Where oh where is Vita?

She is in Vero Beach, Florida, and its a long story..... More beer from the fridge, it might be awhile.

What the.....? Florida? I know, I get it. We are supposed to be in the Bahamas still, but we got stuck in behind one of the Berry Islands due to weather, and we realized that if we push it to see the Abacos, then we could get stuck waiting for a window back to the US. We had a really good opportunity to get across from Bullocks Harbor, Bahamas over to Fort Pierce, Florida, 170 nautical miles of ocean, so we went for it. That and we had a change of plans for our cruising life, so we are intent on getting home as soon as mother winter will allow us.

The change! First of all, we are coming home, and although that was planned, we are staying for a couple of years, and that wasn't. There is a pile of excuses as long as my arm, but basically it comes down to our bodies not being able to cope with the lifestyle we thought we wanted to live. Readers of the blog, friends and family will know that we went cruising early because we were afraid that if we didn't go as soon as possible, we would never be physically able to. Ironically, by the time we left, we were already at that point, we just didn't know it. Broken body parts have no place on a bucking, bouncing, violently shifting sailboat, and Serena and I have more than our share of less than adequate parts. Be nice Peter, all our parts started out more than adequate, its just the broken ones that I am talking about.

Does that mean we are giving up cruising? Hell know, not a chance. This lifestyle is amazing. Filled with ups and downs, exhausting, and a real pain in the butt sometimes, but amazing none-the-less. We have seen and experienced things that we would never have had the chance to, in the comfort of our home. The wonder of nature, raw and uncontrollable. Social acceptability on a scale unseen anywhere, even in the military. Just the ability to travel, see new things, at the speed of life rather than at the speed of an airplane. And, all this at a cost less than an average house bound lifestyle. Its hard to beat. Incidentally, the speed of life is in fact 5 knots, and I dare anyone to prove me wrong. lol

However, world cruising is a lot different than local cruising, and we have learned enough to know that we will never physically be capable of long term world cruising.

New problem; we sold our house, and most of our belongings. So where are we going to stay. Why, with all of you of course. After all, you love us don't you?  Think of the stories we could regale you with, and the sundowners we could share if we were in your spare bedroom, maybe your basement. We could bring cruising right to your living room, and you would never have to surf your own boat down a 20' swell in the gulf stream, which I gotta tell you, is freakin' awesome.

Just kidding. We like all of our friends and our family, and we would prefer to keep them liking us, so we won't be moving in. However we are going to need somewhere to live. With our last house we could not afford to keep it and keep the boat, however selling it provided us with enough of a profit to build a simple, small house and keep the boat. So that is our new plan, build a simple small house back in Marmora, Ontario, where we already own land. Spend part of our year cruising, whether it be in the great lakes, the east coast of Canada, the Chesapeake, the Bahamas or the Caribbean, and spend the remainder of the year at our home. We already have plans to come back down in two years once the house is finished, and we want to do the Great Lakes, Georgian Bay, and the Trent Severn Waterway next summer. But this summer will find us in the woods living in a camper trying to put together the shell of a house before the snows of winter swallow us up.

Barring that big change, the tales of Vita will continue. And for you tech oriented junkies, I will be adding some reflecting and reviewing blog entries about what worked, what didn't work, what I should have done, and things I needn't have bothered with. Either on our trip back north, or after I return home. Of course I may have to pull myself away from the TV and high speed internet. It is funny how much you appreciate things when you don't have them for a couple of months. I even drove a car today for the first time since Aug, and that was freaky, I should have taken the rental companies insurance, then I could have drove it like I stole it, instead of driving like some ol' man who's forgotten how to drive.

So where did we leave off. Nassau, right, seems like a long time ago now, but it was less than 2 weeks.

This is Oasis of the Sea, parked in Nassau. As we sailed by it the people on the boat were taking pictures of us, while we took pictures of them.

Used boat parking lot? No tire kickers please. Just kiddin', they entertain a lot of big cruisers here. Someday we'd even like to give it a try. Maybe an Alaskan cruise, or Bermuda.

