marina, and beach facilities.

Front entrance to Atlantis

The marina was dug by a contractor, Shoreline Foundations, which I had the pleasure of bonding several years ago. Unfortunately this particular job was unbonded. Several Shahuli (spelling??) glass sculptures adorn the casino: incredible how he does his art! I hope the few attached pictures give some sense of the place.

Now that we found our mail we’ll be leaving in the morning if the weather holds up as predicted: NE winds 15 – 25 knots; seas 5 -7 feet. We’ll head for Norman’s Cay or Shrouds in the Exuma chain SE of here 35nm and 40 nm respectively.

Allens Cay (24° 44.954N 26° 50.277W)….

Would you believe I have on long pants, tee shirt, sweatshirt, foul weather jacket and hat to keep warm: its 68° with 12 – 24 knot NE winds and I can’t even guess what the wind chill factor is. Bahamas; Exumas; 24° N; February 17th! Anyway, a great sail here from Porgee Rocks just east of Nassau Harbour. Blue and turquoise seas were 1 – 3 feet from the north with a period of 10 secs. We got up to 8.4 knots and averaged 7.2 knots with one reef in for the 29 nm trip arriving at around 3 pm. The black coral heads surrounded by white sand scattered over Yellow Bank were easy to see even though they were well below our three foot draft. There are 27 boats of all types anchored here which makes it as little crowded. Allens Cay is famous for the last remaining Bahamian “prehistoric” iguanas which we’ll check out in the am. Ugly:

Allens iguana

Next stop was Shrouds Cay (24° 31.883N, 76° 47.798W) to meet some Colorado friends of Steve. Jim and Nancy Holland of Summer Breeze were there on their way back to Nassau to replace their macerator, a smelly job. Checked the rudders again for parallelism and they were fine. Moored first on a mooring ball, and then when forward and anchored in 8 feet of crystal clear water. We’d had an electrical problem which I traced to the main battery breaker after cleaning the battery leads and checking that each cell had the proper amount of water. We must have slipped into the tip of the Bermuda Triangle 'cause my battery clock also went on the fritz showing Pacific Time and 12:12 pm! We made it safely to Warderick Wells.

Little Harbour, Barry Islands, Bahamas….February 10, 2009

2009-02-10T04:42:00.000-08:00

After a fine sail from Lake Sylvia (Ft. Lauderdale) where we replaced the starboard engine raw water pump which had sprung a leak, we anchored in 10 feet of crystal-clear, calm water just before sunset (red sky at night, even) at the northern edge of North Bimini Island (25° 46.2N, 79° 14.6W).

Using Google Earth one can put in the Lat/Lan coordinates

and see exactly where we are on our adventure.

No fish, but still a 10 – 12 knot breeze from the SE propelled us along at 5 – 6 knots for the best part of the day. Friday morning as the sun came up we steered a course towards Little Stirrup Cay (that’s Key, not Kaye) 74 nm east at the top of the Barry Island chain. The Barry Islands lie south of Grand Bahama Island approximately 56 nm from Port Lucaya. A front was coming down from Florida, so the 12 – 15 knot winds had switched around to the NE. As the squall line came at us late in the afternoon, we took down the sail and were socked in with driving rain. Keeping a weather eye on the chart plotter (couldn’t see anything over the side) we continued towards our way point and turn SSE to Great Harbour Cay marina (25° 44.85N, 77° 51.6W). It’s now pitch black and raining off and on. We’re in 5 feet of water looking with our search light for the two very skinny, short poles that mark the 4 nm long channel to the harbor entrance: a hard to starboard 100 ° turn thru an 80 foot wide canyon cut thru the cay’s western flank just before you run into a bluff. While all this was going on I lost the right lens to my glasses, so I’m driving the boat with one wet eye. Linda was crawling around on the deck looking in vain for it. She finally resurrected my other pair of glasses we’d put in the ditch bag. This is no way to cruise, but… Anyway we docked at around 10:30 pm without hitting anything and fell into our well deserved sack.

Sunday dawned bright, but cool, with winds from the NNE at around 12 knots: good sailing weather. So, off we go saying bye to Gabriel the Dock Master (oops, there I go again demoting him: the Marina Master) and head out the canyon and on to our southerly, twisting course through the shifting bottom sands on the west side of the islands. The waters here are very shallow – we bump several times and drag our rudders along for a good part of the trip as the tide rises – and we have to use VPR (Visual Piloting Rules) and discern the depth by the color of the bottom. Yup, it’s not easy, but doable. We made it around mostly under sail to Little Harbour Cay in about five hours. As we motored north in between Little Harbour Cay (25° 34.242N, 77° 43.213W) on the east and Lizard Cay and Cabbage Cay on the west we stuck to the Lizard/Cabbage side as we had done the last time we were here. No, no, the shifting sand had done their thing and bump, buuummmppp: hard aground 6 feet east of the “channel”. Nothing would pull us off, so we waited for the next high tide which floated us off in the wee hours of the morning. Waiting consisted of taking the dingy to Flo’s Conch Bar, watching the Super Bowl, drinking Kalik Beer, and munching on cheese and crackers: rough life of a cruiser.

