When Nothing Works – Lanyard Cay, Bahamas, November 26, 2022

Posted on November 27, 2022 by Sally

When Nothing Works – Lanyard Cay, Bahamas, November 26, 2022

We finished up a few days in Hopetown and were able to fix our starter battery issue which was great! So, when the weather cleared, we were ready to get away from all the charter boats in Hopetown and anchor out for a few days. Being a holiday week, everyone who thought about sailing drops $20K and rents a boat they have no idea how to drive! It isn’t that big a deal except they ended up mooring right next to us and with 30+ MPH winds, the fact they don’t tie up correctly is a bit scary. But we made it out alive and the boat unscathed. Ron ended up having to go over and help one of them moore since they simply couldn’t get it. EEK!

Anyway, we spent Thanksgiving in Pelican Cay which is a protected reef and a place we had not been before and decided to snokel. The current was no joke and we had about 4-foot rolling waves. A good workout indeed! It was amazing and one of the best reefs we have seen together. The visibility wasn’t great but the coral life there was very healthy, and we saw huge starfish, huge spotted eagle rays, a few turtles and a rare school of cuddlefish! It was a bit cold but well worth going. We also headed back to “the bight” which is a shallow area full of sting rays and turbo turtles. They are called turbo turtles because as soon as they see you they dart off faster then any turtle should be able to swim. The “bight” is also home of numerous blue holes. These are basically sink holes that open up and are extremely deep so you can not see the bottom. Some even open to the ocean and can have weird currents flowing around them depending upon the tide so care must be taken not to get sucked into them.

We were thinking about heading down to Eleuthera in the next few days but decided to wait til Monday. In the meantime, we needed to make some water and that is when the wheels fell off the bus…the generator was first.

Ron ended up replacing the pull cord again, taking it apart and cleaning everything with brake cleaner since he ran out of carburetor cleaner the last time he fixed it. No sooner had he got that running (an hour later) …then the water maker quit. So, Sailing Hubby has a bit of a temper when he fixes the same thing multiple times, but our generator was left up front and it is all rusted and barely running. This has come to the top of the replacement list. Besides, I learned a few new cuss words today as he was threatening to toss the generator in the ocean. He’s very creative in his rants. I’ll chalk that one up to life skills. Poor guy.

After fixing everything he touched, replacing the impeller on the water maker, he finally got all the pieces working at the same time only to discover the generator was no longer generating any power even when it ran. I’m not sure why he was afraid he’d be bored this morning. Living on a boat certainly makes you appreciate you water and power!

We decided to relax and watch the OSU Game, however that required a bit of work on the fire-stick. I’m sad after watching my buckeyes get beat by Michigan and now all that’s left is to visit Pete’s Pub. I think Hubby has earned his beer after this morning. Pete’s is a legendary art gallery and pub combination (more than one way to get visitors) although I am not sure why as it was a bit underwhelming. The art is cool though and all bronze sculpture and made into everything from coffee tables, statues, to jewelry. So we had a couple token beers collected a million insect bites and headed home. Heading home at dusk into the 4 foot swells that ran across the bay topped off an adventurous day.

Birthday Bureaucracy – November 18, 2022, Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas

Posted on November 20, 2022 by Sally

Birthday Bureaucracy – November 18, 2022, Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas

Sailing Hubby headed in to check us in via the immigration office and the good news is $600 later we have a year cruising permit and a 90-day visa. This year at least didn’t require a health visa or COVID tests which makes the process a bit smoother.

It’s funny there are things about the Bahamas I forgot like somehow there is island music playing in the background ALL the time. This usually comes from the passing dive boats filled with tourists. Then there is the rooster. I swear on every island there is one and we were awakened by him this morning here in Green Turtle. Lastly, how friendly everyone is here. They are all so happy but if I lived in paradise, I guess I would be to. So different than Americans.

