December, 2014 – Winter
Adventures
December 15, 2014
Seas about 2 feet with light to variable winds – time to go! We were off the dock at 6:57am and out the
St. Lucie inlet at 8:18am. As if to
temper our excitement, we had to wait for the railroad bridge next to the
marina to open before we could proceed! Bill
and Margaret were also underway from Fort Pierce inlet.
It was a glorious day at sea.
Not much wind, so we had to motor.
Steve hooked a dolphin on his hand line a little over half way across. Here he is cleaning it for dinner on the port
sugar scoop.
In the background you can see a 604’ tanker behind us heading
south. Our AIS showed the closest point
of passing was 1.5 miles. Since we had
to cross right in front of his path, you can bet I was on the radio with
him. I didn’t understand all he said
(foreign accent), but at least I knew he saw us and would continue on his
current course. We passed without as
much as a wake. 1.5 miles may sound like
plenty of distance to be concerned, but when you consider we only cruise around
6-7 knots, and he’s traveling 13-15 knots, AND we are going to pass in front of
his path – it can be a big deal! We love
our AIS!!
5:04pm we reached the Bahama Banks and our first way point, Matanilla
Shoal. Our preset way point route was
Matanilla, Little Sale Cay, Sale Cay Rocks, Carters Bank, Crab Cay, Angelfish
Point, Powell Cay, and then finally Green Turtle Cay. This is approximately 184 nautical miles from
the Port St. Lucie Inlet. Steve dragged
his feet a little allowing our friends, Bill and Margaret to catch up to
us. Being unfamiliar with the Banks, we decided
to utilize their experience and follow them. When we hit the shallows (15’) I
was a bit unnerved regarding the reefs in the area. They draw more water than we do, so if they
didn’t hit anything, I knew we would be OK. The sun set shortly after reaching the Banks. With no moon, let me just say, it gets mighty
dark out here. We could not even tell
where the horizon was. I mistook a
rising star for a steaming sailboat light.
Then I thought it must be an airplane.
As it got higher in the sky, I finally realized that it must be the
planet Jupiter. It rose right out of
the east and it was very bright.
December 16th
It took us nearly 30 hours to arrive at our first stop – Green Turtle
Cay. We tied to the dock at the Bluff
House Marina around noon.
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| Peregrine on left, Margareta on Right |
The weather is perfect. The sun is bright, and the sky is crystal clear and blue. It is so exciting to be able to look through our escape hatches (from our state rooms) and see Peregrine’s entire keel – the water was so beautifully clear! Customs came right to our boat to clear us. How convenient is that! In celebration of our wonderful and uneventful crossing, the dolphin (Mahi Mahi) Steve caught on the way over was consumed with our good friends Bill and Margaret.
December 17th
Another beautiful day in the Bahamas.
8:15am and the new solar panels Steve installed are already pumping 7.3
amps into the house batteries. YAY! We saw our first lionfish of the trip on our walk up to
the bathrooms this morning.
The Bahamians encourage everyone to kill them. They are causing a big problem by eating the native
fish. Green Turtle was just a one night
stop over, and we were off the docks and heading to Hope Town by 11:00am. The
sun is high, the skies are blue and the winds are out of the WNW at 13-15kts. The breeze is a little cool, but feels
wonderful. We made it around the dreaded
“whale” (Whale Cay) without any problems.
This area is open to the mighty Atlantic and can be quite treacherous at
times, but not today. We moored up in
Hope Town at 3:45pm.
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| Peregrine in Hope Town |
We spent the next 12 days in Hope Town. Sunrise walks on the beach, snorkeling, kayaking, reading, relaxing and visiting with our new cruising friends became our routine.
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| Susan on the eastern shore |
We even stepped outside of our comfort zone and joined the masses for an evening of Christmas caroling through the streets of Hope Town. They expected about 20 participants, but were overwhelmed with about 100. We were so spread out on the narrow streets that at one point the people at the rear of the crowd were singing a different song then the ones at the front. Confusing, but fun.
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| Caroling |
It was a magical evening for sure. Christmas day started with brunch on Chanceux (John and Madeleine’s boat) then seven of us for dinner on Margareta (Bill and Margaret’s boat) lasting 6 hours! What great hosts they are. We all laughed so hard our sides hurt. I’m guessing the alcohol may have had something to do with that!
December 29th
We got a good weather window, so we decided to leave Hope Town and head
to Lynyard Cay. It’s only about 13 miles
from Hope Town, but a nice jumping off point to cross the New Providence
Channel down to Royal Island in Eleuthera.
It was a quick and easy run. We
settled in to get a good night’s rest for an early morning crossing.
December 30th
Up at 6:30am. I switched on the
SSB (single side band) radio for the Bahamas Marine weather from our buddy,
Chris Parker. All is good, so anchors are
pulled and we departed at 7:00am. We had
two pilot whale sightings crossing the channel.
The first was a pod of about 20-30 just off our port side. They were just laying around on the
surface. We had never seen them do that
before. It took us a while to figure out
what we were looking at. Very
funny. The second pod was much
smaller. Maybe 5-10 whales off our
starboard side. It’s always a good day
when we see whales. We arrived at our
destination (Royal Island, Eleuthera) at 4:00pm. This is a beautiful protected little harbor
just west of Spanish Wells. Very
quiet. We caught Margareta acting as the
“pot of gold” for this lovely rainbow in the harbor.
December 31st
I woke this morning at 4:45am. Excitement took over, and I decided to take a little walk around on deck and enjoy the stars. You just don’t see star lit skies like this anywhere close to civilization. Plus, the moon had already set, so it was pitch black except for the billions of tiny stars from horizon to horizon. It was nothing short of spectacular! Just like on our Atlantic crossing. 6:25am anchors up – time to go. Headed to Norman’s Cay in the northern Exumas. It’s New Year’s Eve and there is no hype here! We had dinner, played backgammon, read for a while and went to sleep.
January 1st, 2015
HAPPY NEW YEAR! “Pink skies in the morning, sailors take warning!” We are expecting winds to pick up
significantly today and tomorrow.
Expecting 25-30 kt winds in the next 2 days. We will head to Warderick Wells (Land and Sea
National Park) for protection from the westerly winds and also bid Bill and
Margaret safe travels as they will continue heading south. We were able to put
up our sails this morning. Sailing 6
knots with a 14kt wind. Arriving at
Warderick Wells, we tied up to our assigned mooring ball #14. This ball is right in front of the whale
bones and the beach. It’s a perfect
spot.
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| Peregrine on the mooring ball |
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| Reconstructed 52’ sperm whale on the beach at Warderick Wells, Land and Sea Park, Exumas |
Not long after we arrived, we were invited for cocktails on the Carrie
May (a 51’ Morgan). There were 5 couples
including us. There is a lot of
socializing out here – who would have thought!
