Thursday, March 31, 2011

Motor Hard - Motor Slow

March 31 - Warderick Wells

Joanne & I planned to go to a closeby location to Nassau called Highborne Cay, anchor out the night and then go up to Allen's Cay to see the iguanas, a must stop for first time Exuma cruisers. The possibility of west winds later in the week changed our plans. Since very few anchorages in the Exumas are protected from the west (which would mean a rocky, rolly time), we followed s/v Blue Goose and Cantagree to Shroud Cay (a beautiful cay down the island chain), motoring into a SE wind all the way.  We picked up a mooring an hour before sundown.

I swam under the boat in crystal clear water and found to my amazement that the prop zinc was about 90% gone.  Prop zincs protect the prop from electrolosis (metal deterioration).   It was just replaced when Eagle's Wings returned to the water the end of January after her bottom was repainted. Guess we'll have to check why this happened when we get back to Punta Gorda!

At 8 AM we were underway again motoring this time into a stronger 20 kt wind with 2 - 3 ft waves. The bigger waves really knocked us back and we had a difficult time keeping up with the other boats., We made a speed of 3.5 - 4.5 kts falling well behind Cantagree, a Catalina 36, who was well behind Blue Goose, a Hallberg-Rassy 34. 

We had called the day before on our Satellite phone to get on the waiting list for a mooring at Warderick Wells.  At 9 AM, Warderick Wells started the mooring assignment process on the VHF radio.  I was quite happy when we heard that we were assigned a ball, #1,1 in the North Mooring Field (a nice protected anchorage).  There were lots of boats on the waiting list and I thought everyone in the area would be looking for a place to hide from the high winds - but we lucked out!  We picked up our mooring ball a little after noon.  

Warderick Wells is just a great spot.  It's the headquarters of the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park, which covers 176 square miles of pristine beaches, snorkeling, hiking trails.  It is a "no-take zone" which means nothing living or dead can be removed from the park.  We checked in at the office and then went for a hike the long way around to Boo Boo Hill.  Boo Boo Hill is a place that boaters leave a plaque (with only natural items e.g., driftwood or shells) with their names on it.  It's like a big monument of those who have been here before and a neat gathering place to view the gorgeous coastline.  Our friends, Marilyn and John, hiked with us and we took lots of pictures.  Check out our pictures below by clicking  Pictures - Warderick Wells

Monday, March 28, 2011

Crossing the Gulf Stream

Her Story What an adventure! We left Marathon on Thursday and sailed up the Hawke Channel to Rodriquez Key, a little spit of land close to Key Largo. This place is known to cruisers as a good location to scoot over the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. So we went to bed early and set the alarm for 3 AM. Before we knew it, we awoke in the dark, pulled up the anchor and motorsailed (using both the sails and motor) due East. It was dark out there with a starlit sky and smooth seas. We watched the sun rise to a beautiful day on the water and kept going and going. The Gulf Stream gave our s/v Eagle’s Wings more speed. I was surprised how calm it all was and how inky blue the Atlantic is! Just gorgeous! When we finally reached the shallower Great Bahaman Banks we could see the color of the water change to a turquoise blue. Here the water depth changes from thousands of feet in the Atlantic to 30 feet or less on the Banks.


We were in radio contact with our friends on s/v Blue Goose and s/v Cantagree. We all decided to go as far as we could before dark and anchored around 6:30 pm on the exposed Banks. The boat was rocking & rolling, but we managed to eat some canned stew and dropped into bed for some shuteye. It was tough sleeping with all the rocking going on and noise of the boat squeaking and lopping in the wind. We awoke at dawn and were underway again by 7:30 am, our destination was an island called Fraziers Hog Cay near Chub Cay in the Bahamas. It was another long motorsailing day on calm gorgeous water, too pretty to describe. We made it into a nice little anchorage along side the island where it was calm and picturesque with green foliage and even a little tiny place called the Berry Island Club. Again, it was early to bed after a great salmon dinner.

The next day we were up sailing by 7 am. It was an interesting 35 mile run into Nassau, the Capitol of the Bahamas. We had to radio Nassau Harbor Control and request permission to enter their harbor from the west. Permission was granted and before we knew it, we were tucked into Nassau Harbor Club. We raised our yellow “Q” flag (quarantine flag), which signals that we have to go through customs. Fortunately, customs is located in the marina. We checked in, showed our passports and paid the entry fee of $300. We were then instructed to take down the “Q” flag and fly the Bahaman flag. We celebrated our landfall by eating at a Chinese Restaurant close to the marina. Just yummy.

His Story  The sunset on twenty-six sailboats and two trawlers anchored on the North side of Rodriquez Key. Someone on the VHF said that Boot Key Harbor up and move to Rodriquez. All of us were staging ourselves to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas.


