Brunswick again

Thursday June 5

We are back in Brunswick, almost like coming home. The trip north through Florida on the ICW was just as wonderful as on the way down. We got to see the space shot from the boat, and had some quality time in several isolated anchorages. The weather was lovely, though hot, and we took the opportunity to get used to being back in North America. Now we are here we will do a few boat jobs, but we will save the majority of them for Deltaville in Virginia. We will set off for there early to mid-July.
Brunswick is hot, hot, hot. Mid 90's and very humid. But the sand gnats seem to be hiding. Good!

Shot of the space shuttle

An anchorage on Matanzas River south of Fernandina

Wild horses on Cumberland Island

Back in the U.S of A.

Thursday May 29

We arrived at White Sands Ridge about 4 yesterday afternoon and finally anchored in 15 feet having looked in vain for the shallower water that was supposed to be there. Right by us was a large tour boat/small cruise ship that was going back and forth across the waters. We couldn't figure out what they were doing. Back and forth , back and forth. Then we heard that they were on a dolphin tour. There is a large group of dolphins in this general area that people swim with. They are wild dolphins and the guidelines stress that you cannot approach them or harass them, but you can swim with them. If the dolphins choose to approach you, that is fine. This pod seems to have become so used to having swimmers amongst them that tour boats come out filled with tourists taking a chance on being able to swim with wild dolphins. They didn't have any luck yesterday, and we didn't see any dolphins either.
A single hander anchored near us in the evening and radioed to ask if he could travel with us when we made the crossing. We were happy to do so, though he wanted to start off a fair bit earlier than we had planned on getting up. A bit of motivation is a good thing, and we were up at 3:30 a.m. ready to set off. An incredibly uncomfortable and rolly night meant we didn't have too much trouble waking as we never really slept, but getting our friend up was another matter! We finally roused him and were able to set off at 4:30 a.m.
The crossing was straightforward and trouble free, with only 2 tankers to get our blood pressure up. There were squalls all around us but we avoided every one, lucky for us. Friends who had crossed a week earlier had such bad squalls they couldn't see anything, and had to radio the Coast Guard who monitored them every 1/2 hour until the rain let up.
It took us just under 12 hours to get into Ft.Pierce and apart from the impressive current at the mouth of the inlet it was all straightforward. We tied up at Harbourtown Marina as later we would need to check in with Homeland Security (Customs and Immigration) and needed access to land. It is a lovely little marina, with good rates and a great restaurant. We had a pleasant meal with our singlehander friend (who found just before he met us that his credit card wasn't working!). It felt strange to have ready access to ice and airconditioning. But sort of nice.

The current at the mouth of Ft.Pierce inlet

Friday May 30

We took a taxi to the airport to check in, along with two other couples. The cab dispatcher has said we could all go together. It was a pretty tight squeeze, but better than waiting any longer and a great ice-breaker!
We arrived just a few minutes before opening. When our turn came we had to fill out loads of forms to apply for another cruising permit. This time, for whatever reason, we were only granted one for 10 months. We had to pay $19, and the officer refused to take a $20. He wouldn't give change, and he wouldn't take a $20. We had to go around the various people available and in the end could get enough notes to add up to $19, but it cost us $25 as lots of people didn't have enough change for our bills. Surreal.

Same old, same old.

Tuesday May 27

We hung around in Great Sale Cay until the worst of the squalls had passed, which took us to yesterday. The anchorage got fuller and fuller until there were 22 boats anchored there, all waiting to go one place or another. Finally in the morning the exodus began and boats left the shelter of the bay to go north, east or west. We checked all the engine belts, pumped the small amount of water in the engine room out and set off by 8:30 a.m. We weren't able to sail, but it was a beautiful day and the waters were relatively smooth.
Less than an hour later the anchor was out, the engine compartment was filling with water, and we were once again dealing with the water pump.(!) It turned out there can be yet another cause for the influx of water. This time the seal on the water pump had failed. Changed to another pump and after 3 hours work we were able to pull up the anchor and continue on our way. We got to Mangrove Cay, our last landfall in the Bahamas, and tried to tuck in close enough to avoid the winds and heavy seas. We have decided not to go to West End and check out. The marina there is supposed to be expensive and with our furler extending over 7 feet behind the boat we don't feel comfortable maneuvering in close quarters. We could anchor off the edge of town, but that requires a dinghy with a motor as I don't trust us in the current and tides with nothing but oars. So instead we will head to the edge of the banks tomorrow, an area marked on the charts as White Sands Ridge, and anchor ready to make the crossing to Ft. Pierce, Florida.