Although we enjoy socializing, Steve and I long for our “alone”
time. We enjoy our quiet sunset dinners,
play a little backgammon, read and just settle in for the evening. We have not seen TV for 17 days. We do
not miss the media hype!
January 2nd
We woke this morning and promptly headed straight to the cockpit to peer
in the water. The water is so pretty and
clear, like no other place we’ve seen. Later
we headed in to the park office to pay up.
Mooring fees are $20 a day here in the park. We decide to pay for 3 days since the high
winds will be around for several days.
Lots of time for hiking and snorkeling.
Today was spent hiking. We did
the entire island, including the famous walk up to BooBoo Hill.
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| View from BooBoo Hill |
It’s named BooBoo Hill because it is purported to be haunted by the
souls of a missionary ship that went aground on the reef and sank with everyone
still aboard. Others say that the missionaries
are buried on BooBoo Hill beneath the rock cairns. On moonlit nights, with the winds howling,
supposedly you can hear the missionaries singing hymns. Tradition has it that cruisers leaving an
offering to King Neptune at the top of BooBoo Hill will incur good sailing and
safe passage. Many folks who visit BooBoo Hill take a piece
of wood, like a plaque, with their boat name as their offering and place it on
a big pile. (As seen above) We’ll bring
our contribution next year.
We did lots of hiking and snorkeling. We went swimming in two different deserted
beach coves. Just the two of us – how
wonderful is that!
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| Warderick Wells – Land and Sea Park |
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| Steve relaxing in paradise |
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| Susan - We had this beach to ourselves |
There was a 4pm social with all the other cruisers on the beach this
afternoon. It was great fun meeting
folks from all over the place. We
actually got our first glance at a hutia.
They are rodents (similar to a guinea pig) that had once thrived on
several of the Bahamas Islands, but then became a “threatened species”. The Bohamian government decided to place them
here on Warderick Wells in the Land and Sea Park. Unfortunately, the hutias have thrived so
well that much of the “green” island is now brown (exfoliated). We also noticed hutia scat (poop) all over
the island. Not sure if transplanting
them here was such a good idea.
January 5th
Up at 6:25am for Chris Parker’s weather forecast. Although we have had a blissful time here in
the park, it is time to move south. So,
we dropped our mooring line and motored out to the Sound (Exuma Sound). Winds are 17+ knots and seas are a bit
bumpy. We stopped in at Staniel Cay
Yacht Club for fuel and water, and upon leaving were chased down by a dinghy of
yelling and screaming people. It was our
dock neighbors from Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart. Drew and Shelly on Firefly were all smiles
and having a great time. They are stuck
here waiting for boat parts before moving on.
Their ultimate goal is all the way to New Zealand! As for us, Black Point (on Great Guana Cay) was
our next destination, but it appeared a little crowded, so we motored on to the
next cove south, Little Bay.
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| Castle (someone's house) at Little Bay, Great Guana Cay |
It was simply beautiful. The kayaks were immediately deployed after anchorage was secured. The shoreline was rugged, rocky and beautiful. The rocks formed an overhang over the water. Lots of fish, rays, coral heads (even small staghorn). The water is impressively clear. I believe you could read a newspaper on the bottom.
January 6th
Up at 6:25am again to get the weather report from Chris. More bad weather coming over the next couple
of days. It will last for several days
with winds gusting 30 -35 knots. Our
original plan was to try to make it out Galliot Cut and down to Emerald Bay
Marina just north of Georgetown.
However, just after lifting our anchor we heard a call out to us from
our crossing buddies on Margareta. They
had been on anchorage just north of us in Black Point, waiting for a weather window to
head to Long Island. One rule out here
cruising is to never have a plan set in stone.
You will be disappointed, because it is all about the weather! Galliot Cut was a little rough, so we
followed Margareta into the Rudder Cay anchorage for the evening. On our way down we received two more hails
over the radio: one from a couple, Jan and Cliff on Kluane (their newly
refurbished Hallberg-Rassey). We had
been “A” dock neighbors at Sunset Bay Marina.
The other hail was from Laurie and Francis on Glory Days, a 50’ catamaran
that Laurie actually built. We had met
them at a Harbortown Marina steak dinner in Fort Pierce just before leaving the
states. It was like old home week down
here. We anchored out just off Rudder
Cay around 11:30a.m – we’ve got the entire afternoon to play. The dinghy was immediately deployed, and off
we went for more snorkeling along the rocky shore. Many beautiful tropical fish and one lobster
which was immediately apprehended and slated for the pot of boiling water back on
Peregrine. I nearly ran into a small
(4’-5’) shark. We were both swimming
along apparently looking anywhere but where we were heading. By the time I looked ahead, the shark looked
my way, and we both panicked! The shark
took off toward the open water, and I took off in the opposite direction toward
the rocks. OMG! We nearly bumped heads. The verbiage that shot out of my snorkel was
impressive indeed!
Wednesday, January 7th
6:00am – time for Chris Parker with the weather. Unfortunately, we could barely understand
what he was saying secondary to all the static.
Looking around the anchorage, the weather seems quite calm at the
moment. We could see our friends on Margareta milling
around their boat, so we’re guessing it is a go for the long haul (~70 miles)
to Long Island. Out the cut at 7:25am. There
was a fairly strong incoming current through the cut slowing our progress, but
otherwise no problems. It was a long
day (12 hours). Seas became calm to
completely flat as we rounded Hog Cay at the south end of the Exumas. We passed by White Cay Bank where the beach fight
scene in Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed.
It is a beautiful huge white sand beach.
The water is only about 15’ deep on the leg between White Cay Bank and our
next destination, Indian Hole Point (just outside Thompson Bay, Long
Island). With the completely flat calm
waters and the sandy bottom, it was easy to spot all the starfish. There were many! We had a lone dolphin join us, swimming with
our bow wake, for just a few minutes.
That is always a thrill for us.
The sun set about 1 ½ hours before arriving at our destination, so we
had to follow Margareta’s steaming light into the Bay. It was a bit nerve racking, as it was pitch
black – no moon! We tried to get as
close to the land as possible for good protection from the easterly winds. It was very difficult to judge the distance
in the dark. Anchor down at 7:10pm in
the veil of darkness!
Long Island, Bahamas (Thompson Bay) January 8th through
February 9th, 2015
5:50am – We woke to nice calm winds, so decided to reposition the boat
a little closer to the land now that we could see it. The winds picked up in the afternoon, steady
at 17 knots with gusts to 23 knots.
