Changes Going South

Settling In

2011-06-19T22:01:00.000-04:00

Phil has been back for a week now and has been busy making life more liveable as we live on Changes at Grand River Yacht Club. He's gone to the storage unit and gotten some important items out. We now have the deck umbrella out and clamped down to the deck with new black walnut clamps that he made (can't find the ones we had last fall). Phil has cleaned out the quarterberth and I'm not allowed to junk it up. We have it cleared actually so that when my daughter, Katie, comes to live with us in July, she'll be able sleep there and not have to make her bed every day.

Other projects completed:
*The Bad Boy wifi antenna is working and we can connect to our yacht club new wifi hotspot.
*The dock boxes are organized.
*I have my work clothes in my closet organizer
*He wash the port side of Changes with white vinegar, boat soap & water to get the salt crust off the boat. He'll have to do that on the Starboard side and boy! does it make a difference. It's shiny once again - but also all the scratches from the trip stand out. This was a huge job as he has had to wash it 3 times and rinse and he still has some 30 spots to go over again.
*We have the foredeck cover on and just in time for rain that came. As it wasn't blowing, we were able to have the fore hatch open and air circulation
*The mast frame is down and put away for the next trip.
*I have cleaned the inside of the boat and wash and defrosted the freezer part. Glad to have a clean refrigerator again.

While Phil has been at the boat, I've been working full-time. I've got my first paycheck which is nice to be able to start paying off the credit card.

It hasn't been all work. We enjoy visiting with fellow yacht club members that also live here. We went out to sail today and decided with the NE winds 17kts and building that we would SAIL back to the docks. We peaked at 6.38kts with just the jib #2 out. Yesterday we visited with Phil's Sisters and brother-in law. We had a very nice time seeing them again.

We are planning on sailing over the Erieau, Ontarion Canada for July 4 weekend and meet up with Ken and Jeanne Blythe on S/V Sail Away. They'll drive up to meet us. I wonder what Lisa and Scott are doing on S/V Messenger. Maybe they can meet us too! A Bahamas Trip Reunion!

He's Home

2011-06-10T22:00:00.000-04:00

Friday, June 10
Port Albino to GRYC
Distance Traveled: 125.85nm
Miles to get Home: 2362.73 nm
Total Distance Traveled: 5052.70 nm

Phil and Colin left Port Abino yesterday at 515pm to sail through the night to get home today. It took them a while to get out, round Point Abino and get the main sail set so it was for the first 3 hours once they were on Lake Erie at a course of 248 degrees that the wind was on the nose at 9-11 kts. They were going up 1-3 ft wave slowing them to GPS speed 3.5 - 4.5 kts. ETA was about 730pm on June 10. It wasn't a lot of fun as the sailors can imagine. Then about 10pm during Colin's watch, that the winds clocked to the NE so they were going downwind on a starboard tack. About 1am the wind shifted so Phil jibed the main to port. Colin took the 3am to 6am watch. When Phil came back on watch the wind had increased to 13-15 knots and the boat speed was 6.25 - 6.75 kts. ETA was now was 1:30pm at the entrance to Fairport Harbor. After noon, Phil came on watch again with the same wind, but as it got closer to Fairport Harbor, the wind decreased to 6 kts. They pulled in, took down the main in the harbor and pulled into the dock at 2pm with Welcome Home balloon on the end of the dock. Wouldn't want him to forget which dock to pull into (as if he would). Docking was a little difficult what with the water touching the docks and the current in the river, but Phil prevailed.

Phil put the fenders that he keeps permanently attached to the dock on and did a few other boat chores like connecting the electric line and look for some items that had moved in the winter time. Of course he had to talk to a few people that are already here.

I greeted Phil about 5pm when I got home from work. Suffice it to say that fellow dock members said to take it inside. :)

Phil and I did attend the Potluck and moved some of my clothes back on the boat. There is a lot for us to do to make our home dock our home for the summer. We are glad to be back, but also wishing we were in the Bahamas again too. At this time we are planning on leaving again Fall 2012.

So I would like to get feedback from you, the readers of this blog. Should I wrap it up with one more post and shut down this blog or continue writing about us getting ready for our next trip. I'd like to hear from you.

In Lake Erie - the Home Stretch

2011-06-09T07:11:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, June 8
Wardells to Port Abino
Distance Traveled: 25.28 nm
Miles traveled to get home: 2236.88
Total Distance Traveled: 4926.87

Phil and Colin left Wardells this morning and were on the Niagara River to get to Black Rock Canal and one final lock. On the Niagara River, they had a 2 knot negative current, so it was slow going. I don't have the details of their sail but they arrive before 1pm at Port Abino and caught a mooring ball.

I have to say that Phil has heard a lot of negative comments about Wardell Marina, but he could say enough positive comments about his experience there. I suggested that he post about his experience, he was that happy.

The plan is for them to leave Thursday (today) afternoon and sail all night until they get home tomorrow afternoon. One day than I had hoped they would arrive. Pray for safe travels with the rain that may come. I asked if Phil was planning on coming to the potluck at GRYC and the answer is yes. Hopefulle they'll be able to get back early enough that he can take a nap.

It's hard to believe that this trip is almost over. It's been quite an adventure. Expect 1-2 more posts and that will wrap this adventure up.

End of Erie Canal

2011-06-07T18:39:00.000-04:00

Monday June 6
Lockport, NY
Top of Lock 30
Distance Traveled: 79.95 nm
Miles traveled to get Home: 2193.6 nm
Total distance Traveled: 4883.53 nm

Phil and Colin left Baldwinsville at 535am. After they were gone, Phil decided to call the police to let them know about the jerry jugs of diesel that were stolen. Turns out that this has been a problem lately, so for anyone traveling with jerry jugs on deck, make sure that you buy a cable to tie them down and lock them. They didn't take the jugs that Phil had altered the spout either. Unfortunately, we didn't mark our name or Changes name on the jugs and maybe that would have helped also. Sure hope the police do something to alleviate this problem.

By 230pm when I called, Changes was going 6 kts boat speed vs 5.1 kts GPS speed. Phil fixed supper while they were underway of a pasta sauce mix, chicken, canned green beans, mushrooms and it was gone when they were all done. They continued traveling until about 830pm when they made it to Lockport, which is past their goal of making it to Medina.

Tomorrow they will get to Buffalo and decide where to put up the mast for sailing on Lake Erie.

Tuesday, June 7
Tonanowanda, NY
Wardell's
Distance Traveled: 18 nm
Miles to get Home: 2211.6 nm
Total Distance Traveled: 4901.53 nm

This morning the guys slept in and then waited until heavy rain stopped leaving about 840am as a cat came upto the lock and started going thru. They quickly tossed off the line and went thru the 2 step locks together and then the cat continued on leaving them behind. They made it Wardell's to have the mast raised at 1150am and now the mast is up and everything is tightened down. They will remain at Wardells tonight and have to decide where they are going to stay for the next 2 days. It looks like Friday morning will be the day they leave to sail from Buffalo (or Port Abino) to Grand River Yacht Club in one stretch as the winds will be clocking to the NE.

I for one can't wait for them to get home and welcome Changes back.

Time for me to go to Capps for Chicken Salad.

Upside of Lock 30

2011-06-05T22:23:00.001-04:00

Sunday, June 5
Lock 30
Erie Canal, NY

Distance Traveled: 65.8 nm
Miles to get Home: 2113.65 nm
Total Distance: 4803.58 nm

Phil and Colin left lock 24at 535am. Turns out the the other 3 boats that were also tied up left about 515am so they were way ahead. They had about a 1 knot adverse current most of the day but got to their final location about 630pm

Phil had unhappy news for Louise and I this morning. About 230am Phil heard some noise outside, but because of being woken out of sleep, didn't recognize it for what it was. He went outside and didn't see anything, but this morning found out that 2 full jerry jugs of diesel had been stolen! He didn't notify the Baldwinsville Police as didn't want to be detained, though I did encourage him to call them and let me know so they can keep a closer eye on the docking area at night in the future. Who know if he did this. He has plans when he is close to a hardware store, of buying a cable and locking up the remaining 2 jerry jugs. The people had to get on the port side and walk over to the starboard side where they were tied up. Can you believe this??? They left muddy footprints on the deck too.

Phil made supper of a pasts sauce mix with canned green beans, mushrooms and chicken added and warmed up. They did NOT have leftovers. Louise and I talked to them this evening updating them on the news here and the weather report. Phil is glad to be on the way.

Tomorrow they are planning on leaving between 530am to 6am and going as far as they can for the day. Phil hopes to be in Buffalo, NY by Wednesday. We will keep a close eye on the weather to determine if he needs to raise the mast. So far the wind ranges from WSW to SW 8-15 knots depending on the day, so I tend to think that he'll be raising the mast, but we'll see. Both are working on getting home by next weekend which is great with me.

Today I went to the Sailors Breakfast at GRYC in the morning and those that weren't there missed a great breakfast. This afternoon and evening I worked visiting a couple patients. It's good to be seeing patients and helping people again.

The Erie Canal is OPEN!

2011-06-04T22:50:00.001-04:00

Friday, June 3
Passage to Baldwinsville, NY
Lock 24
Distance Traveled: 20.7 nm
Miles traveled to get Home: 2047.85 nm
Total Distance Traveled: 4737.78 nm

Phil decided to go thru Lock 23, which is a down lock and continue on the Lock 24. He tied up to the wall before the lock, got out one of the folding bikes and rode to the up side of the lock. Who should he find but S/V's Obsession, Dream Weaver and Tessa, who he had met earlier. John and friends offered after going to supper at a nearby restaurant, to ride with Phil on Changes and help him get to the up side of the lock. The lockmaster was kind to let these boats thru if they promised not to continue the 29 miles to Lock 25. It's this section of the canal that has been plagued with high water and resulting strong current. Before the end of the evening, Phil was tided up and connected to blessed electricity. It's also great for him to be with friends as it's been getting pretty boring for him as it's now been 2 weeks that he's been on Changes alone.

We also heard that the last 2 locks , Lock 25 & 26 are now opening on Sunday morning, so now the entire Erie Canal will be open Sunday. Of course can't guarantee for how long, but we both are glad that he'll be coming home.

Colin Mills has been gracious in saying that he'll come over on Saturday, just working on the plans now. They have also been gracious in letting me stay next with them as I'll be working in Ashtabula and Mentor areas for the week.

Me - I worked a half day and then went to the first Friday Potluck of the summer. It's great to see the friends. Dan and Kathy Christian have Abbey Marie in the water and are now living on her. I met our new dock mate, Andrew and saw some of our yacht club friends. I am still finding that I am discombobulated. Even though I have been with Virginia for this time, it's not fun essentially living out of the van. I'm glad to be back at work and starting to make some money, but also wished that I was on Changes taking her back the rest of the way. Just didn't work out this time.

Saturday, June 4
Baldwinsville, NY

Phil make it to the hardward store to get new hose nozzles before the 3-4 hours of light rain started coming down. Colin and Louise are driving over today and made it there by 5pm. I have moved over to their house later in the evening after working this morning and spending time after packing was done, knitting my Mom a pair of socks - green this time. I have one of the heels turne and the heel flap done and working on the 2nd. After this, the hardest part of the sock are finished.

Phil and Colin are planning on leaving with the other boats at 530am tomorrow so they can get as far as possible. For those interested - there are 35 locks on the Erie Canal not including the lock in Troy, NY to get to Waterford and the lock in Buffalo to get to the canal on the western end. Phil hopes that they can get to the end in 4 days. I don't know if he has decided yet where he will have the mast raised. If he has decided he hasn't shared it with me yet. The if he has good weather, which means light to moderated winds that are not from the W or SW, then he'll be able to get home by next weekend. It will be so nice to be able to get things organized for living on the boat.

So what are we going to do this summer about accomodations? We plan to live on Changes this summer and next summer and hope to be able to house sit for someone that is going west or south to warmer temps for the winter. We could stay on the boat as late as October and back on (depending on the spring weather) in early May. So keep us in mind if anyone is interested in that service.

Soon this trip will be completely over and we'll have to decide what to do next. The options are many and at times overwhelming for me. But I'm sure that it will work out in the end.

Phil in the Erie Canal afterall

2011-06-02T22:17:00.001-04:00

Wednesday, June1
Brewerton, NY

I got a call from Phil saying that the winds were going to be too high and on the nose from the west (15-20+) knots for them to go onto Lake Ontario. He called Colin and said to hold coming over until he gives him a call. The winds were so high yesterday, that one of the battens broke on the Farouck. Good thing that he had one more extra one to put in and that's been put away until the winds die down. Of course the locks aren't open and no mention on them opening. He has met a couple that we met originally in Emerald Bay Marina at the Ice Cream Social and was able to have them sign a quilt square.

Thursday, June 2
Brewerton, NY

Today it was cold so Phil spent the day at the Library to keep warm and to be on their internet using their computers. It's still windy today and hopefully will calm down tomorrow. Still no word about the locks opening but with no rain lately and low chance to have it this weekend, then hopefully they will open on Monday. Phil is really bored and ready to be home, as you can imagine.

Me, I'm back to work and will be putting in plenty of time next week. I've been checking the blogs that I have on the side of my page and like to keep track of where people I've met are. Mary from S/V White Seal has her last post of her year of sailing and it's wonderful like usual. I'm sure this is a trip she'll never forget.

Phil sent me some photos that I'm going to include.


Colin on the computer

Changes tied up at Sylvan Beach


Changes tied up at Brewerton, NY

Phil going to move soon

2011-05-31T16:55:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, May 31
Brewerton, NY

I just heard from Phil about upcoming plans for his return. There is no update about them opening Locks 25 & 26 yet. Colin is going to go back to the boat on Thursday and they are going to leave on Thursday afternoon. If the above locks open by then, they will return via Erie Canal. If not, then they'll go up the Oswego Canal to Lake Ontario, raise the mast and then sail this weekend to the Welland Canal. He'll need a third person if anyone wants to volunteer to help. Send me an email at memryqlts@live.com and I'll call Phil or give me or Phil a call. You could go up with Colin or meet them along the way. If the weather cooperates on Lake Erie, they are considering doing an overnight from either Buffalo or Port Colbourne depending on which canal they use to Grand River as it's easy overnight trip.

If everything goes well, then maybe Phil and Changes will be back 2 weekends from now.

Phil still in the Erie Canal

2011-05-30T21:28:00.001-04:00

Wednesday, May 25
Lock 17 to Lock 20
Passage to Sylvan Beach
Distance Traveled: 21.95 nm
Miles to get home: 2007.00 nm
Total Distance Traveled: 4696.93 nm

Phil and Colin Mills left about 630am to continue down the Erie Canal and made it to Sylvan Beach after being convinced to stay when they met up with John and Sherry on S/V Obsession and Jim and Judy on S/V Dream Weaver. The current word in that the locks 23-26 aren't going to open until next Wednesday so Colin is going to leave tomorrow about noon after a friend drives his car there to go home and will come back later when the locks are open.

Since they have a few days of waiting Phil has started sanding the wood on the dinghy in preparing to apply Sickens varnish. By the end of the day he had 1/3 sanded and have a burger at Eddie's Restaurant that we had visited on our way down in the fall.

Thursday May 26 to Saturday, May 28
Phil stay in Sylvan Beach continuing to work on the dinghy and meeting other sailors on boats. He washed his laundry while it rained outside and made bread one day. One of the people he met on the other boats knew someone with a car who visited West Marine and brought back oil. Phil changed oil and so far we've accumulated 880 hrs on the engine on this trip. He's changed the oil 6 times. That probably doesn't sound like enought to you but the first time he used Royal Purple synthetic oil and accumulated 200 hrs before he changed the oil. Since this he's been using Rotella T oil and has changed it every 150 hrs 4 times and at 100 hr the 6th time. He's hoping that he can get home before he has to change the oil again. Phil does not have internet service there so I've been giving him updates on weather and any mariner alerts from the NY State Canal System. Effective May 26 locks 23 & 24 are open. There isn't much in Brewerton, so he plans to stay put for now. On May 27 we learned that the Oswego Canal will open May 29. The winds are going to be from the S at 5-8 kts, perfect for crossing Oneida Lake, so Phil plans on leaving. It's also still raining and tomorrow it's to be sunny. Phil made some bread and gave a loaf to the guy who brought him the engine oil as he can't eat one loaf before it goes stale let alone a 2nd loaf.

Sunday, May 29
Passage to Brewerton, NY just before Lock 23
Distance Traveled: 20.15 nm
Miles traveled to get Home: 2027.15
Total Distance Traveled: 4717.08 nm

Phil woke early and cast off the dock at 601am to cross Oneida Lake. I called about 11am and he had 3 miles left to get to the east end of Oneida Lake. I'm glad the weather has been as predicted so he's not having any problems single handing Changes, just as I expected. Phil filled up the jerry jugs and the tank with diesel buying 27 gals at one time. He also came across M/V Down Time, a couple that we met in the fall on the Erie Canal who are from Cleveland Hts. They had a chance to chat before he left the marina and went back to tie up to the wall just before the RR bridge and before lock 23. See Map. Phil even took a sun shower on the boat. It's been so sunny that the water was too hot. He had filled up the sun shower when he last got water, so wasn't able to add cold water. He survived though.

One story that he told me is that there are kids jumping off the RR bridge about 20'+ above the water with fathers watching. A sheriff came to stop them and one of the fathers gave the sheriff attitude about this, making it into a much bigger deal than it had to be.

Monday, May 30
Memorial Day
Thank you Veterans and their families for your service and sacrifice for our country!!
Brewerton, NY

Phil is still staying put as lock 23 is a down lock and lock 24 is an up lock and more difficult to manage with only one person. Phil and I have been discussing options for getting him and Changes home. Phil plans to check the NY State Canal System web page as he now as a very slow internet connection and see if Lock 25 & 26 will open Wednesday. If there isn't any information, then he'll call Lock 24 operator and ask about when the locks are going to open. If not, he is considering going up the Oswego Canal to Lake Ontario and then going the 200 mi to get to the Welland Canal that will get him to Lake Erie. Please click on Welland Canal to go to a map published by the Canadian Canal Society. He'll need a third person to help get them thru the Welland Canal, but has someone in mind that he has to talk to yet.

M/V Ladyhawk is now directly behind Changes on the wall. We met Dick and his wife in the Erie Canal on our way own in the fall so it's great for Phil to see them again. Another story about the RR Bridge. There has been several kids jumping off the bridge again - about 6 boys and 2 girls have been having a good time this afternoon for 5-6 hours. It's hot there like it's hot here today. When I called Phil around supper time the Sheriff had come to stop the jumping. Hopefully there wasn't yelling like there was yesterday.

So what have I been doing this weekend? I attended my niece, Margaret Malcow wedding to Joe Swetel this past Friday evening at Cleveland Zoo. I had a great time and it was very nice visiting with the rest of my family.


Just Married


Lorraine and Maggie


Sister Robin and niece Heather at Greenhouse

Saturday I spent the day visiting family at a friend's house. Then Sunday I spent the day with my sister Robin, her husband Paul, and oldest daughter Heather at the Cleveland Art Museum. Paul is an middle school art teacher so it was great to get his imput of the art there.

Today after walking in the Metroparks with Virginia, I went to GRYC for the flag raising ceremony. It was good to see friends there and honor our Veterans in the club.

Late evening addendum to post:

I've had a few people asking me how many locks there are on the Erie Canal. There are 35 plus one in Buffalo to get to the Erie Canal. Phill said that he has about 190 miles or 47.5 mi a day since the canal is open to 10pm now to get through the Erie Canal.

He also gave me a follow up to the kids jumping off the RR bridge. There was one group of kids jumping earlier today - didn't get caught by the Sheriff. Then there is the group that he was talking about that the Sheriff caught. After the Sheriff left, another group jump for a few jumps and then a man came a jumped off once and then left. Sounds like to me that this RR bridge is the entertainment in this town. BTW, Phil looked for a no trepassing or no jumping sign and didn't see one. Tomorrow is to be another hot day so I bet more people will be jumping into the water.

Erie Canal Lock 20

2011-05-24T17:21:00.001-04:00

Tuesday, May 24
Oriskany, NY Lock 20
Distance Traveled: 34.33nm
Miles traveled to get home: 1995.05nm
Total Distance Traveled: 4674.98 nm

Phil and Colin left this morning about 645am to get to the first lock about 715am. Just before Lock 17, there was a lot of smoke coming out of the exhaust. The water coming out was warm so Phil took off the exhaust hose and inserted a coat hanger and got something loose so that water that had been a trickle now started coming out like it was suppose to. Other than that, they have had an uneventful day. They plan to get to Lock 23 tomorrow and then will have to wait until that section of the Erie Canal opens.

This morning I started marking some of the 7400+ photos and copying them into a separate folder for making into a slide show of our trip. I have gotten from Ohio down to Hampton, VA. We are looking into buying some software that was recommended to us for doing this. I would like to be able to post this video on You Tube and also make DVD's to hand out to friends.

This afternoon I went to the Fairport storage and found some of my work clothes. There were a few boxes that had gotten went when some water leaked in, but it looks like the rest of things were ok as most of the items were put into tubs. I'm looking forward to seeing friends at Capps tonight for chicken salad.

Changes stuck in Amsterdam, NY

2011-05-23T11:40:00.004-04:00

Friday, May 20
Lock 11 Erie Canal
Amsterday, NY
Distance Traveled: 33.8 nm
Miles traveled to get Home: 1933.22 nm
Total Distance Traveled: 4613.15 nm

The first thing Phil did after I left was empty out the quarterberth and repack and organize it. Then he put other things that were in the salon on my half of the V-berth. I'm sure Phil feels so much better having the salon area totally clear of objects. I wonder if he took a photo? So his first day, Thursday May 19 was kept busy and he ate his left overs from Russo's Grill (a must visit restaurant if you stop over at Lock 11) and other left overs for supper.


Back to Front, Teagan, Riley and Laura in sleep sacks ready for bed


L to R: Riley, Teagan, Lauren Smith 3 mo

Friday, May 20 while I was visiting the triplets and having a great time feeding and holding babies, Phil was back at the boat working on projects like sanding and varnishing the teak hand rails and polishing the stainless on the deck. Bad news is that the Erie Canal between Lock 2 - 15 is closed due to high water from rain. They have added 2 sections to the dam. If I had left one more day and we had traveled on the Erie Canal one more day, then when Colin arrived they could have continued. Drat! There is a lot of debris that is collecting around Changes and the dinghy that Phil has been clearing periodically throughout the day.

Colin Mills arrived before supper and provided a perfect opportunity to once again (for Phil) to visit Russo's Grill. Phil had the lasagna and we both can vouch that it's the best lasagna that we've had at a restaurant. Friday evening and Saturday, for the guys was spent talking about everything that guys talk about.

Saturday, May 21 for me was spent driving home, having lunch with Phil and Terri and then arriving late afternoon at Virginia Hill's home (my sister-in-law) who has kindly offered me to stay until Phil gets back with Changes. It's nice having someone to stay with instead of staying in a suite hotel. But then I found that I had forgotten my bed pillow at the hotel room. I call but Kamir had to wait until the cleaning person came back to ask him. Seems like he didn't bring it to the front desk when he found it so I'll call back tomorrow.

Sunday, May 22

Phil and Colin are still at Lock 11 and the canal is still closed d/t high water but the current is starting to slow down and they taken off one of the sections on the dam, so that they are hopeful to be able to leave tomorrow.

I was on the computer and had a video call with Rob and Susan from S/V Mandate. They live in Albany and are members of the Castleton Boat Club. Turns out that we missed seeing them by one day. They have a cabin close to Lock 11 so will drive up and visit Phil and Colin, which I know they will appreciate and they are getting stir crazy. Phil and I spoke later in the day and they had a great time with Rob and Susan. They have a cabin 11 miles away and the guys were able to get a shower, always a red letter day when living on the boat. No news about whether the canal has opened or not yet.

I spent my day buying 3 pair of jeans a size large than I had last fall (drat that I gained weight instead of loosing this past winter), visiting Kay Herdman and picking up a dress out of storage for Maggie's wedding, then I visited Tracy Chapin and picked up my Pfaff sewing machine and ended my day visiting Phil Waddle and Terri Pogozelski. I am finding that I'm feeling more scattered brained. I guess it's adjusting to being in the "real" world? Driving was something to get used to and the price of gas is out of this world.

Monday, May 23
Lock 17 Erie Canal
Distance Traveled: 27.5 nm
Miles traveled to get Home: 1960.72 nm
Total Distance Traveled: 4640.65 nm

I talked to Phil this morning and the power boater convinced the lock operator to let them go through so they just went thru Lock 12 about 15 min ago. They plan on traveling until 430pm and to get at least past lock 15. The current and debris is less than what we experienced traveling on Wednesday and the water has gone down a foot from what it was yesterday. There wasn't any debris that collected around Changes and the dinghy this morning, so this is all good.

I called the motel I stayed in, and they found my pillow. Now to determine if it's worth it to ask my brother to pick it up and get to Phil once he gets to Rochester area on the Erie Canal.

Today after updating the blog we'll go grocery shopping and I think I'll do some clothes. I think that tomorrow I'll go to Fairport Harbor storage to see if the clothes that I'm looking for are there and get a few other items.

Here are a few photos that I haven't been able to post earlier.


lifting the dinghy off the foredeck into the water


Lighthouse at Esopus Creek

Statue of Liberty

Veteran Statue in Park behind Statue of Liberty


Following a boat with lots of diesel fumes


Phil with M/Y behind us in Lock on Erie Canal


S/V's Obsession, Dream Weaver and Oceanis 350 in locks


Sign at Lock 2 for payment for Erie Canal pass


Coming into lock #4 on Erie Canal

First Day on Erie Canal - Lorraine's Last Day

2011-05-18T22:55:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, May 18
Waterford, NY to Amsterdam, NY
Lock #11

Distance Traveled: 33.8 nm
Miles traveled to get home: 1933.22
Total Distance Traveled: 4613.15nm

We woke this morning about 6am just before the alarm went off to gray skies. It's cool, but I didn't check the temperature. The first lock #E2 is to open at 710am so we started the engine at 702am and pulled away from the docks at 706am. Then John from S/V Obsession yelled to us that the lock wouldn't open until 720am and a lot of water causing current was going to come first - right - we remember now. So we moved away from the lock and waited until the lock opened at 721am. We were joined for the day traveling on the Erie Canal with Obsession, Dream Weaver and a Oceanis 350 owned by a man from Montreal. We quickly (well as quickly as you can go thru locks) went through the first 6 step locks and then I helmed the boat until Phil took over after Lock 7 at 1115am. We've had rain on and off through the early afternoon and saw glimpses of the sun a couple times. One time we even saw blue sky - or maybe I imagined it. Late morning I posted on the Blog and then after fixing lunch of sandwiches and a fresh pear, I took the helm again.

We have once again gotten our system down in the locks. Phil is at the helm and I get the line wrapped around one of the pipe or cable for him at the stern and then move forward to catch one of the lines. I can't find the extra latex gloves that we had from the fall trip, so I used the rubber latex gloves I wear when washing dishes. Today we were mostly on the Mohawk River and at no place was the water skinny and less than 12 feet even at lock E6 and lock 7. In fact it was deeper than when we came through in the fall and the dams have plenty of water flowing over them unlike how it was in the fall. There is a lot of wood debris in the water. One of the lock, we think it was lock 9, had logs and debris on both sides of the lock. We had to go slowly through it and the logs were all around us. It's been pretty chilly today and having some hot tea was welcomed. By 430pm we went through Lock 11 - our destination and we tied up along with many other boats along the wall at Guy Park by 445pm. I called Enterprise and lucky for me, there was a local guy that knew where I was to come pick me up. Then Charlie took me to Enterprise and I was able to get a Ford Explorer at the price of $40/day -as I had made an online reservation through AAA. That's great as I'll be able to take as much as I need to off the boat. I stopped at Aldi's on the way back and with Phil on the phone, made selections so he will be provisioned for Colin's visit. There was a JoAnn Fabric store on the corner of where I needed to turn, so I stopped by and picked out some new knitting needles so replace the bamboo ones that I have been using. They are not slippery enough for this project.

Once I returned, we went to Russo Greill for supper, joining John and Sherry on S/V Obsession and Jim and Judy from Dream Weaver. The guys each made their boats and they're docked in Sandusky at Sandusky Harbor Marina. Sherry is an nurse and Judy is a retired teacher. They have know each other for 21 years and are really great people. I hope that they stop by Grand River Yacht Club on their way back home.

After supper, we went to a liquor store and then we all piled into the Ford Explorer and went to the Dollar Store. After we returned we got items from under the V-berth and we started loading up the car. Phil is thrilled to have my stuff off the boat - he doesn't know what to do with his feet under the table he has so much room. :) Tomorrow I'll put my last minute things in the car, help him move Changes down the dock to where the electricity is and then leave. My TomTom GPS says it will take 3hr 20 min to get to my hotel. I'll take a shower and then go over to Glenn and Pat's home.

