Adventures of the Jubilee

The Last Legs ... D.R. to Fajardo, Puerto Rico

April 17, 2011 – Ocean World (Puerto Plata, D.R.) to Boqueron, Puerto Rico – 243.8 Miles

The Saildocs wind gribs we pulled down Sunday morning remained in general agreement with Chris Parker's Saturday outlook (he doesn't broadcast on Sundays). It appeared we'd have a bit of an upwind motorsail in 12 knots ENE Sunday afternoon, but the winds were to back to the NE in the evening, and then generally hold there over the next 30 hours or so as we made our way to the western coast of Puerto Rico. Assuming this forecast held, we'd be in luck for this final “big jump” on our passage toward Fajardo.

We initially planned to leave Ocean World at around noon, but that was not to be. This was Sunday, and noon is lunchtime in the D.R.  We waited 'til 1:00 to begin checkout. The first three officials, our $20.00 clearance payment, and settling up at the Marina only took about 20 minutes. Then we waited for about 25 minutes or so for the immigration guy to return from his long lunch. When he finally returned he had his precious stamp in hand. He promptly stamped both of our passports without looking at them (perhaps a 10 second process), and then we were free to go. It was 2:20pm before the dock lines were cast off.

Outside we found too tight a tack to sail, so after leaving Ocean World we headed  ESE by E in the low 6's with the kicker and full main against about 6' long-period seas. Meanwhile we waited for the evening winds to start backing more to the NE. Life was good! We were off for our last big hop of our trip!

About six hours later life got even better. Our next waypoint allowed us to fall off about 10 degrees and shut the motor down. We ran this way, constantly in the mid-6's, all night long 'til 8:00 the next morning when a line of not-too-heavy rain squalls shut our wind down. It even turned south for a while. The kicker went on again for a few hours, after which we were again off sailing on a broad reach by mid-afternoon.

In the early evening hours Wayne was busy shooting stars with his sextant. Practice makes perfect, and he's getting pretty good at it.

Early Monday morning we passed the impressive Cabo Cabron with its sheer rock faces (see photo at left), and a bit later Cabo Samana (see photo at right) which would have marked our turning point toward Bahia de Samana had we stopped at Samana as we originally imagined. Both were impressive capes.

Traffic during this run was very light; a few freighters, most on reciprocal courses, and a couple of small boat fisherman tending their nets way offshore in the morning. Family Fun, a 48' Defever trawler who we had first met at the Exuma Land and Sea Park weeks earlier, also left from Ocean World, 'tho later in the day, and crossed our stern on their way to Samana early that evening. And Monday afternoon we encountered a sailboat on a reciprocal course. Other than that we were alone to enjoy this gorgeous D.R. coastal trip and Mona crossing in near-constant winds and with a full moon guiding us through the overnights. It was about 4:00pm before we finally left Cabo Engano, the eastern-most point of the Dominican Republic, in our wake. Hispaniola is a long island, and we'd only passed less than half of it, not going anywhere near Hispaniola's western, Haitian, shorelines.

Our 2nd night at sea was uneventful and pleasant. Around sunset we threw a reef in the main, and then shortly after rolled up about 2/3's of the jib to slow the boat down into the 5-knot range (from our prior hull speed and above) to assure arrival after daybreak. The strategy worked well, allowing us to make our final Boqueron approach around 7:00am.

In the Mona Passage (the passage between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic) we started seeing the lights and AIS signals of a few more ships, including two cruise ships plus the occasional private vessel like ours. Then, at 2:45am, we were contacted on VHF 16 by Coast Guard Cutter Sitkinak, who was patrolling the Mona waters. After multiple questions about our vessel, its hailing port, documentation, persons aboard and nationality, last port of departure, destination, etc., they went off the radio for a few minutes, presumably checking our data before coming back and wishing us safe passage to Boqueron. The Coast Guard has the authority, and often uses it, to board vessels while underway and conduct Homeland Security and USCG Safety inspections at any time, 7X24, but thankfully a boarding was not on the program for us this evening.

Having slowed the boat down overnight, we arrived at about 9 miles outside Boqueron harbor at first light. During our outer approach the sun rose picture perfect to greet us over the hills behind the harbor. We had the anchor down by 7:50am in the mirror-glass-smooth bay, among 17 other anchored boats (not counting the one sunken sailboat – anyone looking for a deal?) and a yacht club packed with power boats. It had been a good run – 42 hours dock to anchor, of which we sailed 24 or so hours right on our rumb line in the mid-6's to low 7's, except for when we intentionally slowed the boat down to assure a daytime arrival. It had been one fantastic passage. We had been more than fortunate with our weather on this part of our passage, which more often than not is one of the most difficult upwind slogs on the path to the Eastern Caribbean.

4/19/2011 – Lay Day in Boqueron

Our "Lay Day" in Boqueron was anthing but a lay-around day. Around 8:30am, after tidying up a bit, we called Puerto Rico's US Customs and Immigration 800-number to clear in. They took down most of our entry information, but still wanted us to come to the Mayaguez office, about 10 miles to the north, to complete our clearance in person. We then called the cab driver recommended by cruising guide author Bruce Van Sant. The driver advised that we wait for a 1:00pm pick up at the Boqueron dingy dock to avoid the Customs officer's lunch "hour".

The taxi driver, Raul Santiago, was fantastic! Having lived in New York for 15 years, he spoke excellent English. He's now retired except for running cruisers to Mayaquez to clear customs or hit the larger stores and mall there. After we called him in the morning he promptly called his friends in customs to make sure they had all our paperwork ready. They had already captured virtually everything required except, of course, for our paper Zarpe (clearance document) received from the Dominican Republic when we left on Sunday. He subsequently called his customs friends again during the drive over to Mayaguez office to double check that they were ready for us. They were, and we cleared in about 15 minutes.

If clearing in at Boqueron, or obtaining a Zarpe there to document official clearance out of Puerto Rico should you be be heading west for the D.R. or Turks and Caicos, don't even think about not using Raul. He's referenced in both Van Sant's Passages South and in Cornell's Noonsight, but to save you looking it up, Raul's cell number is 787-519-3177.

Raul brought us back to Boqueron where we had lunch at one of the many restaurants near the waterfront. The whole area is a hopping locals and cruisers-focused area complete with T-Shirt shops, bars, caricature artists on the sidewalk, etc. Plus that Tuesday also happened to be a Puerto Rican holiday, so lots of people were out and about. After our mid-afternoon lunch we returned to the boat to crash for a few hours.

All in all all this arrival and clearance stuff had taken the better part of the day, but it was well worth it with Raul's narrated driving trip along the coastal roads to Mayaguez.

April 20, 2011 – Boqueron to Cajo de Barca – 65.8 Miles

To our good fortune, the stalled trade wind situation would remain through the week, with the trades being replaced by very light north-easterlies over the next few days. To underscore these unusual conditions, during his Tuesday morning weather broadcast, Chris Parker stated (direct quote): "It just doesn't get much better for motoring around Puerto Rico for the next four or five days ". While he left some hope for a little sail "lift" once in a while, except for some localized land-effect and sea breezes it sounded like we'd be on the motor for most of the south coast of Puerto Rico.

And motor we did. We were anchor up and underway in excellent light promptly at 7:00am, headed out of the Bay to round Cabo Rojo (see accompanying picture of headland and light). Our initial course took us to Isla Caja de Mertos, a USPS-administered national park island group about five miles off the south shore just past Ponce, Puerto Rico's second largest city. Optionally we planned to press further to anchor behind the Cayos de Barca near Boca de Infierno, which is about 20 miles east of Ponce.

Homeland security not only patrols the surface of the waters surrounding Puerto Rico looking for the possibility of illegal activities, they also watch the waters by air. Note the photo of the sailboat crossing our path along the SW shore of the island, and the instrument laden blimp teathered high above the island for surveillance purposes. Big Brother IS watching!

Pressing on, as we arrived at Isla Caja de Mertos by  2:30 in the afternoon we knew we could easily make the Cayos de Barca. Stopping there rather than Caja de Mertos would leave just over 50 more miles to go on Thursday to get to Fajardo. Cayos de Barca it would be!

It was a shame to pass Isla Caja de Mertos by. We'll definitely have to stop here when we bring Jubilee back state-side in the future (photo at right), but this trip is more delivery than cruising, and we don't want to miss out on this incredible weather window.

20 miles past Caja de Mertos we threaded our way behind the barrier mangrove islands and southern coral heads that protect the entry into Bahia de Jobos, a small bay just to the northeast of our anchorage which appeared to be home to some kind of mining operation. With the anchor down by 5:15, he had plenty of time for cockpit showers and scotches before dinner. Steaks were on the menu in celebration of our last night on the hook before docking at Fajardo. We're almost there!

April 21, 2011 – The final jump: Cayos de Barca to Puerto Del Rey, Fajardo – 52.9 Miles

Our last day underway started again with another early alarm, breakfast, and a 7:00am anchor hoist for what turned out to be another motoring day, just as Chris Parker had predicted. We particularly marveled at the steep-to hills around every inch of shoreline, as evidenced in the attached photo. At some point I'll want to rent a car to explore the inland a bit. The interior must be beautiful … and rugged.

We entered the harbor at Puerto Del Rey at around 3:30pm after which Wayne got the boat situated while Bill rode with one of the dock attendants to check in. This marina is HUGE! We think it's about 1000 slips, all concrete docks and all wide enough for 6-passenger golf carts, some with trailers, to buzz people and their stuff back and forth from their slips. The main connecting dock, which cuts across the long piers with the slips, is a comfortable two-golf-cart-lanes wide. The marina office was buzzing with four people attending to folks doing check-ins and needing other services. It seems to be an impressive operation.

After scotches and appetizers on the boat to celebrate our arrival, Wayne (ham call sign KC0H) successfully connected with his cousin and fellow ham radio operator, Jim (WA0IDK, in Blane, who swung his big beam antenna toward Puerto Rico), for a 30 minute radio chat. We then treated ourselves to a meal in the main restaurant at the marina. Wayne's filet mignon and Bill's ribs were both excellent. One could grow to like this place.

