(To view album scroll to end)We were so anxious to finally leave Jacksonville. On February 13, Sid got up at 6:30 AM and on his way up to the marina bathhouse he noticed that we had a very low tide. There was no way for us to leave yet, so he crawled back into bed. A couple of hours later on his second attempt the dock was now all frosty and everything else was frozen. Sid couldn't even shave because his shaving cream was frozen as well. We finally left at 9:10 AM and as we reached the Ortega Bridge there was a delay, it couldn't open because it was frozen. The same problem again at the Main Street Bridge in Downtown. Nothing in Florida likes cold weather. After that we battled a current out the river, but then had some smooth motoring for a while until we hit the ICW in Ponte Vedra area. We found some thin water and bounced a couple of times. At the narrowest part a big dredge was in the middle and a power boat was going to pass us too. It looked hairy, the guy on the power boat was really nice though and slowly inched himself around us. Then the question was how to pass the huge dredge and barge. I guess the dredge captain read our mind and told us via radio to pass him on starboard. As he heard what our depth was he pulled the tug and dredge pipes out of the way. Our pulse was racing as we approached him closer and closer, but as soon as we were next to him the 6 foot shallow water doubled to 12. What a beautiful sight to see a two digit number on the depths sounder. From here on the depth stayed at 12 feet and hours later we found a nice deep anchorage in Pine Island, dropped the anchor for the night and watched the sunset with a hot buttered rum. Oh, did we say it was cold?!!!!
On Valentines Day we woke up well rested, this was by far one of the most peaceful anchorages we’ve ever found. It was so quiet you could have heard a mouse fart. Although Sid woke up to a noise and thought we were grinding on the bottom, but then he realized that it was our cat Tika snoring. We woke up to an almost 1/2 inch layer of frost on the boat and it was freezing cold. We had layers of cloths on to stay warm. I never wore this much for skiing. We had a beautiful sunny day, a bit breeze but only 2 hours (10miles) later we anchored in beautiful St. Augustine. We truly enjoy being in anchorages again, something we haven’t done in years. We enjoyed it so much that we didn’t lower the dinghy till late in the afternoon to go ashore.
The weather started to warm up a little, on the 15th we woke up to 43 degrees and for a change had no frost on the boat. Then the dreaded trip through Fort Matanza, were we got stuck last time. We sweat bullets as we approached the slalom course through the shallow cut, but all was good. So we blasted on down through the ICW with the current pushing us all day long. What a great ride, bald eagles, ospreys, dolphins and then coming through Ormond Beach area we drifted a little to the right, did I say a little and kaboom, we were hard aground. Sid is such a pro by now and pushed the boat off with the dink and we kept on going like nothing ever happened, except for that extra shot of Captain Morgan's to calm the nerves. I didn't mention that we still were in the channel as we went aground. Remembering our last time here on our way north we had problems finding a deep enough anchorage. This time we had no problem and settled in for out stay through the weekend to watch the Daytona 500 on Sunday.
We could hear the cars on the track from where we're anchored, which made it even more exciting. Over the next couple of days we explored our new neighborhood, drooled over Harleys at every shop, had Mark and Shanna visiting for a day and found the bus station with bus running to the track just around the corner. The Daytona 500 Race was on the 19th, what a great experience. If you've never been to a NASCAR race GO!!! Knowing the bus schedule we got to the bus station on time to catch the bus, but they forgot to tell us that the buses don't run on Sundays. So we walked to Speedway Ave which is about 1/4 mile away, hoping to catch a bus there, no buses either. Can you imagine a big famous place like this on a race day not having any means to get visitors to the main attraction the race?!, This is beyond us. We had two choices, walk the 6 miles, or stick our thumbs out. The second choice was less tiring and 10 minutes later we were sitting in a truck bed hitching a ride to the track. Our ride stopped by the mall, where parking was 40 bucks, wow. There we found out that cloth backpacks were not allowed on the track they had to be see-through. Luckily they sold see through bags inside the mall. After crossing the busy road we entered the track area and walked at least another mile along the track to finally get to a shuttle that took us to turn 2, section D. We were in row 51 and had an awesome view over the track. Weather was very cold and it drizzled for most of it. The race was awesome, we even rented track radios to listen to the drivers, spotters and pit crew. After the race the question was how to get back to the boat with no buses running. It was quite a challenge as our thumbs didn't work as well in the dark. About 1/2 mile down the street a golf cart took us a few blocks on the sidewalk, then we had to walk again and nobody felt pity for our sore thumbs sticking desperately up into the air. We had at least 6 miles to walk and especially long walk for Manuela, as her foot still was not completely healed from her surgery in November. We lucked out once more a guy was just driving out of his driveway, on his way to buy beer, so he gave us a ride back to the marina. On the way he was telling us all about his drinking and pot smoking habits, us of course questioning if he was sober enough to drive, but we arrived safe at the marina. We had a very interesting day behind us and were tired of the cold weather and planned to leave early the next day.
We woke up to a very foggy morning; the fog was so thick we couldn’t see a quarter of a mile. No go yet. Finally around 10nish the fog started to lift, we lifted anchor and headed 16 miles further south to New Smyrna Beach. We found a couple of shallow spots, but in all it was a pretty good run south. We anchored behind a little island, between it and some very fugly condos. Went ashore to get some gas at the marina and some friendly boaters gave us a ride to Radio Shack. We had to walk the 1 1/2 miles back and this is how we get our exercise. We got back to the boat yard where our dinghy was, the gates were closed. They forgot to tell us when they close and probably forgot all about us. The office closes at 5 PM we were there at 3 past 5. No way to get in, it's a tall gate with barb wire and Sid had to climb it. Wasn't easy but the cop he was he managed. He picked me up at the next door marina and we went home and arrived just on time to enjoy a cocktail at sunset. New Smyrna Beach although with the ugliest condos we've ever seen was a really great place to stop, very quite, we slept like babies (Sid says like old people, babies wake up every couple hours). The instruction for the anchorage said leave the way you came in. We tried, it was a low tide and very thin water. So we turned around and went the way they told us not to and there was plenty of water.