I have mixed feelings about leaving. Coming down, the Erie Canal was one of the high lights of the trip and I won't be able to do it this time. I was feeling sad about that but also looking forward to see Lauren, Riley and Teagan. Tonight is my last night on the boat for this trip. I'm glad it ended with a nice meal with great people.
Phil has agreed to continue the SPOT OK messages and I left him a list of questions that I was going to ask when I called so that hopefully, I can continue writing in the blog about the rest of the trip home.

I look forward to seeing friends and family once I get home and will look forward to Phil's return as soon as Locks 23 thru 26 open. I check the NY State Canal web site and those areas are still closed due to high water. Stop raining all ready!

New York

2011-05-18T13:49:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry that it's taken so long for me to post. I have been a knitting fiend so that I can finish the last of the 3 baby blankets to take with me when I visit Glenn and Pat in Rochester.

Thursday, May 12
Forked River to New York City
Distance Traveled: 63.29nm
Miles Traveled to get Home: 1751.60
Total Distance Traveled: 4431.53

This morning we listened to the weather forecast - Winds N 10-15 decreasing to 5 kts and clocking to SE in the afternoon with 3-5 feet waves. So we will leave a little bit later than our normal and give me time to prepare for the passage. I made sandwiches, heated water for the thermos and we raised anchor at 748am. It was cloudy to the East but sunny with clear skies to the West. Hope that sun comes our way. Wind is 5 kts from the North - 6 degrees. We entered the inlet to the ocean and it's much better than yesterday - the wave are half as tall. Great! There are a couple fishing boats ahead of us - which there weren't yesterday so that's encouraging also. By 812am we have exited the inlet and changed course to 60 degrees - the winds are 7-8 kts at 73 degree to port wind angle. We let the head sail out and are going GPS 5.4 - 5.6 kts and boat 6 kts.    The wind started clocking sooner than we expected to the NE so we roll in the head sail. I take my watch at 10am and by 1015am we let out the head sail out the size of #4 sail as the winds are 4-6 kts but at 85 - 90 degree wind angle to starboard. It's hard to keep the sail full as we are going over the 4-6' swells. The water has coarse wind ripples. By noon on Phil's watch the wind clocks further to 120 degrees to SB. I took a nap. When it's my watch again, the wind is building to 15-17 kts by 330pm and we are getting into the lower NY Harbor. The Ship Stena Poseidon is at anchor and we pass on her stern. Since Phil's noon watch, we have had a positive current along the shore which has helped up to make good time. By 4pm we have GPS speed 6to 9 kts on waves and boat 6.6 kts. We jibe the head sail to SB tack and go under the I-278 bridge. There are many ships at anchor in NY Harbor and it's not too long that we round the corner and see the Statue of Liberty.    We continue motoring to the Statue of Liberty as we are anchoring behind her in the Park. By 602am the anchor is set and I start making supper of Stroganoff pasta mix with canned beef and gravy, green beans and dehydrated mushrooms added. After supper, I continue knitting the baby blanket and Phil reads. We're in bed by 930pm as it's been a long day.

Friday, May 13
NYC to Pollipe Island, Hudson River, NY
Distance Traveled: 62.03 nm
Miles traveled to get home: 1813.63
Total Distance Traveled: 4493.56

I have the alarm set at 5am and we raise anchor at 520am going out the Channel by the Statue of Liberty. The winds is from 310 degrees at 4 kts. NYC Harbor is flat. We passed Ellis Island at 543am and are in the Hudson River by 6am. By 640am we pass our favorite (note the sarcasm here) Marina the W79 St. Boat Basin. They have 14 boats on the mooring balls, but they have about twice that number of mooring balls open. Their mooring field is so long that it took us 10 min to traverse it. While on my watch we pass the Tappan Zee Bridge and Yonkers, NY. Spring is here also - with the dogwood blooming and the newer leaves on the trees. That's what has been great coming back north - following spring up the coast. We get to see the Azaleas and dogwoods and the new green leaves from South Carolina up the coast to New York. We had hoped to time our leaving to catch the incoming tide current, but guessed wrong - at 10am the GPS speed was 4.6 vs Boat of 5.8. At 215pm the boat speed was 3.9 kt and boat was about 5.5.   We passed the Bear Mountain Bridge at 130pm and finally by 152pm the wind increased to 10-11kts so I rolled out the head sail so give us a little boost.

The mountains along this section of the Hudson River are beautiful and the water is deep - saw up to 110ft under the keel. We haven't seen many boats of the river this trip and just a few tugs with barges. We drop anchor at 408pm with 3' under the keel and as it's low tide now, we should be ok thru the night.

We get on the computer and have learned that the Erie Canal is opening at Waterford, NY tomorrow May 14. Phil calls Colin Mills and leaves a message hoping that he'll be able to come out earlier than expected to help bring Changes back to Ohio. I'm going to have to leave the boat early to visit my brother Glenn and his family (he's the one with the triplet girls) and then get home for my Neice's wedding May 25. It's back to work for me on June 1.

Saturday, May 14
Pollepi Island to Esopus Creek, NY
Distance Traveled: 36.70 nm
Miles traveled to get Home: 1850.33 nm
Total Distance Traveled: 4530.26 nm

We have about 69 nm to go to get to Castleton on Hudson, NY and the Castleton Boat Club where we will take the mast off the boat. What with the current from the tides, Phil thinks that if we leave about 30 min later, we will catch the current from the tide so we woke at 530am am to a gray day! Winds are 8kts from the SE and we have 4 feet of water under our keel . We raise anchor at 607am. The anchor was really set because the bow really went down under the strain of the windlass pulling the anchor out of the mud. Once we are in the Hudson River, we have to be careful to watch the debris. There are floating logs and sticks and we hit 2 objects at 743am. There are a few more power boats on the river today and more fisherman. I remember the limestone crusher that we passed on our way south and before too long we are passing through Poughkeepsie, NY.   Unfortunately, we don't get the positive current that we were looking for, bu we plug away and by 1220pm we come to the lighthouse at Esopus Creek. Down the channel we go at high tide and past the only marina. We have a hard time getting the anchor to set. I lower the anchor - add more and more chain - bounce across the bottom the anchor goes. We try again, with the same result. We give it one more try and this time Phil doesn't try to go in reverse to "set" the anchor and we call it good enough at 1258pm. Phil checks his log book and he finds that last time we were here, that the anchor dragged the first time too. We have decided that even though Skipper Bob states this is the best protected anchorage on the Hudson (I'm sure that part is true), that next trip south we are not going to come here. There really isn't a lot of room and we don't like having to worry about the anchor. It's also deep water here - between 15-20 ft so we have to have out almost all the chain for the scope - but not a lot of room to swing. There isn't much wind so we'll be fine tonight.

We decided not to go to shore - so I work on the baby blanket as I want to have 3 done when I visit my brother. I make supper of dehydrated corn and carrots, sliced potatoes and warm up the already cooked chicken breasts.

Since we have been motoring all day, I don't have to worry about electricity, so I watch the movie "Dave" with Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver and then add the captions to the photos I have recently imported to my laptop. I am really missing some of the friends I made in the Bahamas and am not fun to live with for Phil. I'm sad, tired of the grind and want some social interaction. I guess it's part of coming back home and the weather doesn't help.    What has been a life saver with these cold temps is using the propane camper lantern with the mantels. We have been able to use it and be very comfortable inside the boat. I'm so glad that Phil bought it!

Sunday, May 15
Esopus Creek to Castleton Boat Club
Distance Traveled: 33.99 nm
Miles traveled to get Home: 1884.32
Total Distance Traveled: 4564.25 nm

We start the engine at 610am and raise anchor at 614am with light rain falling. By 626am we are out of the channel and in the Hudson River with winds 5.5 kts from 180 degrees and our course is 20 degrees magnetic. GPS speed is 3.9 kts and boat is 5.75 kts. We have not timed our leaving correctly with the current, but we will plug away. The clouds are really low and are covering the tops of the low mountains along the Hudson River. By 8am our GPS speed is starting to increase so by 9am we make the GPS 5 kts mark. We pass the Athens Lighthouse and Hudson City so by 1225pm we dock at Castleton Boat Club with drizzle falling. On the computer radar - the rain was to have stopped but no one told the rain to stop coming down! The Boat Club is having their annual Fish Derby - but we have warmed up spaghetti for lunch. We will be staying here 2 nights waiting for Phil's friend Chet to come on Tuesday with the frame for our mast and assistance in stepping the mast. I finish the last baby blanket and take advantage of the clubs free good wireless internet connection going to You Tube and watching how to knit the Continental Way. I'll start a baby sweater and will use this new way to knit to practice. I also check out the Knit Picks videos before I start. How nice to be able to watch videos on the internet! While I knit, Phil watches the videos on cars breaking the speed records at the Bonneville salt flats in Nevada (hope I have the right).

It continues to rain/drizzle/ being gray for the rest of the day. I make steak, baked sweet potatoes and carrots with peas for supper and having electricity, we are running our electric heater. Isn't warmth wonderful??

Monday, May 15
Castleton Boat Club

Having no where to go, we sleep in until 745am this morning. Now for most of you, that may not seems like sleeping in, but if you have been following my blog, then you know that it IS sleeping in compared with getting up at 5 to 530am every travel day. I fix eggs and toast for breakfast. I have finally made the perfect eggs over easy for Phil with yoke intact.

Today is the day to get things ready for stepping the mast. First we put the dinghy in the water at 945am. Then the head sail is off the forestay at 952am and rolled up by 10am. By 1003am the mail sail is uncovered and off the mast/boom by 10008am. Rain has started at 1013am and we have the mail sail rolled up by 1013am. We have become a well oiled team with the boat chores.

With that done, we stay inside the boat with the electric heater on and talk to Virginia about our plans for me coming home. I am taking up her kind offer to stay with her until Phil gets back with Changes. In between rain showers, I gather up the laundry and go to the Laundromat that is very close by. Just across the high speed rail road tracks (the train comes by very regularly - at least twice a hour or more during rush hour)and right 20 feet. I meet Judy on S/V Dream Weaver who is at the dock behind us. While I'm waiting for the clothes to wash and dry, I continue practicing Continental knitting. I'm making good progress and if I can just get up some speed, I'll be faster than the "throw" method I've been using for years and years. They are going to step their mast after S/V Obsession is done and then travel together to Waterford, NY today. By 130pm the clothes are done and I'm back at Changes. We have sandwiches for lunch.

Well I'm at the next step in the sweater and realize that I forgot to put in the 2nd buttonhole an inch ago in the sweater. Darn - I have to rip out. Well I'll try the method I watched on the video - not working so well but I am not giving up yet. We move Changes about 530pm to the dock in front of the crane so that we're first in line to take care of our mast as instructed by the CBC attendant. The current was pretty strong and BAM - the crane hits the top of the mast as we pull into the dock. Nothing is broken and we tie up making sure the top of the mast is away from the crane.

We have cabbage, sliced potatoes and pork tenderloin tips for supper. Also break out Beverly Love's applesauce that she gave us - delicious! Thanks Beverly.

Once supper is done, I'm back to the ripping out and Phil is reading while the electric heater is once again running. The rain is still coming down on and off. I touch base with my sister-in-law Pat. No she didn't know I was coming Thursday but it's great. The babies are doing well and keeping them busy. I also touch base with Virginia and update here that it will be Saturday that I am back in Ohio. Hard to believe that it's so soon!

Tuesday, May 16
Castleton Boat Club

Today is the big day to step the mast. We woke at 615am without the alarm clock. Today I'm cleaning inside the boat so that it's reasonable clean when Colin arrives on Friday. The bath, sole and galley is cleaned well and I'm done by 930am. While I was cleaning and before it started to rain, Phil goes to the local convenient store to get eggs, milk and bread. Chet arrives at 940am - early but without Carol who is sick at home. We hope that she feels better soon. We get right to work and have the mast off and on the cradle tied down by 1137am. Great time and we were lucky to not have it rain and no power boats passing by the upset things with their wake. We walk to lunch as the rain starts coming down at the Village Inn and Bar. A warm lunch is wonderful and conversation and visiting with Chet is just as great. Talk of the Bahamas and the people that we met and are missing makes me a little teary. We met such great people that we had a lot in common with. Saying our good byes and thanks to Chet, back to the boat, we start the engine at 134pm and cast off from the dock at 138pm. Phil takes the first watch and we have a 0.2kt positive current. I heat up water for the thermos, Call Waterford Canal Center and they have room at the docks at this time (there are no reservations), then reserve a Enterprise rental car in Amsterday, NY. Getting a hotel room at a reasonable price is more difficult. I find out that 2 colleges are having graduation ceremonies this weekend.   Glenn's home is too crowded with baby things, so I finally get a hotel room close to the NY Thru Way in Henrietta, NY at Red Carpet Inn. By 420pm we are coming up to Troy Lock. Boy is there a lot of water coming over the dam. Last fall there was barely any water coming over and there is plenty now. We are through the lock at 445pm and coming into dock in Waterford at 523pm. Joy oh Joy - S/V Messenger and Georgia E who we met in the Bahamas is there!! We talked and decided to got to Ron & Pauls for dessert after separate suppers on the boat. Then we went to visit s/V Dream Weaver whom we met at CBC. We were invited aboard for cabbage, ham and potatoe soup. - Yes we'd love some and Judy was glad that she didn't have to put it in the fridge. They are leaving tomorrow for Amsterdam., NY. There was lots of discussion amongst the boaters about whether to go our to wait it out in Waterford. We have decided to continue with our plan of leaving tomorrow and now will have a couple other boats to travel with.

We had a great time having dessert with the Marr family from Messenger. Phil and I had strawberry Rhubarb pie with ice cream. It's so good to talk with them and we have committed to seeiing them again in the future as they live close to Port Dover in Canada. They have even been to Grand River in the past so hope to be able to offer them guest dockage in the future.

Stuck in New Jersey

2011-05-11T18:42:00.000-04:00

Monday, May 9
Forked River, NJ

We are looking forward to spending the day with our friends Jim and Linda Evans, whom we met in Georgetown, Bahamas. They said to arrive anytime, so we slept in but arrive there at their home in our dinghy at 850am. I took a quick shower inside. They have an outside shower and Jim was saying that he takes showers there NOW. His he kidding!! To me it's too cold to take outside. So Linda said it's ok to take inside which I did. Then Linda and I walked around the neighborhood joining up some other neighborhood ladies that regularly walk. It was good exercise much needed by me. I notice that my legs definitely need more exercise that they just don't get on the boat. While we were gon3, Phil and Jim got the diesel jerry jugs filled and also got propane. Linda and I also went to Home Depot to look at tiles for me to use as a baking stone while Phil and Jim rode bikes and visited a neighbor that was working on the head on their engine in S/V Slow N EZ. We left empty handed from Home Depot but then I got 2 new pair of over-the-glasses sunglasses at Walmart. I finally lost my last pair so now I'm all set.

After Linda and I returned, Phil went back to the boat and replaced one of the zincs on the engine under the stairs. Unfortunately he found oil and water in the bilge under the engine. The Oil fil cap had come off - why is the mystery. When the Coast Guard had stopped us they checked in the engine compartment and all was clean at that time. So as you can imagine, it took Phil a while to get back. The wind direction had also changed direction so Changes was up against a 55gal drum size No Wake Buoy, which scratched up her finish. Taking in 10ft of anchor chain helped that situation.

We had an very enjoyable time visiting until Jim and Linda had to go to a previous evening event. Phil and I stayed at their house to watch TV - yes TV! and have a pizza for supper. We returned while it was still light outside. It was nice to spend a day off the boat.

Tuesday, May 10
Forked River, NJ
Passsage across the Barneget Bay for Staging
Distance Traveled: 7.92 nm
Miles to get Home: 1688.31
Total Distance Traveled: 4356.01 nm

We have decided to visit with Jim and Linda earlier today and then go to the other side of Barnegat Bay to stage leaving tomorrow morning to go north. The wind is to increase later today and then die down again. Being that we didn't have to travel, we again slept in. It was also cold in the morning so it was difficult to get out of our warm bed under the quilts. But we prevailed and arrive at the Evans home at 930am. Phil filled the water jugs while Jim finished a project and Linda and I talked.

I had made some phone calls to local tile stores w/o finding the clay tiles I wanted, we decided to go to Home Depot and see what tile I can find for my baking stone. I did buy a ceramic 8" x 12" stone for $1.22 including tax so will see how that works. Then we went to Walmart for groceries, jeans for Phil and a propane mantel lantern to use inside the boat for heat and light. (we will be sure to have good ventilation while using and not when we are sleeping) That done we visited Harvest Buffet for a Chinese all you can eat meal. The food was delicious and we all ate too much (especially me). No cooking supper tonight for me!

We also stopped at a local quilting fabric store and I was able to find another 4 pieces of fabric to add to the Bahamian Quilt that I'm making for Katie and myself. They have lots of Batik and nautical fabric available being so close to the ocean.

By 3pm we had said our goodbyes to our very gracious hosts. We had a WONDERFUL time visiting, but reality raises it's head and time to move on. We took the dingy back to Changes and managed to load everything onto the boat despite the 2 foot choppy waves. By 320pm we had started to engine for what we thought would be an hour trip to anchor close to Barneget Lighthouse but which turned out to take 1 hour and 45 min. We going against the tide and going upwind most of the trip limiting out speed to about 4 - 4.4kts and then up to 5kts when we got the head sail up. Going thru the marks was a lot easier this time as Phil could follow out track from coming in. We anchored at 530pm just east of the channel N39 45.38' W74 06.862'. Then we took off the 8hp engine and put the dinghy on the foredeck in preparation for going out on the ocean tomorrow. This was all done by 615pm. Not bad timing. I spent the rest of the evening finishing up the 2nd baby afghan and starting the 3rd while Phil red.

Wednesday, May 11
Barneget Bay to Barneget Bay - What??
Distance Traveled: 12.23 nm
Miles to get home: Don't think it counts as we really didn't get anywhere
Total Distance Traveled: 4368.24

We woke this morning at 5am and Phil noticed immediately that we were aground. The wind was blowing from the north and we had moved into the shallows. We both got dressed in multiple layers and started the engine at 515am. This time we had to move forwards to get off the shallow area instead of reverse. But finally at 524am we were off and moving into the channel. By 537pm I felt the swells that indicated we were in the channel. I looked out and saw lot of waves like a washing machine at the end of the Channel, but Phil didn't want to turn around to listen weather - so off we went into our adventure. The waves were 6-8ft tall, so quickly I got into the cockpit to help lessen the almost immediate sea sickness. The tide was going out and the waves were coming from the NE. Phil thought that the steep waves would lessen as we got into deeper water so we continued. At 551pm we changed course to 60 degrees on the compass so we are going upwind and continued plugging on. We put out the head sail and have our course at 40 degree so that we can keep the head sail full to try to steady us. At this point I'm very unhappy - as hadn't been able to prepare the salon for passage and also make ahead food for the weather like this. We discussed turning around - didn't so continued for a while - the wind is increasing so at 627am we turn around and head back with the wind 14-15 kts at a 120 degree wind angle. Now it's much better going downwind. By 651am we are in the channel and what fun (NOT). We are going down the steep rollers that may have been 10 ft high pushing us into the shallow area of the channel. The boat was rolling back and forth 45 degrees as we go up and then down the waves that are coming towards our starboard quarter. Phil did a great job at the helm and as soon as we were behind the breakwall at 712am we were safe. I had my life jacket on. Going into the channel, we were now going against the tide and moving between 1.9 to 2.5 kts. Do we want to do this again - NO. By 740am we have anchored this time at the end of the channel in plenty of deep water. Even so the winds are N 15 kts.

By this time it is colder in the cabin (64F vs 66F) than it was when we woke up. Though we have concerns about using the propane mantel lantern inside, we use it to heat us up having the head hatch open and also the companionway hatch open a few inches for good ventilation. I make eggs and toast for breakfast then we spend the day knitting, reading, taking naps (me a long one from the Marezine I took). I fix cracker crumb chicken, instant potatoes and fresh broccoli for lunch and we had cheese, crackers and fruit for supper.

Tomorrow the plan is to try again starting a little later in the morning. We will go in the channel of the inlet and it the waves look like they did today, we will turn around. All day today the Coast Guard on VHF radio Channel 16 was announching about how a fishing boat, The Atlantic Traveler, was capsized in Manasquan Inlet which occurred about the same time that we were on the Ocean and now the inlet is closed to boats until further notice. I heard early in the day about a man in the water, so I hope that he was recovered. This inlet was to have been our back up exit out of the ocean if we had continued on, so we are doubly glad that we returned. I would say this is the worse waves and situation that we have encountered for this trip.

Chesapeake Bay to Cape May, NJ

2011-05-08T08:21:00.000-04:00

Sunday, May 1

Passage Deltaville, VA to Solomons Island, MD

Distance Traveled: 59.74.nm

Miles to get Home: 1439.89nm

Total Distance Traveled: 4107.52nm

Today we are going to Solomons Island, MD to visit April Majni-Holko and get mail! We raised anchor at 627am and brought up hugs gobs of mud on the anchor chain and the anchor. Yuk! There was so much mud I could hear the strain on the anchor windlass motor, but we finally got the anchor up. The water was glassy with just some wind ripples. As we left, I saw the M/V Side by Side, whom we had met in Hampton, VA. It took us about 6 min to navigate through the channel, and we didn’t hit once. Good for Phil! By 8am the wind was from 210 degrees (SW) at 2 kts and 170 to port wind angle. The water continued to be glassy so we were just motoring along. By my watch, the wind started to clock and was now coming from 250 degrees and up to 5 kts. By 9am we rolled out the head sail with winds up to 7 kts. Motor sailing lasted until noon as the wind dropped again. We tried the head sail again mid afternoon, but that lasted about 15 min as the wind just wasn’t strong enough to keep the sail full especially with the downwind wind angle.

We received a call from Jim Evans from S/V Winsome. It was good to hear from him and get information about where to anchor close to them in NJ.

By 43pm we entered the channel into Solomons Island and were anchored by 452pm close to the dinghy dock for the Holiday Inn. We’re close enough that Phil and I can paddle the dinghy to the dock instead of having to take the time to put the 8hp engine on. We also saw M/V Side by Side in the same anchorage and call Bente on the cell phone. We were invited to their boat for wine. But first I finished making taco soup, which was good as it’s been a cool day. We got to Side by Side by 745pm and had a great time catching up on our adventures. They had spent the winter in Charleston, SC and are planning on spending the summer close to Washington DC on the Potomac.

Tuesday, May 2

Solomons Islands, MD

I spent the morning downloading updates for the computer, which I’ve neglected for a long time, but since we start a new month of data tomorrow, my as well use up the GB’s that we have today. We had some more taco soup for lunch and then met April Majni-Hoko about 1pm. First we visited her S/V Susanne. Susanne is a Spray reproduction built of steel. She was built by the previous owner who took good care of her, but couldn’t keep her any more. Now Kevin and April are working on renovating the inside. It’s 40’ long with a 14’ beam. Boy can they have the guests on the stern deck! What they’ve done looks great and we can’t wait to see it all finished. They want to start cruising fall of 20112. Then we went down to the Solomon Pier and had Orange Crushes, but these were the adult beverages. Then we went to the grocery store, back to the boat to put them away and pick up our things, including the laundry. April was kind enough to offer to let us use her washer and dryer while we had supper over at her house and I’m not one to say no to an offer like that! We had a terrific supper and then got back to the boat about 11pm. Way past our boater’s midnight but had a wonderful afternoon and evening.

Tuesday, May 3

To Annapolis, MD

Distance Traveled: 50.97 nm

Miles to get Home: 1490.86 nm

Total Distance Traveled: 4158.49 nm

We got started at 631am as this was to be the last day the winds are from the south and we want to get as far north in the Chesapeake Bay as we can before the NW winds come. When we started the winds were 8kts, 9degree wind angle from 200 degrees (SSW) with Blue skies. It was warm feeling like it was in the upper 60’s with just a light dew. As we passed Zahnisers, we saw S/V Bad Boy and Jubilee, who we had seen in Georgetown. By 706am we had passed Drum Point and let the head sail out reefed as the wind was between 15-19 kts at 131 degree angle to starboard coming from 230 – 235 degrees.. By 828am when I came on watch, the wind was still 16-17 kts, about the same wind angle and Phil put the barberhaul on and no reefs. The bay had a 1 ft chop with some white caps. It was so calm, that Phil put the spinnaker pole on the jib about 11am.

As we get close to Annapolis, we see 8 ships empty at anchor within a 1 nm area south of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Pretty amazing to see. (insert photos) We came into Annapolis Harbor on my watch and then Phil took the helm once we were close to the mooring balls. We got some gas and water and then picked up mooring ball #8, which was close enough to the dinghy dock that we could paddle and not go through putting the 8hp engine on the dingy. As the afternoon progressed, there were more boats that came in and picked up mooring balls. Once was S/V Thistledown whom we met in Solomons Island and the other was S/V Horizon who we met at Lee Stocking Island in the Bahamas.

We had left over clam, asparagus linguini and then later in the evening chatted with Grant Edwards. We’re so out of it regarding what’s going on back home and forgot that it was Tuesdays at Capps Restaurant in Leroy. We were tired, so went to bed at 930pm.

Wednesday, May 4

Annapolis

Early to bed and early to rise is the saying, and for us that was true. We woke at 6am even though we weren’t traveling today, but as it was cold we stayed in bed for a while until we got up the nerve to get out in the cold. The AT was 52 and our cabin temp was 66 with rain coming down. Even though the winds were NW at 9kts, it was calm in the mooring field. We didn’t do much in the morning. I’ve been working diligently on finished up Phil’s socks so I can get on another project. Sue Brannan called and let us know that her favorite singer, Brian Roberts from Key West, was here in Annapolis. She was kind enough to check it out and told us that he was playing at the Rams Head Tavern and worth the walk to get there. I made lobster salad from the last of the cooked Bahamian lobster tail for sandwiches and then we paddled to shore for showers and then walked to check out how far Rams Head Tavern was. It turned out close enough for us to come back to later in the evening. On our way back, we visited the Annapolis Museum and then watched the crew take up the square sail on the yard on the S/V Pride of Baltimore. It was interesting to see 5 crew up high standing on a line folding the sail. After we were back on the boat, I continued to knit while Phil read until it was time to leave again.

I'm in withdrawal - from not seeing the friends that we made on our trip. I really miss talking to ladies that I have a lot in common with and realize that there won't be many at home either. Cleveland isn't really the meca of people cruising to the Bahamas and the Bahamas are just so different than the States. I've been feeling sad

615pm we are in the dingy paddling to shore and then walked to the tavern. It was a little confusing at first at the Rams Head Tavern as Brian Roberts was to play on the patio, and we asked and at first sat on the patio, but the 10 min before he was to start – no Brian Roberts. We asked our waiter and he’s in the Down Bar (the bar that is literally downstairs), so we go there and get the last table. I say Hi to him before the start of the show and introduce myself letting him know that Sue and Jack from Marathon say Hi. He recognized them and then we proceeded to listen to a great show. He’s very personable, tells some stories and plays really good music and a loudness you can hear and still talk. Amazing! We had nachos and stayed until 9pm and then walked home and went to bed.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Annapolis – We stay another day

The alarm went off at 5am – no sleeping in here. Phil got up and got dressed, listened to the weather as we could hear the wind outside. The forecast is worse than predicted so I stayed in bed and Phil joined me so that we could sleep in – and we did until 830am. Really unheard of for us but the cabin temp was 57F. It’s much warmer in bed. Phil did get up to make coffee and the cabin temp went up to a whopping 62F. At least it’s sunny outside and it will eventually warm up.

We didn’t do much for the day not even getting off the boat. Phil put conductive grease on the connections for the depth sounder. We’ve been having on and off periods where we get dashes or its not reading the correct depth. Think it’s from corrosion from the salt water even though it’s in the locker behind the port settee cushions. I continue to knit and Phil reads. The Harbormaster comes up alongside us and we pay for another day. I fix Oriental Pork and rice for supper and we go to bed at 930pm as we are leaving tomorrow to go north and see how far we can get.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Passage to Salem, NJ

Distance traveled: 66.93 nm

Miles to get Home: 1557.79 nm

Total Distance traveled: 4225.42 nm

We woke at 5am to cabin temp of 57F. Making good time, Phil starts the engine at 537am and 2 min later we release the mooring ball. There are still 6 ships at anchor. By 653am we are north of the Chesapeake bridge with the winds from 235 degrees (SW) at 7 kts with 155 degree wind angle to port. GPS is 6.6 Boat speed is 5.6 so it’s nice that we were able to time it to get a positive current. It started waning by 11am and then started to pick up again around 1pm when we passed Harbor North Marine at the top of the bay the GPS speed was 7.3 and boat speed with 6.7. By 130pm we passed the last marks for the Chesapeake Bay and the marks for the C&D canal started. Winds are 15-17 kts with gusts to 21kts. We had passed the Saffafras River, which is where Phil thought we would end up for the day, so we’re making good time.

