Homeward looking angel

5/14/09

Carrabelle, Fl C-quarters marina. Slip 50.

Author: Doug

"Home is the sailor, home from the sea.

And the hunter home from the hill."

-Robert Louis Stevenson

Today was a bittersweet mix of emotions for me. It is about 60 nm from Stienhatchee to Carrabelle, but there is no protection so the run can be quite nasty. We had pretty weather though, with a 10 knot east wind making for nice following seas and Morgan rolled happily along, clicking off the miles. This trip took us the furthest offshore we have been since we crossed the Gulf Stream. It was nice, in a way, to be out of sight of land and the inevitable ending that landfall brings.

After three days of open water steering, Kyle has gotten the hang of it and he was able to take a lot of the work off of my shoulders. Even in following seas he left a nice straight wake, much improved over his early attempts when he was even swervier than Jack, our drunken autopilot.

So I puttered around the boat, fixing little things and thinking about our trip. It was a good feeling in many ways, I am proud of so many things, proud that my family is such a good and cheerful crew, proud that we all learned so much and got along so well, proud that we found that we could live with less, proud of our old boat and how she took us through 1,600 miles of sometimes rough conditions without a single breakdown. But I regret that the trip is all but over, I could have happily kept heading south. And as great a crew as Kyle makes, I missed Jen and the boys.

We caught another nice King or two on the way but really, it was another uneventful passage, memorable only in that it was the last of so many that came before it.

About 3:00 we saw the pines and dunes of Bald Point well inshore off the starboard bow, skirted South Shoal which was a pretty, bright clear green, and then raised Dog Island, our home beach, dead ahead. From there it was an easy run up the Carrabelle River to our home slip.

Everything was the same as when we left it, the dock lines were still hanging on the piling hooks, because of the familiar cross current I had to make my usual two tries before I hit the slip, and my friend Tom who lives at the marina, was waiting there with his dog Ellie to give us a hand. We had dinner at The Fisherman's Wife (no one does it as well as they do) and watched the sun set in its old familiar place behind the bridge. That's the real rub of cruising, everything was the same as when we left, but we had changed forever.

The next day Jen came down to the boat to take Kyle and I home and we spent a long morning cleaning up.

When we were back at Great Sale Cay we were concerned about running out of fresh water so our friends on Mucho Gusto used their watermaker to pump 12 gallons into our emergency jugs. As it turned out we didn't need it and as I was scrubbing the foredeck where our jugs are stored I realized that they were still full. It struck me that this was actual Bahamian water (albeit magically made fresh) and I thought foolishly for a moment of bringing it home and drinking it like some fine wine.

But I knew this wouldn't work, so I used it to rinse the soap from the decks where it poured out of the scuppers, mixed for a fraction of a second with our home waters, then disappeared into memory.

Total miles traveled: 1,572

Ports visited: 23

Diesel Fuel burned: 475 gallons

Dinghy Gas burned: 14 gallons

Nights spent aboard: 37

Nights at anchor: 26

Working our way up the gulf coast

5/11/09 to 5/14/09

Steinhatchee, Sea Hag Marina

Author: Doug

Monday, 5/11 we popped outside at Boca Grande Pass in the morning, passing through the swash channel right along the beach. There were about 30 tarpon boats in the pass, not as many as I expected, honestly for such a pretty day in May. The gulf was calm and nice until the early afternoon when the wind picked up from the NW. It was rough enough to be a little uncomfortable, so we went back inside at Venice Inlet and continued up the ICW to the Bradenton Beach where we anchored just south of the Cortez bridge. I have to say that I like the location of this anchorage, with its nice dinghy dock and tons of place to eat along bridge street but the permanent live aboard boats here are really seedy. Some of them give boaters a bad name as they are basically squatting here. Some of the boats even have gaping holes in the decks. Even though we had no problems, I'm not sure I'll stay here again. This would be a good place for a city run mooring field and no anchoring. We took the dinghy in to eat at a cool little place called the banana cabana that we saw on the way up. Unfortunately it was closed, so we went back to the boat and grilled out.

Tuesday, 5/11, we went out into the open gulf past Eggmont and had a really nice easy run all the way outside to Tarpon Springs. There was bait showering everywhere and Kyle caught a nice king. We got a bunch of Spanish as well, enough that we finally decided that we needed to get in the lines so that we could make better time. Tied up at Anclote Harbor Marina, nice enough people but just an OK stopover. It is a really long walk to town. We had dinner at a tiki bar (forgot the name) that was filled with smokers, gator fans and other undesirables. A couple of guys borrowed our fillet knife and gave us two AJ fillets and two Red Snapper Fillets as a thank you.

Wednesday, 5/12, today was a long day, 13 hours, to Steinhatchee. It was a little rolly in the morning but calmed down as the day went on. We cleared the Stienhatchee sea bouy a little before sunset and tied up at the Sea Hag. They have a great floating dock here (easy to hit, I like that) but the 50 amp power plug is a jury rig, and pretty corroded. I figured Kyle has more kids than me, so I took the risk and plugged us in. It was that or no air conditioning, not really an option as it is hot this far up the river. Kyle made an awesome glaze from blackstrap rum, Matouks hot sauce and sugar which we painted on the grilled fish. Best dinner of the trip.

