Well, we were halfway there motorsailing (again) and only making 3 kts. in 3-5 ft waves and 24 kts of breeze about to go over a coral head area, when our motor started making a bad noise. David in his infinite wisdom decided that we should turn around and check out the situation where we could actually do something about it. On the way back, we tried the motor again and it seems fine. David will dive the boat tomorrow and check the prop. Another weather window will probably come on Friday. We like leaving on Fridays.
Archive Page 2
New Providence/Nassau, the sleepless nights continue
Published December 10, 2008 Lesson Learned , cruising , sailing 1 CommentWhen you last left the adventurers, they were stuck in Bimini waiting on weather to go south to Gun cay and eventually to Chub cay across the Bahama banks. A lot has transpired since…
Peter, Sam and David in Gun Cay
We made it to Gun cay and anchored in a lovely spot on the west side of the island. The wind was behaving nicely from the East and was calm when we arrived. We got on our snorkeling gear and Sam and Peter went to look for “something to kill”. David donned his gear on for the second time in his life and looked apprehensive before jumping in. He and I swam around the anchor and noted that it was laying on it’s side, hmm. David attempted to set it by hand, no go. David noted that even if our anchor dragged we would end up in the ocean, so we abandoned that task and went exploring. There were numerous rock ledges to explore and the fish were beautiful. David’s face was lit up with excitement! He even thanked me for making him snorkel. Sam and Peter couldn’t find anything to kill, but saw an enormous grouper. We had a lovely meal of ground turkey and rice….then the swells came. I got no sleep that night, it felt like my boat was beating itself to death. We left for Chub Cay in the morning, planning to motorsail across the banks. There was no sail in the motorsail. We motored for 10 hours, argh. We anchored at Russell Beacon light for the night, had pork loin that someone gave us in Bimini and another swelly night, albeit better than the night before. Motoring east in the east breeze, we made it to Chub cay around 1pm. In the dinghy to be towed around by Peter, we explored Mama Rhodes rock. Peter taught us how to kill stuff, two lobsters were his prize. It seemed amazingly easy.
David and Peter getting ready to kill something
Peter killing lobsters
The kill
We anchored, we drug, we left chub cay at 3:30 am, the rest are just details. Poor Peter was left a “Dear John” letter thrown into his cockpit. We motored for a while until dawn, then set sail for New Providence/Nassau. Nassau accepted it’s transients at around 1:30 pm. We have been at Nassau Yacht Haven for 2 days now. Security is tight. Well, not really they just look tough. I am scared for my life and boat. I am sleeping better with the air conditioning on (noise background). Of note, Sam and David bought a three pronged spear thingy to get us fed. David got the outboard fixed yesterday for a mere 200 bucks.
We got all of our “work” done yesterday so today was a play day. The extravagantly beautiful Atlantis on Paradise Island wooed us today. We knew better than to go there, but the shininess of it was unavoidable. The cost ended up being insignificant due to David’s winnings in the casino (I knew I brought him along for something). We had a blast and are back in the boat, David reading, Sam playing xbox and me writing in my blog.
We are hopefully leaving for Allen’s Cay tomorrow and will be out of contact for a couple of days to a week. My mom listed the SPOT address in my last blog as a comment if you are interested.
Lessons learned:
Don’t go to Atlantis without a decent gambler or without buying a “package deal”
Wear earplugs and plug in (to electricity) when you can to get some sleep
Going down the “leap of faith” waterslide does take a leap of faith, very scary, I might have been the oldest mom who went down the slide
Conch shells everywhere!
Well, we are here. We made it to Bimini yesterday at 10:00 am. We left Marathon, FL at 12:45 pm on Friday. Yes, we left again on a Friday (supposed to be bad luck). It may have been bad luck. When we left Marathon the plan was to go further north for a jump on Saturday. We were just basically going out for a sail. About an hour into it we looked at each other and said, “let’s just go”. Chomping at the bit, worried about the upcoming front, and the absolutely great weather made us want to just go. We neglected to put up the dinghy so we slowed down and managed to raise it to the deck. David went to the wheel, attempted to increase speed and said loudly, “we have no throttle”. Sam and I finished tying down the dinghy and went back to figure out what was wrong. We are a sail boat after all, so we put up the sails. I drove while David channeled his inner mechanic. He took a lot of stuff apart, piddled around in the lazarette and said “the throttle cable has sheared off”. Even I know that is bad. Worse than bad. Show stopper. I thought we may want to go back to Marathon and get it fixed, but David said he think he could rig something. We continued on, even with my doubts. He rigged a line and a bungee to the throttle and ran it to the cockpit. Bad ass! We were back in business. I was still a little wary, but after 16 hours of running the engine and successfully making it across the gulf stream, I believed in the fix.
