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I have conformation from Chris Parker that my weather estimation is correct and that nothing will threaten the Gulf between here and New Orleans, it should be a placid run all the way across.  He said we might get to sail some Monday but probably not before then.

So I need to find some gas cans and make a final grocery run, then fill up the tanks on my way out of the harbor this evening.  I’m looking forward to this longer passage quite a bit.  How good it really was will determine how big our next leg toward Texas will be.  If we are tired of hearing the Yamahas 24/7 we may do some ICW work after New Orleans but there’s really not much place to go into the ICW after You leave the Mississippi Delta.  Getting into the ICW means committing to travel 40 or 50 miles North (almost a days run) just to get in the ditch.  Lake Charles is probably the easiest entry but its not a short run either.

The Vermillion Bay entry is probably the most feasible.  All the rivers of course flow South into the Gulf so entering a river is up current.  Vermillion is wide and only 40 miles off the direct line to Texas.  Shell Island (where you come into the ditch) is also a good stop for fuel, Shell Morgan is always on my ICW must stop list.  OK… well I guess I better go find some gas cans.  If I have time I’ll post again before we leave.  Rusty

Jono and I walked the touristy Clearwater pier area this evening.. just got back.  We looked and looked for dancing girls but only found acrobats, fire eaters and jugglers… no dancers so we were out of luck there…….

Russ is flying in to Tampa tomorrow to help us bring the boat home.  With 3 of us piloting SYL the crossing will be a breeze, especially with the light winds and flat seas… we will just burn gas and keep it on 290 degrees true for 3 days.  Looking at passageweather.com we may get a bit of help from the wind but very little.  Most of the time it may be only enough to knock the sweat off your brow.  Wave direction also looks amenable to travel in our direction.  There may be times we are faced with 10 inch waves, but mostly not.  You never know for sure.. but a high pressure area is dominating the gulf so it should be dog days of summer even offshore.

Jono just left for the local Walgreens for a first run at provisioning.  He won’t get it all.. .but probably all he can comfortably carry at one time.  We’ll go back tomorrow for a final run.  We need another loaf of bread, snacks, drinks and some gas cans.  The dock master told me Walgreens has a marine section (being so close to the water) so they may have fuel jugs.

We have not added water to the boat since we left Nassau and we have over 1/2 a tank left.  Men are naturally more frugal than women on everything.  We like our stuff to count at least twice for everything we do…. efficiency first.  For instance when we take a shower we wash clothes and clean the bathroom at the same time.  When we wash one dish to use it, the suds go in the next dirty one to soak and the rinse water is added to it.  Anyway… enough about masculine efficiency…. women definitely have their advantages and us guys couldn’t (or wouldn’t) live without our wonderful counterparts.  The water is free here so I’ll leave full and thoroughly expect to have plenty water when we arrive in Kemah without making more with 3 men onboard except for maybe a bit more drinking water.

So our passage crew is set, Me, Russ and Jono… the three Sitton men will brave the wide open ocean and attempt to come out alive…. lol (in ten inch seas)….  regardless of sea monsters, trolls and pirates we will make it to our final destination hopefully without loss of skin or much of our sun bleached hair.  My only regret is that Russ and I had a contest going to see who got the darkest when he was on the boat and I won in the two weeks he had to catch me.  That boy tans quicker than anybody I know.  I beat him with the 5 month head start… but I fear he may catch up in the next week or two.

If all goes well we will be in Venice (below New Orleans) Monday.  Our only hold up might be fuel consumption.  We might have to run slower than full speed to make the passage if we don’t get any wind.  However the Monday mid day arrival is calculated at 5 knots, so if we don’t get serious headwinds or waves we can motor that speed easily.  On flat water I can travel in the high 6’s, so maintaining 5 is certainly doable given the expected conditions.

Its getting late and I need to eat a small bite before going to bed.  If I get a chance I’ll blog a bit in the morning but probably not.  I’ll be resting and prepping so we will Sea Yawl when I get internet again!

