Tuesday, January 14,
2020
Brother-in-law Dan once again drove us to Logan
Airport. This time at 6:30am in order to
miss the morning commuter rush into Boston. We departed on time at 9:30am and
arrived in Orlando at noon. We were met
by friends George and Bev. We had an
early dinner at Applebee,s and spent the night with them at their lovely home in
Melbourne, FL.
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
George and Bev drove us to Vero Beach. We had a very nice
lunch at Mulligans and then they delivered us to the marina. Back on Rhiannon and after sitting here alone without us
for almost a month, all seems well.
Thursday, January 16 – Sunday, January 26, 2020
We spent these two weeks getting Rhiannon ready to depart.
The weather was completely un- cooperative.
When we installed the new evaporator unit for the forward refrigerator, we found out that the connections for the new unit are a different size than those on the old unit. While this is advertised as "plug and play connections", you need to buy an adapter which the dealer in Fort Lauderdale forgot to mention. That dealer did not have the adapters in stock, so we called defender and had a set sent to us. So, three days go by while we wait on the connectors.
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| Refrigeration Connector |
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| Connectors |
We visited with Autumn Borne when they arrived, as well as
Last Boat.
On January 26, we had Pete go over the bottom and check the
prop.
Monday, January 27, 2020
Heavy rain overnight.
Cloudy and murky, 50 degrees, no wind.
10:00am Finally off the mooring! Made it as far as the fuel
dock, where we added 21 gallons of fuel, 6 gallons of gasoline, water, ice and
had both holding tanks pumped out.
11:00am Underway south on the ICW. Still overcast, wind NW@5.
1:00 Fort Pierce North Bridge. This bridge used to be “on
request”, but now is scheduled openings on the hour and half hour. The sun is
trying to break through the overcast. No wind.
3:30pm Jensen Beach Bridge. Hoodless is anchored south
of the bridge. We are unable to raise
them on the radio.
4:00pm St. Lucie inlet.
The tide is going out at 1 ½ knots.
5:00pm Anchor down in Peck Lake. 8 other boats here.
42SM 33.6NM
MM992 27°06.89’N 080°08.58’W
Very light wind from the NE. Partly sunny, high clouds, 72
degrees.
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Today is a layover day. Only one other boat is still here.
Sunny, no clouds, 61 degrees.
10:30am We dinghy ashore and walk across the short path to
the beach on the ocean side. We walk the beach toward the south.
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| Beach on Lake Peck shore - path to the ocean |
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| "Tunnel" through the Seagrapes to the ocean |
Lots of sea
beans found today. No heart beans, but
we did find ten golf balls (sea coconuts – related to betel nut palm). There were lots on the beach and after a
while we decided to leave the rest for someone else. There were tons sea almonds (very common) as
well. We also found 49 Bay Beans that come from the long vines that grow on the
beach. We found 7 grey Sea Pearls (also called Nicker Nuts), one immature coconut
(only an inch long), 1 Calabash Seed, 1 Laurelwood seed, 1 Tropical Walnut and
two Hamburger Beans! Quite a haul!
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| Beach treasures from Peck Lake |
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| Bay Beans in the pod Found on many beaches in Florida and the Bahamas |
The wind has built up from the north to 15-25. After midnight, it dies down quite a bit.
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Beautiful morning.
Puffy clouds and sun. Wind SE@10.
65 degrees.
We elect to spend another day in the beautiful spot.
10:00am We again walk the beach. No one on the beach
yet. This time we walk towards the
north.
We again find a lot of sea beans. There must be hundreds of the sea almonds
here. There are almost as many golf ball beans (Sea Coconut). We left all of
these for other to collect.
We found 39 more of the Bay Beans.
There are literally thousands of Coin Vine Seeds. These are flat and are about the size of a
nickel. These are soft and fragile and disintegrate easily. We also left all of these.
We found one blister pod and one bloodwood pod. We found seven more grey Sea Pearls (Nicker
Nuts), 2 antidote vine seeds, 2 Starnut Palm seeds.
There are lots of turtle egg shells on the beach, mostly
dried out, very fragile. These too, we
left on the beach.
Beautiful sunset, then rain overnight, heavy at times.
Thursday, January 30, 2020
7:30am Cloudy and foggy, 65 degrees, wind N@10.
9:00am Fog clearing.
9:30am Anchor up, Partly cloudy, 70 degrees, wind N@10.
10:00am Hobe Sound Bridge (On request).
12:10pm 707 (Jupiter Island) Bridge (On Request).
12:20pm Jupiter Federal Bridge (On Request).
1:00pm Indiantown Road Bridge (Scheduled).
1:00pm Indiantown Road Bridge (Scheduled).
2:00pm Donald Ross Bridge (Scheduled).
2:30pm PGA Bridge (Scheduled).
2:45pm Parker Blvd. Bridge (Scheduled).
3:45pm Flagler Memorial Bridge (Scheduled) – the bridge to
Trump’s Mara Lago.
4:00pm We try to anchor across from the Town Docks in West
Palm Beach. Many boats here. We get yelled at by the boat closest to us because
he has a lot of chain out and is swinging all over the place. The wind and the
tide are opposed and is making it difficult to know which way to back down on
the anchor to get it to set. We give up
and head through the next bridge (Royal Palm Blvd) at 4:15pm. We anchor just beyond the bridge on the west
shore of the ICW in 13 feet of water. Only one other boat here and plenty of
room. The wind is dying off. A few high
thin clouds. Turns out to be a lovely
evening.
31SM 25NM MM1023 26°42.15’N 080°02.89’W
6 Scheduled bridges, 3 On Request bridges.
Friday, January 31, 2020
Lovely morning, calm, high clouds, 70 degrees.
8:20am Anchor up. We
keep hearing this loud annoying alarm on channel 16. We find out that it is because Trump is
coming to Mara Lago. Glad we are past
that.
8:45am Southern Blvd. Bridge (Scheduled).
9:22am Lake Ave. Bridge (On Request).
10:00am Lantana Blvd, Bridge (Scheduled).
11:00am Ocean Ave. Bridge (Scheduled).
