Wednesday, May13,
2015. We rented a golf cart and went
exploring. The north end of the island
is lovely, nice homes, Green Turtle Cay Club/Marina, Bluff House Resort. We had lunch at the Tranquil Turtle on the
beach. Lovely spot and the food was
good. May is an “in-between month” in
the Abacos. Most of the winter people
have left and the summer people won’t arrive until Memorial day. The roads on this end of the island are
terrible. Maybe it’s done on purpose to
keep the “riff-raff” away, but many of the roads are more appropriate for four
wheeling.
The south end of the island contains the settlement of New
Plymouth, settled by “Loyalists” who left the USA after being “persecuted”
because they would not support the revolution against King George. We have found that both here and in Canada,
the history is quite different from what we were taught in school. We found some fresh coconut and peach ice
cream in town. MMMM! Dinner was at Lizards.
Thursday, May 14,
2015. Today we are going to Manjack
Cay to meet Down Time, but we have to wait on the tide. Black Sound is very shallow in spots, so we
will wait until a couple of hours before high tide to depart. In the meantime, I change the oil, zinc, oil
filter and fuel filter on the generator.
We also filled the tanks with water.
At 2:45pm, we leave the dock and go across the harbor
to the “Other Shore Club” for fuel. Sunny and 85 degrees. Nice breeze 10-15 NNE, but hot and muggy out
of the breeze. 3:15 off the fuel dock at almost high tide. 4:30 anchor down at
Coconut Beach at Manjack Cay. Down Time here. 6NM 7.5SM today. 26°49.57’N
077°22.52’W
Friday, May
15, 2015. Lisa and Connie spent most
of the day swimming and snorkeling. We
took a dingy for a long ride along the shore.
Many fish, turtles and rays along the rocky shore. Down
Time brought a pork tenderloin and we grilled it. Also peas and wild rice. A typical Bahamian dinner.
Saturday, May
16, 2015. Rained heavily overnight.
We left the hatch over the table open and the book Lisa is reading was
soaked – water runs out of it when you pick it up. Hopefully, it will dry out. She put it in the engine compartment where it
is warm and dry.
While the wind has been out of the east (which this
island should protect us from), the waves are coming in from the south, so
instead of going to Powell Cay, we will head to Crab Cay (better protection).
Snorkeling in the morning here along the near shore. Lots of fish.
Very pretty.
11:45am anchor up. Wind ESE 10-15, partly cloudy,
hazy, 80 degrees. 2:50pm, anchor down at
Crab Cay. Wind has built up to 15-20+,
but it nice and flat in the anchorage. There
is a 50+ foot trawler aground on the shoal on the way into to the
anchorage. Problem is it is all
rock. We tried to call him to see if
there was anything we could do to help, but he is not answering the radio. At high tide, he floated off and
anchored. Don’t know if he had damage,
still can’t raise him on the radio.
We walked the rocky beach with Down Time and then stopped to visit with Johan and Sonja on Like Dolphins. They are from Belgium and have spent 2 years
in the Caribbean and are headed to Bermuda and then the Azores and the
Mediterranean. We gave them our friend
Jack’s contact info as he lives in Bermuda. 18NM 21.6SM today. 26°55.10’N
077° 35.32’W
Sunday, May
17, 2015. 7:30am anchor up. Wind ESE 10-15, partly cloudy, 75
degrees. We have the fore sail out and a
bit of engine on so we can maintain at least 6 knots. 2:30pm, anchor down at Great Sale Cay,
Northwest Harbor. We wanted to anchor
“outside” where there are beached, but the wind and wave a wrapping around the
island and it is very rolly outside the “harbor”. Sunny, 82 degrees, wind ESE 15-20. 40NM 48SM today. 26°58.72’N
078°12.94’W
Monday, May
18, 2015. 8:20 am anchor up, 75
degrees, partly cloudy, rain showers, wind E10-15. Fore sail out, making 6 knots. The VHF is acting “fluky”, sometime working
OK, other times little reception and people can’t hear our transmission. Checked all the connections except the one at
the top of the mast. We don’t have a
bosons’ chair on board, I don’t know why, so as soon as we can borrow one we
will check the connection.
3pm, anchor down at the northwest corner of Mangrove
Cay. There is some protection here from
wind and waves, but not what we were hoping for. The wind is supposed to die down over
night. We are staged to leave at 2AM to
cross the Gulf Stream to Fort Peirce.
