Coral Harbour back to
Black Point 2018
Thursday, March 15,
2018. Ides of March. My sister Liz’s birthday. Nick and Carolyn are selling his old
Morgan. It is a 1970’s vintage. It has not been driven since 1985 and has
been sitting in there carport since then.
It is in pretty rough shape, but it is all there. A guy is flying over to take a look at it
today. We meet him a breakfast, but he
and his partner have decided it is in too rough shape for them. If anyone is looking for a “barn find”
Morgan, contact Nick and Carolyn.
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| Nick and The Morgan |
9:00am, we say our goodbyes and are off the dock. Another nice stay here. Cool 60 degrees this morning. Sunny, wind NE@5-10.
9:30am We are outside Coral Harbour and the wind in NE@15+
and pretty much right on our nose as we head for Highborne Cay. Rather than fight this all the way across the
Banks, we alter course to the south toward Norman’s Stake. An OK ride down, we
are motor sailing at 6+ knots.
10:30am A large bottle-nose dolphin is swimming
alongside. It plays in our bow wake for
a few minutes and then continues on its way.
We don’t see many of the bottle-nosed here. We heard from Saber Tooth that they are at Rudder Cay
to see the sunken piano with John’s brother Nigel (who we have met previously)
and his daughter Keira on board. We also hear from Avalon, who are currently at Staniel Cay and headed to the Abacos.
12:00pm The wind is slowly but surely shifting to the east
and it is a challenge to keep some wind in the sail. We continue to alter our course to the south.
3:00pm The wind is down to 10-15.
5:00pm Anchor down south of the mooring field at Shroud Cay.
Wind NE@10-15. It is supposed to lessen
overnight. Sun is out, no clouds. 10
other sail boats here, plus 4 large motor yachts. We saw David M. (Park Ranger) collecting
mooring and anchoring fees. As of March
1, the park collects 50 cents a foot for an anchoring fee. Cost of the moorings depends on the length of
the boat.
47.1 NM today. 24°31.50’N
076°47.83’W
Friday, March 16,
2018. Sunny, no clouds, no wind overnight. Nice. 65 degrees this morning. We had to clean all the salt off the dodger
windows so we could see through them.
8:45am Anchor up.
Heading south to Big Major (next to Staniel Cay). Wind SE@10-on our nose.
9:00am We are able to hear Cherrie from Exuma Park on the
VHF.
10:00am Wind SE@10-15. High cirrus clouds, no sun now, rain
on the horizon. Passed Avalon, who is heading north to Spanish
Wells and then the Abacos to meet Patti’s parents. Hope we cross paths with them again.
11:00am We need a new charging cord for the ipad, which we
use as our backup navigation chart plotter. It will only accept official Apple
cords, so our others don’t work with it.
If I were in charge, I would make sure all electronic devices used the
same damn cord!
12:00 No sun now, rain on the horizon. We talked to Summer of 52 on the VHF. They are at
Black Point (south of Staniel Cay). Saber Tooth and Greenstone may be at Black Point tomorrow.
12:30pm The sun is
back out. Wind SE@10-15. Still a lot of clouds on the horizon to the south.
2:00pm Anchor down at Black Point. Summer of 42 here, as well as Seahawk. Burry is alone as Wendy flew home to help
take care of a new grand child.
33.6NM Partly cloudy,
wind SE@10. 24°06.11’N 076°24.22’W
Walter (Summer of 42)
brought us over a brand new certified Apple Lightning charging cord for the
ipad. Thanks Walter! A bit later, Jim and Chris (Radio Waves) brought us an old one that
still works! They said that Spirit (Rich and Ruthie) mat fly into
George Town for a visit. They live in
NH, but attempts to see them over the summer did not work. I don’t think we will make it to George Town
to see them there either.
Saturday, March 17,
2018. Beautiful morning. 75 degrees, wind SE@10, a few puffy clouds. Lisa went kayaking with Nora (Saber Tooth, they made it here last
night). I am typing on this blog,
typing, typing, typing. Not do well at
keeping this up………..