Then we started hopping down the old ICW, even got to pull out the sail for a couple of long straight stretches. It was a great day, went through the Haulover Canal, which is really interesting and beautiful, last time here we saw manatees. The next bridge was about 9 miles away, which closes daily from 3.30 to 5.30. Knowing that, we tried to travel as fast as we could, sail up, motoring and we made it with 2 minutes to spare. We also went through the Canaveral Barge Canal to get to our friends yacht club. As we entered the canal there is a bridge that has to open for us and his hours are closed from 3.30 to 5.15, as we headed up the canal and started to approach the bridge right on time of course, we were told by the bridge operator that he wasn't going to open until 6. You have to understand you never argue with a bridge operator, so we thanked him for his info, dropped the hook right in front of the bridge, put our chairs on the foredeck, made a cocktail, sat and watched traffic go by. Didn't bother us a bit as we watched an osprey catching fish and dolphins were playing around us. He did open at 6. Then we had to go through a lock, which lifted us about 4 inches. Our friend’s yacht club was just a bit past of the next bridge, that bridge tender knew we were coming through and apologized for the wait at the last bridge. We tied up on the end dock, took a long hot shower at the club and had a good night sleep.
The next day we enjoyed a great time with our friend Kathy on Sea Fury we cruised with them from Mexico to San Blas. Unfortunately Chuck her hubby wasn’t in town so we missed him. The funny thing was, Kathy does not like to go to the Yacht Club and Chuck had tried to get her there for the last 2 years, but no success and here were sitting with her at the Yacht Club, two days in a row.
Unfortunately we could not wait for him to come home and departed after 2 days at 5 pm. The weather was going to be perfect to sail along the coast to Stuart. We had a spectacular sunset and the wind was just bowling enough to keep the sails full. The prognoses were for it to stay this way until the next night as the wind will change to the north. Not much after the sunset the wind changed drastically and started to blow stronger. By midnight it was blowing 20 and when we turned into Fort Pierce at 5 am we had storm warning, got there just on time. We set anchor and slept for a couple of hours since it was still too dark to keep going on the shallow and narrow ICW. From here it was only a couple of hours to get to the St. Lucy River. The closer we got the shallower it got and we were hoping this time to make it up the River, last time we hit a 4 foot hump to the entrance, hope they dredged. We approached it very cautiously and had just inches to spare but made it though without hitting bottom. A bit later we sat in Tom's Marina in Stuart. We had met Tom on Unbuttoned also in Mexico. Tom was just super nice and let us stay in his marina. Since we still had to go to Miami to get Sid sworn in for his Captain License we rented a car to visit some other friends in this area and eventually to drive down to Miami. Of course we had a wonderful time with Tom and his wife Karin. Monday we drove to West Palm Beach to visit Steve and Lucy (Breathless) and as we were driving I mentioned to Sid that we needed to call Bob and Marty, our friends from NY to see if they were in Delray Beach yet. Later at home we found a business card on the boat. Bob and Marty did a day trip to Stuart. Not knowing we were there yet and looked at some boats, when Marty pointed out the lonely little sailboat between all the big Krogens. Bob immediately recognized our boat. It shows again how small the world is. So the next day after Sid got sworn in with the Coast Guard in Miami, we visited with Bob and Marty for a couple of hours. Not just that when we shopped at the Hollywood West Marine, the lady behind the counter recognized us, we met them (Talisman) at the Panama Canal a few years back.
After saying goodbye to Tom and Karin we headed down the Saint Lucie River, feeling much more comfortable we know that we can get over the hump back into the ICW. All went smooth until of course we hit a bump in the middle of the ICW where the bump shouldn’t have been. OK, got over that one. The closer we got to Jupiter, the busier the ICW got. There was a moment when we could not see any more markers and so we kept following the channel along the boat docks when we realized the water was getting shallower and shallower until we hit bottom. Fortunately I had slowed down already when I noticed that it got shallower so we didn't go aground hard. We put the engine in reverse, the boat spun slowly around and got back into deeper water. We headed back to the last marker and sure enough the other ones were further to the left up in the trees, a good place for a green marker to be. We were back on the ICW and traffic was getting worse by the minute. Those big power boats do not slow down for us sail boaters and batter us with huge wakes. We had several bridges to go through as well and unfortunately not all open on demand, so we had to wait a while for the opening, with strong currents and heavy boat traffic. Just about 100 feet before the last bridge we bumped again, it was a five footer, but we bumped right over it. At this time we were tired and worn out, the anchorage was just a short distant to go and we were glad to drop anchor in the northern part of Lake Worth in North Palm Beach. Got there just on time for a sundowner, dinner and a well deserved good night cocktail for today’s turmoil’s. As we were sitting in the cockpit relaxing a weird noise appeared, kind of like a drumming. We had no idea where it came from and when we went down below it got louder. We tried to follow the noise and even turned everything off on the boat, but we still heard the noise. We checked the whole boat for the cause, but no idea, we both were puzzled. Then it would go away and come back, now we're even more puzzled. We finally came to the conclusion that it must be a fish that grunts under the boat. The location of the grunt seemed to change.
Since we’ve been pounding so hard down the ICW our engine had developed a couple of water leaks. Sid found the exhaust elbow had a huge hole and there was also a big oil leak, so he fixed it all and also changed the water pump. The GPS was acting up too like it was autistic, so we brought it in to a local GPS dealer who assured us that he could fix it. While waiting for the GPS to be fixed we checked out our neighborhood. This anchorage is very convenient as Publix Supermarket is just a two minute walk from the dinghy landing and West Marine is about a quarter of a mile away. This was a very ritzy neighborhood as we saw several Bentleys and other nice cars drive around and the houses looked like resorts. Publix was also about 20% more expensive as all others are. Not a bad spot to wait for a weather window as we were anchored between Privacy which belongs to Tiger Woods and Jack Nicholas boat.
Next to Publix was Duffy’s a sports bar and restaurant with free wireless access, so on some of the afternoons we enjoyed the juiciest hamburgers with a pitcher of beer while doing free email stuff, well after lunch it wasn't that free anymore. Then Chuck on Sea Fury contacted us and told us mutual friends Shawn and Peter from Belle Mouette were in Fort Lauderdale for one day. Wouldn’t you know they rented a car and drove up here to have dinner with us. Belle Mouette drove 50 miles out of their way and Chuck 30, what awesome friends. We had a great time.