Crews of Blue Goose, Cantagreee and Eagle’s Wings were up at 3 AM for a 3:30 AM departure. After crossing Molasses Reef, we set sail for South Riding Rocks, our entry point to the Great Bahamas Bank.

We motor sailed to keep our ground speed above 6 kts. For some time, we hit 8 kts with the help of the north flowing Gulf Stream. Winds were light most of the time shifting from SW to N later in the day. Seas at 1 -2 ft gave us a smooth ride on the deep blue water.

We entered the Great Bahamas Bank at 3:30 PM, raised our Q flag and continued on a course for Russell Beacon. We were told we would see starfish on the bottom as we crossed the shallow banks, but we didn’t as the water wasn’t flat. At 6 PM we anchored on the banks for a not so quiet night.

We had shifted our stores from the aft cabin to the vberth anticipating conditions to rough to catnap or sleep during our passage. The vberth is however much less noisy than the aft cabin. It is also much easier for two people to get in and out of the berth without having to crawl over each other. After the night on the banks, we shifted our sleeping arrangement back to normal.

Up and underway at 7:30 AM, we motored sailed on a course south of Russell Beacon and unto the charted course from Cat Island to Northwest Light. Northwest Light marks a relatively narrow passage from the bank to the Tongue of the Ocean. Again on blue water thousands of feet deep, we continued motor sailing to a very pretty anchorage on the south side of Frazer’s Hog Cay. Because we hadn’t cleared customs, we remained aboard for the night.

I took one sun sight with the sextant that Chuck loaned me while underway. I was off twelve miles but a lot of this could be watch error since I hadn’t checked my watch and I know its about eight seconds off. I will be trying to take a few more sights later.

Up and underway at 7AM we motor sailed, sometimes with good winds for fine sailing, headed for Nassau. We stayed about a mile behind Blue Goose and Cantagree so that we could dock one at a time at the Nassau Harbor Club. To enter harbor one must request permission from Harbor Control by calling them on Channel 16 and then switching to Channel 9. Joanne called and was told to switch to 9 which she did but then Harbor Control wouldn’t answer. We tried several times worrying that maybe something had gone wrong with our radio. Just as we started to use our handheld, Harbor Control told us we had to acknowledge their instruction to switch to Channel 9 before they would answer on 9. Well that little incident rattled us a little. Then one of the Green channel marks at the entrance looks too dark to be green ,so Joanne called it Red. A discussion then ensued about the color of the mark. We keep Reds to our right when returning from sea and had we kept this “Red” mark to starboard, we would have been on the rocks. We should have looked at the shape of the mark now that I think about it. Anyway, it was obviously not the way to go so there wasn’t any danger.

Next came the docking at the Nassau Harbor Club. Our slip looked to be too narrow so Joanne refused to proceed into the slip. So I took the wheel. We barely squeezed by the pole to which our port stern would be tied with a long line. We were told we would have a starboard tie and I wasn’t prepared with all the necessary dock lines out and ready. While I was retrieving more dock lines, three different guys including me were giving Joanne different directions at the same time. We looked frazzled as we tied up but all in all we walked away without a scratch so it was a GOOD docking. A good shower ashore and a dip in the pool followed.

We all had dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant a few blocks down the road and treated ourselves to ice cream at Diary Queen to end the day.

March 27 –

Tom, Maureen, Joanne and I caught a cab to the Atlantis Resort across the bridge on Paradise Island. We thought we could see their aquarium but found out that that would require a day pass @$39 each so we walked around the hotel, casino and marina and walked back across the bridge which afforded views east and west of Nassau Harbor.

We plan to head for the Exumas Tuesday, each boat possibly going their own way. This evening, John shared navigation and anchoring tips, great snorkeling spots and island highlights gained from his numerous trips to the Exumas.

Eagle’s Wings has performed very well on our trip so far.

Our major issue is refrigeration. Looks like the spillover fan just isn’t drawing enough cold air from the freezer to the refrigerator. Puuting a cabin fan the freezer helped at lot but the fan keeps quitting on me. Tomorrow, I will buy a computer fan at Radio Shack located across the street and wire it in the freezer. Of course we need to defrost the evaporator every four to seven days.

Our 300 watt inverter used to charge phones, toothbrushes, etc. died. Fortunately, I had a spare.

After my friend, Barry, showed me an ice maker that he bought for his Catalina 350, we bought one too. When we added water, the drain leaked water all over our cabin sole soaking our rug. I have the leak under control and we made ice!

The big surprise is that water in Nassau is too salty to drink. We may buy five gallon jugs of good water in the grocery store to fill our small tank as the next available good water is in Sampson Cay, way down the Exuma Island chain. Our larger forward water tank is still full of Florida water. There is a reason our friends have installed watermakers on their boats.

We will try updating our blog whenever we can.