Rusty

1:45 PM

Jono worked on a rip in the Bimini and I accomplished my boat chores as well.  I changed oil in the main engines and overhauled the blinky carb on the starboard engine.  She starts and idles like a champ now.  Its amazing how much corn by-products came out of that carb.  The problem started after I used a can of gas I’d bought in the states.  I keep extra gas in 5 gallon cans for emergencies and I hadn’t rotated the ethanol added can out of the locker yet.  No problem tho…. after two fuel filters and 3 carb cleanouts I think I’m finally rid of the wonderful ethanol additive.  So far in the states I have been able to buy ethanol free gas, but its hard to find in Texas (where we make the gas).  The thing that makes me cringe is….. gas is delivered to the distributors ethanol free and they add the carb glue (ethanol) to the gas when its delivered to the gas station… great idea Mr. US government, making my life miserable having to clean my carbs all the time certainly endears me more and more to my flawless federal and state rule makers.

The AC is doing a good job in here… the boat is cool.  I have the sun fly up covering the salon roof so that makes about 10 degrees difference {thanks Mark and Julie}

Jono is on walkabout, looking for a grocery store and somewhere to buy gas cans.  I want to add a few more to the boat stock for the crossing.  Hopefully he will come across a McDonalds too, its almost 2 and we haven’t eaten yet.  If nothing changes I’m planning on leaving tomorrow evening about 4:00.  That would put us in the Venice cut below New Orleans mid morning on Monday.  Its pretty hot during the day so spanning 3 nights with a daytime arrival sounds right to me.  I’m calculating a little over 60 hours to make the 340 mile crossing.  If for some reason we get close on gas and have to slow sail, maybe more, but I don’t expect that to happen.  Right now a direct path to Venice looks like max winds of 10, and sometimes zero wind.  Luckily any wind we find will be on our nose.  That normally sounds goofy, but in the hot summer time if your travelling the same direction as low winds you keep the boat in a dead calm the whole way, with very light headwinds at least we won’t be stifling hot.

Jono just called from a burger joint, he’s bringing me a mushroom swiss burger.  I’m pleased with how our provisioning and prep is for the passage is going.  I still need some gas cans, I think I’ll go talk to the dockmaster about that after we eat.

Clearwater is in full tourist swing right now.  Jono said everybody was on the beach yesterday evening taking slefies with the sunset….. lol.  I haven’t ventured off the boat yet much but I’ll go on walkabout with Jono this evening for a while.  This morning I slept as late as I could and did a fine job of it!  I got out of bed at 10.  If we are doing the night crossing thing, I may stay up a bit later tonight and sleep in tomorrow too in and effort to tune my bio clock for better night work during the passage.  I really like Clearwater and the area.  It seems homey and touristy all at the same time.

Jono is due back any moment with food so I better put some ice in the glasses and make a place to eat.  SYL

A quick revision to yesterdays blog, Jono told me our top speed was 11.9 not 11.5 coming from the Bahamas.

I’ve been looking at the map, and still have some deciding to do, but Clearwater to New Orleans is looking like a good route to me.  Instead of 241 miles from here to Destin its another 100 miles but it saves a bunch of miles not having to go up to the panhandle.   Currently the weather looks benign as the Gulf of Mexico is sitting under a large high pressure system, we will study weather more tomorrow before making any decision.  I need to do some math and see how much fuel we need if we motor all the way and make sure its onboard before we strike out.

Today we both slept late, our projects include changing oil in the engines and getting ready for the next leg.  The long 340 mile route will include at least 2 nights at sea.  I don’t normally enjoy that long a trip, but the smooth seas make for great sightseeing on the still waters.  There will no doubt be endless dolphin encounters, flying fish and new sights galore.  The extra 100 miles will save us 2 or 3 days total on our semi race to get home before August 23rd.  Linda wants me home for my 60th birthday and I need to meet with people at work as soon as possible.  I’m considering a change of duty and need more information on the position before I decide.

