Dan and Nancy's Travels: 2011 - Year #2 of Retirement

Merry Christmas 2011!

Happy Holidays from Dan and Nancy, aboard s/v Maja, in Ft. Pierce, Florida.

We got a slip for the month because we're driving to the NE Georgia mountains to enjoy Christmas surrounded by family. We may be trading sand for possible snow this year, but it will be worth it to see James, Michelle and Craig.

2011 was most memorable for our first trip to the Bahamas aboard Maja for 4 months and our first extended time off the boat for 4 months since we started this whole retirement thing.

January

We spent January in the Brunswick Landing Marina, provisioning and prepping for our trip to the Bahamas. Everything we'd read and heard reinforced the need to bring as many supplies as we can. My obsession was toilet paper and coffee ... while Dan was hoarding cases of beer (reported to cost $50/case in the Bahamas ... good thing I don't drink beer!).

We left BLM on a cloudy January 19th for an overnight sail down to Cape Canaveral (Ponce Inlet). The weather was predicted to be calm, and there was a full moon, so I figured that if I didn't like sailing overnight in this weather, I'd have to throw in the towel about sailing at night. Fortunately, it was fabulous! The full moon was so bright that it was more like sailing at twilight ... I could see lights on the coast and easily spot other ships at sea w/o the radar. It was magical, and I let Dan sleep in 3 extra hours simply because I did not want to give up the moment ...

We headed down the coast of Florida to Lake Worth ... using both the ICW and jumping offshore for some lovely sailing on the ocean. This was our first time exploring eastern FL by sea, and it was delightful. Beautiful homes along the ICW. Cute little towns with many options for boaters.

February

We came to Lake Worth to get a new water tank for the boat. Because of the work involved getting the old, leaky, aluminum tank out and installing the new, poly tank, we went into the Riviera Beach Marina for a week. That ended up being a good choice b/c we met Carol and Hank (s/v Kismet) -- a lovely, liberal, democratic couple that we could talk politics with! We ended up anchoring with them for 2 weeks, waiting for a good weather window to cross to the Bahamas, and our paths crossed several times once over there.

Hank and Carol s/v Kismet

The day of our crossing finally came on February 22. We left Lake Worth at 7:00 a.m. and anchored at Great Sale Cay in the Abacos at midnight. Four boats crossed together, and it was a smooth and uneventful crossing. The ocean is a deep majestic blue while the Bahamian banks did not disappoint with their clear turquoise color.

Four sailboats in a row...

Approaching the Bahama banks ... leaving the deep ocean for shallow water.

Welcome to the Bahamas!

Yes, the water is that color!

We were up again at 6:00 am to finish the trip into Green Turtle Cay where we could clear customs, and also meet up with our good friend, Mikel Wheeler, who was literally waiting for us on the dock since he had arrived in Marsh Harbor the day before and taken the ferry over to GTC.

Welcome aboard Mikel!

s/v Maja at anchor in Green Turtle Cay

High winds kept us in GTC for a week because big waves make the reef opening through the banks too dangerous to navigate. But we still had beaches to visit, bone fishing to try, places to dinghy, and friends to visit as Carol and Hank (s/v Kismet) and Debbie and Dan (s/v About Time) were also stuck in the anchorage. One of the tricks to sailing in the Bahama banks is watching the tides ... they dictate when to leave an anchorage, when to clear an inlet, when to approach a marina.

Finally, some sailing to Treasure Cay and Marsh Harbor.

March

We spent March sailing in the Abacos. We really enjoyed the variety of places you could sail to and the number of safe anchorages in any kind of weather .... Great Guana Cay, Treasure Cay (one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world), Hopetown, Man O War Cay, Marsh Harbor.

Exploring via "our car"!

ahhhhhhh ....

Dan made himself a conch horn ... a sunset tradition.

sailing on the banks in 20ft of water

While anchored at Great Guana Cay, we got the news that Craig and Michelle are engaged!

Fortunately, we were able to share in this happy occasion via Skype and our Bahamian phone!