There are no beaches here and the only place to go ashore is mangroves
and mud. The water is shallow so we cannot
snuggle up to the shore to get out of more of the wind and waves. Maybe next time we won’t make this one of our
stops. While here, I change out the
alternator. It has also been acting
“fluky” and I have a spare on board.
24NM 29SM today 26°55.09’N
078°37.31’W
Tuesday, May
19, 2015. Anchor up at 2am. Clear,
lots of stars! No moon. Wind E@10. We head toward Memory Rock, a narrow passage
between the “Banks” and the Atlantic.
Our VHF radio is still not functioning correctly. It sends and receives, but has little
range. Down Time is with us. His
radar is not working, so we are relaying message to other boats with his radio
and we are “keeping watch” using our radar.
Our tachometer is still not working correctly, erratic readings. Checked all the connections and tightened
them.
2:45am. Only Down Time on the radar, and out of
nowhere, there is a powerful search light 30 feet off our stern to port. Scared the _______ out of us. US Coast Guard. They asked about our registration,
citizenship, how long we had been out of the country and wished us safe
passage. They were in one of the orange
inflatables. They said the cabin was
painted with radar absorbing paint and they were being “sneaky” – well I guess!
And, they are 20 miles inside Bahamian waters!
5:30am Memory Rock Passage, 8 ½ feet of water, clear,
wind East @ 5. It is getting light in
the east.
6:30am West Palm Beach is visible in the
distance. Amazing how far you can see
those condos.
7:30pm wind NE@5, partly cloudy 75 degrees, cruise
ship crosses our bow heading north, seas 2-4 feet.
10:50am solidly in the Gulf Stream, making 8+ knots
over ground, wind north @ 5, sunny with puffy clouds, 80 degrees, seas 2 feet.
12:45pm Fort Pierce visible at 20 miles, still making
8+ knots.
1:15pm 14 miles to Fort Pierce. Out of the Gulf Stream. Big grass lines mark the edge of the current.
No wind. Seas less than 1 foot.
2:45pm We call Customs and Immigration to check
in. We signed up for the Small Vessel
Reporting System back in 2012 before we ever left Canada with the boat, so that
a phone call should get us checked back in to the USA. BUT, since we signed up, our passports were
renewed, so that created an issue. The
gentleman on the phone was very helpful, updating our float plan and
passport information over the phone. All
done! Back in the USA legally! As soon as we finished on the phone a pair of
porpoises came along side, each swimming on separate side of the bow for about
½ mile. Nice welcoming committee.
3:30pm Fort Pierce inlet – followed a huge dredge Newport into the channel.. A couple of boats moved aside and told him he
could “whiz on by”. He responded that
Newport did not do a lot of “whizzing”.
The inlet was very rough, riptides, 6 foot seas, compounded by some
sport fishermen that were seeing how fast they could go.
4:00pm Down
Time anchored by Harbor Town. We are
going to keep going north in the ICW to Vero Beach.
6:20pm We pick up mooring #22 at Vero Beach City
Marina. Sunny, no clouds, 80 degrees, beautiful. 114 NM, 137 SM today. ICW MM 950.
Updates on other boats crossing:
Down Time
crossed with us
Occlusion
crossed from Memory Rock (where they anchored overnight) to Lake Worth (West
Palm Beach)
Manaña left
Great Sale Cay at 6:30am sailing to Port Canaveral and on to St. Augustine
Outbound left
West End at 6 in the morning and 10 hours later was in Fort Pierce
Saber Tooth
and Green Stone sailed from Great
Harbor in the Berry Island to Lake Worth
Kachina, Neverland and Majestic Phoenix sailed from Great Sail Cay to Lake Worth
Thunderheads and lightening in the distance to the
north, but no rain here.
Wednesday, May
20, 2015. We left the propane tank
on the dock for “The Grill Place” to fill. Rented a car and drove to Cocoa to
see Lisa’s Uncle Franny and his wife Virginia.
He has been having “stroke like” symptoms, loss of use of his left arm
and leg, but seems to be doing better now.
The doctors have yet to determine a cause, except they don’t think it
was a stroke. Had subs and pizza from the local pizzeria and then drove back to
Vero.
TorlaO (Sterling
and Kathy) is here. We were rafted to
them the first time we came through Vero.