A Perfect Day

Saturday May 24

The last few days have been squally, and when the storms come they are spectacular. So we waited them out at Allans Pensacola then headed to Great Sale Cay today, the first part of our trip back to the States. We don't actually have to check out of the Bahamas, but would like to get our passports stamped just in case we have trouble getting back into U..S. We will go to West End, appropriately at the west end of Grand Bahama, to do that. Leaving our anchorage I put out my new fishing line with foolproof lure and crossed my fingers. The day was lovely, the winds perfect for sailing, the water gorgeous. Checking the line, there was a fish on it! We decided not to pull it in for the time being, but that combined with everything else caused Chris and I to give each other a High Five, and pronounce it "A Perfect Day".
Just about 5 minutes after that pronouncement there was a noise and....our headsail was in the water! The forestay had sheared off at the masthead, bringing the sail and roller furler down with it. Luckily it didn't bring anything else down on it's way. The strong winds and swells were pushing us towards a shoal so we threw out the anchor (sound familiar?), brought down the mainsail, and dragged the headsail and furler back up onto the starboard side. Although there is a baby stay, when we saw how loose the backstays were, we quickly attached two other halyards from the masthead to the bow of the boat. We didn't want to lose our mast as well.
Good thing our motor was back in working order. At a pinch, with the wind behind us, we could probably have used the main, but the thought made me pretty nervous.

*Q.1: What is wrong with this picture?

We kept heading for Great Sale. It's uninhabited, but a very popular staging post for boats coming and going to the U.S. There are sponge beds surrounding it which might be neat to see. We thought we had outwaited all the squalls but there were still several around us, making for choppy and confused seas. I mentioned to Chris that the poor outboard on our dinghy behind us looking as though it was wobbling back and forth. Chris had tightened the clamps on it as firmly as he could before we started out that morning, so we felt sure it would be fine. And it was, until the time we turned around to look at it and it wasn't there!
I was very tempted to retrace our GPS track and see if we could find it but that would have been along shot, even with a sound boat. It had been a very cheap outboard, meant to keep us going until we decided what dinghy/motor combo we needed, but still...

*Q.2: What is wrong with this picture?

Anyway, no use crying over sunken motors, we carried on. Getting close to Great Sale, we could see a squall heading our way and were keeping our fingers crossed we would get to the anchorage in time. It was hard not to keep glancing back at the dinghy and looking at the empty spot where the motor had been, a bit like tonguing a loose tooth. As I looked back I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a dead black bird falling down into the water just behind the cockpit. We immediately realized it couldn't be a black bird and looked up to see...our spreader light bulb dangling loose. The retaining ring had somehow come unscrewed and fallen off. Into the water, of course.

*Q.3: What is wrong with this picture?

But the good news was that we made the anchorage before the squall hit, and found a nice sheltered spot. Oh!..and the fish on my line? Got away and stole my lure.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Answers:
1: the sail and forestay should be attached to the mast, not hanging off the back of the boat.
2: there should be a motor on the dinghy, not a seagull
3: the heavy bulb should not be hanging by a thin wire over our heads

Cooperstown to Allans Pensacola

Thursday May 22

We spent yesterday anchored outside Cooperstown and Chris rebuilt the waterpump and rewired the gauges. After several other tweakings we started the engine and everything works! No alarms, the alternator seems back with us and even the generator is not giving us an alarm light! Not too sure why it is all going so well, but why rock the boat? (heh heh). An impressive rainstorm dropped enough rain to half fill the dinghy and show us where the fresh leaks inside were. Unfortunately, it didn't manage to quell the brush fires.