We are so proud of both of them.

April

We started the month in the Abacos and ended in the Exumas ... The Abacos/Northern Bahamas has a fun sailing ground, a fantastic grocery store, and a very accessible airport. So Marsh Harbor was the place to be when our good friend, Robert Ewing arrived! Nothing beats the fun of sitting at the marina bar, sipping a rum drink, and up walks a dear face that you know!

Welcome to the Abacos Robert!

Robert's week in the Bahamas went way too fast ... but we did get to take him to our favorite places in the Abacos ... including the world-famous Nippers Bar for the Barefoot Man concert (think Jimmy Buffet in a 3-piece band!). The crowds poured in via ferry from neighboring islands.

Nippers Bar, Great Guana Cay

Pina Coladas on the beach at Treasure Cay!

View from the Hopetown lighthouse.

After Robert left on April 7th, we turned our bow south towards the Exumas. First stop was Royal Island in Eleuthera. Here we meet two of our favorite boaters, Chris and Karen (s/v Synergy). We last saw them in Brunswick in November ... and what are the odds that we'd cross paths with them in the middle of the Bahamas! It was a highlight of our cruise to catch them as they headed north and we headed south. We spent 3 days together, getting a slip in Spanish Wells and taking the ferry to Harbor Island for the day.

crappy pictures but we were having such fun!

Harbor Island is famous for its pink beaches ... crushed conch shells.

After we parted company with Chris and Karen on the 18th, Dan and I decided to make tracks for Georgetown in order to see the Family Sailing Regatta at the end of the month. This is a huge sailing race of Bahamian sloops, sailed just by residents of the "family islands", and we've been repeatedly told that it was an event not to be missed. So, another change of plans was in order ...

The stretch from Eleuthera and the Exumas was the only time we had to navigate shallow water full of coral heads. With the sun overhead, they were easy to spot, but no autopilot as it was like slalom skiing around the coral!

yes, that's what coral look like in turquoise-clear water!

On our cruise down the Exumas to Georgetown, we anchored at the Exuma Land and Sea Park for the night, and over the VHS radio, we heard our friends Greg and Janice, s/v Glenice, hailing another boat. Turns out, they were just a day sail away from us, so we joined up with them and added the Exumas to the list of places we have crossed paths with them on our boats -- Brunswick, Dismal Swamp, Annapolis ....

Greg and Janice (s/v Glenice)

Easter week brought in strong north winds that made the run straight south to Georgetown ill-advised, so we spent the week in Black Sound with fellow cruisers, Greg and Janice (s/v Glenice) and Hank and Carol (s/v Kismet). Good times! Internet was readily available on shore, great laundry, and the woman who makes the 'island-famous' coconut bread lives here.

1..2..3.. Maja, Glenice, Kismet at anchor

on one side, the quiet banks

on the other side, the choppy ocean

After a week at anchor, we started getting antsy to be moving towards Georgetown again. This section of the trip involves travelling from the shallow banks back to the deep ocean, so it's a whole different adventure. You have to pick an inlet to cross either thru a reef or between islands ... both options the subject of much discussion among cruisers and both offer their fair share of scary tides and currents. The trick is to cross with the tide so that you are not steaming into a 7 knot current! Sounds simple but seldom is. Considering the length of some passages, timing frequently comes down to luck.

Our first private anchorage ...

and private beach!

Crossing from turquoise to deep blue water

Once in the deep ocean, we always throw out two fishing lines and troll.

Fish On! After losing a Mahi-mahi, we got a Spanish Mackerel. 7 meals!

Destination: Georgetown

Family Sailing Regatta

wheeeeeeee

so worth the trip to get here!

The Family Island Regatta (drawing primarily from central Bahamas) was definitely worth the run down to Georgetown. Little boats, big sails, nimble crew who hike out on boards to keep the keep in the water. Everyone at anchor is out in the race, zooming around the sailing boats. Very Very Fun.

Hang out between races at the "Chat and Chill" beach bar.

Yes, this crew flies from FL to Bahamas for the weekend!

