Travelling in NoMan’s Land

It’s not hard to figure out why there aren't many people living in the little islands of the Bahamas. They are rough. Coral or rock islands, covered in a thin layer of sand, with little or no vegetation. But; the water is “gin clear”, the beaches are beautiful, and the underwater world is fascinating. So where it might be difficult place to eek out a living, it is an incredible place to experience some raw nature.

Have a seat and pull a six pack out of the fridge, because its going to take you a while to read this entry. We have been without internet for 2 ½ weeks, but there is so much stuff to talk about, that I just have to….

 We stayed an extra day in West Bay, New Providence. The winds were forecast out of the east, the exact direction we wanted to go. So we took the day off and snorkelled. And did we snorkel, 4 hrs in total, but it was just so amazing. We have some great underwater video, and one of these days soon I’ll put together a YouTube upload to tease the waterly afflicted, trapped by winters snows. Unfortunately, with the daily chores plus all the time in the water, Serena’s back was acting up again.

 Wednesday morning it was time to leave. It would have been better if we could have stayed put, as the seas were outrageously large, and we were down to a one man crew. But, unfortunately, the anchorage we were in was going to be far too uncomfortable with winds coming out of the south. So off we went into 8 foot seas with a short period. It was all we could do just to get out of the bay, and then between the engine at max, and the yankee flying from the forestay, we were just able to make our way out into the tongue of the ocean. For 8 hours we pounded into short choppy seas, motor sailing about 6 of it, before the seas started to lay down for the last 2 hours of the trip to Allens Cay. The guide book says that it fills up quickly with first time cruisers, and does it. The first night was okay, but the second night we had 16 boats, and the third night 18. The anchorage doesn’t fit that many, and it was tight. Ironically, the only real problems that surfaced were on the first night when two boats dragged. However, other than the iguanas and the bikini clad tourists arriving on the high speed tour boats, there is not much to see at Allens. That plus the fact that there is little protection from weather and current in there, is probably why the experienced cruisers pass it by.

We stayed put in Allens, even though it was rough, because Serena was broken. Her back was worse than usual because of the rough 10 hour trip to get there, so she played broken sick person, and I played den mother. You may laugh, but you have no idea how hard it is to keep a pig-headed sick-O from injuring herself even further. It was a full time job. I did let her out to go to the beach Thursday afternoon, for a quick trip to play with the iguanas, and to go to movie night on Serenada, but otherwise, it was bed ridden.

Islands made of coral create these mini caves along the shores, washed out by waves over the years.

The great iguana caper.

By Friday Serena was starting to feel a bit better. I was still playing the domestic, but after getting permission I was allowed to go play with my friend Gil. We thought we would try to find some conch for dinner. Try being the operative word, because the great conch hunt was yet stumped. Then I snorkelled around the anchorage, checking anchors, and discovering the truly weird bottom. It was like a series of ravines, valleys, and mountains of sand. If it wasn’t covered in water, I would have thought it was the desert. Finally I took some video of our own anchor, and the 3 foot ramora that was stuck to the bottom of our boat. Ramoras are a scavenger fish. They have a large suction cup on the top of their head, and they attach themselves to large fish, such as sharks, and ride around for free. When the shark eats, the remora will dart out taking morsels that fly free, and then go back and attach itself to the fish again. Apparently boat hulls are sharky’ enough, because they’re were a few of them around.

Friends Diana and Gil.

They're everywhere.

Friday night was great. The seas and the wind layed down, and it got nice and quiet. We had happy hour and dinner over at Serenada’s, with our friends from Cs’ta Time. But shortly after midnight the wind and seas started back up again. We were intending to leave Saturday, but the anchorage was so uncomfortable that we were having a hard time getting the boat ready to leave, and we were starting to think we wouldn’t be able to leave at all. There are some things about cruising that really suck, and rolling violently from side to side in a swell, is one of them. We did eventually manage to put all to bed, raise the hook and head out to sea.

