Well hello everyone. So sorry for the long silence, but we have not had an Internet connection since we left Nassau on Sunday, February 22. We originally planned to leave Nassau on Monday or Tuesday; however, it was such a horrible anchorage that we high tailed it out of there on Sunday after a miserable, windy, scary night on the anchor in the harbor. We had an excellent sail from Nassau across the Yellow Bank to Allen Cay in the northern part of the Exuma Islands. When we arrived, we stayed on the boat and chilled out in gorgeous, calm weather. From the boat we watched people go onto the little beach and get surrounded by Iguanas. They are used to tour boats coming in from Nassau and feeding them (which the cruising guide specifically says not to do). Some of the poor little guys were pretty chubby. We figured we’d go ashore in the morning and check out. During the night though, a strong northerly wind come through and our depth decreased significantly. When we anchored, we were in 11 feet of water. During low tide and with the wind draining the water, the chop was making the boat bounce up and down slapping into a sandy bottom (another nerve wracking night). The next morning we drove around the little harbor area looking for some deeper water to anchor, but couldn’t find a spot with 12 feet that wasn’t too close to other boats. So, we ended up leaving there on Monday.
After leaving Allen Cay, we headed to Highborne Cay which was only 5 miles south. We anchored there in 15 feet on the western shore. In the northerly wind, it was a rolly, bouncy anchorage. We went ashore and walked around. There was a marina there, with very large power vessels - a little too posh for us. But the grounds were really nice. We walked along the pier and at the end of the pier there were about 10 to 12 huge nurse sharks just hanging out. I guess you can swim with them and they don’t seem to mind. However, it’s been quite cold here and we haven’t been able to swim yet!!! The cold fronts just keep coming down from New England and we can’t get away from them.
On Tuesday, we stayed on the boat as it was very windy and cold. The anchorage was lousy and we just read our books all day.
Wednesday, we pulled up the anchor and headed only a few miles south to Shroud Cay. We were on a run with winds behind us at 15 to 20 knots and following seas. It was a great couple of hour sail. When we got to Shroud Cay, caught a mooring, and went ashore to a little beach to walk around for a while. When we got back to the dinghy, it was aground as the tide had gone out quite a bit in only ¾ of an hour. We waited around for a little while, but it was getting cold and starting to rain. Steve got some help from a fellow cruiser in the same situation. The guys carried both dinghies into deeper water and we headed back to the boat. On Thursday morning, we went on another excursion at Shroud Cay. We had to battle a pretty big chop in the dinghy to get to the northern end of the island to find a mangrove creek that cut through the island and came out to a beach on the northeastern shore. Once we braved the ½ hour dinghy ride and dried out, the trip was well worth it. The creek was beautiful. It was much calmer and warmer going through the creek than it had been on the outside of the island. When we reached the other end and came out to the beach, the surf was crazy! It looked like Nantasket Beach during a nor’easter! It was pretty cool (and cold too). The guy that we met the previous day at the first beach, was also on this same excursion and told us that 2 weeks ago when he was there it was extremely calm and warm. The water was like glass and they hung out at the beach and swam. Not so on this day. We did hike up a little hill and found spectacular views at the top. Because we had to enter the creek on a high tide, we didn’t want to stay too long and get stranded. When we got back to the boat it was only 10:30 A.M. (high tide was at 8:00 a.m. so we had an early start.) We decided to hop down to the next island (and not have to pay for the mooring for another night - although it was very nice there). After preparing the boat we headed just a few more miles south to Hawksbill Cay. After setting the anchor, we put the dinghy down again and headed ashore to do some hiking and check out the Russell Family Plantation Ruins – an establishment of about 10 houses on this small island back in 1785 to 1830. After the hike, Michele went for a swim and snorkeled around some small coral heads with quite a few fish. The winds were whipping again last night (it seems that they have been the whole time we’ve been in the Bahamas.) Steve is NOT having a good time here. He’s very stressed out. And there is yet another front coming through on Sunday.
This morning we left Hawksbill and had a great sail heading even more south to Warderick Wells. We are on a mooring and will probably stay here for three days to wait out the front that’s coming through on Sunday. We’ll post again before we leave here. But we are safe and doing well. We’ll try to make some phone contacts on Skype while we have Internet.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Nassau until Monday or Tuesday??
