Day 159, Thursday November 28

Day 159, Thursday November 28

Diane and Catherine watching the fishing fun

Dawson casting

We decide to relocate to the harbour vs. staying in the marina.  We have enjoyed our time at the resort, but enough eating at restaurants etc.    We top up our water tanks.  It costs 20 cents a gallon so we miss our watermaker.  Dawson settles up our bill.  We can reduce our 60 dollar a day dock fee by eating and drinking at the resort so we have tried to make sure we utilize this option and are pleased to find out our food and drink bill is $7 more than our $240 dockage which means the dockage was free.  We still had a $340 bill between water, electricity, and gratuities and our dining bill.  

It is a bit windy, but we have good ground tackle and trust our anchoring so we push off our lines around 11 with the help of our neighbours.  We have about 8 lines holding us in place and we have to decide which ones get removed first.  There are also posts vs. finger docks and horn cleats so we have to figure out how to get disengaged from them while not drifting.  We get our neighbour Julian to hold a line from his boat and that will prevent us from going to the left as the wind is blowing from the right.  All goes well and soon enough we are anchored. 

After an hour it is time to go for our surf fishing experience.  Pat and Diane are showing us where they go surf fishing which consists of casting from shore to just beyond the reef.  Catherine picks us up and drives us to the beach on the Atlantic side of the island.


Pat and Julie casting

Julie's scorpion fish

Our bait is squid and we are soon catching some fish.   Julie wins the dangerous fish award, Pat wins the most fish caught award and Dawson wins the prettiest fish award.  Catherine wins the most rays caught (sun rays, not the fish kind of ray).  Pat and Diane own some fish of the Caribbean books and we excitedly identify every fish caught.  They are all different and we need to figure out if they are edible.  Julie’s is a scorpion fish, Dawson’s is a grunt fish, Pat catches a barjack and we think some kind of trigger fish (which turns out to be a porgy).



After fishing we head to town for our Thanksgiving dinner.  It is the American holiday and the town here is cooking and lighting their Christmas lights.  The dinner is not something to brag about, however it is a fun experience.  The local kids are pushing each other around in a riding toy jeep and one of the wheels is half missing so it is funny to watch.

A fabulous day in the Bahamas. 

Cheers

Julie and Dawson



Thanksgiving dinner

Wheels typical of the island

Christmas lights in New Plymouth

Day 158, Wednesday November 27

Day 158, Wednesday November 27

Well lots of rain and wind today.  Another cold front.  Everything on the boat is wet and stinky.  We do a load of laundry just so we can get everything dry.  Julie puts on her bathing suit in the rain and wind and scrub some of the hull staining that the scupper drains have caused.  At the same time the rust on the stainless that is relentless is tackled.  The salt water if very hard on the boat and we need to constantly be cleaning and treating the stainless.  The air is warm so it is an enjoyable job doing the cleaning.  Dawson is stuck inside defrosting the freezer with the blowdryer.  The pink and blue jobs have been exchanged!

Julie posing by the puddles as we go for a walk

We need to get out and get some exercise so between rainfalls, we head over to Bluff House to visit Rosemary and John.  We spend a happy hour with them before walking back to Green Turtle.  It is a lovely walk with a few hills and we have timed the rain perfectly.  It only rained while we were visiting on the boat.  As we departed Bluff House Julie saw a nurse shark along the docks.  Only about 3 feet long and not very scary looking at all.

Beautiful flowers along the way

Back at the boat we cleaned up as we had dinner plans with Blue Moon and Cool Running and Catherine and the Sharpes as well as Steve and Pat were meeting up for the live band.  The band is called Gully Roosters and is local.  The band was fun and it was a great people watching experience as many of the dancers were here for their 1 week holiday and letting loose.  What happens on the island stays on the island.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 156, Monday November ...another "Very Blustery Day"

Day 156 - Another "Very Blustery Day"

We are up early once again as we have both fully adjusted to the cruising lifestyle of early to bed, early to rise.  It was a very windy night, a good one to be tied to a dock.

Around 10 o'clock John and Rosemary stop by for a visit so we invite them and Comocean over for coffee. Just as everyone is getting seated in the salon, we discover that two of the cushion on the starboard side of the boat are soaked.  Not a good thing at all (it has been raining lots), Julie moves the coffee social out to the cockpit while Dawson starts to look for the source of the leak.  The 1st suspect is a poorly closed porthole, but this is not the case, our minds now wander to more serious things like leaking chain plates (not a good thing) or hull deck joint (horribly scary thought).  It is amazing but you always start to think of the worst.  Dawson is steady removing cushions pulling everything out of the starboard settee storage, until he finds a 2.5 gal water storage container stuffed in the forward storage compartment.  Over time a leak has developed in one of the corners and it has leaked about a 1/4 of its water.

