Happy Thanksgiving!!

Yesterday was another  day of sitting on the boat with rain and winds.  I feel bad for people that are here on vacation.  Will went into town to speak to a mechanic about the hole we have in the exhaust system.  It is called an elbow and only someone in Marsh Harbor can fix it.  Will was able to get some temporary parts from and auto shop and also found a prop store that will make a replacement for it.

Abaco Travels

As we sit in our safe anchorage in Treasure Cay, Abacos, Bahamas, we listen to the wind and rain pounding on to the boat.  But we are safe, dry, and full of memories of our first week in the Bahamas.  Plus we have internet for the first time in a week.   All the comforts of home...well almost all.

Our trip from West End to Treasure Cay included three stops along the way.  

Wednesday, Nov 20th. We left the dock at West End at 6:30 am.  We motor sailed most of the way arriving at 4:30 pm.   We had sun in the morning and clouds building during the afternoon.  We saw no other boats on our northerly track to Grand Cay.   The captain discovered a slow leak in the exhaust system which he will monitor.  Anchored the boat and prepared the dingy to go ashore which meant hoisting it off the bow of the boat and hoisting the dingy engine off the stern of the boat and attaching it.  All this was done as quickly as possible, but darkness and rain cut that adventure short.  

The reason for our excitement to go to shore is that I have a plastic bin full of books to give to a little boy I met here in June, 2012.  He said he had no books to read and would I bring  him 20!  His name was DeAngelo, and I had a picture of him walking Bentley around the settlement.

Thursday, Nov 21st. We all leave the boat at 8:00 am and walk with our bin towards the school.  We pass a mother and her three children and ask if they know DeAngelo...they answered that he moved to Nassau.  No!!  I showed them the picture, and they said the boy in the picture was Keenan and he is in third grade.  School starts at 9:00.   We arrived at 8:30 and Keenan showed up at the office with his mother.  We showed her the picture and she agreed that was 
Keenan.  Keenan stood looking at me like I was a ghost...he didn't remember me or walking Bentley.   We took the bin of books to his classroom and opened it up on his desk.  His eyes grew larger and larger as he picked out books he liked.  He gave a few to his teacher and one to each of his classmates...12 in all! Happiness for everyone, especially me!   Was it really the boy I met a year and a half ago, or just a lucky little boy that looked like DeAngelo!   I guess I will never know.

We returned to the boat by 11:00 am and raised the anchor which had collected a window frame from a house and a 10 foot steel rebar.  No wonder we didn't drag last night.  We had good winds for sailing and were enjoying our motor sail, when the engine sputtered and quit at 1:30 in the afternoon.  So we sailed in 20 knot winds at close reach with only half of the jib sail out.  We entered Great Sale Cay, a large basin of water in the shape of an inverted V, and dropped anchor.   Will bled the fuel lines and the engine started up right away.


Friday, Nov 22nd. Watching and studying the weather is an important part of traveling any where on a boat.  So we use different weather sources and recently the news hasn't been good.  A strong wind system is arriving by Sunday and mariners are cautioned to find safe haven.  We need to get to Treasure Cay, our safe haven of choice, by Sunday at noon and we have 75 miles to travel to get there.  But today isn't going to be suitable for that.  We have strong 25 plus winds from the East, and that is the direction we need to go.  Tomorrow is predicted to be much lighter, so we will try Saturday instead.  Today we enjoyed the unpopulated beauty of this Cay with a walk on the beach with ruins of some type of construction and a dingy ride around the basin. 

Saturday, Nov 23rd.  We pulled anchor up at 4:00 am and motored in ENE winds under 10 knots.  The exhaust is still leaking but we are still plugging on.  We tried to sail but the winds dropped to below 5 knots, and we picked our destination for the night....Cooper Town on the Great Abaco Island...leaving us 34 miles tomorrow.  

Sunday, Nov 24th. Another  early start...3:45 and passed a popular stopping point...Green Turtle Cay at dawn.  The day so far is sunny and light winds.  We make it to Treasure Cay by noon and drop anchor in the basin outside of the resort/marina area.  And then the winds came!!  At 4:00 we had 30 to 4o knot winds with rain squalls, and the anchor is dragging.  We put out another anchor and 200 feet of anchor chain, which seemed to hold.  We monitored it most of the night.  

