December 17, Thursday must be Nassau

 So, I'm wondering what we did to piss off Poseidon/ Neptune or just the universe in general.

When we left Bimini Monday, we bobbed half way across the bank in no wind. We even stopped the boat half way so Quentin could swim in the middle of the ocean...no panic ... it was only 15 feet deep.  We decide to anchor there because it was calm and we don't really want to go at night if it's not necessary. We were half way, as I said.

The next day we experienced the same minimal/ no winds so it was motoring again. We came off the banks and into deep water...1000+ feet, so there was no place to stop. OF course that meant another 20 miles because it had taken all freaking day in no wind!!!

 As we approached Morgan's Bluff on Andros Island  at the end of the afternoon, the winds came up to 12-15 on the nose [that means whatever direction we chose to go the wind comes from that direction]and because we were trying to get into a narrow unmarked channel with rocks on both sides.  There was a lovely calm harbour, and we dropped the kayak so Q could go off kayaking.

IN the morning we let him swim for a while, because it was only 20 miles down to West Bay on New Providence and we figures that we could decide from there whether to go to Nassau or Coral Bay Marina. Well, the next morning we called information to find that there in fact is no coral bay Marina sow e had to go to Nassau and what direction is the wind coming from??? Yup...16 miles took us 6 hours. AND the only Marina we could get into is $3.00 a foot!!! But we need to be at a dock so we can catch a cab in the morning to get Quentin to the airport. We will be leaving here at 9 am because I KNOW what "island time" is like. If I thought it would help we'd go there tonight to sleep. Do I sound a little aggravated?  Next year when we do this, we will leave in November to get down here before the "Christmas Winds" start and we will NOT BE ON ANYONE'S SCHEDULE    but our own!

OK, but back up. In Morgan's Bluff harbour, when Rick pulled up the anchor, there was a gold chain wrapped around the float ball...bonus! Not sure if it's real gold but...and I said "thank you" to Poseidon!

Quentin found an enormous starfish and had a great time photographing it and snorkelling in the bay.

When we got here and I opened the email, there was a note from Waterway Guide that they were publishing my article on the iguanas AND paying for it! Inspiration to create more.

There were three cruise ships in the harbour when we went through. I think Quentin finally was speechless ...the size was mindboggling! 11 stories high and 119 rooms down each side that he counted. We didn't even mention the inside cabins.

So yes, Barb, I may sound like I'm not having fun, and no, it's not because we can't swim naked with Quentin around.[Thanks for that image, LIZ] I wish Quentin was staying with us. I miss my family at this time of year. I'm sad that we won't be with y'all at Christmas. I am nostalgic for Thunder Bay, even though I'm not fan of snow; Christmas there was magical, especially spending time with our neighbours and family there too. This is the first year I don't seem to be inspired to write a Christmas poem. [Be careful what you wish for].

I miss our sailing buddies, C-Soul and Pearl, Beguiler and Magic, Anneteak and Modaki and am not sure that we will be together at Christmas in time for a dinner. I'm not sure that with these winds WE will be there. I know that there are people in the anchorages at Georgetown who were there last year and we will renew acquaintances, but Jasmine City and Nauticuss and Amazing Grace are not going to be there, either.

It's hard to be happy ALL the time, y'know.  Besides if nothing went wrong, how boring would THAT be!

So Rick and Quentin have gone off to the bank. I have just finished this and my invoice to WWG, and will try to figure out what to have for supper. This won't be easy... we are 50 feet from a restaurant called Crocodile's, and I have discovered that beer does not affect me, even the locally brewed Kalik which is WAY cheaper than the imported stuff. And it's hot and I'm tired of cooking. We had fried chicken and hash browns and veggies last night. The night before, we ate bacon and eggs and beans and before that I made chicken Parmesan and spaghetti. So, do I rate a night out y'think?

I will tty before we leave here just to confirm Q is on the plane. Now it's time to check and see where the wind will be tomorrow. Any guesses???

Sunday Dec 13

Sunday Dec 13

Well, THAT was a waste of time!!!!
We left the dock at 9:30 am because [first mistake] the mega yacht beside us said, "Oh, the forecast has changed ,... winds are supposed to settle ."
We couldn't get on the internet to confirm because our data n the phone wasn't activated and the Internet here is iffy at times.

So, we took their word for it and left.