We spent Ron’s birthday walking on the beach after getting checked in and enjoyed met up for cocktails with a couple cruiser friends from South Africa whom we had met in Vero Beach. As nice as it was to be ahead of the cruising herd in Green Turtle and only $20 for a mooring a night, we wanted to keep moving. There were several large weddings happening this weekend and many of the places were either closed for private events or PACKED! So, we headed south and due to weather, made a run across “the Whale” (a tricky cut requiring mild weather) to Hopetown. Another front is headed our way and that is a nice, protected anchorage.

Hopetown is restoring their lighthouse but there are still lights up on “my Christmas Tree!” I am glad we got to go up in the lighthouse last year since it is now closed to the public til further notice. I love Hopetown and it’s nice to be back here. We will likely be here for week since we have lost our starter battery on the port side, and it is supposed to storm all week.

Can You Hear the Jimmy Buffet? – November 17, 2022, En Route to Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas

Posted on November 17, 2022 by Sally

Can You Hear the Jimmy Buffet? – November 17, 2022, En Route to Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas

With all the hurricane preparations stowed away again and a beautiful weather window upon us, we decided to do the crossing to the Bahamas. We started Tuesday morning and left from Vero Beach, dropped anchor at Fort Pierce for a few hours waiting on the change in tidal surge, then left out the Fort Pierce Inlet at 3:00pm. We had not been this route before since last year we went south through West Palm and out Lake Worth which is shorter but our weather window wasn’t long enough for us to make it down there then go out so we took the route we could fit in.

The first 4 or so hours were pretty choppy (thank you Bonine for keeping me from getting too seasick!) since we were heading south against the wind and current we hoped it would get better once we turned East, it got a lot better. It took us 28 hours, averaging 5.5 knots over 168 miles (yes, we move very slow & motored the entire way). Hitting the Bahama Bank (very shallow with debris) at dark was not high on our to do list so we scrubbed time to minimized the dark time. My sleeping quarters was the dining room table which drops down into a 5^th bed on our boat. Now how many people get to say they slept on the table last night? I think Ron got 1-2 hours of sleep max and he was beat.

We dropped anchor at Great Sale Cay about 3:00pm which was just in time for burgers on the grill and a beer! We were treated to being the only boat here and I have to say, I forget how beautiful the water, and everything is here. It feels really good to be back and we really could spend the rest of our sailing days getting lost in the islands here if we didn’t have such itchy feet. It was surprising the amount of debris after the recent hurricane. There were lots of logs, a dock ladder, and crazy amount of seaweed on the bank.

Since this was the first time Sailing Hubby let me do solo watches, I finally feel like a sailor. In total I did three official watches: one Tuesday from 5-8pm, 10-midnight, 4:30am Wednesday morning – 6:30am, then off and on over the course of the day when he needed a break. He wanted to be on watch during the swiftest part of the gulf stream and when we hit the Bahama Bank, which required him to be on the longest watch from midnight – 4:30am.

After catching on up some sleep (yes Sailing Hubby went to bed at 6:00pm), we continued 8 more hours East, as our initial destination was Green Turtle Cay to check into immigration. If we didn’t make it by Friday morning to check in, we would be stuck in quarantine all weekend and wouldn’t be able to get off the boat. Therefore, we were up early and headed out by 6:00am Thursday (but at least the dolphins came with us – a very good omen). It didn’t hurt there was a small squall headed straight for us and we wanted to get going before it hit us. But hey – we broke out the sails which helped us move a bit faster with the wind behind us. Ah, the realities of sailing life. Speaking of realities, I am a bit gun shy of Green Turtle since the no-see-ums were SO bad last time. Especially after just getting eaten alive at Vero Beach. Our mooring was right next to the mangroves, and they are vicious! I swear I have Zika from those little suckers! Let’s hope Green Turtle is better & we don’t get struck by lightning on the way there. At least we were off to a good start with the double rainbow.