The offending container

This is great news as it is a very easy fix, removal of the offending container and a clean up.  With all the rain it is a real bother that there is more water to deal with.  Moisture is the "enemy" is a quote Julie is always saying.

The rest of the day is spent doing some work on the boat, reading and all the other stuff we do until lo and behold it is time for dinner.  We eat dinner on the boat tonight as we are ahead on "eat and drink your dock bill away" plan.  The day before we had purchased some fresh Wahoo from the local fishing guide and today is the day for eating it.  Julie looks up cooking Wahoo on the internet to get some ideas and then we grill the fish under the broiler as it is too windy to bar-b-que.  It is superb!

A game of Kings Cribbage and a coffee and it is the end of another cruising day.

Cheers
Dawson and Julie

Day 157 Paradise continues

Day 157, Tuesday November 26

Dawson bailing the dinghy of a couple inches of rain

We wake up to clouds.  Toby and Joanne leave today.  We join them for breakfast and Cathy comes over to say hello and as we are chatting she mentions that her tennis was cancelled due to rain and the person she plays against is from Elliot lake.  On a whim we ask the names and wouldn’t you know it is Pat Sharpe.  Dawson knows Pat from the mining industry and both of us have been on Pat and Diane’s boat when they were in Spragge at the North Channel Yacht Club, small world.  We decide we will surprise them later in the day by popping over to the yacht club they are moored at. 

Pat and Diane Sharpe with Dawson and Catherine Dorman

Dawson heads for a run and gets soaked.  It is not raining until about 10 minutes after he leaves.  It just pours rain.  A nice run even in the rain, you could not said that back in Sudbury.

We then meet up with Catherine and head over to Leeward Yacht club to surprise the Sharpes.   Pat is somewhat dumbfounded and we head up to the Lizard lounge for a happy hour to hear Sharpe’s Dream (their boat name) story.  They left Sudbury area 4 years ago heading off to do the loop.  Down the Mississippi and then back up the east coast to the north channel.  They have now been in the Bahamas for 3 years.  Dianne said they have enter an "Infinit loop" but are quite enjoying it.   A real fluke we crossed paths.

Catherine's unsafe tracker

After leaving Leeward Yacht club, we head over to Catherine’s to check out her beach house.  Catherine is from Toronto and down in Bahamas for 6 months on a sabbatical from routine life.  Her pad is just lovely.   Another happy hour and then the 3 of us head over to the resort for dinner and then call it a night.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 155 the Calm before the Storm

Day 155 - The Calm before the Storm

We wake up to a beautiful day anchored off a gorgeous palm studded island.  It is going to be a good day.  The seas were calm throughout the night but are forecasted to pickup to gale force by the end of the day, we are literally in the calm before the storm.  With the impending gale coming in we have breakfast and head back for Green Turtle Cay.

Winds are starting pickup allowing us to do a slow sail/motor sail back the 5 miles to the south.  Comocean is just in front of us and has us wondering how they are doing 5 knots under Jib alone while we are doing on 3.5 with both the main and jib up.  We soon figure out the motor part of motor sailing.

By 10 we are back in White Sound on Green Turtle Cay and will be taking a slip for the next couple days to let the weather clear.  Winds are light giving us the opportunity to back into the slip.  Julie does a beautiful job and with the help of Wesley, the dock master, we are tied up well and ready for the weather.

We do a few jobs around the boat and then head for a walk over to Coco Beach and the Ocean Beach.  We are out for about 2 hours and quite enjoy the walk.  The ocean beach is beautiful with its white sand beach, waves crashing in and the dark clouds off to the north.  The only thing that takes away from the view is the amount of plastic which litters the beach.  Everywhere you look there is some plastic object from bottles to a toy truck, there is even an Arctic Cat snowmobile track flap.  You have to wonder how this piece of flotsam got here.  We had to take a picture of the flap as some of our friends back in Sudbury are in the process of pulling their sleds out for the winter.

We get back to the boat just before the real wind picks up along with the rain.  The wind is from the North East and our boat is facing North with a port tie, the wind has us pinned to the finger dock and gives us a 5 degree heel to the port.  It is like being under sail.  We place a 3^rd fender for added protection on the finger dock in the pouring rain.  We had a dinner date with 40 Roses across the sound along with Comocean but due to the weather, will contact them via vhf and break it off, as it just is not safe to be crossing the sound in a dinghy with the winds as it is now gusting up to 45 knots.   We will be taking a rain check; literally.

Toby and Joanne come over for sundowners on our boat and we head up to the lodge for dinner.   The marina offers two different rates, one at a straight 85 cents per foot ($34/day) or a 2^nd rate of $1.50/day ($60/day) the difference is that any drinks and meals you spend at the resort is subtracted from the 2^nd rate.  We both figure we are good for $26/day so we opt for the higher rate.  The meals are excellent probably one of the best we have had since starting this adventure.  With this meal we have covered 1.5 days of dockage, not a bad system.

