the rest of Sunday

Ok, got here at 11:30 tonight...my bad. I changed the travel route to try to outsmart the gulf stream...didn't work.  Boring crossing...no wind, no whales, no turtles or dolphins. 16 hours later, just as we were entering Lake Worth Inlet some idiot sank his boat and the CG put out a panpan, so we had to answer. We called in and turned around to try to help and make sure they didn't drown but the CG got there in time before we needed to do anything so they said thanks, and be on your way.We found our way through the confusing mess of red and green marks and dropped the anchor at Green13. G'nite!

Sunday morning

Bahamas Tel Co never ceases to amaze me! We are 5 miles out in the Gulf Stream and I have full bars!!! Of course, the down side is I am sitting in a cloud of vicious no-see-ums that came aboard at 5 this morning. AND NO WIND!!! So we left. There is a full on rainstorm south of us but that should give is a bit of wind if it is coming north. and the gin trick....didn't work. Now I just smell like a gin bottle!
So in 12 hours or so we will hit the States and everyone can relax! ttyl

Satrday May 30

May 30

As I as sitting at the helm, playing with the sails in 7 knots of wind and wishing we had more so we could shut off the engine, I  watch the clouds drift across the sky and realize how serene it was being in the middle of nowhere, absolutely no land in sight with the sun beating on my back [it’s 8:00 am and we have already gone 8 miles].  The water is fairly flat and turquoise…only 12 feet deep. No other boats  in sight, and I love it.

So my question is…am I content or lazy? It has been a whole year since we moved onto the boat, and have I done any of the things that I had planned to do? I can’t even remember what some of them were!  My day[s] consist of getting up, start the engine, sail/motor. When we have reached the last way point, put down the anchor and make dinner, wash the dishes and go to bed, when my eyes won’t stay open to finish the blog…usually around 9:00 pm. That’s generally a 15 hour day outside. Sometimes swimming if there’s time or walking a beach.   SO … lazy or content?

We traveled 56 miles yesterday from Manjack Cay to Great Sail Cay. There were about 20 boats in the bay when we arrived… most of them passed us at some point through the day, and will probably pass us again. But they gave us a good head start! We left at 7:00 this morning and they haven’t appeared on the horizon yet! Although it’s a bit hard to tell, looking directly east into the sun.

                I feel rather sad about leaving here, maybe because it is so laid back and no stress. There are so many expectations when we get back to Canada. Not sure we can manage them all.

I think I have developed an allergy to Snickers Bars! Every time I eat one my skin starts to itch so badly I’d like to peel it off. Damn!!  I’m going to try a few more just to be sure. We have been rationing them. ..half at a time.  Good thing we will be in the States soon. They are very expensive here.

Rick baked bread today… he’s out of bread too! And made some crackers… like the veggie thins only with herbs . They are awesome.

So…later that same day …no allergy to the Snickers bar! Whew!                I think I just need to rehydrate my skin.

We landed in West End at 5:50 pm. 10 minutes ahead of my projected arrival time. What a pain!! Three boats all coming in at the same time and of course we are last in line. The first guy gets in ok. He passed us and has obviously been here before. The middle guy is looking for a special dock so he can back in, and then wants directions on how to get to customs. In the meantime I am waiting for a dock assignment and am in the Marina when someone tells me to tie up on the west wall.  Seriously!??!?!There are four mega yachts along there and you want me to squeeze into that tiny little space?  And there are supposed to be 2 guys there to help. So I said to Rick we are not going in there…I will turn us around and tie up on the dock across the “road”. As I start to turn up one of the “streets”  a sport fisher comes roaring up behind me, and has to stop. Because I am NOT hurrying to accommodate anyone!  I manage to get us turned enough so I can dock but now the guy is yelling at me to come over to the wall. So I back up between the mega yachts and pull into my “parking space”. I must be getting good because Rick didn’t even yell at me this time. And we are facing the right way to get away in the morning. We talked to the owner of the HUGE Hatteras behind us, former Navy guy Larry and his wife Deb and two of their kids, from Colorado. Really nice people.

There is a sport fisher up in front of the restaurant playing really loud, really obnoxious country music. I think he is trying to drown out the Junkanoo band playing on the dock.  It’s Saturday… party night.  Had we only know we would have anchored out, but I SO want a shower and their internet is free… no, actually it isn’t… the dock space s $3.00/foot and $15.00 for water so we are downloading TV shows we missed and filling out water tank.  The Hatteras and the big boat in front of him are both leaving early so we won’t be the first ones out of the harbour.