Cabbage Key

5/10/09

Author: Doug

Pelican harbor, Cayo Costa

My buddy Kyle Reed drove in from West Palm (after flying from Denver) today and we pulled out of Fort Myers and started the delivery trip north to Carrabelle. Since we left about 1:00 we just made a short three hour run up to the North end of Cayo Costa where we anchored in Pelican Bay. This is a really great and very popular anchorage, due to it's good protection from all winds, large size and close proximity to the pretty sands of Cayo Costa state park.

Kyle and I went swimming from the boat, then launched the dinghy and ran it to Cabbage Key. I went around the key the back way, probably a mistake, as it was super shallow, even for the dinghy, and mostly an idle zone. But since I had managed to run us up on a flat to shallow to idle on, I took the chance and ran it on a plane, giving a ton of redfish the fright of their lives.

Cabbage Key is a very cool place, and since they sell Mount Gay rum, we took the opportunity to have a few.

Back at the big boat (took the deep route this time) we grilled steaks and watched the sunset. Not quite the Bahamas, but still pretty good.

West across the OWW

5/4/09 through 5/10/09



Peck Lake to Fort Myers



Author: Doug


We had an uneventful, though long crossing from Peck Lake near Stuart through the Okeechobee Waterway, very different from our trip East. In the time we were gone the weather changed from winter to early summer. The devil's mud puddle was calm, instead of short steep 4 footers and the locks were still instead of wind tunnels.


This time we stayed in Clewiston at Roland Martin's Marina, an OK place, there were three or four other boats tied up there. The water level was down to 5 feet in the channel and we had to wait for both the St. Lucie and Franklin locks, as they were on restricted openings to conserve water. There is a really nice lock master at the Franklin lock which is near Fort Myers. He remembered us from our East bound trip and spoke with us for a while about our trip and traveling with kids. The Caloosahatchee river was packed with rolling tarpon.

Jen and the boys drove back home on the 7th and I stayed in Fort Myers, catching up on work and doing boat tasks.

We had been having issues holding a charge on our new house bank, so I rewired the alternator on the port side (necessitating a ten mile round trip bike ride to West Marine) thinking it was the problem then found out that that alternator wasn't putting out power at all.

I also adjusted the hinges on the fridge which seemed to help. Then I did an oil and filter change and changed the fuel filters on both engines. Since clean fuel is so important to diesels, I was really glad to see that the fuel filters were very clean after 150 engine hours, much of it in rough water which would stir up anything in our tanks if they were dirty.


The day we packed the boat to head for the Bahamas I stood by the bulkhead dividing the forward cabin (where the boy's sleep) from the galley, "the mess stops here, no mess aft of this bulkhead," I said, "but you can do whatever you want with your cabin." Well, they took me at my word, in a remarkably short time the two shelves (one for Bryce, one for Simon) in their clothes locker had merged into one, and they were wearing each other's clothes, no mean feat for Bryce who is 4 years older.

One day Jen, after working up the courage to pass the forward bulkhead barrier yelled out "it smells like a gerbil in here!" Instead of cleaning their cabin Bryce and Simon decided it would be easier to create an imaginary gerbil named Bob, who lived in Simon's pillow, thereby explaining the smell.

It took me a while, and quite a bit of cleaning spray to get the forward cabin clean.

My parents drove all the way home from North Carolina Saturday, arriving late that night and I was able to spend Mother's Day morning with my mom, a real treat for me.

Back in the USA

5/2/09

Author: Doug

After crossing the banks from Great Sale we pulled into Old Bahama Bay Marina, where they put us only one slip away from the spot they put us in when we were there a month before. The boys and Jen swam in the great pool they have there, while I did an engine check to get us ready for the Gulf Stream. I also gave the boat a good fresh water washdown, its first in a couple of weeks in this dry country. They charge you a flat ten dollars a day for water at OBB, so I made sure to get my money's worth. Right after I finished it rained like crazy. Go figure.

While we were there we met up with a few people we had seen in various anchorages on our trip, including Bill and Ruth on Happy Ours, a Krogen whaleback and Sheldon and Sharon on Toi Boat, a 62 foot motor yacht. We all talked about the great forecast we had for the next day's crossing. One of the best things about cruising is the sense of community we feel with other boaters, everyone helps everyone else out. The trawler people really stick together.

The next day we had an really comfortable stream crossing, the forecast was for two feet or less, 10 knots from the SE. For the most part NOAA was right on the money, though it was a little rough for an hour or so on the Eastern edge of the stream. It was calm enough that we went North with the flow of stream and came in at the St. Lucie inlet rather than Lake Worth, which made for an 11 mile longer crossing but meant that we didn't have to go up the ICW from Lake Worth to Stuart and shortened our trip by a day.

The Coast Guard was boarding boats about 20 miles East of the US coast, they stopped all three boats that left with us, but we somehow managed to slip through the net.

It was real culture shock leaving the slow, friendly, comfortable pace of the Bahamas then coming through the inlet passed, buzzed and waked by every sort of imaginable high speed vessel from huge sportfisherman and bleach jug boats down to center consoles. I was white knuckled.

About two miles out of the inlet we narrowly avoided a serious collision with some fool in a bow rider type cruiser. He wasn't paying attention and came up on us so fast I couldn't maneuver out of his way. He was approaching from our port so we had right of way, though I doubt if he knows, or cares about the rules of the road. I had to give him a blast with our air horn to wake him up and he swerved aft of us at the last possible second, missing us by maybe 10 feet. He hung both our trolled fishing lines. If he had hit us someone would have died, most likely him as Morgan weighs 25,000 pounds and her hull is an inch thick. There is a special place in hell for him, I'm sure.