OK...let's think about this...they can do 20 knots and were heading out to Chubb Cay with two whopping 300 horse diesels, and bow thrusts. [Also a cook and captain....don't care if they were from Parry Sound] We can manage 3-4 knots under motor and we have a dinky 30 hp diesel. Not a good comparison.

We got about 15 miles out and realized that we can sail this at 8 knots but not in the direction we want to go. The small sailboat ahead of us called when we tacked to say, "Don't go that way. We are going down to top of Andros and across the sandbank. It will be better." Did we listen ...no [second mistake].Consequently we went 7 miles too far south of our course in no time. Every hour we tacked back we lost 3 miles.

So here we are less than ¼ the way across...it's dark...20-24 knots of wind on the nose and rough waves in shallow[ I mean 7-feet-shallow] water so we dropped the anchor and watched the stars for about an hour while we ate, then tried to sleep..."tried" being the operative word. We bounced and slammed all night.

This morning the winds were still 20-25 knots on the nose. We could make 2.5 knots and with 45 miles to the next mark that would be another 20 hours and then another 10 miles to an island.

I made an executive decision and we are back in Bimini waiting for this to calm down!

So as soon as I can get on the internet I will check weather AGAIN, and see what we are up against. Coming back we still sailed at 6 knots through two squalls and made it back in half the time. Luckily there was no fuel use...just time wasted! Grrrrr!

I'm going to have a shower and a nap, then I'm going to help Quentin recreate his files and make supper for tonight and tomorrow. It looks like tomorrow may have better conditions, but it will be an all-nighter probably if we can't sail fast enough to get to Chubb or down Andros on the Tongue

Thursday Dec 10

Hi There!

It is 5:31 am there are thousands of no-see-ums out here. Pisses me off that bugs are allowed in paradise but what can you do...

The rules have gotten tougher here and only one of us was allowed off the boat to go to Customs and Immigration. I was elected. My name appears first on the registration. I had to get directions b because I couldn't remember where it was and a couple of locals had no idea either! So it took a while to get there. It was not a big deal except that I forgot how slow island time can be. They were busy watching Jerry Springer while they were processing me.

The forms the marina attendant gave us were incomplete... they should have been on long paper and the bottom was missing. No biggie... but I missed a lot of spots and felt like an idiot when she kept correcting me. Then I had to walk down to Immigration at the police station which was further down the road. The officer was a complete sweetheart but when it came to Quentin's letter, she was not happy. It was not notarized, so we may have to make sure there is a new NOTARIZED one when he comes back. She asked me to bring Quentin down to see her so she could be assured that he wasn't here under "duress". When Rick asked him if he knew what that meant, he said, "sort of forced to be here? Absolutely not! I love it here!"  Good answer. She was happy with that and we stood and chatted with her for another 20 minutes.

So we wandered down and got the phones hooked up and he has his own phone so we can keep track of him. No-one has implants here for kids...hmmm...Liz, can you get one for him for Christmas??

After that we went over to the beach for a couple of hours so he could scour the beach for sea glass, his new passion?? The supply boat doesn't come in until tomorrow afternoon so no bananas or bread...we wait until then.

We went for dinner at Big John's dinner/ bar/ we sat on the patio and watched the little fish swimming around. They hide there until they are big enough to catch and cook! A shark swam through but I guess they weren't big enough to register on his food meter or he wasn't hungry. I had a chicken salad; Q had a burger, but he did eat some of Rick's Wahoo! And we came home with pound of fish for tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will get supplies, change the fuel filter [oh yeah, he found them!!] and get rid of the contaminated fuel. Then I want to go up the hill to visit the dolphin house and Thomas Saunders, the man who makes turtles out of conch feet and coral bits.

Tonight we will just listen to the bar music and mellow out! ttyl

Yay! We made it!

Wednesday Dec 9 7:30 pm

We made it over !! We are anchored off Bimini's Paradise Point. We didn't get over early enough to try to get into the channel and to the marina, but we will tomorrow morning.

We might have made it earlier but...yeah here it comes...motor problems!! Likely bad fuel but a couple of times the engine cut out completely and it was running really smoky a few times during the crossing. The night before we left, Rick put in some fuel from an old diesel jug. It probably had something in it. We never had any issues all the way down from Fort Pierce. I think we'll throw THAT jug away. I think he thinks we're going over the edge of the universe and he has to have as much backup as possible. !