Monday, Nov 25th. We moved to a mooring ball....three plastic jugs tied to a secured line on a huge concrete block.  However, our cautious still dove down to check the lines.   We finally feel secure and will remain here until we fix the exhaust system leak and spend some time with our island friends Cathi and John Cash.


  Miss you all.

We arrived in West End on Grand Bahama Island at 9:00 am.
We left our anchorage at 3:00 pm and headed under the last lift bridge we will see in many months.  

Leaving the harbor in Miami was exciting. We heard a USCG notice that the main channel was closed to traffic on account of cruise ships, so went out the south channel. Altogether 5 cruise ships went out in the two hours we were getting well out to sea. Then a couple of freighters and cruise ships crossed our path early evening. All routine, though I slowed down once when the angle between Vaura and a cruise ship wasn't changing, to let him pass ahead of us.

We hit Gulf Stream current almost immediately, about three miles out. I found a lead angle of 25-30 degrees necessary to keep us on schedule for West End, then lessened the angle about 20 miles from WE. Still getting familiar with GS effects.  We motored the entire way and did two hour shirts at the helm.  The full moon was a delight as we were able to see the horizon all night.

We made it to the marina just as they opened at 9:00 a.m. The weather forecast update as we arrived looked pretty nasty for the rest of the week, but looks better this morning. So we may go off to Grand Cay in the light winds and rain at first light.

Pictures will follow us I am unable to use my laptop with the poor internet service.

Sunny beautiful warm day in Miami as we decide when to leave the United States.  Weather is a major factor when crossing over to the Bahamas.   We need winds that will fill the sails, waves that are gentle, and a strategy to make use of the Gulf Stream that moves from south to north as we head west to east.   Sounds confusing and a little scary, and it is.  We feel we are prepared.  Bentley has final paperwork signed by a Miami veterinarian, new camera, beer, wine, canned goods, toilet paper, toothpaste, extra batteries, and so many other things that are hard to find or are too expensive over there.   As of right now we will leave tomorrow afternoon, so early in the morning we will buy our final supply of fresh fruits and vegetables and bread and meat.

Last night our neighbors...the huge motor yacht..by the way there are two yachts in front of the house, had a wedding.  We were able to listen to some parts of the vows and listen to the music and laughter of the people attending. It didn't keep us awake, however, I was up by 4:30 and the music was still playing.   Happiness is every where!

November 14   We have had some adventures on our way down the ICW.  One of our stops was in Vero Beach where we spent some time with Nancy Jo.  She had us over for dinner on her ocean view patio on the 13th floor.

Then on to West Palm Beach where we met our great friend Cathi for a quick visit.  Our travels on the ICW from here took four days and 27 lift bridges.  Some opened for us on request, others we had to wait for their scheduled openings.  Captain Will navigated through all of them with ease...except for one!  The
Spanish River bridge south of Del Ray beach was a challenge.  We were ready to pass through the bridge at 10:30 but as the bridge tender was opening the spans, one of the spans was stuck.  Will put
the boat into reverse, and as we tried to shift to forward the gear shift was stuck.  We drifted towards
some mangroves and stuck in the mud.  Will was able to fix the gear shift problem within a half hour, but the tide was falling, and we called Tow Boat US to help us off.  At 2:30 we passed under the bridge.

We continued on to Gilbert's in Key Largo to spend time with our Bahama cruising friends Nancy and Andy.   We spent four days at this Tiki resort and enjoyed every minute of our time with them.

Now we are in one of our favorite anchorages in South Miami.  We enjoy going into town in our dinghy and exploring many of the canals in the area.  We are in a large body of water near Sunset Lake and are surrounded by very large luxurious homes and yachts.  This is one of our neighbors.

We have been having some strong north and northeast winds, but we are well protected.  We have enjoyed going to shore in the dingy and exploring the many canals that run through this area.  Next stop will be the Abacos in the Bahamas.  We just need to have the right weather window to cross over