Peregrine and all the other boats are swinging around quite a bit, but
everyone’s anchor seems to be holding well.
First stop on Long Island would be to the Long Island Breeze Resort.
This is where we can do our laundry (if they have enough water in their
cistern), grab a bite to eat, have a drink, etc. Steve and I met a wonderful gentleman, Willis
Harding. I’m going to guess he is in his
early 80’s. “Born and grown” right here
on Long Island. We noticed there were
many businesses around town labeled “Harding”.
We chatted with him for a good hour as he introduced us to his
island. Told us where to catch snapper,
how to get to the beach on the Atlantic side, where to buy groceries, etc. A good person to know.
We spent the first week here in Thompson Bay just learning the ropes if
you will. Hillside grocery store is
located within an easy walk from the dinghy dock. This is a small little grocery store (no
Publix here) run by Betty and her husband, William. Mostly run by Betty! This little store is actually a wonderful
surprise, as they carry just about anything you could want. If they don’t have what you’re looking for,
they will get it for you. They even
carry Starbucks coffee, half and half and Breyers ice cream!!! We may never
leave. The fresh market is open every
Saturday morning. We can get fresh
basil, arugula, squash, pumpkin, coconuts, baked goods, etc. All the local goodies! Really nice.
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| The Fresh Market |
We took long walks around the island.
We joined the rest of the cruisers in the bay for happy hour at the Long
Island Breeze.
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| The Breeze |
A few days later the Breeze closed their doors for good. This was very sad news, as this was one of
“the” places to go on Long Island. We
continued with happy hours on the beach every Sunday afternoon. Seats and tables compliments of the trash
washed up on the Atlantic side.
We met many interesting and nice folks. Penny and John, who built their second home here on Long Island were the one local couple we had the pleasure of spending time with. Their home is completely off the grid. It is quite impressive with solar panels and generator for power and a huge cistern for water.
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| Sunday Afternoon Happy Hour |
We met many interesting and nice folks. Penny and John, who built their second home here on Long Island were the one local couple we had the pleasure of spending time with. Their home is completely off the grid. It is quite impressive with solar panels and generator for power and a huge cistern for water.
We use our dinghy to run back and forth to Long Island Petroleum for
our fuel and water as we need it. It
takes us about 2 hours to fill both of our 80 gallon water tanks, using three 7
gallon jugs. This usually lasts us about
two weeks. We weren’t using any diesel
fuel sitting at anchor, just gasoline for the dinghy and its 8HP engine doesn’t
use much.
Steve and I found a new hobby – beach combing and shell collecting. We spent countless days roaming the east side
of the island (Atlantic Ocean side). We
would pack our lunch and plenty of water and be gone the entire day. Many days we would not see another soul. It is a beautiful thing to be able to sit on
the rocky cliffs and stare out onto the open ocean and ponder your
thoughts. Most days the waves were big
and quite spectacular as they crashed into the rocky shore and shot up 30 feet
in the air. There were only a few days
calm enough that we could snorkel the east side of the island. We are becoming quite proficient on our shell
identification. We have books on board
Peregrine to help us out with our new finds. These are Nerites in the following
picture. There are many different kinds
of Nerites, and the ones below are Four-toothed and Bleeding Tooth Nerites.
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| Susan - Enjoying the solitude of the Atlantic side |
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| Ours were the only footprints on the beach |
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| Steve's fin in the air barely seen in the middle of the hole - Atlantic side |
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| Compass Rose Beach - an extraordinary lagoon |
This was a beautiful little cove, Compass Rose Beach, we happened upon
on one of our hikes. What a wonderful
find!
The one major disappointment was all the plastic trash. It was everywhere on the Atlantic side! Very sad sight. The beach also appeared to collect
one shoe each from every imaginable pair of shoes available. Don’t know where they came from, but
fortunately we did not find any feet in them.
Steve and I have been finding colored nylon rope to make our “Rasta mat”
for the front of our dinghy. It’s mostly
for fun, but it actually protects the front of the dinghy against these rocky
shorelines. I saw this set up on a
friend’s dinghy, and I just had to have one.
This was the beginning stage and it grew from there as we found more
rope.
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| Rasta Mat |
We rented a van along with two other couples one day to tour the
island. It takes about 1 ½ days to see
the whole island. It’s 80 miles long,
but only four miles wide at its widest point.
Mostly it’s about a mile wide. Long
Island is home to Dean’s Blue Hole; the world’s deepest blue hole at over
600’. Free diving competitions are held
here at this site. The day that we were
there, William, who holds two world records was actually there practicing. The practice platform remains at the site
year round. Steve had to try it – I
think he went down 25 feet. William’s
record is 380 feet. OMG!!
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| Competition Freediving Platform At Dean’s Blue Hole |
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| Steve and Susan (sand dollar in hand) |
We did some snorkeling along the shallow flats at Dean’s Blue Hole. Lots of sand dollars!
A fun thing to do is try out all the local restaurants.
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| Ken Making Conch Salad |
This is Ken’s Seaside Village Restaurant and Bar. And this is Ken making our “fresh” conch salad. The conch is taken right out of his conch corral to the left in the picture. The man’s a genius when it comes to conch salad. The best I have ever eaten! The white post just to the left of Ken’s head is where his pet osprey, Ion, comes in for his frozen fish treats. Ken has raised him since he was a chick. He is completely free and wild, but he never quite learned how to fish for himself. This next picture shows him taking his handout.
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| Ken and Ion |
I must say that we stepped way out of our comfort zone a few times in
the food arena. Souse is a local dish
made with potatoes, carrots, onions, broth and all spice. The meat that’s added can be chicken, pig’s
feet, conch or sheep’s tongue. We were
first introduced to it by our friends Bill and Margaret at Captain Jacks in
Hope Town (we stuck with the chicken).
Bill is a souse fanatic. We tried
it again at a school fund raiser (chicken again). It was really spicy, but quite tasty. The next time at a different fund raiser,
they had run out of everything except the sheep’s tongue and the pig’s
feet. YIKES! Well, we had to participate. So, we opted for the sheep’s tongue – we
shared one serving. Parts of the tongue
were very tender, but it also had a lot of gristle, or something??? Being good sports, we ate it with smiles on
our faces.
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| Sheep’s tongue souse at the Long Island Regatta Center fund raiser |
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| Lunch with friends at Forest’s |
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| Sou-side Restaurant |
Long Island is also known for their caverns. You can hire guides, or just go it on your
own. We, being the adventurist types,
chose to go it on our own. There are
several small cavern systems. Although they are small, they are still interesting and worth the visit.
