Northbound

After anchoring in Fort Pierce we didn't feel like dealing with customs right away.  We waited to call an 800 number the next morning with our passport numbers, our location, and the personal info that they required.  We were then directed to head to the nearest customs office within 24 hours.  We were a little apprehensive about questions we might be asked about why we didn't call in immediately and exactly when we arrived etc., etc.  As it turned out the customs official at the Fort Pierce International Airport asked only for our assigned number from the earlier phone call and for our passports.  It took him all of 5 minutes to do the paperwork and to send us on our way.

With all the time it didn't take to clear customs we had enough time to motor up to Vero Beach.  As we approached Vero we could see an impressive lightning show in the dark ominous clouds ahead of us.  The radar showed them to be about 2 miles ahead.  Luckily, we only saw a few drops of rain before we picked up our mooring in the Vero Municipal Marina mooring field.  Melbourne airport (about 30 miles north) reported a record 1.8 inches of rain and 53 mph gusts in the squalls that just missed us.

The view from our mooring in Vero.  Nice view, good laundry & showeres -
easy access to town on the free shuttle.  Delicious breakfast at TooJays
Deli - maybe the best deli south of NYC.

We took advantage of Vero's free shuttle bus system to visit an Optical Store for a badly needed sunglass repair  and to re-provision at Publix.  The optical store opposite Publix was great.  They spent 20 minutes working on the glasses and charged nothing.  Maryanne did laundry while I cleared the fuel vent and added a strainer to our fresh water system.

Here I am posing with some of the original
people of the City of Cocoa.

I loved the redneck wineglasses but not enough to buy one
in Cocoa Beach.  

We had heard that the City of Cocoa was worth a visit so we headed there - 8 hours away.  It was worth the visit.  We landed at a lovely waterfront park and after a very short walking tour had a wonderful breakfast at Ossarios.

Ossario's threat to inattentive parents.
Great breakfast - pastries to die for.

We decided to do a shorter hop north to Titusville to give us time to do an oil and oil filter change.  The fan belt is problematic since it can't be aligned perfectly so we find ourselves doing adjustments on it every couple of days.  Our engine maintenance chores went smoothly.



We are trying to push north as fast as we can but after our 7+ hour motor with nice currents pushing us up to 8 knots we decided to take a lay day in St. Augustine.  We did a tour today at Flagler College, formerly the Ponce de Leon Hotel.


The setting that the Flagler students have is unbelievable.  Their college was built as a luxury hotel for the wealthy elite of the East Coast back in the late 1800's.  In its heyday you had to have a written invitation from Mr. Flagler to be allowed to pay him the minimum 3 month stay in the hotel.  If you did not have the proper social standing you had to look elsewhere.

Our guide at Flagler College.  Her dining room
is nothing like any other college I have seen -
Tiffany windows, tiffany chairs, and
elaborately painted ceilings.

A detail of the dome at the entrance to Flagler.
This woman is supposed to represent
adventure.  Do you see any resemblance
to Maryanne?

St. Augustine Lighthouse ca 1874

Good Bye Abacos

We landed in Marsh Harbor on Wednesday, May 2nd.  We were a little worried about how our boat had fared in our 2 week absence.  In the prior week 50 knot winds had buffeted the harbor.  It was all good.  The lines had not chafed through and the boat had not banged up against the dock.

After a quick trip to Maxwells, one of the 2 really good grocery stores in the Bahamas, we were sufficiently provisioned for our return trip to the states.  Brown Tip, the bottom cleaning service hacked away at the bottom of our boat for an hour using a version of a compressed air hookah to breath underwater.  As he worked it looked like chunks of turf were being expelled from our stern.  Having the bottom cleaned at this point in our voyage was one of the smarter things that we have done.  Our speed increased by about 1.25 knots after the cleaning.

We filled water tanks, water jugs, and lugged 4 five gallon containers of diesel down the dock and onto the boat the following day.  Maryanne did her usual stowing magic, making everything disappear into places where they would not fall when we heeled to starboard or to port.

