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I’m working on my boat in the prettiest place…….

Yes, I take time to get in the water here at Black Point “Castle” but today was a workday.  Since the boat was standing on its keels in shallow water it was the perfect opportunity to change the shifter cable that was about to fail.  The project meant that I needed to get under the bridge deck, undo brackets and open the plastic conduit that contains the shifter cable to the port hull.  That is best done when you can stand on the bottom, not swim about trying to work overhead under the boat.  The tide was out and the boat had settled into the sand about 6” so I actually had to work on my knees but the height worked nicely.

Most of the project was straight forward, but with any job there were challenges.

One bolt that holds the shift handle together was seized, I had to drill it out.  After many trips to the tool box, under the boat, down to the garage, back on deck… under the boat and back…. I eventually got it done.  The port engine now shifts like butter….. smooth and easy.

Another big project I’ve been mulling over is how to fix the floor in the dink.  The wood floor in the bow had deteriated, Mark made a temporary fix so he could use the dinghy on the trip to Florida.  I tried ordering a complete new floor from Achilles, but it would take longer than I had to get it, and it was about ½ the price of the whole boat!  The plywood Mark cut worked out well actually, all I had to do is remove the aluminum connecting joint from the old floorboard and repurpose it a bit.  Normally the deep side of the connector faced forward, I hammered it in place onto the existing floorboard, then pried the new board forward so that it locked into the aluminum channel.  It worked great and the dink is ready for full service.  The board is not treated so it won’t last forever, but it will undoubtedly make this trip.

Project wise that’s about it, I did some “rearranging” moving things around on the boat that we had just loaded on boat to get away from the dock.  Linda has been nesting.. getting her boat like she wants it.  Today we finally got the boat where we wouldn’t be totally embarrassed if we invited someone on board….  We had stuff stacked everywhere.  The last thing will be scrubbing the floors in the salon.  I’ve gone around the boat with cleaner and gotten the bumper marks and grease spots off the sides,  there wasn’t much but there’s always the odd gunkiness on the white sides… she’s getting more presentable.

About 5 this evening the tide came back in and floated the boat.  I moved us out past the second sandbar so we are floating again.  There have been several boats in and out of our little piece of heaven.  Right now I can see 4 other sailboats and two mega yachts.  This has become a popular beach, much more known that when we were here last.  There have been times when we didn’t see another boat… I guess the word got out.  This truly is the best beach in the Bahamas.

Linda and I took a short dinghy tour this evening between projects.  We took some nice photos of the area.  When we get better service we’ll post a bunch of pictures.  We may stay here again tomorrow and enjoy the water.  Today we worked too much, tomorrow we might stay here and play in the water.  I may pull out my RC sailboat and sail it around.   It all depends on when we intend to leave for points south.  Georgetown is only a one-day run from here if you go outside in the deep water.  50 miles is easy to do outside, it’s probably 65 weaving around thru the shallows on the West side of the Exuma Islands.  I expect tomorrow afternoon we may knock off some of the miles and stage around Galliot or Rudder Cut.  It makes the day to GT easier, you get there during the day rather than late in the evening if you take some of those miles off the day before.

For now, I’m happy in paradise…. It doesn’t get much better than castle beach at black point.

The last big project I need to do is bring the water maker to life.  I need to flush it out and replace the primary filter.  I may decide to do that here… but then I may not.  We were having battery issues, they were needing to be charged every day.   Yesterday I added about 48 ounces of water to the two batteries I can get to without a lot of rearranging.  I have high hopes the batteries were just low on fluid.  This morning when we woke up the batts weren’t drained like they usually are doing almost nothing during the night.  Tomorrow if I have 12 volts or near it in the morning I’m digging out those back 2 batteries and repeat the process.. fill them up too.