11:10am SE 15th Ave. Bridge (On Request).
The wind is North@10, the sky is clear and the sun is out, 75
degrees. If you have to “run the
bridges” you could not have picked a better day.
11:20am George Bush Bridge (On Request).
11:45am Atlantic Ave. Bridge (Scheduled) – made it through a
bit late, but we were running ahead of a barge.
Bridges are supposed to open for all commercial traffic.
12:00noon Linton Blvd. Bridge (Scheduled).
12:30pm Spanish River Blvd. Bridge (Scheduled).
1:00pm Palmetto Park – south Lake Boca (Scheduled).
2:00pm Hillsboro Blvd (Scheduled).
2:45pm NE 14th Street Bridge (Scheduled).
3:00pm Atlantic Blvd. Bridge (Scheduled).
3:30pm Commercial Blvd. Bridge (Scheduled).
3:45pm Oakland Park Bridge (Scheduled).
4:00pm Sunrise Blvd. Bridge (Scheduled).
4:15pm Las Olas Blvd. Bridge (Scheduled).
4:40pm Lake Sylvia – It took four tries to find a spot where
the anchor would grab. Lots of boats in
here and empty spaces (where the anchor would not catch – probably why
they were empty!).
5:06pm Finally got the anchor set, but we are very close to
the little marina on the east side of the lake.
High thin clouds gathering.
Looks like rain coming. Wind S@10, 75 degrees.
41SM 33NM MM1064.5
26°06.25’N 080°06.65’W
14 scheduled bridges
3 on request
Heavy rain and thunderstorms overnight, but not much wind.
Saturday, February 1,
2020
High overcast and partial sun this morning. 72 degrees. Wind SW@5-10.
Some of the boats here have obviously been here quite a while. At least three of them were anchored here
when we were here last year. While Fort
Lauderdale has banned anchoring is some spots (e.g. Middle River), they let
these derelict boats remain here.
During the night the wind changed and we swung very close to
the entrance to the small marina on the east side of the “lake”. While we have never seen any boats
come from or go to that marina, we received a visit from a nice police officer
asking us to move before they started receiving complaints. He said the local residents get nervous when
boats anchor close to the docks.
Obviously, they don’t seem to mind the derelict boats anchored in their front yards. A few boats have left this morning, so we move to the center of
the lake and re-anchor. The anchor set and held
on the first try.
26°06.31’N 080°06.77’W
26°06.31’N 080°06.77’W
I made chicken Marsala for dinner.
It was supposed to rain all day with intermittent
thunderstorms. It threatened all day,
but little rain fell and there were no thunderstorms. There were threatening clouds all around us.
Sunday, February 2, 2020
Ground Hog Day. Punxutawney
Phil did not see his shadow, so an early spring is predicted. Also, it is Superbowl Sunday, although The
Patriots are not in it, so we not sure we really care. If we have to pick, it will be the
Forty-Niners, because their QB, Jimmy Garapalo, was Brady’s backup before he
went to the 49ers.
Clear the morning with wind from the NW gusting to 25. NOAA says seas are 4-6’ along the coast, so
we elect to wait another day.
Kansas City wins the Super Bowl in what turned out to be a very
good game.
Monday, February 3, 2020
The wind is still out of the NW, but it has subsided quite a bit,
now 10-15 and supposed to go lighter and to the SE by tonight.
7:15am Anchor up. Partly cloudy, 65 degrees, wind NW@10. Many boats leaving this morning. Beautiful
sunrise.
8:00am 17th Street Bridge (scheduled). Many boats
heading out to sea. We stay about 1 mile
off shore and have a relatively smooth sail down to Maimi.
2:00pm Government Cut. We
have to give way to a container ship heading in to port.
3:00pm Crandon Park Marine Fuel Dock. We fill with fuel (22 gallons), gasoline (4
gallons) and water.
3:30pm Off the dock headed to No Name Harbor.
4:30pm Anchor down in No Name Harbor, Key Biscayne.
Pretty sunset.
34.5NM 25’40.61’N
080°09.80’W
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
6:30am Anchor up and we are headed east toward Bimini as the sun
rises. The wind is SE and the tide is
going out, so it is a bit rough headed out the channel.
PC, 65 degrees, wind SE@10-12.
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| Sunrise as we leave Key Biscayne |
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| Key Biscayne Lighthouse |
8:00am We hear this huge BANG and the whole boat shudders, then
another big BANG. It felt like we hit
something very solid. The last time we
heard and felt something like this was when we hit an uncharted rock coming out
of Rockport, MA. We are in the channel
and the chart shows clear water. We then
realize that the foresail (which is wrapped (furled) around the head stay (the
big wire that goes from the top of the mast to the bow) is swinging
around. Something up there on the bow
has broken. We manage to use the sheets
(roped that control the head sail) to secure the flopping sail/head stay and turn
around and head back to No Name.
10:00am When we get back in the harbor, we tie up to the wall
(almost no boats here today), and try to figure out what happened and the
damage. It looks like the head stay has broken.
After the adrenaline rush settles down, we get on the phone to several
people ( Pete in Vero, Peter in Salem, MA, Jamel in Stuart) to ask what we
should do. All said to use any free halyards (roped used to raise and lower
sails) to secure the mast. Jamel, who
Lisa met in Vero at a rope splicing class, is a rigger. He said he was on his way to Fort Myers for a
job, but would stop and assess the damage and see what it would take to fix it.
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| You can see the roller furled sail no longer attached to the top of the mast |
11:30am Jamel shows up and goes up the mast in his own bosun’s
chair rig and between the three of us, we get the fore stay, roller furling and
foresail down on the ground. Once the
sail is off the furler and the furler taken apart, we see that the shackle on
the lower turnbuckle (at the deck level) has shattered. This is
covered up by the furler and so there is no way to do a check on this piece
without taking the furler apart. Even tho’ we recently had a rig inspection,
this was missed because it was inside the furling system. Luckily, nothing
else was broken. Jamel said there was a
rigging supply place nearby and he would be back in a couple of hours.