Smoke from Abaco fires

So today, still working our way slowly west, we headed for Moraine Cay. The chart shows it to have nice coral areas for snorkeling, and we haven't had an opportunity to do much of that yet. We were about half the way there when we noticed the cooling water had stopped coming out the back. This water is what prevents the engine from overheating and if you don't have it the result can be some very expensive damage. Uh oh! Out with the anchor again. We lifted the lid to the engine compartment and ..it was full of sea water. Sigh. The hole where it had come in last time was still firmly stoppered. So off with the water pump (which is in a really awkward place) again, clean the raw water filter, change the water pump, doesn't work, take that water pump off, put the original water pump on again.....finally we found the problem. A hose had come off. It wasn't visible without a mirror and was fine last time we checked. But with all the replacing of pumps over the days it had wiggled loose and filled the engine compartment with super salty seawater.

Trying to get at the water pump - again!

Once everything was drained and rinsed we limped back to the nearest cay, Allans Pensacola, which was to have been our stop the following night. We got in past the boats already there and anchored in the shallower water. This was another very grassy area so we put on conchs back into the water. (With all the mechanical/electrical issues we hadn't been able to deal with them and they were a little past their best.) Then we launched the dinghy to the cay and followed a path over to the Atlantic side. This was absolutely lovely! The water was shallow and clear, as we were still on the Banks, but open to the Atlantic some miles away. Chris spotted a shark only about 3 feet from shore, swimming along the side looking for supper. (so no snorkelling there!) There were also several "signing" trees. Like Powell Cay, cruisers had found pieces of flotsam, signed them with their boat name and dates, and hung them up. Some pieces had been signed year after year by the same people.
One thing we have noticed on all the islands we have visited, the inhabited and uninhabited, is the large amount of plastic debris deposited by the wind and seas. Bottles, clothing, nets, styrofoam chunks, boxes, signs...
We are required to affix a plaque on our boat which lists how far offshore you have to be before you can dump something overboard. Near shore the list prohibits just about everything. The further offshore you go the more you are allowed to dump. But no matter where you are, you are never allowed to dump plastic.
Looking at these shores it is easy to understand why. Most of the stuff we see has not been deliberately dumped but it sure points out the lasting power of plastic.

Minnows in the grass at Allans Pensacola

White Sound to Cooperstown

Tuesday May 20

Yesterday we left White Sound and briefly stopped at the town on Green Turtle Cay, New Plymouth. It was also established by Loyalists and has an old New England flavour to it. We anchored offshore and took the dinghy into town to replenish my sadly depleted fishing supplies (with no fish to show for it), as well as a few groceries.
Dinghying back to the boat was quite a challenge as a sizeable chop had developed and we got pretty wet getting to, and trying to clamber back into the boat.

New Plymouth

Then we sailed west to Powell Cay where our friends recommended the conching. We really wanted to give this a try and managed to get one legal size conch and a Queen Helmet shell. The snorkelling was all in shallow water in grassy areas, which is where the conch live. There were lots of sea urchins there and our Queen Helmet was in the process of eating one when we found it. Quite a number of small colourful fish swam about. The Cay has a tree where visitors have hung flotsam on their branches. Old fenders, fishing nets, shoes, bikinis are all fair game.

Flotsam tree




Powell Cay - we're the only ones here



Water or air?

On the leg from Powell Cay across the water to Cooperstown (maybe a mile apart?) we started our engine and alarm bells sounded! Overheating! Again! So out went the anchor and Chris once again replaced the water pump and belt. Success! Both our alarm lights went out, even the one that had been on permanently for a few days. What a relief!