We spent that night at Peck lake. Amazingly, the boys were too tired to go to the beach and just swam off the boat for a while.

Crossing the Banks

Author: Doug

5/1/09

Great Sale to West End

Had perfect weather for crossing the banks to West End, a 43 mile run. It was sunny, calm and bright which accentuates the air like clarity of this water and allows you to see everything that swims by or lays on the bottom.

Knowing that this was our last day in the "real" Bahamas (West End is a little too much like Disney to be the Bahamas) made this perfect run bittersweet for all of us.

This is not the end, we kept telling each other. We will be back. Soon.

On to Great Sale

4/28/09

Author: Doug

We left Carters early in the am and headed on the short, 15 mile downwind run to Great Sale Cay. While still strong the wind moderated just a bit so it was a really nice run. When we got in the lee of Great Sale it was actually really calm and nice, so we slowed down and trolled hard in this fishy area. Caught a couple Ceros and a couple barracuda.

Dropped the hook in the main anchorage on GS. We have spent a number of nights

here since '07 so we know it well. With our shallow draft we sneak WAY in, and even gain some South-SW protection. Not that we needed it this time, it blew steady from the East and it was perfectly calm in there.

No weather forecasts are available unless you have Sirius or SSB between GTC and West End, we have neither so we rely on other boats to help us out. For this reason and many others we were super glad to see our friend on Mucho Gusto roll in to the anchorage the day after we did.

I was towing the boys in the tube behind the dinghy when they came in. They were all waving to us so we circled the boat (at high speed) to say hello. Picked up their fishing line. Nice move on my part. No harm done though and we pulled Tim, Jess and Jenny in the tube to make up for it. Had drinks and dinner on their cat that night. It was big fun.

Spent three nights at GS waiting for a window to cross the gulf stream. Caught a few bonefish, Bryce hooked, but lost his first bonefish ever.

Spent a lot of time on the beach there. This is where our friends on Happy Hours saw and photographed the strange wild cat in the first pic. They say it was a little larger than a bobcat. Can't figure out what it was. Any ideas?

Bonefish Missle Crisis Anchorage

4/27/09

Author: Doug

Allen's Pensacola to Carter's Cays.

Left Allen's Pensacola and had a two and half hour run to Carter's Cays. Very strong winds again.

Back in Green Turtle the Vienna Sausages told us about a seldom visited cay called Carters. They said the anchorage is well protected and that there is an abandoned missile tracking station there that the boys would love. Even though they get around using "a really great map with lots of colors and numbers and stuff on it" we took their word for it.

We trolled up some barracuda and a bunch of big Cero Mackerel on the way.

The wind howled on our beam as we crossed a very hairy shallow flat to get in to the tiny harbor. The whole way in Jen and I second guessed ourselves for trusting them. But when we finally got in, they were right, it was really calm in there. Other than some unattended commercial lobster boats rotting at their moorings we were the only souls there. In fact it seemed like we were the only people who had been there since the Reagan administration.

We took the dinghy and went exploring and found, you guessed it, a great little beach. At the top of the bluff above the beach were some abandoned military style buildings. I took the opportunity to fill the boys heads with stories about underground missile stations, and told them there were probably people tracking our every step. There was also a freaky little road to nowhere and a huge wrecked satellite looking dish thing. Dr. No lives. We also talked about the Cuban Missile Crisis and why a place like that existed during the 1960s and 1970s. It was a great history lesson, but the whole island still has a weird, spooky vibe.

It blew hard again that night, but the anchors stuck like glue. The next morning I found another bonefish flat (I'm making it sound hard, it was right next to the big boat, I could have swum to it) and went fishing. Almost a carbon copy morning of the day before at Allen's Pensacola. I got three more bones from 7 to 10 lbs. The first pic is taken from the big boat of me wading the flat. My second best all time morning of bonefishing.

Bonefish and Sea Glass

Author: Doug

4/26/09

We left Green Turtle in the morning and covered about three hours to Allen's Pensacola.

Still had very strong winds, they have settled into a pattern of Easterlies around 15 to 20 knots in the morning increasing to about 25 by afternoon. They lay down a little sometime after midnight. The good news is that we are heading west, so the seas are behind us, which is much nicer than having them on the nose like we did on the way here. Also, it has been sunny and nice every day for weeks.

We had a pretty nice run this day, hanging in the shelter of Green Turtle and Mun Jack. The Mun Jack channel was a little rough, but otherwise OK. We learned our anchoring lesson about Allen's Pensacola and took our time finding a really nice sand hole to drop the hook. We also set two anchors right from the start. Though it blew really hard in the night we didn't drag at all.

Took the dinghy back to our little hidden cove, the tide was way out, so the swimming wasn't as good, but we found a lot of nice sea glass and conch shells. I caught a tailing trigger fish on the flats by the beach, but no bonefish. We saw a big boat called "Toi Boat" there, they have tons of room, complete with a little motor cycle on deck.

The next morning I got up early and bonefished yet another flat at Allen's Pensacola. The flat was COVERED with big tailing bones, I saw 500 plus in two hours. I caught and released three near or over double digit fish. It was amazing, the best bonefishing of my life. At one point I had a fish on and a school of maybe 70 other fish swim around my legs. They literally parted and swam around me, without really spooking. Pretty amazing fishing. Jen and the boys got a lot of

schoolwork done, Bryce has been concentrating on spelling and Simon has been working hard on his journal.