Of course the key to fixing this is to change the fuel filter of which we purchased a whole box. Did we bring them with us?  "We" don't remember. "We" will check in the morning.

Where we are sitting really isn't an anchorage...just the beach, but it is shallow and good holding. We are on the same spot as we were on last year when we came over, only because he can't remember how to erase our GPS marks, lol

So Quentin had a great ride. In the morning, he sat on the front getting soaked by the waves. Later on in the morning we saw a Man-O-War jelly fish...just one. We figured it's either a scout or it jumped the starting pistol. Last time we crossed the ocean was covered with them but that was end of February.

In the afternoon, a pod of dolphins chased some flying fish across our path. They weren't much interested in us. They were feeding.

The crossing in the morning was choppy. NOAA called for east winds 5-10 and 2-4 foot seas with a 7 second period. But the seas were very confused and sloppy. IT was a shorter period when you could actually calculate it.  The waves ranged from nothing to 6 feet.  If what we had was 2-4 feet, tomorrow should be glass. The conditions were nothing like predicted on either the weather radio or Passage weather.

Of all the boats anchored in No Name Harbour, none of them came out to cross over. One of the boats, Dos Libros was one we met last year. We gave them some old lifejackets for their dinghy.  They remembered us. Actually she said, "Are you the same OtherGoose..?"  Seriously???How many have you met?

There are some boats that have common names...we know of 3 Kokopelli's ...well, 2 now. One was destroyed last year. Dos Libros is another, although you'd not expect it to be common. We have even seen 2 more Amazing Grace's but OtherGoose??? Anyway they are waiting for another couple to meet up with them before they come over.

We had snacks all day long, so at supper I made bacon and eggs, or tried to. Quentin had the last two eggs from the first carton and when I opened the second carton it was full of maggots. I had just noticed a small n the pantry that afternoon but it was too rough to try tracking it down.  This carton of eggs was the double wrapped plastic carton called "Cage Free" from Publix...so be warned you shoppers of Publix.  If they are free range, the eggs aren't being checked properly!!

Rick tossed them overboard and I'm sure that's what brought all the little fish to the boat...yummy juicy maggots... And the conch and crabs will make short work of the eggs.  We ended up with bacon and salad.

We were all in bed by 8:30 last night and asleep by 9:00 or so.

This morning the sky is streaked with clouds and apparently a thunderstorm passed to the north of us this morning. We are going into the dock at Brown's Marina. There we can change the fuel filter and have a shower , go to Customs and check in and then get this phone activated so I can send this.  So if you got this, all is well!

Tuesday cont;d

Tuesday cont'd

So we languished here all day. Mostly I worked on my files and Rick did small jobs to fix little things. We checked out the weather a couple of times to make sure they weren't going to change the forecast. It still looks good for tomorrow.

Today while we were watching the water, we saw a spotted ray swim by. The picture didn't turn out so well and he was only the size of a dinner plate but very cute.

Quentin went swimming but the water was colder than expected and there were too many boats coming in and out of the little harbour so he didn't stay in long. As green as the water is it still is not the clear water of the Caribbean so he couldn't see the bottom.  Tomorrow will be better.

I will post until we lose our internet connection tomorrow, ttyl

Monday Dec 7

December 7 Monday

Hoorah! We're in No-Name Harbour! We came all the way down the Ditch, through Miami and it was a very calm, uneventful run until we got to the last bridge and then it poured!!! There was no visibility and we felt our way blindly into No-Name.

The ICW down to Miami is very intriguing and not as scary as everyone predicted. The houses are amazing and the apartment buildings are huge. Any crazy house design can be found here...I don't think there are more than 3 the same. I'd be happy with one of the tiny townhouses that line the canal and have docks in front.

At the Sheridan Bridge, we missed the opening and so we called and told them we would wait until the next opening. As we began circling, we heard the Coast Guard call and ask for a special opening. So the bridge called us to go through the opening at the same time ... yeehaw, we gained a half hour.

We stopped at the dock for the afternoon and went for a walk along the shore. We had a visit from a manatee that was cruising along the wall looking for algae. When he [she] got to our boat he reared up along the back deck catching the fresh water running off from the rain! It was cool!