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| Tied to the wall at No Name Harbor |
1:00pm Jamel returns with a new shackle and turnbuckle, a retainer, and some StaSet rope to make a new out haul for the main. We had to remove the main sail so Jamel could get
up the mast.
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| Fore stay, roller furling on the ground |
There is a retainer available that keeps the halyard (rope used to raise the foresail on the furler) from twisting around the stay, which causes the stay to kink, which weakens it. Jamel said that is the number one cause of fore stay failure (although not in our case). The fore stay is 3/8 inch stainless steel cable.
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| The culprit - broken shackle on the lower fore stay turnbuckle. The new one next to it for comparison. |
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| Jamel at work |
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| Jamel putting it all back together |
4:00pm Jamel has everything back together, the new out haul for the main spliced into place (took him about 5 minutes), the ties (stainless steel wire) at the end of the spreaders on the mast replaced and the rig inspected and tuned (tightened the wires holding the mast in place). Wow! We discovered during our conversations with Jamel that he grew up on a boat (one of those boat kids that you meet cruising). He never did well with "traditional education". After high school, he worked for North Sales for eight years before striking out on his own.
So, if you ever need a rigger, we highly recommend this guy –
Jamel Lister 772/349-1619.
After he finished, we had a beer with Jamel and then dinner, we collapse.
12NM 25°40.56’N 080°09.75’W
Wednesday, February 5, 2020.
Sunny, breezy, wind N@15+.
Not a direction wanted to cross the Gulf Stream.
We move Rhiannon off the wall and anchor at the west end of the
harbor. A good day to just veg out.
Thursday, February 6, 2020
Wind blowing SE@15-20g(gusting)30. 75 degrees, clear. Lisa repainted the registration numbers on
the dinghy so they a legible and put on the new registration stickers that we
got while we were at home over the holidays. We also put the 2020 Customs and
Immigration (DTOPS) decal on Rhiannon.
The hot water faucet in the aft head has little water pressure. After
checking the strainer on the faucet, I pulled off the water lines and found the
hot water line clogged with hardened minerals. After cleaning out the line,
there is now plenty of volume and pressure.
Lisa cleaned the deck and is waiting on the coming rain to rinse
it.
I loaded the Harry Potter books (8) on a flash drive along with a
bunch of movies for children (adults like them too, Avatar, Shrek, etc.) for Sienna, but they left this morning.
Mojo came back into the anchorage after leaving this morning
trying to cross the Gulf Stream. Too
rough they said. They are a catamaran and the trampoline on the bow broke
loose. The dinghy was on the bow and
also broke loose damaging one of the windows on the front of the cabin. Not
good.
Very windy over night.
Friday, February 7, 2020
7:30am Cloudy, wind SW@15-20g30, 65 degrees, rain and gusty wind.
There was a Hunter 36 anchored next to us last night. His anchor broke loose in the squall and he
was headed for the seawall. After
several boats (us included) were blowing horns, the captain finally came out of
the cabin and figured out he had a problem. While he was scooting across the
harbor, his anchor snagged our anchor and suddenly we were also scooting across
the harbor. We were lucky that the two anchors did not get tangled up. Lisa was out in the rain in
her pjs getting our anchor up. We
managed to re-anchor successfully and the other boat got settled along the
seawall. Several other boats in the
anchorage were moving around also. Fun
morning.
The bottom in No Name Harbor is mud and shell and is only marginal
holding to begin with. Because of all
the boats that anchor here, it is really “plowed up” and the holding is
marginal at best, especially in a squall.
Many of our friends will not anchor in here except on calm days,
preferring to anchor outside where there is a sand bottom.
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| Sunset at No Name Harbor |
Saturday,
February 8, 2020
Sunny, wind SE@15+. Many boats from Miami come in to party. Large and small power boats line the
wall. Each with lots of people and loud
music. We count 20 boats anchored and almost that many more rafted 2 or 3 deep
on the seawall. The good news is that
the music quit and the noise died down at 11:00pm.
Sunday, February 9, 2020
Beautiful morning, wind SE@10-15.
Many boats leave and more come in.
It is cool, so not as many boats out to party as in our previous visits.
Monday, February 10, 2020
PC, 70 degrees, wind S@15.
Quite a few boats left this morning, but we elect to wait one more day
and let the seas settle a bit before we attempt to cross the Gulf Stream. We
walk to town and make stops at the post office to mail some books to Lisa’s Dad
and to Jeff. Then the hardware store,
drug store and then Winn-Dixie. The
Winn-Dixie is the only major grocery on Key Biscayne and because this is such
an upscale area, it is the nicest Winn-Dixie we have ever been in.
We Uber back to the boat and prepare to leave for Bimini tomorrow.
Tuesday, February 11, 2020 – Wednesday, February 12, 2020
The weather is not co-operating. It looks like the next
opportunity to cross will be Friday. We took a walk to the beach on the east side of the island with All In (Bob and Alicen).
Thursday, February 13, 2020
Today, we made “final” stops at CVS, post office, hardware and
grocery store with Lovely Lady and All In.
Loaded up, we took and Uber back to the boats. Everyone gathered on shore for a group picture prior to departure tomorrow. In the afternoon, we moved Rhiannon outside the harbor and anchored
in preparation for an early departure tomorrow morning.
25°40.50’N 080°09.92’W
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| Large group of folks departing for Bimini or the Keys tomorrow |
Friday,
February 14, 2020 Valentines Day
7:00am Partly cloudy, wind S@10, 65 degrees, tide on the way out.
In addition to the usual candy and a card we gave each other, I
gave Lisa a set of shorts and a top I bought for her while we were in Vero
Beach.
Anchor up, as we depart the Biscayne Channel, we are getting
pushed north by a strong current right off the coast – the tide. We haven’t experienced this before coming out
of Key Biscayne and we wind up a lot farther north than we usually are.
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| Last marker heading out of Biscayne Channel at Sunrise |
We are able to motor-sail for most of the crossing. No issues with
the rigging.
3:00pm Most of the entrance buoys to the channel into North Bimini
are gone or moved off station. If you line up with the pink condos on shore,
that is the entrance channel.