Heading home

Author: Doug
Black Sound, Green Turtle Cay

Our forecast for today:
TODAY...Our strong to near gale force winds early this morning will settle in to fresh to strong winds ENE-E@20-25K/Atlantic seas 8-11ft

We spent a nice day at Man Jack Cay which is just west of Green Turtle. We anchored in the southern anchorage and took the dinghy north to a pretty sea of abaco side beach, then hiked across the island to an ocean side beach. There are only two houses on Man Jack, but the island's owners are very friendly to cruisers, they even provide free internet in the main anchorage. The only thing they ask is that you pick up trash when you are on the island. The islands motto is "no trash on man jack." As a result it is probably the most pristine of all the abaco islands.

Jen, the boys and I did our part, we hauled ocean side beach trash to a trash pile for about 45 minutes. We built up a pretty big pile really quick. What is it with the lost shoes? We picked up 14 trashed shoes (none of them matching). It makes me kind of sick to think about how much trash gets dumped in the ocean. We can't go on like this forever.

We had a really rolly windy night in the anchorage so we decided to come back here to Green turtle for one last night of "civilization" before heading NW and back toward home. Our plan is to head for Allen's Pensacola tomorrow.

How the Bahamas were formed

Author: Bryce

Man Jack Cay SE Anchorage

Only a small part of the Bahamas are actually above water. The rest are submerged banks that are twenty feet or less deep. The water surrounding the banks is thousands of feet deep.

This happened because hundreds of millions of years ago the banks were built up by the formation of coral reefs and other rocks. That coral then became Limestone. Limestone is a soft, spongy porous rock.

About 200 million years ago the ice caps formed and the water level dropped a considerable amount leaving the Bahama Banks exposed to the waves. The highest of the rock and coral formations poked above the surface and became the actual islands. Soil and sand washed up onto the coral islands with the wind and waves. This formed the beaches and allowed plants to grow on the rocky islands.

Now days the limestone is being eroded away by the waves beating against the soft rock. This leaves gaping holes in the limestone forming overhanging cliffs, rocks and caves. That will eventually collapse. You can see evidence of this erosion in the pictures I posted here. We took these near Marsh Harbor.

As the rock is broken down new land is being formed by the growth of the coral reefs. This is why we have to protect the reefs. If we don't, someday the Bahamas and other island chains like them will be gone.

Come sit with me under the poisonwood tree

Author: Doug

Black Sound Marina, Green Turtle Cay

"The secret to living in Hope Town is to live approximately" Written on the wall in Vernon's Grocery, Elbow Cay.

OK, it was truly perfect weather today. Sunny, about 80 degrees, moderate NE to E trade winds. As I'm typing this at the galley table I can look out the port and see a sky full of stars. The air feels and smells of the tropics.

Monday's forecast caled for a "vigorous ridge of low pressure" to come through on Tuesday with wind gusts to 40 knots and a lot of rain. So we went back to Hope Town harbor (poor us) and picked up a mooring to take advantage of its 360 degree protection. Also, there is a lot to do there that is not neccesarily weather dependent.

The forecasters were wrong. Again. It was a beautiful day.

One of the things I have come to love about this part of the world is that they let you discover things, good and bad, for yourself. A few days ago when we were in Hope Town we wandered about the streets like knuckleheads, thinking there must be a beach around somewhere. There are no "BEACH THAT WAY" signs like we would have in the US. We even considered renting a golf cart to go to one. But we never found the surf and sand.

Allow me to digress. In the light of no good deed going unpunished, if you have followed our blog you know of our firefight in the scrub on Allen's Pensacola. There is a tree that grows in tropical places called a poisonwood tree. They grow profusley on Allen's Pensacola. I'm quite allergic to Poison Ivy. As I know now, I'm also allergic to poisonwood. Somehow I got exposed to this foul, mean spirited, sorry excuse for vegetation, most likely while I was hauling buckets of water up to pour on these very same plants to save them from burning. If I'd known then what I know now I would have laughed while I watched the whole darn island go up in flames.

It started in one tiny spot, but soon My legs and one arm itched. They itched a lot. And they broke out into a rash. Then they oozed, and swelled too. I needed a clinic.

So I went to the clinic in Hope Town. I don't want to pass Dixie Chicks style judgement on my own country, but man, it is easy to get minor health matters taken care of here. Thirty six dollars and thirty five minutes later I was on my way to feeling much better. Also, the clinic was on the road on the way to the beach. So we went. It was a wonderful ocean side beach with breathtaking water colors and pink sand.

The boys and I also discovered a spot on the Sea of Abaco side of the cay where someone dumped a barge, two big boats, two cars and a VW bus (circa 1970) in about 1o feet of water. When we snorkeled the area it was covered in fish of all types. The most we have seen anywhere, including mermaid reef. Simon and Bryce loved that one of the boats had an intact toilet seat inside. Right next to the lionfish, just past the school of rainbow runners.

Wednesday morning we left early for Guana Cay. There is a famous bar and grill there called Nippers which sits high on a dune overlooking yet another perfect ocean side beach. It was our favorite stop in 2007 so we were all looking forward to going back. The boys found some sea glass there and what we think is ambergris. We also bought a really cool conch shell horn from a guy named Milo (don't pay his first price). Bryce can really make it ring, Jen is worried he is going to pop a blood vessel or something.

We left Guana that afternoon and traversed the Don't Rock again on on our way here to Green Turtle where we picked up a slip at Black Sound Marina.