The math tells me I need 4 more gas cans to have enough to motor all the way to Louisiana.  I thoroughly expect to have some sailing days, but its smart to have enough fuel to motor the offshore distance without wind power.  Jono wanted to go to Destin and we still might, but I’m liking the idea of a smooth water crossing to New Orleans quite a bit.  There are several factors that would quickly change my mind… the biggest being weather, but I’m off to do some research on currents and weather.

SYL  Rusty

OK, wow where do I start, I haven’t been to confession in….  uh/…  I guess I mean to say: its been a long time since I blogged and I’m not sure where to begin.  I think I’ll start with what ever comes out first… hey its my blog..

SYL is back in civilization…. Jono and I left Nassau last Friday (5 days ago) for an overnight run to Florida.  We crossed the banks with some wind dodging squalls by paying close attention to the radar.  Actually we just got lucky with the storm cells, we didn’t have to deviate from our intended path until Monday off the coast of Coral Gables… and then it didn’t help, we still got hammered by one storm.  We saw it on radar and angled offshore to avoid it.  Unfortunately the storm began making up offshore faster than we could round it so we took down the sails and decided to punch on thru.

The 6 mile wide cell had lots of wind and lightning around the perimeter but not so much in the middle of it (where we stayed for the next 3 hours).  About half way thru the storm our dinghy came loose from its davits in the blowing rain and 6′ seas.  So we had to drop it off the davits into the water to keep it from totally capsizing.  After getting it away from the boat so we wouldn’t destroy it we saw it floating free half full of water blowing downwind in the stinging rain, I told Jono to not take is eyes off it while I maneuvered for the recovery.  For some reason my starboard engine had died and wouldn’t restart….. after attempt number 3 (on one engine) to get close enough to get a hand on the dinghy.. I stopped trying to find out why my engine wasn’t working.  I was having lots of trouble getting close without running over the boat without full control.

I found the problem……… while untying the dinghy to save it from destruction a stray line got wrapped around the prop of the starboard engine… so now I have a loose dink and a crippled catamaran.  After another couple runs at the dink I figured out where I had to be to approach the boat and Jono got a hand on it, we tied it to the stern and went on to fix the next problem…. the fouled prop.  There was no way to get it completely unwrapped from above or behind the boat off the stern.  I ended up putting a pair of pliers and a screwdriver in my pocket and bailing off the boat in the water… 6’ers and all to free the rope.  Thankfully it went quickly and I can hold my breath for long periods of time while the big waves passed overhead while under the boat….. I was in the water less than 3 minutes and we were back in action!   Instead of continuing out of the rain cell toward the nearest cell wall, we decided to just head out toward our destination and let the storm blow itself out as it pleased….. Unfortunately it liked us a lot and followed (directly over us) for the next 3 hours….  we were directly in the center of the storm no matter which way we went… so we just took up our heading and drove on…….

So that’s the only fracas we were involved in and it turned out to be without loss of skin, blood or attitudes.  Finally we just started laughing and working the problems as they came….  I guess we lost 2 or 3 hours progress that day but nothing more.

Speaking of progress toward Texas, we have been making quite a bit of it.  We are in central Florida and about to head to the panhandle… next stop Destin.  Our initial thrust was almost 200 miles from Nassau to the Florida Keys in 26 hours.  We averaged about 7.5 knots.  If the gulfstream had not been dead, we would have been over 8.  We saw a lot of 9’s, some 10’s with a top speed of 11.5.  I suspect our 32 hour passage to Destin might be followed up by something similar toward New Orleans.

So anyway…. as we sit in Clearwater Municipal marina in the AC, life is good.  It’s likely we will be here another night before our passage to the NW.  Today was pretty calm, not much wind.  We travelled from Venice Inlet offshore to Clearwater.  Toward the end we were seeing some consistent 7 knot stages, but mostly it was hustling to stay over 5.5.  The calm offshore seas were enjoyable to look at…. lots of fish, rays and dolphin today.

Its my bedtime… Ill try to blog more tomorrow.