The large red buoy that used to mark the entrance is north by the
south end of North Bimini where the reef is. There is a large sport fishing boat sitting on the bottom next to the
buoy.
3:30pm On the dock at Bimini Blue Water Marina. The marina is full. It is good that we called for a reservation! After checking in with Customs and Immigration, I head back to the boat. The new cruising permits are only good for three months instead of the previous six months. The price for a boat our size is the same ($300). The immigration folks were a bit surly today and only gave us visas for 3 months, saying we could come back an renew them at no cost (which has always been true). I can see where these new time limits are not going to be very popular. It’s not like every island has a Customs and Immigration office. In the Exumas, there is only one and that is all the way south in George Town.
3:30pm On the dock at Bimini Blue Water Marina. The marina is full. It is good that we called for a reservation! After checking in with Customs and Immigration, I head back to the boat. The new cruising permits are only good for three months instead of the previous six months. The price for a boat our size is the same ($300). The immigration folks were a bit surly today and only gave us visas for 3 months, saying we could come back an renew them at no cost (which has always been true). I can see where these new time limits are not going to be very popular. It’s not like every island has a Customs and Immigration office. In the Exumas, there is only one and that is all the way south in George Town.
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| Office at Bimini Blue Water Marina |
4:40pm All In comes in to the slip next to us. The last one that you could
get a sail boat of any size into. Lovely
Lady, Hoapili, Makarios here also.
We walked to the beach for sunset and
had conch fritters and a beer for dinner. Very nice!
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| CJ's on the beach |
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| Beach at Bimini |
50.1NM 25°43.51’N 79°17.84’W
Saturday,
February 15, 2020
Sunny and windy, 80 degrees. We walked the beach and Lisa found some nice shells (this is one of the best beaches in the Bahamas for shells) and I found a couple of sea beans including one hamburger bean – very unusual to find them here.
Sunny and windy, 80 degrees. We walked the beach and Lisa found some nice shells (this is one of the best beaches in the Bahamas for shells) and I found a couple of sea beans including one hamburger bean – very unusual to find them here.
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| Treasures from the beach |
Very windy, SE@20+, which is the direction we must go when we
leave here. We bought a dozen lobsters from CJ and invited Bob and Alicen (All In) to dinner. Very nice evening.
Monday,
February 17, 2020
The wind dies down a bit overnight, now SE@10-15. All In and five other boats leave
heading to Morgan’s Bluff at the north end of Andros Island. We opt to wait
another day and let the wind and seas calm a bit more. We walked to Joe’s Conch
Shack for fresh conch salad, yum!
We picked six nice conch shells to be future conch horns from the
huge pile behind Joe’s.
Lisa made a bean and sausage soup for dinner.
Tuesday,
February 18, 2020
Lisa has been wanting to visit the shark institute on South
Bimini, so today we decided to go over.
There is a ferry that runs between the island every ½ hour, so we walk
to the south end of North Bimini to the ferry dock. Lisa has a friend whose
daughter works at the institute, and we are looking forward to touring the facility. When
we got off the ferry, we were told that the facility is closed on
Tuesdays. It would have been nice to
know this ahead of time. We were also
told that you have to call ahead and make an appointment for a tour.
We spent the rest of the day getting ready for a departure
tomorrow morning. We filled the boat with fuel, water, ice and made a trip to
the grocery. Lisa visited Ashley Saunders at the Dolphin House. Ashley has been building this unique B&B forever. Lisa visits there each time we come to Bimini. Ashley's brother Thomas, who we had met several times died this past winter. Thomas was a house painter and painter Nixon's house on South Bimini. Ashley's other brother Aubury, is a boat builder, was a friend of Martin Luther King and Ernest Hemingway.
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| Dolphin House |
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| Dolphin House interior |
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| Ashley Saunders working on yet another addition |
We had dinner at CJ’s on the beach at sunset (conch fritters and
chicken wings). We then walked to the
Bimini Blue Water Resort and had key lime pie for dessert. The resort and marina were originally built
as a house by Michael Lerner (Lerner Shops).
It is now owned by two local women.
It was built in the 1930’s and is that vintage, but very clean and well
kept.
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Sunny, a few puffy clouds, 70 degrees, wind SE@5-10. The wind is supposed to die off during the
course of the day.
7:00am Willie helps us out of the slip. He takes care of a large sport fishing boat
that lives in the marina and belongs to a guy from Miami. We have seen him on every visit and he has
helped us numerous times showing us where to get ice, propane, fresh fish and
lobster, etc.
Elsie Mae and Irish Tango depart with us. Motoring at 6 knots dead into the wind. Beautiful day on the water.
8:00am North Rock
2:00pm Wind SE@5, still motoring.
4:40pm We pass Greenstone heading the opposite
direction. They were in Nassau. Judy woke up one morning to find that Bob had
passed in the night. They had him cremated, but the ashes have to be shipped
home, they cannot carry them with them on the boat. They were traveling with Saber Tooth. Down Time
(Roger and Connie) flew to Nassau, and they all are bringing Greenstone home. We had planned on
meeting this group in Nassau, but the timing did not work out. Nice to see them from a distance anyway.
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| Greenstone heading west. L to R: Judy, Nora, Roger, Connie, John |
6:30pm Anchor down at the anchorage west of Chub Cay with Elsie Mae and Irish Tango.
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| Sunset off Chub Cay |
The wind and waves did not die completely overnight. Kind of a rolly night at anchor.
70.4NM 84.5SM 25°31.42’N 078°12.69’W
Thursday, February 20, 2020
7:00am Anchor up. It turned out to be pretty bouncy last night.
Partly cloudy, big puffy clouds on the horizon, 70 degrees, wind E@10+. We head SE towards New Providence island with
Elsie Mae andIrish Tango.
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| Sunrise off Chub Cay |
7:30am We hear Summer of 42 (Walter and Connie) on the vhf. They left Lake Worth yesterday morning and
are headed to Nassau. They, too, passed Greenstone going the other way.
The wind and waves are again right on our nose as we head down the
Northwest Channel.
8:00am Northwest Channel “Light” – no light there, but a big pole
sticking out of a rock pile.