12:30pm Anchor up and we head north 3 miles to Bitter Guana
Cay with Saber Tooth and
Greenstone. A good protected anchorage
from an east wind and home to lots of iguanas.
1:15pm Anchor down at the north end of Bitter Guana is a
bite with a beautiful beach. We are 150 feet from the beach in 10 feet of
crystal clear water.
24°80.59’N
076°25.08’W 5NM today.
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| Iguana |
2:00pm We went to the beach to see the iguanas that inhabit
this cay. They will come up to you as
they expect to be fed. Afterward, we
took a dinghy ride through the cut north of us to the Sound (east) side of the
island. It was a bit rough through the
cut in the dinghy, but we made it to the other side and found a beach. We walked this beach and found some nice
shells and one heart sea bean. The ride back through the cut was much smoother
as the tide was slack.
Leftovers for an early dinner, then cocktails on Saber Tooth
(John, Nore, Nigel and Keira). Greenstone (Bob and Judy) joined us as
well. At sunset, a concert of conch
horns, followed by an evening of Mexican Train.
Nice end to a nice day.
Sunday, March 18,
2018. Another beautiful morning.
Saber Tooth leaves to head to Staniel Cay (next island north). Greenstone still here working on a plumbing
problem. Lots of small power boats here
from all the small local resorts, bringing people to see the iguanas.
Beautiful, 80 degrees, wind SW@5-10, puffy clouds, water is crystal clear.
Lisa and I worked on cleaning Rhiannon’s bottom. That has not been done since we left Vero
Beach. The bottom is really no too bad,
a few small barnacles and some scum, which rubs right off. The propeller and shaft will need a bit more
attention. The zincs on the prop and th
e shaft look ok.
We also fixed the mainsail furling. Somehow it does not have enough wraps on it,
so when the sail is all the way in, no wraps are left. The result is the rope is pulling out of the
furler. There is a section of mast you
can remove to get at this unit, but it has been a very long time since this was
done, and the screws don’t want to come out.
After destroying two screwdrivers, we get the section off the mast and
get the proper amount of rope onto the furler.
4:00pm Greenstone
leaves for Big Major. Today is Connie’s
birthday (Summer of 42) and Judy (Greenstone)has
made her a birthday cake. There is going
to be a party on Pirate Beach and they want to arrive on time.
We opt to stay here another night rather than get in the
crowd of boats at Big Major. Only three
other boats in our vicinity at sunset.
Monday, March 19,
2018. Another lovely morning in paradise, sunny, 75 degrees, no clouds,
wind SW@5-10. Lisa and I went ashore,
climbed to the top of the hill and walked to the cliffs on the east side of the
island. We can’t see the small beach
where we took the dinghy, nor can we see any other beaches on this side of the
island – all rock. We took lots of
pictures.
We put 15 gallons of fuel from the jerry cans into the tank.
10:20am Anchor up, headed to Staniel Cay Yacht Club to
refuel and refill with water. Talked to
Seahawk, who is headed to Sampson Cay.
11:30am, we manage to get to the fuel dock without having to
wait in line. Yeah! 16 gallons of diesel, full of water and ice,
we anchor just west of the yacht club docks ana take the dinghy to the club
with Greenstone, Saber Tooth and Summer of 42.
Nigel and Keira took an early morning flight out. Afterward, we took trash to the trash trailer
and walked down to the blue store to see if they had fresh produce. Even though the mail boat was here two days
ago, their selection is very limited. If
someone had a really decent grocery store here, they would make a fortune. There are three small stores and when it is
busy, they sell out immediately.
3:30pm Anchor up and we move the 3 miles over to Big Major
anchorage. There are 25 or more boats
here, plus 6 mega yachts. We can see 6
masts of boats anchored on the other side of Fowl Cay. There are 6 boats anchored over by
Thunderball Grotto (where the James Bond movie was filmed) at Staniel Cay.