SYL, Rusty

The boat is ready for the next passenger.  When everyone left 2 days ago lots of luggage left with them.  The boat looks pretty good this evening.  I filled the tanks with gas today and made a grocery run, were stocked and ready for a week with my good sailing buddy Tom from back home.

I’ll finally get to show Tom some of the wonderful sights we found here in the Exumas.  This isn’t his first time to see pretty water, he’s well travelled, but there is plenty to point at here in the Bahamas.  His flight is due in a out 2 hours.

We’ve had very high and low tides lately with the full moon..  I heard some say it was a “super moon” that’s closer than normal to the earth.  I haven’t looked that up, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

We plan to make a long run tomorrow, maybe go all the way to Staniel, it’s only 55 miles so if we have enough wind we can make it easily.  It will be downwind, so forward progress will negate some apparent wind.  If it blows like it did today we will be fine.  SYL has full gas, water and propane tanks so I’m setting on Go!

Not much more to report…. My replacement generator is due in to GT Wednesday.  It’s amazing how many fees you have to pay to get something shipped to the Bahamas.  10% “luxury tax” plus a 1% handling fee for customs! airfare from Florida, local shipper handling fees plus $20 to get it from the airport.  There are probably 6 or 7 “fees” to get what you already own into the Bahamas.

I guess I’ll rest an hour or so before heading to the Exuma Market to pick up Tom.  I doubt I’ll be blogging much this week….. Who knows.

Sea Yawl Later !!    Rusty

I got up early to listen to weather, all good news, it’s supposed to be drier after today becoming settled and nice next week.  I just got a quick but fairly powerful shower come over the boat, glad I was well protected and on anchor rather than out at sea for that one.  The skies look good to the East so I think ill dinghy to town soon, it’s before 8am so no need to hurry, nobody’s open yet.

Georgetown harbor is lightly populated these days, I can see 4 boats at monument beach, 3 at the chat n chill, one at sand dollar and 7 others here with me in Kidd Cove.

8:15 and some of my on boat chores are accomplished.  We decided to clear the starboard Vberth for use as a bed instead of he aft double we use as a garage when we don’t have guests.  The aft berth doesn’t have as much air circulation so now that all Linda’s clothes are out of the “club” just forward of the kitchen…..  The forward bed is now available for occupancy with its large opening hatch.  It will no doubt be cooler and much appreciated in the coming month.

There are rain streaks on the other side of the harbor but SYL is in the sun.  I guess I better close up before I go to town, not leave any hatches open.  Winds are around 20 at times, Chris said he expected today to be the liveliest day for quite a while.  I’ll be taking the umbrella to town with me.  Wow there’s a bright rainbow that ends at Regatta Park in GT (right behind me)….. Nice.

Guess I better get on to town, see what I can get done.  SYL  Rusty

Our first guests for the year just left and took my wife with them!  We had a really nice time with our friends here on SYL.  Linda went home to be with Erin in her last trimester of pregnancy so I’m batching it for a couple days before a friend of mine flys in for a week.  We don’t have any special plans…. Just to sail around, look at the pretty water and do some snorkeling.

Yeah I miss my wife, but the big thing is I miss my boat gourmet cook!  Today for lunch I had a ham sandwich, this evening I had a spicy tai tuna fish sandwich.  Tomorrow I’m going for some of the taco soup Linda left in the refrigerator so I do have some good stuff for a few days anyway.

Going from me and 4 women on the boat to only me is a big change….. I don’t know what to do with myself.  The sun just set so it’s almost bed time…..

Tomorrow I have some boat chores I want to accomplish before Tom gets here so that will occupy some of my time.. and I have pick up my laundry so I guess I do have an agenda of sorts.  Maybe I’ll pick up some Chinese food while I’m in town.

The weather looks good for the next week or so, I guess we had one dreary day while the first bunch was here but everybody just pulled out a book and chilled the day it rained.  Tonight I’ll have 12 to 15 knot winds so it will be pleasant sleeping under the open hatch.