This is definitely not the United States. There are no safety rails, signs to warn of
danger – Nothing. Knowing there wasn’t
much help in the way of emergency care close by, no one had to tell us to be
careful. Caution was paramount on our
minds. But then again, that’s been this
whole trip.
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| Local cave used for some social functions |
Tuesday, February 10th:
6:15am – time to head north about 6 miles to Emerald Bay Marina so we
can get tucked in before the storm hits.
It is rainy with completely gray skies today. Seas are still pretty decent – running about
3’ swells spaced out nicely. No problems
getting into our slip at the marina. We
arrived at 10:30am. We have a floating
dock and our slip is effectively 50 wide as it is a double, but they will not
put another boat in with a cat!
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| Peregrine at Emerald Bay Marina, just north of Georgetown on Great Exuma Island |
There was plenty of room for us to spider Peregrine in with multiple dock
lines in anticipation of the bad weather.
Although this marina has a breakwater, the surge can get very rough in
here. But who cares when there is free
happy hour and free laundry! As luck
would have it, we ran into four other cruising couples that we already
knew. They came in on the same day along
with the rest of the masses trying to avoid getting caught out in the westerly
winds. Forty five boats entered this marina in one day. I guess we all heard the same weather
forecast. It was three days of fun while
the winds blew. The laundry room was
the busiest place around the clock! “Free
laundry” is a big deal in the Bahamas.
We paid as high as $16 a load (combined wash and dry) in Long
Island. Fortunately, they were large
commercial machines, and you could actually fit about two normal loads in one.
Friday, February 13th:
We’ve been here at Emerald Bay for our required 3 night stay, and we
are ready to return to Thompson Bay. The Internet has been down, so we’ve been
unable to get the weather report. The
single side band radio does not work well when we are surrounded by so many
other boats in a marina. So, no report
from Chris Parker either. We decide to
just walk up to the second story of the marina office and get a visual on the
seas first hand. Everything looked fine
– shouldn’t be a problem. Our friends
Bobbie and Francie left about two hours ahead of us. They radioed back with a report of 3’-5’
swells. We decided we would go for
it. As we approached the entrance to the
marina, we noticed the rollers, but they were certainly doable. The rollers seemed to be getting larger the
further south we got. Upon our approach
to the North Channel Rocks (entrance to Elizabeth Harbor) I was at the
helm. Our 3’-5’ seas suddenly became
8’. As these waves rolled under us we
saw them breaking over the rocks to the west of us at the harbor entrance,
shooting 30’ into the air. This was NOT
good! Looking further south (where we
were heading) I began to see what I thought was breaking waves. Along this path, there is an outside reef
that should break up any big waves before they reach us. We were running down the inside. As we turn toward Pigeon Cay, the waves began
to peak and they were hitting us from the port side. The first one (about 8’ and peaked) netted an
“OMG!!!” from me. I voiced my concern,
and asked Steve to please be ready to disengage the auto pilot and turn into
the waves. I was that scared! Steve was all over it, but I was so scared, I
had to say something! Then came 8’-9’ peaked
waves. They are now breaking on the
outside reef, then reforming and breaking to the inside of us. We are in the trough! My anxiety level raised
even more and that netted a “HOLY S**T” as I ran for our life preservers. I put
mine on, but Steve declined. Auto pilot
is obviously off at this point and Steve is focused on choosing and manually
navigating the best course over the waves as they approach. I run for the VHF radio and hail Bobbie and
Francie. “What the hec?” I say. “ Where did these waves come from?” They are in
a monohull about 9 miles ahead of us. Bobbie
concurs this section of our route is awful and was just as surprised as we were,
but assures us that it flattens out quickly when we reach east of William
Town. We’ve got 3 ½ miles to go! OMG!!! At the speed we were able to maintain
and the amount of zigzagging we were forced to do, I think we were fighting
that mess for a good hour. This was our
scariest moment since we’ve had the boat.
I honestly thought we might get knocked over, or at the very least
damage the boat or ourselves. All our
things in the cabin were knocked over – we were a mess. Finally, just as Bobbie had assured us, the
seas started to flatten out as we began to receive protection from the north
end of Long Island.
This was a valuable lesson we learned.
We not only need to have more than one source of weather forecasting,
but for the sea state as well. No more
just using the day before report and eyeballing from the coast. In
retrospect, had we obtained the grib files we would have seen the small strip of
“dark blue” indicating 10’-15’ waves from the Atlantic coming across Exuma
Sound and slamming into Little Exuma Island.
There is an opening out to the Atlantic between Cat Island and Long
Island. Northeasterly swells came
rolling through this area unimpeded by any other land except for the outer reef
just off our port side. The waves were
breaking over the outer reef, but unfortunately, they were just building back
up again and peaking right across the channel and the rhumb line we were
navigating.
As we approached Indian Hole waypoint just outside Thompson Bay, Long
Island, Steve finally starts to relax.
While I’m sitting in my favorite seat on the starboard bow, he picks up
the bullhorn and begins to sing songs, blaring them over the speaker. So funny.
I think we both knew we came close to a real problem. We needed to blow off some stress. So, sing and laugh, we did. Fortunately, no one was around to hear
us. We were anchored down in our old
spot in a very calm Thompson Bay about 5:30p.m.
We spent the next nine days back to our old routine of long walks on
the beach, hitch hiking (an excepted way of travel here) down to the BaTelCo
(telephone company) to purchase more minutes for our Bahamas phone, eating at
the local establishments and plenty of happy hours on the beach. But, now it was time to move on. John and Madeleine on Chanceux have been
planning with us to venture over to the Jumentos Cays (just south of the
Exumas).
February 22nd - February 25th (Water Cay and
Flamingo Cay in the Jumentos)
Pulled up anchor and headed west through Comer Channel, then south to
Water Cay. The winds were mostly behind
us today, so we had to motor/sail. Not much
protection from the wind and swells down here, as these islands are very
small. More like large rock
outcroppings. The swells coming across
the deep open water from the east wrap right around these islands. Not a good place to be in bad weather.
We dropped anchor behind Water Cay the first night, but decided to move
on to Flamingo Cay the following morning.
The rollers were a little uncomfortable here.
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| View from Water Cay anchorage |
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| Flamingo Cay anchorage |
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| Steve and Susan exploring a cavern off Flamingo Cay, Jumentos |
These islands are uninhabited. The surrounding waters could not be any clearer. We are stunned at the clarity. The northern bight on Flamingo Cay is spectacular. There is Elkhorn coral growing very close to the beach in 10’ feet of crystal clear water. Amazing!!! The fish life is plentiful, with grouper, butterfly fish, yellow tangs, blue tangs, damsels, angelfish, parrot fish, and of course the resident barracudas. We are in awe peering across the bight underwater. Visibility is as far as your vision will allow. We have never seen waters this clear.