Sunny, still 80 degrees, no clouds, no wind. 8NM today 24°11.18’N 076°27.56’W
5:30pm Cocktails aboard Summer
of 42 (Walter and Connie). Saber Tooth and Greenstone here too. The conversation was about schedules. All these boats have visitors coming during
the next three weeks. Roger and Connie (Down Time) are flying in on the 25th
and will probably stay aboard Summer of 42 (which is large trawler).
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| Sunset at Big Major |
9:00am Anchor up headed north to Cambridge Cay (part of the
Exuma Land and Sea Park). We are
following Summer of 42 and it is very
rolly with the waves coming off our port stern quarter. We opt to use the channel to Compass Cay Marina,
which puts the waves directly on our stern (more comfortable ride). We use the south entrance to Cambridge and at
11:30am we have the anchor down. All the
mooring balls are full and there are 8 boats anchored here and 6 more anchored
over by Bell Island (just north).
Wind SW@15-20. It is
supposed to go NW overnight. We hear Saber Tooth and Greenstone on the vhf on their way here also.
12:00pm We moved a bit so we are farther away from the boats
on moorings. Between the wind and the
strong current here, it is best to have a bit more chain out for the anchor.
14NM 24°18.12’N 076°32.43’W
Nightingale is
here. We were rafted with them in Vero
Beach for the Christmas Holidays. Great
to see Libby and Grant.
4:00pm Went to the beach at the south part of the anchorage
with Saber Tooth, Greenstone, Sea Change (John and Laura) and Summer of
42. Just hanging out enjoying the water.
Dinner on board (steak, sweet potatoes and peas).
Wednesday, March 21,
2018. Dad’s birthday. John (Saber Tooth) and Bob (Greenstone) come over to see if they can
diagnose the refrigerator issue. One
issue they found was low 12 volt voltage to the refrigerator. They changed some connections, and we moved
the refrigerator to another circuit breaker.
This produced and ½ volt at the fridge.
John recharged the unit. We will
see what happens overnight.
3:00pm Sunny, wind
SW@15-20. Very humid, looks like fog in the distance. The wind is supposed to
go into the West and then NW, but it has not yet.
7:00pm after dinner on board, we turned on the generator to
recharge the batteries. They are low
because the refrigerator has been running non-stop. The generator, or more probably the
inverter/charger is acting strange. The
charge voltage to the batteries spikes to make 60 amps, then drops to zero,
very strange. Also the “fixed”
refrigerator is now drawing a stead 10 amps – way too much. We are out of cell and internet range, so
there is no way we can call someone. We talked to John (Sea Change). He seems
knowledgeable and agrees to come over and look at the units tomorrow
morning. John (Saber Tooth) and Bob (Greenstone) also say they will come back
and try evacuating the system and then try to recharge it. Frustrating……………..
Thursday, March 22,
2018. Cloudy, 80 degrees. The wind did change overnight to N@15-20.
Several boats leave for Black Point including Nightingale. They are headed to Black Point and then will start the
trek home as they have a new grand child due. Several other boats are headed to
Black Point as well because tomorrow is the annual school fund raising event.
We attended this a few years ago. Mainly
lots of Bahamian food.
We checked the inverter/charger and the generator. The problem is definetly the
inverter/charger. The generator is
putting out a consistent 120 volts, no spikes or drops in voltage or amps. The inverter part seems to work as it should.
John (Sea Breeze) came over.
He checked the refrigerator and discovered that there was way too much
Freon in the system. He said when that
is the case the unit will run constantly trying to start the compressor, but it
cannot because there is too much liquid in the system. He now has it down to 14 psi when the
compressor is running and it seems to be cooling as it should. We will continue to keep an eye on it.
John also checked the inverter/charger. We discovered that when we add an AC 120 volt
load to the system (e.g. turn on the water heater while the generator is
running) the charger works as it should.
We are not sure why, but it is probably a sensor or relay or some other
gizmo that has quit working. We can certainly keep using it, maybe it will
continue working in this odd way until we get home. We will call Mike at Vero who put all the
other new charging equipment in place over last summer and see if he has any
ideas/experience. This might also be a call for George B. our electrical
engineer buddy (he and wife Susan crewed for us on the Erie Canal in 2012).
