Friday, January 30, 2009

WATER WATER EVERYWHERE . . .

. . . but not a drop to drink.

Fresh water on Charmed has rarely been an issue. We carry 260
gallons. In the states we made sure we could take on some diesel fuel
every week or so, and we would take on water at the same time. A sort
of tit for tat. We have never needed to conserve water, though we
probably should have just for the good of it. Now we are conserving.
First, water is not free here in the Bahamas. Second, availability is
a much different issue. Until now we have still easily been able to
dock Charmed and take on water and fuel. But today we decided to haul
water in the dinghy twenty gallons at a time to top the tank, just in
case we depart for points south where water will not be available, and
in case we cannot easily get to the one marina here in George Town,
Exuma Docking Services. Exuma Docking Services is a fair marina, but
they have no diesel fuel, and staying a night on the edge of the open
bay is not worth $2.00 per foot. We don't know what their position
would be if we wanted to just stop for sixty or eighty gallons of
water.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

BLACK POINT TO GEORGE TOWN

We live by the weather.

Last Sunday we had hoped to depart Black Point and get half way to
George Town. Then Monday would also be a short voyage. The winds
were forecast to strenghten over the next several days, we predicted
Monday would be a roughish ride, and we thought that if we didn't make
George Town Monday we would be stopped wherever we were for many days.
The voyage from Black Point to George Town would be best if we could
sail in Exuma Sound, on the ocean or out side. The maybe last twenty
miles to George Town must be done in the Sound.

At 0900 Sunday we stuck our noses out Dothan Cut, and found seas
breaking across the whole cut, from rock side to rock side. We had
planned our departure so our arrival at the next cut was slack,
knowing we would have fewer options if that cut was rough. We decided
against departing Dothan Cut for the Sound and sailed the inside, the
Exuma Bank, as far as we could reasonably go, before it all gets too
shallow. We made Cave Cay.

At 0700 Monday we departed Cave Cay Cut for the Sound for the final
leg to George Town. The cut was medium rough. The Sound was medium
rough. It would have been great if we had made better mileage the day
before.

George Town is home to many hundred locals. There are two hundred
foreign boats here. There are two grocery stores. More liquor
stores. Two gas stations. One marina. Two laundries. One laundry
looks fair. The other laundry looks rough. We haven't fully
acclimated to George Town yet. Every morning we listen to Radio Free
George Town and imagine we will be in the know soon!

Saturday, January 24, 2009

WARDERICK TO CAMBRIDGE TO STANIEL TO BLACK POINT

We just landed at Black Point after an uneventful voyage from Staniel
Cay. There is a great laundry here so while Debbie is drying, I am
blogging . . . .

The last few days have been an Island Packet vous with Jay Sea Dee,
Plan Sea, Morning Wind, and others nearby. Highlights include a
snorkeling marathon at Cambridge, guided by John of Jay Sea Dee.
First the Dundas Rocks, which are caves you swim into. Then the south
beach of Cambridge Cay. Then the Sea Aquarium north of Cambridge.
Then to the sunken airplane north of Cambridge. Five dinghies
schooled together for miles, zipping from one great sea floor to
another. We are happy to have a Yamaha 15! You can't do what we did
without having a dinghy that will easily take you five miles around a
loop.

Leaving Cambridge Cay was exciting. We dinghied to the cut that we
had to negotiate, to inspect, and all looked fine. By the time we got
the big boats, Jay Sea Dee, Lady, and Charmed, to the cut, conditions
had worsened. Seas were bumpy and bows were repeatedly buried for a
stretch of about 300 yards.

Staniel Cay was good for the Thunderball Club. Their specialty on
Friday night is grilled Ribs or Chicken, three dollar drinks from Pifi
during Happy Hour, and a pool table whose coin mechanism is broken.
Kathy of Morning Wind played pool for the first time in her life.
Jenny beat Charlie. Staniel Cay was also good for fuel and water, our
tanks are full again.

It looks like we may be off to Rudder Cay tomorrow, staging for a
Monday run to Georgetown. All of the recent sails have been very
short. The run to Georgetown will be a long half day in Exuma Sound.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

IT'S JUST NOT RIGHT!