By 9 o’clock we are back on Comocean playing bridge, tonight it is Dawson and Joanne turn to get the cards, with Dawson even winning a baby slam in spades.  By 11 we are back on our boat for a very windy night.

A note on crusing:  For people planning to cruise down to the Bahamas the Sea of Abaco offers some excellent cruising grounds with the added benefit of being easy to get to.  This area is serviced by 2 airports and has a number of nice marinas, such as Green Turtle Club and Marina.  The resort would make a perfect place to meet up with guests coming down for a week.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

Day 154, Saturday November 23

Day 154, Saturday November 23

Julie stuffed into wet suit

We got up and prepared for our sailing trip to Manjack Cay which is only about 5 miles to the north.  Today is supposed to be a beautiful sunny day and then tomorrow a cold front with 30 knot winds is returning.  We have a fabulous sail north and anchor far enough from shore that the no see em bugs won’t bother us.  We hop in the kayaks and go visit Comocean to find out when they want to start our snorkelling adventure.  We decide on 1:00 so we head across the bay in our kayaks for some exploring.  Julie is thrilled with these inflatable kayaks.  They are so simple to load and unload off the boat, getting into them is a piece of cake and they manoever just fine.  They also have a viewing window so we can keep an eye out for neat things to see.  We kayak a couple miles then head back to the mothership for lunch in time for Toby and Joanne to pick us up for the great snorkelling adventure.

 

Dawson readying dinghy anchor

The snorkel grounds were closeby.  We saw at least 25 fish species, and some neat plant life too at an old wreck that was in just 3-10 feet depth.  After the snorkel on the way back to the dinghy Dawson spotted a ray.  Well that seemed kind of cool so we went over to look.  Dawson is pointing out the eyes, and all I see is 2 darker spots about 6 inches by 3 inches each, then I realize those are the eyes.  My goodness this ray was laying on bottom in 3 feet of clear water at Dawson’s feet.  The ray had to be 3 to 4 feet across and the tail reached about 5 feet behind it, absolutely huge.  It was freaky so we got in the dinghy and watched it from above vs. standing beside it.  From the dinghy we also spotted a turtle surface 2 times in about 10 feet of water, but we were unable to locate it and watch it in the water.

We headed back to the mothership to rinse away all the salt in our wet suits and melons.  Freshwater is precious and we still had some rainwater left to use.  We decided to wear our farmer john’s (wet suits) because we were chilled last time we went snorkelling.  It was much better and even felt safer having the wet suit on, in case of scraping against the wreck.  We relaxed reading as the sun started to fade, but headed over to Comocean for sunset and dinner. 

Dinner was followed by dominoes and then bridge.  The women dominated.  Julie was the domino champ and Joanne took the bridge trophy for the night.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 153, Friday November 22

Day 153, Friday November 22

Beautiful flowers along the road

Today is our day to explore Green Turtle Cay.  We head to land and see Toby first thing.  He offers us a ride to town, but cannot find the rental lady.  We grab a map and decide to start walking and will hop aboard with them if we cross paths.  Town is about 4 miles away, but it is a beautiful day.  We get offered a ride from “Kevin” who lives on the island and he is heading to the dump.   We pass John and Rosemary walking along the opposite direction (what a small world as we bump into our fellow sailors).  Kevin is a fellow Canadian and invites us to come visit him if we are in Coco Bay area.  We hop off and continue walking along.  Soon Toby and Joanne pick us up and drive us the remaining 2 miles. 

New Plymouth is the name of the town and it is full of coloured houses all built close to each other with very little yards.  It is quite quaint.  Not a fishing village at all, just servicing tourists, but not flashy at all either.  There is a sculpture park that has some historical information about the settling of the Bahamas, and there is a museum.  The museum is closed for lunch until 1:00 so we head down to the waterfront to have our picnic lunch we have brought.  We wander through the grocers and hardware store, and on to the Harvey’s restaurant in search of an ice cream.  No luck.  Back to the museum as it is now 1:10 but unfortunately it is still closed.  There is an open sign there, and a lovely porch to await the tardy employee/volunteer.  We wait for about 30 minutes and give up and start walking back to the harbour. 

Along the Atlantic side of Cay

We stop at a boat yard to enquire about summer storage for the boat and are surprised to find out that they have a waiting list 30 boats long which will take many years to go through.  It is a great boatyard and has all the hurricane straps to tie down the boat in the event of high winds.  Interesting how at least half the boats are of Canadian registry.

We continue on our way and we don’t walk far when we are picked up in a golf cart that John and Rosemary are in with their tour guide who is the captain of the boat docked next to them.  We spend the next hour at a beautiful beach, and touring the sites via golf cart.