We had a little bit of a dilemma.  Chris Parker, our weather guru, indicated that there would be a weather window open for a few days that would allow us to make a comfortable Gulf Stream crossing.  I thought we would need a week just to reach the staging point for our crossing.  If that were the case we would have to wait at Great Sale Cay for a week (where there is nothing to do) or wait at an expensive marina at West End on Grand Bahama for a week for the next weather window.  Maryanne thought we could make it.  She suggested a short hop Thursday afternoon to Great Guana Cay and then a stop at Green Turtle Cay about 20+ miles further.  We thought we might get a last chance at good snorkeling on the way.  We left Great Guana at 8:15 a.m. on Friday headed for Green Turtle Cay by way of the Whale Passage.  The Whale Passage is a cut in and out of the Sea of Abaco that requires calm seas and in-flowing currents for safe passage.  Our passage went smoothly.  On our way to Green Turtle we decided to push further along get to our staging point.  We decided on Foxtown.

I had asked Chris Parker by way of SSB radio what the difference would be if I sailed from Foxtown straight through the night to Fort Pierce, FL or if I went first to West End and sailed a day later.  He reported that there would be little significant difference but that we would be bucking headwinds in the Gulf Stream if we waited until Sunday.  As we made our way west I spotted Romanta Sea on the AIS ahead of us.  I had a pleasant conversation with George, the skipper, who said he was headed for Great Sale, then to West End for fuel and ultimately to Savannah.  Savannah was way more than we were ready to do!

Sunset at Great Sale Cay
(Phew - we made it before dark!)

Despite the fact that we might not make it into Great Sale with good light we decided to go for it.  George assured us that the moon was closest to the earth tonight and that we would have no trouble finding our way  in the light of the full moon.  We made it by sunset - 11 hours.  The next day Chris Parker told George that he needed to get north quickly to avoid some nasty weather.   George who had offered to lead us through the tricky shallow Indian Channel set off directly for an overnight sail to Cape Canaveral.  Before he left he let us know that a Beneteau 50, French Kiss, had been trying to contact us because they were headed to West End also.  We spoke with Michael, the skipper of the Beneteau, and planned our joint departure for 8 to arrive at the Indian Channel on a rising tide.

At the center of the picture is a starfish 12 feet below the surface.
This shot was taken as we motored at 6 knots over the Little Bahama Banks in a flat calm.
The shadow of our mast is in the upper right corner.
This is the last time this year that we will see this beautiful turquoise water!

The water was so still we could see the bottom clearly 12 feet below us.  We could see dinner plate sized starfish on the bottom.  Dolphins appeared at our bow.  We could see them above and below the surface as they swam all around us and then back to French Kiss.

As it turned out we arrived at the Indian Channel with very little water to motor over.  Despite the fact that it was a little past low tide the close pass of the full moon meant that the water was still lower than mean low water (the average low tide).  French Kiss with her 6 foot draft followed slowly behind us as we radioed back the shallowest spots as we crossed them.  We saw 4.1 feet on our poorly calibrated depth sounder but we know that we will hit bottom at 3.8 feet.  3.8 feet if it were properly calibrated should read 5 feet which is our draft.  We had a good 3 1/2 inches to spare!  After 9 hours of motoring we arrived at Old Bahama Bay Marina at West End on Grand Bahama Island.

We had some refueling problems with a faulty diesel pump and then fuel clogging our fuel vent but we managed to pour a couple of our containers of fuel into the tank and then filled the containers from a different pump.  (after waiting for another boat to fill up with 225 gallons!)  We docked without incident and went ashore for a celebration of our last night in the Bahamas at an outdoor restaurant on the beach.  (While we were there we saw someone send their glass of wine back - it wasn't good enough!  Who does that at a beach bar in the Bahams?!!!  Usually you don't even get a glass - most wine is served in clear plastic cups!  Yeesh!!)

Sunrise as we leave West End with a trawler passing us.
83 miles to go.