We had a major malfunction last week, my little Honda 2000 generator broke.  It has fire and it has gas but it has little to no compression.  I had a feeling this particular generator wasn’t right from day one, but it was new so we trusted the name.  It’s still in warranty but how in the world can I get it serviced out here…. The answer is I can’t.  I’ll have it fixed when I get home but I had to buy another generator to get me there….. Boat stuff…. always something happening you don’t expect.

Luckily a good friend of ours has a boat moored here in GT so they let me borrow theirs until mine comes in next week.  I’ve only had to run it once, but I expect I’ll charge up again in the morning.

Well, it’s after 8pm so it’s legal to go lay down below…lol. Happy travels to my wife and our good friends, thanks Michael for your help getting the car home!  Rusty

Linda and I seem to always make our major life decisions while bobbing in the water…… the past few days have been no exception.  Our current ritual has been to do what we need to do during the day.. than about 4PM we swim under the boat and solve the worlds problems (or a least our little corner of it) until it’s time to eat dinner.  We can always get to the heart of and  issue when we are bobbing around in a pool… or under the boat.  Lately we have decided made the decision to not leave SYL in Florida… but bring her home to Texas.  The short of it is…. Im not sure I could stand it not having my boat to play with… even in water where I can’t see more than 3′ deep.  Also, there are always things that need tinkering with on a boat.  If it’s in Texas…… I can do all that before we leave rather than during the trip.  SYL is in pretty darn good shape overall…. new sails, new motors, etc…. but she does need fresh batteries and a good polish job.

Linda gets under the boat and I tell you what it’s almost as good as water boarding…….. she tells me everything I want to know and ask her about… lol.  Our place has always been “in the water”  wether it was on Berry Road in Beaumont….  or anywhere there is water with a bit of shade around it.

Today I met “BIG FRED”  he’s a major personality here in GT.  Apparently he has a little money because he was buying beer for everybody that walked into the liquor store.  I heard Big Fred about a block before I walked in….. my goal today was to meet the Propane truck that comes on wednesday at 10:30 to fill up a near empty propane tank.  The truck was late and I didn’t have a watch so I walked across the street from the boat ramp (where the truck meets all the cruisers to fill tanks) to a liquor store to check the time… Big Fred had an entourage (friends) he was loudly chastising and praising all at the same time while insisting they all drink beer he paid for.  Anybody that walked in the door was offered a free beer by Fred, and often more than one.  Fred and I bonded immediately.  He loves other people almost as much as himself…. lol.  I was told by one of his compadres that he really is a good man and I believe it.

After my first Kalik (the national beer of the Bahamas) I attempted to turn down a second beer many times…… after my third beer, I feigned  an exaggerated wobble out the door, man hugged my new friend Big Fred and bid the locals goodbye.  Big Fred had called the propane truck and found out he broke down, so he wouldn’t be coming today… not sure when if ever he would (typical island timing) so it was decision time… either stay and get drunk or leave to go back to the boat…….

Linda was happy to see me she  I got back a little after noon.  I brought chinese food!  We have found a new love in GT, there is a chinese restaurant in town.  Linda was pleased as punch I brought 2 take out plates, we ate one for lunch and the second for dinner.  I knew after being gone for hours I better not show up empty handed…. lol.  Linda understands island time.. I knew she knew the truck may never show….. but it was nice to have General Tao chicken with egg fried rice, and Sweet Garlic chicken and rice to share when I got home.

Another good day in GT… g’night

The weather looks amazing next week, as the summer progresses high pressure areas dominate and winds are light and sweet.  Certainly as our guests arrive our outside passage from GT to the rest of the Exumas will be pleasant.  It’s only 15 to 20 miles of ocean exposure before we get in the main body of the wonderful Exuma chain and it looks like a weather window to move North is at our leisure.

Amazingly, when we used to charter boats for 2 weeks, I always looked at weather, but we could always just get on the boat and head from Miami across the gulf stream to the Bahamas without worrying about finding a weather window…. we were lucky.  Since we bought and cruise often we know more about waiting for weather than we ever had to worry about when we only had 2 weeks a year… That’s dumb luck.  It seems our first group of friends have that luck with them as well.