SO Gulf Stream tomorrow … 5knots of wind more or less…another 12 hours  [52 miles] Going for my shower and we will talk again when I get the US internet us and running!

Thursday cont'd

Thursday cont’d

We went ashore for the bread this morning after Rick got the fuel.  Nipper’s has its own dock (because it also attached to the Liquor Store, which they own and another Boutique which they own. We tied up at their dinghy dock and went inside and there was Bill…working on the stock. He said that Jenesse and Johnny had to go to Marsh Harbour and we wouldn’t see them, and I assumed Annette was working with Brody, as he is home schooled. SO we said our goodbyes and hope that we will see them next year or in the fall if we are in Ontario when they come for a visit. [Hint, Dave and Mildred!] Oh, and I heard some interesting stories about piercing ears with a paperclip and losing Becky …on a dock?

We got off the mooring ball sail sailed up to the Don’t Go Rocks. Now that has to tell you something about the channel, right? It was a 1.5 mile strip of shallow water  4-5 feet deep, between sandbars and rocks. So with Rick standing on the bow and me glued to the GPS to make sure I stayed on the track, we fought the ocean surge coming through the gap pushing us to port and the wind off our stern pushing us ahead!  It took us 2o minutes to do the 1.5 miles, and I didn’t hit anything! Piece o’ cake!

We are anchored in Palm Tree Bay on Manjack Island, which the chart said was uninhabited [12 years ago] . We are anchored beside a trawler with kids on it. There’s nothing in this bay but a few conch [good… no more shells on the back deck for now] and it is COLD!  The water is 27 degrees, but the wind is not warm. The high today was only 82. I may have to dig out a blanket soon!

SO this bay actually has internet access. Well, Green Turtle Cay is back a couple of miles so I am accessing the BaTelCo tower there.  It wouldn’t let me send a reply email to the scam email from 2015 Canada Revenue Agency! [It told me I had until today to “claim my deposit”. If it’s my money, why is there a deadline? I forwarded to my RCMP friend. He can pass it on to whomever.] SO I doubt that I can post pictures from here, but as Liz likes to point out…why am I torturing everyone with new pictures of paradise when the old ones will do?

Anyway, I’ll post this and hope when we get to West End, Grand Bahama, I can post again. That might be in a day or three, so don’t sweat it. We are still only in 12 feet of water! ttyl

Wed -Thurs 27-28

Wednesday, may 27

We got up and made a move to go into town for groceries. We parked the dinghy on Grabber’s Beach, where Annette said NOT to eat, and Bill was there with his golf cart. He drove us to the grocery store and we got what we needed although the supply boat hadn’t arrived so there was not as much choice as we would have liked. We need to go back for bread.

We brought the groceries back and decided to move into the harbour. Bill pointed out the good anchor spot and said we would be fine. Johnny had given me his internet code but I couldn’t reach it in the bay behind the point. The harbour was also more protected from the swell. When we got in here and tried to drop the anchor, it wouldn’t grab so Rick started to lift it and wouldn’t you know it;  that @#*% windlass quit again! He started to have a meltdown, so we hooked one of the mooring balls and there we sat for the night. $20.00 Crap!

We went back over to Nipper’s and had a drink and saw Bill again. But Jenesse wasn’t available today, so we hung out for a while, had some dinner and came back to the boat.

Thursday, May 27

Cruiser’s net here is useless. You can’t hear half the boats or businesses reporting because the area is too big and they are too far away. I caught the weather, which emanates from the same website I was looking at this morning. Whoever reads it, is short-forming, so you don’t get as much information as when you look yourself. And still people are calling asking other people if they should go or stay! I get that this is a huge area with lots of sandbars but …charts, people…use charts!!!!

Interesting stat from Bill about Great Guana Cay: it is 95 % white, originally from Scotland. Johnny [owner of Nipper’s] Robert’s great-great grandfather was one of the first settlers. The Cay at the south end of Great Guana is called Scotland Cay. I imagine it reminded them of home only a lot warmer!!!

So we have to cross a shallow section of the Bight of Abaco and we are aiming to get there at high tide. The guy from Dive Guana who collected out $20.00 at 7:30 this morning asked where we were headed and when Rick said across the sandbar, he said with our draft we could go anytime… confirmation is good! But we’ll still aim for high tide!

We need to get fuel and then we will slowly sail out around noon. I hope we get to see the Gravelles again but they are very busy…

Police Car!

Nipper's Pool & Bar

View from the top- rough day out there!