While all this electrical discovery is going on Lisa went
snorkeling with John and Nora (Saber Tooth) and Bob (Greenstone) at the small
islands on the west side of the anchorage here at Cambridge.
Dinner was on board Summer of 42. Sea Breeze had three beef tenderloins that
needed to be eaten. So, Walter cooked
them on Summer of 42 and everyone else brought side dishes. Lovely evening
topped off with the bottle of Winter Jack that I brought. Winter Jack is apple cider whiskey made by
Jack Daniels. Served over ice for
sipping. Everyone who tried it really
liked it.
Everyone brought their conch horns, so there was quite the
concert at sunset. Nice evening.
The wind had settled down some by the end of dinner, but
overnight was again howling, this time out of the NE. The anchorage here lies north and south and
there are cuts to the ocean at each end. The strong current combined with this
North wind make it an interesting place to anchor. Sometimes the boat spins in
a complete circle.
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| Sunset over Bell Island - Cambridge Cay Anchorage |
Friday, March 23, 2018. Sunny, almost no clouds 69 degrees. The
refrigerator seems to be behaving. We
paid our bill to Soul Mates (the Park Volunteer). We borrowed a temperature gun from Sea Breeze
to check the refrigerator. Walter
(Summer of 42) and John (Saber Tooth) came by.
10:30am Anchor up. We
head out the south entrance of Cambridge Cay, then over to the north end of
Compass Cay, and follow the channel to Compass Marina, then south out the other
channel. We meet Greenstone, Saber Tooth, Sea Change and Cloud 9 as we turn on course for Sampson Cay.
12:45pm Sunny, wind NE@15+. Chilly, only 70 degrees, but
feels colder with the NE wind. Anchor down at Sampson Cay. Six other boats here
including Greenstone and Saber Tooth
and one large mega yacht. 9.5NM today.
We are anchored in almost the same spot as when we were here the last
time. 24°12.53’N 076°28.52’W
3:00pm We went to the beach on the other side of the sand
flats with Saber Tooth, then to the
beach just north of where we are anchored.
Pretty beaches, but found no sea beans or nice shells.
We have been finding a lot of small plastic bags on the
beaches. John discovered (via Google)
that they contained bleach. The locals
are using them to stun the fish on the reef, then they are easy to gather
up. It is also killing the reefs!
Nora made peanut butter oatmeal cookies for us. Yummy!
Dinner on board, I made super omelets.
Saturday, March 24,
2018. Nice morning. Sunny, few
clouds. 72 degrees. Lisa went for a
snorkel at the north end of Dennis Cay – about 500 yards south of where we are
anchored. She brought home an old glass
refrigerator bottle (like my grandmother kept in the fridge for cold drinking
water) and a couple of very nice shells, which we found out had residents, so
back overboard they went. The reef where
they dove shows a lot of “bleaching”, even since our last visit.
I worked on typing the postings for the blog. I am caught up again, so hopefully, we will
have some internet when we get over to Staniel Cay tomorrow.
Saber Tooth and Greenstone depart to Big Major, which is
just a couple of miles away.
Lisa and I walked the beach on the other side of the
flats. This time down to the south end
of the cay. We found one purse bean, one
Jamaican Naval Purge bean, a couple of Bay Beans, and a couple of Hog Plum
beans, a couple of Laurelwood seeds.
There were literally hundreds of Country Almonds on the beach. These are not ones we collect because they a
so common and they deteriorate quickly.
I made chicken Marsala and salad (from dinner on Summer of 42) for dinner. Great meal! And a beautiful sunset.
Sunday, March 25,
2018. Lovely morning. The wind died
down overnight. Sunny, 75 degrees, no
clouds. Lisa worked on re-arranging the
aft cabin, which has been our “storage room”.
We may have company coming, Jim and Judy (Tug-a-Long). They are working on airline reservations and
will let us know their schedule.