We get back to the boat and spend a quiet evening.  Julie suffers from a headache and has a nap, but struggles to shake the headache.  No socializing for us tonight.  We do have a nice chat with Kevin on skype and play a game of kings cribbage.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 152, Thursday November 21

Day 152, Thursday November 21

We woke up to more rain, but that is okay as our anchor held last night and the feel of salt has been washed away.  Julie dons her bathing suit and tackles scrubbing the dinghy with the water that has been captured in the pails.  In Bahamas it costs to buy water to fill our tanks so we scrutinize its use and capture rain water to clean the decks etc.  As the scrubbing continues we hear a call on the radio from Forty Roses to the Bluff House marina which is about 300 yards from us.  Forty Roses left Hampton with us and we had not heard from then since day 1 in the passage.  We knew they were safe, but anxious to hear their passage story because they had gone back into port (Savannah) after 3 and ahalf days at sea.  We watched them come in and headed over once they were safely docked.  It was like meeting long lost friends even though we had only met John and Rosemary for about 3 day in Hampton before we had set sail.  Turns out their boat travelled a bit slower and after 3 days they were at least 60-100 miles behind us and the winds and waves were worse for them.  They also were travelling just the 2 of them with no extra crew so were getting exhausted.  We had a lovely lunch together at the Bluff House marina and suggested they join Comocean and us for dinner at Turtle Cay Marina across the bay.

Julie and Joanne.  Note large pina colada!

We then went for a bit of an explore and bumped into some Canadians from the Gulf Island Mayne on the West Coast.  They had rented a cottage for the week and were leaving the next day.  We had a lovely chat with them and they were telling us how the Bahamas is busy in the summer and basically it is their slow season over the winter.  We were surprised at this although we will agree, the docks are all pretty empty as are the restaurants.  I guess people from the USA come here in the summer time as the breezes are always blowing and the temperature is more moderate than the southern mainland.  Makes sense to me.  The other thing we learned is that both marina reduce your dockage fee by your restaurant bill.  We could have stayed at either marina for free today, something to consider at another time.

Dawson, Julie, John, Rosemary, Toby and Joanne.  All salty dawgs.

For dinner we met up with Toby and Joanne from Comocean and John and Rosemary from Forty Roses.  The restaurant was at the Green Turtle Marina and had a wealth of history and famous visitors.  It also had american money taped all over the walls.  Once the walls get too full, they take some down and donate it.   First off Julie ordered a pina colada which was huge and delicious and then had  lobster ravioli which was amazing, best meal so far.  It was a great social and we are starting to enjoy our fun in the sun.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 151, Wednesday November 20

Day 151, Wednesday November 20
 

We wake up with plans to move northward up to Green Turtle Cay (key). Dawson has been charting for us as we have to head back out to the Atlantic amongst some reefs to get around a shallow section in the Sea of Abacos. This is one of the “cuts” as they call them that is subject to a rage which we mentioned is when the swells break and sent boats flying. We consult the cruisers net for advice and although weather here is very calm, tropical storm Melissa 500 miles away is causing some swells. We hear that it is do-able to get through so make the decision to head north. (Note that storm Melissa is heading towards England so no concern for us other than some swells). It seems like a long time since we set sail and we run through the list of to do’s before weighing anchor. We are both a bit nervous as we sail along in 7-12 foot depths often hoping the charts are accurate. Julie goes forward as a bow watch and the bow is going up and down what seems like 5 feet and she worries the depths did not take that into account. We have chosen to go over a shallower section vs. the main channel as rumor has it there are some old posts in the main channel that could skewer us. Our depth remains good with a minimum of 12 feet so no threat to touching.

Soon we are at the passage and Dawson hails a fellow sailor who is coming in from the passage to ask for conditions. He says it is lumpy out there. We continue on and see a fuel barge that is hung up on a reef. It has been there awhile, but not that long. Maybe abandoned 6 months ago or so. It is eerie to see it there and reminds us to be diligent. The waves are about 6 foot and soon we turn and they are hitting us on the side which makes for an uncomfortable ride. We do not turn green, like some Fay’s do and carry on. We are only out on the Atlantic for about 30 minutes then get to turn west and tuck back into the Sea of Abacos. The swells continue for about an hour, but then subside as we are tucked behind no name cay. Dawson launches a kayak for some thru hull inspections as we just drift along in a beautiful sunny day. There are some nasty clouds around us but no rain where we are. We actually want rain/rinse. The salt is incessant and nothing dries properly and the stainless shows signs of rusting. A good rain is what we need.