The motor sail across the gulf stream was uneventful. Lots of ships passing too close, but at least it keeps you awake. We did 2 hour shifts, Sam helped keep us awake. It was difficult to sleep with the engine on, but we really wanted to get across the stream as soon as possible, so we left it on. In the morning, we put up the sails, spotted land and got excited. All the guide books/charts came out (we have about 5). Now the tough part, entering the channel. I was driving, David was navigating (GPS not out his hands for 2 seconds) as well as the reins (throttle boy). There ended up being 4 channel markers missing unbeknownst to us. Long story short we bumped a couple of times in the sand (thank goodness, not rock). We now have the colors of the water burned into our memory. Nothing hurt except our pride. We got out quickly and went to the darker water. We finally got in the channel, found the marina, the tide was up so the current was ripping through. I handed over the wheel, but the reins stayed with David too. Uh oh, the lines aren’t ready, run, run. David turned around, dock master yelling “don’t go over there, it’s shallow”. David went in fast, we fumbled getting the lines to the dock master. David went to fend off. We’re done. I got off the boat to tie off lines and got reprimanded (only the captain can get off until we clear customs). David got the paper work to fill and desperately needed a drink. He was fried. Done.
We cleared customs and got cleaned up and went to look around. I talked to the locals and they talked to me. One even offered me drugs. I need to be a bit more discerning, I guess. We ended up staying at the boat that night visiting with a boat guy, Peter. He is a bum like us (I just mean jobless and a wanderer) and needs to get to Nassau before the 17th to pick up his girlfriend and son. We will probably go with him to Chub cay because it might be fun.
We are having a bit of rough weather, it is blowing 20-30 kts and raining. We walked the island today, in the rain. Everything was closed, but we enjoyed the exercise. The weather is going to be rough for the rest of the week. The wait is on to make our next move. No snorkeling today, just too windy and nasty.
Could have been us
That’s it for now. Any questions?
More Cowbell in Bahia Honda
Happy Thanksgiving! We are in Marathon, Fl staying in the Sombrero marina. They are having a cruiser’s pot luck at the local bar and grill 5 slips away. We are bringing pumpkin pies.
We left Key West on Monday morning on a blustery day, wind 10-15 out of the north. Guess which way we were headed, NORTH. It was a choppy beat the whole way. There were approximately 250 crab pots to slalom around. David was lucky enough to snag one! We tacked and were going pretty slow when I looked behind us and saw a crab cage surfing behind us. Since David was driving when it happened we unanimously agreed that he should attempt to free it. He cut the line, but nothing popped up. So he grit his teeth, took off his shirt, donned a snorkel mask and jumped in. After a few shrieks, he dove down, did I mention it was choppy…he surfaced looking a bit freaked out, but managed to free the prop. He was the hero of the day!
We made it to Bahia Honda Key around 3:30 pm. We fiddle farted around with anchoring for 2 hours and finally got our anchor to hold. We only set one anchor since the other boats were doing the same. We enjoyed the view and hit the sack early anticipating a long night with both GPS’ and anchor alarms. We were right, the anchor ended up dragging about 30 ft total in the combined 2-3kt current with the 10 kts wind at around 2 am. David set is repeating alarm on his watch for every 15min. David and I slept (if you would call it that) on the settees, he with his GPS and me with mine. His alarm would go off and he’d say “report”. I would give him the “we’re ok” or “looks like a wind shift” or “oh my God, please hold”. We did that all night, but were able to sleep better after 0300.
The next day, we explored the island, dinghed around and snorkeled. It was a bit cold, but we had a great time. We decided, after hearing the forecast to move the boat to the Southeast side of the key. Mucho better! We enjoyed this beautiful sunset and slept incredibly well. We even saw some fluorescent jellies.
snorkeling view of the beach
Sunset in Bahia Honda
We headed then to Marathon, Florida. We met the people on the boat we took a picture of at sunset, Kim and Bob. Very nice people, drank some beer and listened to live music last night in this very friendly marina. They are making a crossing to the Bahamas in a couple of days also, but are going to the Abacos instead of our plan to go to Gun cay or Cat cay to check in.
That is all for now. We will probably be jumping from here to Bimini, Gun or Cat cays in the next two days. David or I will post the tracking of our new SPOT, either today or tomorrow. Our mom’s bought it for us. They were tired of waiting for us to call.
My Guys
Captain Hook
We went directly to Orlando after dropping off Walter and Beverly at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport. We are trying to do as many cool things as possible in the “happiest place on earth”. Although, when we tried to wake Sam up the second day, it was hard to convince him. We are on a whirlwind tour. Epcot tomorrow and then back to KW. We still need some replacement parts to get in Ft. Lauderdale on the way home. We are pretty much Disney’d out. I miss my boat and am still a little land sick. When I go to bed at night, I feel like I am pitching and rolling and then sleeping on port tack. It has diminished somewhat, but I really didn’t think it would be this irksome for this long. I really don’t think the cosmos last night had anything to do with it either.
Thanks Chris for seeing us off!
Well we made it. It was very, challenging, exciting, grueling, fantastic and rewarding. Walter and Beverly were great. Everyone got along with maybe a couple of disagreements between David and I (which were minimal compared to our usual fights). David masterfully navigated us across the Gulf. He probably got the least amount of sleep due to our hesitancy to do anything major without a discussion including David. The shifts were nicely planned out according to all of the crew. Beverly and I were opposite each other doing 10-2, 2-6, 6-10. The boys were 8-12, 12-4, 4-8. They cool part of this was that we all got time together around 5-6 pm and our strengths were maximized.