I finally got the typing on the blog all caught up. Now to get the pictures organized, get
everything uploaded and published.
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| Emiliene and Pierre |
We heard from Destiny IV US (Pierre and Emeline). Pierre is sufficiently recovered that they
flew to Bimini, retrieved Destine IV US and are back in Florida. They will put the boat up for the summer and
if it does not sell, they may cruise the Keys next winter. Great to hear Pierre is doing well.
2:00pm Anchor up, sunny, no wind, no clouds. We take the “back way” south to Staniel Cay
(around Dennis Cay, across the “top of the Majors” (north end of Big Major Spot
and Little Major Cay), then south “between the Majors”, west past the “Crown of
Thorns", past Thunderball Grotto (where the James Bond Movie was filmed). We anchored just west of Staniel Cay Yacht
Club (SCYC) at 3:00pm. The boat next to
us looks like a derelict. A pony-tailed
Captain Ron character comes off and tells us he has two anchors out with 100
feet of chain on each one, so we should stay far away from him. He tells me he is a “professional” and knows
what he is doing. So was Capt. Ron
(haven’t seen the movie?). This anchorage is only 10 feet deep and 60 feet
wide, 200 feet of chain and two anchors???????
4.1NM today 24°10.30’N
076°26.80’W
4:00pm We went into the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. Walter and Connie (Summer of 42) and Sea Breeze
(John and Laura) are here. We are
awaiting the arrival of Down Time
(Roger and Connie), who have sold their boat, but are flying in for 10 days,
staying on Summer of 42. Once they arrive, the table of folks gathered
to greet them has grown including Greenstone
(Bob and Judy), Saber Tooth (John and
Nora) and Lilliputian. I ordered wings and onion rings, Lisa had
“conch bits” (aka cracked conch, fried conch). The food prices have remained
fairly reasonable, but not so for the bar: $7.50 for a beer, $4 for a coke,
$12.50 for a frozen daiquiri, $10 for a rum punch. It was a nice evening with good company. When we get back to the boat, there are three
other boats anchored near “Capt. Ron”.
Monday, March 26,
2018. Sunny, no clouds, wind SE@5-10, beautiful morning. I think “Capt. Ron” was fibbing about the 2
anchors and 100 feet of chain on each, because as the tide changes, he is
swinging the same as everyone else anchored here.
10:00am Anchor up, we are motoring south toward Black
Point. The supply Boat is here at the
Government Dock. As it leaves it is aground in the channel. It is dead low tide. It will be there for a while.
We hear Saber Tooth,
Greenstone and Summer of 42 on
the VHF. They are headed to White Point,
which is about 5 miles farther south than Black Point.
11:30am Anchor down close to Rockledge Laundry. Today we did 3 loads of laundry, got a
haircut from Miss Ida (Rockledge Laundry proprietor), took all the trash
ashore, went to both grocery stores (shelves are pretty bare) and went to
DeShamons Restaurant for ice, but there ice machine is broken). We filled and carried 5 jerry cans of fresh
water to the boat to fill the tanks.
We saw Bill on Providence.
The last time we saw him it was here before he went south to George Town
for the Cruising Regatta (he was co-chair this year). Always great seeing him. We met Bill on our first trip to the Bahamas
and have managed to cross paths every year and stay in touch.
I talked to Mike G. about the inverter/charger issue we are
having. He said he had never heard of one of these units behaving this
way. His ideas:
·
Check the voltage at the 120 outlets in the boat
when the charger is acting weird and see if the voltage is steady (maybe it’s
the generator?)
·
Check the frequency (60 hertz) at the 120v
outlets when the charger is acting weird (again, maybe it’s the generator?)
·
Try hooking up to shore power and see if the
same thing happens (not sure when that will be possible). We talked about using one of the Honda 2000
generators as shore power (we will have to change some settings on the
charger).
·
Check to cooling fan on the charger to make sure
it is working
We talked to John on Sea Breeze. His tester will also measure frequency so we
will get together on Wednesday when they come to Black Point. We have to return his temperature gun anyway
– we have been checking the refrigerator temperature with it.
