December 18 - It's a Turn-Around Day

Tuesday, December 18

Alas, we've had our first major setback of the season. It seems that we have one thing break each year when we  set out on a cruise, and this year we thought was lucky #3 for us as s/v Maja is in the best shape she's ever been, and we'd put a lot of miles under her hull on the ocean, gulf stream, ICW which tested both sails and motor. No problems. No worries. Lucky year #3.

Alas, on Tuesday, we left Lynyard Cay via Little Harbor inlet (LH is southernmost harbor to exit the Sea of Abaco into the Atlantic) to make the last big crossing (50mi) over deep ocean to Royal Island on Eleuthera. That meant that we'd reach our final destination on Wednesday -- Rock Sound, Eleuthera -- where we'd pick James up on the 24th (he changed his first ticket from Georgetown to Rock Sound to ensure that we'd have time to get there). It was a gloriously beautiful day. Seas down. Wind 15-20knots. Blue skies. Only a few white puffly clouds. All 4 sails up. It would be the first time we've been able to cross this stretch of water under sail. There were 5 boats about 5 miles behind us making the same journey, so we'd get to be the head of the pack for awhile!!

Alas, we were out on the ocean for 2.5 hrs, all sails set, everything secure down below, just beginning to relax, when a high-pitched alarm sounded. WTF. The water temp was over 200deg (normal 180/185 range). Shut the engine down. Sail along. WTF. Dan looks at Mr. W. fully expecting to see a blown hose, or water, or something. But nothing. He found a spare thermostat and changed that. Sail along. Wait for engine to cool down. WTF. Restart engine (whew!), temp holds, continue along. Throttle up, temp holds. Begin to relax and rejoice in having spare parts on board.

Alas, the alarm sounds again as the temp pings over 200deg. Shut it down. Sail along. WTF. We had a 10-hr day ahead of us. We wouldn't need the engine until we entered the anchorage at Royal Island. But on Wednesday, we have a strong cut to navigate into the Eleuthera Sound, and the wind direction was not predicted to be favorable, so we'd have to rely on Mr. Westerbeke to power thru some strong currents. Plus, Royal Island has absolutely no services, and we're even not sure we'd have cell service there.
 

Alas, we turned around and headed back to Lynyard Cay where we could anchor and check out a few other things. And if necessary, return to Marsh Harbor where we could find a mechanic.

:(

The best part of the day was the great sail we had back to Lynyard Cay! We actually travelled several miles up the Sea of Abaco and used the North Bar Channel inlet to enter the anchorage. We were nervous as hell navigating the channel under sail, turning the engine on at the very end to ensure we'd have sufficient power to clear the channel.  Keeping the engine at 1200 rpms also kept the temp down. As usual, Captain Dan did a marvelous job of getting us thru under sail. (even though your mind knows that the channel is deep and the only risks are the reefs on both sides -- which are quite evident because you can see the breaking waves off the reefs on both sides of the boat!).

 

 

By 1pm we were back at the same anchorage we had left at 6:30am. We spent an hour reading the engine manual and other reference material that Dan had. And then we spent 5 hours taking every part of the cooling system that we could access, inspecting, cleaning, replacing gaskets, etc. Nothing. Absolutely nothing of any merit was found. By 7pm, everything was back together, and Dan had been able to wash off most of the grease and sweat he was covered with, having to work in such small, cramped spaces. Since we really hadn't found any obstruction/blockage in the cooling system, we couldn't be sure that all Dan's work and my prayers had made a difference.
 

Thank goodness for cell phones. After talking with Ed (s/v Passages) and Chris (s/v Synergy), it seemed evident that Dan had done everything possible except replace the fresh water/coolant pump. It's the one spare we don't carry b/c it's expensive, and they so seldom fail. So by 8:00 am on Wednesday, we decided to take Chris' advice and have a new pump shipped to James and have a father/son moment installing it on Christmas! I'm still marveled that we can order a part, ask for overnite air delivery, and sure as shit, that part arrives the next day. Nice to solve one problem you can solve by throwing money at it!
 

We decided to test the system by heading back to Marsh Harbor. Plan change #3 for James meant he would now have to fly into Marsh Harbor, bringing our new pump (he vows to only fly with one backpack, even if it means bringing only one swimsuit!). BUT, he cannot get a flight from Nassau to MH until 12/26, so that mean he has to stay 2 nights in Nassau by himself (and one of them is Christmas Day!).
 