The trip from Allen’s to here was impressive.  We saw 20 knot winds quite a bit, initially waves were dead astern.  By noon the winds had clocked from behind us to the port beam.  It doesn’t get much better than dead astern waves with beam reach winds….. That worked great for a few hours until the waves began following the clocking wind.  As you traverse the Exumas in a southerly direction, you heading goes from due south to SE.  By the end of the day I was fairly tight on the wind with waves coming at 45 degrees on the bow.  I saw a lot of 9 knot periods, some sustained 10 knot an a couple peaks at over 11.  My moving average for the 42 mile trip was 7.9 knots.  Most of the way the gps showed an 8 knot average, but the pinch and wave change the last hour or so dropped me to 7.9 still a very respectable all day run average.  The new main seems to accelerate the boat to speed quickly, so it averages better than my old main.  The quick acceleration helps me surf waves at lower speeds too so I’m pleased with its performance.

This house is why we coined this unnamed beach “Castle Beach” many years ago.

Sea Yawl Later!!

The norm for us is kind of like Texas weather; if you don’t like what we are doing or planning on doing then just wait  a few minutes and it will most likely change.  This charteristic of Rusty and I drives Erin crazy.  Thing is I totally understand her frustration because I use to be a planner just like her….or I guess she is like I was when she was growing up.  I have been under the fluid influence of Rusty for 13 years now, and I find I like the freedom of “flying by the seat of your pants” so to speak.

Wednesday we had dinner at the famous Poop Deck and when we returned to the boat we decided to stage at Rose Island which is about an hour sail from Nassau.  We had anchored at Rose Island several times butalways on the Leeward side.  This time the winds were from Northeast instead of the prevailing  Southeast winds so we were going to anchor on the windward side of the island.  We didn’t bother looking at charts because we had been there so many times.  Rusty found a spot that “looked” nice and sandy and dropped anchor.  It did not take long to figure out somethingwas amiss. The anchor didn’t hook up and it sounded like it was dragging on rock.  Rusty tried another spot and the same happened at which point I pulled out the charts and the Windward side unlike the Leeward side is mostly coral reefs with just a few inches of sand on top.  We spent the next hour seeing if we could find a spot, finally headed to an anchorage indicated on the chart but it was so far out it didn’t offer any protection.

We decided to head out instead of waiting until morning.  The wind was behind us at about 15 knots and the seas were 2-4 feet but they were also behind us so it was a sleigh ride.  We made it to Allens Cay about 11:00pm and anchored.  We had cut off enough of a leg that we thought we could comfortably get to one of our all time favorite spots and that is the beach behind Blackpoint we have coined “castle beach” because of this home

The winds and seas had come around and the sleigh ride turned into a rollar coaster ride…not my favorite.  By three o’clock we were anchored. We were surprised find four boats already there and two of the were the kind of mega yachts you would expect to find at Big Major.  Our unnamed, undiscovered beach is no longer undiscovered…  Again I have this premonistion that the Exumas are forever changing.

We did what we usually like to do and that is to beach SYL, drop the ladder and get in the water…….but wow it is still a little chilly especially with the cool wind.

We had a little weather but it didn’t amount to much safely tucked into the marina.  Today is Wednesday and we have decided to take the public bus to the Straw Market.  We knew that there were several buses that would get us there but we delibertly chose the bus that would go through the residential area of Nassau.  The buses were well used and in bad need of repair cosmectically but seemed to mechanicallyget the job done.  The fare is $1.25 a person as opposed to $6.00 to $10.00 one way to the Straw Market by taxi.  Not surprisely we were the only non locals on the bus.  Once people boarding got over the initial shock of seeing “tourist” on the bus everyone was very friendly.  The residential part of Nassau was pretty much what we expected. There were churches on every dedomination literally on every corner.  Infact on the bus was a prominent sign listing God name in three different languages asking “Who is your Father?”  This is a public bus, sadly you would not see that in America .  .The second most common sight was beauty/barber shops and beauty supply companies.   Third was schools.   This residential area close to downtown business is not that different from any major American city.  The bus route was about four blocks from the Straw Market.  The market structure has changed from a tent to a nice stucco building. However, the inside was unchanged.  Booth after booth of people hawking mostly the same wares.  Their principle businessisfrom the cruise ships which dock a block away.  Quite frankly I had forgotten how uncomfortable that environment makes.  It makes me nervous to have someone constantly pushing there wares on me.  Rusty feels pretty much the same way so he got the one item he wanted and I bought a little Bahamian dress for a little granddaughter I may have (we find out the sex on the 14th) and we left.  The ride back on the bus was direct.