Beverly and Walter
Chris Kelley took pics of us when we left Galveston from a plane. Very cool. See above.
Key West was great. I got a henna tattoo of a flying fish.
Beverly chickened out!
Walter helped us learn all of the words to “ A flying fish Sailor”. Sam was the best and remembered all of the words. We sang it quite often and Walter, Beverly and I sang it all night long on Saturday night. David decided to stay with Sam while I let loose. Good call.
We have less than a week. We are adjusting to boat life as well as can be. The bickering is in direct relation to the sleep achieved the previous night. We are sleeping better, therefore we are getting along better. Last night was wild. We looked at the forecast last night and it read “north winds increasing to 20-25 kts at 3 a.m.”. At 2:45 a.m. we were awakened by the north winds howling and our lines screeching like the Nazguls from the Lord of the Rings. Sam (who can sleep through the passing of trains 50 yards away) even entered our cabin and requested earplugs. We didn’t get much sleep last night after 3.
David is off to yet another West Marine/Blue Water/Home Depot run. They are starting to call us by name now and saying stuff like “is that all?”. We recently found a water leak from our transom shower. I was working on cleaning up the diesel spill from the day before and heard a drip, drip, drippity, drip. The flashlight illuminated a stream of water coming from the shaft of the propeller, uh oh. I jumped into the lazerette and found the leak and a rusty rudder post. Not good. Three trips to West Marine, 12 hours and help from Walter we installed the new transom shower. Now our water system has no leaks. Yippee! If you have ever heard a water pump going off intermittently, you will truly appreciate our success.
Beverly and I organized the contents of the boat this weekend. I made the master list that David has been bugging me about for weeks now. list-of-mc-stowage2
Sam is doing grammar now while I write this post. He played his last game last night and lost. He played his heart out and did well. He is a bit banged up. Let us see how these bruises compare to what he gets after the crossing.
Chelsea is having fun at A&M. Not a lot of studying going on, but having fun. We are going to see her this weekend and attend the game. I am bringing the cowbell! I doubt Chelsea will let me stand next to her though. David’s Mom and sister and family are also coming up. It will be a nice farewell.
We should post again prior to leaving. Take care.
We’ve been living on the boat for a week and a day now, although it seems much, much longer. We moved out of the house on Friday the 10th. We went to Renaissance Festival in Plantersville, TX that night with some friends for the weekend. 
We came back exhausted on Sunday night, thankful for the boat berths (good plan). It was incredibly hot for the first three days/nights. We were sleeping in our own pools of sweat. We bought poor Sammy a portable fan and us a wind scoop, which helped some. The cold front hit on Wednesday night and we have been comfy every night since. We are still working out the logistics for when it rains and it is hot. Wednesday night prior to the front we were (correction, I was) dashing around closing hatches at various times. There was one hatch left open due to the wind scoop that David installed and it dumped cold water on David at 0400. It was interesting to hear him screaming like a little girl. David got sick shortly after that and still has a lingering cough. It hasn’t slowed him down much though. Sam played in a football game this weekend and they won! He did very well.
#57 getting ready to block
My last day of work was on Columbus day the 13th. It was uneventful. I am almost done with my stowage plan. We are still working off the list that David posted on his site. New challenges are popping up and trying to distract us from our original plan. We spent two hours trying to figure out the water system yesterday. We ultimately decided that we didn’t need to use the sink in the aft head anyway. I installed the caution tape myself. David put me up the mast yesterday and we got a bunch done. We installed the radar reflector (Mobly), installed the inner forestay, jib halyard pulley thingy and the Windex. I am pretty sore today. While you are up in the air you tend to tense up your entire body. We put the jib on and the boat is looking pretty FINE. (picture here). Sam is continuing school and doing well. Our goal date is November 1st, weather permitting. We have friends that have volunteered to help us during the crossing, Beverly and Walter Caldwell and Andrea Pola. Mike McGagh was planning to go with us, but IKE interfered with those plans. He may do weather checking instead.
MC lookin' cool
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.
Taking a break
I got an email from Mary and Marty on Monday of last week basically saying you know if we all helped, we could knock out the drywall faster. I was excited and honored to say the least. That is how it all started. We ended up having 6 extra hands helping us last Saturday and Marty even came back on Sunday. We finished installing insulation (Brenda and Mary), hanging drywall (David, Marcus, Larry, Marty and Chris), taping and floating (Chris, Marty, Brenda, Mary and I) all whilst drinking rum. It came out pretty good too, if you ask me. We even ended up renting the house for at least 6 months during all of that mess. Whoo hoo! Here are some pictures. I will post the “after” pics later. Thank you all so much!
Brenda and Mary made a good team
Chris the all around guy
Marty and his apprentice
Our new pole yeah!
The crew came by around 8am and were done around 4pm. This was the end result.
We have power!
Ta da!