At a little before 6 am in the dim light of pre-dawn I tried quietly backing our boat out of our berth in the marina.  At first it went well - the stern wasn't kicking to port as usual and we were almost able to back into a berth behind us in order to make a left turn into the narrow channel between all the docks.  Almost able.  I couldn't get back far enough to make the left turn.  I headed back for our berth and tried again.  No good.  This time I was getting too close to a small power boat on the wall to the right and behind our berth.  Again I headed into our berth this time beginning to drift with wind too far to the right side of the berth.  OK Maryanne had another idea.  I tried using the left kicking reverse to back out to our left.  Down the narrow channel between the rows of 16 boats each I backed the boat.  It worked!  I was able to turn the boat around at the end and turn to head the boat out the entrance into the Atlantic.

This guy startled me when he appeared just a few feet from my head 20 miles out to sea.
I wasn't expecting anyone to get up and close and personal with me on my Gulf Stream Crossing!

A fresh WSW breeze allowed us to sail close hauled and fast toward Fort Pierce - for 3 hours then the breeze clocked to the west and we had to motor into the wind and waves.  The boat would go well for 10 seconds or so and then hit a wave - rise into it and then fall hard on the back side with a little bang.  I hoped this wasn't going to be the west wind that Chris Parker had warned me about.  I thought the wind was supposed to be 10 knots or less - this was more like 18.  Eventually the wind settled down and the waves disappeared.  We motored through flat seas checking the water temperature to see when we were in the Gulf Stream.  We started out in 79 degree water but watched the temperature rise above 81.  Suddenly it seemed a little warmer and the seas became completely flat.  Our speed increased from 6 knots to 8.5.  We were in the Stream.  After 13 hours we put down our anchor in Fort Pierce harbor.

We felt accomplished!  We had 3 days of travelling - 11 hours, 9 hours, and 13.  If we had been driving a car from Glen Cove that many hours would get us to Santa Fe, NM!  Sailboats are really slow!

We really enjoyed the Abacos.  Fun places were a short easy sail from Marsh Harbour.  We loved Hopetown with it's beautiful pastel colored homes and its well-protected harbor.  Nippers, the bar scene, was something to behold above the beautiful Atlantic beach and the barrier reef.  Our snorkeling off Fowl Cay in the Atlantic was excellent as was our swim over Mermaid Reef outside of Marsh Harbour.  We enjoyed the cruisers we spent time with in Hopetown.  We definitely want to come back for more.  We need to explore Little Harbor with Pete's Pub and the foundry where sculpture is made.  We also would like to spend some time at Green Turtle Cay.  We definitely plan to return to the beautiful turquoise waters of the Abacos and the Exumas.  The Berry Islands may also be on our agenda.

Heading back to Marsh Harbour

We're heading back to Marsh Harbour.  Our spot messenger should start showing some movement within the next few days as we try to find a place to stage for our Gulf Stream crossing.

Our flight should bring us back over these islands near Marsh Harbour

Assorted photos

I found these guys hanging out in Spanish Wells.
A guy stopped his car and actually asked them
how they were doing!

Typical tidy homes of Spanish Wells on the waterfront

Spanish Wells was clearly one of the more affluent of the Bahamian communities that we visited.  The manager at the marina told us the community did well because it did not depend on tourist dollars.

We met this guy in Warderick Wells Land and Sea park.  Although he did a nice job of cleaning up the crumbs in our cockpit he was a bit of a pest.  He moved into our cabin.  It took a little coaxing to get him to understand that we didn't want him there!
I thought I saw some blue-gray birds in the surf during our rough passage from Georgetown to Cave Cut but no - they were flying fish leaping out of the waves and gliding 60 feet or more.

Here we are on the pink sand beach.
There is the slightest of pink hue in the wet sand.

We made it to Harbor Island from Spanish Wells by way of the Devil's Backbone.  We cheated.  We took the high speed ferry.  At points it seemed like we could reach out and touch the beach as we flew past.  Some of our new friends hired a pilot to take their boats across the Backbone but the shoal depths made me wary even with a pilot.  It would have been a quicker way to get north to Little Harbor in the Abacos but it wasn't for me.  We rented a golf cart with Alan of "Unabated" and toured the island that is reputed to be the vacation destination of the rich and famous.  The famed pink sand beach was a little less pink than I was expecting - but nice.