It’s been blowing hard all weekend long and everybody was anxiously waiting for a weather window to the Bahamas. We had winds anywhere from 15 to 25 knots and a very choppy anchorage with 1 t 2 foot wind waves. Thursday was the worst, when we also found out that our GPS could not be repaired by the local guy, bummer, we just wasted a whole week on him and 105 dollars to boot to let him tell us he cannot fix it. So we had to go ashore, pick up the GPS and send it in to be fixed ASAP, should have done that in the first place. Now we were going to miss a perfect weather window. If it wasn’t for having to send the GPS out we would have spent the windy day onboard. It took us about 1 ½ hours to send the GPS off we were in our dinghy returning to Paradise, I noticed another Ericson just like ours sitting in the anchorage. I was just going to mention it to Sid when I noticed that this Ericson had a brown stripe as ours, also had the canvas color of ours and davits like ours: “SIIIIIIIIIIID!!!! We’re dragging!!!!” Boy did we step on the gas to get to Paradise. Sure enough it was her and had dragged across the whole anchorage. Later we found out that the wind was gusting to 30, she dragged about 40 feet and two of our neighbors re-anchored her where we found her. So much for bragging about our brand new stainless steel Bugel anchor that should hold in anything. We guess what happened was us circling our anchor a couple of times over the last few days and didn’t realize that we sat on a 10 foot hump, while the rest of the anchorage was 15 feet. So as the chain fowled the anchor, Paradise dragged into deeper water and the scope of the chain was not long enough anymore. Thanks to our neighbors no harm was done other than some rattled nerves, ours.
It was a long week in North Palm Beach but the shopping was convenient. Although we forgot to buy a Hawaiian sling and spear gun. So we decided to walk to the Mall about 1 ½ miles away to find a sporting goods store, no such luck. But we were told that there was a Sports Authority about 4 miles away. Sid decided to walk to the store and followed the direction several people had given him. After about 4 miles walking along the hot road, not finding Northlake Blvd he asked a biker where it was. He pointed behind Sid and said about 6 miles that way. Poor Sid came home after that, he had walked about 10 miles and was just pooped. The next day he borrowed Bob’s bicycle and rode another 8 miles to the dive shop and back. He was pretty sore for the next few days, but we do have a sling and a spear gun now. The GPS came back the same day and luck had it that we had a perfect weather window the following day.
March 16th, we got up early, provisioned and prepared the boat for the long over night crossing to the Bahamas. We pulled anchor at 4 pm and motored the 5 miles to the inlet and left the harbor at 5 pm. We had a 3 knot current against us as the tide was coming in. After we got out of the inlet we headed south to pick up the Golf stream and were doing about 5 knots for about two miles. Then we had a head current of about 2 to 2 1/2 knots. We were not expecting to find the Golf stream this close in so we battled with it for another hour and then the sailing instructions tells you to cross it at about a 45 degree angle to the current, going northward and we did just that. It got us through with only 7 miles north of our rhumbline. It was a pleasant ride considering all. The good thing was we had a light noserly and we just motor sailed across. We had a NE swell starting out at about 3 feet and worked up to about 6, but they were wide apart and we had a wind chop from the ESE at about 2 feet, made for a slight washing machine effect in the middle of the stream and lasted for a couple of hours. Then we had just an 8 knot wind chop out of the E "noserly". Approaching the shore was exciting as the water got a lighter and lighter blue and finally was that beautiful inviting turquoise color you just want to jump into.
Something we haven’t seen in years. We got in to the marina at 9 am as you have to clear customs from a marina. They were going to bring down the clearance papers immediately. One hour later we're still waiting. They forgot about us and we had to remind them. They said there will be somebody down. One hour later we got the papers (I guess this is Bahamian or Island time) with instructions to notify them when we’re finished filling them out. We did and at about 1 o'clock Jennifer our friends from Jabula found us in the marina still waiting and waltzed right up to the office to find out why we had not checked in yet and it worked, two hours later 7 boats got to check in. This probably does not happen all the time, but seeing it was St. Patrick's Day and 4 cruise ships came in, also Spring Break. After catching up with Bruce and Jennifer we hit the town and celebrated Patty's Day with Corn Beef and Cabbage at an Irish Bar.
Bruce and Jennifer have lived on the island almost a year now. They live in a townhouse further up the Canals from the marina and we had the privilege of docking right in front of their house. It was so nice, quite and very private we sure enjoyed it. Bruce works on the Pirates of the Caribbean set and built the boats and they just wrapped up filming for the second and third movie. So we had a chance to go and see the boats the “Flying Dutchman” at anchor, wow, what an incredible construction and then the “Black Pearl”, just as impressive, thanks Bruce this was a real treat. They also drove us around the island and we stopped for some conch salad, yummy. I even learned how to clean them now we can’t wait to get our own. We also learned a lot of island history that I will not bore you with.
It was really nice catching up with Bruce and Jennifer and one night I tried to spoil them with my wonderful, mouth watering roasted chicken, (I had planned on this when we left Florida and bought a "frozen" chicken at Publix so it would last till we got to Lucaya I always use a fresh chicken and when this chicken came out of the oven 1 ½ hours later it was a roasted rubber chicken, hard rubber that is, every time we tried to bite into it our teeth bounced off it. The dog even chewed like heck on that darn thing. Well, the flavor was there, we just sucked it off, so much for spoiling them. Later we looked at the wrapper, it said it was a roasting, baking Hen and to cook it at 325 for 1 ½ hours. So Jennifer went and looked it up on the internet, there they said that this hen was a capon which means a neutered hen and is for stewing and soups only and if you want to roast it to roast for 3 to 4 hours. What a miss leading label, so don’t buy the frozen chicken in the white wrapper which says baking, roasting hen on it. But if in doubt I found the perfect recipe to make sure the chicken is thoroughly cooked, but not dried out and definitely not rubbery:
BAKED STUFFED CHICKEN
Read the recipe through before starting . . .
6-7 lb. chicken
1 cup melted butter
1 cup stuffing
1 cup uncooked popcorn
salt/pepper to taste
______________________________
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Brush chicken well with melted butter, salt, and pepper. Fill cavity
with stuffing and popcorn. Place in baking pan with the neck end toward the back of the oven. Listen for the popping sounds.
When the chicken's ass blows the oven door open and the chicken flies
across the room, it is done.