They are also just back from the Bahamas. They are now selling their boat (a Saber
42). When I went to register at the
marina office, I heard someone calling our name. Carrie
May is on the fuel dock (Bob and Maria).
We met them in Hopetown. Barefootin’
is also here, recently returned from the Bahamas. We originally met them Barefoot Landing in
Myrtle Beach. There are actually two
boats named Barefoot’n here and they
are on moorings next to each other. How
strange is that? We heard from River
House (Bob and Deb). They have sold
their boat (last time we were in Vero we were actually on their mooring) and
are living ashore. We plan to have
dinner with them Tomorrow.
Thursday, May
21, 2015. Picked up the propane
tank. It does not seem like it was
filled. The folks in the marina office
said the guy came by and picked up the tank and the money and then dropped the
tank off a while later. We called him
and he said he would check on what happened and call back.
Pete Brocker came by and cleaned the bottom of the
boat and changed out the zincs for us. Then we drove up to Melbourne to see
Lisa’s Uncle George and wife Bev and their new house. Very nice place. We had lunch at the River
Rocks on the Indian River in Melbourne.
The food was very good. We
returned the car and had dinner on the boat with TorlaO.
Thunderheads and lightening to the south of us, but
still no rain here.
Friday, May22,
2015. The guy from “The Grill Place”
is at the marina. He says the tank was
filled, but it doesn’t seem so. He takes
the tank and will check it and make sure it doesn’t leak (never has) and make
sure it is full.
It is a beautiful day. Lisa and I take the bus to the beach, visit
some of the shops, walk the beach and have lunch at Mulligans. We walk back to the boat, have showers and
pick up the propane tank, which is considerably heavier than it was this
morning.
We ride with TorlaO
(they have a car here) to Blue Agave on 14th street for $3
margaritas and some excellent Mexican food. We meet Bob and Deb (River House) there. Very nice dinner. We then all walk down the street to the new
location for the Blue Star Wine Bar.
This is one of our favorite spots in Vero and they recently moved from
the island over to 14th Street.
Kitty, the owner stopped by to say hi – Bob and his band play here
occasionally. Fun evening.
Heavy rain and thunder overnight. Then the wind shifts to the north and it is
cooler and dryer afterwards.
Saturday, May
23, 2015. Dropped the mooring at 7:45am and made our way to the fuel dock
for fuel and water. Sunny, wind SE@5-10.
8:30am underway north on the ICW. 2pm
wind shift to NE and building 15+. Looks
like rain behind us – but it does not catch up with us. 4pm anchor down south of Cocoa along east
shore of Indian River (west shore of Merritt Island) between R86 and R88.
Anchorage is called Georgiana, deep almost all the way to the shore,
which is unusual for the Indian River. Wind E@15, sunny, clouds dissipating.
MM903 47SM 38NM today. 28°17.38’N 080°40.94’W
Sunday, May
24, 2015. Anchor up at 8:40am. 80
degrees, partly cloudy, wind East @ 15, rain can be seen north of us. Motor
sailing at 6+ knots. Cocoa @
9:25am. 12:30pm Titusville, cloudy,
threatening rain. Wind east @
20-25. 1:15pm Haulover Bridge, rain
shower. 1:25pm Mosquito Lagoon, clear,
wind SE 10-15 and we are sailing. 3:30pm
Indian River North, sunny, 85 degrees, wind E@10, motor sailing. Lots of butterflies. 5pm New Smyrna Beach, Coronado Beach Bridge
(they would rather it be called the George Munson Memorial Bridge). The channel from here northward toward the
Ponce de Leon Inlet looks like Rout 128 in Boston at rush hour – lots of boats.
5:30pm anchor down in Rockhouse Creek. 7 big power yachts are rafted together here
and many other smaller boats beached or anchored. It is Sunday before Memorial Day and all the
“backyard trailer boats” must be on the water.
There is also a steady stream of boats coming through this normally
quiet anchorage. It is high tide and they
are cutting through from the inlet.
There is a big party with a band across the ICW at one of the homes on
the shore. Ominous rain/storm clouds
moving in. One of the power boats in the
raft is trying to compete with the band on shore with their stereo. Can’t imagine how loud it must be
aboard! 61SM 49NM today.
29°03.65’N 080°55.93’N 2 bridges today, both on request.
Monday, May
25, 2015. Memorial Day. Sunny, 78
degrees, hazy on the water, almost low tide.