Leaving Nassau harbor for the gentle Atlantic Ocean.

We left Nassau on the Sunday, and man were we bagged. The provisioning left us completely drained, and all we wanted to do was find some quiet spot in the middle of nowhere to drop the hook and recuperate. My back was trashed yet again, and Serena was beat silly, we just needed some down time. We traveled to the Berry Islands, about 35 miles away, and anchored behind Bonds Cay, which is apparently owned, at least in part, by Shakira. But it was void of other humans, for as far as the eye could see. It was perfect.

And warm, and quiet.

I didn't even put clothes on for 3 days.

Then it happened. The weather turned worse than we had expected. It got really lumpy, and there was nowhere to go. We couldn't escape into the ocean because the cuts leading out to them were impassable due to the raging seas, and there wasn't anywhere to go close by that was any better protected. So for 2 days we got the crap beat out of us. Most of the time it was all I could do to keep from crying, my back was in so much pain. On the third day it settled down, but it was raining and dull, so we decided to stay and leave the following day. Mistake number two. The winds came back with a vengeance. The following morning it was all I could do to get the dinghy loaded, and I was in tears, by the time it was done, but we had to leave. Neither of us could tolerate it any longer. The wind direction had shifted slightly, and allowed us to make the cut out into the open ocean, and there was an area up the coast that should have offered us a little better protection from the wind and waves. 

Unfortunately, although the cut was passable, the ocean was not. The waves were huge and confused, the wind was blowing like stink, and poor Vita could only make about 1.5 knots. After I consulted the charts, I found a small little spot where we should be able to get some reprieve from the weather gods. So we reentered the same area from the next cut, and slipped in behind Lizard Cay to drop the hook. 3 hours of travel for a 3 mile change in location. But finally we had a break.

Which lasted about six hours. Right about the time that it was too late to do anything about it. The wind had shifted throughout the day, only a few degrees, but enough to send a horrendous amount of surge through the cut. So now we had the winds keeping us pointing NE, and the swell hitting us broadside from the SE, causing Vita to role violently. How I made it through the night is beyond me. I did manage to get some sleep, but by 2:00 am my back pain was so bad that I couldn't do any one thing for more than a few minutes. That included laying in bed.

The following morning we knew we had to leave again. We also knew that if we went back to our last anchorage, we would be a little better off. But the best thing to do would be to head north further up behind the islands, and away from the open cuts. The ocean was a mad torrent, and the cuts completely impassable, so we couldn't go outside. And, the charts showed no navigable route up the inside. However, we had spring tide, (meaning that the tide was at its biggest depth), and it was high. So I figured with our 3' 8" draft we could just get through if we were careful. No guts no glory. Serena drove the boat watching the depth, the chartplotter, and me. And I stood on the foredeck looking for anything that might get in our way, like rocks, coral, or sand bars. It took us a little while, going at the speed of snail, but we manage to work our way in through and around, to get to a beautiful protected anchorage in behind Hoffman's Cay. Finally rest. It is funny, but as soon as the boat stops acting like a washing machine, my back pain comes down to a reasonable level. It takes weeks to go away, but I have learned to cope with it over the years, and still manage to stay active, although somewhat slower and more methodical in my movements.

Which meant I could go play with our new neighbors. Ruth and Scott off of MV Esperanza. They were the only boat we had seen in over a week, and we two were the only boats for miles. The Berry Islands are definitely off the beaten path. But, just to prove how small this world really is; they are friends of Gary and Christelle aboard Time and Tide, from our own yacht club.

Ruth and Scott dinghied over, and we all went onto the island to see the big blue hole. Then we headed back to their boat for sundowners and dinner. We had a great time. I can add the number of times I have over indulged at someone else's boat with the fingers on one hand, and still have spares, so I must have enjoyed myself. lol ............. We left late, borrowing their dinghy to get home, because Scott really wasn't in any shape to play taxi either, and returned it in the morning before we both lifted anchor headed for Bullocks Harbor.