Bullseye – November 10, 2022, Vero Beach, Florida, USA

Posted on November 10, 2022 by Sally

Bullseye – November 10, 2022, Vero Beach, Florida, USA

Not a sign you want to see. Hurricane watch

And just like that, we have been through two hurricanes in the last month. Hurricane Nicole is the first hurricane to make landfall in November in over 40 years and only one of three in the last 100 years. The odds were in our favor when we launched the boat to catch a crossing window and we expected to be in the Bahamas by now. Clearly, we are not. It started out likely to be a tropical storm so we prepper the boat for the high winds by adding more mooring lines, removing as much windage as we could (removing the dodger are made for starters), and lashing down the main sail. We made a quick run to the grocery store since it was the last time we would be able to go for a while and we came across this on our dinghy ride. It was inoperable but interesting none the less.

As the storm got closer, it was clear we were in for worse conditions than originally thought and Sailing Hubby decided it was time to get off the boat since there was nothing more we could do and the conditions on the boat would be very unpleasant at best. We headed to the local Holiday Inn on Tuesday to wait out the hurricane.

Chafe protection is more important then lines.

We walked to the boat, pouring rain or not, twice a day. Good way to get our walk in since the marina was only about a mile and a half away. The finger docks were flooded, coastal flooding had started, but as of today, our boat & dinghy survived the worst, which was 75 mph winds with gusts closer to 85. The last time we experienced this type of wind was our first real squall in Royal Island, Bahamas and it was rather terrifying! I am glad we are on land.

The coast was hit pretty hard, and I am grateful we were in the intercoastal and dodged this bullet. Ironically it isn’t our first hurricane together and one of our friends who is weathering the storm in the Bahamas said “Gee, you guys are in great spirits since you almost lost everything.” I hadn’t thought of it quite that way til he said it and our perspective was we really didn’t want to lose the boat, but we had each other, insurance, and our passports. All is well.

Crazy surf!

Clearing the Cobwebs – Vero Beach, FL, USA – November 3, 2022

Posted on November 3, 2022 by Sally

Clearing the Cobwebs – Vero Beach, FL, USA – November 3, 2022

I have to admit, we are a little rusty. However, after 10 days in the water (4 of which we have travelled), 20 hours on the engines…Sailing Hubby’s honey-do list has only gotten longer. It’s to the point of silly now since we have things breaking that I didn’t even know we had. For example, there’s this thing that regulates the water pressure on the boat and makes it easier for you to adjust the hot and cold water in the shower and not get scalded. Yep, ask me how I can tell you that’s broke! Apparently, we need a new “accumulator” since ours has a large hole and no longer pressurizes. Then we found out we might have a leak in one of our diesel tanks, if that turns out to be the case Ron gets to syphon out all the gas in both tanks and weld them with JB Weld (whatever that is apparently fixes it). It’s not cheap to leak diesel and not really safe to have fuel in your bilges. One of the tachometers needed rewired, our speed over ground(SOG) isn’t showing up on the speed display since we changed our chart plotter, our chain snubber hook for the anchor bridal doesn’t work (and we get to replace that), and the list goes on……and on.

On the positive side, it looks like due to weather, we will need to stay in Vero Beach for about a week and will have time to do this stuff. We can get our necessary parts shipped to the marina, we are still in the states which means we don’t have to pay import tax on anything we need to fix stuff, and my magically handy husband knows how to do all this crap. As far as the weather goes, we are watching a storm that is going to pass through starting Friday-Sunday and hoping it isn’t a tropical storm. We are all tucked in a little marina on a mooring to wait it out just in case.

We also got to see a launch as we headed down the space coast which is always very cool.

And after 10 days, the boat routines are starting to feel familiar again. I drove a good chunk of the intercoastal to try and get some experience and learn the new chart plotter. We have anchored a few times to test out our new chain (which is how we know it’s broke), docked a few times, and picked up a mooring so we are dangerous enough now to head south when weather permits. A crossing window may be upon us after this storm goes through but will need to wait til we get closer to see.

For now though, Vero Beach is a cool little town with walking trails, beaches, and a terrific farmer’s market on Saturday. We also have friends heading here in a couple days as well so I am sure we will find something to entertain us for a while!

Cement Donkeys

Monthly Archives: November 2022