The water was rough, but doable. We stopped into Highbourne Cay and fuelled up. The diesel was a pretty good price, but the $10 we paid for a small bag of romaine hearts was a bit much. $5 for garbage, $4 for ice cream, etc… Leaving there we made our way to Normans, and nestled in. The wave action was much better than in Allens Cay. Finally, quiet. We were greeted by friends, and went for a walk with them on the island before rushing back to Vita to prepare a dinner for our buddy Fred. We had a great evening sitting in the cockpit telling lies, and swapping stories. We saw Fred off, had showers and stayed up to 1:00 in the morning watching The Hobbit. People ask, what do you do with your days when you’re out cruising. The problem is not what to do, but what can’t you get to in a day.

These birds greeted us at the dock in Highbourne Cay. They were very friendly.

We ended up staying at Norman’s Cay for 7 days. They go by so quick, you never even notice they’re gone until you realize that you’re the tour director for your anchorage, and all your friends that were there, or came after you have left. It was our first real taste of the Bahamas, and it tasted good.

The water was so clear you could see the anchor running along the bottom, and the dinghy looked like it was in a swimming pool. The water was 16 feet deep, believe it of not. So far our record is 65 feet. We actually saw the bottom in 65 feet of water. Wow....

We snorkelled like mad. I can’t even imagine how many hours were spent, spear fishing, hunting for conch, diving on coral reefs, or videoing the plane wreck in the middle of our anchorage. Then there were sundowners, baking, cleaning, etc… Life was full, and it was fun, right up until the last two days where I laid on my back in bed, reading. It was my turn to be the sick-O. I had been ignoring a nagging back ache that started bothering me when we were in West Bay, and all the activity finally caught up with me, but damn was it worth it.

The highlights including diving on our first coral heads. I speared my first fish, but he wriggled off the spear and swam away. Its unfortunate that I turned him into fish food, but lets face it, he was destined for it anyway. It’s not like these little reef fish die from old age very often. We spent hours upon hours hunting conch, a mile or more offshore in 15 to 20 feet of water. I managed to find two, only to discover that there were dozens right in our anchorage, in 2 feet of water. We were dinghying over to give our catch to our friends, and they had just stumbled across them. So we cleaned our 6 conch limit on the beach, and prepared them back on board Vita. Turns out, we don’t really like conch all that much. It wasn’t that it was bad, it just wasn’t our cup of tea. Pork chops are still way better. I guess those thousands of conch we may have eaten…. Will have to be eaten by someone else!!

The great conch hunt prevails. Its messy.

We dove on our first plane wreck. There were tons of fish swimming around us, and a couple of big manta rays resting in the sand. We got some great video, and if we ever get some time to sit around and do nothing, I’ll edit the video and put it up on YouTube. Probably when we get home.

Still somewhat broken, we departed anyway. Our plan was not to spend 2 months in Normans Cay, there were other places we wanted to see. Our friend Fred had told us about a little place in the Exuma park called the “aquarium”. The fish are protected, and plentiful, and we just had to see it. So off we moved down the Exuma chain to Cambridge Cay. About a mile and a half south of the aquarium in a very protected anchorage. Some of our friends were here, and we spent a wonderful 3 days, snorkelling, goofing around, sailing our dinghy, hanging out, and recuperating from all the fun.

Friends Gwen and Guillaume of Slow Waltz, and Dave and Jane from Romano, on Vita for sundowners. It was a tight fit in our little cockpit. But, good friends, good food, good times.

At sundowners the first night, our friend Guillaume was talking about sailing for the sake of sailing; as we cruisers tend to sail in order to move our homes, but we have forgotten about enjoying a good sail, just because we have a boat and nature provides us with a fair wind. So I brought up that we had a sailing kit for our dinghy. Still in its original package, begging to be used. Well, you know what happens when two men get together to enjoy a new toy. Yep, that’s right, a crap load of fun. We had a blast. All the thoughts I had about getting a rigid inflatable go fast dinghy, have now gone bye-bye. I couldn’t imagine giving up the ability to go sailing, whenever I want, without preparing Vita for sea.

Guillaume and I testing out the dink.