The weather has deteriorated into front after front with 20 – 30 knot N - NE winds and cool (high 50’s and low 60’s) temperatures. However, tied to Chester’s (Flo’s son) mooring ball at $10/night and with our CQR (looks like a farmer’s plow) anchor out 90 feet to windward on 5/8 chain, we felt quite secure.

We’re here with two other, smaller cats and a trawler. Two other sail boats, a sloop and a ketch, are anchored south of Lizard Cay, apparently afraid to navigate the shallow channel. Boy are they rolling. Miow has a new first mate aboard from the last time we saw Dave as a single handed sailor down to a can of peaches. Semi Aquatic’s captain Steve is a friend of our Canadian friends aboard Caper: Bill and Jose Andersen. We hope to catch up with Bill and Jose somewhere in the Exuma Islands in the next few weeks, weather fronts and seas permitting.

Ft. Lauderdale

2009-01-26T08:48:00.000-08:00

I was just told by the Ft. Lauderdale water police to leave and never come back. How's that for hospitality? Wonder what the Chamber of Commerce would think? We had anchored in Lake Sylvia on Friday night. It's near the 17th Street Causeway and Bahia Mar Yachting Center off the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW). Seems there is an nonenforceable (it's contrary to Florida statute) city regulation saying one cannot anchor for more than 24 hours. The million dollar homes/taxpayers around the lake have spoken. We had engine trouble - the raw water pump on the starboard engine sprung a leak which I didn't have the expertise or specials tools to fix - and had to wait for a mechanic to come out on Monday. The Friday "cop" was flexible and understanding: difficult to maneuver on one engine; expensive at $187.50/day to go into a marina; etc. We were told that the city could not fine us nor tow us away, so we rented a car and went to Orlando (3 1/2 hours north) for four-person birthday birthday party in the "hood" (Barclay Ave. /Avern Ct. on Lake Orienta in Altamonte Springs) plus our two grand children's birthdays on Sunday. Yes, a good time was had by all over the weekend. At 0845 we awoke to be told "You are not welcome in Ft. Lauderdale." Oh, did I mention the "bad cop" called us in Orlando on Sunday to ream me out for leaving the boat unattended and over-time. He really wanted to give it to me in person even after reading the note we left him aboard explaining the situation. What a guy!

As soon as we are fixed, we're headed for Miami, then on to Bimini.

Waiting...

2009-01-15T08:10:00.000-08:00

Still at Port Salerno under cold, cloudy skys 'cause of the wind and our friends near here: Bill and Jose Andersen of S/V Caper who are getting ready in Indian Town 20 minutes away. We'll all transit to Mi-jami later next week to cross to Bimini, wind permitting, on our way south to warmer climes.

I left Linda to go to West Marine yesterday and she started drag racing across the anchorage. Eventhough she had started the engines, thank God for Dietmar aboard another sailing cat, Joker, who saw what was happening and came to help her re-anchor. Seems our CQR anchor (looks like a plow with a movable arm) isn't good for all conditions after all, especially a muddy bottom. So Dietmar put down not one but two anchors (Fortress and Danforth) stopping the race just before she hit the Hinckley Marine dock: ok, she still had 20 feet to go. She was in first place as two other boats did the same thing with the same CQR anchors. When I returned we move back into the center of the anchorage and re-set both "proper" anchors. So far so good: swinging around the anchors as the wind and tide change, but no dragging. Only cost me a beer and a couple of single malt scotches to show my/our appreciation.

2009-01-10T13:38:00.000-08:00

Yes, it has finally happened...we have left Titusville and our dear friends to start our around the world adventure on January 4th, 2009. First to Port Canaveral, then Ft. Pierce and St. Lucie Inlet's Port Salerno in Manatee Pocket: delightful and picture-squey. Next to Lake Worth, Ft Lauderdale's Lake Sylvia, and Dinner Key in Coconut Grove/Miami where we'll wait for the wind (nothing with a northerly component as it kicks up the Gulf Stream something awful) to head over to Bimini in the Bahamas.