We had hoped to move out of Warderick Wells today, thinking the strong
cold front would reach and then pass us last night. Winds are still
up so we have decided to hang here one more day. Tomorrow we should
have bright and clear skies and lighter winds.

But what's not right is the temperature! Last night we had to get
blankets out. Debbie is back to wearing her flannel pants. We wonder
how to get some of our Bahamas Cruising Permit refunded. It's only
fair if we have to suffer unseasonable temperatures.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

THERE IS THIS UNNAMED ISLET . . . .

We don't know how big a speck of land has to be to be called a Cay or
an Island, but within a mile of the mooring here is this little speck
of land. One side fronts the bay we are moored in. Another side
fronts a cut between the Exuma Bank and the Exuma Sound. Snorkeling
there was fun. Schools of fish could be watched in the cut. Nassau
grouper could be spotted around the ledges of the land and around the
coral near it. There were many different tropical fish. No live
lobster, but half of the shell of a dead one. The most interesting
fish on this snorkel tour were the lionfishes.

GENOA FURLING LINE

The good news, two solutions to our furling line issue are in play.
One fellow cruiser lies Georgetown anchorage and has line available
from a first stalled, then cancelled, project on their boat. We will
likely meet up with this cruiser in the next ten days to two weeks.
Another fellow cruiser lies Nassau and purchased line for us there.
We will likely slow our movement south in order for this cruiser to
catch us in some anchorage before Georgetown. In any event we should
have a new furling line, and then a spare before long.

The better news, the weather is allowing us to explore Warderick and
snorkel some. We will be off to Cambridge Cay tomorrow morning if the
cold front moves through tonight as forecast. Then it looks like four
or more days of lower winds, which would allow us to move or explore
the Sound or Bank side of the Exumas as we wish.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

WARDERICK WELLS

Charmed is now hanging on Mooring 13 at Warderick Wells, 24 23.687N,
76 37.942W, the center of the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. The Park
Ranger moved us this morning from Mooring 19, where she had put us
yesterday when we arrived. Mooring 19 is for boats up to ninety feet
long.

The path from Chub Key was through Nassau Harbor to Rose Island, then
to Highborne Cay, then to Warderick. Weather has been only fair, too
windy and not enough sun. It seems a string of cold fronts is coming
at us one right after another. The next front may keep us hunkered
down here until Wednesday because of high winds. But it is a
beautiful place to be hunkered down. Today we walked two miles over
Hutia Hill to see the surf of Exuma Sound pounding the Cay. We
returned by way of Boo Boo Hill. We will do the beaches and snorkel
over the next several days if we sit tight.

There have been two boat issues that have caused some grief. The
first, our EPIRB went off for a brief period last Thursday,
unbeknownst to us. Only after a fellow cruiser dinghied over this
morning did we know friends Carey and Hayden were wondering about us.
United States Air Force Search and Rescue had called Carey. We have
been in close and constant contact with numerous boats and marinas by
VHF. It still took several days to get a message to us to call home.
We may need to rethink putting a satellite phone on the boat. I guess
if the EPIRB had stayed on, and if position information had been
transmitted, a search for us would have been conducted. Once back in
the states the EPIRB is going back to ACR for testing. We cannot
explain why it went off. The Air Force did tell us, false firings
happen all the time.

The second issue, our genoa furling line parted! The line was less
than two years old. It parted midway between bow and stern when the
genoa was reefed to about a second reef point. It looks like it was a
clean break. There was little chafe if any where the line broke, or
anywhere along the line. When it broke seas were about three to five
feet. Winds were twenty-something knots, gusting to thirty. No
pounding or bad motion. Nothing about the conditions would normally
cause concern. It was easy enough once the line parted to furl the
sail from the tail that I could put my hands on while at the bow. So
at this point we have a used furling line, borrowed from Sailing
Vessel Lady. We will be able to use the genoa when reefing is not
anticipated. Hopefully we will be able to replace the genoa furling
line, and get a spare that would work for any of the furling lines,
once we get to Georgetown.