We also hit several dive sites over 2 days. The aquarium was incredible, and we made two trips. We took some awesome underwater video, swam with our first shark, and a ray the size of a barn door. We ate lunch on a beach and made friends with a little gecko that enjoyed Serena’s tuna macaroni salad. We drift snorkelled with the incoming tide and spotted our first sea turtle. Dove on yet another crashed airplane, and played the stare game with a couple of rather large Barracudas. Its funny, barracudas are not particularly dangerous fish, unless your bleeding, but they are very curious, and will watch divers, even following them when they move away. It’s just eerie how these, up to 6 foot fish can just sit there and stare at you with those big ass teeth. And the first one that followed me scared the livin’ crap out of me. In contrast, 3 days later I chased one with my go-pro camera through thunderball cave. It’s a learning/comfort curve.

We snorkelled into our first caves. It was awesome. I can’t possibly explain the anxiety, the wonder, and the sense of accomplishment of snorkelling in your first cave. The coral

was amazing, the fish exotic, and wave action in the caves, too cool. And; the CPS guys are going to use this as a example of what not to do:

After a long day of snorkelling, our friends Guillaume and Gwen, Dave and Jane, and our selves were floating through the anchorage in their dinghies, tied together. We were enjoying some very cold beers, telling each other lies, and baking under a hot sun. When we noticed a nurse shark in 4 feet of water. We had taken so much video with the go-pro that the battery was dead, but we were hoping to get just a short video of the shark. So we untied the two dinghies and started chasing the 6 foot long shark through the anchorage. I suited up, mask, snorkel, fins, and go-pro video camera ready to jump out of the fast moving dinghy at the right moment to take the precious video. We eventually got really close to the shark, that was trying to avoid us at that point, and made a sharp turn to the left. And that’s when we realised that this gentle nurse shark was in fact a not so gentle reef shark. There was no mistaking the sharp pointed tail. On reflection; a slightly intoxicated Robby, sitting on the edge of a fast moving dinghy, ready to jump into the water with a pissed off reef shark, was probably not the wisest thing I’ve done in the last little while. Mind you, to some people, taking a 29’ boat out into the Atlantic ocean, might not be that wise either. You only live once!!!

Anyway, after all the fun, my back pain was getting the better of me. So the next day when our friends left, we stayed for a day of recuperation. We did move Vita a mile north to O’Brien’s Cay so that we could visit with our friends on Serenada. Gil was having some back issues too, and we figured they might be in the mood to have a little company, after I was done laying on my back for the day.

When we anchored a 4 foot barracuda came over to check us out, and he never left. Six hours later when we dinghied over to Serenada’s for sundowners, the fish followed us. As it was dark when we left to go home, we’re not sure what happened to him. But in the morning his big brother had taken up the position at our swim ladder, only he was 4 ½ or 5 feet long. By far the biggest barracuda we had seen yet. We had no time to play though, as we were making our way down to Big Majors Cay, which is conveniently located just north of Staniel Cay. Staniel Cay is home to a typical Bahamian town, with grocieries, restaurants, and roads to walk on, ….. It is also the site of the famous Thunderball Grotto from the James Bond movie, “Thunderball”.

The little 4 foot barracuda.

We dinghied the mile and a half into town just to walk around and check things out. We had a beer at the Yacht Club, and then walked the town, checking out the grocery stores, the local flora and fauna. Finally ending up back at the Yacht Club to watch the local fisherman cleaning there catch of conch, lobster, and fish. But more interestingly, to watch the 20 nurse sharks that gathered in the shallows to pick up on the free meal as the fisherman cast the garbage parts into the water.

A word about the typical Bahamian grocery store. They are small. The size of your living room probably, and not likely much bigger. Decisions are made all the more easier because there is only one choice, buy or don’t buy. There is no choice between types, or brand names, or sizes. You get what you get, and you pay through the nose for it. Although, we did find the prices in the town stores much better than the prices in Yacht Club stores. Three romaine hearts was only $7 vice $10. In reality, it makes shopping so much easier.

Serena let me sail by myself. Woohoo. Too bad it took me like 4 tries to sail back to the boat. I have good excuses though.

Those sharks don't look too menacing!