8:20am On heading 131T to West Bay (western end of New
Providence). Wind, current and waves all on our nose. Wind SE@10-15+. Forecast was for “light and variable”. It’s going to be a long, slow day punching
into the wind, waves and current.
9:00am only averaging 5 knots over the ground. There are two speed measurements. One is speed through the water, the other is
speed over ground. The knot meter
measures speed through the water and is affected by current either going with
or against your direction. If you are moving forward at 5 knots and the current
against you is 1 knot, the knot meter will register 6 knots. If the 1 knot current is with you, the knot
meter will register 4 knots. The GPS measures speed over ground regardless of
current. The difference between the two
readings tells you how fast the current is flowing. If the two readings are the same, there is no
current.
12:00noon The current has let up some, now making 5.5-5.7 knots.
The wind has let up to 10-12 knots.
1:45pm Wind now SE@10. ½
knot of negative current, still only making 5.5. Sunny, big puffy clouds,
confused seas, waves coming from two different directions.
4:30pm Entrance marker at channel to Coral Harbour.
5:00pm On the dock at Nick and Carolyn Wardle’s. Elsie Mae and Irish Tango here also.
We are just in time for Rum o’clock.
Dinner on board -
breakfast.
56.1 NM 24°58.94’N 077°27.70’W
Friday,
February 21, 2020
Partly cloudy, wind NE@15-20g30.
There are now 10 boats here and another is due in today. John (Elsie Mae) and I went to Virgo Car
Rental and rented a car for a week. The one we got was certainly in better
shape than the one we got last time (2 flat tires and a dead battery). This one has a bald front right tire, which Virgo changed out for a new one, so we were go to go. Dinner on board.
We drove into Nassau, providing a guided tour for John and Valarie
(Elsie Mae) and Paul and Kris (Irish Tango). We stopped at a church fair next to The Fish
Fry (a group of restaurants serving typical Bahamian fare along the waterfront). Lots of music, local food (conch fritters,
cracked conch, mac and cheese, peas and rice) plus hamburgers, hot dogs and
even steak was available. Lots of baked
goods (Bahamian bread, coconut cake, apple cake, pineapple cake, etc.) A squall came through and sent everyone
scurrying for shelter and their cars. We
all did manage to eat our fill tho’.
We stopped at Harbour Marine, then the new Jimmy’s Liquors right
next door. Sands Beer Brewery was
destroyed and their water source (wells) in Freeport corrupted by Dorian. Sands
Brewery and Jimmy’s Liquors are owned by Jimmy Sands. We were told that they hope to be back to
producing beer by June.
We stopped at Budget Foods on Coral Harbour Road, not far from
Nick and Carolyn’s to get some fresh Bahamian bread to take back to the boat.
6:00pm Dinner at The Cricket Club.
There are now 13 boats at Nick and Carolyn’s and 17 people joined us for
dinner. Lisa and I both had the seafood pie and it was great as usual. Last
time we were here Connie (chef and owner’s (Chris) wife) gave us her
recipe. Not exact measurements for
anything, because she makes it “to taste”.
We will have to try and replicate it.
Cool and showers overnight.
Saturday, February 23, 2020
65 degrees this morning. Wind NE@10-20g25, Puffy clouds. 2 of the Canadian boats leave. It’s going to be bumpy out there.
We talked to Summer of 42.
John and Nora (Saber Tooth) are back after helping deliver Greenstone to Florida. Greenstone
is headed to St. Augustine, where it will be hauled and then put up for sale.
Lisa is cleaning bilges. Somehow, the vented loop sprayed sea
water and stuff from the holding tank all over.
We took everything apart and cleaned it, but we may have to replace that
loop. The vented loop is supposed to
keep things like drains from syphoning water up while the boat is moving.
5:00pm Rum o’clock. A large
gathering because so many boats are here.
Nick played the washboard for us.
He used to play in a Dixieland Jazz band and had a couple of their cds
that he played along with. He said when
he decided to start playing many years ago, he went to a haberdashery and got
10 thimbles, one for each finger, and that’s how he “strums” the
washboard. He’s very good at it. An enjoyable time was had by all, especially
Nick.
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| Nick playing the wash board |
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| Rum O'clock - a good time had by all |
Lisa finished cleaning the bilges and we went for a walk on the
beach. Wind now E@20+.
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Today the wind is still strong out of the east. We all piled in the rental and went shopping
(grocery, bank, hardware store and three different liquor stores). First a Jimmy’s to get Kalik beer that was on
sale, then Liquid Courage, a chain of stores that carries the Tofka vodka that
we like, then we stopped at a 700 Liquors to get a specific brand of Rum
requested by one of the boats. Finally,
a stop at Budget Foods for fresh eggs.
Elsie Mae,
Irish Tango and Lisa and I went to Compass Point for cocktails at sunset and
dinner. Compass Point is located on the
northwest corner of the island with a spectacular view of the ocean, the reef
and the sunset. It is a small resort and
restaurant and is one of our favorite spots on the island. Nice evening.
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| L to R: Paul and Kris (Irish Tango), John (Elsie Mae), Lisa, Valerie (Elsie Mae) and Benny (seated) at Compass Point |
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| View from the deck at Compass Point |
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| Nick, Carolyn and Yeager |
Today, we cleaned Rhiannon’s interior and finished re-varnishing
one of the mahogany boards that secure the jerry cans on deck. We made a couple of trips to the gas station
to buy gasoline and diesel (11 gallons diesel, 5 gallons of gasoline).
Tonight, there was a potluck dinner. John (Elsie
Mae) grilled a bunch of chicken, Lisa made quinoa, and almost everyone
brought something. I brought a rum cake for dessert and made a gallon of
Goombay Smash for everyone to try. Lovely evening.
Thursday, February 27, 2020
Thursday, February 27, 2020
It looks like tomorrow is departure day. As much as we always enjoy our visits here,
we are ready to move on to the Exumas.
Carolyn left for Eleuthera for a birding trip with a group of
about a dozen.
We returned the rental car and on the way made a final stop at the
hardware store.
We finished our varnishing project.