Lovely view of the beach from anchor.

Lovely view of beach from beach chair!

May

Georgetown is as far south as we'd go this year. All our planning is now focused on points north.

We leave behind Hank and Carol (s/v Kismet) and Greg and Janice (s/v Glenice) who are going to stay in Georgetown over the summer.

Leaving Georgetown. Heading north.

We spent 10 days in the Exuma Land and Sea Park. A spectacular sea life preserve and the best snorkeling we've had so far. Warm water and lots of fish to see as "No Fishing" is allowed.

Thunderball Grotto

Hiking in the sea park.

We had a great stretch of weather, allowing us to enjoy wonderful day sails, lots of swimming and comfortable nights at anchor. Repeating this cycle through the month of May, we slowly moved north up the Exuma island chain ... Staniel Cay, Big Majors, Cambridge Cay, Warderick Wells, Highborne Cay ... and then made the long run back to Little Harbor in the Abacos.

June

The tone of our trip changed on June 3, when we got the news that our brother-in-law, Tim Swenson, would not be eligible for a bone marrow transplant to treat the rare form of leukemia that was diagnosed 7 months ago. Without the BMT, Tim's prognosis was not good, so we turned our attention to heading back to Florida, finding a marina to leave the boat, and getting back to Minnesota.

Swenson Family.

It took us 3 weeks. It seemed that every time we tried to make up time by sailing off shore, we were battered by summer squalls that caused us to divert our course. We aimed for Jacksonville when we left the Abacos, but ended up in Lake Worth because we ran into high north winds that kicked up the Gulf Stream and beat us with lots of water over the bow. We left Lake Worth for an overnight sail to St Augustine, but had to divert to Cape Canaveral after experiencing our first lightening storm at sea with 10-foot seas. We finally arrived at Green Cove Springs FL (30 miles from JAX) on June 19, where we had the boat hauled on June 21, put into long-term storage, rented a car and headed off to Minnesota. We spent Friday, June 24 with Tim and Suzie.

Tim died a week later on July 2. A very, very good man. Gone too soon.

July.

Back in our native land, we looked forward to spending the next 3 months off the boat, becoming land cruisers and visiting as many family and friends as we could. Our motto was "if you have a guest room, watch out!".

We started out in Webster WI, where our good friend, Jim Garfunkel, cleared out his guest room so that we could put up our water bed (now that's friendship!). We came to relax and enjoy his pool over the July 4th party he had planned. However, once again, Mother Nature had other plans. A fierce storm with 100+ mph straight-line winds came up suddenly, and as we were watching from Jim's kitchen window, his outdoor large storage building was literally blown away as we watched! That was enough to send us scurrying to the basement, where we waited out the high winds for about 40 minutes, returning to find the house in tact, but vast destruction every place else ... including over 60 oak trees gone from his 10-acre property.

The party went on as planned, but except for playing bocce, we cleared brush, trying to make some order of the mess that was now Jim's yard. It ended up taking Jim the next 4 months to get his homestead back in order.

After a stop at Gull Lake to visit Tom McNally, Dan attended his 40 year high school reunion, and we started our road trip by visiting Michelle in Loveland, Ohio in time for her birthday on July 20.

McNally family

Dan and Molly in Loveland.

August

After 10 days in Loveland (where it was too hot to even go over to the pool), we drove to Louisville KY to visit Dan's cousin, Sheila Yule, who treats us so well that we seriously consider making KY our second home.

Next stop, Troy, Michigan, where we spent 4 days with Dan's sister Kricket, where the weather finally cooled off.. Both she and Russell kept us busy, well fed and supplied with a new batch of great country CDs.

Leaving Troy, MI, we took a beautiful drive thru the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and decided to push on to Webster, WI, where our water bed awaited! And what a transformation we saw at Jim's place. In the month since the big storm, Jim had made a huge dent in the clean up. Except for the noticeable loss of trees, and brush piles, it looked almost close to the same.

Jim spent his entire summer working on cleanup.

Dan added tractor driving to his skill set!