By 2:00 we have entered the channel at Green Turtle Cay and get anchored easily. We read for awhile awaiting the rain to visit us. We have our collection pails ready and our bathing suits on so we can scrub the deck when the rain comes. By 4 a light rain starts then suddenly we are pelted with wind, rain, thunder and lightning. The boat swings on its anchor as we have put out about 90 feet of chain and the wind is whipping around. Unfortunately the neighbouring boat is on a mooring that has virtually no swing so as we dip southwards the boat is within about 10 feet. We quickly pull in about 20 foot of our chain and start the engine so we will not collide. For the next hour we are in a thunderous downpour where we can hardly see, trying to stay off neighbouring boats. It feels like we are careening towards this one boat that is on a mooring ball, plus we can hardly see through the rainfall. It is a bit freaky. Julie pulls out the rubber shoes and gloves so the lightning will not eat us. By 5 the storm is passing and we re-anchor far away from everyone as there is no wind so everyone is swinging differently and those on mooring balls have little scope on their rotation compared to those of us at anchor.

We were supposed to head over to Comocean for dinner tonight and we radio them to advise we will be tardy and they suggest we push the social to Thursday night. This works for us as we have not even dropped the dinghy yet. We have our own happy hour and snuggle in for a quiet night.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

 

Day 150, Tuesday November 19

Day 150, Tuesday November 19

It’s laundry day and spectra water pump solution day.  Today Julie set off by herself in the dinghy with 3 loads of laundry with the hopes she has no issues with the outboard.  For safety of course she has the VHF radio so someone will hear her and assist.  All goes well.  The outboard had been acting up lots, but we are learning  this was operator failure.  We now believe we had been flooding the engine by pumping the bulb too much and providing too much choke.  “Less is more” is the new motto.  When we say all went well with laundry it means that the facitilies were right on the waterfront, there was no line up, the room was clean and cool and there was actually 3 machines so all the laundry went in at the same time.  Julie then pulled up a waterfront chair and read her novel for 30 minutes without a care in the world.  Meanwhile Dawson was pulling the watermaker pump from its home in our livingroom settee.  Had Dawson finished early he would have kayaked in with the pump.  Julie however sped out in the dinghy after transferring stuff into the dryer to give Dawson a lift into shore.

After laundry was all stowed safely we headed to town to ship the pump.  This was a very hot and sweaty walk.  We hunted for a ups to no avail.  We backtracked also.  Finally we found a no name business that ships.  It is our $1600 water pump for the watermaker so hopefully it makes it there and back.  We are not so sure it will.

Back on the boat it was now playtime so we kayaked over to Jack Tar to say hello.  Our other plan was to find the fish store across the bay, but Carol (yoga buddy from Hampton) and Peter from Jack Tar were on board and welcomed us for a rum and tonic which is a new drink that Carols sister discovered while awaiting Jack Tar to arrive.  Carol’s sister had arrived with her husband from Australia but Carol and Peter had not arrived yet on Jack Tar.  Jack Tar left with us from Hampton but had some challenges along the way so we were very happy to see them arrive in port today in Marsh Harbour.  They regaled us with their stories of getting to the Bahamas.  The number of cold fronts creating storms this fall has been quite overwhelming.  On the bright side though, no major tropical storms i.e. Hurricanes.

As we paddled back to our boat nightfall was upon us so we had to move quick as there are a number of ferries that go back and forth across the channels.  Once back on boat the stars were shining and it was a beautiful night to breath in the warm air and appreciate life.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 149, Monday, November 18th

Day 149, Monday, November 18^th

Well another beautiful day in paradise as we awaken in Marsh Harbour in the Abacos.  Dawson starts his day attempting to solve our data download problems with our globalstar satellite phone.  Oh what a pain in the butt.  Days upon days have been spent trying to get them to help us.  They keep wanting us to call them on a LAN line.  “Buddy we got a Sat phone cause we don’t have access to regular phones”  They service as if we are on land with all the facilities available.  Does not make sense given they are selling to persons that need phone and data service in the middle of nowhere.

Rob and Julie putter and read and then Dawson and Julie head to town to buy a plumbers snake.  It is time to tackle our plugged up holding tank today.  Dawson heads to the hardware store and Julie heads to the tourist office and they agree to meet at the grocers.  Unfortunately Julie can’t find the correct grocers so picks up a few things at grocer number 2 and finds out where grocer #1 is which is where we were to meet.  It is now an hour past and Julie heads over to the correct grocers and finds Dawson awaiting her outside with groceries also.  Luckily the only doubles are our high use items so no problem there.  We dinghy back to the boat and the plumbing problem begins.

As mentioned previously, there are no “pump outs” for the holding tanks and therefore we are expected to discharge our holding tank when away from populated areas.  The tide flushes it all out to the ocean twice a day.  The ocean just meters away is like a mile deep.  It is all organic so not really a concern.  Since our discharge valve is not discharging we have to “unplug” it with the snake.  Unfortunately it is full so once unplugged we will have poop soup heading our way.  Not very pleasant but....has to be done.  Dawson works from the dinghy, Rob is assistant and communicator and Julie is inside the boat ready to close the valve the minute Dawson unclogs the pipe and removes the snake.  It takes about an hour of poking and then the whooshing sound is heard and Dawson is quick to pull the snake so Julie slams shut the valve as we are in a harbour and don’t want to send poop soup overboard here.