Note:I am typing this on an ipad and I can’t correct mistakes easily so there will be typos.

Atlantis

Tuesday: 7AM – Waiting on a cold front to come thru to leave for the Exumas. We didn’t get the blow we expected last night so I’m hoping for a more comfortable frontal passage than what was forecast. We listened to Chris Parker this morning, he confirmed what we thought, a Thursday departure would be best. It tried to rain a bit early this morning but little came of it.

Linda and I may take the bus to the Straw Market today. I have a couple small parts I want to pick up for the boat today. Yesterday I found the perfect switches to use for chokes. These new Yamaha motors have an electric choke that make it easy to start. The ignition switches I have do not have a choke actuator, so I mounted these two push buttons right under the keys for each motor. I need a couple join splices to finish the wiring. Man it will be nice to have those chokes working without opening the engine bays like I have to do now.

I may tackle the shifter cable replacement soon. My port engine shifter cable is almost inoperable. The sheath is cracked right at the motor, so salt water has corroded the innerds. I bought a replacement in Key Largo. It would certainly be nice to have the boat beached so I could stand up under the stern to run the cable. I will probably defer that job until we get to shallower waters.

It’s 8AM, we just decided to try to make the straw market by 9 so I better go… Sea Yawl Later !!

Monday Morning: Today we had the motors on all day. Normally it was both engines to move the boat at a steady 5.8 knots. I didn’t push hard, arrival time didn’t require it. Except for about 2 hours before we reached Nassau there was little to no wind and 2′ seas in our face. When the wind picked up it was South enough to give us some sail power. We hit 7 knots several times, the blows were intermittent so I left one engine running to keep the boatspeed up while it slacked. Once we got close to the harbor entrance the sails came down and we motored in comfortably.

We anchored out on the North side of the harbor, past the twin bridges going to Atlantis, past Hurricane Hole marina where the harbor widens a bit. Given the late hours we have been keeping, we decided to run the AC all night, we went to bed early and got up late, a well deserved rest. Today our goal is to find a Batelco office and get Bahamian service on one of our phones. After that we can decide where we want to wait out the rest of the week as an approaching Norther will provide us with rain and high winds.

We are here though… here in the heart of the Bahamas. It’s only 35 miles to the top of the Exumas so for all intents and purposes we have accomplished the transit from Florida, now it’s time to slow down and enjoy. Nassau isn’t our favorite hang out, but we did enjoy the memories of past trips as we came in yesterday. We went by the Ashram where Erin took her Yoga training. We will probably go to the straw market and hit the highlights here in Nassau before it rains. The approaching weather is due in about midnight.

There are several high end properties for sale here in the harbor. I wonder what’s causing the trend? It might be like our lake property, mostly older people buy vacation homes, then when the owners can no longer use the property they sell it. Holiday locations probably change hands every few years here like they do around our lake home in Texas.

Linda just about has our breakfast made so I’ll wrap this up. The water taxis and dolphin adventure excursion boats have begun their constant treks thru the harbor. The march has begun and will last until dark….. that’s why we love Nassau…. not.

6PM: I went to Batelco, twice…. the first time I got my phone hooked up on Batelco service, the next time I got Linda’s Ipad on a data plan so we can pick up the internet wherever there is a Batelco tower for $30/mo. Pretty sweet actually. Most marinas charge $5 a day for internet, one dollar is much better and we don’t have to be in a marina.