We are in Nassau still and will probably be here until the beginning of the week. We will stock up on provisions as much as possible here and try to make it through the Bahamas without having to provision again for another month or so. Right now I'm at Starbucks with a free wifi connection, but Internet is going to be difficult. Also, the phone isn't an option either. If we do have a Verizon connection, the cost is about $4 a minute! Sorry folks, we'll have to keep you updated by the blog and facebook (If you have a facebook page, let me know and I can add you as a friend). We also just subscribed for one month to Skype for long distance calls. However, this also requires an Internet connection. So, if we have Internet, then we can call anwhere in the US for the next 30 days.
Our anchorage here is dreadful. The holding is terrible and the space is crowded. It is also a very, very busy harbor. The harbor police will pull over a dinghy for making a wake, but I guess it's okay for a huge power cat going out for a booze cruise to make all the anchored boats go flying! There are also sirens being heard from shore every 1/2 hour or so.
We plan to go out to the Aqaurium at Atlantis tomorrow, but otherwise, we won't really miss Nassau when it's time to leave. So, we'll keep you posted as much as possible. We're still waiting for warm weather to go swimming!
Our anchorage here is dreadful. The holding is terrible and the space is crowded. It is also a very, very busy harbor. The harbor police will pull over a dinghy for making a wake, but I guess it's okay for a huge power cat going out for a booze cruise to make all the anchored boats go flying! There are also sirens being heard from shore every 1/2 hour or so.
We plan to go out to the Aqaurium at Atlantis tomorrow, but otherwise, we won't really miss Nassau when it's time to leave. So, we'll keep you posted as much as possible. We're still waiting for warm weather to go swimming!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Nassau, Bahamas
We are anchored in Nassau - see current location on blog for a map of our position. I'll update our trip in more detail later because I'm borrowing Butch's Internet connection on his boat and we're heading out to lunch soon. Yesterday our trip here was kind of miserable - well not kind of. It really was a long miserable day through rough water and wind on the nose across the Tongue of the Ocean. The water was like a washing machine and Michele got seasick - but not too, too bad. We left Chub Cay at 5:30 a.m. We finally made it into Nassau around 4:00 p.m (4 hours later than we anticipated). We plan to stay in Nassau for a couple of days before heading to the Exumas. Everything is okay today and we plan to do some sightseeing. Bye for now!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Heading to Nassau
After arriving at Chub Cay (well officially we are anchored off of Frazier's Hog Cay) Michele went ashore - thus the last post and brought back 5 lobster tails for $10.00. Yum. Of course, these lobsters arent' Maine lobster, but they were very tasty sauteed in garlic and butter and served up with linguine and clam sauce.
While ashore though, she was quite disappointed to learn that the fisherman had a green sea turtle in his cooler (yes, the endangered turtles that we learned about at the turtle hospital). When turtles are captured, they are stored on upside down on their shells until they are killed. This poor little guy was upside down in the cooler waiting for his demise :(. The fisherman says that he got hit with the boat and that is why they caught it - to put it out of it's misery. I'm not sure if the turtle was injured or not. It may not be obvious, but when a turtle comes up for air and gets hit by a boat, the breath that they were taking get pushed back down and gets trapped inside the bottom of the turtle, thus deforming the shell. It's actually called a bubble-butt - don't laugh it's fatal. Once the turtle gets this huge bubble stuck in their rear, they become too buoyant to dive and catch food. Another situation that caused Michele distress was the two dogs that were tied up to the tree outside the Berry Island Club. It seems these dogs are tied there all day, every day. Apparently, if they are untied, they take off to Chub Cay where they are not supposed to be running around without leashes (and it's about 5 miles away). They didn't even have any water in their bowls and one of them was really skinny. Both dogs are golden retrievers. The skinny dog was really friendly, but the other one acted friendly until you approached it and then wanted to attack. So of course, Michele is obsessing about the plight of these poor dogs. So today, despite Steve's protests (because the wind was blowing pretty hard and the seas were very choppy so it was a wet dinghy ride), we went ashore with some cooked hamburger to feed the dogs. Now both dogs are my best friends. But alas, I have to leave them as we are heading out in the morning for Nassau.