Here little piggy. This big sow chased Serena right into the water, but they swim, so there was no refuge. She finally threw a bunch of apple slices and the pig left her alone for a few seconds. Too funny.

Yep, wild and ferocious.

Above, a frame from some video I took of the huge Barracuda. 

Feeding the fish.

Day two we sailed Life Line, our dinghy, around the anchorage for most of the morning. With Serena and I both in the dinghy, it handled well, with just me in it, weight distribution was very important. By the time I got back to Vita there was probably 60 gallons of water in the boat from waves coming over the side during poorly executed manoeuvres. Going into shore we fed the wild pigs, that aren’t really all that wild. Then gathered up our snorkel gear and headed for Thunderball Grotto for slack-low water. It was incredible. I did take some amazing video, and there are a few pictures here that I clipped out of it, but they do not do this place justice. We snorkelled thru the cave with our friends from Slow Waltz and Romano, then circled around the outside to enjoy the amazing coral, and even more fish, before feeding them crackers. If you hold a cracker out, they will attack, hundreds of them. It was a great experience.

Serena's turn. This was so much fun. Thanks to Gwen for thinking to bring the crackers.

In the water with the sharks to get some close up video. Here is a couple frames. They really aren't as scary as people think. A guy got bit the day before we were in there, but he only needed 12 stitches. A scratch.

The coral at thunderball cave was incredible.

Serena inside thunderball grotto. Too cool.

Definitely worth the visit.

Afterwards we all dinghied into the yacht club for snacks and beer, and wait for the fisherman to show up and bring the sharks in. Later we find out that if you knock the plastic bucket on the fish cutting table, they come swimming. So we knocked on the table and waded into the water to take pictures and video of the sharks up close. Serena didn’t get to pet one like she would have liked, but I took some video about 12” away from the snout of the biggest one. Too cool….

The next day we left Staniel Cay, as the anchorage was starting to get a little rolly, and we were getting a little low on water. The next stop, Black Point, they have free water, wifi, and better stores than Staniel. I was talking to a gentleman this morning at the water tap, and he said there were 90 boats in here last night. Its busy, but apparently it has more to do with Superbowl weekend. We’ll be skipping the parties, as we are not big partiers or football fans. We may even leave tomorrow for somewhere a little quieter. It would be nice to get a couple of days by ourselves before we hit Georgetown in a week or so.

I hope I didn’t bore you too much with this long entry. I left out so much stuff, that I would have liked to add, but it is time to do our end month entry as well, and I need to save a little bit for it. Hope everyone is having an awesome winter.

Almost to the Exumas!

We've made it to New Providence. Which is the Island that is home to the big metropolis of Nassau. We had no need to go into the city, so we decided to drop the anchor in a gorgeous little bay on the west end of the island, called, appropriately, West Bay. Today we are going to get some boat chores done, do a little snorkeling, and visit some more with our friends Gil and Diana aboard Serenada, before heading down to Allens Cay in the Exumas. The weather forecast for today is not good for an eastward trip, but it is great for playing. Warm, sunny, with just enough wind to keep the flying teeth away. Playin' hooky.

So way back now. Wednesday was a complete write off. We were stuck on the dock in Bimini. The winds howled and the rain barely let up all day. It was hard to believe that all the boats in the marina actually had people living on them, because everyone was hiding down below. Luckily, our saviors, Gil and Diana invited us over for happy hour. We spent a few hours telling each other stories, swapping lies, and trying to solve the problems of the world, before we wondered back to Vita for some sleep.