Mid-month, we were off to Rochester to stay with my sister/family, Laury and Bob Schalau. Being back in Rochester is like being home again, and we can go shopping at our favorite stores, eat at our favorite restaurants and visit with favorite people from our working days. Oh yes, cannot forget the doctor appointments we like to work into our schedule whenever we are close to the Mayo Clinic.

Laury and Bob

We try to limit our stays to around 5 days so not to overdue a good thing. Fortunately, we have good friends and family living in just the right places! So after a week with my sister, we moved back to Minneapolis, where our close friends, Dan and Renee Devereaux also have a wonderful guest room that we use as our home base. Being in Minneapolis gives us easy access to a wide variety of friends we like to see while in town: Robert Ewing, Ann and Jim Japs, Sue and John Japs, Marianne Thompson, Tim Ryan, Paula Wheeler, Deb Moore, Kate Tarvestad ... the list goes on!

Dan's birthday was August 23, and for his birthday he asked for a "surprise birthday party" and that's what his friends, Dan Devereaux and Robert Ewing, gave him ... even though he knew it was coming, still a good reason for a party!

Best cake from the neighborhood bakery

Favorite son.

good friends ...

Dan and Renee. Hosts extraordinaire.

with a beautiful back yard garden.

Dan's birthday also marked the start of our second big road trip of the summer, this time to the west. We left early on Sept 24, with our first stop in Spearfish, SD ... where we spent our 2nd night in a motel since leaving the boat in June. Next stop was at the Nevada border (time for a little gambling!) before heading thru Reno into California, destination: Chico CA, home of my brother Jim, and his family, Julie, Dylan and Owen. Last time we've been here to see them was 2004!

Marvel of the interstate highway

Lovely to see mountains again after living on the water.

Start of the Rockies

Entering California

Finally ... Chico! And the Radey family.

After 3 days on the road, it felt great to arrive at our final destination and get to unpack in yet another lovely guest room! Since we are here for a week, we unpacked our foldable bikes and settled in. They have a typical California home with a beautiful pool and lush gardens. The mornings were always pleasant, and we had our coffee out at the pool every morning.

youngest son, Owen.

When we weren't lounging around the pool, or eating fresh goodies from the farmers market, we did get out and use the bikes. Chico is home to Bidwell Park, the 3rd largest public park in the country. There are paved bike paths thru trees and water and horses and all kinds of vegetation. Gotta love California!

did I mention huge cypress trees?

It was a tough Friday morning when we had to load up the Prius and head west for the first time in 10 days. As much as we wanted to title our Christmas letter -- From sea to shining sea -- this is as far west as we're going this year.

Next stop: Snowbird, Utah

Leaving Chico via Hwy 20. One of the prettiest roads....

September

We used our timeshare to trade for a unit at Snowbird, Utah. We figured it would be a good change of scenery to stare at the mountains for a week! It also was a nice spot to break up the drive back to MN.

We got a fabulous one-bedroom condo unit, and for a whole week we felt like we had our "own apartment". The resort had all the trimmings you'd expect ... good restaurants, roof top pool, exercise room, spa, and discounts on local ... all of which we enjoyed.

Hiking paths

Our resort: The Cliff House

Our week there ended too soon. But we had a wedding to get back to in Minnesota so we were anxious to keep heading west. Back thru Utah, the high desert of Wyoming, the plains of Nebraska, the farms of Iowa and finally, the green of Minnesota. It is interesting how each state has a very distinctive look from the highway.

September 10 -- Wedding of the year! Sean and Amelia Devereaux get married!

It was wonderful to be here to attend Sean's wedding. We've known him since birth, and he's grown into such a fine young man. The wedding was a Minnesota dream -- outdoors on a hobby farm, complete with barn and animals to admire. Big tent, lots of food, lots of friends in attendance, lots of dancing.

Devereaux Family

Both Craig and Michelle flew in for the weekend.