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| A Jewelfish, in the Damsel family– brightly spotted blue fish |
We spent about 30 minutes our last night on our sugar scoops with the
underwater lights illuminating the reef below us. We were anchored in 10’ of water. Our light was attracting small fish, which
attracted a small squid (8”). We were
privileged enough to witness the squid catch and eat one of the small fish
right below us. We call this a NatGeo
(National Geographic) moment, and we live for these moments!
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| Steve, snorkeling the northern Bight of Flamingo Cay, Jumentos |
February 25th – March 15th (Back to Thompson Bay)
We hear from Chris Parker that more strong winds are expected, and
since there is little to no protection from the winds down here, we will head
back to the safer anchorage of Thompson Bay.
Unfortunately, we will have to motor back because we have noticed a 4’
area of our leech on the Genoa sail has thread separation. Peregrine does not sail well with just our
main sail. Too bad, because it was a
beautiful beam reach and close reach all the way back. To add insult to injury our battery
overcharging problem cropped up again.
The stench of the hydrogen sulfide gas from the wet cell batteries had
us standing outside the cockpit for fresh air.
When we arrived back at Thompson Bay, with just a few inquiries, we
were able to find someone right there in the bay with a Sailrite sewing
machine. Our sail was repaired in no time. We were back in business.
Steve was able to identify and correct the cause of the intermittent
battery overcharging problem. He found
two ground wires attached to a relay in the engine wiring harness that had
corroded apart inside their insulated covering and would intermittently lose
contact. This was forcing the alternators into a constant unregulated full
charge condition. It really pays to be self-sufficient out here. A little wire,
a few connectors and no more overcharging problem. YAY!!!
We spent the remaining 29 days enjoying the warm weather, long walks on
the beach (10 miles one day), rented another car for an island tour with
friends, more eating establishments experienced, and learning how to blow the
conch horn. I was given, not one, but
two conch horns. It’s harder than it
looks, but once I got the hang of it, it sounded pretty good.
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Columbus Monument, Long Island
|
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| Steve relaxing on the cliffs. Atlantic side, Long Island |
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| Susan taking in the sites. Atlantic side, Long Island |
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| Steve pausing in the shade for lunch. Atlantic side, Long Island |
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| Susan, hiking the ironshore. Atlantic side, LI |
Before leaving Thompson Bay, we needed to get an extension on our immigration papers – our three months will be up March 15th. The Ministry of Tourism actually arranged for the Immigration officer to drive down from the northern part of the island and meet us (along with 5 other cruisers) in Thompson Bay to handle the paperwork. How convenient. The officer could not have been nicer. He gave us 90 more days without question. We didn’t really plan on staying for 90 more days, but we took it just in case.
It was time to plan our route back to the states. Option #1 would be to take the same route as
the one we came down on, back north through the Abacos. Option #2 We could leave the northern Exumas
and head west to the Berry Islands with a stopover on Providence Island (home
of Nausau). We pondered these two routes
for several days. We decided we would
just start heading up the Exumas, taking one day at a time, watch the weather,
and figure it out later. Did I mention
that we live by the weather!
Up at 6:25 a.m. It’s time to
start the long trip back. Our first leg
of the trip will be short (about 4 hours), and it’s just up the western coast
of Long Island. Hog Cay and Joe’s Sound
is a nice quiet anchorage directly off a beautiful private beach. After a quick bite to eat, Steve lowered the
dinghy for an afternoon of exploring in the Sound. We found another small blue hole in the
middle of a very shallow marsh area. It
was only about 50’ across. As we motored
across it, a small shark and a large barracuda apparently called this home! Guess we won’t be swimming here. Back out to our anchorage, there were several
areas of exposed rocks forming a small reef between us and the Exuma Sound. It didn’t look like much, but when we dove
in, WOW! Just like an aquarium. Big beautiful rock beauties, surgeon fish,
snappers, wrasse, etc. Awesome
snorkeling!
Anchor up 8 a.m. Many
surrounding rain storms in the distance, but the seas are only 2’ or less. We got caught in one small squall with wind gusts
to 25 knots and sideways rain. It gave
both Peregrine and us a good shower. We
crossed the Sound with no incidents (always a plus), and Georgetown was in our
sites by 11 am. North Channel Rocks is
not nearly as “raging” as the last time we saw this area. We had an easy passage through the cut and
anchored down on the south end of Sand Dollar Beach at 12:05 p.m. We are so glad to be here. The water is very clear here. In Thompson Bay, Long Island, although a
lovely place to hang out, the water is murky most of the time. Many folks have already started their trek
back north, so the crowds have thinned out a little. After a quick lunch, we grabbed our snorkel
gear and deployed the kayaks. Steve
swung into a little beach area just to swim and take a quick look under the
water. OMG! We were in 6” to 2’ of water
and saw tons of sea urchins, literally piles of cone shells all on top of each
other like they had been dumped from a bucket.
Hermit crabs crawling all over them.
Love fest?? Shell exchange?? Who
knows? It was entertaining. All in the same small area there were also
two small octopi, a bunch of four ringed sea slugs, a mantis shrimp and many
tropical fish. It was really, quite surprising for such shallow water. We spent the next five days in Georgetown
snorkeling every reef we found, walking the beaches, kayaking the shoreline and
exploring the town.
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| Susan snorkeling a shallow reef, Georgetown |
This is a shallow reef, in a small cut between islands, that is best snorkeled at the end of the incoming tide for super clear water. Problem is, you better be close to the dinghy when the tide starts heading back out, or you WILL be sucked out into the Sound. It was worth it. It was literally a coral and fan garden. BEAUTIFUL!
Saturday, March 21st
We left Georgetown and were headed north to Rudder Cut until we got a
call from Chanceux via our MMIS # on the VHF radio. They had just left Rudder Cut and were
heading south to Lee Stocking Island.
“Hey, let’s hook up for a few days”.
We were only about an hour south of there, so off to Lee Stocking Island
we go. Just outside Adderley Cut in the
Exuma Sound, we were cruising in 70’ of water and could see all the details of
the ocean floor (fish, fans, coral heads).
It was breathtaking! We had an
easy passage through the cut and around the west side of Lee Stocking Island to
our anchorage. What a wonderful
spot. We were able to anchor so close to
the shore (4.5’ depth). These pictures
were taken from the bow of Peregrine.
You can actually see our anchor chain. Peregrine draws 4’ and her keel was about 6”
off the bottom at low tide. Nice spot!