Skipper Bob says to make the bridge at Chesapeake City, MD 1 hour before high tide at Riddey Point (where the C&D canal ends at the Delaware River). We are 50 min behind that mark so feel like we’re doing good. We have been doing our typical 2 hours watches and so at 3pm Phil’s watch starts and the winds are 4 kt from variable direction anywhere from S to W but the winds had been variable too. GPS speed is 4.9 Boat is 5.52. By 415pm we exit the C&D Canal and enter the Delaware river. Our new wind angle is 58 degrees to port, the waves are 2ft with white caps and we’re taking spray into the cockpit. So much for continuing out trip in the Delaware river and we can’t anchor behind the breakwall. We decide to go into the Salem River about 1.5 nm south on the canal. Shortly after we enter the channel at 505pm we get some protection from the waves and encounter a 3kts negative current as the tide is going out. We go is an oxbow and anchor at 525pm with the current still going by.

About 6pm we hear some noises from the anchor chain. Changes is sideways to the current and the anchor chain is tight against the hull scratching the paint. Phil tries letting out more chain – no difference. He starts the engine and tries going in reverse –nothing – then forward – the chain is tightening – STOP. He does. It looks like the anchor chain is wrapped around the keel. Will have to wait it out and see if things resolve themselves when the tide changes. About 930pm we hear the anchor chain move and fall away from the keel. We can only hope that it doesn’t happen when the tide changes at night.

Supper is carrots and cabbage with ham slice warmed up on top with instant mashed potatoes. At 1015pm it starts to rain but last only about 30 min.

Saturday, May 7

Passage to Cape May

Distance Traveled: 47.24 nm

Miles to get Home: 1605.03nm

Total Distance Traveled: 4272.73 nm

We woke at 5am to cabin temp of 61F and air temp of 54F. It’s very wet outside from the rain and a heavy dew. We start the engine at 556am but wait a few minutes to sync my watch to the satellite so I can have correct time. The anchor chain is not wrapped around the keel so we have no problems raising the anchor at 605am. We have the positive current with us this time and range from GPS 7 kts to boat 4.7 kts to a high of GPS 9 knts when we are in the Delaware River/Bay. When I come on watch at 8am the GPS speed is 8.4 kts. The wind is 8-9kts with 165 to starboard wind angle and the head sail has been out since 720am. There is a slight chop and a few white caps but it’s sunny outside. Gradually as the morning goes on the positive current decreases until it disappears about 1030am. To be expected. During my off watch while I was taking a nap, the seas turn into coming directly behind us causing the boat to roll side to side. It’s not easy to sleep on the port settee and keep yourself in without the lee cloth. By 12 noon I’m on watch and the ETA to the Cape May canal entrance is 210pm. Phil fixes lunch of cheese and crackers (usually I fix lunch) as I don’t want to be below with the side to side boat motion. I’m not seasick, but don’t want to be either. The winds are 6-7 kts with wind angle 161 to starboard – winds are from 290 (NW). We tried having the head sail out, but have to roll it in as it’s flapping too much.

We had some excitement for the day. As we are getting close to the canal channel entrance we are boarded by the Coast Guard for a routine boat inspection. They pull up beside us and board while we’re underway and while I had slowed down per Phil’s request. We pass with a couple of minor fixes – chain on mascerator pump handle and garbage placecard for what to do with the garbage. By this time we had a strong current pushing us sideways so I had to really increase the engine rpms so that we wouldn’t be pushed in the red marker at the breakwall and make it into the channel. Turns out that the Coast Guard are making many inspections as they board another boat immediately after they leave our boat. By 213pm we pass under the first fixed bridge with the current still positive – GPS 6.7kts:Boat 4.9 kts, pass the RR bridge and then the last fixed bridge at 222pm. By 237pm the anchor is set between the Coast Guard Station and the channel to the ocean in front of the Seamanshp Training Facility with 7.7 ft of water under our keel. The winds are from 320degrees at 18 kts. Eventually they calm down. It also helps that the Coast Guard start working on Marker 7 and then 8 so the boats have to slow down so they don’t cause any way. That reminds me. As we were in the canal between the Delaware bay and the Cape May harbor, there were many, many power boats passing us – and not slowing down either. Can sure tell it’s a weekend.

We have an early supper of warmed up oriental pork and rice with warmed up canned green beans. I continue knitting the baby blanket in between being on the internet typing up the blog and downloading Apple software. We also talk to friends on the phone. I have checked the NY State Canal Bardge alerts and the Erie Canal isn’t going to be opening until sometime the week of May 23. We need to work up alternate plans. Looks like I’m going to have to drive home in a rental car unless someone can drive my van to Castleton on Hudson by May 16 so that I have enough time to visit from Brother. We make a couple phone calls and have some tentative plans in place but are still open to suggestions.

The weather looks good for the next few days. N 5 kts for tomorrow. We are going to Barneget Bay and visit our friends Jim and Linda Evans in Forked River, NJ to stay 2 nights and then leave Tuesday morning while the north winds are still light to go into the Hudson River. Phil would like us to be able to take the NJ ICW north so we’ll be calling Boats US to see if the water will be deep enough for us or not. We hope so as it will be protected and also a shorter distance.

Safe in Deltaville, VA

2011-04-29T17:29:00.000-04:00

Thursday, April 28
Waterside Marina
Norfolk, VA
Distance Traveled: 21.58nm
Miles to get Home: 1325.91
Total Distance Traveled: 3993.54

We woke at 610am to warm temps but clouds flying by in the sky. Salty Paw raised their anchor at 640m and we follow less than 10 min later to get to either to Norfolk or Hampton, VA. The winds were 14 - 23kts from 240 degrees (SW) At least the wind varies between broad reaching and downwind most of the time depending on the direction the waterway is curving. By 733am we get to the North Landing Bridge and the winds had temporarily decreased to 6-8 kts. Shorty afterward, we enter the Abermarle and Chesapeake Canal and the wind varies from 3 to 15 kts - sometimes the analog wind indicator is spinning around not know where the wind is coming from and then the wind gets every more gusty with gust to 19-21 kts. Along the canal there are Cypress trees growing out of the water, but there are also pine trees (its the South) and maple trees with new smaller green leaves. Phil has checked the radar on the computer and we are expecting some rain to come between 1030 and 1130am. After the Canal, we go through our first lock in a long time - the Great Bridge lock. We're through by 930am and then the Steel Bridge at 1002am. The Steel Bridge is a bascule type bridge and the bridge did open, but they bridge sections got stuck halfway going up. Phil was at the helm and he started going thru just as the bridge tender told us to hold on - but too late. We got thru ok and then the bridge opened the rest of the way for Salty Paws. Next bridge is the Gilmerton Road Bridge that we have been heard security radio messages from the Coast Guard for the past 2 days about a 160+ by 40ft+ barge that is sunk 27ft below the surface. We have to jill around for a while while Phil see 30kt gusts of wind. This was not pleasant as we turn and the wind pushes us over - turn again and pushed over the other way, but we pass through at 1036am and go thru the opened RR bridges without further problems. With all the wind and the rain that now looks like will come thru at 1230pm, Phil decides that us staying at a marine in a good idea. I call Waterside Marine and then have a dock for us and at $1.50/ft/day. We are docked without any difficulty at 1125am next to the Norfolk Police Boats and in front of Hooters and Joe's Crab Shack.

We stayed on the boat for the afternoon - waiting - still waiting for the rain that is to come that finally did come about 430pm. We didn't have any tornado warnings but there was some tornado watches back in Oriental and northern North Carolina, which is one reason that Phil wanted us to keep moving north - to avoid the bad weather.

I roasted a small whole chicken with sweet potatoes and had frozen spinach with mushrooms for supper. Later while Phil washed the supper dishes, I had a shower and then he took a shower. We spent the rest of the evening reading.

Our plan for tomorrow is to leave early - you never say that I'm sorry that we left so early - and go north into the Chesapeake. We're not sure how far that we'll be able to go - depends on the weather.

Friday, April 29
Passage Norfolk to Deltaville, VA
Distance Traveled: 54.24nm
Miles to get Home: 1380.15nm
Total Distance Traveled: 4037.78nm

We woke at 530am today. The wind has died and there is mostly blue sky - or there will be when the sun rises. We cast off the dock at 622am and go into the Elizabeth River past all the Naval Ships and also the cranes to load and unload the container ships. We see S/V Bella anchored off the channel but really not where you would expect to see a boat anchored close to marked R34. The wind is 4.2kts, 53degree to Port wind angle coming from 275 degrees (almost West). There is less than a foot chop in the wide river. By 658am we let out the head sail as the wind angle now is 83degree and wind is 6 kts. By 720am the wind is 9 kts and from 290 degrees. S/V Branwyn I, a Beneteau 411 overtakes us and we are going GPS 6.2 kts to Boat 6.5 kts. For a brief happy time, we're going GPS 7.1 kts. Finally we get to the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel and enter into the Chesapeake Bay. My watch starts at 830am and the wind is gusting to 14 kt with 11-12kts sustained. Phil and I put up the Main sail at 915am but the wind dies at 10am to 4-6 kts, so we start the engine. We have another short period of sailing with the engine off between 1220 and 1252pm as we are sailing at a close reach as the wind has clocked to WNW on Phil's watch and continues that way. About 1pm we try to decide where we are going to end up for the day. We are almost sailing upwind - should we go to the Jackson river and Deltaville or continue to Reedville, VA like some power boaters are. We head Lipari and China Doll talking to each other, so I hail Randy and they are going to go as far north as they can. Diane is with Phil on China Doll as she flew down for the transport but Randy is alone while Janet is to fly back home from Norfolk tomorrow. We wish them fair winds. So we decide to go to Reedville, VA - but then the wind clocks to the N and the wind angle is 4degree to port. So we change our mind - even though is was 10 min earlier that we had changed our mind and decide to go into Jackson River - 6+nm away instead of Reedville, VA 18nm away. But as we turn, we are going upwind and pounding into the way. We crack off the wind about 30degrees and motor sail with the main up. Then when we are closer to land and the waves have decreased from 2-3 ft to 1-2ft, we change our course 30 degree to the rhumb line and don't have any more problems getting to the channel. Phil was back on watch at 230pm and worried about hitting ground in the channel, which we does happen at the 2nd markers in. But no problem, we power to the deeper water (this is our 2nd time thru the channel and maybe next time we won't hit at all - think so?) and make it all the way to our anchorage with no more groundings. We are anchored in front of Deltaville Marina and Boatyard - close enough to the dinghy dock to paddle (not row as we don't have oars) to the dock tomorrow. The wind is to be NW to N tomorrow so we are expecting that we'll be here all day tomorrow.

Phil calls April Majni-Holko and we're lucky that she has Monday off as we are planning to get to Solomons Island, MD on Sunday and hopefully anchor in front of the Holiday Inn. She did receive the mail from Virginia on Thursday so hopefully something good besides bills will be waiting for us.

On the North Landing River in the middle of No Where in Virginia

2011-04-27T18:30:00.001-04:00

Wednesday, April 27
ICW at mile 25
Distance Traveled: 60.83 nm
Miles to get Home: 1304.33nm
Total Distance Traveled: 397196

We woke at 545am this morning 45 min after the time I had set on the alarm. I guess my ear plugs worked too well. But we moved fast. First filling the tank with 4" of water. I had marked on the side of the tank starting 1" down from the top 6-7 lines so that I could tell more how much water we have use or put in. We're at the top 1" down so that helps also to gauge when to tell Phil to take the hose out of the deck fitting. The weather was pretty warm this morning and the winds for 8kts so we decided that it was a go for leaving today. We started the engine @ 613am only 30 min after we had wanted to originally. By 616am we pushed off the dock with winds 9.7 kts with 71 degree angle to SB from 230 degrees (SW). By 631am we exited the channel that went into the Bay and by 646am we pasted R36 - the last marker for the channel east of Roanoke Island. Soon after Phil let out the head sail, but reefed as the winds had already increased to the 15-17 kt range. In front of us we see SV Salty Pawss. by 8am (I'm on watch) I see gusts of 18 kts and by 819am gusts hit 19 kts and having to turn more upwind, the wind angle has changed from 175 degrees to 120 degrees. Just enough that the wave are hitting us on the port side so we are have a bouncy ride rolling side to side. I'm hoping that the 20-30 kts winds don't come soon! It's been spitting rain on and off over the past hour or so and just increased to a light rain at 10 which last just long enough to put on the foul weather gear for me to then have to take it off.

930am is Phil's watch and we pass Green marker 173 which tells us we are now back in the ICW. Even though it's not my watch, I stay above for awhile so that I don't get seasick. Finally after the winds have decreased to 12-14kts and we jibed the headsail, I go down below to take a nap. I wake at 1135am and quickly get ready to go above for my watch. At 1140am the wind is now 20-26kts at 74 degree wind angle to port and 270degrees on the compass. I'm glad that we are in semi protected waters and that we are running downwind as we turn a corner. The 74 degree wind angle is the closest upwind that we had today.

When we left today, 3 of the diesel jerry can were empty - we forgot to get some at a gas station while we had the car - having too much fun being tourists I guess soat 1230pm we stopped at Coinjock Mariane and bought 22.8 gal of diesel - 7.8 going in the tank. We have a quick lunch of sandwiches and fruit salad I made while Phil drove (on part of my watch) so I took over once we were on our way again. 1pm the wind is gusting to 27kts with sustained winds of 22-26 kts. Our GPS speed is 6.3 kts and boat speed is 6.75 kts. We are making 5 mi in between 40-45 min - really good for us. By 127pm I see gusts to 30 kts still sustained 25-28 kts. A couple sailboats pass us and Salty Paws is not too far ahead planning to anchor at Pongo Ferry like we might. At 211pm I see gusts to 31.8 kts and the boat speed is 7.8 kts. Phil's on watch so I don't have data for him but we are still going downwind and the dinghy doesn't like it at all. I'm letting it in, then letting it our - the bow digs into the waves and spray comes up. Phil slows down a little and turns of the engine so that we sail. I let the dinghy out and it seems to like it better until we had a power boat pass us - going at a low speed but we can't go any slower as we're sailing! The dinghy REALLY doesn't like that but it hangs in there.

Finally at at 322pm Phil starts the engine and we go through a fixed bridge and we turn left into a little oxbow that shows 9-12ft depth on the chart. Well we went aground - then got off and hailed the other boats that we're aground. Not what - where to go. So we start down and Salty Paws says be careful tieing up the the closed marina - we continue on. Let out the head sail to go fast - then roll it in as we think Salty Paws is anchoring. They aren't so we let it out thinking to go to Great Bridge to tie up at the dock by the lock. We really don't like that as the chart says they open the bridge on the hour up to 7pm - we have 2 other bridges to go through. We've been on the road a while. We go through the start of another oxbow and Salty Paws starts to anchor there. It's has a 6ft lip and then deepens. Can we get through?? NO - aground again so we get off and Phil anchors on their left - still off the channel at 423pm. All around us is marsh - but we're safe and great holding. The anchor set before I had 40' out. I let out chain until 60'. Dark clouds are on the horizon, but Phil checked the radar and they will go by. As I right this the sky is clear. Yeah! No rain.

It's 630pm and time for me to fix supper. We have to fighter planes flying around here making noise and it's still 15-20 kts winds still from the SW.

Our plan is to go on tomorrow even though the winds are going to be the same. Still downwind until we get to Hampton, VA. Will anchor across from the marina we stayed in last fall. The wind is to be W about 10kts Friday and cooler. Saturday NW 5 - 13 depending on where you are so we don't know if we'll wait for the winds to change to the South again or not. Saturday is too far away to tell.

We got an email from NY State Canal System and because of the rain and weather, the Erie Canal won't open May 1. Once we are in Cape May, we figure it will take 3 days with good weather to get to Waterford so we aren't in a hurry now to move fast. We are planning on meeting April and Kevin Majni-Holko on the Chesapeake to get mail. Email me if you need the address. Buckeye Chocolate is welcome!! We're on our last piece. Only kidding - not I'm not. :)

Outer Banks Day 2

2011-04-26T22:18:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, April 26
Manteo, Roanoke Island, NC

Today we rented a car and decided to be tourists. We rented from a local Ford dealer and were picked up at 830am. By 9am all the papers were signed and we were on out way to explore the Outer Banks. First we drove to Kitty Hawk and saw the Wright Brothers National Memorial. Phil found this to be most interesting as there is a full-scale reproduction of the Wright Flyer, we listened to a talk by the volunteer Ranger and was able to visit the field where the actual flight took place. Then we stopped at a knitting store and I bought a couple skeins of yarn to make 2 pair of socks. We had lunch at Pigman's BBQ - which had excellent BBQ pulled pork sandwiches. We drove down to Cape Hatteras Island and visited Bodie (pronounced Body) Island Lighthouse, which is not open for climbing and currently undergoing renovation. Then we went back to the boat as the skies were looking like it was going to rain soon. The boat tied down with a couple more lines, I went to a yarn shop (again!) and Phil went to the Roanoke Island maritime Museum. He met me at the yarn shop and then we walked around town and we both visited the Museum.

the town here is very quaint. Time to use the car one last time and go to the local Piggly Wiggly Grocery store. Once back at the boat we fussed online. Then as we had use of a propane gas grill on the hard, we thawed the Bahamian crawfish tails we bought in Marsh Harbor and I cooked them on the grill while Phil fixed a pasta rice dish and can corn. The tail were great and we have enough for another meal with it mixed with something else.

We have looked at the weather and have decided that if the winds are low enough tomorrow morning (<10kts) that we are going to leave and get to the ICW before the winds increase. There is a cold front that is coming, but as we only have 3-4 hours before we get out of Albarmarle Sound, we think that we'll be ok and have 2 places in mind that we can anchor and be protected. One is much closer than the other, but we will be running (going downwind) with the stronger winds which is much better than going upwind.

We have been going slowly this past week or so and now will have to be picking up the pace while staying safe. As always, I'll send out the Ok message when we are anchored. If the winds are <10kts, we'll be staying here to leave Friday.

Glad to see some warmer weather back home. Sure hope that it warms up by the time that we get up there.

Manteo Waterfront Marina, Roanoke Island, NC

2011-04-25T18:31:00.000-04:00

Monday, April 25
Roanoke Island, NC
Distance Traveled: 61.39 nm
Miles to get Home:1243.50nm
Total Distance Traveled: 3911.13nm

This is a continuation of my post from this morning:

Phil was concerned after looking at the charts again that we would not be able to get to Roanoke Island thru Old House Channel and Roanoke Sound channel. He hailed Tow Boats US and the Coast Guard from Oregon Inlet answered him and let him know that there was plenty of water for us. What a relief to know for sure as if there hadn't been, we would have had to go 10 mi north of Oriental to pick up the ICW. As the afternoon progressed, the wind picked up as we expected. By 105pm the wind was 15-16 kts at 175degrees to SB. GPS speed 6.3, Boat speed 6.51kts and we were motorsailing with white caps and 1-2 ft waves. As my watch continued, we were surfing down waves and I saw a max of 7.2 knts on GPS before we entered the Old House Channel at 155pm - 10 more miles to go to get to the harbor. By 213pm we started seeing 20kts wind that built to 25kts as we entered the bay to get to the anchorage - upwind. We made an instant decision to stay in a marina. I called while Phil was entering the channel and reached Manteo Waterfront Marina, which happens to be the town marina. We had to dock to starboard instead of our normal port so that the bow was pointing into the waves so Phil turned around so that I had time to move the dock lines and he moved the fenders to the starboard side. Carl, the dock master and another gentlemen both were there to great us and catch the dock lines, which was very much appreciated and needed with the stiff winds. By 444pm the engine was off and by 5pm we at the dock master office to pay for our 2 nights. I also called RD Sawyer Ford and reserved a rental car and a pickup time of 830am tomorrow morning. Tomorrow we are really going to be tourists.

Tonight I'm warming up leftovers while I have a load of clothes in the washer. Then we'll take showers as the clothes finish us. Doesn't even feel like we had showers yesterday we're so sticky so real showers will be very much appreciated.

Hope the weather is improving for our target date to be home May 20.

Outer Banks North Carolina

2011-04-25T12:33:00.000-04:00

Wednesday evening, April 20
Oriental, NC

After I posted on the Blog, we had lunch with Phil's old friends Tom and Beverly Love at the Silos. They had good food and also have a small area selling groceries, so I bought some wheat germ to add to bread I make. Beverly was kind enough to drive us home and then we rode our bikes to West Marine Express and exchanged my broken rigging knife for a new one.   Home again, we took D up on her offer and washed clothes and then hung the first load on the line. Then we all (with D) rode our bikes to downtown Oriental and visited the Provisoning Company to see what they had in their getting ride of inventory sale. Last Fall they were closed and now they are open long enough to get ride of the inventory. Across the street was Beans, so we stopped there for something to drink and got a bonus of being able to eat the little bit of Black Walnut ice cream left in the tub. Very Good! Then went to the Marine Consignment and I bought a cook book. We rode home and did another load of clothes.

Found out that Donna and Jerry Luh on S/V Blue Jacket was having people over for supper and we were invited along with Don and D. D made a key lime pie and on Phil's request, I made a fruit salad. We were glad to go and Patty and Gary on S/V Last Tango would be there. While Don and D went to a wine tasting, Phil and I had showers, took the clothes off the line and folded them and I made the fruit salad. We were ready to go just in time and left about 715pm for the dinner. A different Jerry made sausage rolls and Donna Luh made a lettuce salad. It was great to meet new people and we also met Jim Austin and Bentley Smith from S/V Salty Paws, which is the cat we passed on the way from St. Augustine to Port Royal Sound and were anchored with at Wappoo Creek. Jim is a professional photographer and gave me some recommendations for storage of my 20 GB of photos that I have taken on this trip. Will wait until I have a great internet signal with unlimited use of data (think Lakeland Comm College) to upload to a "cloud" site. We had a great time and all too soon it was time to go back home.

Thursday, April 21
Oriental, NC
Wogaman's dock

Today was warm and sunny which we wait for the wind to change so that the water can rise up and we can leave. By late morning, the wind changes and we see the water start to rise. By 1pm we decide there is enough water and we start the engine at 112pm and pull away at 114pm Phil driving in reverse until we get to the "Y" in the channel and can turn around to go forward. The winds are 24kts and upwind for us to go to Broad Creek. We try to go up wind, but after we tacked we couldn't get north enough.   We have the head sail out as we learned on earlier trips that we can sail upwind faster than we can motor, but it doesn't help enough.We are heeled over with the toe rail in the water - not fun - so we decided to turn around at 2pm and go to Oriental Harbor to anchor. By 2225pm we drop anchor with 3' water under the keel, but Phil doesn't like this spot as if the wind clocks to the S we are exposed. So we raise anchor and go into the harbor more and drop anchor with 0.9' under the keel at 244pm.    45 minutes later S/V The Edge and Bentana motor into the harbor and go to a marina. We met Judy and Stephen in the Bahamas and after they are settled, chatted on the radio. They are looking to leave tomorrow as they want to be back home in Nyack, NY on the Hudson River before May 7. Hopefully we'll see them further down then line.

I fixed steak with sliced potatoes and peas for supper. Then Phil and I read for the evening before we went to bed.

Friday, April 22
Oriental Harbor, NC

We listened to weather radio and the wind is to be from the E 15-20kts with waves 5-8 and isolated showers. It's to clock to SE 10-15 later, so we hope that we'll be able to leave this afternoon but will wait to see what the weather brings us.    About 9am S/V's The Edge and Bentana left and went north to get to the ICW but have about 10nm to slog upwind. We listened to the radio and I asked Judy to hail us when she got out there more, and it's doesn't sound good. They has winds about 23kts and are going upper 3kts with the engine. I'm sure that we wouldn't be going that fast with the old prop on Changes, so we're going to stay here for now. A little later, but The Edge and Bentana talked about turning around, but with adding the sails and a few adjustments, they started making more headway and continued on. Taking advantage of the time, I took up the morning throughly cleaning the head - even going thru the lockers and clearing out a few things that we haven't been using, then vaccummed and washed the sole. That done, we had sandwiches for lunch.

We wanted to go to the grocery store so Phil called D to see if she could pick us up in their van - busy, but she suggested that we call Anne Sidden, which we did and she was kind enough to meet us at the dinghy dock about 115pm. Of course we had only 3 items on the list but then came out with 4 bags full of groceries. Anyone else have that problem??? Then we asked to see her boat Drakus, a Monk 45' sailboat that Doug, her husband, and she have been working on for a few years.    Anne gave us the full tour and they have done a lot to fix up the boat for cruising and still have a lot to do. We found out they bought the boat in 2004 in Florida, limped back home with the hurting engine and since then Doug has done a lot with the engine and the systems in the engine room. Anne has also done a lot with painting and other items along with building a dinghy. I admire what she has done as the woodworking is something that I'm not sure I would tackle by myself like she has done. It will fulfill their needs well when they are done with the renovations.

Back at the boat, we have made the final decision not to leave today. The weather hasn't improved and we don't see any sense in going upwind in this weather. I made porkchop with sauerkraut, sweet and white potatoes for supper as befitting a good dreary day.

I got a free e-book from Barnes & Noble How to be a Dividend Millionaire, so after I finished reading, Phil read most of the book too for us to discuss. Good thing that we have our finances under control and we will take some of his information under consideration. As I'm going to try to save a good amount of money for our cruising kitty, it doesn't hurt to try to invest it wisely. He talks about his site Dividend.com so I'll have to check it out to see what he has to say.

At 715pm Phil jumped up and went into the cockpit - we are aground. He started the engine and then after raising the anchor, we were able to move to deeper water and anchor close to where we were the very first time on Thursday. Phil had noticed that the rocking motion of the boat had stopped. Good thing, because if he had waited longer I think we would have needed a tow. The wind had clocked to 125degrees - SE @ 13-14 kts, which is making the water come out of the harbor. If the wind clocks more, we won't have protection but maybe the winds will die like predicted and we'll be ok.

Once we were settled, Phil read and I undated my log book. Then I started finishing the heel flap on the 2nd of Phil's sock and started working on the legs. I'm on the home stretch and all the hard part is finished.

Saturday, April 23
Passage Oriental to Ocracoke Island Outer Banks, NC
Distance Traveled: 41.68 nm
Miles to get Home: 1182.11nm
Total Distance Traveled: 38489.74 nm

We woke at 618am to CT of 72F and AT of 69F. A warm night that reminds us of the Bahamas. I think it actually got warmer as the night progressed. As Phil though might happened, the winds did clock to the South, but the wind also decreased and it was calm. Phil started the engine at 641am but I heard squealing as he started raising the anchor so stopped all and tightened the belt. Restarting the engine at 648am we were able to lift anchor at 649pm and were in the middle of the channel going out before 7am. Winds are 5.7 kts with 63degree wind angle to starboard (SB). By 737am we let the head sail out as the winds were 7kt at 115degrees to SB. Once they increase to 12 kts - we put up the mainsail and turned off the engine at 910am - We are sailing!!! By 1020am 2 M/V had passed up and the winds were 13-15kts at 120degree SB wind angle and we are sailing GPS 5.7-6.2 kts to boat 5.7 kts. By 1pm we took the head sail down as we were entering the Nine foot Shoal Channel (which is a misnomer as we say 7.5 feet of water at it's shallowest point) and anchored in Silver Lake at 154pm. Phil thinks this was the best sail of the trip! We have 5ft under the keel so feel good about that. I fixed lunch of roast beef sandwiches and a pear half, then time to put the 8hp engine on the dinghy and go into shore. There are lots of dock sticking out into the lake but only 2 dinghy docks available and one of them blocked by lines to the pilings by a house boat. We went down to the state park and used their dinghy dock.

First on the agenda was going to the State Park Visitors Center. We were given maps and information that at the Community Center at the edge of town there was a concert to raise funds for a music festival scheduled early June. They play good music, so Phil and I decided to go. But first we visited the Ocracoke Preservation Museum in a restored 100 year old house. It was very interesting and we stayed until it closed at 4pm. then we walked through town going in a few stores. There is the Kitty Hawk Kites store and Phil bought some kite string on a yo-yo to take with him to California when visiting Vic and her family. He wants to make a kite with the boys and then fly it at the beach. Back to the dinghy, we visited a nice looking green sailboat. Met Tim and Jen and found out they bought their boat for $10,000 a DownEaster 32' and renovated it. They have found that it's big enough inside to provide enough space for them that they don't feel crowded even though they've have boats in the upper 40's in lenghth. So now I'm willing to look for a boat smaller than 40' if it has more volume. But to find one that doesn't have a full keel is going to be the trick - after being able to sell Changes for a reasonable price. Phil as a specific broker in mind that he'll talk to when we get home.