With that job done and lunch completed it is time to blow up a kayak. We have purchased 2 inflatables with viewing windows.  This goes well and Julie hops in one for a test drive over to visit the new neighbours.  A 30 minute chat sheds some light on places to go and see, but it is time to head back to the mothership as Rob has to meet his taxi to the airport.  We are sad to see the last of our crew depart, however we can now get back to our normal.  Ruth was supposed to be flying in today to visit for a week, but sadly her father passed away so her visit is being deferred.

After we drop off Rob, we pop over to the boat Charbboneau to see of Bill Jr. Wants to come snorkelling with us.  We are going to go over to Mermaid reef and try out our snorkelling gear.  Unfortunately we don’t find Mermaid reef but we do see lots of starfish, sand dollars and fish.  Julie also spots a decent sized sea cucumber.  We are a bit nervous about sharks, and we also get chilled.  We will have to wear our wet suits next time.  Back on the boat we have our fresh water spray down and get ready to head to Snappas for happy hour.  We meet fellow salty dogs, Judy and Bill and Bill Jr. for dinner and drinks.  I am sure we will cross paths as we sail along.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 148, Sunday November 17

Day 148, Sunday, November 17^th



Last day for Rob as he flies home tomorrow.  We are moving a little slower today, but remember to sign on to the Abacos cruisers net.  This is a social and information transfer on the VHF radio every morning at 8:15.  If you have questions you can pose them to the hosts also so a good source of information.  Work today is minimal.  Dawson started by tackling the removal of the inspection plate for the holding tank and lo and behold it came off.  Nothing to see though as it is an almost full tank.  We will have to wait for the hardware store to open and get that snake tomorrow.  Julie tackles rust forming on the stainless.  A toothbrush and toothpaste seem to do a wonderful job. 



We spend the rest of the morning reading at leisure and head into town for our hike in the opposite direction of yesterday by 11.  We meet Bill, Judy and Bill Junior at the marina and chat for 30 minutes or so.  They have an island packet which is similar to our boat, but a different keel and a bit wider.  Dawson preferred the Calibers as they sail a bit faster than the Island Packets.

Farmer tan

Our hike was out to John Cash point and although the flowers were pretty and the blue’s and greens of the seas spectacular, it was fairly uneventful.  We planned on swimming, but the salt water is just so sticky when you get out.  It is quite hot as we hike along, but we still resist going in for a dip.  We do meet a couple who have been snorkelling and they say they saw tons of colourful fish and were very  pumped about the snorkelling and encouraged us to go.  Perhaps tomorrow that will make the list.

After about 3 hours of walking we make it to a restaurant for a late lunch and then head back to the boat.  Julie hangs her hammock chair and now feels like she has arrived in leisure land.  A lazy afternoon is followed by a lazy evening.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 147, Saturday November 16th

Day 147, Saturday November 16^th

We leave Man O War by about 9 with a rising tide.  First order of business is to run some tests on our engine and prop.  Dawson has lined up a matrix to test our speed and acceleration at a bunch of RPM’s.  Typically we run the engine around 2300 or 2400 RPMs so it pains Julie to have to do 300 RPM increments up to full throttle which is about 3700 RPM’s.  Poor engine having to work so hard.  Dawson is satisfied with his data collection so now it is time to raise the sails.  It is only about a 6 mile run across the sea, but a good opportunity to shake out the reefs we had put in at Hampton.

Dawson in the middle of the sea diving our thru hull

It takes a good 15 minutes to get all the knots out of the sail.  They were stressed during the crossing and in there quite well.  The winds are light, but sufficient to shut the motor off and relax our way across the bay.  Another job pops into mind though as our holding tank is not discharging.  This is a problem as the Bahamas has no pump outs.  Sounds gross but they just dump, preferably when you are offshore.  The tides do 2 flushes a day where 50% of the water is sent out into the Atlantic so it is not really a problem for the islands.  Dawson wants to send a wire up the discharge through hull so we heave too, which is a sailing tactic where you keep the sails up but trim them so that the boat stops and stays in one place.  Often sailors on a long crossing or waiting for daylight to enter a harbour will use this technique.  We had not practiced it so the light winds offered a good opportunity to try hoving too.  It worked brilliantly while Dawson hopped overboard and inspected the thru hull.  We tied a rope for him to hold onto so he would not drift away in any current.

Dawson was able to establish that the thruhull fitting is not the problem.  Unfortunately the problem is closer to the tank that is just about full at this point in time.  It would be much nicer if the tank was empty.  Too bad we did not test the discharge in fresh water after having it pumped.  It is illegal to dump in Canadian waters so we did not see if it worked until now when we reached the ocean and it is not working.  In hind sight we could have tested it with clean water in Canadian waters, but never thought of it.  Oh well.