Until 15 minutes later when they all started blaring again! Oh well.....off with the motor, up with the sails, and we sailed to the shore north of Cooperstown where we anchored for the night.

We crossed a Whale??

Thursday, May 15

We moved north to Green Turtle Cay today, bypassing Marsh Harbour. We have learned that Geoff and Ruth on sister boat Geru are at Green Turtle and would like to get a chance to see them before they continue their way south. The route we chose took us out into the ocean for about four miles, then back into the shallower water via the Whale Channel. Getting into the ocean was quite something as there were huge swells rolling in, and the markers placed to show the narrow route out were described by our charts as "unreliable". This is where GPS is a big help and reassurance though of course our eyes are the final determiner. Once outside in the ocean we had to cross parallel with the swell before turning our back on the huge waves and passing through a very narrow entrance to the shallow area. We met a monohull coming towards us which emphasized the size of the swell as there were times we couldn't see his mast, other times when he seemed to be entirely out of the water. As for ourselves, the boat handled it well, riding the waves very comfortably. The swells were between 8 - 12 feet, and the water was that glorious turquoise colour that you wouldn't believe was real if you didn't see it with your own eyes.
Once we turned our back to the ocean the view ahead was quite disconcerting. The swells were racing ahead of us towards the reef and rocks, breaking all along the length. Somewhere in there was our entrance but it wasn't obvious to the naked eye. I always understood that where there were no breakers was the place to enter, but there were breakers everywhere. A catamaran was trying to exit this same channel. To our eyes it looked to be heading straight for a large rock we couldn't see but which was marked on the chart. As for ourselves, we followed our GPS route and the chart, but based on the other boat's line weren't sure we were right. Suddenly the other catamaran backed off and turned around, heading along the swells towards where we felt the correct route lay. We continued, being picked up and carried by the turquoise waves, and several times actually riding on a breaking wave as it's top collapsed into a froth of surf and spray. We were a lot happier when we had passed through where we surmised the channel entrance to be though the waves were still just as high and moving along as quickly. Looking back we could now see the large rock the other catamaran had been heading for - it was quite visible from this side and I don't know how they didn't see it earlier.
The whole ride was exhilarating and beautiful and we were able to enjoy it for quite a while longer before we turned again and left the area behind us. The wind was such that we could finally sail a bit, so put the headsail out and switched the engine off. The dinghy was bone dry after this roller coaster ride, handling it as professionally as the boat.

Chris opened the engine compartment to give it a bit of air and noticed the lower part was now full of seawater! There was dried salt over most of the engine and the batteries were sitting in salt water. Not good. Chris pumped out as much seawater as he could. Luckily the sailing was great, and we were at Green Turtle just after one. Geru was in a very sheltered lagoon, White Sound, and we needed the engine to get in there. But it wouldn't start! We tacked back and forth while Chris tried to get it going but there was no success. In the end we anchored just outside the entrance in a place appropriately named Joyless Point, though to be fair it was just as lovely as all the other anchorages we have enjoyed.

A small taste of the Whale,Atlantic side

Friday, May 16

We managed to get the motor going with the help of the generator and limped into White Sound, anchoring next to Geru. We spent a nice few hours with Geoff and Ruth and friends of theirs, and learned that we had crossed Whale Channel during a "rage".
Prior to coming to the Bahamas we had never heard of these, but our book says "a "rage"....needs your utmost respect.". Something to do with very strong opposing currents/winds/tides. Since arriving here the cruiser's radio is full of messages from people asking the state of the channel, their crossing of the channel, other people's crossing of the channel, etc. I think I'm happier we didn't know about it as it all turned out well in the end. Though I guess if we had known, we wouldn't have attempted the crossing in the first place.
Now Chris is working his way through the engine, and it seems as though the alternator is shot. Thinking it through we can probably manage to get back to the U.S. without it, but it means our batteries won't be charging while the engine is running. As the generator is also giving us warning lights after 10 or 15 minutes, we are going to have to be careful using too much power. Hopefully the solar panels will work well enough to be of help. We blocked off the hole where we felt the seawater had got in during the Whale crossing so hopefully that will be the end of that problem.