One day I guess we got bored, so Jennifer brought scissors out and we chopped Sid’s hair off, then we buzzed it off until no hair was left. That was fun and he looks really cute. The funniest thing was when he tried to pull his T-Shirt off going to bed it stuck to his head like Velcro.
March 23, at 10:30 PM after a last dinner with Jabula on their balcony, we left the dock and headed out the dark channel into deeper water. The wind was still out of the east and blew a lot harder then the forecast predicted. The seas were a bit lumpy but not all too bad and we had a great sail for almost all night long. The easterly wind should have switched to north but that never happened, due to that we had to change plans for our anchorage. Great Stirrup Cay is not protected in an easterly and so we decided to go behind the island to Great Harbor Cay. Approaching Great Harbor Cay was fairly easy, we found the markers and followed them into 8 to 10 feet of water, never saw anything less. There is an inner harbor and Sid suggested anchoring in there as we were expecting some squalls for he night and following day. The canal was very exciting to go through as it was only about 50 feet wide with high walls of white rocks on either side, very Mediterranean looking. Then the cut opened to a wide anchorage which curved to the right and very protected from any bad weather. We anchored in 8 feet of water and enjoyed being in a new tropical place.
The Berry islands etch a gently “J” into the Northwest Providence Channel, not too far from the northern tip of Andros. The deep water of the ocean runs along the north, east and south edges while the inside of the “J” cups the shallow easternmost portion of the Great Bahama Bank. The top of the chain begins with Little Stirrup in the north and ends its curve with Chub Cay and Mamma Rhoda Rock in the south. This cluster of approximately 30 islands and 100 cays is home to the fewer than 700 Bahamians, Great Harbour Cay being the largest in land mass and population.
As we were sitting in Great Harbour Cay relaxing, around 5 PM, this guy approached us in his boat, saying shalom over and over and over again and then telling us that his job was to tell us that we can't anchor here, that we had to come into the marina or leave. Yeah, right! After we told him that this is an anchorage as per charts and not to anchor in the fairway. We were clear of the fairway but he continued to give us a hard time and told us again that we HAD to move into the marina or leave. Now we told him that we were not in the fairway, so no danger there. There were no signs at the entrance telling us otherwise, except for "Welcome to Great Harbour Cay”. He told us that it was the rules of the Island and they only let boats anchor in bad weather. We told him that a front was approaching and that’s the reason we were in the harbor, but he kept insisting that we had to go into the marina. We thought right from the start that he was scamming us, He finally left and we could continue eating our dinner, he was rude enough noticing that he interrupted our dinner. About 20 minutes later he returned stating: "So I take it you’re not leaving?" You got that right, buster” (we didn't say that but wanted to). So he threatened to call immigration and customs on us and that we will get into a lot of trouble. We told him to go right ahead. Realizing that he couldn't intimidate us he finally left. Of course we were a bit taken by that and did not trust him and the situation, so we did an anchor watch. Sad isn't it. He kind of ruined it for us, but the highlight was a most incredible lightning storm after sundown as the front blew over us. The lightening was high up in the clouds and never hit anywhere with branches of lightning going in all directions, almost like fireworks. It was awesome. The following day another front flew by, so we stayed put in our anchorage and hoped the idiot would leave us alone and he did. We had a beautiful sunset watching Manatees rolling around the anchorage, listened to relaxing music while watching the stars and had a well deserved good night sleep.
Early at 7 AM we lifted anchor and headed 26 miles further south to Hoffman Cay, also in the Berry Islands. We had a wonderful motor sail all the way. The most incredible thing is the amazing crystal clear blue water. We reached Hoffmans Cay in no time but had a hard time finding a suitable spot to anchor as it is in 7 and 8 feet of water and we draw 6 feet. We were anchored quite a bit offshore and the anchorage is a bit exposed to the North and we were going to get a northerly blow for the next couple of days. They predict a light northerly, we hoped for it. The anchorage looked absolutely beautiful with the crystal clear turquoise water. It's was so clear we could see the wave ripples on the sandy bottom below the boat. We couldn’t wait to explore the beaches and the water and hoped to find a yummy conch dinner as well. We had fun buzzing around in the dinghy but conch dinner was not on the menu for tonight. We had a bit of a rough night as the northerly finally blew. The wind died down during the day so we took a dinghy ride. What a pristine anchorage and we didn't have to share it with anybody as we were the only boat here. During our dinghy ride we found an even nicer anchorage and so we moved 8 miles further south!
We started wondering if the wind ever stops to howl in the Bahamas. We've been having 20 to 25 knots of howling wind for the last few days and were almost freezing our butts off. Actually Sid was freezing his shaven head off and had to wear a fleece cap to stay warm LOL. I took a photo of him with the cap on and should turn it into a postcard stating: Can you believe we're in the Bahamas? We were having a blast though and just enjoy being out at anchor again. The hunters we are we collected some escargots (sea snails) for appetizer and caught two nice size grouper for dinner and also made ceviche for the next day. We also tried to find some conch, the problem was not how to get them, but coming out of the 75 degree water into the cold breezy wind. Plus we waited for better weather to be able to head further south. But days later the wind was still howling, the tide was on an extreme high and low and the current was just ripping through the anchorage at 2 knots. The current was so strong that not even a 28 knot wind could turn the boat into the wind and the boat was pinned sideways between the current and the wind. We went and checked on the anchor, the anchor chain laid in the bay in a zig zag pattern and was hung up from coral to rock. We had 150 feet out and still only a short scope under the boat due to being hung up. Other than that this anchorage was just absolutely beautiful. We did find some conch and made a wonderful conch salad. It was a bit tricky to open them. The first one we did wrong and I had all this slime on my hands, which was almost impossible to get off. The second one, no slime just a perfect cleaning job that took a long time, but it was fun. Conch salad is easy to make, just chop the conch into little pieces, drizzle with lemon juice, salt and some hot sauce, add some chopped onions and tomatoes and voila. We also caught some more grouper. The same day Jeff on a catamaran in our anchorage with his two boys showed us the blue hole on one of the islands, just amazing. It's a short walk through the bushes and there it is a huge blue and very deep water hole that is connected to the ocean. The hole is surrounded with a wall of white rocks and caves 30 feet high. A few minutes waiting two giant grouper (15 lbs range) came up out of the deep dark water and we watched them snatch the food up the kids tossed. This can't get any better than that, hopefully future cruisers finding the grouper will treat them as pets too and not get as dinner. After sundown the water started to twinkle. We still don't know what it was, the best we can describe it they were spawning fireflies, as soon as they released the seeds, they would start glowing for a few seconds, it looked really cool. Sid hung our underwater light out into the water which attracted a whole bunch of worms and other little critters including some good size shrimp. A huge barracuda was sitting under our boat at all times too. We had some more extreme tides to deal with and some more 20 to 25 knots of wind, but the wind finally subsided and we were able to head further south. After we finally had the first good night sleep without being woken up to the fight of the current and wind and the chain grinding against the hull we pulled anchor.