After dinner we were able to book Wayne's flight back to MSP for Saturday afternoon. That will still give the two of us some time to address a couple of two-person projects before he leaves, yet get him back home in time for Easter on Sunday. Wayne has been about the best crew one could ever hope for: an excellent sailor, innovative when innovation was in order (e.g. conceiving a way to re-thread our reefing line without a fish when it severed and snapped inside the boom), a reliable watch keeper, and a general pleasure to be around. I'd sign him as crew again anytime. Hopefully he feels the same about the skipper and good ship Jubilee.

 

All tolled Wayne and I put 816 nautical miles under the keel since we left Georgetown, Bahamas, just 15 days ago. We'd been blessed with beautiful passage weather, and in particular with winds that were MUCH more favorable than is typically the case. Because of that deep trough to the east of the Caribbean, the stalled easterly trades were replaced by perfect northeast winds for our bigger transits. Plus the advice we received from weather router Chris Parker was spot on, keeping us out of potentially more difficult or uncomfortable situations at least a couple of times.

So with those words we'll close this posting tonight. Look for another post to wrap up the haul-out and storage prep at Puerto del Rey, plus offer some summary thoughts of the 1583 miles we put under the keel as we followed Van Sant's “Thornless Path” since leaving Florida in February. Do stay tuned.

Provo, Turks and Caicos, to the Dominican Republic

4/12/2011 – Across Caicos Banks to Long Cay – 49.6 Miles

I've dreaded this leg of our trip from the day we conceived the idea of taking Jubilee further south and east to the Caribbean. Why? Well, to make it short and sweet, I hate crossing banks. And I particularly hate crossing banks filled with uncharted coral heads. Plus the entire area is shallow. It just ain't fun.

And the Caicos Banks are large – roughly 40 to 50 miles in diameter. While the guide books and the chart books show routes across the banks, those routes are anything but free of coral. They're simply paths between points that avoid extremely shallow water and extensive areas of reefs – routes where one can get through at certain least mean depths.

For Jubilee, drawing 6', taking the Starfish channel 154 degrees from Sapodilla Bay for 17 miles, then heading 104 degrees for 30 miles would put us near the southwestern tip of Long Cay, a coral-strewn area with a small anchorage area providing some protection for an overnight stop before leaving the banks for Luperon the next day. The starfish channel it would be.

The first 10 or 12 miles were pretty easy. Depths were reasonable (about 15') with a few rocks on the bottom but no major heads encountered. Then the incidence of heads increased.

As we neared cruising guide writer Steve Pavlidis' turning point toward Long Cay, the incidence of heads increased dramatically as the bottom shoaled to between 8 and 9'. Working our way around several heads, we had just gotten to Steve's turning waypoint when we found ourselves in a labyrinth of heads.

And then BANG! We touched and then bounced over a rock. I hate it when that happens.

Keeping moving dead slow we finally worked our way out of that patch and got on our 104 heading. We've of course grounded before in our sailing career (anyone who says they haven't grounded either hasn't gone anywhere with their boat or is a damn liar), so I was pretty sure we did no serious damage. That part of our keel has over 4” of solid fiberglass mat layup just for these kinds of things. Nevertheless it's disconcerting to ever hit a rock.

Incidentally, for those who might also pass through this way at low tide, the coordinates are roughly 21 degrees 30. north by 72 degrees 06.49 west. Just look for the black bottom paint on the rock below.

 
The next 20 miles kept Wayne and me extremely busy dodging heads (see example of one large head in the above photo), much of the time running in about 10' of water. We had left a bit later in the morning to assure high sun throughout our trip, and that helped a lot with our visibility below the surface. On the positive side, we were powering against only a 7-knot breeze, so it wasn't too rough. In our approximately 8-hour run, Bill was on the helm for all but one 2-minute bathroom break (perspiration in the heat does wonders at eliminating excess liquid), while Wayne alternated from charting, bow duty when entering coral patches, and providing a 2nd set of eyes.

The last 10 miles found depths slowly increase into the 20's, but that didn't mean the absence of heads and reefs, which became more and more numerous the closer we got to Long Cay and the edge of the banks. It surely felt good to get the anchor down at the end of this day. Except for working our way out of two miles more of heads and reefs the next day, we were essentially done with the Banks!

Ever the innovator, Wayne cooked up a way to lash his tripod with my underwater camera onto the end of our longest boat hook. I set the camera to “underwater”, always flash, and triggered the 12-second timer as we dunked the camera down next to the boat for several pics of the situation. In the attached shot you can see the fruits of our labors – not too much damage except to the bottom paint and our pride.

We celebrated with steaks, noodles, salads, and fruit desert for dinner. Bill had a scotch. Wayne had his first anti-malaria pill. What a way that Wayne celebrates!

April 13, 2011 – Long Cay to Big Sand Cay – 25.6 Miles, plus 4/14-15 Lay Days at Big Sand

We had initially planned to depart Long Cay around noon to assure arrival at Luperon, D.R., sometime the next morning, but after listening to the weather we switched to “Plan B”.

Chris Parker had revised his outlook from the prior day. His new recommendation, in his inimitably polite style was: “If it were me I'd wait until the weekend”. Turns out a tropical wave was coming through the area, with very unsettled weather and numerous squalls from the Virgin Islands to Hispaniola. Wednesday evening through Thursday night and into Friday we would likely see numerous significant squalls near and around the D.R. Plan B it would be, and we instead used Wednesday's good weather to cross to the uninhabited Big Sand Cay, a Turks and Caicos Islands nature reserve, and then sit tight there 'til the weekend. This plot also would knock about 20 miles off our ultimate jump to Luperon.

Working our way around the heads out of our Long Cay anchorage turned out to be no more fun than working our way in. We took about ½ hour between having the anchor up, working our way out of the coral and banks, and finally getting “off soundings”. It was good to be on the open ocean again.

Unfortunately it was to be another pure motor day, directly up wind against about a 12-knot breeze with perhaps a 6' swell plus wind waves. Might sound like a lot, but it wasn't too bad.

What a treat it was to stop at Big Sand. We loved the place -- a deserted desert island just over a mile long whose west side (where we anchored, protected from the easterly trades) is mostly a long curved sandy beach with about a 1/4 mile of rock cliff in the middle. North of the island is about another mile of coral reefs and rocks/small islets. The anchorage was a little rolly, but not bad. We slept very well. Far in the distance, perhaps 50 miles or more south toward the D.R., we saw lightning all night long Wednesday night, but there were no squalls up our way. Parker's advice, as usual, was spot on.

Thursday we made a dingy trip ashore to walk the beaches. The windward side of the island was full of shells plus, sadly, lots of flotsam and jetsam. Who invented all that plastic “Stuff”, and especially plastic water bottles? Unfortunately all of the worlds beaches are becoming littered unless volunteers clean them up, and that would be a near-impossible job on a remote spot like this.

But the views were stunning. Check the attached picture of Jubilee at anchor taken from the beach. Plus, during our explorations Wayne finally got his conch shell! It should make a great horn when we get the Dremel out. We'll have him fitted out for serious cruising before he boards that plane for Minnesota.

On our trip back to the boat we stopped by Rasmus, a Hallberg-Rassey 35 owned by Scott and Brittany from Chicago. They were about the youngest cruisers we'd met so far this year – probably about as old as Wayne's oldest daughter Kelley. As the Pardey's always say, go large or go small but go now. Scott and Brittany made a good choice to take some time off to explore the world while they're young. Plus they definitely have the boat on which to do it. Neat people.

4/15/2011 – 4/16/2011 – Big Sand Cay to Ocean World – 91.1 Miles

During the Chris Parker Friday morning weather it became apparent that a window was opening for a fast dash to Boqueron, Puerto Rico, with just a one night stop in the Dominican Republic. If the forecasts held through Tuesday we should have mostly NE breezes offshore, generally moderate, with no significant squalls (the occasional rain squall can always happen, but for this period the weather was supposed to be relatively dry). It also looked like we'd be able to lay a direct course to Ocean World from Big Sand Cay rather than stopping at Luperon, a strategy that would stage us 15 miles further east down the coast in a spot where we could also clear Customs, get dock-side fuel, plus have easier/quicker access out to the Ocean for our next jump. Ocean World it would be.

We spent the rest of Friday plotting courses and weather “tuck in” options, resting a bit, and generally getting ready to head to the D.R. At 6:00pm we sat down to a big spaghetti dinner just before raising the anchor. The sun was just setting (green flash and all) as we got underway for what turned out to be a great passage.

The first 10 hours were simply marvelous. Initially we found beam winds in the 15-17-knot range, perfect for running in the high 6's and low 7's with a reef in the main and a partially rolled jib. Over the course of time the winds eased down to the 10-12-knot range, with us still running in the 6's. It doesn't get much better than that!

Around 4:30am we went through a moderate rain squall (18 knots again), but after it passed it seemed that squall shut our wind down. From about 5:00am on we switched to motorsailing our final miles.

From miles out we could see that the D.R. would be an unbelievable contrast from the low Bahamanian Islands and the Turks and Caicos. Here we approached mountains coming down to the shoreline. The D.R. Chamber of Commerce even organized a rainbow welcoming for us as we approached! How kewl was that?

Ocean World found us at our first dock since Nassau way back on February 24th, over 7 weeks prior. Being dockside for a night made things doubly handy prior to our next departure for Puerto Rico the following day. After clearing customs the Q flag was again dropped and replaced by the D.R. courtesy flag. The D.R. Flag certainly won't get a lot of wear on this trip – just one night plus the day and a half we'll be sailing in D.R. Waters.

Ocean World – Back to the [sur]real world

As a study in contrasts, who could imagine a starker one than the pristine beaches of a deserted island like Big Sand Cay (see approach to the sliver of Big Sand to the left) compared with the Dominican Republic's major tourist center, Ocean World (right), complete with marina, casino, discos, floor shows, restaurants, gift shops, dolphin and shark pools where you can swim with the fish, and beaches bustling with people and toys, all complimented by pools with loud music everywhere.

It was fun to drop into the middle of this hustle bustle for a day, but it will be equally fun to drop out of it on Sunday. By leaving mid-day Sunday, we're hoping to arrive in Boqueron, Puerto Rico, sometime on Tuesday. 'Til then stay tuned as the adventure continues to unfold.