Big storm is moving into the Abacos on Friday/Saturday, so we have to move to a more protected spot. We nurse the engine (12-1400 rpms) for half the 20-mile trip back to MH. The temps holds at 180 and then climbs to 185 and holds. and holds. and holds. We tested the system up to 2400 rpms and could finally see signs that the temp was moving towards 190 and shut the engine down again. Common theory is that the pump impellor is defective at a spot that only gets stressed at higher rpms.

 

 

So, we're disappointed, but boosting our morale by pulling into a slip at the beautiful Hopetown Marina (hence the reason no one in the mid-west can truly feel any sympathy for us! Esp b/c Dan is taking his first day off in 2 weeks to simply relax by the pool!). http://www.hopetownmarina.com/

It's $30/day with our discount, so we'll stay here for 4 days, thru the blow. Then, we'll move over to Marsh Harbor to wait for James.

 

Plan change #4 for James:  I found another flight out of Nassau into Marsh Harbot on the 24th, so by switching to Air Abaco, he'll make it here in time after all.  Great news.

December 9 - Crossing to Bahamas

Sunday -- December 9^th …. The Crossing

 

Finally... here we are … crossing to the Bahamas!  Day #15 since leaving Brunswick on November 24.  Since Sunday is actually sooner than we had expected to see a good crossing window, we are optimistic and excited.  The last big debate was to pick a time to leave the Lake Worth inlet, crossing into the ocean.  Tides had to be taken into account.   We had to estimate our travel time, which is actually the hardest thing to do when you don’t know how the winds and seas will help or hinder you.  We generally plan on 5 knots for a passage, and usually we can make 6.  For this trip, we wrestled with two choices: Stop at Great Sale Cay for the night (which means arriving no later than 2am cuz who wants to go to the trouble of anchoring if you’re not going to get a decent amount of sleep for your effort). Or go straight through the night to our entry port of Spanish Cay (which means arriving at Great Sale Cay at dawn).  In the end, we figured we’d just have to go do it and see.

We had sun for several hours before the clouds closed in

This is our 3^rd crossing.  Not our best, but not our worst.  We cleared the Lake Worth inlet into the Atlantic at 8:00 am, leaving a littler later than usual b/c we are anticipating a southerly wind to fill in after noon ... which is just want we want to give us wind for sailing across the Gulf Stream.

We motored into an east wind, which means that it's coming right on our nose. The best thing we had going for us is that the swells were down to 2-4ft and the wind was less than 5 knots.  A sail would be of no help, so we relied on Mr Westerbeke for the entire journey.  The 10-15knot south wind we had waited for never materalized, so we were stuck with a 5kE wind the entire trip. Without any boost at all from the wind, it took us 4 hours to cross the strongest parts of the GS as our speed dropped to 3.5 knots.  People run faster than we were navigating 180 miles of ocean!  It all, it took us 10 hours to get to the Bahama Banks.

At any rate, the ride on the boat was rolly, but not the horrible kind.  You miss the stabilizing effect of the sail with the swells.  Not much we could do as we watched the GPS push back our ETA to Great Sale Cay by hours … and hours.  We realized once again that “it is what it is”.  We can plan our passage all we want, but in the end, you take what you get.

Highlight of the day:  We listened to the Viking beat the Bears, 21-14!

In the Gulf Stream, approaching line of scattered squalls. 

Interesting observation of the day:  Scattered showers/thunderstorms were predicted along the Gulf Stream, and sure enough, as we approached the GS, it was amazing to lierally see a line of storm cells neatly spaced along the GS, running N/S, as far as you could see in either direction.  Some of the cells were big and dark and the heavy rain was visible with the binoculars; while others were smaller and lighter in impact.  Which one would hit us was all a crap shoot … at what point would we pass thru the line of storms?

From the stories I heard from other cruisers who left LW ahead of us, the earlier boats had much rougher conditions, so we lucked up by waiting to depart.  We had to put up the cockpit enclosure when the rain came, but there were no high storm gusts or choppy seas. 

We hit the Little Bahama Bank around 7pm.  Too dark to see the change in water color, but you knew it was there. And you could see the sand that reflected from our boat’s steaming light.  And you felt it.  The deep swells and roll that you’d lived with for the past 11 hours were gone.  By now, we realized that we'd be sailing all night, straight into Spanish Cay Marina, so we started our assigned shifts -- Nancy = 7-1am. Dan = 1am-6am.  We are still experimenting with shifts, so we kinda take a "go as long as you can" attitude.  Traditionally, shifts at night are 3-4 hrs, but I don't mind going longer if the weather is settled, and and I definitely want to sleep more than 3 hours when I finally get to lay down!  We both always are up for dawn!