We motor sailed the whole 22 miles to our new anchorage Frazier Hog's Cay and wouldn't you know we again had a 1.5 knot current ripping through the anchorage, at least the wind was down to 10 knots and it was a lot more comfortable. This was a really nice and calm anchorage, besides the wind had been light and variable and so the weather was just nice and warm. The water had a temperature of 75 all along but with a cold wind blowing you think twice about going in, it's the coming out part that's tough. The first morning was so calm and flat we took the dinghy around the corner and found a huge mangrove area. There were so many waterways in the mangroves we were careful not to get lost. The water was absolutely crystal clear and a light aquamarine color, which made it even more beautiful to see a colorful turtle swim around us, just amazing. The next day we took the dinghy to the other side of the anchorage which took us across the shallow flats. On the other side we drove along the rocky shore and found some remnants of houses and also a boat in the water which got ripped apart by a hurricane. Whenever there was a grassy area below us we would keep an eye out for conch and when we did find one, Manuela dove in to get them. A bit further along the shore there was a long sandy area, broken up with sharp rocks. It was tricky to find a just sandy spot to land the dinghy as there was a shelf or rocks along the beach, but we managed. The beach was covered with hundreds of empty conch shells and as we strolled along the beach Sid found a live conch and another one. They were all over the place just along the beach in ankle deep water. Sid never even had to get wet other than his feet to get them. We headed further up the shore, the beach disappeared and a rocky shore approached. The rocks were sharp and the tides washed into the rocks along the sandy bottom which was covered with big conch, resting in the shadow of the rocks as the hot sun was blazing down. We couldn't believe how easy it was to find conch with only getting our feet wet. We had a wonderful dinner, conch, conch and conch prepared three different ways, a glass of nice wine and nothing else. The wind had picked up a bit the next morning and was coming out of the south, bringing a light swell into the anchorage. By afternoon when the tide was high enough again we re-anchor closer to the entrance of the anchorage so that we could get an early start to head to Nassau.
We left Hog’s Cay after a rocky night, but had a picture perfect day as we were underway to Nassau. All day we motor sailed in calm waters and Manuela had nothing else to do but write a poem:
We are sailing again out to sea
just my husband, my kitty and me.
The sapphire blue water is crystal clear
and a beautiful shoreline very near.
The sea is rocking us gently back and fourth
as we are sailing far from north.
Far from north is were we want to go
far away from cold weather and snow.
As we're sailing south away from land
we're sitting in the cockpit, grinning, holding our hands.
This is where we want to be
out in the majestic, wondrous sea.
To be out her is an indescribable feeling
it's relaxing, adventurous and healing.
New adventures await us with every new day
a wonderful feeling of freedom, that's all I can say.
Manuela Olshefski 4/5/06
We arrived in Nassau on April 5 and anchored in front of the Cloisters, a beautiful park on Paradise Island. All the other anchored boats were across from us and battled a strong current; we had non other than the wake of passing boats. We heard so much negative about Nassau and expected an ugly harbor, but instead we found a beautiful harbor with clear water. Of course the Paradise Island side was immaculate. Unfortunately crime in Nassau is rather high, but that’s understandable considering how much they earn and how much everything costs. For example a teacher in the Bahamas makes 30 k a year. Buying groceries here add about 1 to 3 dollars to the price we pay in the US and housing here is also very expensive. A phone call is 2 to 3 dollars a minute, so 30 k does not go far and that is a higher paid job. Imagine a case of import beer costs $40-45, while the local Kalik beer still costs $36-40 almost as much and at some places the same as imports. Every time I went to the grocery store prices had changed. I bought some romaine lettuce, the 3 pack from Dole, first time I paid 4.99 the second time 6.99. Apples and pears one day they were 75 cents each, next day 89. Pineapple 8 bucks each, a bag of ice 6 bucks, one croissant at the local bakery 3 bucks, 3 chicken breast 10 bucks, and a whole chicken above 10. At the fish marked they asked for 80 bucks for a grouper. I also learned that if you see something on the shelf and eventually need it buy it when you see it, next time it will not be there. Don’t go by the price written on the shelf, the real price is always pasted on the item itself and far from the price on the shelf. Eating in restaurants is very expensive too, a pizza 20 bucks and up and just big enough for one person, every dinner item is usually around 30 to 40 bucks, not including the drinks and appetizers.
The second day we hooked up with Susan and found out that her place was just around the corner from our anchorage. I spent most of my teenage years with Susan and her twin sister Ines in Switzerland, they are my best friends. So it was a great reunion seeing her after 20 years. Ines was arriving three days later and in the mean time Susanne organized a slip on the empty docks in front of her condo. I have to mention again that we were positively surprised at how beautiful this harbor is and how clear the water was other than getting a nasty oil film around the water line.
We enjoyed a great time with Ines and Susanne and friend Mike and spent a lot of time exercising with them; mainly 6 to 11 ounce curls and fork lifts. We ate and drank the best foods and Sid opened up coconuts daily which grew all around Susan’s property and we enjoyed them with an injection of rum. They had arranged to go to Fort Lauderdale on a shopping trip for three days and we were going to head further south. But we were stuck in Nassau with bad weather. So Susanne left us the key for her condo just in case we wanted to stick around until they came back. It rained for days and the wind blew hard, so when they returned we were still sitting on the dock, well actually Sid was sitting in front of her TV watching sports and I was cooking up a storm in her kitchen. The weather was better but we decided one more day wouldn’t hurt to be here with our friends for one more nice evening. They truly enjoyed that we were still there and appreciated the fact they didn't have to cook dinner and the next day it was saying goodbye. We had a great time, especially catching up on the 20 years we hadn’t seen each other.