In any event, all is well, very, very well!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

CHARMED FLYING BAHAMAS FLAG

It turns out we are one day later than planned clearing in at Chub
Cay. With little to no wind for crossing from No Name Harbor to Gun
Cay, and then onward over the Grand Bahama Bank, we anchored out twice
before coming into the Chub Cay Marina this morning. Sunday afternoon
we anchored right in the middle of the Bank, early enough for a
refreshing swim in daylight. It was eery anchoring in ten feet of
water with nothing on any horizon but Bahama blue water. However, it
was beautiful and still all night with the added advantage of the moon
being full. Monday afternoon we anchored outside of the marina
harbor. No sense checking into a relatively high priced marina right
before closing. The Chub Cay anchorage was fair to good. Good
swimming. Safe enough, but with a constant gentle roll. We came into
the marina this morning about 0900. We were cleared into the Bahamas
and swimming in the Infinity Pool by 1100.

The idea is that we will sit here for just one day. With winds
hopefully changing as forecast to northwest or north, we will be in
good position to make Nassau, or even Allan's Cay tomorrow. We do not
intend to get off the boat in Nassau. We might just anchor in the
harbor, or anchor off Athol Island. We are thinking we have some
upcoming weather that we are going to have to sit through before making the
Exumas.


Sailing Vessel Charmed

Saturday, January 10, 2009

STAGED IN NO NAME HARBOR

We arrived in No Name Harbor yesterday after our friends, Eva and Ed from Makai, assured us there was plenty of room. Indeed, we are all quite comfortable here. Lady (Jenny and Charlie) is here as well and we are all leaving tomorrow for the Bahamas! Craig and I are ready!! It's a gorgeous day today and the weather window looks near perfect. We plan to check in at Chub Cay and meander down the Exumas to Georgetown, stopping as we please for as long as please along the way. We'll skip Nassau on the way south and consider stopping when we come back north. Also joining us on the trek over are new friends we just met here, Phil and Sarah on Spartina. It is going to be fun (and comforting!) to travel with others, especially since this is our first time over. Today we are doing last-minute (very, very minor) chores, visiting, walking and enjoying the park. We do not think we will have any cell communication while in the Bahamas. While our service provider, Verizon, promises we will (for a steep price, of course), we have heard from others that we will not have service. If that proves true, we'll turn our service off for a few months. In any event, we expect that our only communication will be via email and Skype. What an adventure!!

Monday, January 5, 2009

OFFSHORE TO MIAMI

Karen and Gary were able to join us for the offshore run from North Lake Worth to Miami Beach on January 4. They drove two cars from Stuart to Lake Worth, leaving one at the train station and one the Publix and came aboard at 6:30 a.m. We were anchor up at 6:45 a.m. It was a "Don't NOAA" day, with seas higher than predicted (but winds only slightly higher than predicted), so it was a bit rolly to start. As the day progressed, the seas calmed and overall it was a beautiful, sunny and fun day. We loved having Karen and Gary with us. I think we talked non-stop! We only had two exciting moments. First, four hours before we reached Miami Beach, the autopilot failed, so we had to hand steer. Craig took the helm first, but then Karen and Gary wanted to sail as well. You see them here confidently at the helm of Charmed. They were great, sailing like experts! Our next exciting event was going into the inlet at Miami Beach ... with four cruise ships coming out! Those ships are HUGE and sure make the inlet look SMALL. Craig did great, even bucking 2 knots of current. We were anchor down by 5:30 p.m., and Craig dinghied Karen and Gary to shore to meet with other friends for dinner and then catch the train back to Lake Worth to retrieve their cars and head for home. It was a lot of work for them, and we appreciated the effort so they could join us.

CHARMED GETS A FLYOVER!


On Saturday, January 3, as we motored down the ICW from Vero Beach to Lake Worth, our friend Jim (Wind Runner) gave us a flyover in his yellow Cessna 180 on his way to West Palm Beach. He said he looked at hundreds of boats before he found us! We loved it! Later, we anchored in North Lake Worth and Jim drove his rental car up to meet us and have dinner. All in all, it was wonderful day, with sunny skies and a visit from a good friend!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

THE CYCLE OF LIFE


It was a wonderful holiday surprise when Gary Goforth called the other day. Gary is an old friend from school days. We were able to meet in Vero for a short reunion, a drink or two on Charmed and then dinner out. And Gary and wife Karen may be able to join us tomorrow for the sail from North Lake Worth to Mijami. (By the way, be careful when you contact your cruising friends. We stuck Karen with driving us to West Marine and Walmart for a few things.)