Monday:

We passed Great Sale Cay, an excellent anchorage, at 5:30am, so stopping for sleep was no longer can option.  We were only 6 hours from our destination.  And now we were changing direction which would help our chances of getting the right wind for the sails. 

ahhhhhh!

By 9:00am we were sailing!  Just wait, and life changes …  We had a terrific end to the day as we approached our entry port of Spanish Cay.  If you spend the night at the Spanish Cay marina, the Customs officer comes to the dock, so clearing in is easy.  There were 6 boats in the marina, so we hung out on the veranda, sipping beers, soaking in the view, waiting our turn with Customs.  Next came the long hot shower and a most excellent nights sleep - the best part about being in a marina!

s/v Maja, Spanish Cay Marina

 Tuesday - December 11:

All six boats at the dock cleared out at about the same time, heading in one of two directions, depending on whether or not you are navigating around the Whale Cay channel today.  The "Whale" is a narrow channel around a small island, with reefs on both sides, so it's a good idea to pass thru the 3-mile channel stretch in calm conditions, because you don’t want to meet outgoing waves on an incoming tide.  Three of us headed for the Whale channel, and since we are the slowest boat in any threesome, we got to hear about the passage long before we entered it.  It's was not big deal, and we sailed on to our first anchorage in the Bahamas ... Great Guana Cay.

First sunset at anchor ... it never gets old.

Wednesday - December 12:

Now to relax to island time.  We've got 12 days to make the 3-day trip down to Rock Sound, Eleuthera, where we'll meet James on the 24th.  Whew!  After all the worry about getting here in time, we now have time to take the day off. 

Today was sunny, but windy, so we slept in and hung out at anchor at Great Guana.  We are in a great location to make water, which is still a novel treat for us!   There is a storm moving in Thurs, Friday Saturday, so we'll move over to Marsh Harbor and wait for the front to pass.

Thursday - Sunday

Our stay in Marsh Harbor stretched into 4 days as the front brought steady NE winds at 25knots plus regular rain squalls.   We were still able to get off the boat for long walks, shopping, and of course, sampling our first island rum drink!  We'll leave here tomorrow and start the 3-day trek to Rock Sound.  Day 1 will  be a 25mile run down to the southern harbor on the Abacos, Lynard Cay.  Day 2 will be a 50mile crossing of the Northeast Passage to Royal Island.  Day 3 involves moving around the end of Eleuthera into Rock Sound.  It sounds like the dinghy dock is located right at the airport, so that should make a good first impression on James!

 

December 5 - At anchor in Palm Beach

December 5 … Waiting at anchor

We’ve left the marina and moved out to the anchorage.  7 days and $500 was our limit for the good life in the North Palm Beach Marina!  Great bathroom, laundry, cable TV, free WiFi, floating docks …. which doesn’t even touch  the fun of having good friends just 6 boats down the dock.  We meet Ed and Connie Dooley in Brunswick GA in February, 2010 on their sailboat, Surprise.  We connected again for 5 days in October, in Deale,MD.  And now, we tracked them down again in North Palm Beach in their beautiful go-fast trawler, Southern Pilot.  It just goes to show that cruising friendships aren’t as transient as our lifestyles may imply.  They come. We go. But it’s truly a small world.

The 7 days in the marina were well spent.  We got the oil changed, waterproofed our cockpit canvas, defrosted the freezer, sanded the teak on our butterfly hatch, did several loads of laundry … and all this before it was time for a ‘happy hour’ excursion with Ed and Connie!  They have a car and knew all the cool places to visit. We got the rest of our shopping done, saw several new beaches, and did not repeat a single bar! 

So, you miss all that at anchor.  Friends + electricity!

 

However, nothing beats being at anchor to remind you that you are “a cruiser”.  And it is truly lovely to sit at anchor, in the cockpit, as the sun goes down and the city lights come on and boaters tie up dinghies for the night.  For the most part, anchorages are always lovely (albeit sometimes crowded) – not always the case with marinas.  

Of course, you have to deal with the act of anchoring to be able to enjoy the anchorage.  And the act of anchoring is always a unique part of the day!  For starters, once in the anchorage, you have a new list of rules and etiquette.  Naturally, you want to pick the best spot for your boat, but you also worry about your neighbors and wind shifts.  Are we too close to them?  It’s getting kinda shallow; what’s the tide there?  Over distance and engine noise, you try to communicate with neighboring captains … is this OK with you?  How much anchor chain do you have out?