There are 7 guys here in the slip next to us. They arrived just before we did in an old beat up catamaran of indeterminate origin, no more than 32 feet long. They all just graduated from med school at the University of Tennessee, decided to buy a boat in Pensacola and sail it to the Bahamas. Never mind that they didn't really know how to sail, they figured it out as they went along. Seven guys on a small boat is a lot, one of our other dock neighbors said he peeked in the cabin this morning (about 10 am) while they were all still sleeping. He said it looked like a can of Vienna sausages. Their dinghy motor is older than I am.

But they are out here doing it and I respect them for it. At their age, or any age why not take a chance? They may never have the opportunity again.

Today we slept late then dinghyed/walked to Bita Bay. Bita is hard to describe, it is an ocean beach but is actually a shallow cove formed by a large reef and a tiny island that sit just offshore. There is good snorkeling in the protected waters of the shallow cove. Though it was supposed to be windy, 15 to 20 knots, the wind never really came up. Darn near perfect.

The boys put in a few hours of school work again today. They are so fortunate have a supportive principal and teachers.

Tomorrow we head for Mun Jack Cay. Hope the weather holds.

What's for dinner? Mutton, Honey

Author: Doug

On a mooring, Hope Town Harbor

Thursday, we had nice weather so we left Green Turtle and decided to head for Marsh harbor. Marsh is "south of the Whale" which means that it, along with the other islands in what is known as the hub of the Abacos is on one side of the Whale Cay passage. Green turtle is on the other.

Going through the Whale requires about a 4 mile stretch in the open Atlantic, out one potentially bad inlet and in through another. The Whale is known for reaching a sea state that the locals call a "rage," which means the seas break all the way across the inlet. Very nasty and totally impassable. One of the cruise ship companies built a little pleasure island in Baker's Bay, just inside the Whale a number of years back. They even dredged a long, deep channel into the bay, most likely wrecking a lot of the grass and reef that was there. But after using it for a few years they abandoned the whole thing. Often times the Whale was just too rough for them. Too rough for a cruise ship. That's rough.

There is one other way through though, a passage called the "Don't Rock." The Don't Rock is much more protected, though not perfect. Most people in deeper draft boats don't use it though because it is shallow enough that you have to visually pilot your way through. It has a bad reputation as being a prop wrecker.

We had a moderate day, 4 to 6 foot swells in the ocean, the Whale rough but passable. Or a rising tide and good vis for the Don't rock. I figured all those hours of staring at shallow water had to be worth something. We went through the Don't Rock. Kind of an anticlimax in a way. We had 5+ feet all the way through.

Marsh was OK, we stayed at the Jib Room marina. They have a great bar, which reminds Jen and I a lot of The Pub, in Road Harbor, BVI. We stayed there two days, the highlight for me was seeing Simon Rake and Scrape with Brown Tip. We bought a new camera in Marsh as well.

We left Marsh and had a very short trip to Hope Town. A quote from Jen about Hope Town: "I could marry this place!"

In 2007 we had to turn back before we got here, so Hope Town was a real goal for me. It is all I hoped for (bad pun); tiny narrow streets, fairy book houses, clear water, an awesome lighthouse. This cay is much hillier than the others so far. It is very, very cool.

I can't believe how close the moorings are in this harbor, some of the big cats that are on them have maybe 6 feet between them. You could pass the Grey Poupon to your neighbor.

The next morning we headed for Little Harbor and stopped on the way at Tahiti Beach. Truly, Tahiti Beach and Tilaloo Cut must be one of the worlds most beautiful places. Everywhere you look the area is pure magic.

We hung out on the beach for 4 or 5 hours then headed SE. We had strong easterlies though, it was calm and nice in the lee but too rough in two of the passes we would have to traverse on our way to Little Harbor. So I used the 180 I keep in my toolbox and we went back to Tilaloo. On the way I caught a decent Mutton Snapper. We grilled him last night.

We also took the dinghy and went to Cracker P's, a cool bar on a nearby island, Lubber's Quarters. Cracker P's has a great laid back sorta vibe, so we stayed for a while. The boys played volleyball and chased curly tailed lizards. Jen fell in love with a huge dog (musta been 120lbs, more like a donkey really) named Bigfoot and wanted to bring him home with us on the boat. I played Cracker P (the owner) in two rounds of darts and beat him both times.

Not a bad kinda day.

P.S. If you want to post a comment on our blog, just click the green link below each post where it says "0 comments".

Author: Bryce

Anchored Out: Tillaloo Cut, Elbow Cay

After we left Green Turtle we went to Marsh Harbor, it was neat, but I thought we could have gone someplace else. Marsh Harbor is the biggest town in Abaco, it is about the size of Crawfordville.

Our second day at Marsh Harbor we walked to a place called Mermaid reef. I expected just OK snorkeling, but it was unbelieveable. You had to wade out off the beach about 100 yards, but it was worth it. We brought a can of peas to feed the fish. There were so many and they were so tame you could grab them. We saw black grouper, nassau grouper, parrot fish (three differrent kinds), mangrove snapper, yellowtail snapper, ballyhoo, and tons of small tropical fish I can't name. A ballyhoo looks kind of like a needlefish. I saw one snag a pea on its nose and swim off.

The next day we went to Hope Town. It is a really neat little town, it is famous for its huge lighthouse which was bulit in 1879. We climbed to the top, there are exactly 101 steps. There is only a small light but it is magnified by a huge maganifying glass called a fresnel lens. It send its beam out 18 miles. That night in our anchorgae at Hope Town the lighthouse turned on and the beam of light swept over our heads all night long.