March Pictures    Atlantis

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Rodriguez Key

March 22 - Off the mooring ball at Boot Key Harbor at 07:30 AM, we motor sailed up the Hawk Channel to Rodriguez Key. Anchor down about 4:30 PM.  Peaceful anchorage but reported poor holding at best.
Plan to be up at 3 AM to cross the Gulf Stream.





                                                         

                                       
                          
                                

Chris Parker's Forecast for Gulf Crossing Tomorrow (We are taking the South Route)

CROSSING:


Today should be sufficiently-light for motoring (possibly light-air sailing N Route)...but I can't recommend tonight-tomorrow for W-bound folks, due to risk for wind to clock WSW & build. However, E-bound sailing should be good today-Fri25 morning, as long as your Bahamas entrance is passable.

N ROUTE: varying 160-260@5-10/2' today, 15g20k/4-6' tonight-tomorrow, probably 10-15k/2-4' tomorrow afternoon, W-NW@12-16/3-5' night; NW-N@10-14 Fri25 morning; N@5-10/3' mid-day, E/2' late, SE night into Sat26 morning; 150-190@12-15/2-4' Sat26 afternoon-Sun27.


S ROUTE: 140-160@5-10/2' today, 160-200-deg tonight, 200-240-deg tomorow; NW@10-14/2-4' tomorrow night; N@10 Fri25 morning; N-E-SE@5-8/2' Fri25; SE@5-10 Sat26; 130-170@10-14/2-4' Sat26 night-Sun27.






Rodriguez Key   Rodriguez Key Anchorage    Chris Parker

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Celebrating Joanne's Birthday on Marathon

On the first full day of Spring, we celebrated my (Joanne's) birthday on a catamaran s/v Kit.  We played Hand & Foot, a favorite card game with 6 of our friends and had a yummy strawberry birthday cake.  Later that day we had dinner at the Fishery.  Here's my picture in Paradise!  Tomorrow - onto Rodriquez Key where we'll cross over to the Bahamas early on Thursday morning.

Float Plan

0730 Wednesday - Leave Marathon sailing up Hawk Channel to Rodriquez Key. Expecting E-SE Winds @ 10-15 Kts

0400 Thusday - After anchoring north side of Rodriquez Key, pass by Molasses Reef to deep water outside the reef. Continue across the Gulf Stream and enter the Bahamas Bank at South Riding Rocks. Continue toward Russell Beacon anchoring for the night somewhere in route on the banks.

Friday - Continue to cross the banks anchoring somewhere near Northwest Light.

Saturday - Continue on to Nassua.

Stay tuned to see how we do or follow us by clicking the Spot link on the left side of the page.

Fisheries

Molasses Reef

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Waiting in Marathon for "Weather Window"

We had 3 days of gorgeous boating weather!  We are now in Marathon, FL in the Keys waiting for a "weather window" to cross over the Gulf Stream.  We've been following Chris Parker, a reknown boater weather forecaster, who says that the next good opportunity will be on or around Tuesday, March 22nd.  So, I'll spend my birthday, 3/21, in Marathon toasting the fact that I'm finally able to collect my social security!  Check out our gorgeous pictures of our Mid Cape anchorage in the Everglades!  Over and out...

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

EXUMA BAHAMAS BOUND!

After a last minute frenzy of provisioning and taking care of "stuff," we kissed our dock goodbye and took off for a Retirement Grand Adventure.  It's been a goal of ours to cross the Gulf Stream to the pristine Bahamas, specifically, the Exuma Chain of Islands.  We've seen the gorgeous pictures and heard the awesome stories, so now it is our turn!  Hurrah!

We're in the company of two other boats, Can't Agree (piloted by dear friends, Maureen & Tom) and Blue Goose (sailed by more good friends, Marilyn & John).  Our first overnight stop was a pretty anchorage along side of Useppa Island.  Today we transitted Redfish Pass to the Gulf and will reach beautiful Marco Island in time for dinner and another calm anchorage.  Tomorrow, we plan to anchor off of MidCape along side of the Everglades.  This is a more remote spot so our communication will be spotty.  The next day we plan to make it to Marathon in the Florida Keys to rest and then plan our crossing.

Hope you'll follow our adventures to the Exumas!  We'll try to post a story frequently.  You can track us by clicking  Spot Tracking on the left side of the page.

Pictures

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Wood Pecker Pecks

We've got a dilemma now - a wacky woodpecker who keeps hitting our front window and taking chunks out of our new house trim!  We've already tried shouting him away and putting items in the window to try to scare him away.  Next suggestion we'll try is getting a rubber snake and putting it on the ledge to see if that gets him away!  Check out our visitor's picture!
 Woodpecker Control

Update - Following a variety of suggestions put forth by PG ISlanders, we dropped mothballs in the hole the wood pecker pecked, put a rubber snake on the ledge below the window and another one in the hole, strung some fishing line in front of the window to blow in the wind and finally placed a dummy owl in the window.  The wacky woodpecker is gone; I guess we were just too much for him/her.