Here's the Bo Hengy II our 25 knot aluminum
catamaran ferry to Harbor Island and back.
It felt like sailing in fast forward mode!

An example of the cuteness factor in Hopetown.
This was on someone's front lawn complete with
the Hopetown Lighthouse

This path was lovely - no cars allowed - but the telephone
cable didn't even clear my head!

Hopetown was almost too cute but as you can see from my picture some of the infrastructure in the Bahamas is a little below the standards we have in the states.

If you have money you can do anything you like.  We saw more than one big motor yacht with water slides like this.  They usually also sport 4 or more jet-skis.  Who decides to market water slides to these guys? http://freestylecruiser.com/
This is the latest in "must have" toys for the big boys.    You can't buy them off the shelf - they have to be designed "to the exacting standards of your yacht."
We'll be ordering one of the first slides designed to be deployed from the spreaders of a sailboat.

The ubiquitous Bahamian lizard - chameleon?

These little guys are everywhere all over the Bahamas.  We were surprised to find one in our cockpit at anchor.  We couldn't figure how he got there.  I carefully unfurled a ziplock bag and tried to urge him to enter it.  I'm a little squeamish so I didn't really want to handle him.  He was not happy with the bag.  He preferred to jump onto my hand.  You'd be surprised how sticky his little feet are.  I reflexively shook my hand but he wasn't leaving his perch.  I also used some salty sailor language but he was unmoved.  Finally with my hand in the bag I was able to rub him off and give him a ride to shore.

Alan from the Pearson 424, "Unabated" and I explored a ruins on Royal Island.
It doesn't take long for tropical plants to take over the structures. 

Royal Island was our jumping off point for about a 65 mile sail out in the ocean from the Eleuthera area to Little Harbor in the Abacos.  Our AIS showed plenty of ship traffic traversing the Northwest Channel.  We even saw a 3 masted sailing ship shortly before we were hit with a drenching squall.  Fortunately, there was no lightning and very little wind associated with the downpour.  One of the boats sailing with us reported seeing huge whales that they thought might be sperm whales.  I'm sorry I missed them - Maryanne is not.

It's hard to keep up the blog with such poor internet access.  We had a wonderful time with Chad & Nicole.   We went snorkeling off the beach on a small island north of Great Guana Cay, also snorkeling on the Atlantic side of Fowl Cay, and finally swimming Mermaid Reef outside Marsh Harbor.

After rigorous training Chad & Nicole show some aptitude for
relaxation.  The sailing life agrees with them.

Homes on the Sea of Abaco outside Marsh Harbor
near Mermaid Reef where we did some of our best
snorkeling.

Chad and I went scuba diving with Above and Below off Fowl Cay.  When Kay, the dive master began stroking a big friendly grouper I began smiling too widely causing my mask to flood slightly.  Clearing the mask is simple but the fact that I had to do it made me laugh.  Fortunately, I kept my regulator firmly in my mouth.  The dive was so much fun - being able to do it with my son made it even more special.

Maryanne has become very comfortable with swimming and snorkeling.  We had to swim a couple hundred yards from the beach to get to Mermaid Reef.  We were able to swim together only a foot or so above the shallower parts of the reef.  The yellow snappers came right up to us probably looking for a handout.  Other fish and lobsters were more shy, hiding in little nooks under the reef.  We didn't see any barracuda at Mermaid reef but there were a few at Fowl Cay.  Fowl Cay was a bit of a challenge since we had to dinghy out to the reefs beyond the Cay.  We also had to board the dinghy from the water.  Maryanne and I have mastered the technique of going vertically underwater and then swimming and kicking hard straight up to scramble into the dinghy.  The entry onto the dinghy isn't particularly graceful but it beats having to swim a mile and a half through a cut with strong currents.  We are really enjoying the snorkeling in the Abacos.

We will be leaving the boat in the Abacos for a couple weeks while we return to NY for Maryanne's teaching.  In NY I may be able to get some more pictures up on this blog.