We arrived at the beautiful No Palm Beach anchorage at 3pm … kinda late in the cruising world so we knew we’d have to snake around though the anchorage before deciding to anchor on the outer edge which made the spot just so-so spot since we were close to the channel. But by morning, a number of boats had taken off so we raised anchor and moved from the west side to the east side of the anchorage, where we had ample space on all sides … but we may have lost access to land-based WiFi (gasp!). 

We're still optimtic about a good weather window coming our way next week.  Our first choice is Sunday, 12/9.  Or could be as late as Wednesday … or even Friday (you get the picture!).  This weather stuff is something you take one day at a time, and you try to be prepared to leave every day.  We have one package to pick up at the NPB marina, and then we’ll move closer to the Lake Worth inlet, which shorten our transit to the sea.  And then we sit.  Waiting for a 10-15knot S, SW wind with 2-3ft swells. Ready to go. Taking the weather decisions one day at a time.  Trying not to be frustrated.  Trying not to worry that we won’t arrive in Rock Sound before James on December 24^th (however, if Plan A works, we could be at anchor at Rock Sound, Eleuthera as early as next Thursday!). 

We shall see.....

November - BLM to Lake Worth

November 24 – Leaving Brunswick for the open ocean!

It feels like we always tend to stay longer in one place than we planned (in most cases due to weather), and even so, there is always a flurry of activity at the last minute before we can finally shove off.  Leaving BLM was no different … drop off the car in storage, finish hauling unused supplies from boat to storage, one last trip to the liquor store, settle the mounting bill we have with the marina, one more boat project,  and of course, more boat parts to buy ….

But, we did it!  At 10:00, we cast off dock lines and were ready to chug down the channel to the Atlantic.  Of course, we hadn’t planned on a strong west wind pinning us to the dock, and it ended up taking close to 30 minutes to literally wrestle our boat into position (thanks in large part to the sweat and strength of Chris, s/v Relentless).

We were pleasantly surprised to find the Atlantic much calmer than predicted (4ft swells vs 9ft swells – indeed a pleasant surprise!).  With wind from the North, behind us, we pointed our bow south and settled in for a 2 day passage to Lake Worth FL.  This is our first attempt at a double-overnight sail, so we’ve got a few backup plans in case we want to change our minds (the beauty of FL is the several inlets nicely placed along the coast that provide refuge off the ocean).  Since s/v Maja has not been run for longer than a few hours since April, there’s always the fear that something will break once the engine is pulling a load for 48+ hours.

Day 1:  The sea was a bit rolly with NE swells, but uneventful … just the way we like it!  We had planned on 4-hour shifts, but Dan let me sleep until midnight, so I returned the favor by giving him 6 uninterrupted hours of sleep.  Yes, it was that kind of night; almost a full moon so plenty of light, and not too many fishing boats to dodge.  Fortunately for me, the dozen or so shrimp boats that I had to pass were moving along in a stately, straight path, almost like travelling in lanes on the highway (something they don’t seem to do in the daytime).  Plus, they were covered with lights, looking kinda like Disney-on-parade.  The only drawback was that it was coldcoldcold.  I had on everything but my long underwear – two l/s shirts, sweatshirt, down vest, wind breaker, hat, hood, mittens … yes, even socks!

one of many shrimp boats encountered during the day/night

 

That's me at the helm ... under many bundles to stay warm.

 

Day 2:  Very calm seas and less than 10knots of wind, still from the North.  Sunny and clear. No regrets today – except for the outcome of the Vikings vs Bears game that we were able to hear on Sirius radio.  The best part of the day for me was coming on watch at midnight and feeling a noticeable warmth in the air. Ahh, yes, passing Cape Canaveral seems to be the mark where we leave cold weather behind and enter the warmth you expect from Florida.  We didn’t see a single other boat on the water all night.  No other cruisers, no fishing boats, no cruise ships … we had to ocean to ourselves, except for the brightly lit  Canaveral coastline.  The only drawback of reaching Cape Canaveral was the Gulf Stream which was running very close to the FL coast, so even though it was comfortable in the cockpit, we steadily saw our speed slow down as the 3-4knot current worked against us.  The current slowed us down all night, and by daybreak, our expected arrival at Lake Worth had moved from 1pm to 5pm. Since it takes about 1-2 hours to transit the channel from ocean to the inlet, we had good reason to be concerned that we could be entering Lake Worth to anchor in the dark. 

dawn

 

no wonder it's the favorite part of the day!