The Exumas are just a bit south east from Nassau and it is said to be the prettiest islands in the Bahamas. Ancient Spanish maps show the Indian names, Yumey and Suma for what we call Exuma. It was a 34 mile trip to Allen’s Cay. We motor sailed again the whole trip and were never in deeper water than 13 to 20 feet and never lost sight of the bottom. Entering Allen’s Cay our mouth dropped, as this was the prettiest anchorage we’ve ever seen. All we could say was: “I think we found Paradise!” The grouping of cays and rocks generally referred to as “Allen’s Cay” includes Leaf Cay and Southwest Allen’s Cay, as well as Allen’s Cay and numerous unnamed rocks. The varied colors of the water will catch your eye, a graduated spectrum from the pales aqua of the shallow banks through the deeper teals, combined with sparkling beaches, this was the prettiest sight. We couldn’t wait to get the dinghy into the water and explore, especially seeing giant iguanas wondering along the beaches. These giants were only around 2 to 3 feet in length and will run right up to you when you land ashore hoping to get fed. Unfortunately we were not alone. A group of 4 big power boats rafted and had at least 15 kids onboard. Well, not exactly as they were on jet skis and dinghies buzzing around all the boats, screaming and not carrying about others. Towards sunset 10 more boats joined the anchorage. But I guess that’s OK we can share this beautiful place. We spend one day in this Paradise and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, nurse sharks, triggerfish and mantas swam buy. In the mornings sipping on our coffee we watched rays jumping out of the water and then we would head ashore to feed the veggie scraps to the iguanas, fished at high tides, or just relaxed.
Our next destination was Shroud Cay. The wind was a gentle 8 knots, just enough to fill the spinnaker to pull us at an average speed of 2.8 knots through no more than 14 feet of crystal clear water. You could see everything on the ocean bottom, just amazing. I could see star fish, sponges and one conch. Of course just as we started to sail at 4.5 knots we had to change course and had to take the spinnaker down, but it was a great sail. Shroud Cay is probably the only anchorage with no current and we took advantage of it. As soon as the anchor hit the sand we jumped over board and scrubbed the nasty scum line from Nassau off the waterline. Paradise was sparkling again. We also dove onto our anchor and watched some conch move on the ocean floor. All you saw was turquoise water over sand. The shore is rocky and between several small islands is a white sand beach the entrance to a huge mangrove. We took the dingy inside, but could not get all too far as it was getting too shallow, besides it was low tide. We were anchored about a quarter mile off shore in 12 feet of crystal clear water. The shore is to east and to west is nothing but ocean, perfect to watch the sun disappear below the water at sunset. The sunset was not as spectacular as we had hoped for, you know the red looking sunsets, this was with more silver colors, but still incredibly beautiful. We met our new neighbor, well not really but we know that his name is Bob, his female friends was talking so loud we could hear every word she said. She told him over and over how to take pictures of her and he would tell her over and over that she looked like a movie star, they seemed to have a good conversation and we were quite entertained by them, even though she had the most annoying voice. After it got darker Sid hung the underwater light out and it was amazing how many little bugs it attracted. One big barracuda kept coming by again and again and also one big crab.
We had a most quiet night and in the morning early we lifted anchor and headed towards Sampson Cay. Bob followed us for a while, but disappeared into a different direction, bye Bob. We had only a light breeze not enough to pull the sails up and so the iron jib had to do the job. We were mainly in 20 feet of water, crystal clear, so again we could see everything on the ocean floor. Sampson Cay has much to offer to cruisers and vacationers with a top-notch resort with villas, restaurant (reservation needed), marina, grocery store to part of the island, while the remainder of the island is still private. This must be the place then Apoge (over 200 foot yacht) arrived as we arrived and several more million dollar yachts were anchored between here and Staniel Cay.
Arriving in Sampson Cay we again agreed that this yet is the prettiest place we’ve ever seen. As soon as we were anchored we took the dinghy for a ride and what we saw was just absolutely beautiful. On the other side of the many islands is a canyon like area, with channels, narrow passages and rocky islands, you cannot describe it, just the prettiest area we’ve ever seen. We read that there are under water caves to snorkel and put that on the next day’s agenda. Unfortunately the weather forecast had 15 knots of wind in for us, knowing where the caves were positioned with a strong current blowing, we knew that it would have been impossible to snorkel in such a current, so we decided to take the advantage and sail to Black Point since two more days of 20 knots of wind were forecasted. It was little bit of a bumpy ride, but since it was coming out of the east south east and we had the islands between us there was not too much of a fetch. We anchored in front of a tiny village in Black Point and we can only tell you over and over again how beautiful each place is. Each anchorage is so different from the other and just incredibly beautiful. This one has the most incredible topaz blue water, I swear somebody painted it. Of course we jumped into our Ferrari (dinghy) and checked the area out. Knowing that there is another Iguana Beach we headed there as well. As soon as we landed on the beach two giant iguanas came running towards us hoping we had some food for them. The bigger one was at least 4 feet long. We ignored them and started to hike around the island. On the other side Sid found a yellow bell pepper which washed ashore and picked it up. Later, back where the iguanas were he fed it to them. Wow, you should have seen them. Sid stuck pieces on a stick and held it out for them; they actually jump up to get the tasty morsels. It was really cool. This was a great day and there is no better way to end a beautiful day than with a gourmet dinner of stuffed Cornish game hens with a fresh Caesar Salad. For dessert we indulged in some Swiss chocolate and a Captain Morgan’s for a sundowner, Ahhhh, life is good. The second day we went ashore and walked through the little village of Black Point, which is a “non-touristy” settlement, the largest in the Exuma Cays, excluding Great Exuma. A walkabout revealed a school, three churches, two grocery store (with the bare essentials), a clinic, police station, phone company house, 3 restaurants and a bar and everybody we met along the way was very friendly greeting us. We enjoyed a hamburger and cracked conch for lunch at Lourainne’s. Imagine a restaurant that lets the guest go behind the bar to make their own drinks and at a good price, impossible you'd say! Well at Lourainne's that's just how it works. Her mother’s house is right behind the restaurant and she makes the most delicious coconut bread. This is not a bad place to be stuck with 20 plus knots of wind. Besides we still can’t get over the incredible topaz blue the water, it is so blue that when the seagulls and air plains fly over the color reflects in them and they appear a turquoise blue. Even the puffy clouds in the sky reflect the color of the water. Almost forgot to mention, if you want to do email here, it will cost you 5 bucks for the first minute then 1 buck each other minute, which would roughly be $64 per hour, no thank you.