Yesterday, Butch, Gretchen and Reese from Lucidity joined us for lunch on our boat - they have the exact same boat as us - an IP 38. Luckily, they were on board when the winds kicked up and our anchor started to drag (couldn't believe it was actually daylight when it happened this time). So Gretchen, Michele and Reese stayed below while Steve and Butch dealt with the situation above. They tried about 50 times to reset the anchor, but the bottom was just to grassy for the anchor to set. So, we motored closer to where Lucidity was anchored which had a much sandier bottom and the anchor caught fine. Today was Reese's 5th birthday, so we went over to their boat for lunch - complete with a Tommy the Train cake. We've had a great time hanging out with them because their story is very identical to ours and we even have the same taste in boats!
So tomorrow morning, we hope to leave and head over to Nassau. We are hoping to leave by 5:00 a.m. since the winds will be shifting from the northeast to the south and be right on the nose by 11:00 a.m. Hopefully, we can beat the wind change and be able to sail with light seas. If the wind picks up to the south, then we'll be beating into the wind and seas - you know the usual. We heard a great quote the other day. "The only problem with cruising is getting from point A to point B." Ah, well - such is the life. As you'll be able to see from the pictures, it's still just a tad chilly. (Another reason why Steve was cranky about going ashore. He hates being cold.)
While ashore though, she was quite disappointed to learn that the fisherman had a green sea turtle in his cooler (yes, the endangered turtles that we learned about at the turtle hospital). When turtles are captured, they are stored on upside down on their shells until they are killed. This poor little guy was upside down in the cooler waiting for his demise :(. The fisherman says that he got hit with the boat and that is why they caught it - to put it out of it's misery. I'm not sure if the turtle was injured or not. It may not be obvious, but when a turtle comes up for air and gets hit by a boat, the breath that they were taking get pushed back down and gets trapped inside the bottom of the turtle, thus deforming the shell. It's actually called a bubble-butt - don't laugh it's fatal. Once the turtle gets this huge bubble stuck in their rear, they become too buoyant to dive and catch food. Another situation that caused Michele distress was the two dogs that were tied up to the tree outside the Berry Island Club. It seems these dogs are tied there all day, every day. Apparently, if they are untied, they take off to Chub Cay where they are not supposed to be running around without leashes (and it's about 5 miles away). They didn't even have any water in their bowls and one of them was really skinny. Both dogs are golden retrievers. The skinny dog was really friendly, but the other one acted friendly until you approached it and then wanted to attack. So of course, Michele is obsessing about the plight of these poor dogs. So today, despite Steve's protests (because the wind was blowing pretty hard and the seas were very choppy so it was a wet dinghy ride), we went ashore with some cooked hamburger to feed the dogs. Now both dogs are my best friends. But alas, I have to leave them as we are heading out in the morning for Nassau.
Yesterday, Butch, Gretchen and Reese from Lucidity joined us for lunch on our boat - they have the exact same boat as us - an IP 38. Luckily, they were on board when the winds kicked up and our anchor started to drag (couldn't believe it was actually daylight when it happened this time). So Gretchen, Michele and Reese stayed below while Steve and Butch dealt with the situation above. They tried about 50 times to reset the anchor, but the bottom was just to grassy for the anchor to set. So, we motored closer to where Lucidity was anchored which had a much sandier bottom and the anchor caught fine. Today was Reese's 5th birthday, so we went over to their boat for lunch - complete with a Tommy the Train cake. We've had a great time hanging out with them because their story is very identical to ours and we even have the same taste in boats!
So tomorrow morning, we hope to leave and head over to Nassau. We are hoping to leave by 5:00 a.m. since the winds will be shifting from the northeast to the south and be right on the nose by 11:00 a.m. Hopefully, we can beat the wind change and be able to sail with light seas. If the wind picks up to the south, then we'll be beating into the wind and seas - you know the usual. We heard a great quote the other day. "The only problem with cruising is getting from point A to point B." Ah, well - such is the life. As you'll be able to see from the pictures, it's still just a tad chilly. (Another reason why Steve was cranky about going ashore. He hates being cold.)