Thursday dawned much brighter. The rest of the cruisers crawled out of their cocoons, us included. We were on a bit of a mission today, although not overly driven, after all, this is the islands. By the look of the weather, it made sense for us to leave the following day at low slack water, travel down to Cat Cay where we would spend the night and leave from there to cross the Great Bahama Bank to get to the Northwest Channel. That meant that anything we needed done before we left, needed to be done today. Serena left me at the gas stop, so that I could fill our diesel cans, and she headed to the laundry. After getting diesel, I pulled our empty propane tank. I grabbed Gil and Diana's two little tanks that needed a top up, and headed out to find Big Fred to get some propane. Everything works a little different here! After checking at the liquor store, I found out the Fred was already down at his truck filling someone else's tank. I hightailed it down to the end of the island and managed to get there just as he was finishing up. Perfect, fill up please. It was hardly worth the effort for the $15 worth of propane that it took, but that's 4 -5 weeks of cooking, barbecuing, and heating water, on both our boats. I dropped off the tanks back at the boats, and headed to the laundry to help Serena. $9 for a load of laundry, and you pay the lady attendant, then she activates the machine, it was a little weird, but the machines were nice and clean. Apparently the reason the price is so high is that they use propane to run the dryers, and that makes sense, plus, we are in the middle of freakin' nowhere.

Later on, our friend Diana was having a rough time getting her phone to talk to her computer so that she could use the data plan to access the internet with her laptop. I'm not much of an Apple guy, but I figured I might be able to help her out anyway. I hate to see people get frustrated with computers. After a few hours of tinkering around, doing some updates, changing a few settings, it finally worked. I am still not sure that I had too much to do with it, but she is happy, and that was the point. Now we could all enjoy happy hour. All the cruisers gathered for happy hour on land, and the talk of course was about; how to store food, the weather, boat systems and repairs, etc.... Our lives our now consumed by the work that it takes to live this lifestyle. I think that is the reason we do this, because it gives us something to do, but the older you get, the harder it is too learn new things, eh ol' dog.

Happy hour discussion groups. How to store food, and put up with the captain(below). Weather, maintenance, and where to go(above).

Friday we left as planned. We would have had a beautiful sail down to Cat Cay, but our batteries were really low, so we needed to run the engine to top them up. I left it out of gear though, just so we could sail. Travelling only a couple of hours, it gave us time to drop the hook and do a little snorkeling. Had showers and a nice dinner. It was good to be away from the dock.

Saturday we woke at 03:30. It was 60 nautical miles across the Banks, and we wanted to be anchor down before sundown at the other end. We were planning to leave, when we noticed that the chart plotter had no GPS data, which meant it was useless. Get out the handheld GPS, study the charts, lets go. It was nice to see that we could still navigate without the chart plotter, in shallow water, in the dark! By lunch time I had figured out to reset the internal RAM in the chart platter, and that seemed to do the trick. But what a beautiful sail. Sun shining, perfect wind, low waves. I laid in the cockpit reading our friend Marlese's book, "Trouble at the Cottage". It was her first book, and until now I had not had a chance to sit back and give it a read. Cute story, very well written, and even though it was intended for a much younger audience, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Here's hoping there is another one in the works.

We had chosen to anchor out on the banks before crossing the tongue of the ocean to New Providence, so I found a little spot just north of a sand bar a few miles above Andros Island that provided some protection from the waves. It was a little bumpy, but considering that there was no land in sight, only ocean, it was pretty good. We barbecued a nice steak dinner, sat in the cockpit enjoying the moonlight, had showers, and settled in for the night. In 18 feet of water we could still see the bottom from the moon light alone, that's cool.

Eventually  s/v Serenada, s/v Romano, and s/v Slow Waltz showed up to our location around 11:00 at night, and dropped the hook. They had all left at 10 in the morning from Bimini, and decided to anchor on the banks before making the daytime run to New Providence.

Yesterday we woke early again, trying to make the Northwest Channel around slack water. Having a small/slow boat, we have to be careful about currents, and the effects that wind have on them. So we raised the anchor at 05:00 and headed out, leaving the rest of the boats asleep. They all left 2 hours later, but arrived in New Providence the same time we did, and that's why we leave early.

It was an awesome sail. The seas weren't too bad, 3-5 feet max, with a great wind just forward of the beam. We flew all sail and were hitting upwards of 6.5 knots. Later around lunch the wind died and we had to become a motor sailor, and eventually just a motor boat as we headed into West Bay in the afternoon. A great run. We saw flying fish, read in the cockpit, napped, and chatted with fellow cruisers who happened to be on the same piece of water. A great day. We anchored in 8 ft of crystal clear water. You can see everything on the bottom. Some days life is just worth livin'.

Last night we dingied over to Serenada, had a few adult beverages, and played a couple of games of cards. We dinghied back for showers, and bed time. Today promises to be a beaut! We are in paradise, with gorgeous water, good friends, and a very pretty view.

Needle fish. Serena took this picture in the marina in Bimini. The fish where everywhere. and the water was so clear. It was mesmerizing.

Hello Bimini

We weren't in our slip more than 30 minutes when a nurse shark swam by the stern of the boat, in the crystal clear water. You just don't see that at home. In fact, even if the shark were there, you couldn't see him for all the crap in the water. When we pulled up to our friends on Serenada south of Bimini before entering the harbor, the water looked like a swimming pool, 15 ft deep. I thought I could smell the chlorine. I don't even care what voodoo is used to make the water so inviting, I am just happy that it is. Now if the weather will smarten up so we can go and enjoy it, we'd be in!

After docking and paying our marina fees, Diana of Serenada and I made the trip to customs and immigration. Making the mistake of going to immigration first, bad directions. Both offices were very professional, with lots of yes sirs, and yes ma'ams. We were out of there $150 poorer, but free to roam these beautiful islands, and catch their bounty of fish and lobster. Afterward we continued up the road to the Batelco office to look into cell phones. For $72 I got a phone, and $30 worth of pay-as-you-go minutes. $.15 to text Canada, $.33 a min for incoming calls, and $.80 per min to call Canada. What that means is if you don't except texts, I ain't talkin' to you. Unless of course your dead or dying, I'll take those calls.

By the time we had Vita tied up snug in her berth, and taken a shower, it was time to head for dinner with our friends Gil and Diana. We hadn't seen them since New York, so it was good to hang out and catch up. If this crappy weather ever lets up will have to get together for sundowners, but with 35 knot winds, and wind driven rain, everyone is hiding in their boats. Can you blame them?

Had a great time at dinner, burgers, real conch fritters, and local beer "kalik", pronounced "click". A great time, but with so little sleep, the beers knocked me on my butt, and it was bed time. We did hang out on the dock for a few minutes though, and watch the giant tarpon swimming around in the underwater lighting of the big power boat on the end of the dock. I slept like the dead. I got up once to check the lines and make sure we weren't blowing down the bay and get rid of the beers, but that was it. Snooze land.

Yesterday the boat was rocking like we were on a bucking bronco. The waves coming into the marina were big enough to throw us around, but it wasn't dangerous. Serena did get a little nauseated. But after a pancake breakfast and a couple of coffees, we were ready to go see the Island.

Main drag Alice Town. We checked out all the little tourist shops, grocery, laundry, etc.. 

The ocean was crazy wild. With 35 knots of wind, and nothing but open water, the waves get big here.

One boat didn't make it. The surf has almost totally disintegrated this old hull. Eventually the sea will claim it for her own.

By the time we got back to the boat, it was 5:00, and our feet were getting a little tired. Serena made banana bread and quesadillas. While I, um, ah, watched her! Okay, I am sure I did something productive, I just can't remember what it was. A couple of coolies and then bed. We did manage to stock up on some cheap rum, and have to wait until today to get some Kalik, as it was still on the pallet in the street. I am happy to report that the beer is not the reported $54 per case, but that it is only $42 per case. Beer at home costs that much. We are still glad we brought 250 cans with us, but we are not adverse to paying $1.75 a beer. It could always be worse!

Today will be slow. The weather is crappy. Rain, wind, cold. A good day to curl up with a book.

We on Island Time Mon!

Made it to the Bahamas. And our friend Wally says that "many people regard the ICW as the purgatory that must be completed in order to get to paradise." He does an excellent seminar on cruising the ICW, and tries to dispel this myth, but I am afraid that we are going to have to go with the "many people". Sorry Wally. This place is gorgeous, crystal clear water, warm temperatures, simple people, and a variety of wildlife that we have seen no where else. Don't get me wrong, there were some places along the ICW that really captured our admiration, Central Park in New York, Cumberland Island Georgia, many people, many gorgeous little towns, but none have captured our hearts the way that Bimini did the minute we got here. This just feels like somewhere we are supposed to be.