We went to the restaurant for dinner because we needed to get some heavy food into us so we can sleep early and get up early to cross.  The forecast is for 15-20 knot winds and low seas but lots of rain. We are going anyway, I think. If the latest forecast changes we'll stay here another day.

So we expect that tomorrow night we will be in Bimini. If not, we will post but if we are, don't expect to see anything until I get the Bahamas phone activated a couple of days after we get there.

So ttyl

OK Tuesday at 3:00 am Rick was up ;listening to the NOAA weather...still thunderstorms & waterspouts , short period  4-6 ft seas, and North winds so we will wait 'til tomorrow when the front finally moves away. It doesn't look so hot in the Bahamas either...literally...it's 67 in Bimini and 68 in Nassau.

So we will hang out here for the day..Quentin pressing on with his English, Rick checking out small jobs we can do while we wait for tomorrow's improved weather. The other boats in the anchorage, a huge cat name OZ and a big ketch, [can't see the name] are also waiting for weather...I assume, because they are still sitting here and it's already 9 am.

 

huge manatee

looking for fresh water

listening to Quentin trying to communicate

the coast guard boat that opened the bridge

cool graphic

a dreary day in the Miami cruise ship turning basin

Dec.6 Sunday

Dec 6 Sunday

This is getting old! We are sitting in Lake Sylvia, Fort Lauderdale, listening to the weather station on the VHF. It is 3:30 and we stopped here because by the time we got through the next 5 bridges to the next anchorage at South Lake, we would be in the dark, again. We were going to get a dock at a marina but we can't find one small enough and I was not about to up the NEW RIVER again! The first time was fun but there are 25 knot winds out right now and I didn't want to chance it.

The radio is not telling us anything new except that the weather is stalling over us and Monday /Tuesday may not be our weather window. I am about to say screw it; let's go, but then the coward surfaces. I don't actually care how long we are there before Quentin has to leave, so long as he can GET there in time for a flight.

We stayed in the Ocean Ridge Nature area last night. It is a day use park that can only be accessed by foot, bike or boat. We were there once before.  It has a beautiful floating cement dock that can hold about 3 big boats or several small runabouts. It is very quiet and full of manatees in warm weather; it also has huge spiders hanging in the trees. Quentin was not amused!!  They are called Golden Silk spiders and although the sign says they only grow 1-11/2 inches, these ones were bigger!!!

We left this morning at 8:50 am and considering we went through 14 bridges and got here at 3:00 we didn't do too badly. We made just over 30 miles. But we kept the poor little bat running at 3000 rpm, not what she's used to!  The dinghy up helped a lot and the winds behind meant we could run with the small job at times, but with the twists in the river it got to be a pain so we put it away early in the day.

Tomorrow we will leave here at the crack of [yeah, right] and get to No-Name harbour...only another 30 miles to get to our jump off spot. I find it a bit disturbing that my memory is so unpredictable right now. I know that crossing Lake Ontario last year n October was brutal and it was 50 miles of cold choppy water with an unstable boat [mast lying on the deck] and yet we made it. I remember how I ran through the storm coming back with the boat, sailing all night and trying to avoid the lightening, and thinking the next day, 'wow, that wasn't so bad." But my brain is telling me that I don't want to go anywhere when the weather is not completely calm and perfect. Did those things happen to someone else? Did I just read about them? Why did they not give me more confidence to do thing I know I can do?  Crap, am I getting old???

We did make a vow when we bought the boat that we would never deliberately set out in bad weather...Lake Ontario didn't count...we had no choice. And this is Florida, after all. It can't be crappy weather ALL the time!

So, Rick is putzing around with the equipment. He can't sit still right now but he will want to go to sleep at 6:30. I am watching the cat at anchor behind us because I am afraid that we might be dragging anchor but I am not the anchor setter... I hate anchoring in front of boats. I would rather be behind all of them. And the wind down here is still strong. I remember the night in Georgetown in the storm, when we got far too close to Jasmine City for my comfort zone!! And Stephan's, I'm sure!!

all kinds of tour boats

sleeping egrets out of gator reach

Stork-in-a-tree

Quentin learning to drive

There is another cat here called Adrenaline II [Canadian] Must be from Quebec. I think we might have met it once before but it's hard to tell because some names are so common.

This must be boring so I will quit now.  Hope everyone is well and happy. ttyl