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| Never any doubt where the anchor was located |
It was crazy calm. The sting
rays frequently swam past our boat. This
is our favorite spot so far. We will
definitely be back here next year! We
even did a “dinghy raft-up” for sunset one night. Three dinghies, three couples, conch horns
and wine of course. We all motored out
into the water, tied the dinghies together and just floated along with the
current (there wasn’t much), talking, laughing, and just enjoying the
outdoors. It’s not hard to be thankful
you’re alive doing things like this. The
sunset conch horn blowing was out of control – so funny! John cheats! He plays
the trumpet. We should have disqualified
him!
Monday, March 23rd:
Time to continue on north. It
was a beautiful sail from Lee Stocking Island to Rudder Cay Cut. Winds were 9-15 knots with our speed topping
out at 7.8 knots. It’s a beautiful
thing. We originally planned to anchor for the
evening at Rudder Cay and dive the underwater piano, but the westerly winds
picked up and it was too sloppy at the anchorage. We continued on to Little Farmers Cay for
better protection from the westerly winds. We endured
a very sloppy ride from Rudder to Little Farmers Cay. The current at Little Farmers is very swift
and we feel very exposed. Not our
favorite spot. At least we are on the
lee side of the island, and away from the westerly chop. We never left the boat at this anchorage.
Up early for our nine mile run up to Black Point Harbor on Great Guana
Cay. Anchor down in Black Point
10:55am. Black Point is a wonderful
little settlement – “non touristy”. This
is the place that’s famous for the best laundry facility – Ida’s. Ida is completely famous among the
cruisers. And today, I find out
why. You can dinghy up to the dock right
in front of her building. She has so
many washers and dryers, and the place is spotless. Ida is a wonderful lady who takes her
business seriously. We love her. The view from Ida’s is beautiful, overlooking
the harbor.
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| Ida’s Laundromat |
We got five loads of laundry done. A good feeling. Folks who have never cruised in the Bahamas may not understand my hype about a Laundromat, but trust me, it’s a big deal! Not only are we excited to even find an accessible Laundromat, but then have the facility be so nice and cruiser friendly. Black Point is a great anchorage, so we spent two nights here. I’m getting much better on the conch horn. I sound them both every night at sunset, with many others in the anchorage. More friends showed up on Wednesday night, so it was off to Lorraine’s Café for their buffet dinner. Lorraine is Ida’s daughter – It’s a small settlement. There were 3 tables set up in what looked like a renovated home. There were a total of eleven folks eating the buffet (that’s all that was available). When the food was ready, Lorraine announced to everyone to “help yourself in the next room”. They had a dining room area set up with buffet tables and all the fixings. It was straight out of the 1950’s, I kid you not. I recognized the colorful ceramic serving bowls and the flowered tablecloth from when I was a kid. Lorraine’s kids were running in and out of the house. The doors remain open, because there is no A/C. We ate just like family. Barbeque chicken, fried conch, coleslaw, broccoli and cauliflower, and rice and peas. It was perfect!
You cannot go to Blackpoint without stopping at Corrine’s (Ida’s
mother) to purchase some of her fresh baked breads. It appears she is most famous for her coconut
swirl bread, which I personally believe is extraordinary. Corrine’s is a quaint unmarked house located
next to Lorraine’ Café. You just knock
at the door and walk in. What a
wonderful place. She makes you feel at
home the moment you walk in the door. We
had to come back to pick up our bread since she was still baking it in her
single oven.
Well, we have another cold front coming, so I think we will head up to
Big Majors for better protection.
Only a two hour run to Big Majors, so plenty of time for an afternoon
snorkel. Steve found a King Helmet conch! We have never seen one before. It was alive, and he struggled with his
conscience about keeping it. We ended up
justifying it on the basis that if he didn’t take it, someone else would surely
get it soon enough. I know - pretty lame
excuse! Wait, the excuses continue… A few days ago at Lee Stocking Island,
Steve found a small Flame Helmet (no critter in it), plus he has a large Queen
Helmet that he found years ago safely packed away in “our corner” of our kid’s
basement. He now is the proud owner of a
“helmet” trifecta! A King, Queen and a
Flame! Below is a picture of his King
and the little Flame. Nicely done, Steve.
Our worse night EVER! The
prefrontal trough blew through with south, southwesterly winds as high as 53
knots. It was awful. I was up all night, listening to the
radio. Lots of chatter about dragging
anchors and the high winds. Our anchor
held fine, and no one immediately around us dragged either, thankfully. The poor monohull just west of us was taking
it over the bow all night long. Peregrine took it a little better, but not
much. It was a long night. When the sun rose, much to our surprise, we
found that one of the mega yachts (130’) was stern in – aground on pig
beach! OMG! The captain’s story was that someone drug
across their anchor line dislodging it.
I guess that will be the story given to the insurance company. Truth is, they were anchored far too close to
the beach for a 130’ boat! It took two
Bahamian tug/tow boats all day to get that boat off the beach. It was solid entertainment all day long. I think the pigs enjoyed it too. Some boaters thought it was karma for the
yacht’s 31’ tender racing back and forth the day before and rocking everyone in
the anchorage.
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| 130’ yacht listing to starboard aground on Pig Beach, Big Majors |
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| Susan swimming through the Grotto |
Tuesday, March 31st:
Anchor up at 8:10 a.m. We are
off to the southernmost area of the Land and Sea Park – Cambridge Cay. Close haul sailing today with a top speed at
7.9 knots. That’s great for us since we
live on the boat, and therefore have too much weight on board. We’re happy with 7.9 knots. It was a little scary coming into Cambridge
Cay as there are lots of rocky outcroppings and sandbars to avoid. We are navigating all new territory
here. We motored around the north side
of Bell Island and anchored on the southern tip of Halls Pond Cay (Johnny
Depp’s island). This is another
fantastic, beautiful and quiet anchorage.
We share it with four other sailboats, with plenty of swing room. (For the non-boaters: We all swing around on
our anchor lines with winds and current – good swing room is a must if you
don’t want to hit each other). I sounded
off both my conch horns at sunset this evening which started up the rest of the
anchorage. Steve said it was like
kicking up an ants nest. So funny. Sunset was perfect.
We spent two nights at anchorage in Cambridge Cay. Many beautiful snorkeling spots and great
marsh areas to hike at low tide. The
shallow tidal pools, exposed shell life, crabs running around, and just quiet
exploration. Super fun. One particular snorkeling spot was called “Molly’s
Chunky Monkey”. I’ve got no idea who
named these reefs, or how they came up with such strange names. But, anyway, Chunky Monkey runs parallel to
O’Briens Cay on the western side. This
becomes our favorite snorkeling spot so far. It’s
a slow drift dive, so completely relaxing while you float by the underwater
world. We drifted back and forth, and
back again.