Today we went to an amazing beach called Tahiti Beach. It is near a place called Tillaloo Cut. We found a tree a tree fort built in the mangrove trees on the beach. The fort is called "monkey cay". It is really hidden, I think 95% of the people walk right past it without noticing it.

After that we took the dinghy to a place called "Cracker P's" which is a little restaurant on an island called Lubber's Quarters. We had fun playing darts and exploring.

Simon aka "White Tip" Rakes and Scrapes

Author: Simon

Jib Room Marina, Marsh Harbor

Note: The traditional music of the Bahamas is called Rake n' Scrape, it is played using whatever implements Bahamians could find as insturments. The most common one is the saw.

Yesterday my dad said to me "see that guy over there? He can play music on a saw. His Name is Brown Tip." We walked up to him and my dad asked him if it was true he could play the saw. He said, "Not only do I play the saw, I will teach you how to play it!" He smiles all the time. "I will be at Mangos from 6 to 9 tomorrow."

The next day my dad took me to see him play and to get him to teach me to play the saw.

He started singing Gully Roosters songs and I was in the band. He said I played so good that he was going to give me a nick name. He calls me "White Tip."

If was very easy to play the saw and a lot of fun. Brown Tip is the best saw player in the Bahamas.

Author: Simon

I helped put out the fire by using a pan to pour water and wet sand on it. Mr. Fred was a great fire organizer.

Bryce and I played Marco Polo at the hidden cove with Mom.

The Gully Roosters had really good songs. My dad wants a gully roosters T-Shirt.

Today I want to go to Nippers Beach.

Author: Bryce
Green Turtle Cay, White Sound

Crossing the Gulf stream was not a pleasent experience. It was about an 8 hour trip with about 4 foot waves, I think it was better than the last time we did it but still pretty bad. I mostly sat around in the forward cabin and watched stuff bounce around inside the boat. My bed got wet because the door on the anchor locker came open and some of the wet anchor chain came out onto my bunk. But Simon's stayed bone dry.

We finally got to West End on Grand Bahama to a nice marina with a great pool and a snorkling trail just off of their beach. It was one of the best snorkeling trails I have ever been to. I saw tons of coral and huge fish including a moray eel.

Another native species to the Bahamas is a curly tailed lizard. They get up to about 10 inches long and can really bite your finger if you mess with them. We saw about 3 at the marina, they look like little dinasaurs, to whom they are related.

The next day was Easter Sunday. The easter bunny hid eggs on our boat and we had an egg hunt but Simon found most of them because he woke up before me. After that we headed out to Great Sale.

Monday we went from Great Sale to Allen's Pensacola Cay. We took our dinghy to find a trail to the other side to a signing tree. A signing tree is a tree where all the boaters who have been there attach signs with their boat names on them.

But when we pulled in the dinghy we saw that the trailhead was on fire. There were a lot flames. Our buddy boat Fred and two people we didn't know came over and helped us put out the fire. We used buckets we found on the beach to haul water up to pour on the fire. It seemed like we made hundreds of trips. We must have poured five hundred gallons of water on the fire before it went out. We also used wet sand.

After that we hiked to signing tree. The signs are mostly made from trash wood that has washed up on the beach, but some people use other things string, cans, bouys, and bottles.

The next day we woke up and dinghyed over to a hidden beach. It was our first slice of paradise. The water was like a swimming pool, with thousands of different shades of light blue and green. There were some great swimming holes we named them Bob, Bo, Ob, and Pig Sty. Pig Sty had a quicksand bottom.

Tuesday we motored to Green Turtle Cay. On the way I caught a 30 inch Barracuda on a dolphin delight lure. He was really strong and I had to fight him for a long time.

When we arrived at Green Turtle we went swimming and found a whole bunch of shortcuts through the marina.

That night we listened to the Gully Roosters live concert. They were really good.

Paradise in little pieces

Author: Doug
4/15/09
At anchor, White Sound, Green Turtle Cay

OK, lots to catch up on. First off the things that have gone wrong so far:

1. We broke our brand new camera. It says waterproof right on the front, but when we put it in the water it died. We are going to try to call olympus tomorrow. Until then, no new pics, sorry.

2. The boys beds (in the forward cabin) got wet. Also everything in the forward storage locker including 6 rolls of paper towels and all our galley towels. This is what happens when the hull to deck joint on the boat goes under water. Now, some of you boaters are probably wondering what was the hull to deck joint doing under water? A fair question. The answer? 20+ knot headwinds and big seas for 3 1/2 out of 4 days. We were burying the bow. Not enough water to be dangerous (maybe a couple gallons in 3 days) but still, it was rough. Darn rough.

3. Drug an anchor at Allen's Pensacola at 12:00 am. Why does this only happen in the middle of the night?

4. The Island we were anchored behind caught on fire. I'll let Bryce tell this story in his entry.

Being on a boat is taking the good with the bad, it's not a resort vacation. On the other hand the rewards are amazing.

After plowing through head seas across the banks from West End we spent a quiet night anchored behind Great Sale Cay, which is uninhabited. We had good shelter there from the strong SE winds.

While we were in Lake Worth we met up with a "buddy boat" In this case Fred and Marianna Glantzburg, who keep their beautiful 39' Kady Krogen trawler "Serendipity" in Brunswick, GA. Our boats travel at a similar (slow) speed so we get along really well. We have been traveling together for mutual support and safety.