Back at the boat I talked to my Mom and my sister, Robin for Easter. Then I talked briefly to Katie who was getting ready to go to my parents after visiting her Uncle Jeff's Mom and Step Dad. I warmed up leftovers for supper - Phil had the sauerkraut and port and I had the left over shephard's pie.

645pm we left to walk to the Community Center and we really enjoyed the concert provided by Molasses Creek. There were also a couple other men that told stories. It was bluegrass/folk music with many string instruments providing the music. The concert over at 930pm we started walking and then was given a ride on a pedibike.

Sunday, April 24
Happy Easter!
Ocacroke, NC

We slept in this morning and listened to the weather radio. It's to be a nice day today and they are predicting the since to be from the S 10-15 kts thru Tuesday Night. We will leave tomorrow very early - Sunrise is at 620am now - and take the long trip to Roanoke Island. We'll stay 2 nights and then leave Wednesday morning early while the winds are still S 15-20 kts before they climb Thursday to 20-25 knots.

Here at Ocracoke they have a community radio station - 90.1FM WOVV that I listened to this morning while making breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast. As it's been 3 days since our last shower at Don and D's house, we heat up water and add to the Sun Shower for a nice warm shower. Then by 1130am after I packed a lunch for us to eat later, we took the dinghy to town and rode our bikes for about 2 1/2 hours. We rode to the Beach access # 70, walked on the beach and collect just a few shells. Here at Ocracoke the Village is privately owned but the rest of the island is part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Park. There is a 12 mile long beach that at places you can drive on with your 4-WD truck. When we got to the beach, there were several trucks there. Many of them were fishing for Bluefish from the beach. Others were swimming in the 60+F water. Exactly how cold it was I don't know and frankly don't want to find out.   Phil ate his lunch while I combed the beach for shells and talked to the fishermen to see what they were trying to catch - Bluefish. They have poles 15-20' long - cast out the line close to the surf and then put the poles into holders they have pounded into the sand. After we had our fill of the beach, we started riding back to town, stopped for some ice cream at Sweet Tooth and continued riding back. We stopped at Pirates Chest and I bought a couple sundresses made out of swimsuit material at a pretty good price. We visited the British Cemetery and looked over the fence in the Howard-Wahab Cemetery. We learned from Sundae Horn, one of the singers last night, that there are 90 private family cemeteries on the island dotted her and there. We saw a few in our travels. We rode to see the Ocracoke Lighthouse, which unfortunately we can't climb to the top. Too difficult and dangerous the Park Ranger told us.   The lighthouse keepers house is now privately owned. There are many guest homes in the village divided between about 3 realty companies. 800 residents live here year round and we also sound the one school that houses all grades from kindergarden to high school. Made us think about the Fairport Harbor school systems, though we don't know how many children attend school here. Ocracoke is pretty isolated as it's possible to get here only by private boat, ferries or by private planes. I'm sure you can get more information by visiting their web site: www.ocracokevillage.com

By 330pm we were ready to get back on the boat, then put the engine on the boat and put the dinghy away. Phil talked to Vicki and we had talked to Kathleen shortly after getting on shore earlier today for Easter Wishes. We didn't do anything special for Easter, but I fixed pan braised chicken and added couscous for a one pot meal. It was good but as usual, Phil thinks it would have been better if I had used potatoes instead of couscous. That's an Irishman for you. :)

I started reading my Nook, put it down after it had started charging and then it wouldn't work - wouldn't turn on, turn off - charge. I removed the battery and that didn't help either. We talked to Barb and Ted Zimmerman and it's good to hear that they and they kids are doing good. I turned on my computer and read some from the Adobe digital editions until time for bed. We are going to get up at 6am tomorrow and leave as soon as we can, even if that means making coffee while we on our way.

Monday, April 25
Passage from Ocracoke to Roanoke Island.
Mileage details to follow.

We did wake at 6am and were able to raise anchor at 626am with the wind 6-8 kts and flat seas. The wind is from the SW not as predicted so we'll be sailing downwind and hope for the wind to clock to the South as predicted. We were out of the Channel by 710am and I started the computer to get this blog updated while I had a lot of electricity. When my watch started at 830am the wind was 6 kts at 220 degrees - still dead downwind at GPS speed 5.3 kts Boat speed 5.7 kts. But it wasn't too long that the wind starting picking up and by 916am we put the head sail out as the winds were close to 10 kts. It's been hard to keep the head sail filled even with the winds 10-12 kts as it hasn't clocked enough. It's sunny and very warm in the sun so Phil put up the beach umbrella to provide some shade. By lunchtime, I expect that the bimini will provide more shade but the sun isn't high enough yet for that.

Will try to download some photos after lunch and add to the blog later today with the next update.

Stuck in North Carolina

2011-04-20T11:09:00.000-04:00

Thursday, April 14
Bucksport SC to Southport, NC
Distance Traveled: 57.6 nm
Miles to get Home: 1009.62nm
Total Distance Traveled: 3677.25nm

Our morning started with calm winds and a glassy anchorage. We had a long day ahead of us so raised anchor at 652am with sea smoke in the anchorage. The Cabin temp was 62F and the air temp was 53 cool degrees. We bundled up and Phil took the first watch as usual. By 9am at the beginning of my watch the wind was 8kts on the nose from the East. The GPS speed was 5.8 kt and boat speed was 5.49 knots and I was glad for the slight favorable current.    Phil added 5 gals of diesel to that tank as we are now and have been in the stretch of our trip of motor ALL day. It's great for the batteries but not always great to listen to the engine that much. Near the end of my watch we came up to a C&C 30 named Red Jello at one bridge and at Little Rivers Swing bridge while waiting for it to open, we had a chance to talk to them as fellow C&C'ers do. With all the inlets that we pass - it's the game of do we have positive current coming up to the inlet and then negative current passing the current. We play the yo-yo of this game all day always hoping that we have more positive current (with the tides) so that we can be going 5.8 - 7.0kts versus 3.8 - 5 kts. It really makes a difference to have far we can get in a day. An example is we were going GPS 4.2 vs Boat 5.66kts coming up to Shallotte Inlet - After passing the inlet we were going 6.8 kts for about 15 min and then was down to GPS 5.5 kts vs Boat 5.23 kts. Another 25 min later we slowed down to GPS 5.1 kts vs Boat 5.44 kts. Overall we did good and were going to the Southport anchorage for the night, until Phil read that only 3 boats can fit there and as many boat had passed us in the day. We decided on the spur moment to do a U-turn when we saw a sign saying $1.35/ft Boat US discount passing S. Harbour Village Marina. There was a long fuel dock and a couple sailboats already tied up and we tied up too and got diesel fuel. By this time it was 515pm and I had started getting supper ready to cook while we were traveling. By 7pm we had chicken and rice/barley, acorn squash and cornbread for supper. Then time to take advantage of the showers. Tired from traveling, we read and went to bed at 930pm.

Friday, April 15
Southport, NC to Carolina Beach State Park Marina
Distance Traveled: 13.4 nm
Miles to get Home: 1023.02nm
Total Distance Traveled: 3690.65nm

We woke this morning to a CT of 63F and Air temp of 57F, heavy dew and glassy water. We are planning on getting to Wrightsville Beach today to tuck in for a storm that is suppose to come tomorrow with 20-30kts winds from the SW. We left the dock at 705am an narrowly avoided running into it again. Phil was distracted by the GPS and we almost plowed in but luckily we saw what was happening and just brushed off the dock where the fenders were still in place. Had the heart beating pretty fast on this one. Today we are going up the Cape Fear River and we hope we have left early enough to not get hit too badly by the current of the outgoing tide. But we have not left early enough afterall as our GPS speed is only 3.8 kts. We keep plugging away hoping as we go along that the negative current will ease once we turn into the ICW. Just after turning the corner S/V Red Jello hails us and tells us about the marina they are in that we just passed. Hey! on $30 per night and free electricity. We had a long way to go and may not even get there at this speed so it was a no brainer to turn around on come in to the Carolina Beach State Park Marina. We hit a couple times coming in the channel (need to stay close to the Green markers) but we're in and dock on the next finger next to Red Jello. The marina is almost empty and it's really protected. By 104am am we are docked and then sign in and we introduce ourselves to George and Mary Lou on Red Jello. This is a great place! They have nice showers, a washer and dryer only $1each, trails to walk on. We decided that we're going to stay tonight and tomorrow to wait out the bad weather. I'm thrilled to have someone else besides Phil to talk to - wow a woman to talk to!

After lunch, we took the folding bikes out and rode them to Carolina Beach. The tide is out, the young people are on the beach in bikinis and swim shorts while we walk the beach looking for some shells as it's low tide. We also stop at the local grocery store - The Sea Merchant - and get some essentials. We had also ridden to the post office for Phil to mail a letter. As the weather is predicted to be bad tomorrow, we put the bikes away.

We also spend time on Red Jello talking. George and Mary Lou have cruised to the Bahamas years ago - in the 1970's when all there was to navigate was Loran C - which you had to manually program. There was not GPS, no Chris Parker, no SSB, so the read the water and when the winds turned SE to S - went to an anchorage protected from the west winds they figured would be coming. We think they went there 7 times total. As you can imagine they are savvy sailors. They are on their way up to Baltimore to pick up a C&C 38' Landfall that they just bought, to take back to Indian Town for the summer. Their nephew has bought their boat so once the Landfall is in Florida, they will go back to Baltimore and bring Red Jello back to their home in Kincardin on Lake Huron for their nephew.

After supper, I took advantage of the washer and dryer and washed the ultrasuede that I've used to cover the cushions in the cabin which I read magazines in the lounge.

Saturday, April 16
Carolina Beach State Park Marina

I think that many people don't know about Carolina Beach State Park marina. I see that it's is in the Skipper Bob Books, but it's been closed that past 2 years while they have completely renovated the marina. There is new bulkheads and new floating docks which are quite nice. It's close quarters so you might be able to fit a boat 40' overall in there but nothing more than that (including bow sprint and dinghies hanging off the back). They have a lounge area that has round tables and chairs with glass windows so there is a unobstructed view on the scenery around you.

We had scrambled eggs and whole grain muffins for breakfast. We decided to talk a walk on the trails and try to get back for the Range guided trail walk at 10am - best laid plans it turned out. We started walking to the Sand dunes and it turned out that it took much longer for the walk than we though. I enjoyed smelling the dead leaves in the forest - here the live oaks drop their leaves in the spring. There are many pine trees here and the pine cones are huge! Small pine tree has 8" long pine cones. I restrain myself and don't pick any up for craft projects though. Along the Cape Fear river there is a lot of sand on the trails and at times there is only sand to walk on, making it slow going. We took a different trail not marked on the map and came to another couple who we chatted with. Then we came to a rode - talked to Rangers in a SUV and was directed back to the parking lot where we started. We arrived back at 1015am, too late for the guided trail walk. We saw George and Mary Lou walking down the street to walk into town and Phil with his loud voice called them. They waited for me to join them and Phil stayed behind. His left heel has been bothering him when he walks too much so he stayed behind.   George, Mary Lou and I walked to town and stopped at a boutique that had great clothing and Food Lion. Of course I got a few items which I carried back in the cooler backpack.

What happened to the storm? We were wondering that all day too as it was sunny, breezy and warm most of the day with some periods of clouds that blew through. It turned out to be a much nicer day than we thought it was going to be, but the storms did come through early evening. Even though there were tornado watches north and south of us, we didn't have any and the storms were bad at all for us. The locals say that the mountains break up the storms so they weren't surprised. What did happen was that the wind clocked so that the waves were coming into the channel causing a swell in the marina. As things go, it wasn't bad and we added some extra line just to be sure.

Before the storm came, George and Mary Lou came for happy hour and we enjoyed chatting some more. It's so great to have company!!!. I fixed ham slice and instant mashed potatoes with fresh broccoli. Lorraine eating instant potatoes - oh my. Well YES. I have potato buds and I can say that with cooking them with milk and doctoring with instant minced onions and garlic - I will eat these instant potatoes.

After supper I took advantage of the free electricity and checked out and downloaded from the library ebooks and audiobooks that I transferred to my Nook and Ipod Nano.

Sunday, April 17
Happy Birthday Rachel!!
Carolina Beach to Mile Hammock Bay
Distance Traveled: 53.35 nm
Miles to get Home: 1076.37nm
Total Distance Traveled: 3744.00nm

Even though we loved our interlude at Carolina Beach, we need to keep traveling north. Our goal for the day is Mile Hammock Bay so we left the dock at 654am. We go by many inlets today so another day of playing the current game and we wonder if we'll have more of the day with a favorable current or not. We also have a few bridge openings and we get to the Wrightsville Beach Bridge 10 min late for the on the hour opening, so we jill around for 50 minutes. We see S/V Short Walk and I hail Ann to chat for a little. They are going to Mile Hammock Bay also today. I also spoke to Steve Wesburd on S/V Traveler. He's a Master Captain transporting the Hunter 31 back north. He give me a recommendation for a boat broker in Baltimore. By 1134am the wind has picked up and Phil puts out the head sail but it turned out only for 30 min. By 230pm the winds have picked up the mid teens with gusts to 22 kts. We make it to Mile Hammock Bay by Camp Lejune by 430pm. The was the anchorage that people were dragging in last fall and this time though there aren't many anchored here, we have trouble anchoring. We dropped anchor the first time and dragged. I started with 60' and continued letting out more chain as we dragged until 80+ feet were out and we were too close to a M/V. Up comes the anchor and we try again. This time we set still with 80ft out in 10ft of water.

Tonight for supper I use the canned beef and gravy and make a shephard's pie using instant mashed potatoes on top. I started turning the heel on the socks I'm making for Phil and he read until we went to bed at 10pm.

Monday, April 18
Mile Hammock Bay to Beaufort, NC
Distance Traveled: 39.42 nm
Miles to get Home: 1115.79 nm
Total Distance Traveled: 3783.42 nm

We woke at 630am and lifted the anchor at 647am as Phil saw S/V Red Jello leave so we jumped to leave too so that we can make the bridges when they do. I was at the helm and Phil was down below making coffee. The wind was dead downwind at 3 kts. GPS was 5.2 kts Boat was 5.6 kts. By Bogue Inlet we get the positive current of GPS 7.1 and keep the positive current for most of the morning. The conversation of the day is whether we go to Beaufort on try to get to Oriental. We decided, as you can see, to go to Beaufort so that Phil could get a chart of Pamlico and Abamarle Sounds and why kill ourselves every day? We set anchor at 120pm and got the 8hp engine on the dinghy. This is the first time since leaving the Bahamas. We walk around town, get the charts, have some ice cream and then come back to the boat at low tide. I had hoped that I could meet with Sonda and John, whom we met in Georgetown, but they aren't to be back from their cruising until beginning of May. Too bad.

The big entertainment of the afternoon after we returned were 5 teen age thin girls in bikinis cruising up and down the Taylor river on a small power boat. They were singing to the music - off key - with a couple on the bow dancing. They went up and down the river and Phil just had to get out the binoculars to check them out. There were also teen age boys cruising up and down the river checking out these girls. Oh to be young with nice figures and that kind of self esteem! It was fun to watch them and we had a good laugh.

I continued knitting Phil's socks while enjoying the sun in the cockpit. For supper we had left over chicken and rice and fresh broccoli.

Both Phil and I read the evening away.

Tuesday, April 19
Beaufort, NC to Oriental, NC
Distance Traveled: 24.64 nm
Miles to get Home: 1140.43
Total Distance Traveled: 3808.06

We woke at 6am today wanting to get an early start to catch the favorable current. By 636am the anchor is raised and we are on our way with a pink sky and full moon on the horizon. It's really beautiful this morning. The wind is 5 kts and out GPS speed quickly goes from 3.6 as we are approaching Beaufort Inlet to 7.0 as we pass the inlet. We make good time up Adams Creek and are at our waypoint to enter Tarpon Creek to Don and D Wogamon's dock at 1030am. We know it's going to be close us getting to their dock but didn't realize that we would get stuck 10 min up the channel just past a couple marinas and become the morning entertainment for the local residents. We hit bottom and though Phil goes in reverse and we rock the boat back and forth we are stuck good. We call Tow Boat US and they come within 10 minutes. The captain is nice and offers tows us all the way to their dock which is a good thing. It takes 15 min to get off where we are stuck the first time and then we get stuck 2 more times, the last being at the junction of a fork in the creek. But the tow boat prevails and we are tied up at 1140am - but on the ground. It turns out that there isn't a tide here in the creek, but the water goes up and down by as much as 40 inches according to the direction the wind is blowing. With a SW wind - which we have now - the water goes out into Pamlico Sound. With the NE wind the water comes up in the creek - kind of like the west end of Lake Erie. We are here until the wind changes - maybe Friday. But we like being here - have a dock, free electricity, great hosts. D is in New Bern for errands and appointments. Don is here working on S/V Southern Cross a Dickerson 41 (the last woody) to get it ready for cruising again. His current project is caulking the teak decks.

It's very warm here - I actually am wearing shorts - so we quickly put up the Farouck and relax in the cockpit for a while. Then we walk to the local grocery store and get a ride back from a gentleman that saw us aground.    It's close to time for showers and D arrives for us to meet. We quickly arrange to do dinner together. Phil and I get in Sun Showers that has warm water by my definition and I fix the zucchini carrot strands as my contribution. We have a great supper of rotisserie chicken, brown rice and my vegetable dish with chocolate cake for dessert. Ann and Doug Sedden join us (they rent Don and D's apartment) and we taste wine and talk about cruising and boating until the wee hours. Ann then D leaves us and the guys and I talk until almost midnight. It's was a wonderful evening and I particularly enjoy the company.

Wednesday, April 20
Oriental, NC

Today I'm going to update the blog, then we have lunch with Tom and Beverly Love. D offers to let us use her laundry machine, so Phil starts and load and I find out that there is a dinner planned by S/V Blue Jacket tonight at 7pm that we are invited to. Last Tango is docked in Broad Creek and there will be 14 people all together so of course we are going. After checking weather, it looks like the NE winds will be tomorrow then clock to E on Friday. So we hope in the afternoon that we can get out of Tarpon Creek and will dock at Oriental to wait out the East winds. Then we plan to sail to Ocracoke Island on Saturday, Sail to Roanoke Island on Sunday, go to the Virginia cut on Monday to get to Norfolk on Tuesday. Of course you know how plans can change.

I don't have time this morning to post photos - so will try to fit it in later.

Back on the ICW

2011-04-13T17:38:00.000-04:00

Saturday, April 9
Passage Beaufort, SC to Wappoo Creek
Charleston, SC
Distance Traveled: 51.43 nm
Miles to get Home: 865.90
Total Distance Traveled: 3558.43

We were sorry to say goodbye to the Butler's, but woke early so we had plenty of time to make our destination of Charleston, SC. Rick sent us off blowing his conch horn - how wonderful - at 733am. There winds were from 295 degrees (WNW) @ 13 kts and we had about a 1 kt adverse current. By 1145am we were at mile marker 505 and the water was brown and brackish and we had lots of no-see-ums. Yuk! Good thing that I had bought the netting jackets and hood as we both used the hood and I had on long sleeve and pants to protect us from them.


using the hood to protect from no-see-ums

As we got closer to Charleston, the winds picked up to the low 20's and gusts in the upper 20's on the nose and we had 2-3ft waves in the river by 345pm. Of course it was my watch, and I called Phil up to say that we needed to find a place to anchor. The closest was Wappoo Creek just past Elliott Cut. Last time we went through the cut there was terrific current and waves - this time we had the current with us thankfully so we flew through at 7.2kts, but not the waves so we made it through easily. We were able to anchor just past it in an area that has a small island but then this wasn't easy either. At this time we had the winds - about 15 kts in the protection and the strong tide in opposite directions. There were 2 boats already anchored - one of the S/V Salty Paws (a cat) whom we passed when we went outside. We tried to anchor between them, but the anchor dragged before it set. Too close to the Cat which moves around a lot with the wind/tide. So we raised the anchor and had better luck the 2nd try. We were at N3245.897' W79 58.845' The least amount of water under the keel was 2.9ft but we were ok and not too close to the other 2 boats.


Wappoo Creek anchorage

Once we were settled, Phil called John Gag to let them know we didn't quite make it to Charleston but would tomorrow and could we get together. So we'll give them a call tomorrow once we are anchored. Tonight I made steak, instant mashed potatoes, fresh broccoli and carrots. Now this is the first time on the trip that I've tried instance mashed potatoes which I'm usually not fond of. I used the potato buds and using milk to reconstitute them I have to say that they were better than I expected. I also added cheese and garlic powder. Good enough I have to say that I'll bring more on our next cruising trip.

The evenings entertainment was Phil reading and I knitting Phil's socks. At least we didn't get the rain and thunderstorms that were predicted. We heard on the weather radio of Tornado watches, but they must have gone south of us.

Sunday, April 10
Wappoo Creek to Charleston Maritime Center
Distance Traveled: 5.55nm
Miles to get home: 871.45nm
Total Distance Traveled: 3563.98nm

Phil decided last night to splurge and get a spot at a dock instead of us anchoring. We needed to do laundry so we decided to try the Charleston Maritime Center on the Cooper River, which is closer to downtown and the ICW when we continue our trip northward. There is the wake from the ships and traffic from the harbor, but they have heavy concrete/wood floating docks and that helps to keep the bounding to a minimum. We were dock opposite of the Harbor Tour Boat M/V Carolina Belle.

We raised anchor at 846am with the wind from the NE @ 3 kts. We also left at almost slack water which turned out to be 1 hour after low tide - something to remember for the next trip down. We went through the Wappoo Creek bridge at the first 9am opening of the day and were at the red #4 marker into the harbor by 909am. When we reserved the dock, Skip the dockmaster said that there was heavy fog in the harbor so I was glad to see that it had raised up enough that we had easy visibility. The top of the Cooper River suspension bridge still was in fog but not at the water level which eased my mind. By 10am as predicted, we were tied up at the dock. My first order of business was to take a shower as Phil paid for the dock for 2 days. I was done at 1045am and it's a good thing as the Gag's came to pick us up at 1110am for lunch at the Fleet Landing.


Fleet Landing in front of Customs Building

We had brunch there and then walked to the shopping area on King Street via Market and Meeting Streets. I'm on the look for a baking stone that will fit in my oven, about 9 x 12 or 10" round. No luck in Williams Sonomo or Charleston Cook stores. By 230pm we had enough walking and John and Karen drove us back to the Marina. We had a very enjoyable time with them.


Lorraine, Karen Gag, Phil and John Gag

The rest of the afternoon we spent on the computer and I made Brats with sauerkraut, fresh broccoli and carrots for supper. I am missing our cruising friends. On our way back north, we haven't been traveling with anyone. We are moving to fast for most people or going outside when they're on the ICW. After many days of this, I'm not as happy as when I'm getting more social interaction. We spent the evening reading.

Monday, April 11
Charleston Maritime Center


Changes at Charleston Maritime Center

We woke to heavy fog and clouds. Today is the day for getting chores done. Phil took advantage of free and readily available fresh water to wash Change's deck. This hasn't been done since sometime in the Fall when we can't remember. I took advantage of the free washer and dryer and did 5 loads of clothes. Good thing that we got there at 8am as there was another woman who was right behind me with clothes to wash. By late morning, we both were done and decided to go to the nearby Harris Teeter store which reminds me of Whole Foods stores at home.

At 1230pm s/V Clear Day pulled into the dock next to us. The boat name sounded familar to me and then when I saw them, they looked even more familiar to me - but couldn't place them. Lucky I had their boat card and we had met in St. Marys at the SMYC BBQ on the yacht club boat. Small world. They are going to stay one week on their way back home.

By 1pm we were back at Changes and the provisions were put away. I started working at making the mat from the line I bought at the nautical flea market on Treasure Cay. I started making the ocean plait but couldn't quite remember the way to get it started. Phil wanted to ride bikes so I took it apart in hopes to find a book on making knots at Waldenbooks. We got there on King St., but no luck. We continue riding bikes on less busy streets until we got to Battery Park. By this time it was sunny, warm and the fog had lifted completely so that we could see Fort Sumter in the distance. It is the 150th anniversary of the Civil War starting on April 12 & 13. Click on the Fort Sumter for more information. We continue riding bikes through back street and alleys between buildings. They are only a side walk width and then some opened up to streets that went to the houses garages. One had rectangles of slate laid out in 2 lines for car tires and then cobblestones in between which made it a little difficult for riding bikes. (insert photo) We continue riding up the northeast side of the peninsula to Waterfront Park and then rode home. Waterfront park is very nice and has a couple water fountains that people wade in to cool off. Even though it wasn't real hot today, there were still people in the fountains. Her is a photo from the water. Click on it so that you can see one of the fountains.


Waterfront Park Charleston, SC

We once again stopped for a few items at Harris Teeters and saw Scott and Lisa from S/V Messenger. I didn't get a chance to talk long as Phil was rushing to have a cold beer once we got back to the boat. Once at the boat I went to the office to try to use the internet and met John for M/V Fresh Ayre (pronounced air). We had a nice conversation and then I went back and worked some more on the Ocean Plait mat after I was able to find directions on the internet on how to do. Isn't the internet wonderful?! This time it worked out good and I was able to get to the point that I had to tighten everything up. John and Charlotte on S/V Abbotsville II stopped by to admire and we started a nice conversation which I continued after supper on my way back from taking a shower. It turns out that Charlotte and I have a lot in common in relation to challenges living on a boat. Nice to know that I'm not the only one. :) I was invited on their boat and it was nice to see what a Pearson 365 looks like inside. Very nice but not big enough for our next boat. Soon after getting back to the boat we went to bed as we're leaving in the morning to try to get to Georgetown, SC - a long day.

Tuesday, April 12
Passage to Georgetown, SC
Distance Traveled: 55.67 nm
Miles to get Home: 927.12
Total Distance Traveled: 3619.65nm

We woke and cast off from the dock at 804am. The Ben Sawyer Bridge's first opening is at 9am so need to get up early. We were lucky in the there wasn't any fog in the Harbor - what a relief!! It was a little harry getting off the dock in that the current pushed the bow towards the dock, but Phil being the good helmsman that he is, got us off without any problems. It helped that there wasn't anyone docked next to us and we had a lot of room to back out of the marina. The wind was from 226degrees (SW) @ 12 knots and we had a favorable current going down the harbor so we were able to make the bridge opening with time to spare. In fact we were lucky to have a favorable current for a while after going through the bridge. S/V Convergence, Wetted bliss and M/V (power cat) Zep Tepi went through behind us and it wasn't too long before they passed us and then disappeared ahead of us. We had clouds on and off and then it starting to rain about 1035am which continued on and off thru the day. It was pretty chilly and Phil was kind enough to take watch until 1230pm after I fixed lunch for us. By 2pm we started having a favorable current again with a GPS speed of 6.6kts +/- and boat speed of 5.5 kts +/-. By 340pm we had reached the first anchorage location and with Georgetown less than 15 SM away, we decided to continue on. It's nice having a later sunset!! I started getting supper ready to cook at 430pm - starting corn bread to go with a Pasta and Black Bean in Saffron-Tomato Sauce dish (an experiment). By 530pm we had entered Georgetown and searched for a place to anchor as all the mooring balls were taken this time. Close to the steel factor we found the other boats that passed us and were able to be anchored by 547pm at N 33 22.025' and W 79 17.025'. Supper was good and Phil did fine with no meat after adding Parmesan cheese to the dish. He said ok to repeat it. That's good as we have enough for leftovers. The no-see-ums were out so it wasn't too long that we were inside the cabin with the screens in place. I continued knitting on Phil's socks. Phil talked to his sister, Ginny. I still miss the cruising friends that we met on our way down.

Wednesday, April 13
Passage to Bucksport, SC
Distance Traveled: 24.9 nm
Miles to get Home: 952.02
Total Distance Traveled: 3644.55nm

Our plan is to try to get to the anchorage past the Rock Pile to mile 342 on the ICW and our fall back is to get to Bucksport Marina and anchor close by if we can't tie up. We didn't start real early which as it turned out was a mistake. It was cool but sunny with a variable breeze. There was condensation on the inside of the windows this morning as the Cabin temp was 66F and the Air temp was 58F. I put on 4-5 layers and Phil had his sweat shirt under his foul weather jacket with the hood up. We raised anchor at 755am and let out the head sail at 815am. The water is calm. By 830am we had passed under the Lafayette Fixed Bridge and there were a couple boat behind us. The wind was from 310 degrees (NW) at 10-12 kts. The GPS speed was 4.8kts and boat speed was 6.4 kts. Not good and as the day progressed the adverse current coming into low tide got worse. During my watch we ranged from 3.8 to 5 kts GPS and the boat speedo stopped working.