Today I was snorkeling around the boat and found some great shells right here inside GT harbor.  They are very fragile fans that have wonderful iridescent pink coloring.  I looked them up online and the shell hunters covet them because they never find a whole one…. They are so fragile.  I think I have 7 or 8 complete ones so I’m all happy.  It seems no matter where you are in the Bahamas snorkeling reveals unexpected treasures.  I never figured this anchorage for rare fan shells… But they are here!  GT harbor is a pretty amazing place.  It’s 10 miles of harbor (actually a sound) with more to look at than you have time to see… Right here in the harbor.

Reefs, starfish, sand dollars, now unique shells…. It seems the new things to find here in GT will never end.  We found a great Chinese place in town, our eating habits when we come now are totally different than previous years.

Linda brought it to my attention, but the water here is not as clear as it is up the Exuma chain… Certainly not as good as the out islands.  Don’t get me wrong… It’s probably 40 or 50 foot visibility…. Nice by any standards… but outside the harbor it’s generally 90’+.  On a hazy day you can see further underwater than over it.

Mmmmmm Linda’s black beans and cornbread are pretty good this evening.  We moved back to sand dollar beach today, the wind picked up a little so we went for better protection.  Waves are probably 6″ when it gets rough… Lol.  Like I said…. Our guests will like their first outside voyage better than most Due to the perfect weather.  Tomorrow I may get up at 6:30 and listen to the real forecast rather than looking at weather online but I’m pretty confident about next week.  Talking about weather more than a week away is pretty much useless, about one week is all the forecasters will own up to.

Linda and I are looking forward to having guests.  We wanted time to roam to our hearts content before coming to GT and we have done that.  Linda just reminded me what yesterday was….. we knew it was coming up but we both forgot our 13th anniversary!   It was yesterday!  That’s what happens when Mondays are just like Sundays that are just like Wednesdays…… Time slipped by us.  Wow, if we were in the states we would have been tuned into every moment of time… Planned the day for weeks and went out and spent a weeks pay on dinner!  Happy anniversary darling.  Thank you for following me around the Bahamas this year.  I don’t know if this….. Or the rat race is better…. Yes I do actually but both admittedly have their advantages.

TV (programming) is a powerful thing.  Had we been in tune with the world we would have certainly bought the things the TV tells us we need to buy and spent money as the “programmers” tell us to for this momentous occasion, it’s important… But more to us……. than the retailers that live off making us believe we need “stuff” all the time.  There is something to be said about being 400 miles from the closest WalMart or jewelry store.  Linda seems pretty happy with stuff I found on the beach and fashioned by my own hands just for her.  She’s pretty happy with her sea glass pendants…..” Life is good”

The sun is going down.. We are here to see it rather than watching who killed who on the news, listening to John Bainer argue irrelevant point and Obama doing nothing for us but harshly focus on somehow making his political party gain some advantage over the other that means absolutely nothing to you and I.  Government gridlock by design…. Politics at their best…. Serving only those who go to Washington for the “lawyer win” of making it big in the system.  Yeah I’m on my soapbox……. Why is it that a common man can make as much as the president or members of congress….. Yet politicians retire with millions more than they went into office with.  Smells fishy to me.  I recently read the Hunger Game series……. the fictional story apparently reinforced my disdain for our “leaders” I guess you could say.

I still don’t understand how the government can take something from you (taxes) remove what it costs to pay themselves, then give you back more than they took from you in the first place……. Hmmmm.  Think about that.  That’s bound to be a lawyer trick huh?  How does that make things better.  Yes we need an infrastructure, roads, police, etc.  but we don’t need fat cat lawyers taking our money for doing nothing but promoting themselves all the while wanting us to believe “politics” has not degenerated into an obscene distortion of the American Dream….. OK I’m done now, sorry for the rant… Sort of.

The sun has set…. Conch horns have blown across the harbor, time to go down and read in bed.  Like I said, life is good.

Sea Yawl Later !!   Rusty