SYL is in a comfy slip at the Nassau Yacht Haven. It’s $2 a foot here, not bad, thats $66 a night. Atlantis across the way gets $250 a night. unless your over 45′, then it goes up. We will stay here tonight and tomorrow night while the weather blows thru then stage out for a Thursday trip across the Yellow Banks to the Exumas. I met another couple today that intends to head out for the Exumas Thursday.  Maybe we can hook up and go together.

Linda threw down another excellent dinner. We just finished and Linda jumped on the net, I have a word file I’m typing in. We will upload it when we get a chance. Today it got hot! Luckily Mark and Julie made us a sun fly, I put upthe starboard side section and it made a nice difference in the cabin. Before dark I’ll add a couple spring lines in case it gets as bad as we hear it might be tonight. Linda is smiling over there looking at facebook and reconnecting with the virtual world. I guess I better get those extra lines on before it get’s dark.

Sea Yawl Later !! Rusty

Sunday (I know it’s Sunday because we have to be in phone range on Monday so Linda can talk to Erin, they have an appointment) If all goes well SYL will be in Nassau this evening by 6:45. Currently we are motoring directly into the prevailing SE wind, thankfully it’s 10 knots or less so it’s only a bit choppy. I can hold 5.5 to 5.9 knots at 3/4 throttle. Any faster and all it does is burn gas and hit the oncoming waves harder. I can go 6.5+ easily, but with an arrival time well before dark, no need to burn the gas or push any harder.

According to the charts I’m in 800 ft. of water, by 4PM i’ll be in waters over 2000′ deep. I have the big fishing rod out trolling but this water is probably too deep to expect any fish to bite, but you never know….. Generally 90 to 110′ is the best fishing depth. I found the lures I was looking for at Target in Key Largo of all places. I have heard anything with pink feathers works well and I found them at Target. Billy Baits Bomber is also a good one, I got a few at West Marine, the fellow that told me about them in 2010 likes blue, so I got a couple in that color as well as the pink I like.

Today (Sunday) as we leave the banks and cross to Nasssau conditions are not as choppy and confused as they were during the gulf stream crossing Friday night, but almost as high. Generally waves are probably less than 2 ft. It’s hard to describe the “purple” color the water gets when its abyssmal and the sun is bright trying it’s best to penetrate the deepness of it. Without sand or a bottom to refelect off of, to make the water baby blue… it’s like a concentrated baby blue… I know that doesn’t make sense… like I said it’s hard to describe.

I took a bit of a nap earlier after the all nighter Friday night (Key Largo to Bimini) and a couple good naps on Saturday, I think I’m a little behind on my sleep. Linda took over from 9PM to 11:30 Sunday when we stopped for the night. Linda is down in the bed right now (Mid morning Sunday). She does best below decks when it’s choppy like this. We have been pushing pretty hard to make it to Nassau.

We didn’t leave Bimini until noon Saturday, so we sailed late. With nothing to hit or run over, it was easy to drift along trusting radar and visual sighting during the night run. It’s about 8 hours from the NW channel light to Nassau and we had stopped just before midnight leaving only a couple hours of the banks to cross this morning. Today will be a full day getting to Nassau. I figured it up, on a day like today we will probably burn $60 dollars worth of gas. At least I hope gas isn’t over $6.00 a gallon in the Bahamas

We arrive at Nassau with daylight to spare.  Rusty wants to anchor out, I prefer taking a slip because there is so much debris in the harbor.  Rusty found a nice spot and we anchored for the night.

Sea Yawl Later!!

Tonight (Saturday Night) we will probably anchor at about 10PM in the open water. Tomorrow is supposed to be a mirror image of today so we should sleep comfotably. The GPS shows a 2:30AM arrival at the NW channel light (the other side of the banks) From there it’s another 15 miles to Chubbs marina, or about 45 to Nassau. As long as we are somewhere to hide from a Monday night blow, life is good. I expect that to be Nassau.