The wind finally calmed down and we couldn't wait to head further south. We lifted anchor at 6.30 am and started heading out the calm bay towards Dotham cut, which is about a 150 feet wide cut leading in to the ocean. As we approached the inlet, Sid pointed out that it looked a bit rough inside the cut and I pointed out that it looks fairly smooth on the outside, so we inched our way closer and closer to the cut. You have to understand that one side of the islands are very shallow flats, the other side deep ocean water, so when the tide changes and the inlet is a narrow cut, the water being pushed through the cut creates strong currents. We've been dealing with them especially in the Berry Islands, but nothing could ever prepare you for what happened next. As soon as we entered the narrow cut our speedometer showed we were going with 7.9 knots, impossible and then the roaring rapid ride began. In split seconds we had waves about 8 to 10 feet of heights but only about 2 to 3 feet apart crashing towards us. This ride turned into a nightmare. It felt like on the pirate ship ride in an amusement park that sways back and fourth, except this ride didn't sway back and fourth, just bow up in the air and down at each a 45 degree angle. This was the only time we ever felt that we needed seatbelts and a helmet on the boat as we were holding on for dear life. My fingers were wrapped around the helm, which I used to keep me from falling through the cockpit all you could see was white knuckles. I heard poor Tika screaming her lungs out but the situation kept our full attention and we could not check on her and comfort her. The violent waves brought the boat to a complete stop, only the outgoing current pushed us into the incoming waves with 4.5 knots over ground, which was the only thing that made it possible to steer the boat straight in to the waves, I can't imagine what could have happened if we would have gotten sideways to the waves, just the thought makes my hair stand up. It was the current fighting the incoming waves, it was a war and we were in the middle of it. Up and down, the bow would dig deep into the wave shoot up in the air while the dinghy crashed into the water behind us. You have to know that the dinghy is hanging on the davits at least 4 feet from the waterline. My guess is that every time the bow dug in the prop was probably out of the water too. It seemed like eternity we were able to steer the boat to port and out of the horrendous current. What came next was a lumpy sea but a huge relief for us. A bit shaken we headed around the current and then south. All had calmed down Sid straightened out the deck, which was upside down, then he went down below to find a disaster. While the waves shook us up and down, the salon hatch which was not latched all the way would open up and close and each time the waves crashing over the deck came right down below and soaked everything in sight. What a mess. We were amazed though that nothing in the V-Berth came off the shelfs; it looked like nothing had moved. The salon was soaked with salt water. I had my computer up on the table too, but luckily I had it covered up with the sheep skin the night prior to keep the moist air out of it, that saved it. My camera wasn't so lucky and got soaked, but so far so good, it's still working. When we arrived in Georgetown the first thing we had to do is get everything on deck to dry. The boat was a mess for two days. Not to mention all the laundry we had to do. Then we finally had time to play. Barbara and Gerry on Kumbaya were here and we had a great time catching up with them. We originally met them in Tenecatita Mexico but our path keep crossing and crossing again, it shows again how small the cruising world is. Through Kumbaya we finally met some new cruisers, until now we haven't real met anybody, so the potlucks started, we had one almost every day while in Georgetown. The Island Family Regatta was happening as well, which is a must see. The graceful tall masted wooden racing sloops are traditional for the Bahamas and have a deep keel, a huge mainsail and a very tiny jib. The mast is almost on the bow and across the deck are two boards used as hiking boards called pries, which extend perpendicular from the boat about 8 feet on the windward side and can be moved from side to side, depending on the tack. These sloops need a lot of man power, you see at least twelve crew on each boat. When going to weather most of the crew sits on the boards preventing the boat from healing and to keep the long boom of the main out of the water. Incredible also is how the races starts. They all anchor at the starting line, so that the bow is just at the line. When the canon announces the start, they either pull the anchor in and then hoist the sails or hoist the sails and bring the anchor up, in any way it's very exciting to watch. We usually watched the start then raced our dinghy up to the weather mark, and then back again to the start line until the race was over, what an excitement. At one time at the weather mark three boats got tangled up and one of the crew fell into the water, was a spectacle but they all recovered, even the crewmember who fell over board. Of course the whole town was hopping well into the morning, everybody was out and about and the juke boxes blasted until at least 4 am. It was a happy island, we really enjoyed it. There also was a lot of partying going on amongst the cruisers with lots of fun potlucks. We organized a fun noodeling party behind Paradise (everybody brought something floatable to sit on and a cocktail). We had about 20 people showed up and since we had a new pet, a 6.5 foot parrot kite flying behind Paradise the group had a task to find the best name for it. The winner was "BOPAR" for Bird Of Paradise, we love it.
Georgetown is a quaint little town with a few restaurants, lots of beauty salons and one grocery store, expensive grocery store. A bag of Dorito Tortilla chips costs 6.50, one watermelon 17.90, 1 tomato 1.39, a 4-roll pack of TP 5.50, 2 NY steaks 40 bucks....... The funniest thing was finding steak in the frozen section. The steaks are only 3.50 and the label says "Frozen Steak", so we really don't know if it is the front or rear end of the cow. We bought some and one week later as we cooked them we were amazingly surprised, instead of the tough and gamy tasting meat we expected we actually enjoyed a tender steak just like a fillet mignon.
The cruising community is very big here, reminding us of Zihuatanejo, with a daily net on VHF 68, volleyball games on the beach, yoga, beach walk, tai chi, potlucks and also an AA meeting (not the kind to stop drinking).
During our stay another front came through and kept us here longer than we wanted. The wind was blowing a steady 25 and on the outside of the harbor the waves were 15 feet, needless to say we preferred staying where the party was happening. One day thunder clouds even started building up and then a voice on the VHF announced a waterspout. So we watched the spout grow down from the cloud and up again and down and then another announcement of another spout. This one was much stronger and kept going and going. There were a total of 5 spouts, luckily all south from us and out of harms way.