Neighbours in the harbour

Sunday may 24 Monday may 25

Sunday May 24, 2015

When Rick went up to pay for our slip this morning, he found out 2 things…nothing is open on Sunday  and it’s a holiday [Independence Day] on Monday, so we are stuck here until Tuesday before we can shop which means we cannot leave until Wednesday. Because the next stretch is another 50 mile run. Or we go without the things we need until we get to Abacos.  Hmmm… can we do without? We also need to look at the weather. The high pressure system is dissipating which means a change in winds and seas. And we need to be on big water to get to the Abacos.

We had to move to another dock because a “big” boat was coming in to take our space on the outside. I think they wanted to move us away from the rich boats and stick us with the work boats. The big boat never showed up!

We walked to the end of the island this afternoon. It was 12 blocks from the boat. But they are small blocks There are so many houses for sale here and they are all mini-Florida style. The island is beautiful but I don’t like it. I’m not comfortable here!  The cemetery is huge and there are four families in it:  [Pinder, Albury, Curry and Higgs!!]   OK more but these are the predominant names. The island is too neat and tidy. it reminds me of that movie/TV show..Wandering Pines[?] or Stepford Wives.lol

 Monday: Happy Independence Day Bahamas

We left at 6:45 this morning and  took an hour to weave our way through the channel to the ocean. We managed to do 6-7 knots and made it to Abacos, by 4:30. We averaged about 6 knots. It was 50+ mile day. The ocean was pretty rough today: 6 foot swells and winds between 15-25 but it was great sailing [no motor], and the wind at about 100 degrees. [Yeah I now… only sailors know what I mean! Sorry!] All the squalls crossed i8n front of us and we only had a few drops of rain.

Right now we are snugged up against a beach amongst a dozen other boats and getting ready for sundown. Dinner was great! I finally mastered “peas and rice”. OK, Leroy, the dock-master told me the secret and it works!!! If you want awesome fried rice try this: sauté onions, red & green peppers, a bit of bacon or ham [not much] . Add pepper and salt and cooked brown rice and a can of pigeon peas or frozen green peas. Cook in frying pan until everything is hot. [Kris, you epicure BLT and 3-Onion Dip were a great substitute when I ran out of onions and green peppers!]

Tomorrow we will run up to Great Guana Cay and visit with  Smethurst friends… I REALLY hope they are there! I’m sure we will get I’net there as well! ttyl

tuesday May 26

Tuesday, May 26

We took our time getting moving this morning thinking we had not far to go…only about 26 miles.  Well, that was true but some of the legs were into the wind which slowed us down considerably. Still we managed to arrive in Great Guana Cay by 3:00 pm.

Unfortunately some stupid stuff happened, and don’t tell Rick I told you!  Firstly, we were dogged by a charter cat that kept upping his revs so he could stay ahead of us. We didn’t care but as luck would have it he was headed for the same anchorage and managed to drop his in the middle, not leaving much room for us. The anchorage is not very big and already had a lot of boats spread around in it.  Ok, so not our fault but we had trouble finding space.

Secondly, we couldn’t get the anchor set and had to lift and try twice…hard spots where it wouldn’t grab. Still, not our fault but got it down. Rick went and swam on it to make sure we were set. Good. Except that this [again] is the highway for dinghies and powerboats heading to shore. I hate anchoring in those spots. And these islands are all too short to buffer the wind. By the time the anchor was set we had out a hundred feet of chain and were sitting outside the calm zone. We are bobbing around like a cork in a sink. Makes it really hard to drink hot tea. Oh, well.

I had tied the string to pull the sail bag zipper onto the dodger pole to stop it from swinging. When we went to lift the dinghy down Rick snapped the zipper pull off because he forgot to untie the string. Oops

We put thin dinghy in the water and …oh, look, did it rain that much?? NO he forgot to put the drain plug in. Crap! So he had to bail it out before we went to shore.

But we made it and found Nippers’ … and what a cool place THAT is! They had a multi-level bar above the beach, all bright colours with an indoor, A/C restaurant and a pool you can sit in with your drink!

When we go there no-one we needed to meet was there but the bartender called Bill’s number for me and after I told him who I was, he and Annette came to meet us. We sat for a long time and chatted about stuff… grandkids, retirement, old jobs, growing up here and there, and the strangest thing….

Annette & I were in GRADE 3 together in Hamilton!!!

We met their son-in-law, Johnny and hope to meet Janesse tomorrow when we go back to town. I will take some photos and try to post again.  G’nite!