Sisters at White Sound

Hope Town

Views of Hope Town

Our dinghy - commandeered!
(center back)

Wednesday May 14

Yesterday we made a hop north and anchored just south of Hope Town. I was there 50 years ago as a child and would love to see it again. These days it is billed as a must see stop for visitors but I imagine all those years ago it was just beginning to establish itself as a get-away destination. We towed the dinghy for the first time and managed to get it full of sea water due to the very choppy, though shallow, waters.
Hope Town itself is a delight. The red and white striped lighthouse is home to the only remaining manned lighthouse in the Bahamas. The lodge I stayed at all those years ago has expanded into a lovely resort with fine snorkelling on the Atlantic side. The homes in the town, many of them rental cottages, are painted in pastel colours of every shade all of them looking as though the job was just done yesterday. Small gardens trail glowing boughs of bougainvillea, have oleander hedges and hibiscus bushes. There are blooms everyway, many of them new to me. Vehicles aren't allowed in the center of town making walking a pleasure. There are a few stores; a grocery, liquor store, some gift shops. One of the town's founders (1785) was Wyannie Malone, a Loyalist widow, who moved here to start a new life and there is a museum in town in a building similar to her original home.
Happily there is still a healthy local community on the island too as the many school children testify. We passed a uniformed group of young ones leaving school led by their teacher all singing rousing Christian hymns as they filed along the road on their way home. Later we found our dinghy had been commandeered by a group of excited young school boys who must have thought that anything that old and battered looking had to have been abandoned for them to find. We were cross-examined about the viability of the outboard before we were able to claim it back.
Since we arrived in Little Harbour we have been noticing plumes of smoke, and here in HopeTown we can see red glows at night coming from the mainland. It seems Abaco is suffering several out of control fires. They don't have the resources to combat anything of this magnitude and are having to basically let the fires burn themselves out.

Little Harbour, Abaco

Green Turtle in Little Harbour

Thursday, May 8 - 12

Moving a short distance up the coast got us to Little Harbour and the shallower waters between the cays and the mainland. Little Harbour was settled in the 1950s by a sculptor who established his studio and gallery there. These are still present, and Pete's Pub is run by his son. It is a small circular harbour with lots of mooring balls and surrounded by homes very reminiscent of modern cottage country in Canada. A quick look at real estate prices shows that these are astronomical. The harbour is almost full of boats despite the total lack of any facilities other than the bar. There are fishing charters operating out of here and as we are on the mainland, access by car to other parts of Abaco. One of the first things we noticed was that there are several green turtles living here, and they rise to the surface frequently to breathe and glance around. They are pretty timid and it's hard to get a photo of them. They are protected in this harbour, though local people can catch them elsewhere for food.
We visited Pete's in the late afternoon and had some killer rum punches (Pete's motto: "why walk when you can crawl"). We met some local ferry operators and a delivery captain. Some areas of the Abacos are still supposed to speak English accented similar to old English, vestiges of the Loyalist settlements, and we felt we could certainly discern that in the ferry captains. The pub's ceiling is hung with T-shirts sporting boat logos and place names, mainly from the States and after we left it got very busy. People must drive there, as well as having the cruiser traffic.
Twice largish rays jumped out of the water near our boat, arcing 3 or 4 feet into the air before reentering the water. Amazing in a place so full of boats and dinghys. There have been a lot of rays most of the places we have been since the Grand Banks but this is the first time we have seen them jump.
Maintenance wise we have been able to trace the wiring for the solar panels that are on the boat and have managed to hook them up. They seem to work though we have yet to determine how well. Our generator is giving us a red alarm light so Chris has accessed it to try and find the fault. So far he hasn't been able to fix it, but it seems to be something we can live with (carefully) until we can get back to the States.