Swimming in Marsh Harbor is not recommended.

Marsh Harbor is not a good place to swim - too many boats discharging effluent.  I did take a little dip at the dock on Friday.  The wind was pushing our boat too far away from the dock for Maryanne to get off the boat.  The wind was strong - but so am I.  I put my feet on one of the dock lines and pushed it down to get the boat in.  Unfortunately, I wasn't wearing my tight rope walking shoes.  My foot slipped and then instantly I found myself swimming in Marsh Harbor under the dock.  It happened so fast I was swimming before I realized I was in the water!  So...my BaTelCo wireless card is not waterproof.  No more posts via BaTelCo.

The docks pose many problems.  I landed at the dock at the Conch Inn on the downwind side with strong cross winds.  As scary as the landing was - it went smoothly with help from the dock hands.  The dockmaster when he returned later was unhappy with the berth that we had taken and told us that we would have to move.  The wind was blowing 30 mph so I let him know that moving would be difficult in the extreme.  He reluctantly agreed to make some adjustments while I stayed put.  The next day he announced that we would have to switch berths.  He left but gave us two dock hands to help out.  The wind was again gusting over 30 knots sideways.  When the boat backs the stern tends to walk to the left - in the same direction the wind was pushing us.  To complicate matters, as we left the dock there were 2 pilings we had to thread 20 feet behind us.  The situation was really close to impossible.  To make everything really bad our stern line slipped off the cleat just as we were beginning to back out of the slip. Our stern swung 45 degrees off the dock toward another boat and a piling.  A dock hand was able to throw the line back to me and pull me in for our next attempt to leave.  We backed out smoothly thanks to an amazing performance by a cruiser who pushed our boat into the wind as we pulled away from the dock.  With his dinghy acting as a side thruster or tug boat we were able to back in a straight line.

Our departure on Sunday was less smooth.  As we backed out of our slip into strong wind another boat came off their dock blocking the path behind us.  We pulled back into the slip and managed to barely hang on until the boat passed.  Again we backed out of the slip but didn't get far enough into the wind to make our turn going forward.  With the boat at right angles to the slip our stern began drifting into the bow anchor of a sailboat next to us while our bow pulpit looked like it would hit a piling in front of us. Chad was able to push hard against the bow pulpit of the boat with the threatening anchor while I tried to power the side of the bow to slide past the piling.  Nicole pushed against the piling and somehow we managed to escape with only a splinter in Nicole's hand to show for it.

We have a new definition for docking:
Good docking is when no one is bleeding after the attempt.
Great docking is when you can still use the boat afterwards. 
 So far we are doing somewhere between great and good docking.

Hopetown, Abacos

Hopetown Lighthouse from our mooring.
Kerosene flame lit by lighthouse keeper each night

The first harbor we visited after successfully anchoring by Linyard Cay in the Sea of Abacos was Hopetown.  Hopetown is a village of charming little homes of all different pastel shades overlooking the harbor.  The entrance was challenging.  We were warned not to attempt to enter until half tide or more.  To enter the harbor you have to aim for a beach about a half mile away and then follow the beach to the left.  Depths are about 6 feet with nearby patches of 4 feet.  The harbor is one of the prettiest we have seen in the Bahamas.  

Cemetery restoration project in Hopetown

We took a walk up a street closed to vehicular traffic to an historic cemetery that is being restored.  If it mattered to me where I was to be buried I would choose this cemetery.  It has one of the best views I have ever seen.

The perfect way to end a dead end road.
We saw this on our tandem bike ride through Hopetown.

This is a fun building in Hopetown -
a good place for ice cream but not for lunch

We spent two days in Hopetown - met some really nice people - a couple aboard Katahdin - from Cape Elizabeth, Me.  We also enjoyed spending time  with Richard and Ward from Bagheera - a trawler that we met on our crossing to Rock Sound, Eleuthera.  Ward gave us a ride to a restaurant in Spanish Wells on his rented Golf Cart. 

A park on the Atlantic Ocean in Hopetown.

Entrance to Hopetown

In the next Blog: Mishap in Marsh Harbor