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Chub Cay, Berry Islands, Bahamas
Hi All,
We arrived in Bimini the day before last - Friday, around 11:00 a.m. after sailing all day Thursday and through Thursday night. Since we got a late start on Thursday, we did not stop at Rodriquez Key like the other boats that left early Thursday morning. So we beat them all in! We had a great sail most of the day and night. We did have to motor sail for a while, but we mostly sailed. On Friday, we toured Bimini abd retired early. The next morning we left with at around 10:00 a.m. with Lucidity, however, we got grounded for approximately an hour. A nice gentleman in a powerboat finally pulled us off. The chart showed 6 ft, but that turned out not to be true. Our most frustrating grounded so far. Yikes! By the time we got back under way, Lucidity was well ahead of us, so we hooked onto another caravan of 4 boats heading the same way - to Russel Beacon, which is in the middle of the Bahama Banks - no land in sight. But it was only 15 feet deep. It was a calm anchorage, and we got up and out early this morning to head to Chub Cay. This time, Lucidity and Johh Ray stayed close. We arrived here about 3:00 and Michele is ashore now with a free Internet connection just to keep you all posted. We plan to stay here until Wednesday and head over to Nassau next. We will update the position as soon as possible - as Michele forgot to check the GPS coordinates before leaving the boat. Anyway, that's it for now. It is at least 80 degrees in the sun while I'm typing this blog and getting bitten alive by no see ums! More to come later. Sorry no phone or Internet on this leg of the trip. Verizon doesn't work here - or if it does it's mucho deneiros! Adios.
We arrived in Bimini the day before last - Friday, around 11:00 a.m. after sailing all day Thursday and through Thursday night. Since we got a late start on Thursday, we did not stop at Rodriquez Key like the other boats that left early Thursday morning. So we beat them all in! We had a great sail most of the day and night. We did have to motor sail for a while, but we mostly sailed. On Friday, we toured Bimini abd retired early. The next morning we left with at around 10:00 a.m. with Lucidity, however, we got grounded for approximately an hour. A nice gentleman in a powerboat finally pulled us off. The chart showed 6 ft, but that turned out not to be true. Our most frustrating grounded so far. Yikes! By the time we got back under way, Lucidity was well ahead of us, so we hooked onto another caravan of 4 boats heading the same way - to Russel Beacon, which is in the middle of the Bahama Banks - no land in sight. But it was only 15 feet deep. It was a calm anchorage, and we got up and out early this morning to head to Chub Cay. This time, Lucidity and Johh Ray stayed close. We arrived here about 3:00 and Michele is ashore now with a free Internet connection just to keep you all posted. We plan to stay here until Wednesday and head over to Nassau next. We will update the position as soon as possible - as Michele forgot to check the GPS coordinates before leaving the boat. Anyway, that's it for now. It is at least 80 degrees in the sun while I'm typing this blog and getting bitten alive by no see ums! More to come later. Sorry no phone or Internet on this leg of the trip. Verizon doesn't work here - or if it does it's mucho deneiros! Adios.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Heading to Bahamas
We left Boot Key Harbor today, a little later than we wanted (by 4 hours). However, we did finally make it out of the harbor and are now under way. We will aim for Rodriquez Key and try to catch up to our buddy boats tonight. If it is too late to anchor in Rodriquez, we may just keep going to Bimini and then have our buddy boats catch up to us! We will keep everyone updated as long as we can get an Internet connection. We loved Marathon, but are so happy to be on our way to the Bahamas! Stay tuned as we will have more frequent updates now that we are on the move!
Friday, February 6, 2009
Guitars and Tiki Bars
I don't know how, but weeks have gone by without any word from the John Ray. Since our last post, we have done quite a bit of tourist stuff. First, we went to the Crane Point Museum and Nature Center. This nature preserve was purchased by the Florida Land and Sea Trust to protect the tropical woodlands, or hammocks, which contain both unique hardwood species such as Lignum Vitae and Jamaica Dogwood along with native thatch palms that grow nowhere else in the United States. Sheltered amidst its tropical forest are numerous rare and endangered species as well as unique archaeological and historical riches. The 63 acres is home to a large thatch palm hammock, a hardwood hammock, a mangrove forest, tidal lagoons, wetland ponds and the fauna that is associated with these various ecosystems.