I don't know that much about blue holes other than they are land locked salt water ponds fed from the ocean through deep underwater shafts, and they are deep.

This one had a big cave at the waters edge.

Too cool.

Serena wanted to go swimming, but she had no shoes to wear into the water, and the coral around the edges was pretty sharp. Me, I would love to, but the idea of being in there scares the shit out of me.

We even met this little guy at the beach. There really isn't that much wild life on these islands, but what is here is pretty cute.

The trip to Bullocks was uneventful. The winds had died in the night, and the ocean was calming down. We had dolphins play in our bow wake for the first time since arriving in the Bahamas. It was really neat, in the crystal clear water you could see them bright as day; and these were by far the biggest dolphins we'd ever seen. We were planning to leave at 0'dark stupid in the morning, so we anchored in the outer harbor and dinghied in to visit with our friends from Esperanza, and Time and Tide. 

How's this for tranquil?

Everyday is a party with friends.

Bullocks Harbor is actually quite a neat place. Serena and I are seriously considering spending a month here next time, just to really get to know the place.

We had been chasing Time and Tide all over the Bahamas, missing each other by a day here, or a day there. With poor communication ability/availability, it just never seemed to work out, and here they were. We had a great evening, sundowners, dinner, and drinks at the marina bar, before Serena and I dinghied back in the dark to get Vita ready for her big trip the next day. The night was particularly dark, and the bright lights on shore left us blind, so we couldn't tell what manner of creatures were jumping out of the water all around us. It might be better not to know, I'm just glad that none of them ended up in the boat.

The next day we had to dodge the big cruise ships on our way out. They have a couple small cays set up for their customers to come and play at a tropical island. They didn't really get in our way though, its pretty hard for these guys to sneak up and surprise you.

So the ocean trip was pretty much uneventful. It took us 36 hours to get from Bullocks Harbor to Fort Pierce, fuel up, and make it to Vero Beach, Florida to tie up at the marina there. A total of 182 nautical miles. I saw one dolphin, some garbage, a few ships, a giant ass sea turtle, and this little blue guy below.

I am sitting at the helm at 1:10 in the morning. The world is black around me, except for the red night light below in the cabin, and low glow of the chartplotter. The only sound is the engine purring along, and the odd slat of the mainsail, when smack, right in my side, just below my shoulder, a sticky wet, fishy smelling mess. I knew instantly what had happened, but that didn't stop me jumping and squealing like a little girl. I ran down below to get my flashlight and the camera, so that I could take a quick print of the little flying fish who had come to visit me during my late night watch. This guy was lucky, and I got him back in the water so that he could live to tell the story to the rest of the school. I always wanted a good flying fish story to tell, and now I have one, but just imagine how much funnier it would have been if he'd landed 12 inches higher and smacked me in the side of the head. Funnier for you guys, of course.

The gulf stream was the only part that was rough, and I am not sure if it ever smooths out. Some giant rollers were coming down out of the north. 15 to 20 feet high, they would tower over poor little Vita, and she would just ride up and over them. I never thought I would be sailing my boat over the foot hills of Alberta, but there I was. Luckily there was no wind, so they were just long big waves. A 20 knot wind on top of that would have made them so dangerous that Vita would probably not have made it home, and that is why we travel during good weather windows. Then just as we were closing on the coast of Florida, a nasty wind came out of the north to welcome us to America, and make the transition into the Fort Pierce inlet as nasty as it could. We fueled up and pushed ourselves on to Vero Beach, and their $15 a day mooring balls. We needed a few days off, check in with customs, do laundry, and pick up some essentials that were not available to us in the Bahamas. Like cheap beer.

And that is where we currently are. Soon we will be headed further north, but there is so much stuff to get done. We need to watch the weather, stay away from the snow, visit friends that are here (it really is a small world), rest, and abuse their high speed internet connection.

We have some places on the way home that we would like to visit, and life is rarely boring on a boat, so we'll try and keep the blog posts coming. Can't wait to get home, missing friends and family, coffee on the yacht club bench, and a new life building challenge.