There were so many species it really tested our identification
skills. Luckily we have our fish ID book
on board. There were rock beauties,
hundreds of snappers, groupers, lionfish, four-eyed butterfly fish, and many
more.
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| Nice coral head in Cambridge Cay - Chunky Monkey |
A large spotted burrfish followed Steve around, appearing to show off
what he had in his mouth. A mollusk,
perhaps?
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| Spotted burrfish with mollusk in his mouth |
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| Spotted Burrfish |
Steve, dragging our dinghy behind him while swimming as hard as he could, chased after this 5’ spotted eagle ray (below) to get a photo. OMG! We were glad he didn’t fail his stress test! Way too much exertion at our age. He was only able to get a couple of distant shots, and I guess that’s what counts.
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Spotted Eagle Ray
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Southern sting rays were abundant and actually followed us around. I guess they were as curious about us as we were them.
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| Southern Stingray |
Thursday, April 2nd:
Anchor up and off we go to Emerald Rock. This is the main park
headquarters for the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. We stopped here on the way down in January
but stayed in the more protected area of Warderick Wells, next to the
headquarters building. This time we tied
up to a mooring ball in the area called Emerald Rock. It is just a little southeast of where we
moored in January. The water was a little chilly (about 75 degrees), so spent
most of our time hiking around the island.
There are ruins from when the British loyalist once tried to cultivate
this land with their cotton fields during the Revolutionary War in
America. As you can tell, that didn’t
work so well for them. And, that’s why
they are RUINS today.
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| Davis ruins |
This was the Davis Ruin. How
funny, Davis is my mother’s maiden name.
She has British in her heritage.
This could have been one of my distant relatives. What were they thinking?
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| Peregrine moored at (Emerald Rock) |
Saturday, April 4th:
Heading off to another Cay in the Park, Shroud Cay. We have 17 nm to travel, so an easy day. There is not much wind (7-8 knots) 120-150
degrees (far reaching). We are only able
to eke out 3 – 3.5 knots. Steve adjusts
the sails constantly trying to eke out another knot. I find the slow speed very relaxing. Let the auto pilot do the work and just
chill. No worries. Arrived at Shroud Cay at 12:45pm – just in
time for lunch. We were greeted there by
white-tailed tropic birds as we anchored.
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| Admission: this picture stolen off internet because we didn’t get a good picture of them |
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| Shroud Cay – looking into the mangroves |
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Susan kayaking
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| Pink Tipped Anemone |
Shroud Cay, underwater wasn’t bad either. Shallow snorkeling along the rocky shoreline,
there are many small coral heads loaded with beautiful pink tipped
anemones. Steve thinks anemones make
great subject matter, as they sit still and don’t swim off right when you snap
the photo.
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| Yellow Stingray |
This little guy (above) is a yellow stingray. We almost didn’t see him. He’s got the camouflaging skill down to a science.
We spent two nights at Shroud Cay.
Wonderful place –we definitely plan to stop here again on our way back
down next year.
Monday, April 6th:
It’s off to Allens Cay, the northern tip of the Exuma chain, and our
staging point before we head to either Royal Island, Eleuthera (northern route)
or Chub Cay in the Berry Islands (westerly route). We anchored between Allens Cay and Leaf
Cay. The current is fairly strong
through here and it didn’t help matters to have 15 knot winds at the same
time. It was still a pretty spot. Steve
dove on the anchor to verify a good set and he snorkeled about for a few
minutes, but I did not get in the water here.
At one point a loud noise startled us and we rushed out of the cabin to
find a sea-plane landing right in front of Peregrine. We had a good time watching as it brought a
small group of tourists ashore to see the prehistoric iguanas on Leaf Cay. We had a good laugh as they ran screaming
when the iguanas came too close to them.
After Peregrine’s stern swung a little too close to the iron shore with
the evening tidal change, Steve ended up sleeping most of the night in the
cockpit keeping watch rather than try to reposition the anchor.
Tuesday, April 7th:
We woke to continued and worsening winds. Winds were 17+ knots sustained and gusting to
20+ knots. Since this was not the best
protected anchorage, we decide to move north.
Since winds are out of the ESE, we will take the northern route to
Eleuthera so we can sail. But, first we
must navigate through a very large area blanketed with numerous scattered coral
heads. Apparent winds were reaching 24
knots and seas were a sloppy four feet, slapping our starboard side the entire
route. I was worried about not being
able to see the coral heads because of sea conditions, but it turns out they
were still very easy to spot. I stood on
top of the salon, hugging the mast while on coral head watch.
By the time we reached Royal Island at 6pm, we were exhausted! We anchored up, fixed left-overs for dinner,
took warm showers, played a few hands of solitaire, had our vanilla pudding and
off to bed! Steve was snoring in no
time.
We woke still completely exhausted from yesterday. We will spend the next two days right here in
the comfort of Royal Island harbor – nice and calm. According to the weather guru, Chris Parker,
Friday looks like our day to cross the NE Providence Channel into the Abacos. We spent our time here cleaning the boat,
reading, a little hiking and more relaxing.
Royal Island’s original name was Real Island, for the Spanish silver
coin used by pirates who frequented the harbor.
Today, the former elegant private estate built in the 1950’s is in ruin
and developers have tried but failed to change the island into a resort. Work was halted in 2010. Nature is doing its best to reclaim the
estate, making it an interesting diversion and worth exploring.
Anchor up at 6:45am. Seas are
still 3-4’, but they are rollers this time – not much chop. Much better than Tuesday’s run. We sailed the entire NE Providence Channel
(about 50 nm). When we reached our
destination, Little Harbor Cut, it was time to drop the sails and crank the
engines to navigate the cut. Winds had
pretty much died anyway. Much to our
surprise, the starboard engine starts, but then promptly dies. It was somewhat difficult to maneuver the
boat into the wind on just the port engine while Steve lowered the sails. After lowering the sails, Steve worked on the
starboard engine problem while I continued at the helm (under port engine
power). He could get it started, but
then it would immediately die again. Steve
climbed into the engine compartment and changed the primary fuel filter (it was
nasty), but the problem continued. So,
we motored through the inlet, ever so slowly on our one (27 horse) port engine
on a late ebbing tide. A real nail biter
for me, but we caught a break and made it to our anchorage behind Lynyard Cay
with no further problems.
Steve got right to work on the engine mishap. Sure enough the secondary fuel filter was also
completely gunged up. Fortunately, we
carry spare fuel filters. We are not
sure how non-mechanical folks survive out here.
So thankful for Steve’s ability to diagnose and fix most all
problems. Yay! Our guess is that our Tuesday run through the
sloppy seas may have sloshed sediment from the bottom of the tank up and into
the filter. We very likely picked up
some “dirty fuel”. That’s our guess and
we’re sticking to it.