Day 3:  By 8am, we were on the phone changing plans.  We decided to duck into the inlet at Ft Pierce instead of charging on to Lake Worth.  We like Harbortown Marina and decided to stay there for the night and take on fuel and showers, and most importantly, visit with our good friends, Ed and Karin on s/v Passages.  As is their custom, Ed and Karin met us at the dock when we arrived and invited us over for dinner (Karin always provides a delicious hot meal when we meet up with them after a long passage).  After 2.5 days of sandwiches and Zone bars, her spaghetti, wine, salad, bread and dessert was the BEST meal ever!!  The only drawback is that their company is so much fun that you want more of it, not less, so as we dragged ourselves back to our boat at 9pm, we seriously tried to talk ourselves into staying longer at Ft Pierce!  But as usual, we were chasing a closing weather window, and if we didn’t leave for Lake Worth today, we’d be staying here for another week b/c of the cold front moving in Wed afternoon. 

November 27:  Day 4 of our passage south.  We left the comfort of our quiet dock at 8:30am, after deciding to make the trip to LW via the ICW instead of going back to the ocean.  This is always a hard choice for us to make b/c we prefer the freedom of travelling on the ocean (no shallow depths to worry about, no channel markers, no low bridges that we have to wait to open, no other vessels to navigate around).  But, the ICW offers very protected waters to travel, with many anchorages available and very scenic development along the waterway.  Taking the ICW means that we’ll cover the 50+ miles into Lake Worth over two days, and we’ll get to see a stretch of the ICW that we haven’t been on before (and then we’ll know if this was a good idea or not!).

opps. someone had a bad day.

 

After being out for 2 hours, the ICW seemed like an excellent choice as one of our engine belts broke (nice that there are two of them!), and we were easily able to pull out of the channel and drop anchor to make the belt change.  Certainly couldn’t do that on the ocean!  Plus, we are seeing more boaters that we know from last year on the ICW, and that is always an unexpected surprise.

we just love these 'avenues' of water separating 'streets' of homes

being on the ICW = bridges.

and houses of the rich and famous ...

 

November 28 - Happy Birthday Laury!

 

We spent our first night at anchor at Hobe Sound.  It was so still that I awoke early in the morning certain that our boat was aground!  We had a short 3-hr run into the Lake Worth so it was a treat to sleep in and have coffee in the cockpit before getting underway.  There are 4 bridges to pass on this stretch of the waterway and once we got underway, we found ourselves behind a barge.  Instead of trying to pass him, we opted to stay 100 yds off his stern ... which had the benefit of giving us easy passage thru every bridge as barges always get their way!

s/v Maja at dock in No Palm Beach Marina

m/v Southern Pilot.  Ed and Connie Dooley

The gangs all here!  Cogswells stopped by for visit. On the Dooley's boat.

 

December 2. So we came into the PB marina intending to stay for 3 days.  It's now been 5 days, and we're not sure where to go next.  The wind has been blowing steadily strong (NW 20-25k) every day, so there has been no incentive to leave the comforts of the marina for a rocky anchorage.  And, we like to tell ourselves that boat projects are much easier at the dock vs at anchor...so Dan has been busy changing the oil, fixing a pesky electrical panel problem, and finishing the final installation of the floor boards in the bathroom (post watermater project).  Plus, having Ed and Connie just a few boats down the slip makes it VERY hard to seriously entertain thoughts of leaving the marina.  Not only are they good company (former sailors now on a go-fast trawler who also love to talk politics), they also have a car, and every afternoon we get together a fun outing to the beach, or for shopping, or the requisite stops at bars for happy hour. Nothing beats having good friends at the dock!  We have been spoiled with several tasty meals with them, not to mention discovering that we have a real taste for Grand Marnier!

 

Weather for crossing to the Bahamas continues to be suspect.  Basically, we are looking for anything but a north wind, with seas less than 6 ft ... and what we've got is wind that has been blowing hard from the north for about 3 weeks.  We are meeting James in the Bahamas on 12/24, and we've already changed his flight from Georgetown (Exumas) to Rock Sound (Eleuthera), figuring that we have better odds to cross to the Abacos and arrive in Eleuthera before him.  Then we'll spend two weeks with him on the boat traveling down to the southern Exumas where he'll fly out of Georgetown on Jan 5th.  It's surreal to worry that we won't be able to transit 150miles over the next 3 weeks ... but considering how the weather has been running, it's something we worry about every day as we are stuck at the dock in Palm Beach.

 

Next weather window:  Friday, Dec 8 - Tues, Dec 11.  Stayed tune and keep your fingers crossed.