John had knocked my insulated cup off the dock last night. Today he was diving checking his prop and
looked for the cup with no success.
Friday, February 28, 2020
Cloudy, 65 degrees, wind N@10.
7:45am Off the dock with Elsie
Mae and Irish Tango. We planned on leaving sooner, but Nick’s
internet is out and he borrowed Elsie
Mae’s hotspot. Nick does the weather
every morning on single side-band and vhf as “Ranger”. He has been doing this for over 30
years. Ranger was the name of their second liv aboard boat, a motor sailer
built by Aubry Brothers on Man of War Cay (who are still building boats).
8:05am We turn out of the Coral Harbour channel toward our first
waypoint (Coral Harbour 2) heading to Warderick Wells.
9:00am We hear from Exuma Park via email that we have moorings
there for tonight. Summer of 42 and Saber Tooth have left Nassau and are
headed to Staniel Cay.
11:00am Irish Tango call on the vhf. Their engine is overheating. Low on coolant. After adding some, the engine seems to be
working ok.
It is still cloudy, wind now on our stern NW@5-10.
12:00noon We hear from Exuma Park on the vhf that all three of us
have mooring assignments in the North Field for tonight.
1:10pm Turned to waypoint Long Rock Bore. No wind, still overcast.
4:00pm Wind has gone NE@15+.
Foresail out.
5:00pm As we enter the channel where the moorings are located in
the North field. We manage to run aground trying to pass behind a boat at the
narrow part of the channel (by mooring #11).
It is low tide and an extreme one.
Joseph (the Park Administrator) happens to be passing by in the new
Warden Boat and pulls us to safety. The
tide is coming in, so sooner or later we would have floated free, but we
appreciate getting safely towed to deeper water. We’ve probably been through
that piece of water a couple of dozen times and never had an issue.
5:45pm We are on mooring #14 by the park office.
Irish
Tango gets a bit out of the channel also and is aground. Joseph hauls them
to deeper water too.
The wind is NE@15-25 and the current is running in the same
direction, so once stuck it is difficult to back off against the tide and the
wind. Irish Tango is on mooring #8
and Elsie May is on #12.
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| Rhiannon moored at Warderick Wells |
Jimmy Buffet is here with two boats, a 35’ sport fish and a 44’ custom sailboat, both painted turquoise. He flew in on his seaplane, also painted turquoise. He is here to spread the ashes of one of his fishing buddies. Several folks actually talked to him, said he seemed like a “normal guy”.
They left a commemorative sign on the pile of driftwood signs at the top of Boo-Boo Hill.
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| Sign left by Jimmy Buffet on the pile of driftwood signs atop Boo-Boo Hill |
Clear, strong wind from the NE@15-25 all day.
We went to the office, visited with Cherry, checked in, renewed
our membership with the Park and purchased a couple of their new t-shirts.
Lisa climbed Boo-Boo hill with Valerie and John (Elsie Mae). She did not bring a screw
driver so she could not retrieve Rhiannon's sign to put this year’s date on it. You may remember that the tradition is that
you put your name on a piece of driftwood and place it on the pile atop Boo-Boo
Hill. This keeps the evil spirits that you hear on the wind (“Booooooo
Boooooooo”) from settling on your boat.
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| View from Boo Boo Hill looking North |
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| View from Boo Boo Hill looking West Rhiannon's driftwood sign on the right |
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| Atop Boo Boo Hill L to R: Lisa, Valerie and John (Elsie Mae) The bench is a memorial placed there in remembrance of one of the many cruisers who visited and loved these islands |
4:30pm Sundowners on the beach. Probably 50 people attended – Hoapili, All In, Santiago (Jack and
Jackie who we met at Wardles), Elsie Mae,
Irish Tango and lots of others. Nice get together.
Partly cloudy, wind still NE@15-25.
We saw two large eagle rays swim right under the boat, a large
trigger fish and a small shark, a couple of large nurse sharks and two turtles
swim by.
One of the large Dream Charter catamarans lost one of its
propellers as it came in. The wardens
helped get them onto a mooring. 12
people on board. They were lucky and managed to dive
and find the propeller and put a marker buoy on it. They now are here until a
mechanic can get whatever parts are needed and get here from Nassau. According to a couple of the park wardens,
Dream Charters has had more than the normal number of issues with their boats.
We climbed Boo-Boo Hill with Irish
Tango and Elsie Mae. We brought the wrong screw driver to remove
out sign – we need a square head and we brought a phillips.
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| L to R: Paul and Kris (Irish Tango), Valerie and John (Elsie Mae) on the beach at Warderick Wells |
We saw Cherry again and gave her the fruit, salad makings and
blood pressure cuff she asked us to bring.
Only 3 boats departed today because of the wind and rough seas.
Monday
March 2, 2020
Lisa worked on some Park signs that needed repainting. She does this volunteer effort on almost
every trip here. She also climbed Boo-Boo Hill one more time and retrieved our sign.
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| One of Lisa's signs |
We had sundowners on Rhiannon with Elsie Mae, Irish Tango and Sandial.
We talked to Nicola, who is recovering from a collapsed lung. Better now, but still recovering.
All In,
Hoapili, Lovely Lady, Jade Moon leave for Black Point and then on to
George Town.
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| Sea Turtle swims by |
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| A Ray in the shallows |
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| A perfect spot |
Tuesday,
March 3, 2020
We again walked up Boo-Boo Hill and placed our updated sign back
on it’s “post”.
Lisa forgot to tie the dinghy to the boat when we came back from
Boo-Boo Hill and the current took it away.
She dove in after it and managed to catch it on the sandbar behind us.
Elsie Mae and Irish Tango departed for Black Point. Sandial departed for the Wardles and
then home to Deerfield Beach, FL.
We watched a half dozen big charter cats come in and try to pick
up their assigned moorings. Always
entertaining. There was a 50 foot
charter (Moorings) power cat on one of the moorings that it was not assigned
to. The Wardens told him he had to move
– and he did, but drove at speed right over the sand bar. He then managed to power off the bar and as
he passed us a huge stream of sand was coming out of both engines (water used
to cool the engines is mixed with the exhaust to cool it – called a “wet
exhaust”). Sand pouring out of the
exhaust indicates that the water pump sucked it up while he was aground –
probably ruining the pumps on both engines.