Lorraine bundled up and wearing gloves to stay warm.

About 11am S/V Tourne Brise from Montreal passed us and then not too much later, John from s/V Bambonshay hailed us saying that he had lost his GPS chartplotter and wondered if we could pick up speed so that he could follow us and get to MM342 anchorage. We couldn't pick up speed and so he passed up and after a few hails the Montreal boat answered. They couldn't pick up speed (he wanted to average 5.5 kts GPS speed) and John passed them too. I wondered if he found a boat to follow thru the rock pile and how far those boats got today. Us - we continued at a slow speed - with a low of 3.6 kts at green 63. The wind didn't help us much either alternating between 0.5 kts and then gusting to 8-10 kts but not in a direction that helped. Finally just before noon we rolled in the head sail and Phil started his watch. We got to Bucksport Marina at 130pm and that it would take us 8 hours at our current speed, we decided to stop here for the day. We went to the anchorage just past the marina and behind an island and dropped the anchor at 140pm. It's 30feet under the keel here but we think that the anchor is set with all the chain out and some of the line rode out too. We're at N33 39.25' W 79 05.743' and plan to get an early start in the morning.


Anchorage at Bucksport behind island

We had lunch of sandwiches with fresh fruit salad on the way, so I decided to take advantage of some free time and post on the blog. I think that it's a little cool for the no-see-ums as they aren't around today. It wasn't too long that Phil put up the Farouck and I opened the fore hatch.

Phil got hungry around 330pm so maybe I'll warm up leftovers instead of cooking something. We have the left over corn bread to eat too.

One thing nice about all this motoring - I don't have to worry about using the batteries with the computer. They are charged to the max.

We checked the weather and it turns out that we could have gone outside to get to Southport. Too bad we didn't as now it will take us another 2 days to get there instead of one overnight trip.

Beaufort, SC

2011-04-08T20:30:00.002-04:00

Thursday, April 8 to Friday April 9
Passage from St. Augustine, FL to
Port Royal Sound and Beaufort, SC
Distance Traveled: 164.92 nm
Miles to get Home: 814.47nm
Total Distance Traveled: 3507.00 nm

We woke at 625am and listened to weather. It's still to be from SE clocking to SW at the most 13 kts so we decided to go with our plans and go out St. Augustine Inlet to Port Royal Sound and up river to Beaufort, SC and maybe beyond. We dropped the mooring ball at 734am in sunny blue skies and flat water as the wind direction was 235 degrees at 1.4 kts. By 815am we were out of the Channel in the ocean and by 9am the wind had clocked to 50 degrees (NE) at almost 3 knots. The water was still flat but had 2ft swells from the East causing Changes to rock back and forth so I started to get seasick. I took a Marezine, had a 30min nap and was ok again for the rest of the trip. I tried something new in that I made a chart to keep track of our speed, the wind, course direction and any notes during our long passage to more easily to be able to see trends. The highest wind we encountered was 16 kts during my watch (figures) and the lowest was when we released the mooring ball. The wind was mostly from starboard until it clocked to the and port between 3-6am on Phil's watch. The ocean was at the a little choppy with at the most 2-3 foot swells and flat with 1ft swells as the night progressed. The night did not get too cold but we had a heavy dew so both of us wore our light rain pants and foul weather jackets. I had out my fingerless gloves for part of the night (I know I'm a lightweight :P ) We entered the Port Royal Sound Channel at 704am on my watch and I brought Changes all the way into the ICW. I had a good sleep from 3-6am so let Phil sleep until he woke at 9am.

Our big excitement for the evening was when a little yellow bird landed in the boat about 630pm. Poor thing was so far out to sea and kept landing and then taking off again. It landed on Phil and then me. Finally it went down below in the Cabin. Phil thinks that he felt it land on his head when he was sleeping at 2am but I couldn't find it when I went below. This morning when putting things away, I found it dead on the port settee. Poor thing!! I think it just used up all it's energy and didn't have anything to eat to keep it alive.


On steering wheel


Phil's finger


Yellow Bird on my shirt under glass


bird on Phi'l collar

We passed S/V Saltydogs a Cat while it was still daylight and then pass S/V Mon Ami when it was dark. There were a couple freighters and a Naval vessel but nothing that we had to worry about changing our course for.

Shortly after Phil woke at 9am, we decided to see if we could stay with Rick and Carol Butler on their dock in Lady Island, SC and he said yes - would be great to see you again - tie up and plug in electricity when you get here, which we did at 1204pm after 28 hrs from the start of our passage. Surprisingly, we are doing well energy wise and didn't take a nap. Instead, Rick let us borrow his truck so we went to downtown Beaufort and checked out a knitting store, walked around downtown and got a muffin/coffee & tea and ate them outside on a patio. Then we continued to walk around town. Phil really loves this area and I like how it looks too. After his early working years going to paper mills, he's wanted to move to SC. Well see when we're done cruising. On our way back, we stopped at Food Lion and got some groceries.

We took sun showers and then went up to the house for happy hour which Al and Cathy, next store also came to. We had a great time talking about our travels and everyone also talked about when they were cruising. We are so glad that we saw them again!!


Butler's pier to dock at low tide


Changes at Butler's dock

Now as I'm writing in the blog, we are fighting the little sand gnats. We had the screens in, but they came in droves when we took down the Farouck and they got in the cabin. We have killed many - they are about the size of large sand and sure due bite. I put on my long sleeve spf shirt to help and they have taken to liking any light colored surface, which the ultrasuede is one of. At least they are easy to killl there but it has made it a little difficult to post as I'm slapping various parts of my body and crushing them on the ultrasuede.

Tomorrow we are going to Charleston, SC and get together with John and Karen Gag. We'll stay there a day or two at the most and then continue our way north. They are predicting winds 15-25 knots on Monday, so we'll be sure to be somewhere safe for that.

Feel free to call us as we like to catch up after being gone so long.

Repair Completed

2011-04-06T09:53:00.001-04:00

Tuesday, April 6
Oasis Boat Yard,
St. Augustine, FL

The morning started cloudy but warm - and that didn't last long. I took a real shower with really strong water - a first in I can't tell you how long. Mostly the showers in on this trip have a weak stream - they do the job but not like this shower and lots of hot water. When I came out - it was POURING - the rain was coming down horizontally and it also got colder. After it slowed down I ran to the boat and was told would be an all morning rain.

We were planned to get the boat out at 830am but waited until 9am - even though it continued to rain - for the tide to come up. Phil and I cast off and were on the boat as it was lifted by the straps - then we got off the bow with some assistance from John. I brought with me the laptop and by bag as didn't know how long the fix would take. Turns out that the prop had worn out and wobbled on the shaft. The boat yard replaced the cutlass bearing without having to take off the prop shaft and then put on the original prop that came with Changes. Job was completed and we were back in the water by 1030am. Now the only vibration is the original one from the engine. Though this prop does not have as much power as the Max Prop - so hope we don't get aground as this prop will have a hard time getting us off.


Pressure washing the bottom


removing the old prop


In the sling ready to go back in


old larger prop one removed


Gold Cutlass Bearing being installed


Original Prop back on prop	shaft

We spent the morning on the boat - had lunch and then took advantage of our dock neighbors offer to use his truck. Phil went to West Marine to get the propane gas gauge to get our grill up and running and a temporary anchor light as the one at the top of the mast isn't working while I went next store to the Winn-Dixie grocery store and finished up about the same time. Next on the agenda was going to Sailor Exchange. Turns out Greer, Aaron's wife, works there so we met her again. Phil got what he wanted but they didn't have the material I wanted to make screens to hang from the Bimini and Farouck. I did find 1 1/4" seam binding in Sunbrella Toast so bought a small reel for $10. After we got home it looks like we have 20+ yards so was a good deal.

Back to the boat I realized that I had left my bag there but got lucky in that Greer brought it home by 2pm. We have to check bags there and I forgot it.

One of the aftereffects of the rain is that the hatch in the V-berth was open for the initial deluge while Phil was getting the dinghy taken care of and we have a leak with the fore hatch.. Taking advantage of the dryer - we dried all the towels and then another load for the bedding. As it's to get down to 49F tonight, will be good to have dry bedding. We're spending an extra night on the dock so that we can have the heater run tomorrow morning.

So the afternoon was spent drying clothes, making the bed and getting ready for my friend Liz and her friend Dan to come for supper. We had to change plans back and forth not knowing if they could have dinner on the boat or not, so I'm glad that we ending up having dinner on the boat. They arrive on time at 6pm and we had a wonderful time. They brought us a treat of --- Ice cream - really a treat as you can't keep it frozen. 9pm came too soon as they have to work in the morning. I'm glad to hear that Liz is happy here in St. Augustine and she likes the 90degree temps.

Tomorrow we are planning on getting a mooring ball in the morning staying one more day for the weather to get better. Then as it's to be SE winds <5 to max 10 kts for the next 3 days - we plan to go outside on the Atlantic Ocean to get to Cumberland Island, GA. That's about 50nm which is doable for a day sail.

Boat problems - St. Augustine, FL

2011-04-04T19:04:00.000-04:00

Saturday, April 2
Vero Beach to NASA Causeway Bridge
Distance Traveled: 54.6 nm
Miles to get home: 563.33 nm
Total Distance Traveled: 3256.06 nm

Last night it really cooled off - was 59F outside when we woke and 68F cabin temperature. Phil woke cold last night and I had to get the V-berth quilt to cover us. But it was sunny and it warms up fast here.

We released the mooring ball with sea smoke on the water at 715am. While Phil was on watch first, I started a batch of Artisan Bran enriched wheat bread and set it out to rise at 835am. This is a type of bread that is not kneaded. Just mix, rise until collapses and put in the refrigerator in a ziploc bag not sealed completely and is good for 14 days. We talked briefly with Sue Brannon and they are a couple days south of us. I know that I started on today's post and will finish it up now. We did get to sail for a couple hours, which is no mean feat on the ICW, but by 4pm the winds died to 7-8 knots and going downwind, not strong enough to keep the head sail filled. We had wanted to make Titusville, FL today, but we've had a worsening vibration problem with the engine/prop shaft/cutlass bearing so can only go 5 knots wit the engine. We stopped just on the other side of the Addison Bridge which is the bridge for the NASA Causeway out to the launch pad. We can see the buildings in the distance.

I fix rice sauce mix and added dehydrated carrots, canned green beans and a pack of tuna for a quick one pot meal. I also made a loaf of the bread that started this morning and have the rest of the dough in the refrigerator. Was very good.

We talked to our friend Ken on S/V Sail Away and got some good tip to avoid hitting ground which worked like a charm. Thanks Ken!. He's a day ahead of us and going to St. John River. Depending on what happens with the boat, we'll meet up with him if we can.

I started making a pair of socks for Phil - starting with the toes. I had some sock yarn that he liked. Want to keep him happy. Phil read for the evening.

Sunday, April 3
Addision Bridge to Daytona Beach
Distance Traveled: 44.46
Miles to get home: 607.79 nm
Total Distance Traveled: 3300.52 nm

We woke a little late this morning as about 4am the boat really started rocking from the wind shifting to the north. Not great when you're in the V-berth. It's cold and I take the single quilt and lay on the port settee while Phil is on the Apple Computer. Eventually I warm up and go back to sleep and Phil goes to bed in the V-berth after the rocking calms down.

It's is sunny CT (cabin Temp) 72F, AT (Air Temp) 68F with blue skies and a light dew. Phil was still sleeping when I woke, so I started the coffee water and then woke him before 730am. We started the engine at 745am and raised anchor at 750am to N 6 knots of wind.. The Max Brewer swing bridge is no more - there is a 65' high bridge to replace it and they are still in the process of removing the swing bridge, though they have made a lot of progress. By 1030am we made it through the Haulover Canal Bridge - the wind is from the North so we have been motoring the until after getting through this last bridge when the wind angle clocked to 90degree to SB and 11 knots of wind. We continue motor sailing until 145pm when the mail said is taking down as we are coming up to the Coronado Beach Bridge. By 415pm we are in Daytona Beach trying to anchor before the marinas and the Memorial Bridge. WE have problems. The GPS says there is 14' of water - then why did we get stuck three times?? On - work hard in reverse to get off taking many minutes - try to go to deeper water and get stuck again 2 more times. Finally we get to deeper water closer to the ICW and ar anchored at 515pm.

We can tell it's Sunday as the motor boats and recreational vessels are out in force. Many times there are power boats passing us in both directions - zipping by if their smaller and going slower (if we're lucky) when they're bigger. Phil says the Buzz Bombs (as he calls these boats) should be stopping soon when the sun goes down and the frequent rocking from the wakes will stop.

For supper I make the mushroom rice mix and add mushrooms (that I cut up yesterday and forgot to add) the left over cooked beef and fresh cooked spinach on the side. We eat up the rest of the loaf of bread that I make yesterday. After supper we take Sun Showers in the head as it doesn't get dark until close to 8pm now that the sun sets about 730pm. I finish knitting the toes of Phil's socks and Phil reads.

Monday, April 4
Daytona Beach to St. Augustine, FL
Distance Traveled: 41.75 nm
Miles to get Home: 649.55 nm
Total Distance Traveled: 3342.28 nm

The CT was 73F today - better than the last couple days and AT is 68F but the weather radio report said it was 59F. Today we get an early start to make the Memorial Bridge before they close for rush hour traffic We raise anchor at 703am and make it through the bridge with S/V Warm Rain about 715am. The next bridge is about 1 mile away and we make it through before 730am. Phil has the first watch and I take over at 9am with the wind from 205degrees (almost S) 9 kts. Phil starts making calls to boat yards in St. Augustine to see which would be the best place for us to have the boat hauled and have the prop shaft and cutlass bearing looked at. We hope that is the only problem. After a few return calls Phil has all the information he needs to think about and make his decision later in the day. He is considering Oasis Boat Yard and St. Augustine Marine Center. As the day progresses the wind picks up first to the lower teens mid morning. The wind angle clocks enough that we put out the head sail. The wind dies after a bridge - so we roll in the head sail but 10 min later it's out again. We are going downwind so we work to keep the sail filled and eventually during Phil's watch he rolls it in and that's it for the day. We are down to 2 slices of store bought bread, and given that we'll be in a boat yard tomorrow, I start making some sandwich bread. I start with a white bread recipe and add 1/4 c. wheat bran, 1 T flax seed and replace 2 c. of white flour with whole wheat flour. I like it but Phil always likes the fluffy stuff. As we are getting closer to St. Augustine, the tide is going out and we go in the upper 6 to 7.3 kts due to a favorable current. In no time we are at the Crescent Beach Bridge and turn left immediately after to turn into a creek and get to Oasis Boat Yard. The wind is blowing 20kts and pushing us onto the dock. Let's say that this docking wasn't pretty - the bow is being pushing to the dock - we're scrambling to get the boat pulled up so the entire boat is at the dock. I'm throwing things out of the sail locker to get the 3rd fender to put protect the bow. After lots of yelling - we get the boat secured. What fun!!! So we are docked and settled by 317pm. We walk up and find John in the boat yard and after they put in the big motor boat, he'll come talk to us. I take a 30 min nap and after 430pm we walk up to find the showers and see what's going on.

Phil talks to John and they will be pulling Changes tomorrow at 830am before a 60' Hatteras comes for to have the props changed. After they are done with the hatteras, they'll look at Changes and we'll see what they think is wrong to cause the vibration problem. Best case scenario - it's just the cutlass bearing - replaced and we go in Wednesday am (they need to dredge under the travel lift so we need to go in and out at high tide). We won't think about the worse case scenario.

I haven't fixed supper as we had a couple slices of the bread fas a snack - but Phil is taking a real shower and I'll fix something for us.

There is a cold front coming through so we're expecting winds in the upper 20's to 30's and showers with Thunderstorms tonight. We have electricity for the night so I'll work on downloading the photos and try to get some photos up for you to see soon. I promise.

Tomorrow evening we're going to meet with my HWR friend Liz for supper. She's kind enough to pick us up. We also plan to bike to the West Marine after the boat has been pulled and before they start to work on her to get the propane regulator so we can use the grill. Hey!

Starting back North

2011-04-02T14:06:00.000-04:00

Thursday, March 30

Fort Pierce to Vero Beach

Distance Traveled: 11.95 nm

Miles to get Home: 508.73

Total Distance Traveled: 3201.46

After my nap, I heard Ken on S/V Sail Away hail me on the radio as he was going through the Fort Pierce North Bridge. I didn’t expect to see him this soon after we got in Florida, but was glad. He’s going to Vero Beach today too, so we look forward to seeing him again. After Phil woke about noon he started on replacing the zincs on the prop shaft. I don’t know the complete reason why (Phil could tell you) but salt water is a conductor and the metal on the boat in the water gets eaten away and we have zinc on the prop shaft and engine so they get corroded away first and not the metals in the prop, prop shaft and engine. So first thing Phil replaces the zinc on the prop shaft. There was a strong tidal current which made it harder to do than normal as he has to dive under water to do this job. By 1249pm we’ve started the engine and are underway going through the bridge at 105pm. The wind is S to SSE 8-13 kts and as the afternoon progresses, it climbs to the low to mid 20’s and then the upper 20’s. It’s a warm wind so feels good and is strong enough that at 220pm we let out the head sail and turn off the engine and get 30 minutes of sailing to Vero Beach Municipal Marina. We get assigned mooring ball #10, which I think is the same one we were on when coming south. Even with the high winds, Phil and I work together and pick up the mooring ball first try!! By 355pm the dinghy is taken off the deck and put in the water and soon after the 8hp engine is on the dinghy.

While Phil was taking off the straps, the lid flew into the water and start floating away. Soon after, a dinghy passed towing Ken and they were kind enough to retrieve our Tupperware type lid. After chatting, we received an invitation to the Riverside Care Happy hour and dinghied over after checking in at the office. It’s now $13.50/day for a mooring ball. Turns out we had supper there. Phil had the best mussels and nachos and I had a salad, still being full from the corn beef and cabbage dish I warmed up for lunch today while underway. We had a great time getting to know Debbie and Kevin from S/V Grace, a Morgan 35’. Back at the boat, there were dark clouds on the horizon so I quickly took a sun shower before it cooled off. The clouds and winds blasting to 35+kts went through, but no rain and after the clouds passed the winds were light and the sky was clear.

Taking advantage of being able to use our Verizon MiFi hotspot, Phil was on his computer while I knitted a baby blanket.

Thursday, March 31

Vero Beach

We had thought about staying here a few days to get some boat jobs done and take advantage of the good bus service here. We caught the Go Line bus at 910am and went to West Marine picking up some boat items including the part for the grill and then to Radio Shack to get the CD’s. We went to a few banks to try to exchange the Bahamian money into dollars with no luck since we don’t have an account with anyone. I think that next time we go to the Bahamas, we’ll open an account with Royal Canadian Bank so that we can take out cash there without any fees charged and I would recommend that you either than $4-5 thousand dollars or do the same. We went to Publix for just a few items as Phil was anxious to get back to the boat. Back my noon, the winds was anywhere from the upper teens to upper 20’s with a few low 30 kt winds in there also. We put an extra line on the mooring ball just to be safe as north of here they were tornado watches and warnings out and talk of 60-70kts winds that may get to us. Phil got to work removing the diode and front heat sink from the Plexiglas mounting board, which had gotten hot enough to melt the Plexiglas where the bolts were. He installed a Battery combiner to remove the source of the heat. When we rarely used the motor, the diodes and heat sinks weren’t a problem – big problem with all the motoring that we do on the ICW.

We heard bad news on the radio from the Coast Guard – S/V Endorphin a boat that was at Great Sale Cay with us – is taking on water 20 mi off the coast of Lake Worth – looking at the coordinates, they are still in the Gulf Stream. As we listened for a couple hours, a Tow Boat reached them and they were rescued. The winds here are 16-31 kts so I can only imagine what the wind was like on the ocean.

This evening we went to Ken’s for supper on Sail Away. He made beef shish kabobs and I brought cupcakes that tasted like brownies I made from scratch. Debbie and Kevin joined us for dessert and we had an enjoyable evening, leaving about 830am as another rain cloud was on the way. It turned out we got to the boat at the right time, as it started raining mod to heavy and continued through the night until after 2am.

Friday, April 1

Vero Beach

6 boats left the mooring field including Sail Away and Grace. The Cabin temp is 74F and Air temp outside is 68F. We have clear skies and light winds. This morning I did 6 loads of clothes and was able to visit with Polly of S/V Chinook who sold me the knitting needles in Georgetown. They have been back in the States for a week and are working their way back home to Virginia. Maybe we’ll see them again along the way.

After laundry, we went to visit a C&C 40 centerboard that I found for sale on the bulletin board in the lounge at mooring ball #55. It’s a nice boat – a 1981 – and has a lot of big projects already done. I like the boat as does Phil – but if we are going to get a bigger boat, we have to sell Changes first – so I’m open to offers now – but will officially have to wait until we get home.

This afternoon after Phil got diesel and water for tank – we too the bus to Publix and got more groceries – we checked out West Marine and se need the regulator for the part we bought to connect to the propane tank. Of course they’re out of them. Hopefully we can get the part while we’re in Florida so we can grill the crawfish tail meat on the grill.

We have decided that we’re going to move on tomorrow – trying to get to Titusville, FL. WE have a lot of miles to cover to get back home and need to get started. We’re lucky in that the days are longer so should be able to make about 60 nm a day. We plan to get to St. Augustine, FL on Sunday, see if I can see my friend Liz; go to Sailors Exchange on Monday and then leave Tuesday, weather permitting, for points north.

Back in the United States - Fort Pierce, FL

2011-03-30T12:03:00.000-04:00

Monday, March 28
Green Turtle Cay to Great Sale Cay
Distance Traveled: 54.09 nm
Miles to get Home: 387.68
Total Distance Traveled: 3080.41 nm

We listened to Chris Parker Weather and it looks like it should be a good day to go to Great Sale Cay with the winds predicted to be SE -S - SW 5-10kts - 15kt at times and should be decreasing as the day goes on. They are predicting squalls for tonight - so we'll see what the weather is when it gets to tonight.

Since we have a long day ahead of us, we raised anchor a little before 7am and exiting the channel by 711am and near the exit of the channel saw 1ft of water under the keel. We raised the main sail and then rolled out the head sail @ 805am - with course set at 315 degrees the wind is 8kt at wind angle 120 to port. By 830am we were coming up to S/V Water Hobo who we chased all day but the winds also increased to 17 kts so we turned off the engine and sailed. As the day went on the wind continued to clock until it was NW - NOT predicted and gray and cloudy. By 1211pm we rolled up the head sail and started the engine and were sailing into 17kts of wind at 41 degree angle to port. We continued motor sailing until we rounded Great Sale Cay and went inside. There were 5 boats that were anchored in the NW Anchorage completely exposed to this wind. Why I can't imagine. But when we lowered the anchored at 525pm we were glad to be in a safe place. The winds are predicted to be N to NE tonight so we will stay here instead of taking a nap and leaving. We'll see what the winds are tomorrow to decide whether to cross the Bahama Banks or not.

Tuesday, March 29 to Wednesday, March 30
Passage Great Sale Cay to Fort Pierce, FL
Distance Traveled: 109.1 nm
Miles to get Home: 496.78
Total Distance Traveled: 3189.51nm

We listened to Chris Parker and he recommends to do the crossing to Florida tonight, but this morning the sky cleared, the wind clocked to S and we decided to leave this morning at 10am so that we'll get to Florida at dawn.

in preparation for the crossing, I made sandwiches for us to eat during the passage and also prepared some fish hash to cook up later for supper. A little early, we raised anchor at 955am with the Main Sail up. The wind was light - 5 kts and there were no waves. Quickly we got on our course of 279 degrees to make it to Little Bahama Banks waypoint. We contacted S/V Water Hobo and we decided to keep in contact throughout the crossing. Later in the day, they will download the Grib files (weather reports) and pass them through to us. By noon, we had lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches since the last of the home made bread is stale, and canned peaches. Most of the day the wind was from 70 - 100 degrees ranging from 3- 8 kts. By 530pm the wind increased to 10 kts and we were seeing small white caps on 1 ft waves and the wind angle gradually became down wind. By 721pm we had made it off the Bahama banks and we lost depth sounder readings. We are officially in the ocean. During the day, we took 2 hour watches but starting at 6pm after we ate supper, we started the 3 hrs watches with me starting a 6pm. Water Hobo has been behind us all the way on the horizion and the last that I saw her was at 8pm a dot on the horizon. At this time our course was 290 - 295 degrees - 56.8 nm miles left with ETA 6am. Once we get through the gulf stream we may slow down to arrive at light. Throughout the night, we were not able to maintain radio contact with Water Hobo but we did hear her hail us.

Crossing the Gulf Stream was as good as it comes, even though the current made if very bouncy, making it difficult to get sleep for the off watch person. Phil encounter a few freighters during his watch and when I came on at midnight we saw one in the distance. He decided to stay above to watch this freighter and I'm glad that he did. The freighter didn't have a light on the bow and so it was difficult to determine the direction it was going - towards us it turned out. Once we determine that we were on a collision course, Phil turned the boat in a U-turn (headed back East) until the boat passed. My heart was pumping and I'm very glad that Phil was at the helm!!! Phil went down below to get some shuteye and even though I saw a couple more freighters, there were too far away to be of any consequence. Between 2-230am we got out of the Gulf Stream and I changed course to SW to head towards Fort Pierce being almost 3nm right of the rhumb line - as the Gulf Stream pushed us north. The weather was very warm for the crossing and then cooled and got damper.

Phil took over at 3am and I slept very well waking at 540am and coming out to join Phil. Phil decided not to slow down our approach and so we were in the well lit channel coming into Fort Pierce. We turned left onto the ICW and anchored at 615am just before and on the left of the Fort Pierce North Bridge. Then we took down the Main Sail.

Phil went to sleep and I cleaned up a little and did some knitting after calling my Mom at 7am. Our US phones are working, charged and on so any calls from friends and family are welcome. The internet using our MiFi from Verizon is also on so I hope to make more regular postings to the blog.

We are sorry to leave the Bahamas but it's time now for us to be in the States. Our plans are to get some rest and then go to Vero Beach Municipal Marina, pick up a mooring ball and stay there until we get mail from home. Mail to us can be addressed to:
S/V Changes, Phil Dolsen, c/o Vero Beach Municipal Marina.

3611 Rio Vista Boulevard, Vero Beach, FL

Marina phone is 772-231-3829

Both of us look forward to catching up with family and hearing people's voices we haven't heard in a long time.

Treasure Cay

2011-03-27T19:57:00.000-04:00

Saturday, March 36
Treasure Cay

We started out the morning renting a golf cart (the last one that came in just as we requested one the 2nd time) that we shared with another cruising couple, and went to the Nautical Flea Market. There weren't as many vendors as we were hoping for - maybe next year it will be better. But I was able to buy 2 long lengths of used line for $5/ea so now I have some line to make mats for the boat. We were there less than a hour - which included time chatting with other boaters and then came back to the marina.

We went back to the boat to get ready to go to the Beach. Treasure Cay has the #1 beach in the Caribbean and I can see why. The sand is so fine - doesn't hurt you feet - and also it's so white that even with the sun beating down on it - it doesn't get hot - not like the sand at Headlands Beach at home. We rented 2 beach lounge chairs and got a free beach umbrella for anchoring so we were set to relax for a while. Phil went swimming and I stayed and knitted - continuing to make my pink and gray socks. I'm not working on the legs. About 1230pm we went up to the Cocoa Beach Bar and Grill and had cheeseburgers and french fries for lunch. Back to the beach - Phil read and then went swimming again. He said the water was wonderful. It's was a calm day with the wind from the south. As the tide was coming in, it was great to see the waves break over the reefs and see how the color of the water changed as the depth changed. We had enough about 2pm and went to the Golf Cart, since we had it for the day. Coming out of the marina, we turned left to go to the flea market so this time we turned right and went down to the far point both on the bay (beach) side and also on the Sea of Abaco side. A few more shells here, but not many at all.

Back to the boat we got my computer and I check email and facebook. For supper I fixed the Mahi Mahi with a pasta sauce mix and canned peas added.

We have been having lots of discussion about whether there is a sufficent and good weather window for us to go back to the States early this week or not. WE talked to Randy on S/V Lipari about this. He gets a email from Chris Parker and there is to be some rain and squalls on the north route (the route that we are going to take). So as of tonight, we have decided to stay at Treasure Cay for the rest of the week and go for the weather window April 4 that may come.

Sunday, March 27
Marsh Harbor to Green Turtle Cay
Distance Traveled: 17.85 nm
Miles to get Home: 333.59 nm
Total Distance Traveled: 3026.32 nm

So we woke up later this morning and Phil decides that he wants to go to Green Turtle Cay today because you never know for sure if Chris Parker is right - meaning that the weather changes easily and maybe it will change favorably. We had breakfast and came into land. I went on the computer and Phil went to the grocery store to stock up on New Zealand Butter and this will be our last change if we leave to come back Monday. Phil bought 3.5#'s which is great. This is good butter - nice flavor, so we'll have some for in the states.