Once we got back to the boat, Miss Ida called on the radio
and said that Lisa should call Jean on Sand Castle on the VHF. Lisa has been trying to contact her about
making jewelry.
It doesn’t matter how close we snuggle up to the shore (we
only need 5 feet of water to float), many times a catamaran tries to get
between us and the shore. That happened again today. The problem is that because they draw a bit
less water, that can get a bit closed to shore.
But these things are huge, a 45 catamaran is 30 feet wide. By the time they let out the proper amount of
chain, they are right on our bow. This
one is 47 feet long. It is a crewed
charter, and the captain comes over and tells us he put out 150 feet of chain
and not to worry. Catamarans swing differently
on anchor than a monohull, than a motor boat.
As the storm arrives and the wind build, this guy is swinging all
over. Part of that is because of his
hull shape and part is because he is swinging 150 feet of chain in 10 feet of
water (ideal scope ratio is 5’ of chain for every foot of water plus add amount
of “freeboard” (distance from the water to the deck of the boat), some people
use 7 to 1, a big storm might require 10 to 1).
So this catamaran has twice as much chain out as he needs. That and they never seem to look behind them
while anchoring. Enough anchoring
griping.
Dinner on board – spaghetti and sausage. After dinner, we raise the dinghy so it is
not in the water for this blow (many a dinghy is lost in these storms). We put
up some of the side curtains on the cockpit enclosure to keep out the weather
and covered the instruments in the cockpit.
About 10 pm the wind is building. There is so much “pot” smoke coming off the
catamaran in front of us, we are getting high just sitting in our cockpit.
Tuesday, March 27,
2018. Partly cloudy, 70 degrees this morning. Wind still howling from the
NE. The worst of the storm was about
4:00am. Very heavy wind, at least 35 and
heavy rain. Hope there was enough rain
to wash all the soap off the boat.
12 Noon. We heard Sand Castle (actually, this is a house
not a boat) on the radio and will meet them at Scorpios around 4. Still partly cloudy. The wind is still blowing 20-25 from the
East.
4:00pm We meet a
bunch of folks at Scorpios (Saber Tooth,
Downtime, Greenstone, Summer of 42, Lilliputian, Providence, the folks from
the Sand Castle (a house actually, that looks like a castle)) and others we do
not know. Very nice evening. Rum Punch are 2 for $7. I had fries and wings, Lisa had conch
bits.
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| L to R: Benny, John (Saber Tooth), Bob (Greenstone), Connie (Summer of 42), Judy (Greenstone), Connie and Roger (Down Time), Lisa, Nora (Saber Tooth), Walter (Summer of 42) |
Wednesday, March 28,
2018. The wind is still howling at
25-30, even tho’ the forecast is for it to calm down. I went through the Kohler
Generator Service Manual, and there is an adjustment for voltage and frequency
on the controls panel. When John (Sea
Breeze) comes over with his meter we will be able to make adjustments, if that is
the issue.
10:00am, we meet Saber Tooth, Greenstone, Downtime and
Summer of 42 ashore and go for a walk on the beach. There is a huge blow hole here and it is very
active today. We did not find any nice
shells or sea beans, but Nora (Saber Tooth) found a nice hamburger bean.
The catamaran anchored in front of us has left……………….
At 4:00pm we lift the anchor and head across the harbor to
anchor near Saber Tooth as we are supposed to have dinner on their boat this
evening. Crossing the harbor, we manage
to snag another boats anchor rode (which is all rope – 200 feet of it). Luckily, it was only around the rudder and
not around the prop or the shaft. Lisa
and Chris (from the boat we snagged) were able to free us. No damage to either boat.
5:30pm We make out way over to Saber Tooth for a nice
Mexican Taco Salad that Nora made.
Downtime, Greenstone and Summer of 42 were also there. Lisa and I made a bunch of Pain Killer as our
contribution to the evening. We were
back aboard before sunset. The rest of
the group headed over to Lilliputian for Karaoke night.