When you leave Bimini you enter the Bahama Banks.  This is a large expanse of water that ranges from 10 to 20 feet but most of it is around 12 feet.  Rusty and I put the cooler on the front and just sat there watching the bottom.  This was another 10%er.  Great sail.  Life is good!!

Man you really do forget what this water is like…. imagine swimming pool water at it’s best and you’ll be close. It’s times like this were I wish I could teleport all my friends onboard to see this water. The stern wakes make a refelction on the bottom that looks like a line of light going out from each stern at 30 degrees. I can see the reflection of my wakes on the bottom 40 yards away from the boat (that’s a reflection on the bottom) how cool is that? Like I said OMG.

Sea Yawl Later!!

OMG… we opted to not stay in Bimini tonight, but to cross the Great Bahama Banks right away.. what a great decision. We have found nearly perfect weather to enjoy the banks to their maximum, what a gift. Almost no wind, flat water… I went up on the bow and counted 10 starfish on the bottom in as many minutes.

If we had spent even one full day in Bimini, it would mean we would not been able to move the rest of the week. As it is, the sun is bright, there are almost no waves…. I have my throttles set on 50/60% making 5.5 knots….. We are travelling with a decent size group of boats in sight, no communication but visually available. I guess 5 or 6 boats chose the same time frame to cross the banks. So far it looks like I’m the least hurried to get across… half of those I can see have passed me. Today is one of those days that you can see your stern wakes fade away far behind the boat. Normally the waves blend immediately with the windblown chop, but not this time. Today SYL is making her own waves.

In Bimini I put 5 gallons in each tank, it filled them both back up. That’s from Islamorada. Most of the burn was running one engine, going to two periodically during the night. It’s 2PM, I just ate and took a shower to get the night’s salt water off me. My intent was to go directly to bed…. but I can’t lay down and miss this water! I’m sure I’ll have to sleep sometime but just not right now!

Tonight (Saturday Night) we will probably anchor at about 10PM in the open water. Tomorrow is supposed to be a mirror image of today so we should sleep comfotably. The GPS shows a 2:30AM arrival at the NW channel light (the other side of the banks) From there it’s another 15 miles to Chubbs marina, or about 45 to Nassau. As long as we are somewhere to hide from a Monday night blow, life is good. I expect that to be Nassau.

Man you really do forget what this water is like…. imagine swimming pool water at it’s best and you’ll be close. It’s times like this were I wish I could teleport all my friends onboard to see this water. The stern wakes make a refelction on the bottom that looks like a line of light going out from each stern at 30 degrees. I can see the reflection of my wakes on the bottom 40 yards away from the boat (that’s a reflection on the bottom) how cool is that? Like I said OMG.

Sea Yawl Later!!

Rusty returned the rental car and we left Giberts around 5:30pm…right on schedule.  We had been looking at Passageweather for several days and decided that we would leave Gilberts and make our way to Angelfish Creek and do a night crossing.  Rusty has always preferred night crossing especially when crossing to Bimini.  We knew it was not going to be the best of conditions but thought it would be ok……well….

It was not the worst of times nor was it the best of times……we did our homework, checked with passage weather, listen to Chris Parker and decided we would jump off into the Gulf Stream Friday night. It was not scarey but it WAS uncomfortable and I had to fight off getting seasick because we were beating into the waves. The waves were only 1ft to 2 ft but they were choppy and the intervals were short. In this situation I am of no help to Rusty.