We left Great Sale together and headed for Allen's Pensacola, another uninhabited cay, about 45 miles SE of Great Sale. By the time we got there we were all beat up and exhausted from the rough seas and the boat had so much salt on it that it looked like the outside of a margarita glass.

We dropped the hook, launched the dinghy and headed for a trail through the island where there is a signing tree. That's when we saw the fire. As I said, I'll let Bryce tell it, but I'm very proud of how hard they worked putting it out. We probably saved a big part of the island, as it is really dry here right now.

The next day the wind was still howling, but had shifted somewhat to the South. After discussions with Serendipity we decided to stay put for a day. It is harder to make good decisions in this part of the Abacos because you are out of radio range of weather reports and have to rely on other boats to pass on info.

One of the cruisers who helped us with the fire gave us a tip about a hidden cove on the other side of the cay, so we loaded up the dinghy and went exploring. We drug the dinghy up on a small, weedy, rocky beach and banged around until we found a goat path through the thick undergrowth to the other side of the island. As we topped a small rise the path came out onto a beautiful white sand crescent cove flanked by tiny islets. The water there was shallow and crystal clear with a perfect little bonefish flat to the east side. Because the cove is on the North side of the island it was sheltered from the howling South wind. It was paradise.

The boys swam, Jen relaxed and I caught a nice bonefish on my fly rod. I also hooked but lost two triggerfish, which I have never seen on the flats before. They ate the bonefish fly I cast to them and fought really well. They tailed like permit.

That night a big squall came through and we drug our anchor. No harm done though. I can always count on crying babies or dragging anchors to wake Jen up.

The next morning (today) the wind had dropped to only around 10 knots and we had an awesome run here to Green Turtle. Fred, who is a retired engineer, came over and helped me fix the leaking raw water pump on our generator. We just got back from taking the boys in to the Green Turtle Club to see their favorite band, The Gully Roosters, play live.

Paradise doesn't seem to come all at once, but we are loving the little pieces we get.

Tomorrow if the weather holds we head for Guana Cay.

Hello from Grand Bahama

4/11/09
Old Bahama Bay Marina, GBI

Just a quick post to update. We crossed the Gulf Stream today and arrived at Grand Bahama. It was pretty rough, NOAA was aying 2 to 4 and 10 knot winds, but I didn't see too many two footers, mostly 3 to 5 footers. But we are here safe and sound and worn out.

Author: Bryce

4/10/09

On a mooring ball in Lake Worth, near Peanut Island

Lake Okeechobee was really, really rough with just short choppy waves one after another. We saw the boat windows getting soaked with muddy brown lake water, that didn't look too

fresh to me. Cousin Bryant and I played war the whole time, water dripped onto our cards through the closed window it was so rough. But finally we made it across the lake to the lock at Port Mayakka. It is hard to believe it is a lake. Here is a picture taken through the windshield of the boat, it was not raining, all the water is from the waves.

A lock is sort of like a dam, that lets the water level go up and down. The middle of Florida is higher than the edges, so when you are in the locks your boat goes up or down like you are in an elevator. Port Mayakka lock has the biggest water drop, 12 feet.

We spent that night at Peck Lake, which is not really a lake more like an inlet. Then we took the dinghy to a path on shore that leads to a beach on the Atlantic Ocean. We played in the surf and the waves were so huge that one slammed me down on my foot and I sprained my ankle. Even though I hurt my foot I still had a blast.

The next day we went down the Intercoastal Waterway to Lake Worth where we are anchored now. We passed a whole bunch celebrity's grand homes. They had huge, beautiful, elegant yards with their own private beaches. Lots of them had megayachts tied up to their docks. We think we saw Jack Nicholas', Tiger Woods and Greg Norman's houses.

We fished off the dock at one of the marinas near here and Bryant FINALLY caught a fish. He caught a parrot fish and unknown type of fish. Not even my dad knew what it was. We also saw a fish that resembeled a beaver. It had a big round tail.

Then Bryant's mom drove from Fort Myers and picked him up. He was a blast to have on the boat and I wish he could come to the Bahamas with us.

Tomorrow we are planning to cross the gulf stream to the Bahamas.

Crossing Lake Okeechobee???

Moore Haven City Dock.

Author: Doug

Tied up at Moore Haven city dock.

We left Fort Myers yesterday after stowing weeks of food onboard our little boat. We put so much stuff on board I think we raised the waterline an inch or two. We pulled out about 4:00 and took a short run up the Caloosahatchee River to dowtown Fort Myers where we anchored behind a little mid river island called Beautiful Island (it's nice but not beautiful, really). My brother Chuck and his son Bryant came with us and stayed for dinner. Then I took the dinghy and ran Chuck into the city Yacht Basin where my dad picked him up. Bryant is going across the state with us to West Palm Beach, he is a great boater and fisherman (we call him the fish whisperer) so he is a ton of help.

We will follow the Okeechobee Waterway across the state through lake Okeechobee then down the St. Lucie River where it pops out at Stuart. We have to go through 5 locks on the way.

We left this morning at 9, after the boys made a dinghy run to Beautiful Island. They forgot fishing rods so Simon and Bryant came back to the big boat to get them, stranding Bryce on the island alone for a whole 30 minutes. He said he was worried that he would have to eat his own leg. It blew really hard today, gusting to 30 knots, which made it kind of hairy in Ortona Lock. I'm worrying about our crossing of Lake Okeechobee tomorrow, it is a big lake, but shallow and can get really nasty in strong NW winds, which is exactly what we have tonight. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

First Post

Doug

Our plan for this blog is for it to be a spot where our friends, family and teachers can follow our progress through the Bahamas during our up coming trip. We will put the name of the writer at the top of each post.