James and Lindsey

the Knowland table

long time friends from college

there is NOTHING like old friends

After the dust settled from the wedding, we realized that the leaves had started to change colors ... a sure sign that it was time to think about heading back to Florida .... oh yeah, that's our real life, right?

After final visits to Webster WI and Rochester MN, we started to cut our home ties and started to work on the list of purchases we wanted to make before returning to Maja.

The final tally of where we spent our nights while off the boat:

Deverearux's: 29x

Garfunkel: 19x

Schalaus: 16x

Michelle: 13x

Sheila: 7x

Radeys: 7x

Condo: 6x

Hotel: 5x

Kricket: 4x

Paula: 3x

Craig: 2x

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR MAKING US WELCOME IN YOUR HOME!

October

October 7th, we picked up the rental and were on our way. First to Loveland, OH to see Michelle's new apt, then to Louisville KY, Savannah, GA and finally back onboard Maja at Green Cove Springs, FL. Whew!

We were happy to find s/v Maja in good shape after 4 months on land. No smells, no leaks, no bugs (just a few ants but they don't count!).

October 13th marked our first full day back living on the boat ... cleaning and storing goods and getting used to moving around in small spaces again! The biggest item on our 'to-do' list is getting the bottom sanded and painted. We've resigned ourselves to painting over the reef scene currently on the keel ... and I'm hopeful that we'll like the black paint we choose. The best part of this project is that we're paying someone to do it for us! Sanding is such a nasty job and the keel needs a thorough prep.

Since we had to be off the boat during the 2-day sanding job, we decided to use our rental car to drive to Tarpon Springs and visit Dan's mom. It worked out well because she was over at Dan's brother, Tom's house, so we got to see Tom and Marie as well (and their horses, ducks and chickens!).

Green Cove Springs is what we fondly call "an industrial marina ... no frills but the basics are covered, and long-term storage rates are the lowest we've seen at $4/ft/mo. You get your exercise climbing a ladder in/out the boat several times a day, balancing on a scaffold while waxing the hull, and biking the two miles to the nearest store. Friendly people though ... and there was someone around with any skill that you needed (welder, anyone?). Dan put a lot of work in beefing up our davit system and upgraded the mounts on our solar panel so that it can be tilted to better catch the sun.

New black bottom ... ninja like!

Two coats of varnish. Polish all the stainless. So pretty when done!

Maja is on the left ...

November

Finally! November 5th ... splash down! It always feels so much better to be back in the water.

After waiting out some rain, we were off and cruising towards Jacksonville, where we meet up with Mikel Wheeler, and his daughter Jessica, at the Jacksonville Landing. Mikel recently moved to Jacksonville, and we are thrilled to have local friend in these parts.

Goodbye Jacksonville.

Jacksonville presented us with the big decision of heading north towards Brunswick and old friends or going south. As much as we wanted to see the cruisers we left in Brunswick last January, we also remembered how cold it got there last year, so we turned the bow towards St. Augustine via the ICW. After all, our goal is to stay in shorts all year (and it's good to have a goal, right?!).

Happy Veterans Day. This flag was carried by Craig in battle in Afghanistan.

We really enjoy St. Augustine so we spent a couple to days here. We had great weather to explore the city from the mooring field in the city harbor. We had the choice to exit to the ocean here or stay inside on the ICW. Because the clamp that holds our dinghy motor secured to the rail was broken, Capt Dan was hesitant to make a run outside in case we ran into rough seas. So we continued along the ICW towards Vero Beach to get the motor clamp repaired there.

Bridge of Lions Bridge in St Augustine.

It ended up being a good choice to stay on the ICW because we had our first breakdown of the year about 2 hrs outside of St Augustine. All of the sudden, we realized the diesel engine was running, but the motor was not in gear. So it sounded like we were moving, but we were actually just drifting. Drifting towards shore as it were. Anchor down. Phone out. Call Tow Boat US.

unlimited tow insurance ... never leave the dock without it!