We got back to the boat about 1030am and then got ready to leave. This is the first time since we've been in the Abacos that we've put the 8hp engine on the boat. By 1052am Phil starts the engine and in quick succession the Main sail is raised and we raise the anchor. We are leaving a just past low tide but think there will be enough water in the channel, and we are right - 1.4ft under the keel is the least that we see. S/V Lipari is at the gas dock probably loading up on fuel and water. As we go out the channel there is one boat ahead of us, one directly behind and as we are farther out - 7 more boats are leaving. The wind is from 295 degree at 15-16 kts. By 1120am we let out the head sail and then put the engine in neutral - so we are sailing and charging the batteries. It's warm and the breeze is a relief. We are going about 4.75 kts max.

We are going to Spoil Cay to go collecting sea shells and drop anchor at 1244pm. Lipari is following us and are kind enough to pick us up in their dinghy - Randy stays behind to wash the bottom of their cataraman and Janet, Phil and I go to the beach. There are many shells here and we collect about half a gallon bag full. Mostly regular kind that you get many places, just in large numbers. We say good bye to Janet - that's one of the hard parts - saying good bye to the friends that we've made - and are back on Changes. We start the engine at 201pm, raise the mainsail and then the anchor is up at 206pm.    The wind is down to 9-10 kts and we are motor sailing for the rest of the trip.

We went out the loggerhead channel across of 2 mi of the Atlantic ocean and in Whale Cay Channel. Here they talk about going in the Whale. This can be a dangerous to go through even though hit gets to be 35' deep, but today there are 1' swells about 9-11 seconds apart and 1 foot chop.

Tomorrow Katie turns 21 so today as a treat for both of us, I called her and wished her Happy Birthday. She starts another quarter of school tomorrow and I didn't want to chance not having cell phone signal. Shortly after the call, we got to the channel to get into White Sound on Green Turtle Cay. There is a narrow channel and even though we were going close to high tide - the least amount of water seen was 1ft under the keel. Now we are worried about getting out tomorrow morning, but Phil has checked the tides on the GPS and there is .2 less feet of water when we are leaving tomorrow so we should be ok. WE drop anchor at 424pm.   Then the next job is to get the dinghy on the foredeck. We have figured out a way to make it easier for us and after about 12-15 min - the boat is on board. Then Phil cleans the bottom and straps it to the deck. It is hot and even though there is 2 hrs left until sundown, we put up the Farouck.

I get on the internet and chat with Katie a little more before she has to go eat supper. I have turned on our US cell phone using the internet - so they are up and running for when we get into the States. We don't want anyone to use them yet until I send out an OK message on the blog or we call you.

The past 2-3 weeks, many times I've wanted to go back to the States, and now that the time is near - in many ways I don't want to go back. It's beautiful here in the Bahamas - The Abacos are much or civilized than the Exumas - so we're both glad that we decided to come here at the last minute. We have discussions about taking off a year and then not taking off a year and go again this fall. I still would like a bigger boat and Phil still wants to keep Changes.

We have checked the weather - and the winds are to have mostly some southerly direction to them, but there is some rain coming. At this time, we still plan to leave. So either I'll post a message that we're in the States - or you'll get one that we'll be here for a few more days. The weather will tell. We are planning on checking into Customs at Fort Pierce and then go to Vero Beach to wait for mail to be sent to us. We haven't received any mail since we entered the Bahamas Dec 15 so I'm sure we'll have a stack. I still have photos to upload - will do that in the States.

Great Guana Cay to Treasure Cay

2011-03-25T15:53:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone, Sorry that it's been so long since I last posted. Have been working on backing up 62GB of data from my laptop hard drive to an external hard drive. Also downloading 911 photos from early Feb to now - Wow! Can use only so much electricity on the boat at one time and I've been really pushing it lately with the backup. Below are posts from March 17 to yesterday. We have now traveled over 3000 nm's.

Thursday, March 17

Hopetown to Marsh Harbor, Abacos

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Distance Traveled: 7.69 nm

Miles to Home: 284.59

Total Distance Traveled: 2977.32 nm

We woke to very nice weather and hardly any winds. We got underway at 710am and motored all the way to Marsh Harbor as the winds were 3.4 – 3.6 kts at 180degree wind angle. The water was so glassy that we could see the bottom and saw many starfish and some sea urchins. We left this early as High tide was 645am and we needed the extra depth to get out of the harbor.

As we were coming up to Marsh Harbor, it was smoky outside – still from the woods fired I guess – and we entered Marsh Harbor @ 840am and dropped anchor at 858am. We tried to go to the deep area (6’ under keel compared to 2.7 – 3’ under keel) but there are mooring balls there – so had to go somewhere else. Soon afterward, Phil went to take the garbage to the dumpster and S/V Winsome anchored behind us while I stayed on the boat and worked on the knitting pink socks in the cockpit. Sometime after they anchored, Jim came over and picked up my 1 terabyte external hard drive and will be transferring music and movies that he has on his computer to my hard drive. The transfer will take 4 hours.

Tonight is the St. Patricks’s Day Party that we bought tickets for from the Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club to start at 5pm so after my afternoon nap, we started getting ready. We are going to walk over with Mike and Chris Link on S/V Missing Link and then take a taxi home so we arrived at the Jib Room at 4pm and left about 430pm. We were one of the first ones there. The Link were concerned about getting a place to sit, but turns out there were assigned tables. We had a great time, had the requisite Corn beef, cabbage, carrots and potatoes and there was an open bar. There was a DJ, so that music was good – lots of oldies from the 1940’s and 50’s. It interesting how many of the songs of that era were slow songs. By 9pm we got in the taxi and then back to the boat by 915pm.

I knitted and Phil read until we went to bed about 1030 – 1045pm.

Friday, March 18

Marsh Harbor

I overslept this morning and missed most of the synopsis for the weather from Chris Parker. With my ear plugs in, I couldn’t hear the alarm go off @ 625am. Darn! The wind is to be from the NE low to mid teens through Sunday and then be 20-25kts on Monday. But I had the luck that I could listen at 8am and was able to get the synopsis then.

This morning we went to Skeggs and wholesale seafood/market that is at the east end of the Harbor. We bought frozen lobster meat from 2 tails for $10/lb and 3 Mahi-Mahi fillets. We were also able to get most of what was on the list there, but then after putting the fish in the boat freezer, went to Maxwells to get the rest of what we needed.

We were back at the boat shortly afternoon and Phil turned on the engine so that I could burn some of the music on the hard drive that we picked up from Winsome on our way back from the grocery store. I burned a couple CD’s (we need to get more in the States – add it to the list) and then I tried to start backing up my Sony hard drive to the external hard drive – The trial version wouldn’t let me do it even though I have bought the full version over a year ago. Of course being in the Bahamas – I can’t call the company – too expensive and the 800 numbers don’t work.

On a good note, I chanted with Cheryl and Katie on Facebook, but I’m very upset about the lack of communication here in the Bahamas and the minor inconveniences. Feeling sorry for myself I’m teary. I just want to be back in the States! Poor Phil, he doesn’t know what to do.

Good thing that we are having supper with Jim and Linda on S/V Winsome. I make fresh mozz and tomato salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette and at 5pm we go to visit our friends. Linda make some beef stew from canned beef from Brinkmann farms close to Findlay, OH. It’s good and the beef is good – in broth not gravy. We had a great time chatting with Jim and Linda and returned to the boat about 835pm. I continued knitting by pink/gray toe up socks and started on the gusset. Phil read until we went to bed.

Saturday, March 19

Marsh Harbor

We woke to a beautiful sunrise and glassy water in the harbor. So glassy that I was able to take photos of the clouds reflected in the water. (insert Photo). Phil went to the Hardware store to get some parts to work on his project for the bow of the dinghy which I had breakfast and knitted some more. Then I started a loaf of the Artisan Bread.

After Phil returned and has his breakfast, we emptied out the V-berth and started on the all important project of checking out the holding tank. Turns out what he put on to seal the crack didn’t work as the contents leaked out. But the long narrow brush to get lint out of the dryer vents and worked well in cleaning as much as can be cleaned around the holding tank. After 3 buckets of salt water rinsing, it’s better when. The V-berth is put back together by lunchtime.

Still not a good day for me being in the Bahamas. I still want to be in the States, generally not fun for Phil to be around me – I finally go to the V-berth and cry and take a nap. Randy from S/V Lipari comes to talk to Phil and hears how bad I’m feeling. Once I wake, Randy offers to the use of his Magic Jack phone at the Jib Room and his laptop. How nice – gets me choked up again. Off we go and I’m able to call Barnes and Noble and find out that if someone in the states uses my account online and orders the book for me – I can download in the Bahamas. I talk to my Mom – bad connection for us both but good to hear her voice and I will send email with instructions for her to buy the “Toe-up Sock for Everybody” book for me. I also talk to my sister, Robin. It’s amazing how the act of kindness from Randy and being able to talk to family and get to sock instruction book does for me. THANK YOU RANDY! I feel much better and we’ll have to get a magic jack phone for our next travels out of the states. It’s a $20 phone that connects to the computer and goes through the internet and costs nothing besides the internet connection.

Today is the Full Moon – it’s the closest and brightest full moon in 20 years and with the full moon, that means extreme low and high tides. We leave the Jib room when I’m done with the computer and go to drop off garbage. It is now low tide and the dinghy dock is resting on the ground. There are a couple men standing in the water – it being not quite to their knees. WE leave the dinghy in deeper water – really a misnomer- because we have to tilt up the outboard and use the paddle to pushing against the ground to get close to another inflatable dinghy. Leaving out dinghy out as far as we can, we clamber over the dinghy and walk to the garbage toter.

This evening we treated ourselves to steak dinner and a rake and scrape and limbo at the Jib Room. The steaks are cooked on a grill and 1.5” thick – so Phil and I split the steak and I got extra sides. The food was delicious and more than enough. We were disappointed in the rack and scrape – not as many people there, but the limbo was good. I took some photos of Nancy from S/V Pegasus and will email them to her once I download them to my computer. After the limbo, we went across the harbor to Snappas as we heard there was a live band playing starting at 9pm. The band was good so we stayed to dance through their first set. BTW – I was able to download the book my Mom bought online. After getting home, we were still able to listen to the music until after we went to bed. It was a good band so we didn’t mind.

Sunday, March 20

Marsh Harbor to Fishers Bay, Great Guana Cay

Distance traveled: 8.24 nm

Mile to Home: 292.83

Total Distance Traveled: 2985.56 nm

Today we are going to Man of War to get mooring ball for the increased NE winds that are to come. We raised anchor at 842am with the wind from 50-60 degrees at 8-10 kts. We put out the head sail and the winds increased to 11-12 kts with the wind angle at 50 degrees from starboard. We heard Patty on S/V Last Tango that is at Man of War Cay going to Great Guana Cay. It’s upwind with lots of tacks to get to Man of War Cay so we change our minds and decided to go to Great Guana Cay. By 917am we have changed course with the wind angle at 76 degrees, waves down to 1 foot. We are motor sailing at 6.05 – 6.15 knots , then down to 3.93 to 4.15 kts with the engine running to charge the batteries but in neutral. We don’t have far to go so can afford to actually sail. It’s a nice sail and by 1033am we have dropped anchor in Fisher’s Bay. At first we were dragging the anchor, so had to let out an additional 20’ for the hook to set. We have 6-7’ of water under the keel so won’t have to worry about the low – low tide.

It’s not too long that we take the dinghy into town to explore. The dinghy dock is a Grabbers and both Phil and I get a business card – buy one drink and get one free. We walk into town, and walk to Nippers. Just like Hopetown, the “road” is really like a wide sidewalk big enough for golf carts and a narrow car. Nippers is on the beach on the Atlantic Ocean side. The beach is nice but there isn’t much on it to collect except sea weed. We do see these purple triangular floating objects – looks like what we say in Hopetown. There are lots of people around – some sitting in tidal pools of water on the land side of rocks sunbathing. WE walk down the beach and come to a couple of older ladies reading and sunning on a large flat rock. We stop tochat and find out that Judy and Sharon are sisters (I can remember their names as I have an Aunt Judy and aunt Sharon). Sharon has been coming to the same cottage since 1959 for 6 weeks in the winter. Her husband doesn’t like coming here – not enough to do – so he goes to Cape Cod instead. Judy has been coming here for a couple weeks each year since 1984. We had a nice chat – they also knit and told me about a knitting only store in Marsh Harbor. Sharon always looks for the beads that come from Africa each year and knows when she finds them that she’ll be back next year.

We walk back to Nippers and Phil buys a T-shirt and I get a Nippers Tevias glass with a free 16oz frozen rum punch. WE also meet M/V friends Mike and Jana and Jerry and Linda whom we met in Warderick Wells in January. We can tell that it’s spring break because there are many college age kids around. Phil really enjoys the views, particularly this one young lady in a bikini with a nice backside. He’s sneaking taking photos – Need I say more??

I’ve had plenty to drink so we go back to the boat after stopping by Last Tango to talk with Gary and Patty. Gary’s sister and brother-in-law are staying with them so we say hi to them also. Back to the boat I take a nap until 5pm. Phil’s not too hungry, so I warm up the Trader Joe’s beef hash in a foil pouch and a can of corn. Good and easy.

We were going to go into Grabbers, but the predicted bad weather finally arrives with rain and then at 734pm the increased wind. We decided that it’s better to stay on the boat and Last Tango get to their boat from Grabbers just before the rain started. Then we read for the rest of the day.

Monday, March 21

Fishers Bay,

Great Guana Cay

The winds are to continue to be NE 15-20 kts today and tomorrow according to BASRA weather, but Chris Parker at 8am says it will be ENE 20-25 today and tomorrow and Wednesday 5-8 kts. I spent the morning burning a CD and backing up my Sony HD to the external hard drive. For some reason it’s working. Of course this uses us a lot of electricity so half the time + Phil is running the engine so I don’t drain the batteries. We are looking for a 12 vlt to 20vt converter so I can run the laptop off the batteries and not the inverter. Put it out on the Abaco Cruisers Net and no response so will have to wait until we get into the States to get one. Without this converter, using the computer really uses up the juice in the batteries so have been asking Phil to run the engine for a couple hours or so and just do a little each day.

After lunch, Phil and I went into town again. It is MUCH quieter than yesterday. All the college students are gone. We had ice cream in a cup at Pirate’s Cove. Tasted good but a little skimpy on the servings, but that’s the Bahamas for you. We walked to Nipper and the waves breaking on the reefs are much bigger today and beautiful. We decided not to walk the beach again and instead turned around. We saw the crew from Last Tango at the liquor store and stopped to chat. We got back to the boat at 230pm and I started making fresh pizza with the last of the refrigerated dough. Not greasing the pan or putting cornmeal on it, the first pizza stuck but good to the pan. Phil pried off as much as he could – it tasted good. I put Monterey Jack and Feta cheese topped with sliced fresh tomatoes, canned chicken and seasonings. The 2^nd pizza was in the oven and cooked enough to be able to pry easily off the pan and I sprayed the pan with Pam. That worked well and we couldn’t eat it all.

I continued knitting the pink/gray socks and reading. Have turned the heel and is now time to split the yarn in half with the remaining skein so I have 2 balls. I had used the smaller skein in making preemie hats for the triplets.

Pirate’s cove is having the movie “Walk the Line” on a 8’ screen after sunset so we left the boat about 715pm. The speakers weren’t working correctly – something to do with needing to convert the digital signal to analog to work on his speakers. Someone had disconnected them and he can’t figure out how to do it. We had seen the movie before, but it’s been awhile so we enjoyed it. Just sat close enough to hear except when the golf carts drove past on the “road” during the quiet scenes. By 930pm the movie was over and we walked back to the boat. It was DARK – the moon had not risen soon so I was glad that I had brought some of our head lamps so that we could see as Grabbers was closed and so they didn’t have any lights on. As Phil says “Darker than the inside of a cow”. I made some popcorn and Phil got out the Walk the Line Soundtrack on my Ipod Nano and played it on the radio while we read until we went to bed at 11pm.

Tuesday, March 22

Great Guana Cay

I was woke up this morning by a wake rocking the boat at 642am – too late for Chris Parker synopsis and Abaco weather forecast – will have to wait until 8am. There is also a lot of static on the radio so hopefully the propagation after sunrise will improve. Phil has been wanting to take a snorkeling trip and the weather is to be ENE 5 kts today so we called Dive Guana and got the last 2 seats on a all day snorkeling, island hopping trip. We leave at 10am and to return about 430pm. There were 20 people including a 4year old and 3-10-11 year olds just starting to turn into young ladies. First we went to Fowl Cay Reef, part of the Bahamas Sea Park and were able to see a good reef for about a hour. (insert photos). Von is the certified diver and lifeguard. There were reefs on both sides of the boat and on the way back from the 2^nd reef, we saw 2 good size barracudas. About 1115pm we then left for Hopetown and lunch at Abaco Inn. I had the grilled Mahi-Mahi with French fries and coleslaw and Phil had a burger and fries. We had lunch with Troy who owns Dive Guana and another couple, Dave and Mary from the Chesapeake down here on vacation in a cottage. He bought a Sidleman 30’ sailboat for $4000 sight unseen. This boat became available when the man who owned the boat was killed when he fell between the boat and the dock at night. It was so dark that they weren’t able to find him until the next day and he didn’t wear a life jacket. His wife just wanted to get rid of the boat so Dave bought it.

After lunch, we had until 2pm to walk around town. To save us a walk around the harbor (2-3 mi) we were taken over to the Hopetown Lighthouse which is still being run on Kerosene lantern and has to be round up every 1.5 hrs throughout the night. Phil and I walked up the 101 steps to the top and had a great 360 degree view. Back on the boat again, we were given rum punch to drink as Man of War Cay is a dry town. We had about 45 min to walk around town and see the sights. Man of War is where the boats in the Bahamas were made year ago and is still the place where the Albury Brothers still make boats. It’s a good place here to get your boat fixed. (insert photos) One of the stores had the canvas Androsia canvas fabric for sale for $27.50 per yd. Boy did I want to buy some to recover the pillows inside the boat, but I resisted. On the way back, Von put on his wet suit again and in 25-30’ deep water went conch shell hunting. He picked up a king helmet shell and a conch shell and then the boat pulled him along while he hung onto the back of the swim platform as he searched for more with his mask and snorkel tube on. He brought up 5 more in one dive! 2 were too immature to eat so were tossed back into the water. Von took over helm on the boat and Troy gathered the kids and adults to show them how he prepares the conch for the salad. I got first dibs on the King Helmet shell and will take it with me at the end of the trip. Everyone who wanted some had conch salad while getting off the boat.

When Phil paid for the trip, Troy said to tie a line around the foot and hang the shell from a tree for a week so that it would die and fall out. Then the ants would eat what is remaining inside the shell and it won’t smell. The back of the shell is covered with slimy/hard stuff and so will need to be cleaned off. At this time, I have the shell in water until I can decide when I can have it somewhere for the ants to help me with the cleaning.

We were back at the boat at 515pm and took sun showers after we added some cooler water as the water in the sun shower would have been too hot. We decided to put the Farouck up and then Phil ran the engine while I spent more time backing up the hard drive. So far 26.9 GB has been backed up and I have 42.5GB left to go.

I cooked Steak with sweet and white potatoes, zucchini, and carrots in one pot. Phil went to bed at 9pm and I read and went to bed at 1030pm. I have been writing in composition books and am now finished with my 6^th book for the trip.

Wednesday, March 23

Great Guana Cay to Marsh Harbor

Distance Traveled: 7.51 nm

Miles to get home: 300.34 nm

Total Distance Traveled: 2993.07 nm

The past couple weeks while listening to Chris Parker, there have been many boats that are asking for information on crossing the Gulf Stream to get to Florida – usually Lake Worth to Fort Pierce. Believe it or not, there are still some boat that are crossing from Florida to the Bahamas. The wind is to be S to SW to WSW most of the day today and WSW 10-15 kts tomorrow which is not a good direction in the anchorage we are in. We have decided to go to Marsh Harbor today to do laundry and see if we can buy so blank CD’s to burn music on. So after weather and breakfast, we raised anchor at 9am with the wind from 200 degrees 3 – 5 kts. We are going to motor the entire trip and have left the Farouck on. There are no waves on the Sea of Abaco today. While the motor is running, I have continued to back up my hard drive getting to 42.0 GB done and 28.2GB remaining by the time we are in Marsh Harbor.

We enter the harbor at 1033am and have dropped anchor at 1038am with Knot Tied and Valient 40’ and Sweet Chariot II in front of us. WE got the dinghy together – no problem as we didn’t take off the 8Hp engine, and Phil took me to the laundry and he went to get water put in Changes and bought almost 20 gals of diesel. Phil says that we have enough diesel on board to go 400mi, which is more than enough to get us to Florida. The 5 loads of clothes were done by 2pm when I saw Phil coming across the harbor to pick me up.

Back at the boat we had ham and tomatoe sandwiches and then at 330pm went into town to see if we could find some CD-R’s to buy. Ardcom had them for $1/cd – then and electronics store down the way had a pack of 50 for $35. We stopped in a video store where they will download and burn any movie available on the internet for $10/movie or 3 for $20. They had CD’s for $1.50 ea so we have decided to wait until we get to the states to buy CD’s.

We stopped by to invite Laura and Graehme of Sweet Charriot II to play cards with us this evening and were invited aboard for drinks and a chat. We found out that Winsome decided to leave on Tuesday to go back to the states. This was too good of a weather window for them to pass up. Merlin and another boat also left to go to the States. We can tell that many boats have left the anchorage.

By 430pm we went back to the boat and noticed that we were pretty close to Knot tied. We let out 20’ of anchor chain and ---- went nowhere! Phil chatted with guy on Knot Tied letting him know were on the bottom and he’s ok with how close we are to him. Phil has always said that if we were able to find a good deal on a Valient 40’ that he would buy it – so now is the time to be searching for us. There is also a C&C 40’ Center board in St. Augustine that he’s interested in for $81,000.00. Maybe we could trade in Changes and get the price down a little. I can wish anyway.

I made ham slice with cabbage, carrots and canned white potatoes for supper and baked a rum cake for us to have for dessert with our guests.

About 7pm Laura and Graehme arrived. We had the rum cake which was good but I think I didn’t quite cook it long enough in the silicone bunt pan. We played 10 Penny and had a great time.

We are planning on leaving tomorrow to sail to Treasure Cay to pick up a mooring ball.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Marsh Harbor

Today the sky is clear but it’s windy. Wind is 250 to 255 degrees 13-14 kts and we have 0.9ft under the keel. I’m sure that we were on the bottom at low tide in the middle of the night again. The Cabin temp is 72F and it’s pretty chilly outside with the wind. Phil and I talk about it and we decided to see what happens with the wind before deciding whether to go to Treasure Cay. It would be 15 miles upwind – and not that we can’t do that, but we just saw some gusts to 18+ and there is no reason to beat ourselves up. After breakfast, Phil takes me in to the Jib Room so that I can work further backing up the hard drive and get some internet. By 1130am when Phil comes to pick me up again, I have 63.3 GB backed up and 16.6GB’s to go. Phil hasn’t run the engine yet today so will work on it some more this afternoon.

Back at the boat – it is more windy and the wind has clocked to the West – dead upwind. The wind is going down the harbor so it’s wet in the dinghy on the way back. We need bread and Phil again doesn’t want to make some so I start to make some light wheat bread and put about ½ cup wheat bran in. By 240pm the bread has risen twice and then a third time in the loaf pans and is in the oven. As the afternoon progresses, I think the wind has clocked some more as it’s not quite as bouncy as it was at lunch time. By 240pm I have 66.8 GB backed up and 13.0 GB’s to go. We’ll both be glad when this job is done. Once we’re in the States, we’re going to try to get the computer worked on. I didn’t bring the software to bring the computer back after a re-formatting the hard drive and we don’t know where we stored the software in Ohio? Our guess is that it’s in the Fairport Harbor storage but where there is anybody’s guess.

Our friend Ken on Sail Away had fixed his broken prop shaft and the prop shaft and has decided to go to Bimini to meet some mutual friends on Glenice and then in a couple days sail to Florida. He’s to meet a friend around Daytona and we hope to see him once we cross to the states too. He bought a Bahamian Cell phone so will try to reach him. We tried at lunch and it didn’t go through. Probably the phone company’s fault as I have $18 left for phone calls before we leave for the states.

Just a little while ago, Phil saw a C&C 24 or 25’ anchor in the channel. He said it’s the smallest C&C made. I don’t know why he anchored there – seems to me he would go closer to the other side to get out of the waves more. We keep waiting to see if the Defense force comes and asks him to move. The boat name is Agassiz and on the stern it says he from “Earth” instead of a town name. It’s been a week since I’ve posted, mostly because of the back up. I also need to download photos, which I’ll do after the backup also so stay tuned for more in a day or so.

By 355pm - the backup of 62GB of data is complete! I'm so glad.

We had ham, left over peas and rice and frozen peas and carrots for supper. As you can see, the wind did not go down so we stayed the afternoon and evening on the boat. Tomorrow we hope to go to Treasure Cay for the weekend.

Marsh Harbor and Hope Town, Abicos

2011-03-16T14:48:00.000-04:00

Friday, March 11
Marsh Harbor

We heard about the earthquake this morning from Chris Parker in case there was anyone on the Pacific Side to warn of possible tsunami's. This is terrible and can't imagine what the people of Japan are living through. Today we're to have winds 320 degrees 20 kts with Gusts to 25 kts and is supposed to be N at 17 kts in the morning and decrease to 12 kts by the end of the day. There was lots of static from lightening strikes on the ham radio so wasn't able to hear BASRA weather this morning.

As I look back from my log book I don't have anything written down excepting on the internet (a red letter day for me here :) ) and that we wernt to Snappas Baf for Happy Hour at 5pm, but as I was typing other days on the blog, it all came back to me (hey isn't that a Celine Dion song?). When we were at the Jib Room, I ordered to get the Toe-up Socks for Everybody book on the internet, but haven't been able to download it. I originally ordered in on the Nook and that was my big mistake. Now won't be able to bet this book on my Nook until I get in the states I suppose. I have it on my laptop, but it takes too much energy to have my computer on while knitting. Oh well.

Today we rode the bikes over to Boat Harbor and dropped of the package with the hats I made for Glenn's daughters with Shade Mor who has guests that will take it back to the states and mail it for me on Monday. We listened to the Royal Marsh Harbor Yacht Club meeting that's on ch 78 8am every M-W-F. Then on the way back, we stopped at Java (you guess it, a coffee shop) and saw Randy from S/V Lipari there on his computer. I got on my nook and tried to download the book again. No luck and we walked with him back to Harbor View Marina to see where the laundry room was. Janet was finishing up their laundry so we had a chance to chat. She had hurt her back and I'm glad to see that she's feeling much better. We bought tokens for the washer and dryer ($4/ea) so that we can do laundry tomorrow.

After visiting with Janet and Randy, we continued biking through town all the way down to Home Fabrics where I picked up some more coordinating fabrics for the Bahamas Quilt I'm going to make. I'm well over 100 signature squares and figure that they would have fabric that would match the Bahama Batik fabric more than at home. We are starting to get use to riding the bike on the left (wrong side to us) and though there are a lot of cars here, it's not nearly as bad at in Nassau. We must have ridden more than 3-4 mi all told today.

So let me tell you about Happy Hours. Snappas is really nice and casual. They have their bar that is on pilings and looking through the cracks in the floor, you can see water. It was cool and windy, so they have eisenglass windows above the half walls so keep out the breeze. Later in the evening, they turned on the propane standing heaters and it was very cozy inside. Once we got there, we saw our Canadian Friends that we met in Little Harbor at a table so we joined them. They are a lot of fun so we enjoyed chatting. The rum punches were free so Phil got two and boy were they strong. I was feeling it when I had drank half of one. Of course they were too sweet for Phil, so he got he bought a couple rum and tonics. Alice was sitting next to Phil and across from me so it was great to get to know her. They had free BBQ meatballs and teriyaki Chicken wings available and they were quickly eaten up. The Canadian are going to Hopetown tomorrow, so hope that we see them again while we're in the Abicos. By 725pm we were back at the boat and by 845pm I was in bed and Phil followed an hour later (I heard the next day).

Saturday, March 12
Marsh Harbor

Last night it got down to 66F inside the boat. That's the coolest it's been for a long time and we definitely used the quilt. It's hard to believe that it's time to move the clocks back for daylight savings time. Chris Parker will be on at 630am but will only have 30 min initially and then will be on again at 8pm. I'm sure that we'll get enough information in the first 30 minutes. The next week has wind predicted to be about 10kts +/- so we'll do some traveling this week. The different island to see are no more than 15 mi away and many are less than that so we hope to get some sailing done instead of motor sailing.