We sure had a great time in Georgetown, but it was time for us to say goodbye and head further south as we get further and further behind our schedule, we hate that word. There was a mass exit of at least 35 boats at the same time, all heading north, so the anchorage got really quiet and due to all the activities we didn't really get to see all too much, we decided to spend one more day to do some exploring. We took the dinghy south for some snorkeling but unfortunately the swells came through the cuts and snorkeling was out of the question. So we headed back and noticed some masts on the other side where the Red Shank anchorage lays and headed towards it. As soon as we entered the beautiful anchorage the dinghy engine died. Just died and we were miles away from our boat and would have had to row into the wind and across the bay. Luckily there was a boat anchored and towed us all the way back to our boat. Sid then worked half the day trying to fix it; he thought that it was the dead man switch, but not so. So for now we have to use our 2 1/2 horse engine. The next day we lifted anchor and left Georgetown. The original destination was Long Island, then we changed it to Conception, but then thought since the weather was so favorable to take advantage of it and head as far south as we could to Mayaguana Island the last island in the Bahamas, about176 miles. As we were underway we heard the new weather prognoses, which forecasted 15 to 20 knots out of the south east for 5 days, which would have kept us in Mayaguana for that long. Since we are late for heading south and need to step on the gas we changed our mind again and decided to sail straight to the Turks and Caicos and be stuck there for 5 days instead, but one step closer to our final destination Venezuela. Well, sailing is an understatement as there was only a 5 knot breeze and so the iron jib (motor) had to help the sails and of course the wind was on the nose "noserly". About 38 miles into the trip as we were off Long Island Sid brought the fishing poles out and in just a few minutes we caught a nice Mahi. He was about 25 to 30 pounds and 47 inches long. It was awesome, the fish was a true fighter and kept jumping out of the water again and again, it took Sid a long time to land him onboard. Since we have no freezer we set enough steaks aside for 4 meals and made fish jerky out of the rest. We started the process at 3 pm and they were harvested the next morning at 10, yummy. It was a weird sight though on port the jib out and on starboard the fish pieces hanging to dry on port. We had a smooth motor sail through the first night until 4 am, when "Max" the autopilot decided to give up and quit, so we had to manually steer the boat from then on, which is tiring even though the sea was calm. Then later that day when we just reached the east end of Mayaguana, Sid read some info on the cut down to the Turks and realized that everybody pointed out that there is a horrendous current. So we decided to head south to Providenciales in Caicos. That was only 36 miles away, 6 hours for us and it was sunset we would have arrived in the middle of the night. Sid offered to take anchorage in Mayaguana, but then we read not to anchor there in any circumstances at dark, now what. A real sailor always just wants to sail without having to run the engine, so we did just that. We sailed at 1.5 to 1.9 knots in 5 knots of breeze. That didn't last long and we had to turn the engine on again as the wind completely stopped. Idle speed brought us up to 3 knots we realized we had a current with us. It never fails we never have a current with us, always against us except when you don't need it. With the 3 knots we would reach our destination in the dark, so we flipped the engine out of gear until we were doing 1/2 knot, into gear until we reached 3.5 again and on and on. It was a looooooong night. But we did get to the inlet of the shallow banks of the Caicos at the planned time 9 am. The bank is about 9 to 12 feet deep, which his not a problem, the problem lays in big coral heads which can only be seen in daylight when the sun is high in the sky, the reason for us trying to slow down all night long. We found several heads and drove around them and after 3 days and 2 nights we arrived exhausted but happy in Sapodilla Bay in the southern part of Providenciales Island in Caicos. We dropped the anchor launched the dinghy went ashore and checked in with the authorities. This was the easiest check in ever and even though we arrived on a Sunday and were charged overtime the fee was only $24 and another $15 for checking out. Frankly we don't think they would even notice if cruisers check in or not, there is nobody there to check and we don't think they care either. While checking in we met a nice couple from Florida Chris and Marsha on Endorphines, they just arrived from the south, heading north and where also dying to have an ice cold beer, so after checking in a nice guy drove us into town. We had a wonderful lunch and a great time with our new friends. Since they didn't have any charts of the Bahamas we offered ours, we were not going to need them anymore anyway, so later for sunset we met on their boat had some munchies a nice bottle of wine and rum for Sid. They were so happy to trade the chart. It was a good trade as Manuela ended up with a really, really good Cuban cigar (peach flavored) (well he said it was an expensive cigar he was told $28 bucks a piece, much, much later I found it in Puerto Rico for 1 buck a piece).
Since we were stuck for at least 5 days we decided to rent a car and explore the island. We also needed to get fuel and propane and there was nothing even close to the anchorage. The closest place was a gas station some 3 miles away. The good thing was we were able to receive wireless on the boat and could call via Skype to the rental place to pick us up. (We bought an external antenna for wireless and two extension cords, so whenever we are in an anchorage with houses along the beach we pull the antenna up to the spreaders and bingo, we're hooked on wireless).
All I can say is we had a blast driving on the wrong side. The good thing was that the steering wheel was also on the wrong side, so you will know when you drive on the side we think is right. Every time Sid wanted to shift he would grab the door handle, so I started doing the shifting for him. Whenever he tried to use the turn signal the windshield wipers came on, so we knew that they work well, not sure about the turn signals though. Also when we got the car the tank was on empty and were told that we could return it on empty. We filled the tank 1/2 full and drove and drove and drove for two days, but could not put a dent into the tank. Well, in 20 minutes you can just about drive from one end to the other end of the island, so you can NOT empty a tank easily. So we figure what they do is as soon as a car is returned they siphon all the gas out into their own cars. We don't blame them as the gas is $4.67 per gallon and diesel $4.47, would you. Since we had the car from 11 am on first day and returned it at 4.30 pm the next day she only charged us for one day $44 that was really nice, so we didn't mind leaving her some gas. We also found a great snorkel area with a really beautiful and healthy reef. We really liked that they placed buoys around the reef, to protect it from us tourists from touching it and killing the fragile corals. We saw several turtles, one in particular was sitting right below us eating away on sea grass, it was so cool. The other two were just swimming leisurely amongst us. We also had a taste of all the different ways to cook conch, our favorite is grilled conch, wow, what an incredible flavor.
The last day in Caicos Sid tried to fix the Autopilot and the outboard, while I relaxed for the both of us. We had a great time traveling the Bahamas. A new adventure will begin as we are heading into the Caribbean.
Hope you enjoyed traveling with us.
Hugs and kisses to you all
Sid, Manuela and Tika in and on Paradise
To view photo album click on arrow in photo:
