In the Bahamas

We made it.  We are at Green Turtle Cay for the Holidays.

Monday was a long day, very long.  We pulled anchor again at sunrise and started motoring down the ICW with several others.  Our goal was to make it to Ft. Pierce and make the crossing from there.  The day went well, we arrived at Vero Beach around 1:00 pm.  Normally Vero Beach is the waiting spot for a weather window.  We already had our window scheduled so we only stopped to refuel and to fill water tanks.  We took on only 65 gallons of diesel, our first refueling since we left Morehead City in NC and we burned half of that motoring from St Augustine.  We made it to Ft Pierce about 4:30 pm and dropped anchor.  About that time we got one of our weather update emails from Chris Parker, our weather adviser and it was still positive for a crossing on Tuesday.  The wind had blown hard all day but it was dropping as predicted.  At 5:00 pm Chris does a weather update on the single-sideband radio and we asked about proceeding now rather then wait until morning.  His advise was it shouldn't be a problem.  After a quick dinner we pulled the anchor again and started out the inlet just as the sun set.  We were greeted with 4-6 foot waves as we got out of the inlet.  As we proceeded to get further offshore the waves lessened as the water got deeper.  We set course and started to our first waypoint.  The wind was out of the southeast and was just close enough on our nose that we could not sail, we were going to have to motor.  Throughout the night the waves dropped until we were only dealing with 1-2 footers and the wind continued to die.  By the time we crossed into the Sea of Abaco were dealing with 1 footers and about 10 knots of wind, still too close on the nose for sailing.

We continued following our route from waypoint to waypoint through the day.  A lovely day with light winds and a light chop in the water.  Last year we crossed during the day and traveled this area in the dark, this time is was nice to see the wide open expanse of the Sea of Abaco with it's light turquoise color and the ability to see all of the way to the bottom.  Evening came as we got closer to Green Turtle Cay and we arrived about 10:00 pm and dropped anchor.  We would wait until daylight and high tide to continue into Black Sound and tie up at Donny's Dock.

In the morning we called Donny to let him know we were coming in but he was not available.  While they were looking for him he pulled up alongside to welcome us and tell us where he was putting us.  We followed him in and got tied up to the dock.  We had talked to him previously letting him know when we were coming and he had also been following us on our Spot location reports.

Once settled in at the dock we proceeded to the Customs office to check in.  Another couple arrived at the office at the same time.  We were behind them at the fuel dock in Vero Beach and had anchored next to them in Ft. Pierce.  They waited until morning to leave and had just arrived.  We on the other hand were clean and rested having arrived the night before and were showered and rested.  We did learn one thing from them.  We learned about checking in as "co-captains".  If we sign in with both of our names listed as the captains we can eliminate problems if something happens to me (on the Immigration documents as sole captain) and Cori tries to take the boat out of the country by herself and only listed as crew.  Something we hope to never have to deal with.

Once checked in we are now "free to wander aimlessly about the Abaco" as Will on Anteries announces on the local radio net.  We are planning to stay in Green Turtle Cay through New Years and then start moving further south.

So far we have dinghied around the area, going up to White Sound to see who was there, into town for a bit of walking around and picking up some milk at the grocery store and relaxing.  Cori was able to get over to Gilliam Beach to start shelling. Not a lot of relaxing has happened yet.  Donny is adding to the docks and we gave him a hand with some of that,  He had planned to go fishing on Friday and taking Cori along but things got a bit busy with all of the boats coming in so we were giving him a hand moving boats around.  Friday evening was a highlight, Donny was going to be in his churches Christmas play and we went to watch.  He had two lines but he did great (There is no room here.  Go somewhere else.) and even got applause for it.  It was a typical small town, small church production with songs from the kids and two short plays about the real meanings of Christmas.  It brought back a lot of memories of the productions we would put on at Christmas when we were in grade school.  After the church production we walked around town looking at the lights and came on a birthday party.  Everyone was welcome, Cori got hit on by the birthday boy, they had an open bar for drinks and were serving big plates of beans and rice, mac and cheese, coleslaw, fried snapper and roasted pig.  It was a great celebration and typical of the Islanders friendliness.

Over night the predicted front came through and the temperature has dropped a bit but the winds are blowing 20-30 knots.  This is why everyone was in a hurry to get here and hunker down instead of waiting several more weeks in Florida before crossing.

On the move again

We have left Palm Coast.  Our visit there lasted longer than we expected.  We ordered some stuff from Amazon and part of the order was delayed.  Delayed to the point we have not gotten it yet, they keep moving the arrival date out from the original.  Our friend Jim is willing to pick it up for us.  Jim has done a lot for us while we were there: loaning us a vehicle, including us in runs for shopping and to visit other friends passing through St. Augustine and providing airport pickup and delivery and much more.  Thanks Jim!

We decided to leave because our weather advisor stated in his Friday report that “you need to get where you want to be for Christmas by Wednesday.”  There is some nasty weather coming in later in the week.  We did not want to be in Palm Coast but would rather be in the Bahamas, more specifically Green Turtle Cay.  We made the decision Friday evening and were moving on the water Saturday by 8:00 am.  We had wanted to go back up to St Augustine and go out the inlet and sail or motor offshore to either Ft Pierce or West Palm Beach and then make the crossing.  Two things changed that plan.  The weather offshore for Sunday was going to be nasty.  Also there is a report of a barge losing 25 shipping containers somewhere around Cape Canaveral.  Hitting one of them will really ruin your day.  We know they are out there because stuff has been washing up on shore: coffee cans, pet food, boxes of wine and other assorted flotsam.

We made it to New Smyrna on Saturday and anchored for the night across from the yacht club.  We were treated to dolphins swimming around the boat in the dark and then the Christmas boat parade passed by.  We had a very eventful evening then a quiet night at anchor.

We were up before dawn on Sunday and had the anchor up by 7:00 as the sun came up.  We are on the ICW so it is a motorboat ride but we made the best of it by raising the mainsail and motorsailing for part of it.  Having the sail up while you motor will give some extra speed if the winds are right.  We are anchor down at Dragon Point near Melbourne FL.  We had a good day traveling 58.8 nautical miles which converts to 67.6 statute miles.  A long day on the water running ten hours at around 6 knots.

We plan another early and long day tomorrow in hopes of making the crossing on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Our next report should be from the Bahamas.

Back in Palm Coast

We are back from our Thanksgiving break in South Dakota.  All of Cori's siblings were home and she did not want to be left out.  The trip out was good, the only delay was the final flight from Minneapolis to Rapid City.  The return flight was a bit more problematic.  We had an hour layover in Minneapolis scheduled but the flight out of Rapid City was delayed an hour.  This put us on later flights and would mean we would arrive in Daytona Beach around midnight.  We lucked out in Minneapolis and cleared the standby list and got an earlier flight.  We were boarding the plane as the people whose seats we had taken showed up to find their seats had been given away.  We were then able to get back on our original flight out of Atlanta and arrived on time.  Thanks to our friend Jim for picking us up and getting us back to the boat.

Oh ya, it snowed several times while we were there.

Back on the boat we have to wait for some things we ordered from Amazon to be shipped but are finishing off some small projects.  I needed to replace a block on deck for the mainsheet and had to take out a ceiling panel and trim.  Cori used this as an excuse to re-varnish the trim.  While in SD we made a run to Deadwood to transfer the registration for the dinghy to SD.  We now do not have to worry about the Florida Wildlife stopping us when out for a ride.  Cori has her sewing machine out and is working some sewing projects.

We are antsy to get moving but need to wait for Amazon.  Fortunately the marina has a monthly rate instead of weekly rates so instead of renting a slip for just the days we were going to be gone we have it for a month.

Palm Coast FL

Saturday morning the winds were picking up from the northeast.  The anchorage we were in is not well protected from the NE so we decided to move.  First we had to catch a bridge opening.  Just past the bridge and at the other end of the mooring field is what is called the south anchorage.  We moved down there, picked a spot and anchored.  Looking at the depth and the tides told us we made a questionable decision.  We had four-plus feet below the keel but the tide table said there was a five foot tide variation.  We would be real close to being aground at low tide.  Looking at our options we decided it was maybe time to move on.  We had about 25 miles to get to Palm Coast but the charts showed an anchorage down by the Matanzas Inlet.  Off we went.  It turned out that the boat in front of us had the same idea and all we had to do is follow them.  Once they set their anchor we chose our spot and dropped anchor also.  There is a fair amount of current being this close to the inlet but our trusty Rocna anchor bit in and held.

This is a change from St. Augustine where we were anchored in the middle of town.  We can see some high rise apartments in the distance but we are in the middle of a National Monument with nature all around us.  In 1742 the Spanish built a small fort here and in 1924 it became a National Monument along with 300 acres surrounding it.  It is managed by the National Park Services.  It has been reconstructed and is open to tours with a free shuttle ride provided by the Park Service.

We settled in for the rest of the day keeping an eye on the tide and current changes to be sure we did not drag.  After a quiet night and a lazy morning we took the dinghy to the visitors center to learn about the fort and take the ride over for a tour.  The tour isn't much, they offer a short video and then a short commentary when you get off the shuttle boat and then you are off on your own.  It is a small outpost, usually manned by one officer, four infantrymen and two gunners so it doesn't take long to see everything.  There are even two of the original guns that were left there when the Spanish abandoned the fort in 1819.

After that we went back to the boat and attempted to watch the Nascar race, which if you are into Nascar you know was delayed by rain and not broadcast on television.

After another quiet night we needed to move on.  We had reserved a slip at the Palm Coast Marina starting on Monday.  A couple of hours later we pulled into the marina, tied up, plugged in and connected the free cable television.  We now have hundreds of station with nothing to watch just like everyone else.  While here we are working on a couple of projects and then on Friday we will leave for South Dakota for Thanksgiving with Cori's family.

There are more photos in the photo gallery.

Hanging out in St. Augustine FL

We have been here a week now.  We have been doing a combination of tourist stuff and just hanging out.  So far we have done the trolley tour, toured the old fort, taken the cruisers shuttle for shopping and walked around the Old City.  We had a recommendation to eat at Mojo's BBQ so on Sunday we went there to celebrate Cori's birthday.  We found out Bill Wier from Red Canary was in town working on his boat so he joined us for dinner.  Fabulous food, we went back another evening for a light dinner is was so good.  We were told where we could go by dinghy to tie up and walk to Home Depot and others stores so we have made that trip several times along with a trip across the inlet to Vilano Beach and the Publix store for more provisions.  Cori is busy with sorting and organizing which gave me an opportunity to tour the fort.  A lot of history there and it was free with my National Park Senior pass..  We still haven't made it to the lighthouse yet, but that may happen this afternoon.

The photo is from our friends Al and Michelle on Kindred Spirit.  As they were coming into the harbor in the fog the first boat they saw was Hi Flite.  They anchored near us and invited us over happy hour.  We were also flagged down on one one of our trips to shore by Shay and Elizabeth on Escape.  They are from Morehead City and we have mutual friends Vic and Gigi.  They lead the way on the excursion to Vilano Beach.  We have plans to meet up with both boats again after we cross over to the Abacos.  We will stay here until Monday when we will move down to Palm Coast to tie Hi Flite to a dock and we head off for Thanksgiving in SD.

St Augustine FL

We arrived in St Augustine FL Friday morning.  We left Matthews Point Marina at about 9:30 Tuesday morning.  It was rainy and cool but not as cold as last year.  We stopped at Morehead City Yacht Basin to top off fuel then motored out Beaufort Inlet and turned southwest and raised the sails.  We were greeted by some dolphins while at the Yacht Basin and we always take that as a sign of good luck.  The winds were out of the northeast so we were able to sail.  About 5:00 am the winds dropped and we had to start motoring.  We motored and sailed off and on during the rest of the trip.  The final count of motor hours showed that we were able to sail almost 50% of the time.  This saved us a lot of fuel and when we arrived in St Augustine we had only used half of an 80 gallon tank.  By Thursday the weather had cleared and we had partly cloudy to clear skied for the last days with the last night clear with the brightest stars I have seen in a long time.  Several times during the trip we were visited with dolphins coming to play in our bow wave.  Cori caught four fish but two were not a kind that are worth eating and the other two got off the hook before she could get them aboard.  Good thing we brought a lot of food.

Thursday morning we heard another boat hail us.  It was Joe on "Time in a Bottle" another Pearson 424.  We had met Joe several years ago in Oriental.  We didn't see any other boats or ships until we were south of Charleston and nothing ever came close to us.

We arrived at St Augustine just after sunrise and motored in the inlet and dropped anchor just off from the old fort.  We spent the rest of the day straightening out the boat, getting organised (Cori) and taking a nap (Dale).  Saturday morning we launched the dinghy and went to the marina to sign in and pay the fee for the use of the facilities.  After showers we spent the day sightseeing in the Old City.  Back at the boat now we are relaxing and getting caught up with emails and other computer related stuff since we are able to access the marinas WiFi.

Highlights of the trip: being out without having to worry about traffic and other boats.  The waves on Tuesday night glowing with phosphorescence as they broke around us.  Two nights of traveling under sail instead of motoring. Clear skies Thursday night with numerous shooting stars.  Catching and almost landing several Mahi Mahi.

We are planning to stay here for several days then move down to Palm Coast to leave the boat at a marina over Thanksgiving.  We will be joining Cori's family in Spearfish SD for Thanksgiving.  Once we are back we will continue south and wait for a weather window to cross over to the Bahamas.

Getting ready

It is "deja vu all over again".  A year ago we were going through the same steps getting ready for our first trip to the Bahamas.  This time we have a better idea of what we will need and not need but it is still a big project.  We have bought our provisions and got them stored away, sorted and taken off the cloths we will not need and are in the process of finding storage space for everything else.  The outboard motors and diesel engine have been serviced.  Now we are waiting for the weather to cooperate.  Today it is raining and and a cold front is moving through the area.  Depending on how fast the front moves we should be able to start our trip in the next couple of days.

Our plan is to make our way down the ICW to Beaufort Inlet and follow the coast to St. Augustine FL.  That may not be possible but there are a number of inlets where we can come in if things don't go as we wish.  We are hoping for good winds so we can sail but if we have to we can motor for most of the trip.

Wish us luck.