Crane Point harbors evidence of human use dating back well over seven hundred years. The first documented permanent settlers to this particular property were George and Olivia Adderley, who lived here from 1902 until 1949. To learn more about them and about Crane Point, please click on the link - which is where I got the above information: (http://www.cranepoint.net/about.html).
The next thing we did was visit the Turtle Hospital. http://www.turtlehospital.org/ The Turtle Hospital is a non-profit organization dedicated solely to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of one of our most endangered marine creatures. We thought it was going to be totally depressing to see wounded turtles, but it was actually very interesting and encouraging. You should definitely take a look at their website to learn more about it. Unfortunately, my camera's memory card was unreadable and my pictures from the Turtle Hospital, Crane Point and our visit to Key West (most) were lost forever!
Oh yes, we took the bus to Key West. It was a great day, albeit long! We caught the 8:30 a.m. bus which took us to the Sears Shopping Center. When we got there we had to take another bus to downtown/historic Key West. We walked around for a while, checking out Duval Street and the Waterfront before meeting Jenni for lunch at Dante's where her daughter works. We had a great lunch and visit. (Joanne made excellent margaritas too!) After lunch Steve and I took the Conch train tour around Key West (compliments of Jenni- thank you so much a $60 savings). The bus ride home was interesting as a drunk peed on the floor of the bus and got kicked off. His two friends weren't happy about it and left the bus too.
The last week there wasn't anything else new. We walked Route 1 a bunch more times, had $5.00 lunches and a couple of parties on friend's boats. We played tennis with our friends from Ileanous, Jovette and Robert. We rollerbladed and Michele did Yoga and ran a couple more times.
Our mooring is paid up until Thursday this week. We planned to renew for a while longer. Steve wanted to sign up for another month, but Michele had visions of spending her cruising life in more exotic locations. When some friends from another IP 38, Butch and Gretchen (and their 5 yr. old son Reese) showed back up after leaving last week, we starting talking about heading to the Bahamas with them. There are now quite a few boats that are planning to leave together on Thursday heading to Rodriquez Key and then hopping over the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. Steve and I will be joining the convoy! Stay tuned for more details to follow.
But we are off the Bahamas!!!!
Crane Point harbors evidence of human use dating back well over seven hundred years. The first documented permanent settlers to this particular property were George and Olivia Adderley, who lived here from 1902 until 1949. To learn more about them and about Crane Point, please click on the link - which is where I got the above information: (http://www.cranepoint.net/about.html).
The next thing we did was visit the Turtle Hospital. http://www.turtlehospital.org/ The Turtle Hospital is a non-profit organization dedicated solely to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of one of our most endangered marine creatures. We thought it was going to be totally depressing to see wounded turtles, but it was actually very interesting and encouraging. You should definitely take a look at their website to learn more about it. Unfortunately, my camera's memory card was unreadable and my pictures from the Turtle Hospital, Crane Point and our visit to Key West (most) were lost forever!
Oh yes, we took the bus to Key West. It was a great day, albeit long! We caught the 8:30 a.m. bus which took us to the Sears Shopping Center. When we got there we had to take another bus to downtown/historic Key West. We walked around for a while, checking out Duval Street and the Waterfront before meeting Jenni for lunch at Dante's where her daughter works. We had a great lunch and visit. (Joanne made excellent margaritas too!) After lunch Steve and I took the Conch train tour around Key West (compliments of Jenni- thank you so much a $60 savings). The bus ride home was interesting as a drunk peed on the floor of the bus and got kicked off. His two friends weren't happy about it and left the bus too.
The last week there wasn't anything else new. We walked Route 1 a bunch more times, had $5.00 lunches and a couple of parties on friend's boats. We played tennis with our friends from Ileanous, Jovette and Robert. We rollerbladed and Michele did Yoga and ran a couple more times.
Our mooring is paid up until Thursday this week. We planned to renew for a while longer. Steve wanted to sign up for another month, but Michele had visions of spending her cruising life in more exotic locations. When some friends from another IP 38, Butch and Gretchen (and their 5 yr. old son Reese) showed back up after leaving last week, we starting talking about heading to the Bahamas with them. There are now quite a few boats that are planning to leave together on Thursday heading to Rodriquez Key and then hopping over the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. Steve and I will be joining the convoy! Stay tuned for more details to follow.
But we are off the Bahamas!!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)