We had not been out of the Angelfish Creek Cut for very long and we heard a large aircraft flying low over us.  Rusty said it sound like “a C 1 30 Coastguard airplane.  We didn’t think too much about it.  About 11:00pm we had a light beam shining on us intermittently and it was starting to make us nervous.  This is the first time we have crossed without a gun or two and I can tell you now it will be our last.  We didn’t know who or what was following us but someone was definitely following us.  Then the U.S. Coastguard with beams shining on us approached and said they wanted to board us.  Now it is choppy and rough and they had some trouble getting lined up with us.  But board us they did.  They wanted to see our boat papers, passports and inspected our boat.  Before they boarded they asked questions about how many people were on board, whose boat it was and other things that they could verify once they were on board.  It was scary and intimidating and I told them just that.  I asked why we were boarded, I mean this is 11:00pm and in rough seas.  They said “they said they must patrol this American border.  I am thinking, “Do we look like terrorist” ( I didn’t say this).  They mentioned drugs and I did say rather incredulously, “You think we are druggies?”.  Two came on board and one went down both hulls and looked around.  They checked that we had flares and our horn which were prominently displayed.  They asked if we had a VHF radio when they were standing less than a foot from the radio and they were having to yell to talk over the radio that was on.  Then they said they were checking for, “our safety”, I thought “Yeah Right and I am Kim Kardashian”.   We think the airplane that flew over us sent the Coastguard boat.  We just don’t know why.  None of the answers we were given made any sense.  I do appreciate that these guys are out there and it does make me feel safer knowing they are around but for some reason we get targeted all to often.  We have been boarded by customs twice, two years running.  You would think if we were drug runners we would choose a vessel that went more than 6 knots.  I can tell you this….it is intimidating.  But when I think of the Kaufman family that was just rescued at sea by such brave men I just say, “Oh well, I am glad they are around”.

That boarding episode got us off course and meant that we had to beat back into the waves for an additional 1 1/2 hours.  Finally I just went to bed. Rusty says he did fine but I know it had to be hard to be at the wheel all night.

We arrived at Bimini at 6:30am. We anchored out on the North side, ate, rested, flew the quarantine flag and anchored up to go to customs. I am on the boat while Rusty deals with customs. Only the skipper is allowed off the boat until we are checked in. We have already been to one office, got paper work which I completed and now Rusty has moved SYL to go to another office.

Onto the more pleasant things. It does not matter how many times I see this water, but it still takes your breath away when you see it again for the first time in a while. Bimini has changed… a lot! It is good for the locals I am sure and for that I am glad. You can see the new prosperity everywhere. New docks, new buildings, many new boats (local) on the water, multi million dollar sports fishing boat lots more homes in good condition and freshly painted. There is a huge cargo ship offshore waiting to bring their goods in and I have seen several barges filled with building materials.  A large cruise boat was anchored off shore and large ferries capable of transporting several hundred people were bring people into the new resort.   

Sea Yawl Later!!

When we left Islamorada this morning the plan was to go to the Abacos.  I even posted on Women Who Sail asking for information.  The response was overwhelming.  I got so excited about the wealth of information that I was getting.  I started looking in the guide books and planning our itinerary.  We have friends who live in Ft Lauderdale and have been to the Abacos so we contacted them about the best way to approach Abacos  from Florida.  Long story short that if we go to Abacos and then want to go South it will not be fun sailing south.  I think we have decided to leave Abacos for a time when that is all we want to do.

We are docked at Gilbert’s Resort for the night.  This photo was taken with Rusty’s phone.  It did not transfer well but the sunset here was beautiful.  One of the things that I never tire of are the beautiful sunsets on the water.

Here is a picture of two car’s in Gilbert’s parking lot.  Can you guess which one is our rental?  Hint: our rental cost us $39.00.

We will get errands run tomorrow to K-Mart, West Marine and Publix. We should cross the Gulf Stream early Saturday morning heading to Bimini.  Back to our original plan.

Rusty here:  Yeah.. plans change literally with the weather.  Going SE into prevailing SE winds for hundreds of miles doesn’t make sense.  So we probably won’t go to the Abaco’s early in the trip.  Big decisions huh?  So far we have avoided any really big weather / waves and hope to do so for a while longer.  If we decide to head out of Bimini after a day or two… we might have to “rodeo” a bit.. but I seriously doubt if we choose to do that.  I suspect we will be in Bimini until we get near flat water……..

SYL !!  Rusty