Lots of small power boats out already picking the best spots to beach
their boats for the day. Anchor up at
8:30 after adding some fuel from the jerry cans to the tank. We pass the Ponce deLeon Inlet at 8:50am,
almost dead low tide and still plenty of water as long as one minds the buoys,
not the chart (the channels at the inlets shift continuously). Daytona Memorial Bridge at 10:20am. Main Street Bridge at 10:30am. No waiting at either – actually sailed
(literally) right through. There are
lots of sunken and wrecked boats here – not sure why. We see divers pumping out a large sail boat that
recently sunk. The tachometer is working
again ??????? We will still order a new
sending unit.
We see the Goree Challenge, which is a boat that is
being rowed from The Canary Islands
to New York City to publicize the need for a cure for HIV/Aids. Wow- rowed! Click on this link for more info: www.goreechallenge.com
2pm wind has died completely – looks like rain, but
does not.
4pm wind SE@15+ sailing again
6pm we are tied to the dock at River’s Edge
Marina. Paul (dock master) and Laurie
(girlfriend) are here to take our lines and welcome us back.
65SM 52NM
today. 29°53.12’N 081°19.37’W
4 bridges all on request because of the holiday – no
delays.
Tuesday, May
26, 2015. Lisa and I walk to the
Hair Loft (next to West marine and Winn-Dixie – about ½ mile) for haircuts. This is where Lisa got her hair cut short on
the trip south last year. We stopped by
West Marine and continue to be amazed at their high prices. Not sure how they are going to stay in
business. There is a farmers’ stand next
to the marina and we pick up a few fresh vegies and a watermelon. Down
Time’s home slip is here and Roger and Connie show up this afternoon and
give us a ride to Home Depot and Walmart for some supplies. We then went to dinner at Urban 40 – a house
turned into a restaurant – food was great.
We actually turned on the TV and watched a movie (Wild Hogs) and then
the news – first time for that in a while.
Our son, Jeff, is home from his semester abroad in
France and we were able to talk to him.
It will be great to see him and James when we get home in a week or so.
Our other son, Jacob, and his wife Betsy are moving to Utah. We may not get to
see them before they head west.
Wednesday, May
27, 2015. Lisa and Connie made a run
to Winn-Dixie and I worked on the blog.
Lisa and I walked to the Sailors’ Exchange and bartered for a boson’s’
chair. He would not come down on the
price until we were ready to leave. $15.
We also went to TPH (The Parts Store) and got a new cap for the heat
exchanger on the main engine. The spare
I have is the wrong size, but the correct part number. Dinner at Hurricane Patty’s. I had shrimp n’ grits, Lisa had
crawfish. Both were very good.
Thursday, May
28, 2015. We depart Rivers’ Edge at
8:40pm. Untide helps us off the dock.
They are from New Zealand and are living aboard. We make tentative plans to see them again at
the free dock in Jacksonville. The tide
and wind are against us off the dock, but we get off OK. It is 75 degrees, partly cloudy, wind East at
10-15. We make the Bridge of Lyons at
9:30am. At 10am we are past the inlet
and moving north on the Tolomato River.
The tide is running out and is against us here and it is slow going.
4pm, we are crossing the St. John’s River and have to
dodge a large container ship. Now we are
finally getting some help from the tide, but it is the end of the day. Sister’s Creek Bridge at
4:15pm and then we are at the free dock. Several Boats there, but no Untide.
We know they were ahead of us because they passed us during the course
of the day. They are a trawler and
faster than we are. As there is a lot of
daylight left, we continue on.
5pm, we enter the Fort George River and at 5:30pm, we
anchor close to the Kingsley Plantation House.
The plantation is now a National Park.
We have to wait on the tides tomorrow (high being late in the day), so
we will visit the Park tomorrow. Nice
area. Only one other boat here, but a lot of smaller boats farther up river at
the beach. 49SM 39.5NM today. 2 bridges
today, one schedules (Bridge of Lyons) and one on request (Sisters’
Creek). 30°26.45’N 081°26.28’W
Friday, May
29, 2015. Beautiful morning. Wind NE
@ 10-15, sunny, 80 degrees, puffy clouds.
We went ashore and got an ipod-like device at the visitors center and
did the walking tour of the Plantation.