 

Georgetown to Turks and Caicos

 

4/6/2011 – 4/8/2011 – Georgetown to West Plana Cay – 166.9 Miles

Wayne concluded after several calls and emails with his public health epidemiologist daughter, Julie, and his wife, Cynthia, that the anti-Malaria prescription given by his doctor was totally unsuitable for someone doing remote cruising. The side effects were just too severe and lasting, and the likelihood of those side effects just too high, to use the drug. Trying to get a new prescription at the Georgetown clinic Monday morning proved futile, so they explored getting an alternate prescription filled in the Turks and Caicos for pick up when we hit Provo. A few sat phone calls later and the plan was in place. A Provo pickup it would be.

Wayne also listened in on the 6:30a.m. Chris Parker Weather Forecast for us. Listening to marine weather is nothing like listening to the fluff and hyperbole that passes for serious weather on radio and TV in the states. Having a good weather outlook is among the most critical aspects of cruising, especially offshore where you might be exposed to thousand-mile fetches of open ocean. In addition to public weather sources like NOAA, a weather forecasting and routing cottage industry has sprung up for cruisers around the world. For the Bahamas and Caribbean the primary weather guru is Chris Parker, who broadcasts weather information on marine single sideband channels (short wave for boaters) six days each week out of his home in southern Florida.  In past years, and earlier this year, we had simply listened to Chris' weather reports and his responses to weather routing questions from other boaters. We've generally found that to be more than sufficient, and of course just listening to the radio is free.

This year with our longer treks and offshore passages we decided to purchase a sponsoring membership with Chris Parker's Marine Weather Center (http://mwxc.com/) that allows us to call in to Chris via SSB during his broadcasts to receive personalized weather routing information. Wayne, being back on the boat while Judy and I were off to the airport, handled our first call-in. For a sense of how important this advice can be, click Download 20110406wxChrisJubilee to hear Wayne's conversation with Chris the day we departed (note that we included a few seconds of the end of the prior contact to give you a sense of how the process comes together).

Our bottom line decision, based on the overall weather outlook and Chris' recommendations, was to depart Georgetown Harbor from the SE entrance, motor northeast against the very light daytime breezes to Cape Santa Maria on the north tip of Long Island (the point where Columbus is said to have run his ship, the Santa Maria, aground). We would then head SE overnight as the NE winds increased, with a likely stop at the Crooked/Aitken Island group's Atwood Harbor on Thursday night.

Everything went per plan for our first 24 hours or so. Once around the Cape (luckily we did not ground the Jubilee), we picked up favorable winds to take us all the way to the Crooked Island Group, sailing the entire distance with only a little motor assist for a couple of lighter hours. Life was good.

As we approached Atwood Harbor we decided to keep plugging along non-stop for the Turks and Caicos. However, as we approached West Plana Cay four hours later we reconsidered our decision, as Wayne was starting to feel a little queasy. It was a good decision. We anchored just off the reef behind West Plana, a beautiful deserted island (see photo below with another boat anchored off the far south end of the island). The conditions were a little rolly from a slight swell bending around the island, but not too bad.

 
Wayne quickly gained back his sea legs, but on Friday Bill started feeling sick. It had to be something other than the seas in our anchorage – possibly a side affect from the Malaria meds Bill started taking on Wednesday, although that hadn't bothered him last year. Later in talking with Judy, she thought that our Tuna Salad dinner at sea Wednesday night might have been the culprit, as she had made that on Monday and we may not have kept it properly refrigerated. Whatever the reason, we laid over in Plana one more day to settle things down.

West Plana Cay to Provo, Turks and Caicos (departing the Bahamas) – 98.4 Miles

We departed West Plana Cay at 1:20 pm to assure entrance at Provo's Sandbore channel at first light, per cruising guru Bruce Van Sant's stern recommendations. We sure didn't like entering a coral-strewn 9-mile channel with the sun in our eyes, but who were we to question the Van Sant Gods? Certainly the other two boats who arrived at virtually the same time as we did had taken the same Van Sant advice to heart. Bottom line, we made it just fine, but that piece of advice was pure bunk. We'll never intentionally cross coral-filled banks again unless the the sun is high or on our back.

Our trip was great, sailing-wise. We had comfortable winds around 12 knots true and initially from a direction that allowed us to lay Provo on a close reach! Unfortunately that didn't last through the whole night, but even as we were headed a bit later that evening we were able to easily motorsail with just the main and a little engine assist the rest of the way. It doesn't get much better than that.

Except, unfortunately, that Bill had a relapse that pretty well knocked him out of action for much of the night. Wayne stayed up all night running the boat and handling the watches until Bill started to come around near sunrise. Never having experienced this kind of problem in these kinds of conditions, Bill (with Judy's telephone advice) is strongly suspecting food poisoning from the tuna salad, although Wayne still suspects the meds. We hope it's not the meds – don't want to repeat this next Wednesday when Bill takes his next weekly dosage.

Being Sunday morning when we arrived in Providencialies, the customs office was closed most of the day, however an agent planned to come to the office around 6:00pm to clear cruisers who arrived during the day. No problem. We could handle that. After a quick trip to customs and back, down came the yellow Q (quarantine) flag and up went the TCI courtesy flag. We were now officially in the Turks and Caicos Islands celebrating our official arrival with a proper dinner – pork chops, hash browns, and fresh salad. Chops never tasted so good.

4/11/2011 - Lay day in Provo

Provo's Sapodilla Bay turned out to be a great anchorage. Although it would be uncomfortable should winds shift to a south or west component, the winds here are predominately easterly and the bay is perfect for easterlies. In recent years a number of modern, upscale, homes have been built around the shoreline, but haven't disturbed the beauty of the bay. Click the image below for a quick video tour of the harbor.

 

We made great use of our day in Provo, short and quick as it was. After taking the dingy to a dingy dock ashore, we started walking down a dirt road toward a main thoroughfare with our diesel jerry cans in hand when a man in a pickup truck stopped and offered us a ride. Turns out that Niel was originally from Toronto, and had cruised between the Provo and Trinidad (for hurricane season) for years before ultimately deciding to settle in Provo. He's now a full time TCI resident.

It appears that lots of other folks have done the same. While the TCI only has a permanent population of about 36,000, there are always lots of tourists and seasonal visitors here which increase the total “population” significantly. The stores are all neat and clean. The people very courteous and efficient. And, of course, the island and the climate beautiful. Overall a great place.

Wayne got his Malaria meds in a very squared around drug store at a clinic in town (nothing like Georgetown's “clinic”). We then had lunch at a great deli, and then shopped for a few groceries before Bill had to return to clear out with customs while Wayne took our full diesel jugs back by cab to the dingy to ferry us back to the boat.

As seems the constant rule here, the Commercial South Dock Wharf and Customs area was a hub of activity. Where else but in places like this would cruisers be allowed to walk through working ship yards with container movers like this one working “around” you as you strolled to the customs building?

In the customs building Bill struck up a conversation with the head of security for the container port operation, asking about that derelict boat in the yard. Turns out it was a Haitian boat they had intercepted about a month previously, returning its passengers back to Haiti. The authorities intercept about 5 of these boats each year, and claim with helicopter and other tracking means that none are actually getting through. But imagine … They had packed 137 people on this boat!!! 137!!! Our boat would have been much more suitable for holding 137 people, but we couldn't imagine ever trying it, how we could even pack in and onto Jubilee that many people, and whether our boat would still float with that load. Think of the desperation of those people, willing to cross an ocean with 136 other souls in a derelect craft like that to find a better life. It boggles the mind. Truly sad.

Rest assured we are NOT going to Haiti!

Switching from the derelict to the beautiful, while returning to Jubilee we stopped by Starbound, a larger version of Joshua Slocum's Whisper built of wood to a scaled up design of the original vessel. In June of 1898, Slocum, aboard his Whisper, became the first person ever to circumnavigate the world single handed (no crew, just the skipper aboard). Slocum's book, Sailing Alone Around the World, remains a sailing classic today. One could easily see the likeness of Slocum's Whisper in Starbound, as we very sincerely told her owners they had the prettiest ship in the harbor. They most certainly did.

With that we topped the diesel tanks from our newly filled jerry jugs, pre-plotted our course options for the next few days, caught up on some last minute chores, and enjoyed some appetizers (still full from dinner we couldn't think of anything more than appetizers Monday night), before heading off to bed to ready for our next jump. Watch for our next post from, hopefully, somewhere in the Dominican Republic. As we always say … stay tuned!

Completing the Exumas ... on to Georgetown

3/26/2011 - Black Point to Big Majors Spot (Staniel Area) - 9.3 Miles

We ended our last posting with the promise of a lobster dinner in Black Point. We keep our promises. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Deshamon's restaurant Friday night - huge tails fresh caught by restaurant owner Simon earlier that day.

Saturday brought a very light-wind motor-sail back to Big Majors for Cynthia's flight home Sunday morning. Just before leaving Black Point we were able to connect with our friends Alfredo and Nicoletta on JanCris. Those who've been reading our blog for a while might remember that in 2008 we buddy boated with Alfredo and Nicoletta from Rimouski, Quebec, around the Gaspe', down to New Brunswick, PEI, and around Nova Scotia to Shelbourne. Alfredo and Nicoletta had left JanCris in the Chesapeake while returning home to Italy for two years, and have again resumed winter cruising out this way. Anchored near JanCris in Big Majors was Mei Wente, British friends of Alfredo and Nicoletta who we had also met in Shelbourne. It was good to see our Down East Circle friends again.

During the day Saturday we took the dingy in to Staniel for lunch at the Yacht Club and a few groceries at Isles General, returning to the boat for a swim, followed by one last Bahamian sunset for Cynthia. Sunday morning Wayne transported Cynthia to Staniel Cay International Departure Concourse (a.k.a. the Yacht Club bar) for her trip home. It had been about as good a weather window for her visit to the Bahamas as one could expect. We'll miss her (and her expertise in mixing Goombay Smashes).

3/27/2011 - Big Majors Spot to Sampson Cay Marina - 5.4 Miles

Sunday morning after breakfast we stayed aboard organizing and cleaning while Wayne saw Cynthia off. On his way back he stopped at Thunderball Grotto for a short snorkel, reporting a little current but not too much to easily get in and out ... plus, of course, gazillions of fish.

Shortly after Wayne's return, Alfredo and Nicoletta from JanCris stopped by to chat on their way to the beach. Later that day we would be meeting at Sampson Cay Marina, where we hoped to fill fuel and water.

Unfortunately we learned later that day that the Sampson fuel dock and office close Sunday afternoons, so we decided to chill out there, anchor west of the Cay, come in for a late lunch, take a hike up and down the island (Wayne), and kibitz with Alfredo, Nicoletta, and the Wei Wente crew on one of Sampson's Patios.

3/28/2011 - Sampson Cay to Galliot Cut - 25.7 Miles

Monday morning we brought Jubilee to the fuel dock for water and diesel, plus a few fresh provisions from the Marina store. We had hoped for a favorable tack for our trip to Galliot, but that wasn't in the cards. Instead we motored directly up-wind in a 3' chop for virtually every inch of our 25 miles to Galliot. Perhaps as payment for our upwind persistence, the winds laid down shortly after we anchored off Big Galliot and we were treated to a gorgeous sunset with another Tayana '42, Passages, composing a great sunset picture for us as they lay at anchor just off Little Galliot Cay to our west. Positioned for a good night on the hook, we were now ready to head out the cut first thing Tuesday morning for our run down to Georgetown.

3/29/2011 – Galliot Cut to Georgetown – 40.9 Miles

Monday's winds had ease significantly overnight, making for an easy and uneventful motorsail in light (~7-knot) SE to ESE conditions for our run down to Georgetown. The reported 400 boats in Georgetown for the Cruiser's Regatta a couple of weeks prior had thinned out to only about 200 boats spread across Elizabeth Harbor's several good anchoring spots. For this visit we dropped the hook off Volleyball Beach and the Chat 'n Chill – the spot with most of the action on Stocking Island, the long, narrow, barrier island that protects Georgetown's Elizabeth Harbor from conditions on southern Exuma Sound. We were set for the next several days.

3/30/2011-3/6/2011 – Lay Days in Georgetown

With Judy's flight to Mpls set for about a week from our arrival we considered moving her flight up, however the weather outlook was calling for a front and higher southeasterly winds Sunday night through Tuesday of the following week. That plus the things Judy needed to wrap up before leaving effectively negated any value of an early departure. We stayed with our original schedule.

Non-cruiser's often ask just what in the world we do all day, day after day. Cruising songstress Eileen Quinn even has a song about that question, with a chorus that goes “What do you do you do you do you do you do? What do you do all day?”.

Some days are pure pleasure, as on Sunday when we took the dingy to Stocking Island, hiked across to the Exuma Sound side, and then walked part of the miles-long beach until we reached Monument hill. At monument we scaled the hill to enjoy a near-perfect view of the harbors and Georgetown at our feet below. While at the top Wayne also tried straightening the leaning monument, but to little avail. After our hike we stopped at the St. Francis, a small resort and restaurant on the island near Volleyball beach, for late afternoon appetizers before returning to the boat for dinner that evening.

Other days are work days. Shortly after breakfast on Saturday we loaded up the dingy with two large laundry bags plus water bottles for a trip to town. Judy and Wayne went to the laundromat to start laundry while Bill filled two 5 gallon water jugs from the free R.O. water spigot at Exuma Market, plus two 5-gallon jerry cans of diesel (which had just been emptied into our tanks that morning), and then dingied them back out to the boat. At the boat the water went into the tanks, the diesel jugs were lashed to the starboard stanchions for later use, and Bill returned to the Exuma Market dingy dock just in time for the laundry team to be bringing the clean clothes back. After that we had a light lunch in town and then visited the town's pet store to purchase a card for a week's worth of internet access (internet store/pet store/carwash - all somewhat questionable, before hitting the Top II Bottom store (the most fantastically packed small hardware store you could imagine), and then did grocery shopping for Wayne and Bill's upcoming run to Puerto Rico. The dingy was literally packed to capacity with groceries, laundry and people for our lumpy ride back across two miles of harbor to Jubilee. With that the day was about done.

Whether a work day or play day, most boaters mark the sunset by blowing their conch horns – a fitting way to end the day.

Along with most of the other cruisers in Georgetown, we were pretty much confined to our boats on Monday and Tuesday. Stiff SE winds had whipped up a nasty chop in the harbor that would have made for a very wet dingy ride had we gone to town. Judy and Bill arranged a room at the Peace and Plenty hotel in Georgetown to avoid a possible nasty wet dingy ride to town before sun-up Wednesday morning to catch a cab to the Airport for her plane, and Tuesday afternoon we called the water taxi to pick up Judy and her luggage, along with Bill at our boat for a dry ride across the bay. Once there, Bill pre-cleared Jubilee and crew out of the Bahamas at customs and Bill and Judy checked in for dinner and the night at the Peace and Plenty, while Wayne stayed aboard Jubilee. After a 5:00am wake up Wednesday morning, Bill & Judy caught a cab to the airport and then Bill returned to town to meet Wayne with the dingy. After taking another 20 gallons of water in our jugs, plus another 10 of diesel, we were off across the bay in the now almost calm conditions to prepare to head toward the Turks an Caicos. But more on that in our next posting. Hopefully we'll get that next posting out in a more timely manner than this one, but so it goes with cruising and access to internet and phone service. 

2011 Exumas Part 2

3/15/2011 - Warderick Wells to Sampson Cay & on to Big Majors Spot (Staniel Cay Area) - 26.1 Miles

Tuesday morning at Warderick's north mooring field brought a beautiful upwind sail in about 10 to 12 true, 14 to 15 apparent, with relatively calm ~2' seas on the banks side under stunning clear blue skies. The only way it could get better than this is if we were beam reaching instead of on a close tack. Beautiful.

At Sampson we took on 111 gallons of water at 50 cents a gallon, not having filled since St. Augustine except for adding 20 gallons from jerry jugs at Staniel over a week ago.  As in prior years we question the accuracy of the Sampson water meters as, per the meter, we put 93 gallons of water in a tank we've always thought was 75 gallons. Maybe we actually paid 60 cents a gallon -- or maybe our port tank is much bigger than spec, which is entirely possible given that every Tayana is semi-custom.

Initially we planned to anchor at Sampson, but with Sabre Tooth and Greenstone already in or heading for Big Majors, near Staniel, we altered our plans.  That evening we enjoyed sundowners with both couples in Jubilee's cockpit. Both boats were heading north in the morning, while we would be heading a bit south to Black Point after a dingy trip to Staniel Cay for a few provisions if they were available.

3/16/2011 - Big Majors Spot (Staniel area) to Black Point, and 3/18 Lay Day - 12.8 Miles

Wednesday is the day the mail boat arrives each week at Staniel Cay, and with it come provisions for the cay's three "supermarkets".

Mind you, two of those three "supermarkets" are about the size of our living room at home. The third and best market, Isles General, is perhaps 900 square feet, but it also carries some hardware, post and greeting cards, plus miscellaneous "general supplies". We hit Isles General about two hours after the mail boat had come in, and they were still putting things out on the shelves. Meanwhile cruisers like us were simultaneously putting fresh fruits and vegetables into shopping baskets almost as quickly as the boxes were being unpacked (the pickings can get pretty slim in these stores a couple of days before the boat arrives again). Fresh lettuce, celery, bananas, onion, eggs and bread topped our list for fresh items. We topped all that with a stop at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club for an order of conch fritters before departing in the dingy.

Although our route to Black Point Settlement to the south plotted at just under 9 miles anchorage to anchorage, today's trip put about 4 additional miles under the keel, accounting for tacking upwind in the 15+ knot breeze -- a great sail under beautiful blue skies and typical banks-side emerald waters (only about 15' deep) over a clear sand bottom.

Thursday morning we hit Black Point's Laundromat just after 9:00. We were the 2nd folks there and quickly started 4 machines. Within the next half hour the place was full of cruisers using and waiting for machines. Timing is everything!

Tuesday afternoon brought a late lunch at Lorraine's Cafe along with some time on the internet. As usual, Black Point was a very productive stop. We're now pretty much ready for Wayne and Cynthia to arrive after we stage back up in the Staniel area Friday morning.

3/18/2011 – Black Point to Big Majors – 9.2 Miles

We departed Black Point Friday morning, shortly after the 9:00am Exuma Park call-in where we put our name in for a mooring ball at Warderick for Saturday. With Wayne and Cynthia flying in at 9:00am Saturday morning, we wanted to be positioned to  run up to the park shortly after they arrived, perhaps get in some snorkeling on Sunday, and be located in a good place to hunker in and possibly do some island hiking on Monday when 20-25-knot winds were predicted.

3/19/2010 - Big Majors to Warderick Wells North Mooring Field - 20.9 Miles; 3/20-3/22 Lay Days in Warderick

Wayne and Cynthia's plane arrived in Staniel via Watermakers Air from Ft. Lauderdale, FL, with a customs stop mid-way at Congo Town on Andros Island. The weather was perfect, with winds only 10-12 knots for the dingy trip between the Staniel Yacht Club and the Big Majors anchorage area.

Before returning to the boat we brought the dingy up closer to “pig beach” at Big Majors, where pigs kept on the island like to swim out to visiting boats for handouts … the Bahamian equivalent of slopping the hogs (see photo of Wally and Connie Waffensmith's daughter, son in law, and grandkids feeding the pigs near the beach).

After a visit with Wally, Connie, and family aboard Summer of 42, we had a quick lunch aboard Jubilee before departing on an absolutely beautiful sail to Warderick Wells. Wayne and Cynthia's first day in the Bahamas was about as perfect as one could hope for.

Saturday evening we enjoyed the weekly Sunday night cruisers sundowner gathering at the north mooring field beach. Unfortunately none of us brought our cameras, but as usual we met numerous other cruisers from around the US, Canada and elsewhere. One of the most interesting folks Bill spoke with that evening was famed racing yacht designer Roger Martin, creator of numerous Open 40, Open 60, and other designs. Roger and his wife were cruising his latest design, the Presto!, a 30' lightweight (~5500 pound), trailerable sled constructed of e-glass with two wishbone-rigged carbon spars. Cruising the Presto! must be the antithesis of cruising aboard our Vancouver 42. We have the comfort in any conditions at 6.5 to 7.2 knots; they're capable of surfing at speeds up to 13 knots in a boat best described as “lively”.

Sunday turned out to be a great day for exploring and snorkeling, trekking up to Boo Boo Hill and the blow holes earlier in the day and snorkeling the coral at the south end of the mooring field in the afternoon. Note the giant lobster (one of several)  photographed during our snorkel.

We decided to stay at Warderick through Tuesday, holding tight Monday while 25-knot easterly howled all day long, and then hiking the loop to Pirate's cove on Tuesday to complete our Warderick explorations for this trip.

3/23/2011 – Warderick Wells to Cambridge Cay - 11.1 Miles, plus 3/24 Lay Day

After a no-wind motor on Exuma Sound we arrived at the Cambridge north entry at the same time Wally and Connie Waffensmith arrived via the south entrance on Summer of '42. With low slack tide too late in the day for ideal snorkeling we conferred with Cambridge Park Volunteers Roger and Connie, who indicated the Aquarium would be safe to snorkel if we stayed in the hollow of the south end of the islet, right where the fish congregate. We quickly headed off with Wally and Connie for a great snorkel among the gazillions of reef fish there.

While snorkeling, all of the sudden we noticed that Wally and Connie were nowhere to be seen. Fearing they had gone too far “around the corner” and gotten caught in the strong ebb current, we hopped in our dingy to go looking for them just as we saw Wally having about all he could do to pull himself around the corner, hand over hand, by the rocks overhanging the islet. Connie had remained hanging onto the rocks a little further behind the islet where the current was less strong. With our dingy we certainly would have been able to find them before they were swept too far, bring them aboard, and transport them back to their dingy, but the episode gave all of us a healthy respect for how strong the current can be – and for the need to be VERY careful about any snorkeling in cuts outside of slack periods.

That night several boat crews from the mooring field converged on the sand islet for appetizers and sundowners, a perfect way to cap another great day at Cambridge.

Thursday dawned another beautiful day and another great snorkel trip as we walked across the island to the coral garden to the south. Even given the light SSW winds there was a fair chop near the rocks and coral heads. It wasn't the best for snorkeling, but it was still a very successful trip, particularly as we spotted a large sting ray nestled in the lee of a big rock (see photos).

That evening the Minnesota-Toronto contingent gathered again at the sand islet for appetizers and sundowners. As we were about to break up the party a launch arrived from a powerboat who had heard that Minnesota folks were on the islet. Turns out they were from Ely! Small world.

March 25, 2011 – Cambridge Cay to Black Point via Exuma Sound and Dotham Cut – 19.0 Miles

Friday brought relatively light 8-knot SW breeze which was perfect for reaching down to Black Point – our goal a fresh lobster dinner at DeShaMon restaurant there. While underway we raised them on the radio and ordered, which triggered Simon to head out to one of his favorite lobster hunting areas to bag four for us. Can't beat that!

And with a lobster dinner to look forward to, we'll close this long-overdue blog posting, hoping to use DeShaMan or Lorraine's WiFi to update the blog. With our departure from Cambridge for points further south, we'll be leaving behind Greenstone, Summer of '42, and Sabre Tooth, who we'd had such good times with over the past several weeks ... way back to St. Augustine. In our next post we'll be heading back to Staniel to see Cynthia off to Minnesota Sunday morning, then topping diesel and water at Sampson, and turning further south for Georgetown to stage for our passage to Puerto Rico, probably over several installments. Stay tuned!

2011 Exumas - Part 1

2/25/2011 - Nassau to Highborne Anchorage - 39.4 Miles

With our chores done in Nassau it was time to move on. But we were also ready to move because of one of our Nassau dock neighbors. In all of our years of boating we'd never run into a situation quite like this. The crew was clearly not getting along. Their performance, heard throughout the marina, made Liz Taylor and Richard Burton's “Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe” pale in comparison. It was time to head out to a nice, calm, quiet, anchorage.

We found that respite at anchor off Highborne Cay, dropping the hook to a light SE breeze after a day's motor and motor-sail almost directly up-wind across the banks from Nassau. It was good to be on the hook, away from the Nassau hubbub, and finally on Bahamas cruising time.

2/26/2011 - Highborne to Shroud - 14.8 Miles

Just down the way from Highborne and immediately south of Norman's Cay is Shroud, the northern-most island in the Exuma Land and Sea Park. Shroud is actually an archipelago of small cays and rocks surrounding a shallow tidal mangrove area in the center. During high tide a number of creeks leading into the Mangroves open up. While most are only accessible via kayak, Sanctuary Creek to the north can be navigated at idle speed via dingy all the way to Exuma Sound on the east side of the island.

This was our first visit to Shroud, so we made sure to traverse the creek at high tide. Expecting something similar to the setting for “The African Queen”, we instead found a relatively wide, although shallow, creek with small mangroves on either side (see associated movie clips). The east mouth of the creek opened to a beautiful beach … a fun explore!

 

 

The end of our day at Shroud was capped with an absolutely stunning sunset to the west across the banks.

2/27/2011 - Shroud to Warderick Wells Exmuma Park North Mooring Field - 26.1 Miles

On the Sunday morning park call-in we were lucky to snag a mooring in the Warderick Wells north mooring field, so we raised anchor and tacked our way up the SE wind to Park headquarters with a single reef in the main and a partially furled headsail. With the reefed sails we didn't make any speed records, but did have a very comfortable sail. We had been assigned mooring ball 6 in Warderick's very well protected north mooring field. Little did we know on Sunday that we'd be here for several days before moving on.

2/28 – 3/4/2011 – Lay Days ad Warderick Wells

Thinking we would be spending only three nights at the park this time through, we made sure to hike up BooBoo Hill to bring our driftwood “plaque” back to the boat to rout out another date (2/2011) and to refresh the paint in all of the plaque's grooves. Our refinished “masterpiece” was back on the BooBoo pile by Tuesday morning, this time firmly tied with seizing wire to the the upright post where two other White Bear Lake, MN, plaques were mounted (topped by Gene and Kathy Johnson's Front Page, publishers of the White Bear Press and other community papers in Minnesota and Western Wisconsin – we had met up with them at Spanish Wells in 2010).

Tuesday brought our first snorkel of the season on the coral heads just south of the anchorage. There were lots of reef fish, but unfortunately we weren't blessed with Spotted Eagle Ray or Sea Turtle sightings others had recently reported there.

Our original plan was to head down to the Staniel area, anchoring at the well-protected Big Majors Spot, but with NE to E winds in the 20's forecast up to Saturday we decided to stay in Warderick where we had easy access to the park's hiking trails rather than be boat-bound at Big Majors for several days. Our friends Wally and Connie Waffensmith on Summer of 42, with their guests David and Linda, came north to the park for the blow too, taking a mooring in Emerald Bay.

The movie clip pan below is a good illustration of why we had stayed at the Park so many days. While it was truly rough on Exuma Sound, except for howling wind much of the time the waters in the north mooring field stayed extremely calm - a great place to wait out a blow.

 

3/5/2011- Warderick Wells to Big Majors (Staniel Area) - 21.4 Miles; and 3/5 Staniel Cay Area Lay Day

With reduced winds (but still reefing conditions) we laid a course for Big Majors Spot near Staniel Cay were several friends were already anchored or converging. On one favored tack we literally flew down, close to the wind, until it was time to drop the sails and motor into the anchorage. On queue we found ourselves in a heavy rain squall just before anchoring, and in lighter rain while the hook was being set – great for washing all the salt spray off the decks from the run down.

Over the prior several days we had been in touch via SSB and VHF with Craig Robnik, son of our Minnesota/Wisconsin boating friends Spence and Judith Robnik. Craig, his wife Michelle, and their girls Hannah and Emily were taking a season off to cruise from the Texas Gulf to the Bahamas and then up the eastern seaboard. Michelle is home schooling the girls during their travels. It was fun to meet them, and especially to see the enthusiasm their two girls had developed for their “adventure”. It used to be that a higher percentage of cruisers were like the Robniks – younger and often cruising with kids, whereas now days more people tend to be like us, off enjoying a post-retirement sailing sabbatical. We were heartened to be seeing more and more young families out here this year.

After a dingy trip to Staniel on Sunday to purchase 20 gallons of reverse osmosis water (40 cents a gallon at Staniel this year) plus top our outboard gas, we were ready to move on up to Cambridge Cay. As this photo of a boat hard aground on a falling tide just outside the Staniel Cay marina shows, navigating in these shallow channels between sand bores and reefs can be problematic. Luckily when we took the Jubilee through this way the next morning they had gotten themselves off OK, no doubt assisted by the rising tide later the prior day.

3/7/2011 - Big Majors to Cambridge via Exuma Sound - 14.7 Miles; and 3/6-3/12 Lay Days at Cambridge

The jump on the Exuma Sound side to Cambridge, one of our favorite spots in the Exumas, was an easy motor in calm seas. Having secured our mooring by 12:30 on this hot, calm, day, an afternoon snorkel was definitely the order of the day. Running the dingy north about two miles to "The Aquarium" just off the northern tip of O'Brien's Cay at mean low tide made for a great snorkel among the zillions of reef fish there. The place is aptly named - it is just like swimming in an aquarium. Burgers on Greenstone that evening capped a perfect day in the islands.

Tuesday brought another warm day but with increased winds from the east. A Conch Cut drift snorkel and Rocky Dundas, adjacent to the Conch Cut, weren't options because of the wind chop, but we tried a new-to-us snorkel spot at the Coral Gardens off the SW tip of Cambridge Cay. Aside from the normal reef fish, on return to the dingy we saw this sting ray resting in the sand near the dingy. Neat. Bob and Judy joined us for dinner that evening, ending yet another perfect day in paradise.

With Wednesday's higher winds, snorkeling wasn't going to be an option. Instead Judy worked at cleaning our scores of louvered doors while Bill worked on ... taxes. If there exists a pleasant place to do an unpleasant job like taxes, this has to be it. One more day and he should have things ready to file electronically.

Wednesday afternoon Judy Snyder conducted a "conch horn clinic" on Greenstone. Off we went, dremmel and conch shell in hand, to try to re-work the mouthpiece of our shell and the immediate channel below it so it would be easier to blow. After lots of grinding and cutting the project was a stunning success. Where blowing a clear note had been more than a bit difficult, we could now toot the sun down with the best of them using our "new" conch shell. Judy Snyder made similar modifications to two of their shells, both with excellent results. Need help "fine tuning" your conch horn? Call Judy on Greenstone for expert advice.

Sundowners Wednesday night were on the Robnik's Diamond. Thursday morning we headed our separate ways as they departed for Eleuthera, Spanish Wells, the Abacos and ultimately the US East Coast. We thoroughly enjoyed our times together, and can report back to our friends Spence and Judith, Craig's parents, that all is very well on the good ship Diamond.

Thursday morning was another cleaning day aboard Jubilee (Judy) and taxes day (Bill). Our 2010 taxes are now pretty well done, pending an internet connection to gather some minor information we had neglected to download earlier, plus to download and complete the Minnesota forms before e-filing. Thanks to the magic of on-line financial reports, Turbo-tax, and e-filing capability, it looks like we won't have to divert to Cuba to avoid IRS agents this year.

Thursday afternoon brought a hike across the island to the western, Exuma Sound, side where we had a panoramic view of the boats that had arrived in Cambridge seeking shelter from the next day's predicted stiff NW and N winds. Park volunteers Roger and Connie on Down Time reported it the highest concentration of boats in the field and anchorage since they've been working Cambridge. Thursday evening closed with a delightful dinner aboard Greenstone.

Friday morning opened ominously, but the dark clouds turned out to only be some pre-frontal cells that left a little rain and were gone by 8:30am. The frontal winds did pick up to the high teens in the late morning and afternoon, but didn't seem as strong as predicted – of course we had to remember how sheltered we were in Cambridge. Sundowners Friday night were aboard Tortola, a powerboat out of Midland, Ontario (Toronto home base) which we had first met up with in Shelborne, Nova Scotia, back in 2008. We had connected with Dennis and Mary last year too. It was good to see them again.

Saturday brought a dingy run to the blue hole at the south beach of Cambridge and a hike to the south side of the island for a short swim and some beach combing. We closed this chapter of Cambridge Cay exploring with burgers aboard Greenstone along with Cambrige Mooring Area host volunteers Roger and Connie on Down Time. We hope to be back through here in a little over a week when our friends Wayne and Cynthia come down to visit.

3/13/2011 – Cambridge Cay to Warderick Wells North Mooring Field via Exuma Sound – 11.0 Miles, with 11/14 lay day at the North Mooring Field

Sunday brought a leisurely, if a bit lumpy, sail on the “outside” returning to the Warderick Wells north mooring field again. Having been without internet access for days, we were particularly interested in some connect time to finish and file our taxes (which we did), post to the blog (you're reading that now), and deal with email messages that had backed up while we were off net. There was no time for hiking on this Warderick Wells visit!

Tuesday morning the 15th we're planning to start heading south to top water and fuel, plus find a place to do three weeks worth of laundry and generally get ready for Wayne and Cynthia's arrival next weekend. Watch for details in our next posting.

We're Off: South to the Bahamas from St. Augustine!

February 16-17, 2011 - St. Augustine to Port Canaveral - 131 Miles

Timing our departure to allow for daylight Port Canaveral or Ft. Pierce arrivals, we cast off our Oasis Marina lines at almost exactly 11:00 am. We might have left even a bit later than that to assure total slack tide at the Augustine entrance, but the Bridge of Lions doesn't open at 12:00 noon, so we went for the 11:30 opening. Everything went well until we started out the inlet.

The St. Augustine inlet is always a bit problematic. Bill and Wayne contended with shoaling across about half of the channel when they entered in November, but no dredging had been done since that time.

A couple of weeks after Wayne and Bill ran the entrance, another boat slammed hard on the shoaling bottom, bending their rudder shaft to the point where they lost steering. They quickly deployed an anchor and called for TowBoat US assistance. When the TowBoat US boat arrived it was overturned in the surf, leaving the operator in the water for about 90 minutes before the Coast Guard could rescue him. Luckily the towboat operator and both vessels were safely recovered (click to see news story). But even with this situation we'd heard that shoreline residents near the inlet continue to lobby against dredging, thinking that dredging will somehow hurt their surrounding beaches. We guess safety isn't too important to some people.

But on to our own departure. With steep waves caused by the entry shoals we had all we could do to power out, plunging the bow into troughs and sending green water over the bow and up to the pilothouse windows as we powered over the top of the following crest. Those of you who've run inlets well-know the drill. Our 2005 re-powering again paid off in spades. After about 1/4 mile of fun we were out in the ocean.

Winds from the prior few days had created 6-8' confused seas (several directions), which didn't seem to subside as we continued on. To add to the fun, there wasn't enough wind to steady the boat as we motored south. When Lao-Tzu talked about a journey starting with a single step, we don't think he meant stepping into a washing machine! Although the seas laid down somewhat by midnight, they were still by no means comfortable. And with Judy temporarily on medications that made her nauseous even on land, it wasn't a fun passage.

But all things do come to an end. Upon hitting the smooth, flat, entrance channel into Port Canaveral the next morning, all was again right with the world. Our total trip took us a little over 20 hours. Hopefully our next hops will be more enjoyable. At least we were now on our way!

February 18-19, 2011 - Port Canaveral to Lake Worth (West Palm  Beach) - 126.2 Miles

What a difference a day makes. With continued lighter winds accompanying the present high pressure system, the seas calmed down for what appeared to be a perfect overnight run to Lake Worth. The wind GRIBS looked good. The NOAA forecasts looked good. The weather router, Chris Parker's, outlook looked good. We hoped all of the predictions would turn out to be spot on.

Joining us on our departure from Port Canaveral was Carnival Cruise Line's Monarch of the Seas. Once out of the channel they quickly horizoned us while their guests were no doubt hitting the bar and the appetizer tables. There was to be no bar for us tonight, and the appetizers were pretty spartan, but we were motorsailing nicely in reasonable seas while getting both some push and steadying from our raised main. Life was good.

The entire night was like this. Clear sky. Full moon. Comfortable temperatures. Gentle seas. Late the next morning we started getting a bit of a shore breeze about five miles from Lake Worth Inlet and tried sailing without motor assist for half an hour, but that short period of 10-knot breezes quickly eased. The motor came back on again.

It seemed that all of South Florida was out fishing on this President's Holiday Weekend morning. And once inside the inlet things got really crazy with power boaters and jet skis running everywhere. Luckily, harbor patrol boats were all over the place, reminding folks to hold to reasonable speeds in the harbor, and pulling over those that didn't. But once past the bridge and into Lake Worth there were no more wake restrictions, and we were promptly passed by a cigarette that had to be going 40 or 50! It's folks like that who give weekend power boaters a bad name.

Our anchor was down in the north arm of Lake Worth by about 1:00. We would hang out here until the next Gulf Stream crossing window - Tuesday, just two days away

2/19-21/2010 - Lake Worth Anchorage

Clearly we've arrived "south". Daytime temperatures were now in the comfortable 70's. Just beyond our anchorage were the condo high rises of West Palm Beach. But even as we began feeling far from frigid Minnesota, we learned that our anchorage neighbor turned out to be a northerner too - from Winnipeg, Manitoba - almost "next door neighbors" so to speak. And on Monday a Thunder Bay, Ontario, boat arrived and anchored near us. It felt like old home week!

Sunday afternoon brought a dingy trip "to town" for ice cream, another West Marine visit to find a standup spring for our new mainsheet traveler car (didn't need one with the prior car), and a quick stop at Publix for some fresh bread and veggies. With it being President's weekend we decided to remain anchored in Lake Worth rather than move nearer the inlet where all the holiday powerboat craziness was no doubt still going on. It would mean another hour going out on Tuesday, but quiet and peace of mind won the day.

2/22-23/2010 - Lake Worth Anchorage to Nassau - 200.8 Miles

Since we had gently touched the mud within the Lake Worth approach channel twice already (once coming in initially and another time on our quick run to a marina and back for fuel), we decided it best to wait for good light for our departure. Plus it always takes a bit longer to raise anchor at Lake Worth - the holding there is great, but the thick mud takes quite a while to wash of the chain while hoisting the hook. After all that we were on our way by 7:05, just after official sunrise. The winds (mostly south) had laid down considerably from the prior day, allowing the seas to subside outside while still leaving enough punch for us to motorsail with reduced revs. Life was good! We were off to the Bahamas!

At around 10:30am we were treated to the sighting of a ~150' German 3-masted sail training ship, the Thor Heyerdahl sailing north with the Gulf Stream under full canvas on a course from Havana to Bermuda (photo from Thor Heyerdahl information on the internet). Unfortunately we weren't close enough for a good picture, but we did raise the captain on the radio to chat. During the past 24+ years, over 20,000 high school aged youth have participated in its sail-training passages. What a wonderful opportunity for those students!

 
At 2:10 pm we encountered an interesting AIS "sighting". The 140 foor pleasure boat Incentive showed up on AIS with two signals - one for the mother ship and another for her 46' tender. Hmmm. Let's think about that for a minute. Their "dingy" is longer than our boat! Somebody must have received at BIG incentive bonus to purchase that pair of vessels! (see accompanying clip from our AIS display)

Aside from the normal gaggle of shipping around Freeport, at 10:30pm and around 25 miles past Freeport we were treated to a fireworks display by the cruise ship Disney Dream about nine miles off our port beam. Not to be outdone, an hour later the much smaller 200' mail and passenger ship Fiesta Mail was treating their passengers to a searchlight scan of the thin scattered clouds above. (Well, maybe they were outdone by Disney Dream.) There's no lack of entertainment out here on Tuesday nights.

 

Overall our Gulf Stream passage had been pretty uneventful (see above movie clip), a welcome change from that overnight between St. Augustine and Port Canaveral. After a beautiful 30-hour overnight passage we passed the flotilla of Nassau Harbor cruise ships and went on to dock at our usual stopping point in Nassau, the Nassau Harbor Club marina.

With the good weather lots of other boats were also arriving at Nassau Harbor Club and other marinas in Nassau. As a result we had to wait a while for customs clearance, but by around 4:30 a very efficient woman arrived from customs to clear us in. The yellow "Q" flag (vessel in quarantine) flag could now come down from our starboard spreader, replaced by the Bahamian courtesy flag which Judy had just finished repairing while underway. Wednesday night brought a celebration dinner at the Poop Deck, a harbor-side restaurant just down the road from our marina. After three hops since St. Augustine for a total of 458 miles and 72 hours underway, we had arrived!