To start of the day, we dropped of the 10# propane tank and then dingied over to Harborview Marina. Today we washed 4 loads of laundry arriving at 830am. The office doesn't open until 9am so good things we got the tokens yesterday. We were the only ones there until I had the 4th load of clothes in the dryer (they have 3 washers and dryers). While I was watching the clothes, Phil walked to Java and got some breakfast egg and ham crossants for us and then got 20 gals of water. After that he went to pick up the propane tank (fill was $15) and then picked me up at 1130am laundry all done. Then he dropped me off at Curly Tails for me to use the internet and went back to the boat to wait my call on the radio.

About 1230pm I called Phil, but wasn't able to hear anything but static in response. Not to worry, Phil came to bet me at 1pm - perfect timing. I called Barnes and Noble and need to speak to the audit dept, which will have to wait until we get in the states. I have a direct number, but at $.80 per minute, the waiting time adds up quickly.

We are having Jim and Linda from S/V Winsome over for supper today, so once back at the boat, it was time to get the boat chores done in preparation. It sure doesn't take long for the sand and dirt to accumulate on the floor inside. Wish that we had a teak grate to have in the bottom of the cockpit so the sand doesn't come inside the boat so easily.

I fixed poached grouper fillets for supper with a mushroom white wine sauce. I had to cook down the liquid the fish was cooked it and unfortunately the sauce got too thick though tasted good. WE also have Bahamian peas and rice and dried cauliflower and fresh carrots. Linda brought dessert and after chatting after dinner we had the dessert. We had a great time and the grouper was very good.

Sunday, March 13
Marsh Harbor

No Chris Parker today and because of the time change (my clock changed but we forgot about it) we missed the Abico net program. We aren't the only one as there were a few who called in at 915am thinking it was 815am wondering when the net was coming on.

This morning I made a loaf of the Artisan bread that had been refrigerated for 3 days. During the resting and cooking time, I read. About 10 am Winsome was leaving the harbor, pulled up close to us and we exchanged magazines and books. They are planning on being back for the St. Patrick's day Party by Royal Marsh Harbor Yacht Club (RMHYC).

Today we're going over to the Jib Room taking the Sailrite sewing machine to see if I can help Diane and Phil on MV China Doll with some velcro fix on her shade panels. We are also invited for an late lunch. But before that, we dropped off the garbage and stopped by S/V FinniRish - They pronounce it like Finn Irish. They are from Cinncinnati, OH so we had to stop and say hi. We are going to visit them later for happy hour.

The company and dinner at China Doll was really good. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to fix the screen as they had the loopy side of the velcro instead of the hook side which was needed. Tomorrow they'll go into town and get the hook velcro and in the meantime, I'll leave the sailrite sewing machine on their boat. I don't know the type of motor boat they have, but it is very nice and roomy for a 36' boat. Fore and aft cabin and a nice size galley and salon sitting area. I believe it's 12' wide and very easy to live in. Phil said they have one engine and a bow thruster. Phil made clam pasta dish and Janet brought coleslaw. Both were very good.

So about 430pm we arrive at FinniRish, earlier than we expected. We had a nice time chatting and having appetizers. Jim and Elli are actually between Cinncinnati and Columbus. He's was a Public Defender and Elli had various jobs through the years but ended up in Hospital Administration the last 10+ years and they are now retired on their Catalina MKII 36'. They usually go to the Chesapeake for the summer and then down south for the winter. Just was it was starting to get dark and cooler, we left to go home. I made myself a sandwich later in the day and spent the evening reading before bed.

Monday, March 14
Marsh Harbor to Hopetown, Abicos
Distance Traveled: 10.71 nm
Miles to get home: 266.19
Total Distance Traveled: 2969.63 nm

We are planning on going to Hopetown today, but have to wait until very near high tide in order to get into the harbor which is close to 4pm this afternoon. So first Phil got out the folding bikes and we went into town so that we could get tickets for the St. Patrick's Day event by the RMHYC. We talked to Mike on Missing Link and they'd be happy for us to be their guest (nothing like inviting ourselves eh?) On our way into the dinghy dock, we stopped by S/V Fair Spirit a 38' Irwin CC (Center Cockpit for the non-sailors) and talked to them about their boat. They have a 4'6" draft, which is perfect for the Bahamas and it's not too big. We weren't invited aboard to take a look at the interior, but I think it was because they had people still sleeping on board. They feel like they have enough room for guests, except that the guests have to move their duffle bags from the V-berth to the settee when they sleep at night. They did said they wish they had a 42' once and then that wouldn't happen. But for us, I think it would be better and have more storage space. Now I'd like to check online to see if there are any for sale at our price. I can wish can't I?

By 905am we were at the dinghy dock and putting together the folding bikes. Saturday there was a black bahamian man with 2 kids that stayed at the dock helping people with their dinghies - grabbing the painter line and helping to get aboard. He helped us and it was welcome as the harbor was very bouncy, but today when it was quiet, there were 2 youngsters around. One helped us and I gave him a tip, but felt forced into it.

We got to M/V More Attitude and were able to pay the $60 for the St. Patrick's Day party and had a chance to chat with Peggy. Then time to get to a computer/office store with the goal of printing out some instructions so that I can start knitting some toe-up socks since I still can't get the book on the nook and I'm on the waiting list to download from the Library. The first place, Office Dept, had printers, but no availability to insert CD and print from that but we had a referral to another place closer to the harbor. This place worked, but we waiting while he inserted Microsoft Office 2007. It was a little pricey but now I'm ready to be able to get started after I finish the hat I'm currently knitting. We happened to see Mike and Chris Link so stopped to chat. Worked out that we'll leave the dinghy at the Jib Room, walk to the party with them and then share a taxi to get home.

1130am we're all set and go over to the Jib Room marina and work on Diane's screen. She was able to get 1.5' wide black hook velcro which is perfect. She also worked out where she wanted the velcro, so an hour later, the whole project is completed and she's planning on getting a Sailrite too. By 1230pm we're on our way back to Changes and immediately get starting getting ready to leave ( clean out the dinghy and took down the Farouck).

By 1pm Phil had started the engine and raised the main sail, The wind is 110 degrees at 9-11kts, so we are planning on sailing today as much as possible. 114pm the anchor is raised and we are on our way. By 130pm we're going upwind and the jib of out with the engine off. We take this opportunity being out of a harbor to use the mascerator pump and I go down below to take a nap, asking Phil to wake me if he needs me. 5 tacks later, we're close to the Hopetown Channel and I am above in the cockpit to help. 321pm Phil starts the engine again, we roll up the head sail and lower the main sail and have picked up the mooring ball in the harbor at 343pm. Good thing that we waited as long as we did because even though we're close to high tide, there was 0.5' under the keel at the skinniest point.

It's pretty here in the Harbour. The mooring balls are very close together. Some are white, others have red and green fenders on them as there are about 5 companies that have mooring balls in the harbor. From 4- 515pm we take the dinghy around the harbor and don't see many people we know except S/V Walk About. Phil did remind earlier and after looking up in one of my little black books, I called Rocky whom we met at the St. Mary's Thanksgiving and left a message that we were here. Turns out that he stopped by in his kayak and chatted with up at 530pm He had stopped by Walkabout and it's a small world -he had sold them his boat and then came over to chat with us while I had spaghetti warming up in the ziploc bag.

AFter supper, we tried the external wifi antenna and learned that the wifi signal here is so good that we don't need the external antenna. Great! Phil got on his Apple Computer and I was on mine - looking up the irwin 38's. There is one in Fort Lauderdale and another in upper Michigan.

Tuesday, March 15
Hopetown, Abicos

After listening to the weather reports, Phil started making bread. I cooked up the fish head and bones from the grouper so that took up the morning. About 1045am I invited Bob and Jeanne from Walkabout for supper and they accepted, but Jeanne isn't going to eat the fish chowder. Both of them had gotten Ciguatera poisoning from Hog fish Snapper that the ate in Spanish Wells. She is still suffering some nerve pain and muscle weakness and is playing it safe so will bring some macaroni salad to share. Check out the link above for more info. That is why we bought a small Grouper (6#'s) and released the barracudas.

After lunch of sandwiches made with the fresh bread (couldn't let it go to waste right?) we went into town and found a entrance to the beach on the Atlantic side. (insert photo) There isn't much to pick up in the way of shells, but there is a lot of seaweed and we found what we think are jelly fish that were on the beach, most tangled in the seaweed. (insert photo) We walked over a mile down the beach with me looking for hamburger beads (didn't find any) and then after crossing over some rocks, turned left and found a path back to the main road. I have to said that road is really a misnomer. All the roads are one car width wide and most of the vehicles used in town are golf carts. The "road" we came to was a dirt/sand road. It was hot being sheltered from the breezes but was a pretty walk. In front of some of the houses, there was a paved road, and then it turned into to sand/dirt road until we got very close to town.

They do have power lines here - first town that we saw and some of there were low enough for Phil to be able to touch. We thought of our friends George and Phil, CEI linemen, and they could just work on the lines here from the ground except at the poles. (insert photo)

Once we were in town, we stopped at a coffee shop for Phil's coffee and a rest after walking about 2 miles. I downloaded a few free sample books on the Nook and then we took another street away from the harbor and found Bob and Jeanne finishing up an ice cream cone. Vernon's grocery store was initially closed for lunch then after it opened Jeanne and I looked around. It's small (what's new)but they had some wheat bran that I bought for Phil to add to the loaves of bread he makes for fiber. About 240pm we started along to view the Wyannie Malone Historical Museum. We were able to watch the last half of a video of the area and then toured the museum. It's very interesting and worth the $3/ea for the entrance fee. They usually close at 3pm but didn't mind staying until we were through at 320pm. Back to the boat to get ready for our visitors.

Jeanne and Bob arrived at 420pm and we had a nice evening eating the fish chowder (was good they tell me), Phil's fresh bread, macaroni salad and apple crisp for dessert after we played a round of 10 Penny. It's nice having it get dark later in the day as they sat in the cockpit with Phil while I finished up in the galley. We had a great time and hope to see Walk About again soon as they're expecting to leave for Man-O-War Cay tomorrow. We are planning on staying one more day so that we can climb the Hopetown Lighthouse and then leave early Thursday for Marsh Harbor. Higher winds are predicted for Sunday thru Tuesday, so not sure if we'll stay in Marsh Harbor or go to Treasure Cay.

After our guests left, we read books with Phil going to bed at 930pm and I went to bed at 1145pm.

Wednesday, March 16
Hopetown, Abicos

It is a grey day today. WE had 3 rain showers last night so most of the night the forward hatch was closed. We are planning on going to the lighthouse today but have been having on and off showers. What happened to the 30% chance of rain? Phil and I can't remember the last time that we were in the boat because of rain - and not because of the wind.

We washed up with hot water this morning and have been using the time to read or be on the internet. Phil checked online about the points in the US where we can check in for Customs. Looks like it Fort Lauderdale, Cape Canaveral and the Cape Canaveral canal is closed for repairs not to open until late April. The past 3-4 days, I am really ready to be back in the States. We've been gone for 6 months now and I would like to be able to talk to family and friends on the phone and not have to think about it. Would like ready access to internet and be able to download books to my Nook! I'm not going to have us rush thru the Abicos as we might not be back here again, but I don't want to make our stay longer than it has to be either. Oh we'll, will get through this too. Phil is talking about getting a watermaker and then we'll need less tankage for water. I think he thinks can fit in in the same space. That would be nice - could really get washed up and while wouldn't waste the water, I wouldn't have to worry so much about it either.

Marsh Harbor, Abicos

2011-03-10T16:37:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, March 9
Passage from Little Harbor to Marsh Harbor
Distance Traveled: 21.67 nm
Miles to get Home: 264.04 nm
Total Distance: 2958.92

Phil made french toast for breakfast and we had a lazy start while we waited for high tide to arrive so that we could leave Little Harbor and sail to Marsh Harbour. Chris Parker predicted winds E 15 kts, which would be good sailing weather and it being about 15 miles away, we will have plenty of time to sail instead of motor sailing.

We made it out of the channel by 1030am hitting three times again on the way out. Once out, the wave quickly got 3ft + and I started getting sea sick so took over steering to help with that. Once we were past the cut, the waves calmed down as well as my stomach, but I continued to steer as I like it. Phil pumped the head using the mascerator pump, even though it didn't need it that much, but keeping up on it really help the smell not get unbearable. About 1048am Phil put the engine in neutral to charge the batteries and we were sailing 5.9 - 6.13 kts. with the course 6 degrees. The wind angle was 110-116 @ 13-14 kts. Today we had all points of sail getting to Marsh Harbor from dead downwind, downwind, broad reach, reaching, close reach and hard on the wind and then we had to roll up the head sail and motor in around Matt Lowes Cay into the Sea of Abaco. It really was a great sail and there were 2 other boats close by and was great that we were able to point higher then both of them. It was about 145 that Phil started steering and we took down the main sail while the autopilot steered. By 202pm we dropped anchor close to the Channel in the deeper part of the harbor. S/V Walkabout is anchor just behind us. We got the dinghy together and by 303pm went to visit Bob and Jeanne on Walkabout. After chatting and the obligatory drinks, we went over to visit S/V Winsome, Jim and Linda. More chatting and drinks ensued. About this time we saw thick heavy smoke rising on land at the side of the harbor and it covered a lot of area. Wonder what's burning? About 5pm we started back to Changes as it was getting cool. The fire continued burning into the night - continuing even at 11pm.

I fixed spaghetti tonight, this time trying to cook the spaghetti noodles in the sauce, adding extra water. Worked good and saved having to wash another pan, but need to add either less noodles or more water as was a little think. We read the evening away and Phil went to bed at 840am and I at 11pm.

Thursday, March 10
Marsh Harbor

This morning we listened to Chris Parker. There is a cold front to come through this evening or later tonight, but the wind is light from a southerly direction so the boat is pointing in another direction. Today is the first day that I listened to the cruisers net here. Tried to find someone to take the mail back and was told that have to find someone personally to do it and not on the net. They're funny here about packages. Then I started my first batch of Artisan bread - no kneading and let it rise until it falls so should be good to let rise when we are in town. This is a bread that you keep in the refrigerator for up to 14 days and cut off what you want to make each time. After breakfast, we left the boat about 930am to go to S/V Winsome to pick up the Jabsco pump assembly for the head. He had an extra one and that's the type of toilet (head) that we have. We talked about plans for the next few days. I was invited to go on a girls day to an art show and lunch on Saturday so accepted that and then tonight there is a Cruiser's Happy Hour at the Jim Room. Cruisers bring the appetizers and we buy the booze there. After chatting, Phil and I continued to go into town and scope things out.

First we needed to drop off the garbage. It's a big town here and so of course, we went the wrong direction and some cruisers helped us to find the right place further down the dock and not on main street. Then we walked around - got a map of town at the Ministry of Tourism Executive Office, and continued with more of an idea where to go. We went into a couple of hardware stores - they are really big here. This is a large town. The largest we've been to except Nassau., with many cars and stores around. We also stopped at Island Bakery and picked up a loaf of bread (Phil doesn't have time today to make) and 2 roast beef sandwiches on sub sandwich bread made there. Very good. We also visited an office supplies shop, 2 camera shops trying to find an extra battery for my Pentax Camera. There is a John Bull around, but too far to walk to today with all the other walking that we did. We saw a Save A Lot store in the distance, but then decided not to walk there as we were getting tired and still needed to get to Maxwell's Grocery Store.

Maxwell's Grocery Store is the best one we've seen in the Bahamas - even better than Nassau. On the outside it looked as big as the grocery stores at home. We really didn't need a lot, so kept it to fresh produce and fruit, eggs, half-n-half and fresh milk.

On the way back to the boat, we saw S/V Gorma (pronounced with long A) and so stopped by to say hi. They invited us on the boat and we said yes so that we could see the layout down below (Morgan 38') It's very nice, lots of wood down below. Has a bigger galley and head and more storage than we have. Still have a quarter berth which they also use for storage like us.

We didn't stay long as we were tired, had to put away groceries and rest. My bread looks like it rose and fell like it was suppose to, but a crust formed on the top. Will put it in the ziploc bag and refrigerate and hope for the best. We decided not to go to the arts and craft event at 4pm - would be a 1mi walk there and back and too much for us with the walking we did today. While I relaxed on the boat, Phil took the dinghy to the dock and worked on putting 2" dia clear plastic tubing over the thimble on the bow of the dingy close to the shackel. At 350pm the wind clocked to SSW and the smoke from the fire that continues to burn is now blowing over the boat so that we can smell it. About 415pm Phil noticed some ash on the boat. If the wind continues to clock like predicted, then it will stop blowing in our direction. At least it smells like wood burning and not something awful smelling.

Need to go to get ready for the Happy Hour. Will write more later.

Little Harbor Abicos

2011-03-09T08:21:00.001-05:00

Saturday, March 5

Spanish Wells

Tomorrow still looks like the day that we’ll be leaving to go to the Abicos entering at Linyard Cay Cut. The winds are even higher this morning being steady 20-24kts with higher gusts. Serge on M/V Bandit came by a little after 8am and we paid him for the mooring ball through Sunday night @ $15/day. He said that there is a washer and dryer at CW Grocery so we are planning on going in with the laundry. Too bad we didn’t think to do this yesterday while we had the golf cart, but we have the rolling cart so will work out ok. I typed up the blog this morning, while Phil ran the engine. We also have plans to get more boat cards made at a computer/office store by Food Fair.

So after lunch, we walked to CW Grocery and instead of Laundromat, it’s one washer and dryer out back inside a little shed – but they worked well and we did 2 loads at $4/machine/load. The dryer worked well drying even the heavy items the first time. While the first load was running, I walked down the street and dropped off the disc for the business cards. The person there didn’t know how to make the cards being his 2^nd day of work, but not to be deterred; I asked him if there was someone he could call to walk him through it. (originally he wanted me to find someone else – but I didn’t know someone else to go to) He called the owner and it was determined that the owner would come in at 2pm and the card would be ready at 230pm. I left a boat card with our Bahamian cell phone number for him to call when ready. After we didn’t hear from them by 315pm , Phil walked to the store and it turned out they had a hard time. We’re to be there at 5pm and the 200 boat cards will be ready, which is what happened.

By the time I got back to the laundry, Phil had put in the 2^nd load so we waited until the loads were done and then walked back to Harborside for me to use internet. When I haven’t had internet for a while, I can be on a long time – so spent the time after posting to the blog downloading updates to my computer. Usually there isn’t enough bandwidth for me to do this so I took full advantage of the availability now. By 4pm, Phil was rushing me to get back to the boat so that he could get something to eat and we could get ready to go to a happy hour on the dock at Yacht Haven Marina.

Happy Hour was good. We met Jim on M/V Fanfare.a 50’ Hatteras built in 1965 and his mom’s boat. His father’s passion was sail boats and his mom wanted a power boat. This boat has been used through the years taking the family to the Bahamas. Jim has memories of being on the boat, he had his kid grow up on the boat and now they have grandchildren, I would guess between the ages of 3-8years old that love to be on the boat. He gave us the tour and it’s very well maintained and beautiful. When you think about the size of boats in the 1960’s this was a motor yacht for those times. Jim said that Harbor Island, Samson Cay, Hope Town and Yacht Haven are the 4 places he would and has left the his boat and feels that it would be safe when he’s not on it. He and his family through the years have used the same Bahamian Pilot, now in his 80’s and now retired. We enjoyed chatting with him and seeing the boat.

After Happy Hour we came home, had grilled cheese sandwiches and read the evening away.

Sunday, March 6

Spanish Wells

The winds died through the night and it was unusual to wake up to quiet. The weather still looks good so we will leave tomorrow to go to the Abicos. There has been much discussion amongst the boaters about whether to go to Royal Island and stage there today or to staying in Spanish Wells and go through Ridley Channel. At first we aren’t sure what we want to do. First Phil had said that we would go through the channel, and then thought to go to Royal Island as so many are going that way. After looking at the charts and much discussion, we have decided to stay on the mooring ball and go through the channel. There are many who have decided that it’s not safe enough to go through at 6am but Phil and I have looked at the charts and notice that it’s deep water (< 25 feet) and we have the Explorers Charts on the Garmin GPS so we can follow the line. Bandit has said that it you follow the line on the GPS that you’ll be fine.

While Phil makes bread, I spend the morning knitting another preemie hat in a slightly larger size.


Phil's bread - yum

This time he lets the dough rise twice before putting in the loaf pans to rise again and the texture of the bread turns out better – not as fluffy and should be easier to make into sandwiches. I’ve wanted to get done as many hats as I can in case Iolite’s friend can take them to the states to mail.


Hats for Lauren, Riley and Teagan

By the end of the morning, I have another finished and started another, but also wanted to get on the internet again to download some audiobooks so after a quick lunch, we go into town. Phil drops me off at some concrete stair where the ferry docks and then continues to Iolite to talk to them. I’m the only one on the internet. I’m knitting while waiting for things to download and also chat with Katie on Facebook. Our hand held VHF radio is not working so Phil comes up late to update me that no one was on Iolite where he visited. Katie downloads Oovoo and we get to video chat. This internet connection has plenty of band width for this activity and It’s great for both of us to see and hear each other but we need to leave all too soon so we can put the dinghy on Changes foredeck in preparation for travel tomorrow before sunset.

On our way back, we stop by Walkabout and it’s decided that they will follow us out Ridley Channel in the morning leaving at 6am. We start working getting the 8hp engine on board when the couple from S/V Blue Jacket that moored while we were gone came over to chat. Donna and Jerry are friends of Joe and Carol on S/V Just Ducky and sounds like we’ll see them again in the Abicos after their week stay in Spanish Wells. We put the dinghy on board and did something new – after getting the boat on the foredeck, Phil attached the line to the port aft line connection and I cranked on the 2-speed winch to help get the dinghy turned over. This method worked great – so much easier doing it this way with 2 people. Boy it was much easier doing this job when we had Katie on board cranking on the winch. We will definitely use this technique again when we cross into the Gulf Stream.

We were to have chatted with Phil’s daughter, Vic on Facebook at 530pm but didn’t get done with our chores until close to 630pm. We were able to get a good enough internet connection for Phil to chat with her. She has a new job as project manager at UCLA and start March 22. This is great and we’re happy for her; will mean regular hours and regular pay with benefits. Nick has a new contract and Henry and Calvin are doing well. The hats I made them are a little big, but they’ll grow into them. Phil and I have decided that we’ll try to see if someone in the Marsh Harbor area will be going to the states and mail the preemie hats for us. That will give me time to get this last one done and included.

For supper I adjusted a chicken recipe and used canned beef with gravy, broken up spaghetti noodles with cream of mushroom adjusted sauce and canned green beans baked in the oven. Turned out good and we had just a little left.

I finish the last hat while Phil goes to bed at 9pm and I go to bed at 11pm

Monday, March 07, 2011

Passage Spanish Wells to Linyard Cay, Abicos

Distance Traveled: 48.51nm

Miles to get Home: 242.37 nm

Total Distance: 2935.10 nm

We wake to darkness at 525am but get up to prepare to leave at 6am. The winds are <5 knts and Phil contact Walkabout to finalize the time we’re leaving. By the time we leave, it is light enough to see and the sunrise is in full glory. It’s beautiful as we are motoring out the channel. We have taken off the damp mail sail cover and put it in a grocery bag so it won’t get other things wet down below. The no see ums are out as the winds are so light. By 630am we are through the Ridley Channel and are glad we made this decision as we didn’t have any problem at all. By 645am we have lost the depth sounder reading and are in the Atlantic Ocean. Wind are 210 degrees 6-7 kts and the Main Sail is raised. I put out the trolling fishing line in hopes to catch something edible. Phil takes the first watch at 7am and I eat a slice of bread and try to catch some sleep. 9am I take over. The wind angle is 75 degrees starboard 3-5 kts. Boat speed is 5.8 kts = GPS speed is 6.2 kts so we have a favorable current. 11am Phil takes over and I go down to sleep. I don’t know what it is, but whenever we are traveling like today, I get tired and really sleep at least one of the watches Phil’s on. While I was asleep, the wind clocked to coming from starboard and the main is on starboard tack. 125pm Phil is hailed by Walkabout and we change course for the most southerly cut into the Abicos just at Little Harbor – 5.6 mi to go to the waypoint. The winds have picked up due to clouds and on and off light rain. Wind is now from 35 degrees 9-11 kts. Boat speed is 6 kts and GPS speed is 6.6 – 7 kts. We continue with the favorable current. At 145pm we are 1 mile from the way point so I call Phil to come up. By 204pm we are through the cut and it was easy. We were surfing down the rollers but didn’t have any problems. 225pm we dropped anchor behind Linyard Cay – 7 other boats are already there and we are the first of the many boats coming in from Spanish Wells today. We see 3 other boats initially in addition to Walkabout behind us. They there are many more – ending up with 26 boats anchored here before dark.

As we’re recovering from our trip, I see SV Lipari motoring south and hail them. This is Randy and Janice whom we met in Annapolis. They are going to anchor close by until the tide has risen enough for them to get a mooring ball in Little Harbor with M/V China Doll (whom we met in Emerald Bay marina). We start getting the dinghy into the water and Randy comes over in his dinghy and gives us a ride back to their boat. They look good and it’s get to catch up on our travels. They have been in the Abicos since mid January wanting to stay close to the states for family reasons in case Janice needs to fly home. Their kids are doing well. We hope to see them more while we stay here in this area.

We are back at Changes by 5pm and I fix supper of Kielbasa, potatoes and cabbage in one dish, One of Phil’s favorites. Phil falls asleep as I’m cooking supper and after supper we are both tired. I take a nap and still have a hard time reading my book. So I get out the laptop and start typing the blog in M. Word and transfer audiobooks to my I-pod Nano. Phil goes to bed at 9pm and I follow later.

Tomorrow we are thinking of getting a mooring ball at Little Harbor instead of going up to Marsh Harbor. Randy and Janice say that internet is more available here and can pay $100 to have for a month. Not bad when you pay $10/day at most places.

Tuesday, March 8

Little Harbor, Abicos

Distance Traveled: 2.15 nm

This morning we decided to go to Little Harbor just across the anchorage. We started the engine at 930am and raised anchor 3 min later. The wind was at 130 degrees at 10-11kts but just motored over since it was so close. We weren't actually sure if we could get through the channel into the harbor as at low tide the depth is 3.5 ft, but we went through just about high tide and hit bottom 3 times softly pushing through the sand. It didn't even slow us down but then that could have been because we were going 1.6 knots! We picked up the mooring ball at 10am with 4.2 - 4.4 ft under the keel.

As we were sitting in the cockpit, a dinghy came up and the couple started chatting (never did get their names) from Canada - of course! They asked us about Changes - as they raced a C&C 30' before cruising. Then along came 2 more dinghies - more Canadian friends - and we had an impromptu raft-off party as we were chatting. But after several minutes, the strain on hanging to changes was too much and they went into town. We followed at 11am paddling instead of taking the time to put the 8hp engine on the dinghy. It wasn't too bad and we went to the closest dock.

Town is really a misnomer - there is an art gallery. A local artist has a foundry for making statues. Phil got at Pete's Pub T-shirt that has "Rehab is for Quitters" on the back. Made us think of some friends back home which will be nameless. Then next door is Pete's Pub and then there are some houses. We had some drinks at Pete's Pub and met up with the Canadian group rafted off the boat. We met Corine and Greg on S/V Gorma (pronounced Gourmet) a Morgan 38' while we relaxed on Adirondack chairs. The business was picking up for the lunch crowd, but we decided to go back to Changes for lunch as the cheapest meal there was $12 for a burger (not cheese burger). We've more than spent our allotment for lunches in Georgetown.

After lunch of burgers and some relaxing, we went back to town about 3pm. We walked down a road (sand/dirt road) and came to the Lighthouse path and of course followed it. We came to a beach that is covered with seaweed. In some areas it's piled about a foot deep. This beach is close to the cut and facing the Atlantic Ocean. There are some debris on the beach but not anything like seen on the Exuma Sound. We also joined Mike and Jana and Jerry and Linda in their walk to the Lighthouse. Actually it's an old dilapidated house - the floor boards on weak and the roof is gone. They have a tower that has a light on top powered by a solar panel. It wasn't too long that we went back to Pete's Pub and found a wood raised walkway that takes you over to the Atlantic Ocean at the back of the pub. Of course we had to go down the beach looking for shells (not many) but what we did find were live Whelks - first that we have seen and Curbs - (insert photos). I saw a huge Whelk - about 4"- that I wanted to keep for the shell, but as it's a no take zone I had to leave it behind. We decided not to get a drink at the pub but to go back home instead. We have plenty of liquor on the boat.