Very interesting. The tour is all
about plantation life and the life of the slaves and the owners, specifically
the Kingsley Family. The tour takes
about 1 ½ hours and was well worth it. The plantation is part of the much
larger Timucuan Preserve. For more information click on this link: www.nps.gov/foca/
Anchor up at 1:30pm, ½ hour past low tide. 4pm we pass the “skinny water” at G1 south of
Fernandina Beach with no issues. The
least amount of water we saw was 11 feet staying to the “green side” of the
channel. 4:14pm, pass Fernandina Beach
in a rain shower, but decide to continue on the Cumberland Island. As we turn north into Cumberland Sound, we
are making 8.4 knots with the tide.
Nice, but we are not going that far.
5:30pm anchor down at Cumberland island.
The sun is peaking through the clouds and it turns out to be a nice
evening. There are five other boats
here. You may remember that when we were
in Vero Beach there were two boats named Barefoot’n
there. We saw one on a mooring in
Fernandina and the other one is here. We
had dinner in the cockpit watching a pod of porpoises. Nice evening.
27SM 21.6NM today. No bridges.
30°46.12’N 081°28.28’W
Saturday, May
30, 2015. Today we explored
Cumberland. This is our second visit and
we still sound lots to see and do. It
was showering off and on all day and once, while we were at the Dungeness
Ruins, a whole herd of the wild horses came by.
It soon started raining again, and we saw that they were headed to
shelter. How do they know it is about to
rain. We also saw a mare and a new
fold. There was a yearling with her
also. We wonder if the yearling could be
the same animal we saw as a new fold when we were here last year.
On the way back to Rhiannon in the dingy, we saw
Summer Wind. It is the 39 foot Bahamian
“Smack” that we met at Spanish Wells.
The caretaker couple (Dennis and Ali) are taking it to Newport for the
owner. Great to see them again. Beautiful Boat.
Sunday, May
31, 2015. Anchor up at 6:45am.
Although we do not have very far to go to Brunswick, where Rhiannon will spend
the summer, high tide is at 8am and we want to get by Jekyll Island with as
much water as possible under the keel. It is sunny, with very thin clouds, wind
East @ 5-10 (NE overnight). 8:15 Cumberland Dividings. Although the charts and electronic charts are
incorrect here, if you follow the channel markers there is plenty of water. If
you follow the chart plotter, you would be about 20 yards up on dry land. Because
we have been running against the tide all morning, we don’t make it to the
south end of Jekyll Island until 10:50am, well past high tide, but make it past
the skinny water with no problems. At
one point, the depth meter was registering 4.8 feet, but we never really
touched the bottom. It would not be
possible to pass this spot at low tide.
The tides here are 6 feet, so there would only be 2 ½ feet of water
here! 11:00am, we pass the north end of
Jekyll Island, and our jetty is fully exposed (very rare).
At noon, we are on the fuel dock at Brunswick Landing
Marina. Cherrie is there to help us with lines and welcome us back. We are assigned to Dock 13, which has a brand
new bath house facility and is close to the club house, laundry, etc.
Our slip mate is a catamaran Angel Louise with Ed and
Sue aboard. They have been traveling by
boat for 8 years now and have been across the Atlantic twice. Very nice and interesting people. 33SM, 27NM
today. 31°09.45’N 081°29.96’W
We will spend the next week getting Rhiannon ready to
“rest” for the summer meeting with the yard manager Jim; the diver, who will
keep her bottom clean; a guy to do some varnishing; and Ruth and Michelle from
Stitches, who will do some canvas work for us.
The marina is now doing “Meet and Greets” with free wine and beer on
Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays and we meet a lot of folks. Tuesday night we went to dinner in Darien at
B&J Steak and Seafood with Mike and Linda on Casa del Mar. B&J is supposed to have the world’s best
shrimp and we are believers. Friday, we
had dinner at Basil with Gil and Hope (Sweet Surrender). Friday is the night everything is open in
town late including all the galleries.
Saturday, we loaded up the rental car and drove to our friends (Pam and
Jerry) in Oxford, MD. A very nice
visit. Sunday, June 7, we finished the
drive to New Hampshire. Lots of traffic
everywhere, long day, but great to be home!
Nautical Miles since leaving Oxford, MD last fall
2,891.1 – Statute Miles 3140.3
Total Nautical Miles on the adventure since leaving
Penetanguishene, Ontario, in 2012 – 8,805 – Statute Miles – 10,297