Thursday was spent doing laundry, getting a hair cut, catching up on email and business back home, and attending to ever-present boat chores before leaving for the Exumas on Friday morning. Our next posting will likely be coming your way in about another week from our favorite spot down this way, the Exuma Land and Sea Park. See you in the park!

So What's Up With the Jubilee???

The blog has been quiet for about 8 months now. Some of you are probably thinking that we've sailed off the edge of the earth. Plus you likely also know there be dragons out there!

The good news is that we didn't sail off the edge, and that we haven't encountered any dragons (yet). But we have spent some time getting ready for our 2011 cruise.

Preparations started in earnest the first week of November, 2010, when Bill drove down to Brunswick with a car full of stuff. After about a week getting the boat ready to move again, Wayne Leblanc flew down to help Bill run Jubilee outside from Brunswick, GA, down to St. Augustine, FL. We had two goals in mind with the move further south: 1) getting a slightly “warmer” start when we ultimately departed in February 2011, and 2) having some bottom work done at Oasis boatyard in St. Augustine, a yard where we had received several positive recommendations.

The trip down from Brunswick was uneventful, as you can tell from the pictures of Bill's crack crewman Wayne on (and sometimes off) watch. We made the trip in two daytime runs, with our customary overnight anchorage at Cumberland Island just off the St. Mary's river.

After the sail down to St. Augustine, Bill and Wayne drove further south to Melbourne, FL, to attend the 2010 annual SSCA GAM. Like last year's GAM, the seminars and vendor area were outstanding – well worth the two days Wayne and Bill spent there.

After Melbourne, Wayne flew back to the Twin Cities and Bill had Jubilee hauled. As of 11/15 Jubilee was out of the water and firmly on the hard for the next two months.

Bill got one nasty surprise when we hauled … blisters in the bottom (see example photo)! When we over-wintered on Lake Erie in 2007-08, we contracted a yard there take all the prior coatings down to glass for an InterProtect 2000 barrier coat job before re-painting the bottom with salt water bottom paint. An InterProtect job should last decades, and it should totally seal the hull from any moisture intrusion! What had happened?

In examining the blisters we quickly determined that they were not gel coat or fiberglass blisters at all. Rather, prior coatings on the hull had not been fully removed as we had paid to have done before the InterProtect was applied. InterProtect only bonds with gel coat or fiberglass, it can't be applied on any other coating. Bottom line, at Oasis we now not only had to refresh our bottom paint as originally planned, but also had to totally strip the InterProtect layer and the layer beneath it that had not been removed in 2008, and then start from scratch with a properly applied InterProtect barrier coat.

Oasis Marine in St. Augustine did an outstanding job, as you can see by the “after” photo here. We're presently in discussions with the Ohio yard regarding compensation for work not performed properly in 2008. It appears we'll be receiving some relief on that front, but we're still negotiating what the relief will entail.

While the boat was out of the water we had her surveyed, as our normal 5-year insurance re-survey is going to be due in May. Jubilee came through with flying colors. The surveyor identified NO recommendations. We'd never experienced that in a survey before. Surveyors always seem to find a little nit here or there, but we had been working hard to get the boat ready for this year's trip. We must have been doing the right things.

Shortly after Jubilee was re-launched, Judy flew in to Orlando. While driving her back to St. Augustine we got a call from Twin Cities sailing friends Bob & Judy Snyder, who were similarly readying their boat, but at Tiger Point near Fernandina Beach, FL. Turns out that mutual friends of theirs and ours, Jeff and Jean Burton, were flying into Jacksonville that evening. Plans were set to meet for dinner in Jacksonville. We subsequently called Bill and Sylvia Mueller, Unisys and boating friends from Roseville, MN, who are presently aboard their boat in Brunswick, GA. They quickly agreed to join us for dinner too. In short order, eight Twin Cities sailors converged on the Bahamas Breezes restaurant in Jacksonville. (photo courtesy of Sylvia Mueller)

A few days later the Snyder/Burton boat had started heading south. They arrived in St. Augustine Saturday night along with John and Nora Mayo from the Toronto area aboard their Sabre 425 sloop Saber Tooth. With our car we ferried folks back and forth to the Saltwater Cowboy for dinner, a great seafood restaurant and favored “locals” hang out (meaning well off the tourist path). We remembered to bring the camera this time (see accompanying photo).

It's now Tuesday night, 2/15. Judy has wrapped up our provisioning, having made countless trips to the local grocery stores (a total of over $1800.00 in groceries bought, repackaged and stored, with our meats all re-packed, vacuum bagged and now firmly frozen). In parallel, Bill worked on getting the boat ready to go – everything from cleaning and waxing, to re-installing electronics, to going up to the masthead to put the wind instruments back on, and other “normal” get ready stuff. Of course there are always a few surprises along the way, like a 10-year-old water heater that decided to start leaking when we turned it on. It was great that it happened here, however. Luckily the local West Marine had an exact replacement in stock.

So with that we're now ready to start heading south. Our plans for this year (of course written sand – they could easily change at any time for weather or other contingencies) are to head south to about Lake Worth/West Palm again, and then jump to the Bahamas as in prior years. We're going to try to get down to the Exumas as quickly as possible, weather permitting, and spend a few weeks there. Our friends Wayne & Cynthia Leblanc will be meeting us in the Exumas for a week in later March, after which Cynthia flies home. Wayne, Judy and I will continue on to Georgetown where we'll re-provision for Wayne and Bill continuing further south while Judy flies back to Mpls in early April. Wayne and Bill plan to continue through the Far (southern) Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos, the Dominican Republic, and on to Puerto Rico where they'll leave Jubilee on the hard where we've reserved a place at a hardened (hurricane straps etc.) storage area in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, for the hurricane season. Our plan is then to return to Puerto Rico after the December holidays next year, re-launch, and then spend the next winter-spring cruising season enjoying the Spanish, US and British Virgin Islands.

 

But there are lots of miles yet to go under Jubilee's keel before we get to that point. As the oft-quoted Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu stated in the 6th century BCE, “A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step”. Weather permitting we plan to take that first single step south tomorrow. As in past years we'll be trying to post to the blog about once a week. Stay tuned and enjoy the ride with us!
 

2010 Winter-Spring Cruise Wrap-Up

5/4/2010 to 5/15 – Getting our Land Legs Back … Brunswick Lay-Up

Arriving in Brunswick felt like arriving at home, only home was still 1400 land miles away. As we always say about cruising, it's the people that make the experience so special. Our time in Brunswick felt like old home week.

That “old home” experience started as soon as we tied up to the dock Monday night. Joe and Punk Pica along with Henry McCoy were at dockside to assist with our lines. We had met Henry, from Honolulu, during previous stays at Brunswick. Jubilee would be lying in the slip adjacent to his boat for the next several months.

We originally met Joe and Punk at Chuck and Claria Gorgen's Beaufort, South Carolina, home back in November of 2008 as we cruised down the East Coast. Small world.

Later in the week Gail and Sid McDonough arrived on Whimsy, having taken the ICW most of the way up from Port Canaveral. Together we hit the monthly “First Friday” festivities in downtown Brunswick, featuring music in one of the small downtown park areas, free wine and appetizers in most of the galleries and many other businesses, live music in several stores, an author representing their book at the bookstore, and more. One of the most special “mores” was the informal bluegrass jam happening at the downtown acoustical instrument music store. Check the attached video clip for a sample.

 

 

On Saturday, Nick and Sherri from Sweet Time, friends we first met way back on the St. Lawrence, arrived on their way north from their winter digs in Marathon, FL. Nick and Sherri enjoy fine dining, as do we, so we had saved our planned Cargo dining experience for the Saturday night of their arrival. We weren't disappointed. The meal at Cargo, one of Georgia's finest restaurants, was excellent as usual. And the conversation was even better, as we caught up on happenings in each others lives since we last met back in October.

Saturday night Wayne Leblanc, Wally Waffensmith and James Mulholland flew in from the Twin Cities to begin delivery of Leblanc's new boat, Soule Mate (still showing the prior name Kinja Kat on the hull), back to Minnesota. They departed at first light Monday morning headed north to Norfolk and the Chesapeake, mostly on the outside (see photo at left with the moon in the background).

In between all of these social activities we managed to squeeze in our lay-up projects. Included were several tasks we hadn't attended to before our departure back in January, like re-coating all of our exterior bright work and repairing and re-gelling some pesky fiberglass gel coat cracks that have begged attention for several years.

The weather remained almost perfect for our boat projects throughout our Brunswick stay, albeit much hotter and more humid than we would have liked (in the 80's every day). After an exhausting 10-day work sprint we were finally set to jump in the car on Saturday, 5/15, for our trip north.

The Blue Ridge Parkway and Virginia's “Crooked Road” bluegrass heritage trail.

Our trips back and forth from Brunswick have typically been all business – simply putting the miles behind us as quickly as possible. This time we decided to check out part of the country we'd never before seen – the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and Virginia.

We fell in love with the area. In fact we liked it so much we started looking at properties, beginning with a place called Biltmore near Asheville, North Carolina. Pretty impressive spread. We made an offer, but our loan application wasn't approved. Guess it will have to stay with its Vanderbuilt family heirs for a few more years (see attached photos of the main estate and one of the gardens).

Moving on from Asheville we followed the Blue Ridge Parkway to the NNE for about 175 delightful miles, its two-lane ribbon winding around the spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We took advantage of several stops to hike to nearby overlooks and waterfalls, but the drive was a treat in itself, even as we encountered occasional fog patches common along this stretch.

So as not to distract from the scenery around us, there were no billboards or other advertising along this Department of Interior thoroughfare. One has to question why we put up with the roadside billboard eye clutter along most US highways.

The attached pictures capture just a small fraction of the magic of this stunning parkway.

Shortly after entering Virginia we headed off to another byway, Virginia's “Crooked Road” which winds through the heart of Bluegrass country. We learned first hand how the road got its name, as we traveled on highway 58 from Galax to Bristol. We've driven winding roads before, but this one was without a doubt the twistiest road we'd ever encountered, including some in the Rockies and Switzerland. Fun driving!

Straddling the Virginia-Tennessee state line (one side of the main Street is in Virginia, the other in Tennessee), Bristol, generally recognized as the birthplace of commercial country/bluegrass music in the 30's, was our last stop before putting the pedal to the medal for home. Luckily we were able to take in one of their weekly downtown Bluegrass concerts, another treat (see attached video clip).