My friend Kyle Reed came down from Denver March 12th to help me bring the boat down to my parent's dock in Fort Myers. This cuts significant distance off of the trip that Jen and the boys can skip, and gives us a good place to start from.

The Gulf Intercoastal Waterway offers a sheltered water route from Fort Myers all the way to Texas. It's easy traveling where you don't have to worry as much about weather. This is also called "the inside route." It is the way we mainly travel even though it is generally slower than going "outside" in the open gulf.

There is only one portion of the entire GICW that is not sheltered, unfortunatly, that is the leg from Carrabelle (where we normally keep the boat) to Tarpon Springs. This leg is about 140 nautical miles, or in our slow boat, about 18 to 20 hours.

Kyle and I planned to leave Saturday morning, 3/14, stop somewhere near Crystal River Saturday night and go on to Tarpon Springs on Sunday. But when we got down to the boat Friday afternoon the weather was so nice that we decided to leave that night and head straight across the Gulf to Tarpon, running all night.

This is despite the fact that many old mariners consider it bad luck to start a voyage on a Friday. Plus it was Friday the 13th.

Nonetheless, we threw caution to the wind and headed out. It turned out to be my best ever open water crossing The gulf was slick calm with only a small, barely rolling ground swell. As it got dark the clear night sky was choked with billions of stars and it was so calm and clear we could see them reflected in the surface of the gulf even though we were 40 miles off shore.

About 2 am a huge, nearly full moon rose out of the east, making it almost daylight in the open gulf. We steered right into the moon until it rose mid sky. We were surrounded by spinner dolphin playing in the wake and the eriee calls of loons much of the night.

The only issue was that the port engine was reading hot, about 200 degrees (140 is normal) so we nursed it along and worried a bit.

We got into Tarpon Springs about noon and took a slip at Tarpon Springs Municipal Marina, not the best docks but a great location and a steal at $36 a night. I taught Kyle how to lasso pilings with the dock lines. You would think somebody from Denver would be a natural at cowboy stuff. Kyle and I watched the FSU UNC basketball game in a little bar that afternoon. Tarpon Springs is a cool little town, mostly Greek, with lots of tourists and little shops on the waterfront. They all sell sponges. Every one of them.

On Sunday we diagnosed the hot running engine (it was just a sender for the gauge, the engine wasn't actually running hot) and headed out for Bradenton Beach. It was still so calm that we went outside at Clearwater Pass and ran the open gulf south, coming in to Tampa Bay through the Eggmont Key channel.

Eggmont has special meaning for my family since my Grandmother was the only person ever born on the island. Her father was an engineer who lived out there and was helping to build the fort that guarded the entrance to Tampa Bay. Eggmont Key is now a state park.

On the way down we listened to the AM radio broadcast of the FSU vs. Duke ACC tournament championship game. I had to lean the radio antenna against the mast to get a decent signal, but it worked. The 'noles lost, but we are proud of them anyway.

We anchored that night behind Bradenton Beach just south of the Cortez bridge and took the dinghy into Bradenton Beach to look around. On the way back to the boat the dinghy motor died and I had to row us the rest of the way. Our inflatable dinghy does not row well, (this should be read as it rows in circles, the boys love to watch me try to row it) so I was happy we were only a few hundred yards from the big boat. Messed with the dinghy motor but couldn't get it running. Grilled steaks on the boat for dinner.

The next day we continued south 8 hours down the GICW and took a slip at Boca Grande Marina. Nice place, but man, everything we saved on the Tarpon Springs slip we spent at Boca Grande Marina. Saw a really big tarpon laid up in their entrance channel. We walked around downtown Boca Grande that night and had appetizers at The Temptation, the oldest restraunt on the island. On the way back to the marina I took a wrong turn and got us lost, not an easy thing to do on a small island surrounded 360 degrees by water. Inevitably though we hit water and turned right, following the shoreline back to the marina.

On monday 3/16 we had a short trip (4 hours) down the waterway to my parent's home on a canal off of the Caloosahatchee River. My dad came out in his boat and met us about halfway, in a particularily narrow section of the waterway called miserable mile. Since I grew up on the water in Fort Myers, this part of the trip is always special to me. I have a lot of memories of fishing and camping on islands in that area. Only downside is the tons of boat traffic here and the bleach jug cruisers that throw huge wakes as they tear past us in the narrow channels.

Got to my parents home about mid afternoon, their neighbors are nice enough to let us tie up to their dock. Spent the rest of the day cleaning the boat.

Woke up the next morning and replaced the water temp sender on the port engine (boy, it's a lot easier when the coolant that spills out of the sender hole in the block all over your hand isn't 140 degrees). Tore apart the dinghy motor and found it had a clogged carb jet, probably from using the old gas that was left in the tank from last fall. Cleaned the carb, replaced the gas and the motor is now running great. It's nice when things are easy to fix.

Kyle rented a car and drove to Boynton Beach to see some family there and I rented a car and drove home.

Jen, the boys and I will head down on 3/3 to start the trip. We plan to provision on 4/4 then head out on 4/5 going through the Okeechobee Waterway to West Palm Beach.

We plan to post photos as we go along. I'm not much of a photographer, so I didn't take any on this part of the trip.