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.