The wind is picking up so we took down the Farouck and THEN the sun comes out. Good things we did take it down as the wind continued to build and it got colder so we went down below while I warmed up leftovers for supper. I was also able to buy internet from Bahamas WiMax for $105 for the month. Not bad considering often it costs $10/day. The signal is so good here that Phil was able to get on using the Apple and I don't need to use the external wifi Antenna. We expect to be able to get this internet most places that we'll be visiting in the Abicos so let us know if you want to chat on Facebook - the easiest way we have found here and if we're lucky we'll be able to talk to family and friends on OoVoo. Our username is Changesgoingsouth.

I was trying to download a toe-up socks book on the Nook but wasn't able for I don't know the reason. I want to start making socks starting knitting from the toe. I have directions on my laptop, but it takes up so much electricity that can't keep it on while I'm knitting. Having it on the Nook would work great. I'm hoping once I get to Marsh Harbor or a wifi hotspot that I'll get it to work. But while I was on the internet I ordered a couple toe-up sock books and 4 long circular needles so that I'll be able to knit both at the same time. I look forward to when we're in the states and get mail again.

Tomorrow the wind is suppose to be from the east - so think that we'll sail to Marsh Harbor after we leave at high tide which is about 1045am. It's about 15 miles so we have the time to sail even if going at a slower rate.
They are expecting NW winds 20 to 25 knots starting tonight and thru Friday so we'll be safe there and able to get to town.

Also we are planning on getting to the States early April and then will turn on our Verizon Cell phone. Will be looking forward to long chat with family and hearing from friends.

Since I'll have good wifi for the next month, look for the posts to the blog to be every few days instead of weeks.

Warderick Wells to Spanish Wells

2011-03-05T14:20:00.002-05:00

Saturday, February 26

Warderick Wells to Rock Sound

Distance Traveled: 44.14 nm

Miles to get Home: 129.75 nm

Total Distance Traveled: 2817.48 nm

As you can see, today was a long travel day crossing the Exuma Sound arriving in Rock Sound, Eleuthera. We released the mooring ball at 7am and going out the cut to Exuma sound we had a 1.7 kt favorable current with the waves only a 1-2’ chop in 22’ of water. The winds were a little SE (150 degrees) 13-14 kts so we let the head sail out at 713am, but as we didn’t put up the main sail in calmer waters, we motor sailed the entire distance. I listened to the weather reports on the Ham radio with headphones and we’re expecting SE to S @ 10 kts. I took a Marezine at 730am and wished that I had taken it sooner as we were had quartering seas which the autopilot doesn’t like, which means I don’t like the motion. I did let out the trolling fishing line – as hope hasn’t died yet of catching a fish. Then I went down below to try to sleep off the slight seasickness.

Late morning we saw a sizeable rain cloud in the distance and kept watching as it got closer to us to see if we’d have to get out the foul weather gear, but we were lucky that it moved to the north ahead of us and died out leaving us dry but giving us a increased wind to 13-14 kts when were under the surrounding clouds.

Noon Phil called and I caught a fish. Excitement! – the disappointment when found that it was a barracuda. Too risky to eat in my book so we let it go. (insert Photo). I did let the line out again, but didn’t have any more luck the rest of this trip. By 140pm we saw Rock Sound in the distance and dropped anchor at 210pm. We made good time today. There are 2 sailboats and 2 trawlers sharing the entire large anchorage. We are expecting to stay here tonight and tomorrow, so we quickly got the dinghy together to go into town. It is quite warm today as we walked down the main street going in the various stores that are open. We got directions to get to the big grocery store so decided to walk there. It was quite a ways but we also found a bank so Phil was able to withdraw some more money. There is a little strip mall that has a liquor store, hardware type store and grocery store, so we got a few things and then walked home. Next time we’ll take the dinghy down a little ways so don’t have to walk as far. The liquor store had case of Diet Coke for $15 – good price here but we had to pass as too heavy to carry.

To appease Phil, we each had a half lobster tail plain (about 8 oz each) with potatoes and vegetable. It was good. That leaves a half of a tail left to make another meal out of it.

I worked on knitting preemie hats and Phil read.

Sunday, February 27

Rock Sound, Eleuthera


Sunrise At Rock Sound

Even though there isn’t a weather report today, I woke at 630am. Phil made French toast out of the coconut bread from Black Point. It’s good bread, but we don’t care for coconut so glad we tried it but probably won’t buy again. Tamure left at 810am so that leaves us with S/V Trumpeter in the anchorage.

It is still warm, so we decided to take a walk in town and visit the Ocean Hole that’s close buy early in the day before it gets really hot. By 930am we were walking to the Ocean Hole Park. (insert photos) This ocean hole is very big in our opinion and it’s said to be bottomless. There are fish here – most of them placed by fishermen though there is no fishing allowed. You can swim in the hole and there is a ladder down to the water. It’s said that the hole does get to the ocean, but Jacques Cousteau had dived in it and wasn’t able to find the opening. I don’t know if it’s this hole or another hole, but his son Philippe died while diving in a blue hole. There are picnic tables around and is a very nice park. After visiting the park, we walked some of the streets and came to the main street to the other side of the island. Not knowing how far it was to the other side, we started walking up a hill. Can in the distance see the ocean looking east and looking west have a nice view of the harbor. We waited in the shade for a local guy to give us an idea how much further it is to get to the beach – seemed like not far – around the bend and at the end of the road – so we kept walking to get to another hill where the road is cut through rock. No beach and doesn’t look very close. We are hot, my hip is aching and Phil’s knee is hurting. – time to turn around. Not going to see the beach on this day!

On the way back we took another side street and came to Sawyer Enterprises that had a door open and a market inside. Surprise as being Sunday, we didn’t expect anything would be open.

(insert photo of Even and Phil)

This is really nice and the thing that strikes us is that the vegetation is very lush here. There are lawns here – haven’t seen grass for a long time. There are also trees growing on the island; real trees not the stunted trees that you see in the exumas. And there is soil here also – not just what is growing in the rocks. We like this change. We got a few items and a couple cold diet cokes and Evan Gibson at the cash register struck a conversation admiring us for leaving and cruising – following our dreams. We had a very nice conversation – he owns the store and other businesses here that his kids are not interested in – led to philosophical conversation about can’t take it with you and do things while you can. We enjoyed chatting and he signed a quilt square and allowed us to take a photo. (insert photo). We decided to go back to the boat and then come in again to get the jerry jugs filled with diesel as now it’s past 1pm – the local gas station that you also get wifi with is open. 10 gals of diesel at $46.81 later and $10 for wifi we are back on the boat and in business using the wifi antenna. I’m getting 2 bars so can and do check email, stocks and I look at larger sailboats for most of the rest of the afternoon. As I had just posted on the blog, I don’t post this time. I did get a message from my brother, Glenn, that they have received the preemie hats I made – loved them and the right size for the girls – so I’m very happy they got them and should work well for them. We did check weather on the computer and it looks like NE winds are to come late Wednesday, so want to get to Spanish Wells by Wednesday before they come.

I made supper of Newfoundland Boiled dinner – ham, carrots and cabbage with potatoes. We played Canasta and this time Phil won both times. Then we read till 11pm

Monday, February 28

Rock Sound to Governor’s Harbor

Distance Traveled: 25.82 nm

Miles to get Home: 155.57

Total Distance Traveled: 2843.30

Phil was tired of leaving late, so we raised the main sail at 639am and raised anchor at 640am. Phil wants to try to sail away but with the wind less than 3 kts, we needed an engine boost so the sails could pick up the wind. We listed for Chris Parkers fill in, Ed, but after 1 hour – nothing was heard on the radio except other people having radio checks and a quick comment that he hasn’t started yet.

I think – guess know – I forgot to do the Spot GPS Messenger OK check in the harbor, so did a quick one here. Forgot to do it while we were in Black Point too – don’t know what I’m thinking – or really not thinking so will try to be better about that in the future. At 715am we heard S/V’s Winsome and Mytyfyne, who we had hoped to travel with, but when I was able to try to hail them on the VHF radio after listening to BASRA weather, they couldn’t hear me. Maybe we’ll see them in Spanish Wells. It still looks like Wednesday will be the day for us to go to Rock Sound so after spending the night in Governor’s Harbor, we’ll go to Hatchet Bay and try to get a mooring ball. We past the point out of Rock Sound harbor at 720am and got some rain at 730am. 740am Phil started the engine to charge the batteries, but kept in in neutral as we let out the head sail at 750am with winds 140 degrees 14-16 kts – good to sail in. It wasn’t too much later that Phil put on the Barberhaul and let out some of the reef in the head sail. Our final course was North at 5degrees and the wind angle was 135 degrees to starboard. The boat speed was 5.93 kts – very respectable. An hour later Phil let out the last of the reef iin the head sail and winds varied depending on whether we were under a cloud or from from 12-13 knots (no clouds) to 19-20 knots and a boat speed of 6.93 kts under a cloud. At this wind angle, the autohelm doesn’t do well so Phil took the helm at 931 and turned off the engine at 1035am. We will take 1 hour long turns at the helm. 1122am we rolled in the head sail and picked up a mooring ball at 1135am as there is not good holding here. We don’t know who owns the mooring ball but figure if they want money, they’ll come and get it from us. We want to go into town this afternoon so decided to paddle to get to shore instead of putting the 8hp engine on the boat. We are protected from the wind enough that there are minimal waves and no current.


Phil by huge vegetation at a home

We had a nice walk through town here – stopped at the local market and checked out some of the stores, but many are closed for the lunch hour – so decided to walk up the hill. It’s a pretty steep hill but there are many nice homes along the way and a few stores to go into. There are many large home here in estates – smaller homes on the estates are available for rent and there are also homes for sale. (insert photos). The road is one way up the hill – then we cross over – and go one way down the hill. The views of the harbor from the top of the hill a fabulous. We really like this place – Phil said he could live here. Very lush – Real trees – lawns – nice people. On the way up the hill we see a sign for Starbucks coffee so after we’re down the hill, we go up again to this café – but find out it’s closed. Too bad, but across the street is Buccaneers Café that is open – so we get drinks there and enjoy sitting outside in the shade and relax for several minutes.

There are huge old pine trees (insert photos) – some of the biggest trees we’ve seen in the Bahamas – that are close to an old Library built in the mid 1800’s that is still a library today. We go inside and find that wifi internet costs $5 for 1 hour - a little too steep for me – so we pass on that and walk down Cupid’s Cay which is the spit of land that comes out to make the harbor. The Bahamas head of government use to be here on Cupid’s Cay before it moved to Nassau, which explains the beautiful estates that were built long ago. We walk down the cay and look off the rock cliffs to the water and then walk back. After this, we’re both tired and get back to the boat at 335pm. I knitted some more while Phil read and then we had supper of left over ital sausage, rice and green bean dish after watching S/V Lucky Touch a 44’ Shannon try to pick up a mooring ball and then when that doesn’t work, anchor.

WE played card again tonight – Phil won both hands of Canasta again and then we played the Queen upside down game and he won again. When we play cards with couples – we do fine, but playing against each other, we’re too competitive and have sore feelings – so we have a decided not to play cards just with each other. No point in having bad feelings about this. We both read and then went to bed. The month of February is gone now – we’ve been cruising for almost 5 months now and have been enjoying our time since the bad weather left us early January in Warderick Wells.

Tuesday, March 1

Rock Sound to Spanish Wells

Distance Traveled: 43.29 nm

Miles to get Home: 193.86nm

Total Distance Traveled: 2886.59 nm

We listened to Chris Parker – there is lots of static from lightening strikes so can tell it’s not Ed – think it’s Chris. We were able to gather that the NE winds are suppose to arrive Wednesday night – BASRA weather said Wednesday is NW 15 kts in am with squalls and NE 20-25kts in afternoon. We also catch snatches that it’s light are variable tomorrow but I would like to leave for Spanish Wells today and bypass Hatchet Bay – and Phil agrees to go straight to Spanish Wells – a long day but doable. We start the engine at 7am, raise the main sail and release the mooring by 712am. By 715am we have left Governor’s Harbor with waves 1ft. By 720am the wind has increased to 13-14kt with gusts to 15 at 165degrees. The wind angle to the boat is 120degrees so I start hand steering at about 9am. Phil lets out the head sail and turns off the engine by 915am. We once again are sailing with 2-4 ft seas. 930am Phil lets out 2 wraps on the jib and unrolls it the rest of the way at 10am and takes his turn at hand steering. Another day of 1 hr turn at steering as yet another day the auto helm doesn’t like the seas and wind direction.

During my watch, Phil made sandwiches and then took over. By this time we are starting to get close to Current Cut so Phil starts the engine and we roll in the head sail and jibe the main sail. So far we are 31.56 nm into our trip. We go thru Current Cut at 1230pm and it’s called that for a reason! Good thing the current is going in the same direction we are as we had maximum GPS boat speed of 8.7 kts versus Boat speed of 5.8 with 35’ water under the keel. On the other side of Eleuthera, the waves are calmer – 1-2ft verses 2-3ft before the cut. Much nicer for us but it’s not too much later that we change course and are heading almost directly down wind. We take down the main sail at 155pm and by 225pm we have motored through Spanish Wells Harbor and pick up mooring ball #4. S/V Iolite with Faune and Alec are on Mooring ball #3 and S/V Just Ducky are on mooring ball #5. Iolite are who we need to catch up with, so this makes it very convenient for us. By 3pm the main sail cover is on the 8hp engine is on the dinghy and the Farouck it up as it’s very warm and sunny.

We motor over to Iolite and have an enjoyable time chatting with them and partaking their beer and wine. We have supper of left over and revised Newfoundland Dinner – adding that last of the fresh Italian sausage, more potatoes and carrots. Now we have enough left over for one person’s supper.

I knitted and Phil read until time for bed.

Wednesday, March 2

Spanish Wells

It turns out that it was good that we arrived yesterday. The cold front has come down faster than predicted and instead of light and variable winds it’s N 11-15 kts @ 642am and predicted to get to NE 15-20 kts with gusts to 25kts by mid day. We’re both glad that we made the decision we did yesterday. It’s not that we can’t sail in these conditions, but glad that we don’t have to. We are going to stay on the boat this morning, so I continue working on making preemie hats, this time starting a jester type hat with slightly thicker yarn. Phil starts making bread at 830am. Iolite leaves quickly at 925am to get to the Yacht Haven Marina before the winds really pick up. They have friends arriving on Saturday so want to get to a place so clean and organize for their visitors. S/V Lucky Touch is planning on using their mooring ball so everyone is on the lookout for them. I also spend the time cleaning the rust of the bottom of the SS pan that Phil uses to heat water for coffee and tea each morning. It’s pretty bad so really takes some elbow grease to get cleaned up. I’ve found that it’s better to get the rust off when it’s minor rather than waiting this long, so Phil will try to let me know when it’s needed sooner when he washes the dishes. While I’m at it, I clean the bottom of the 4qrt pressure cooker.

By 1120am the winds have increased to 19-20 kts and Alec has stopped by to drop off a package for me. We are very protected here from the extreme waves as there is a low water area about 150-200ft away so even though we aren’t protected from the winds, we are from the waves.

Soon S/V Lucky Touch comes into view and we watch while Joe and Carol in their dinghy from Just Ducky and guy from Walkabout on mooring ball #2 gets in his dinghy to help them get the mooring ball. It’s very difficult in this wind and his wife isn’t prepared – no boat hook and no line attached to a cleat at the bow. First time the boat come in with the wind to their beam and they are blown into the dinghies. Reverse and another try this time the wife has a line at the bow – but come is with the wind to beam and the line isn’t long enough – blown into dinghies again. Third time – longer line and come in to beam and then turns so stern is to the wind and they get the line through the mooring ball – attach the mooring ball line to cleat. Then they spend the next 15 min getting a line through the mooring ball line – having to power up into the wind to get slack on the mooring ball line. Excitement over – we have lunch and then at 130pm take the dinghy into town at low tide when the waves are less. We find the Islander and I buy the Bahamian Batik fabric made in the Andros for my quilt at $11.50/yd. I was thinking I may have to pay $20/yd so I’m happy. It takes me a while pulling out the rolls and looking how the colors look together, but with Phil’s help we do it and I buy enough of one of the colors to make a sleeveless shift dress at some future time.

We walk down main street (there is only one main street down the center of the islands) and then walk to the marina and stop by Iolite at 430pm to pick up Phil’s hat left there yesterday. More cocktails and chatting about the SS arch Alec had installed on the back of the boat for mega bucks. First time the guy didn’t follow Alec’s plans – at sea and it’s moving back and forth so then went to another man in Nova Scotia and had more supports added to stiffen it for another few thousand – but now it works great. I took photos to use as example is Phil adds an arch to Changes. M/V Second Star a 36’ Kady Krogan and M/V Monk’s Vinyard a 36’ Monk are at the dock on either side of Iolite so we talked with both them about Harbour Island. They had just been there yesterday taking the fast ferrie the Bo Hengy II there - $40/ea round trip plus $40 for golf cart to get around the island for 4 hours. It was nice there, but was disappointed. They like Spanish Wells more, so now we have to talk about whether we will go there after all. It’s a lot of money by ferry for an afternoon and $60 for a pilot.

By 530pm we’re back at the boat and taking down theFarouck as we’re expecting 35kt winds tomorrow.

I made the last of the crawfish(lobster) tails into crawfish tettrazini – was good and enough left for another meal for both of us.

I worked on knitting preemie hats and Phil read. It’s turned a lot cooler for us – so emptied out the quarter berth and dug out the larger V-berth quilt and put away the smaller one before we went to bed at 10pm.

Thursday, March 3

Spanish Wells

At 625am the winds are 14-18 kts – think from NE – Cabin temp is 72F – Air temp is 69F. I know that sounds pretty good to you, but the breeze is chilly and we’re putting on warmer clothes. Our blood has thinned on this trip. Phil says what are we going to do when we get back to Ohio? – we’ll be cold and I have to agree. J According to the weather forecast by Ed, the higher winds are to continue through Saturday then decrease rapidly on Sunday; but then another cold front to come through on Monday or Tuesday. Not a big weather window to go out on the Atlantic to get to the Abicos. Chris Parker is back tomorrow morning so maybe we’ll have a better idea once we get closer to the weekend.

Today we plan to rent a golf cart for $40/day and tour the island. After breakfast of French toast that I made to use up the rest of the coconut bread, we left the boat at 945am, picked up the golf cart not too far down the harbor and go to the Islander for me to pick up some crochet hooks – then we go to Food Fair – an bonafide grocery store. The Eleuthera Express freight ship was in yesterday, so they’ve had a chance to put some of the new groceries and produce on the shelves. We get fresh broccoli and a bag of key limes, fresh milk and other items. I’m planning on making a key lime pie so pick up a graham cracker crust shell too. We go back to the boat and put away the groceries that have to be refrigerated and then go back to do more sight seeing. We stop by the Ponderosa Shell Shop that is open at 12-1pm and then later. Great shells but we want to think about it before purchasing. We visit the pink sand beaches and look for shells. It is very winds – blowing our clothes against us and sometimes we have to lean into the wind. (insert photo)

Then being close to 1245pm – we stop at The Gap Restaurant for lunch as it’s closest. Some restaurants are open for lunch and then close at 130pm not opening again until supper. We hit the jackpot with this restaurant. It’s small – with the wall behind the counter with many shelves loaded with candy (insert photo). WE have the chicken and stuffing special – Phil with mashed potatoes and I with potato salad. Is it this chicken and stuffing terrific!! We haven’t had food like this since before we left – good enough for Thanksgiving dinner was the stuffing. They have huge portions – and I shared Phil’s cole slaw and we couldn’t eat it all. After lunch, we start driving around the island – stopped again close to the grocery store to go in the computer store – and found out they can make business cards for us. Will try to get that done tomorrow as don’t have the disc on me now. We drive all over the island and onto Russell Island, but there is a storm that’s coming – not sure if it will hit with full strength so we go back to the golf cart rental and wait under their awning before we had out again when the sun comes out – only sprinkles here. By 245pm we are done with the golf cart and return it. By 312pm we are back on Changes and the winds is 75 degrees 18-20 kts with gusts to 22kts. We’re able to get internet via the wifi antenna so Phil gets on to do his financial matters that need attention. We get only 2 bars so don’t want to risk posting on the blog.

We have the left over crawfish tettrazini for supper and I spend the evening downloading 347 photos and adding captions to them. Phil is tired – falls asleep on the settee at 8pm and get up to go to bed at 9pm. When I go to bed at 11pm the winds are 20kts sustained and the cabin temp is 74F. I got an email from Ken on S/V Sail Away – thinks he broke his prop strut so sent him and mail with the phone number of the local boat yard and hope to catch him on SSB in the morning, though still don’t think our signal is getting very far. He’s in Rock Sound. Will sleep with the forehatch closed tonight due to the high winds.

Friday, March 4

Spanish Wells

Chris Parker is back giving the weather. Many welcome backs here heard from the sponsored boaters. Looks like the winds are going to get worse today – some but not moderation tomorrow and a lot more on Sunday but the seas are 10-12’ and not decreasing too rapidly. There is still a cold front coming but looks like light and variable winds on Monday – so that’s the day we are tentatively thinking of going to the Abicos. We will not go to Harbor Town this trip due to a few people saying it’s not as good as it use to be visiting it.

At 745am the wind is 17-18 kts, Air temp is 71F, Cabin Temp is 74F. We washed up today heating water on the stove. The last time we had a shower/washed up was in Rock Sound and I’m more than ready for this cleanup! Phil replaced the port salon light with the round light removed from the head. Was the project because the light was in the most aft lock in the quarter berth. I removed and replace the items so he could get the light. This is great and now we’ll see how it works tonight. I fixed egg sandwiches for breakfast. At 10am the wind is starting toclock and is at 100 degree 23 kts gusts to 29 to 30 kts. We will wait until low tide when we have more protection and the waves are less to go into town to buy internet, get water and diesel in the jerry jugs. Since we weren’t going anywhere soon, I cleaned some of the rust off the oven, we cleaned the bilge and then I washed the sole and other woodwork. Phil also put 8.5 gals of water in the tank and was surprised that we didn’t use as much water as he expected since we last filled up in lack Point.

We weren’t hungry at lunch, so I made sandwiches, packed diet cokes and put them in the cooler back pack and we went to town, getting diesel at 1pm. 10 gals cost $48.25. We got 20 gal of water at Yacht Haven for $.15/gal or $3 total and invited Faune and Alec over for supper. Phil dropped me off at Harborside for me to start internet at $15 for our entire stay and went back to the boat to drop off the water and diesel jugs. Laura and Graham on Sweet Charriot II are on the internet also, so we chat while we’re on the table outside. I was able to chat with my niece Heather, on FB so that was great. She has honors at the Aveda school and may stay for the manager’s training. I downloaded ebooks and audio books since I haven’t had a good internet connection for that and was able to get the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day book I bought from Barnes and Noble onto my nook. Yeah!!! By 430pm we’re back at the boat and I start making Key Lime Pie and thawing chicken breasts for supper. Will cook them in the pressure cooker and have broccoli and mashed potatoes to go with them.

Making the Key lime pie didn’t go as I expected. I don’t know if you’ve seen key limes before, but they about about 1 ¼” dia at the most. The recipe calls for 3 lime or about ½ c juice. Well I don’t know what their limes are, but I had to juice at least 20 limes for my ½ c juice. I put it in the refrigerator and will hope for the best, but don’t think it will be stiff enough to eat for supper like I hoped.

Faune and Alec arrived on time at 6pm and we had a great time chatting. They have had C&C’s as their past boats so feel at home on ours. After supper, I tried the key lime pie – looked think enough at first glance, but then after cut it, realized that it was like pudding. We had it anyway – tasted good and they were good sports about it not looking good. Alec had a second piece so I’m sure he didn’t mind at all.

I start knitting hats and want to listen to I-pod but it’s not working right. – I’m hoping that Iolite’s guests will need to make a layover in the states and can mail them to Glenn and Pat for me – not sure but they will check tomorrow, so continue to be a knitting fiend to get them done for them. So I reformat the Ipod and then transfer the music and new audiobooks to it. We’ve had some rain tonight so will have to be careful about having the hatch open. At the end of the reformatting – my Ipod works correctly, so I’m happy.

Black Point to Warderick Wells

2011-02-25T21:11:00.000-05:00

Friday, February 25
Passage to Warderick WElls
Distance Traaveled: 24.67 nm
Miles to Home: 86.61 nm
Total Distance Traveled: 2273.34 nm

This morning we tried to get weather, but a stand in for Chris Parker had technical difficulties - so didn't get the weather too much. But we did get BASRA weather which states a small craft caution on Sunday with winds to be E 15-20 knots for 4-6' seas, so we have decided to keep to our original plan to go to Warderick Wlles today and to Rock Sound tomorrow while the winds are to be less than 10 kts and seas 1-3feet. But first we needed to get water and talk to Ken from S/V Sail Away to work out the plan for the 4hp engine he is borrowing.

But befoer I continue that - I need to tell you a story. Phil put 12.5 gals of water in the water tank and let the cap off and the funnel in the opening. I started getting the line for the dinghy and you guessed it - the lid got tangled up in the line and fell into the water. Phil was upset (Guess Ken could hear him on his boat) and making noise, but did not yell and scream obscenities even though I'm sure he wanted to. Phil put on his wet suit and went diving. I got out the lookie bucket and sitting in the dinghy thought that I saw it. Phil at first thought it was a pop can, dived anyway, and brought it up. BIG relief! This time I screwed it in part way and have learned a lesson to not do what we did this time.

We went over to Ken's boat as he was getting in his dinghy (to come help us) and it's been decided that Ken's going to leave his boat in Florida, get a friend to bring his truck down from Canada and will drop off the 4hp engine with us in Ohio on his way back. Phil doesn't mind him borrowing it for a long time, so this is a great solution for everyone. We also want to get together sometime in July - maybe meeting in Put-in-Bay, which is about half way between our homes. We filled all the jerry jugs with water, I went to Lorraine's Cafe and her mom's home and bought a loaf of her coconut bread and white bread. Everyone has been raving about her coconut bread and as this will be our last time in Black Point for this trip, I wanted to get some. We are out of bread on the boat and with traveling so much today and tomorrow, won't have time to make it.

Ken stopped by after we were back from town and help Phil get the 8hp engine off the dinghy and onto it's stand on the stern after we took down the Farouck. By 10am we started the engine and the anchor was raised by 1004. Good byes were called over the water, and we found out from Gary that Becky from Maribelle did fly home today. Best wishes to her for a complete recovery from her injury. When we started the wind was coming from 150 degrees at 17kts so that made about 2ft+ seas on the beam. Made it rolly and things going all over the place until Phil changed course to get a better angle. As the morning progressed the winds became lighter and lighter so that by 118pm we were going dead downwind, the wind was less than 7 kts and the seas had calmed down to less than 1ft waves. I went down for a 30 min nap at 1230pm and by 1pm Phil had contacted Exuma Park at Warderick Wells and we were assigned mooring ball #8. It's so beautiful down here and we was the 2nd week of January that we were here last. By 210pm we had picked up the mooring ball on the first time. S/V Cher`e had just arrived and had their dinghy in the water and Charlie was kind enough to give us a ride into the park office with them - saving us from having to put our 8hp engine on the dinghy. I also bought some internet time as I don't know when I'll have internet on Eleuthra. Unfortunately, I don't have cell phone signal here to text people I'll be on facebook to chat.

While we were at the office, we saw S/V Tamure a 40' valient sailboat that made the passage outside with us from Beaufort to St. Marys Ga. They just got back on the boat 10 days ago and are leaving tomorrow morning for Rock Sound also - so looks like we'll be making this passage with them also. We called Scott and Kitty on the radio and were invited over for happy hour at 530pm and they arranged to have other friends they know come pick us up. We decided since we missed lunch that i would fix some of the lobster we had bought yesterday - so made a 4 cheese pasta sauce mix and cooked carrots and 1/2 a lobster tail in it. After supper, I took a shower with warm water in the Sun Shower.

Pete came over at 540pm and took us over and met his wife Phyllis. She is also a knitter and quilter so you can imagine that we got along great and much to talk about. It was great to see Scott and Kitty again and we had a great time. They are planning on leaving about 7am tomorrow morning and it looks like it will be a motor ride.

I will send the SPOT GPS signal when we get there and we plan to be there a few days. I heard from S/V Iolite and they made it to the Bahamas - in the Berry Island - so we plan to meet up with them early March for me to pick up the package they have for me.

I saw on Facebook that another winter storm is coming in the area, so hope everyone is staying warm and dry and safe when driving.

I haven't been able to upload photos because the band width has been so low - can't risk it. As it was yesterday, I had only one line so feel fortunate that I was able to get on and stay on for as long as I did.