Once we get anchored in Marsh Harbour Dawson continues to putter away trying to figure out the tank discharge.  Could there be another valve?  Perhaps an airlock such that there is a vacumn in the tank?  He tries to get the inspection plate off, but that is stuck so out comes the WD40.  We will have to wait for awhile for the WD40 to work. 

We decide to head into town and purchase a “snake” (wire snake to send up the plumbing to poke through blockage), and restock our liquor cabinet.  We have not stocked up as Rum is much cheaper here.  We land the dinghy by the marina and Snappas restaurant and meet up with a fellow sailor.  They are out of Beaufort and also did the Salty Dawg rally headed for the BVI’s but due to shredding their jib and seasickness they came to the Bahamas instead.  Their list of woes made ours look minimal.  They were seasick, chipped a tooth, their LCD television screen went flying, they shredded their jib, their outboard motor won’t work, and I can’t remember what else, but we felt better afterwards that we had fared quite well.

Our walk into town is pleasant, although most places shut at noon.  They have 3 hardware stores and all are closed.  We are lucky though and find a place to purchase a sim card for the blackberry and the ipad.  We also find about 3 liquor stores that are open.  We head over to the restaurant we have picked for dinner, but the kitchen does not open for an hour so we have a couple of happy hours while we blog and finally we can order dinner.

We head back to the boat and have dessert which consists of a pigout on chocolate and trail mix while we play kings cribbage.  It has been a long day so we are soon off to bed.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 146, Friday November 15th

Day 146, Friday November 15^th

We woke up early and Julie baked muffins and served eggs for Greg’s last meal on the boat.  We dinghy over at 7:30 for Greg to catch the 8:00 ferry to get to Marsh Harbour to catch his flight to Nassau then Freeport then Miami in a couple days where he will meet his buddy Rick and they head off to the BVI’s where Rick has a boat.  We will miss Greg as he has been a wonderful source of knowledge and just an all round great guest/friend/crewmate.

Rob, Julie, Dawson, Greg

Thanks Greg

We work for the morning tackling cleaning the stainless, cooking, and investigating the watermaker problems.  Dawson has agreed to work only until noon and then we are going for a hike and picnic along the Man O War Island.  Dawson pulls the pump and sure enough there is a crack in the housing.  He farts around with it a bit and gets an email and some pictures off to the manufacturer.  Of course it is waranteed if we were the original owner, but will cost us over a thousand dollars to fix.  We can buy a lot of water for a thousand dollars, but Dawson would like to have a working watermaker on board so most likely we will send it off once we get to Marsh Harbour. 

Golf Cart highway

 It is now 1:00 so we eat our picnic on the boat and head off by 1:30 on our hike.  The beauty of these hikes is the islands get narrow enough that we are walking along with the Atlantic on one side of us and the Sea of Abaco on the other.  This island is very neat, clean and beautiful.  Most people we see are cleaning up properties awaiting the owners to arrive over the next couple of weeks.  We walk about 2 miles and stop for a picnic beer that we had brought with us.  This is a dry island.  There are no liquor or beer sales in stores or restaurants.  It is not illegal to have it, you just can’t get it unless you brought it.

Julie has also brought her hair cutting tools as it is time to trim Dawson’s mop and we don’t want to do it on the boat.  This goes quite well considering we can’t find the correct scissors and the ones we have brought are very bad. 

Tin Alligator

On our way back from the hike we chat to someone cleaning conch.  Conch are very plentiful and on all the menus.  We find it a bit rubbery similar to calamari, but tasteful enough.  Generally it is served battered though so not the healthiest choice on the menu.

We head back to the mothership by about 4, and do some planning for our Marsh Harbour trip in the morning.  We need to time the tide so as not to get grounded on our exit.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 145, Thursday November 14th

Day 145, Thursday November 14^th

Today is the last day for Greg.  Dawson and Greg try for a few last minute repairs to odds and sods.   We hung out at Man o War Cay pronouced key.

We walked around the island a bit and then went for a nice lunch at one of the 2 restaurants compliments of Rob.

Julie and Dawson went to sail loft and got last batten that we needed.  The house was beautiful and the owner wonderful to chat to.  He gave us some advice on snorkelling and hiking.

Julie continues to hunt for the IT guy to get us set up with a data plan and cell service.  No luck.  We are on Bahama time.  Instead Julie blogged from the marina.

 We barbequed some filet mignon and put the leftover lobster with it and had a fabulous surf and turf dinner.