Glad I don’t own that boat!
Dinner was Brussel sprouts, plantains and meat loaf.
Sunny, puffy clouds, 70 degrees, wind SE@10.
7:45am We are off the mooring.
8:15am We turn SE toward Black Point. The wind is directly on our
nose, course 140°T
8:30am Lisa made French toast with the Bahamian raisin bread, plus
eggs and bacon for breakfast, Very nice! Yum!
12:15pm Anchor down in front of Rockside Laundry.
26.7NM 24°85.05’N 076°24.25’W
Elsie Mae,
Irish Tango, Saber Tooth, Summer of 42 and Lilliputian are already here along with about 20 other
boats. John and Nora (Saber Tooth) and Debbie (Lilliputian) come by in the dinghys to
say hello.
2:15pm Lisa went snorkeling with John and Nora on the north end of
the island (Great Guana Cay).
5:00pm Dinner at Lorraine’s Restaurant (on the deck), all you can
eat buffet with chicken, fish, hamburgers, hot dogs, salad, French fries. Also all you can drink rum punch and hard
lemonade.
Lots of people turned out including Summer of 42 (Walter and Connie), Southern Flight (Ian and Michelle), Saber Tooth (John and Nora), Lillipution
(Dave and Debbie) and many others.
Thursday, March 5, 2020
Today was laundry day.
We met another boat called MOJO,
as well as Cricket.
After lunch, we went up the creek on the north end of the
island. At high tide the creek goes all
the way to the Sound on the east side of the island. I managed to find a heart
bean, the only one we found today. We will send it along to Judy so that she
knows we are thinking of her and Bob and missing them both. Showers aboard,
clean sheets – it doesn’t get much better than this.
Friday, March 6, 2020
8:00am All In stopped by on the way to do laundry. We went
in to get some groceries. We walked
first to the cemetery and picked some silver palm fronds so Lisa can do some
basket weaving. The silver palm is the
fronds the locals use and is stronger and does not tear. You pick the ones just
emerging from the main stalk and it does not damage the plant.
We then stopped at Adderley’s store. Both Mr. and Mrs. Adderley are now gone and
the three children are taking turns manning the store. Suzette was here today. She gave us a memorial t-shirt from Mr.
Adderley’s funeral.
We visited Miss Sharon who taught Lisa how to weave. We saw Miss Francis, her granddaughter (Ruth
Stephanie) is now 1 year and 7 months.
12:00noon Anchor up headed north to Big Major to hide from
the cold front due in tonight. Sunny, 80 degrees, high thin clouds, wind
SW@8-12. Sailing with the foresail only
making 4-5 knots dragging the dinghy.
2:20pm Anchor down at Big Major. Sunny, high thin clouds, 80
degrees, wind SW@10-15. A bit bumpy in
the anchorage as the wind and waves are coming from the unprotected direction. The wind is supposed to go to the North tonight
which is more protected direction. It is then supposed to build to 20-30 and
clock around to the NE and then E.
Hoapili and Lovely Lady are anchored on the north
side of Fowl Cay. Jade Moon, Summer of
42, Saber Tooth, Summer Flight and about 30 other boats are anchored here.
1 large motor yacht, 2 mega yachts are anchored here and one mega is anchored
out by Sandy Cay. There are about 20 other boats anchored by the small island
as Thunderball Grotto.
8:00pm The wind is still SW, very lumpy here, and humid.
8.5NM 24°11.09’N 076°27.53’W
The forward refrigerator has quit cooling again. Not sure of the problem this time, but it is
only cooling the freezer to about 40 degrees.
This is the refrigerator with the new evaporator unit, so maybe it’s a
leak in a connection. I have spare electronic control units for it, so maybe
we’ll try replacing one of those.
Saturday March 7, 2020
Partly cloudy, the wind went North overnight so there is
more protection, not great, but better.
John and Nora (Saber
Tooth) came by in the their dinghy and are headed to town (Staniel
Cay). It’s going to be a very wet dinghy
ride of over a mile, so we pass on the opportunity.
Lisa made lasagna and I worked on the blog. John and Nora came to dinner. Nora brought
cookies. Afterward, we played Mexican
Train. Nice evening.
Sunday, March 8, 2020
Sunny, some clouds, wind NE 20-30, 70 degrees. Today was
spent on boat chores, blog typing and reading.
Monday March 9, 2020
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Partly cloudy, wind ENE@15-20g25. 70 degrees. We rode into town with Walter and Connie (Summer of 42). They have a much larger dinghy than we
do. Ian and Michelle (Summer Flight) and John and Nora (Saber Tooth) were there also. We walked
to Isles General Store and dropped off our propane tank to be refilled. We chatted with Burkie and Miss Vivian a
bit. Burkie is also the pastor of one of
the churches on the island and a couple of years ago we attended Easter
services there. Quite the experience.
We all walked to the west end of the island. On the way back, we stopped at the Blue Store
for some groceries and then at Staniel Cay Yacht Club for lunch (grouper fingers
and onion rings) and a beer.
2:30pm We are back at the boat.
Dinner on board. I made Jim Bade’s Red Beans and rice.
5:30pm Sundowners on Summer
of 42.
On the way back to Rhiannon, the outboard died and we could
not get it to start. John gave us a tow
home.
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
Wind has calmed a bit, now ENE@15-20. Partly cloudy, 72
degrees.
Walter (Summer of 42) went into town and while he was there,
he picked up our filled propane tank.
I checked everything on the outboard to find out why it
wasn’t running. I found that no gas was
getting to the engine from the (separate 3 gallon) fuel tank. The pick up tube on the inside of the tank
had fallen off. It looks like it is
attached with just a friction fitting, and after all this time the vibration
and bouncing around of the dinghy worked it loose. I managed to retrieve it out of the tank and
re-attach it. Then I put a hose clamp on
it to make sure it doesn’t come off again.
I guess Yamaha saved 10 cents by not putting a hose clamp on it in the
first place.