SandyPoint Settlement to Cherokee, Abaco

Cherokee, Abaco

Wednesday, May 7

We left Sandy Point Settlement early to go around the south end of Abaco and up the east coast. The north of this coast has a line of reefs and cays bordering the perimeter of the island with shallow waters between them and the mainland. This is one of the more popular cruising grounds for boaters. There are also larger communities with stores and services and established holiday centers. Several parts of Abaco were settled by Loyalists from the U.S., and have also provided havens for people looking to get away from the U.S. Civil War and later conflicts. We decided to stop early at an anchorage in Cherokee with a beautiful white beach and turquoise lagoon before heading further north to Little Harbour. Already we are noticing that there are more and more houses bordering the coastline, and the community of Cherokee looks wealthier.
In the deeper waters bordering this part of the coast, we saw two huge dolphins. They were obviously a different type to the ones we were seeing in shallower waters. They looked like those dolphins but blown up with helium as their fins and tails seemed the usual size but the bodies were enormous! We'll have to check the book.

Sandy Point Settlement

Fishing boat at Sandy Point Settlement

Tuesday, May 6

We decided to try for the dock at the marina today, though as yet we have seen no signs of a dock master and our radio hails have not been answered. Chris wants to check/replace the various fuel filters on the engine, as well as a few other things, in order to try and solve our loss of power problem. He would rather do that at a dock than bobbing about. We waited for a gap in the line up of local boats getting gas, then tied up at the T-end of the dock. It turned out the dockmaster was out towing a broken down car somewhere along the road, so while we waited for him we walked around the town. It is a charming place, with just about every house well maintained with lovely plantings and tidy lawns. People were pleasant and helpful, though there were't many about. Apparently since the road went in a lot of residents are able to go to the larger communities for work.
When the dockmaster returned we bought fuel and got the rates for staying overnight. They were pretty hefty, but he also said we could stay where we were all day for free while we fixed our problem. That was really nice of him, and we took him up on the offer. We also filled our tanks with potable water for the first time since we left Brunswick. Nowhere in Miami felt their water was safe to drink (!) and in Bimini it was the same, though more understandable. As a result we have been pretty frugal with our fresh water use. On opening up our tanks at Sandy Point it turned out they were more than half full! This translates to us using less than a gallon a day between us for EVERYTHING since we left Brunswick 6 weeks ago! No wonder no one was anchoring downwind of us! A flipside of the frugality was that the water remaining in our tanks was growing large quantities of gross stuff even though we had given it a very healthy glug of chlorine when we filled them. Good thing we hadn't looked in there while we were using it.
Chris was able to change the fuel filters so we left the dock once the tide was high enough and anchored out where we were before.

Little Harbour Cay to Sandy Point Settlement

Sandy Point Settlement, with Government Dock at left, Marina dock at right

Monday, May 5

Today we left Little Harbour Cay at 7, with Sandy Point Settlement,Abaco as our destination. Abaco is the second largest island in the Bahamas (about 100 miles long) and is on the eastern edge of Little Bahama Banks. This is similar to the Grand Banks with shallow clear waters, but separated from it by deep ocean waters. So we had deep ocean to cross. With the water being deeper we again had several tankers along our path, and a Coast Guard vessel criss-crossing the area around us. We think it was a U.S. vessel, but can't be sure. Sandy Point Settlement is on the west side of the southern part of Abaco, and only relatively recently got a road to it. Until then it was quite isolated. Few cruisers visit it as it is on the very shallow side of Abaco,and not part of the more popular cruising grounds which are to the north and east of the island.
We arrived at low tide, with just a foot and a half of water under the boat. On the way we had engine problems with the engine losing power very noticeably and the revs going down and we were hoping to dock at the marina there. With the low tide the marina dock looked really high off the water so we decided we would anchor out until morning.
Sandy Point is certainly a fishing settlement, with small local boats coming to the marina dock all day for fuel, then zipping off again to set their nets or look for conch and fish. Larger U.S. sports fishers seem to be fairly common here too. We saw two or three during our stay.