Cheers
Julie and Dawson

Day 144, Wednesday November 13th

Day 144, Wednesday, November 13^th

Left Tiloo

Cay at 6:30, DP woke us up.  Weather is our calendar and it is supposed to turn nasty for 5 days, so we are seeking the shelter of Man o War Cay.  This Cay is across from Marsh Harbour and about a 2 hour trip into 15 knot winds.  We pick up a mooring ball, and try to get internet. No luck on the internet.  We prep the boat for anchorage and grab our shower stuff and dinghy to shore to pay and find facilities.  We find out we are on a private mooring ball so we have to move.  Bummer!  Rob, Julie and Dawson head back to the boat while Greg watches our stuff.  It should only take 20 minutes.  Well we release the mooring ball and Julie starts driving forward and is going no where. 

Doggies sleeping on golf cart

There is a stiff 20 knot wind threatening to grab the bow.  Julie puts it in neutral and tries again, still no forward motion.  First thoughts are the prop/engine problems.  Then Julie realizes we are in muck and the depth alarm goes off about 3 seconds later.  We look at the tides and sure enough it is low, low tide (some tides are ower than others and some higher than others).  We will have to wait 30 minutes for the water level to raise a bit.  Oh well, some snacks and a beer will help pass the time.  We also muck about with the alarm on the depth sounder as it never seems to go off until after we are stuck.  We have changed it to alarm at 6 feet vs. 5 feet.  Technically we need 5 foot 3 inches of water, but the depth sounder is also set with a 1 foot lie built in so when it tells us 5 foot it is really 6.  This is done by misquoting the offset from where the transducer is mounted to the waterline.  With the alarm set at 6 foot we should have at least a foot and a half safety factor. 

It is now about noon and we get safely moved to another mooring ball.  We start our bumble into town looking for batons for our main which have been lost at sea.  Julie is on the hunt for telephone and data plans.  We quickly realize the commercial attributes of Man o War have been exaggerated.  Bahama Tel Co. is only on the island the first Wed. of the month for a 4 hour visit.  The bakery is no longer in service and the sail loft does not have any batons.  The CIBC bank is only open Wednesdays for a couple hours also.   We walk across the island to the Atlantic side and it is very windy and beautiful.  Lots of blue hues to the water and sandy beach here.  After an hour or so of bumbling we are back at the marina dining at the Dock and Dine for lunch.  We can also get the internet if we hang around the marina office so that is what we do for a couple hours after lunch.  Dawson and Greg then head over to the island across the way on the hunt for batons and are successful.  This is good because our main sail is somewhat useless without the batons and to ship batons is difficult because of their length.

Back at the boat we have managed to get internet with our new Wirie booster system so more blogging and skyping is possible.  Soon enough happy hour is upon us followed by a lobster tail dinner.  Julie found a number on the bulletin board to call for seafood and “Fred” delivered the lobster in about 5 minutes.  We played a couple more games of Kings Cribbage before heading off to bed.  We have a new scoring system called the scoring plate!  Made us giggle.

Cheers
Julie and Dawson

Day 143, Tuesday November 12th

Day 143, Tuesday November12th

We are up about 5:30 and check the weather.  Looks like we are trapped here for a week if we don’t move today.  Dawson wanted to get the prop issue sorted out before we go, but decides we can move on and get is dealt with in the Abacos.  Julie is pleased as Ruth is also flying into Marsh Harbour on the Abacos on the 18^th and it is important for us to be there to meet the plane.

By 6:15 we are leaving the docks.  Dawson has not settled up our bill, however left them a credit card number so they will be able to charge us.  We can’t wait until they open as we would then be arriving after nightfall to the Abacos.   It is about a 10-12 hour  crossing and that is all the daylight we have.  Dawson had tried to pay them the night before, but they wanted to settle up once we were sure how long we were staying.

As we are pulling out of the channel Rob spots a shark milling about in the lagoon alongside the channel.  This is a bit intimidating.  We don’t like sharks.  The movie Jaws has really ruined saltwater swimming for our generation.  We cross the shallow bay fine and soon are out into the deep water again.  There is little wind, but we are able to pull out the jib to help keep our speed up.  Later in the day the winds rise a bit and a rain shower comes along to rinse everything off.  For the first time, Julie collects a pail of rainwater to use for dishes.  If our watermaker is not fixable, we will be doing more of that.  We can buy water here at the marina’s too if needed. 

Add caption

One thing about the trip is the intense blue colours.  We went from 8 foot to 20 foot to 695 to 2095 depth in a very short while.  The really deep waters are such a rich indigo colour it is amazing.  Then a sky blue, and a sea foam green.  It took us about 9 hours to get between the Eleuthra Island and over to the cut at the Abacos.  We then had another 2 hours in 8 foot water depths to get to our anchorage for the night.  With only about an half hour of daylight to spare we celebrated our arrival in the Abacos, as that was supposed to be our landing spot on our crossing.  We are now only about 10 miles from Marsh Harbour which hosts the airstrip our crew is flying out of in a couple of days.