It rained at noon and Lisa washed down the decks with the
natural fresh water. We also changed the
filters on the holding tank vents.
We tried heating the evaporator coil on the refrigerator
that isn’t working to see if that might free up a potential ice clog (caused by
moisture in the lines). No luck.
4:40pm We went to Summer
Flight for sundowners.
The outboard engine on the dinghy worked flawlessly this
evening.
Thursday, March 12, 2020
Partly cloudy, wind ENE@15, 72 degrees. Summer
of 42 left headed south to Black Point. John and Nora came by to discuss
the possibility of going east to Cat Island.
It looks like the wind will be from the East for the next 10 days, so
getting to Cat might be a tough trip. We
will wait until we see a change in the wind and have the discussion again.
Summer Flight, Mahini,
Saber Tooth, Maikarios, Lovely Lady, Hoapili leave headed to Black Point.
12:30pm We raise the
anchor and head over to the fuel dock at Staniel Cay Yacht Club. On the way there, we hear on the vhf that
there is a large yacht on the fuel dock and two other boats waiting in line. We change our plan and head south to Black
Point. We have enough fuel and water to
last at least a few more days.
Because of the coronavirus in the US, the stock market is
tanking. Lisa spent the afternoon
reviewing her investments to see what she should sell. There has been little to no effect from the
virus here in the Bahamas, 3 cases in Nassau.
I finished a Greg Isles book today. The first of his I have read – Natchez
Burning. Very good book, but a little
hard to get into initially. This is the
first of a trilogy, so I will have to find the others. I have a P D James book to read next – I have
never read any of her mysteries either.
Friday, March 13, 2020.
Sunny, wind E@10-15g20, puffy clouds. We walked to the beach on the north side of
the island by the cottages. There are a
bunch of sea almonds here. These are
very common and deteriorate rapidly, but they usually indicate there are other
sea beans on the beach as well. We also found one heart bean and one grey sea
pearl. This is the island where we found
the plant that produces these sea pearls.
It is a vine and the seed pods are thorny. On the way back to town we
stopped at Miss Sharon’s to visit. She
is the person who showed us which palm fronds to use for weaving. Miss Eulisa was also there. She had shown Lisa which coconuts to choose
to eat. Both work at the elementary
school on the island. Miss Sharon owns
the Little Blue Store. We treated
ourselves to some strawberry ice cream from her freezer.
We stopped at the Laundry and saw Miss Ida. I was able to get a haircut. There was a line of people waiting for
haircuts! Lisa went to DeShamone’s Restaurant and got a bag of ice and was able
to visit with Miss Francis.
After we got back to the boat, John, Nora and Nigel (John’s
brother, who had just flown in the Staniel Cay) came by. We gave them some of
the red beans and rice for their dinner.
That’s also what we had for dinner.
Lovely Sunset and dinner.
10NM 24°05.82’N 076°24.18’W
10NM 24°05.82’N 076°24.18’W
Saturday, March 14, 2020
Sunny, big puffy clouds, wind E@10-15, 75 degrees.
11:00am We went to the creek at the north end of the island
– it’s high tide, so the time to go. All In, Jade Moon and Makarios
went also. We only found one heart bean, but many nice shells. When we got back, we went to the Laundry and
had one of Ida’s foot long all beef Kosher hot dogs. We also picked up a block of ice she makes.
2:30pm Anchor up, heading south to White Point.
3:30pm Anchor down at White Point. Saber
Tooth came alongside and rafted to us and we transferred 120 gallons of
water to our boat. Saber Tooth has a significant water making capacity on board. We then both (separately) moved closed to
chore to get out of the rolling swell coming from the south.
Lovely, puffy clouds, 80 degrees wind ESE@10-15, 80 degrees.
5.7 NM 24°02.10’N 076°22.25’W
No boats are here but us and Saber Tooth.
6:30pm John, Nora and
Nigel came over to play Mexican Train. Very nice evening.
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| John, Nora, Benny, Lisa |
We hear from Autumn
Borne (Dean and Susan), who is still in Vero Beach, that they went to
Costco, no toilet paper, paper towels, eggs or milk. People are going crazy and hoarding. Glad we are where we are.
Sunday, March 15, 2020. The Ides of March
Lovely morning, partly cloudy, 70 degrees, wind E@10-15.
10:30am All In and
Summer of 42 arrive and anchor.
11:00am Summer Flight
comes in and anchors.
11:30am We all dinghy south 1 mile to Hetty’s Land, originally
settled by the Hetty family, hence the name.
We walk across the island to the east shore (on the sound). There is a small beach and a rocky shore
where debris likes to collect, including quite a few sea beans that have been
found in previous expeditions here. I
have always said that enough stuff washes ashore here that you could build a
house! We found some interesting stuff here, a huge fishing lure, floats for
nets, some huge, a plastic heart. I did
find one small heart bean and Lisa found a large one and a hamburger bean!
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| Bob and Alicen (All In) |
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| L to R: Nore (Saber Tooth), Lisa, Alicen (All In), Connie (Summer of 42) |
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| Ian and Michelle (Summer Flight) |
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| Ian (Summer Flight) and Walter (Summer of 42) with beach treasure |
On the walk back across the island, you can see what is left
of the original stone house and buildings of the Hetty Farm.
There are silver palms here, and we gather more of the palm
fronds.
By the time we got back to the dinghys, everyone else has
left, nut we are in no hurry. The water
is beautiful and we have a nice swim.
We found a pair of sandals ashore so we brought them with
us. Turns out they belong to Michelle (Summer Flight). She was glad to get them
back.
3:30pm a “float” at the beach, where everyone brings a
floaty and a drink. Beautiful day and
beautiful place for the event.
5:00pm Dinner on board, leftover boiled dinner. Always better the second day.
6:00pm 80 degrees, puffy clouds, wind E@10 – pretty much
perfect.
When I opened the drawer under the master berth, it was
stuck and would not come out!
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| Sunset at White Point |
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| Us |
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| A hamburger bean washed ashore |
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| A heart bean washed ashore |
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| A sea bean found! |
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