 

2010 Cruising Reflections

Our May 20th return to Minnesota drew to a close yet another chapter of our cruising adventures. This year we were out exploring for just over four months, and put 1,532 nautical miles (roughly 1,763 statute miles) under the keel. Our total through the water mileage since leaving Bayfield, Wisconsin, in June of 2007 now stands at 6,838 nautical miles, or 7,869 statute miles.

Blog-wise we're presently closing in on almost 15,000 page views! For those of you tracking along with our adventures via our web site we hope you've been enjoying the ride as much as we have.

And it has been a good year on the water. This season we were able to reconnect with many of our cruising friends from the past few years, in many cases buddy boating with some like Joe Mainguy and Joan Murphy from Quebec, Jerry Cucci and Diane England from Minneapolis, and Bruce and Susan Harris from Calgary for several days or weeks. Plus we had guests down to join us for the first time this year – Aron and Ellen Rolnitzke, a special treat.

This year we got further afield in the Bahamas – further south (to Georgetown), further east (to Eleuthera), and up to Spanish Wells and Harbor Island to the northeast. But even with all of this year's and last's exploring we've barely scratched the surface of the Bahamas, a magical cruising ground some 140 miles wide and 500 northwest to southeast nautical miles long. We've yet to even touch Andros, the largest island, or Cat, or Long, or the Jumentos and Ragged Islands, or islands like Aiklins, Mayaguana, or Little Iguana further to the south, plus any number of others. So many islands, so little time.

The major complicating factors in fully exploring the Bahama's vast cruising grounds are weather and time. Early in the winter cruising season the islands are subject to one cold front after another rolling off the US mainland. Each front brings with it enhanced and clocking winds, leaving the predominately western-shoreline anchorages exposed to a day or two, or more, of strong west and northwest winds. Around the beginning of April that cycle finally breaks and the easterly trades resume their predominant role, but January through March can be more than a bit unsettled as front after front track through. Next, of course, the year's hurricane season sets in after June 1st.

In addition there's the expanse of the cruising area to consider. On land trips one can see destinations in the distance – mountains, prominent hills, large cities – and actually arrive at them. At sea there is always the horizon. But like the rainbow's end it can never be reached. The result is a constant beckoning call for what lies beyond; for what people and places remain to be explored.

 
Which begs the question many have asked: “What are your plans for next year?” To be truthful we're really not sure at the moment. We may return to explore more of the Bahamas. Or we may start taking the boat further south and east to the Eastern Caribbean. Or we might decide to stay state-side for a year, possibly exploring the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas. While we sort all that out our blog will be hibernating for a few months. To be alerted when we begin posting again, please consider registering for our RSS feed (see link on the left side of our main blog page).

In the mean time we'll be off again by air to France and England in about a month, touring with Judy's brother Gene and wife Pat plus helping our daughter and family relocate back to the Twin Cities after their 3-year stay in Paris. It will be an eventful summer for us. We wish the same for you, whether you be Great Lakes  or northern coastal boaters enjoying the cruising season in your areas, land-based travelers planning special overland trips, foreign trekkers planning excursions to exotic places, or others simply enjoying your gardens and friends at home. Enjoy! And in the mean time watch this space as the next chapter of our cruising chronicle begins to unfold sometime next winter.

Port Canaveral, FL, to Brunswick, GA

5/2/2010 – Port Canaveral to Cumberland Island … or Perhaps Brunswick – 210.7 Miles/33 hours

By Sunday morning NOAA had backed off the Sunday night/Monday morning thunderstorm forecast around St. Augustine and north. But the wind forecast remained the same – 10 to 15 SSE moving to south 15 to 20 on Monday. The opportunity was too good to pass up. We decided to leave Port Canaveral that morning after breakfast and after topping one of our diesel tanks, heading north on the outside to the St. Mary's River's Cumberland Island anchorage. It would be another overnight sail but we had both re-charged our batteries with a good night's sleep in Canaveral and were ready to go.

So, as our immediate past President once said, “Bring it on!” Hopefully our decision on this hop right on the heels of our last will turn out to be wiser than than his.

But we did have some contingencies. If the forecast changed or we found ourselves getting passage fatigue, we had the option of stopping in St. Augustine early Monday morning by slowing the boat a bit and entering around 1st light. Hopefully we wouldn't need that option.

After clearing the Kennedy Space Center security zone and nearby shoals which together extend about 10 miles offshore, we gradually turned almost due north. While making our turn we crossed paths with a large sea turtle lazing on the surface, and shortly after that had a couple of dolphin's play by the boat for a bit. But it was just a bit. Unfortunately we weren't able to get a decent shot of the turtle with the 4' or so seas, and the dolphins disappeared as soon as they saw the camera. Shy folks, those dolphins.

The 10-knot winds off our quarter just weren't enough to keep our speed and comfort levels up in the residual 4' seas after we turned north, so we switched on the engine at a low 1800-2000 RPM, giving us just enough boost to settle things down and keep us in the low to mid-6's with nary cloud in the sky. It was another perfect, sunny, SPF 45 day!

Double Headsails 

By mid-afternoon we were getting a bit tired of the continuous downwind rolling, so decided to try something we'd not tried before on this boat. We secured a foreguy to the staysail boom and set the staysail out wing and wing opposite the jib. We had read that this technique will even out the pull from the bow and dampen rolling, and the other wing and wing option with the Main prevented wasn't something we wanted to do all night long while running in seas so close to dead downwind.

Most of the night the winds were from our stern at 18 true, about 12 apparent, as we sped along in the mid-6's under staysail and reefed jib (reefed to keep the pull equal on both sides). All in all the approach did seem to reduce our roll as the seas gradually built to at least six feet during the night. We'll definitely put this technique into our bag of tricks for future use.

Dinner Sunday evening before the seas built too much was crab cakes and rice, served alfresco at our ocean-side table 12 miles off the Florida coast. The crab cakes were courtesy of the huge meals served the prior night at Fish Lips in Port Canaveral, where we returned to the boat with three of some of the best crab cakes we'd ever tasted in our “doggie box”. Yumm.

Panic Button!

Around midnight a boat pushed their VHF Digital Selective Calling (DSC) distress button. Boy does that get your attention. The resulting sound from our radio was deafening – like a very loud burglar or fire alarm. Presumably this same scene was being repeated on scores of other boat's VHF radios up and down the Florida coast. Judy was sleeping and immediately woke in a panic. “What's wrong!”, she screamed. Bill had no answer – we'd never heard anything like that before.

A couple of seconds later we figured it out. Pushing the distress button on a DSC VHF sends a digital signal that will sound an alarm on every VHF DSC radio within range. The Coasties immediately jumped into action on the radio, already knowing the boat name, boat description, skippers name, etc., from the encoded alarm info and unique MMSI (radio identification number) data in their files. This stuff really works! They raised the “distressed” boater immediately on VHF 16. The good news was that it turned out to be a false alarm somehow “inadvertently” triggered by a clueless boater.

Our radio automatically retained a log of the distress call, including the distressed vessel's MMSI number and the position from which the distress call originated – somewhere in Biscayne Bay. We believe that the way DSC distress calls work is they get automagically relayed by each receiving VHF radio so the signal ends up being propagated way beyond the position of the immediate incident. Quite the technology, even if it did ruin Judy's off-watch sleep.

Bottom line, if you're ever in a position to issue a mayday, push that DSC Distress button first. It'll be much more effective. But for full value make sure your VHF DSC radio has been interfaced via NMEA to your GPS so it will automagically send your location along with the distress message.

5/3/2010 – Arrival at Cumberland Island … Almost

At about 2:30 in the afternoon, 28 ½ hours and 169 miles after leaving Port Canaveral and just a few minutes before we were to turn into the St. Mary's entry channel to Cumberland Island, we decided to check NOAA weather. We were looking forward to getting to our anchorage early, showering, relaxing a bit in the cockpit, and having a nice dinner after yet another long haul. It was not to happen.

Instead NOAA was forecasting thunderstorms starting around midnight, plus more rain and thunderstorms, some severe, outlooked through Wednesday. Our choices were to proceed to Cumberland and anchor, probably sitting on the hook in the rain there for at least two days, or press on to try to arrive at Brunswick Landings before sundown. With about 40 more miles to go to Brunswick and a favorable wind we could just do it. Decision made – skip Cumberland and head all the way back to the barn.

The winds at this time were sufficient for sailing at ~6 knots but we needed more than that to arrive before sundown. With a few revs on the engine we were able to motorsail in the upper 6's/low 7's.

Meanwhile tall cumulus clouds were stacking over the land to the west and we were dripping in the hot humid conditions. Clearly something was going to happen. The question – could we beat it?

We did, although the run into Brunswick's long inlet kept us hopping as the winds jumped up into the 20's against an outgoing flow just after we made our turn in and still had all of our canvas up. As soon as we arrived in the turning basin we dropped our sails and motored the remaining six miles to the marina under a heavy, very humid, haze that almost obscured Brunswick's signature bridge.

Bingo! At 7:45 we were tied up in our slip, 22 minutes before sundown. Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain – we were now ready.

Altogether on this hop we put on almost 210 miles under the keel over the course of 33 hours. Our prior 47-hour, 297-mile non-stop hop from Royal Island to Canaveral, followed by this jump, ended up putting almost 510 miles under the keel in 80 hours of sailing with just one 26-hour stop at Port Canaveral.

The attached chart snap shows our return track from Royal Island (the rightmost of the two tracks except for the portions around Grand Bahama Island where we visited West End and Lucaya on our outbound track). Overall we held to an average of over 6 knots throughout the two passages. But of course we did get some help beyond the favorable winds. There's nothing like a little Gulf Steam boost to help make your numbers if you're going with the flow.

Not only these past 80 hours, but essentially every passage we've made since mid-March had brought wonderful sailing or motor-sailing. The sailing, the people, and the places we visited this winter have all been beyond description. It's been a good year.

The next week or so we'll be working to put the boat to bed for the upcoming hurricane season. Hopefully the weather will cooperate, especially for our various outside projects. Look for one final wrap-up posting on this year's travels around the time we jump in our car and start heading north to Minnesota. 'Til then ...