Fortunately for us, the weather was pleasant and it was an uneventful tow into Palm Coast Marina, where we already had a reservation for the night. This breakdown was another lesson in how good things manage to materialize on the heels of unpleasant surroundings. Not only were the people at Palm Coast Marina very helpful and sympathetic to our situation (which was nice since we were hogging most of their fuel dock), but one of the people who gathered to help us dock was a boat mechanic. Within minutes of docking, Edsel (great name for a mechanic huh!) was on our boat, which his head in the engine, diagnosing what he thought the problem was. Fortunately, he was right and it was not the transmission but a plate that connects to the transmission. A much easier, and less expensive fix. He walked Dan through what he needed to do and also came by frequently over the two days it took to make the repair. Truly a helpful soul.

There is really no good position to work on a sailboat engine.

Edsel ... our hero! Sitting on the steps ...

the new part, flex plate/coupling

Gotta love the Internet! It took a few hours of searching, and several phone calls, but we found a marine parts supplier on the west coast who had the part in stock, and through the wonders of UPS Next Day Air, we actually did have the new part in hand by 10:00 am the next day. Putting things back together was a little trickier than taking things apart, but by 10pm, we were exhausted, but done!

And we were off the following day, with only spending one extra night at the marina! Since we were in no hurry to make time, we stopped frequently to explore towns along the ICW ... Titusville, Daytona Beach, Coco Beach, New Smyrna Beach, Melbourne before arriving at Vero Beach where we planned to stay for a couple of weeks to provision and celebrate Thanksgiving.

Vero Beach Anchorage

Vero Beach is a delightful boating town ... and it doesn't hurt that the residents are quite affluent either. There are lots of bike paths, city parks, farmers market ... and did I mention the free bus! No anchoring is allowed, so you must get a mooring ball ($14/day), and the anchorage was so crowded that many balls had 2-3 boats connected. This was our first time to raft up to another boat, and we count ourselves blessed that our mooring partner was a wonderful couple from CT, Ed and Karin on s/v Passages. They were both extremely helpful and hospitable as we enjoyed many a drink and dinner aboard their beautiful 40ft Island Packet.

s/v Maja and s/v Passages

Ed and Karin

Even with a free bus, it was fun to take the bikes to shore and hit the beach and the farmers market.

We had visitors while at Vero! Friends from Rochester, Dan and Kate Taylor ... very nice surprise.

And friends from Brunswick, Clyde and Sherrie Leatherwood were in Vero Beach too.

There was a huge boater's feast on Thanksgiving, and after we had recovered from that, we began debating where to go next. Unlike a lot of boaters in Vero, we were not headed for the Bahamas for Christmas, so the decision lingered on where to leave the boat. Should we go all the way to Miami and leave Maja on a mooring ball? Or should we leave her in a marina while we are gone for Christmas? Fortunately, Ed and Karin (s/v Passages) were on the same plan, and they were going to Harbortown Marina in Ft Pierce for December. Monthly rates are reasonable (esp. compared with marinas further south in FL), so we followed them there!

December

Harbortown Marina, Ft Pierce, our home for the month of December.

After being on the move since Nov. 5th (albeit pokey!), it was some comfort to be snug in a marina slip with electricity, water and cable TV at our slip! Plus, the marina is very close to a grocery store, West Marine and marine supply store ... and anything else we wanted was a short bike ride into historic Ft Pierce. Plus, Ed and Karin had their car here, so we had all the creature comforts you could want!

Including some Christmas decorations!

The marina hosted a couple of fun things for Christmas, including a lighted boat parade and delicious ham dinner for the boaters. It was a great stopover, but mostly, we were antsy for our Christmas vacation with the kids to roll around. We rented a cabin in the Georgia mountains, and everyone was going to be together for Christmas. Yahoo!

The gang's all here ... including Brody!

Craig and Michelle showed up with a /Christmas tree!

James showed up with a tree stand, lights and decorations. What a surprise!

Nothing beats lounging with the family in a beautiful log cabin in the mountains! The cabin had 3 bedrooms on 3 floors, so everyone had their own privacy and space. The view was great, the weather perfect, the company of James, Michelle and Craig was priceless!