I dove on the props and the rudders this morning before leaving for
Hope Town. Just an extra precaution. All was clear except one very small piece of
plastic stuck in one of the intake holes on the port prop hub. Not sure that would have made a difference,
but it was removed all the same. A nice
motoring day with calm waters into Hope Town.
This is one of our favorite places on earth. The folks are so friendly, it’s a safe,
protected harbor, and it’s familiar. We
had a celebratory steak dinner with fresh squash from the market. It was nice to be back in Hope Town.
We planned to stay only 2 nights, but ended up staying for three. I wish I could say it was for a fun reason,
buy it wasn’t. While in Hope Town,
safely on a mooring ball, Steve decided to go ahead and change out the fuel
filters on the port engine as well (preventive maintenance). Monday
morning we cranked the engines with no problem.
I dropped the first line off the mooring ball, when I heard the engine
alarm go off – the port engine died. I
was able to secure the dropped line back onto the mooring ball while Steve took
a look at the situation. He was thinking
maybe air in the line, since he just changed the fuel filter. He cranked the engine again with no
problem. Captain ordered the lines be
cast off. So I did, promptly followed by the engine alarm again. Now, we have only the starboard engine
running, we are free from the mooring ball, the winds are at least 15 knots,
and we are in the middle of a crowded mooring field. OMG!
Steering was nearly impossible.
He literally had to just keep going forward and backward to avoid the
other moored boats while the wind pushed us over to a very conveniently placed
wooden dock owned by Cat Paws Boat Rentals.
We must be living right, because that whole scene was nothing but a
miracle. We did not hit one boat, and we
gently and perfectly laid Peregrine right up against the dock. Bottom line – the problem ended up being a 4”
piece of fuel line from the fuel bulb to the filter. All the fuel lines had been changed out just
prior to us buying the boat – apparently EXCEPT this stupid 4” piece. It had more cracks in it than a Bahamian
sidewalk. When Steve changed the fuel
filter, he probably caused one of the many cracks to finally break
through! Vacuum was lost. I was able to secure a small piece of fuel
line from Lighthouse Marina. An easy fix
for Steve.
We were a bit stressed after this event, so we just motored over to
another mooring ball and tied up. We’ll
leave tomorrow. You may think that we
were upset about this situation; however, we were quite grateful that this
occurred while we were in a safe harbor.
When breakdowns happen, there is no better place than in a safe environment. Alternatively, this 4” fuel hose could have
waited until we were in the middle of crossing the Gulf Stream before it
decided to break. We are always thankful
when things break while we are safely moored, or at least in a safe
environment. As we all know – THINGS ARE
GOING TO BREAK. It’s just a timing
thing.
I would be lying if I wrote that we weren’t nervous about dropping the
mooring lines this morning. We ran the
engines for fifteen minutes before dropping the lines. Both engines working well. A quick stop at the fuel dock and it’s off to
the Bluff House in Green Turtle. Going
around Whale Cay was again a piece of cake – Yay! The day was beautiful. We needed it after the event in Hope
Town. It wasn’t a long run, so we were
soon tied to the dock at Bluff House.
This is where we cleared Customs on the way over here four months
ago! The marina shower was great. It is nice to be able to let the water run
the entire time you’re in the shower. We
had a nice rain to wash the salt off Peregrine, but she is still a mess. We look forward to getting her home and
cleaning her up.
We completely missed Chris Parker’s weather report this morning – could
not pick him up on the SSB radio. We
talked to other folks who were leaving today because this would be our last
chance, otherwise it could possibly be ten more days because of the continual
threat of squalls. Steve finally was
able to download the GRIB files from Passage Weather. Seas were looking good at 1-3’ or less. Winds 5-10 knots the entire path home. The storms were forecasted to stay north of
Fort Pierce. We were headed for Port St.
Lucie inlet, south of Fort Pierce.
Should be fine, but we would have to keep a vigilant watch. We weighed all our options, and decided to
go. We finally pulled away from the dock
at 9:25am. The plan was for a continuous
run (30 hours) to Port St. Lucie inlet.
We motor sailed all day, doing 5-6 knots. The wind was not cooperating for optimum
sailing. No storms seen on radar yet.
Just after passing Great Sale Cay, the sun starts to set and our radar
quits working! Now it will become
impossible to track the storms in the dark.
Now that it is dark, we are seeing severe lightening building to the
west. We can’t tell which way the storm
is heading without radar, so we made the decision to alter course a little
further south and anchor off Mangrove Cay.
This is nothing more than a rock about 23 miles east of Memory Rock (a
well-known way point), but at least it’s something. We pulled in under pitch black skies at 11:30
pm. There were 4 other anchor lights in
the anchorage. It was so dark we could
not see the outline of the other boats. Steve
slept in the cockpit again. I was up and
down checking the storm situation.
1:00am – still lightening to the west.
2:00am – Still active lightening.
4:00am – Storm seemed to have moved further north. Time to wake Steve and get moving. We need to make Port St. Lucie inlet before
nightfall. We’ve never come in this inlet
at night, and we don’t want to start now.
We’re getting pretty good at anchoring and pulling anchor in the
dark. It’s not comfortable, but
doable. We arrived at Memory Rock (the
edge of the Bahama Banks) at 8:30am. We
have about 10 ½ hours to cross the Gulf Stream and get through the inlet before
dark. We should make it just fine. We pointed Peregrine on a heading slightly
south of Jupiter Inlet (south of Port St. Lucie) to account for the northerly
push we would get from the Gulf Stream.
The Gulf Stream usually runs about 2 knots. Unfortunately, with the strong southerly
winds the stream was apparently much stronger.
Plus it was considerably wider than we expected with the effects being
felt from about 10 miles off the Bahama Banks to just 8 miles off the coast of
Stuart. We had a terrible time getting
any westerly movement in the strongest section of the stream. Severe crabbing! So, frustrated, Steve finally decided to take
down the sails, set auto pilot on 270 degrees (due west) and the engines at 3000
rpms. By the time we broke free of the
stream we were 6.8 miles north of Port St. Lucie inlet and
having to backtrack south. We finally
entered the mouth of the inlet at 5:30 pm.
It was good to finally reach the calmer waters inside and out of the sloppy seas. We still needed to hustle if we
were going to make the dock before dark.
Finally on the docks of Sunset Bay Marina, April 16th, 7:30
pm. (The railroad bridge got us again!) A nice couple a few slips up from
ours in a Lagoon motor yacht came running down to help us with our lines.
We arrived! We’re alive!
WHAT AN ADVENTURE! Now the work begins in preparation for the next season.
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