Sunset crossing the Gulf Stream from Miami to Bimini in the Bahamas. I just never get tired of seeing this, no matter how many times I am forced to view it.

So, way back to the last blog entry. After getting the alternator done, all cleaned up and put away, we decided to take a day off and play hooky. There were a lot of things still on the Miami bucket list that we hadn't got to do. Both Serena and I were starting to feel a little better, and we were both ready to get off the boat for a bit. So, we took the quarter bus ($.25) to the beach. And wouldn't you know it, we forgot the camera. More bikinis in one place than I have ever seen, and no way to capture the memory. I am slipping in my old age. Actually, and I shouldn't admit this, but I didn't really enjoy the bikinis as much as I had hoped. Apparently it is difficult to admire a tree in a forest, all those trees are too distracting. I am obviously more of a one or two tree guy. I went for a swim in the ocean. Serena couldn't, her back was still tender, and the surf would have crippled her. Then we went for a long walk down the street by the ocean. Packed with people, bars, restaurants, and live music. A party every day. We eventually ended up walking all the way back, admiring the evening and watching all the weird and wonderful people. Had a quick bite to eat, went to movies, and then dinghied back to the boat for a shower and a few coolies. A perfect day.

The following day we were starting to feel even better, and the anchorage was a mad house, so I finally Talked Serena into going for a dinghy ride through the little man made canals and lakes that run the length of Miami Beach.

It looks gorgeous in the photos, but this is little more than a drainage ditch for the city. When it rains, everything comes through here. Despite the smell, and the garbage, it was actually a pretty neat thing to do, and the water was really thin, maybe a foot deep in some places. We just squeaked through with the dinghy.

Even the homeless people liked the area down by the water. You would think that the number of homeless people we saw would surprise us, but the truth is we were surprised there wasn't more of them. Its warm here all year round, so without a roof is much more doable than Toronto at home.

At one point we noticed these guys sunning themselves in the overhanging trees. Imagine this bad boy falling out of a tree into your dinghy. I bet this guy was close to 20 lbs or better. We still aren't sure what the deal was, but we found several of these guys, where there was one orange one in a tree with a bunch of smaller green iguanas. Then the next tree would hold the same, but only one orange one. They were pretty anyway.

The canal doesn't stay tiny for the whole way.

More of our friends.

This green one was as big as the orange one it was with.

Some canals have room for very big dinghies, and the monster personal yachts that they go with.

The next day was a pretty quiet one, for the most part. We hit the boat hard, trying to get all those little jobs done that have been bugging us, or that need to get done before we left Miami. We cleaned, and organized, and tinkered, and prepared for sea. I was up at the bow working on the anchors, and needed to go below to get another tool. When I came back up, this run-away sailboat had settled against us. It seems that it had broke loose of its mooring at the front of the anchorage, and drifted all the way down to our boat at the back of the anchorage. One of the other cruisers came by and told us that the owner, and the coast guard had been called, so we decided to tie it up and wait for its rescuers. After us it would have been the bridge, so I thought that she had been pretty lucky to nestle up against us to be saved. We found out later that she had taken about 2 hours to drift through the anchorage, and several other boats had fended her off instead of trying to save her. I thought that that was pretty rude, but I guess its typical American culture, by saving the boat we were liable to keep her safe, and apparently nobody in the US wants that responsibility.

Eventually the owner showed up with Tow Boat US to take her back to her mooring.

That evening I went and did our last load of laundry, while Serena tried to recuperate from the days activities. Not quite healed up yet. But the boat was looking great.

The day of departure we decided to make one last attempt to find some more of Serena's favorite potato chips, as we had only been able to find 7 containers up to that point, and that was not going to last her 3 months in the Bahamas. We walked through the farmers market with our friends off of Anthyllide, and wandered down the length of Miami Beach looking for a Walgreens pharmacy where I had found her favorite chocolates. The plan was to check the Walgreens, then take the quarter bus to the big Publix grocery store to look for Lays Sour Cream. We found a Walgreens, one block from the Publix. Guess we should have taken the bus first. 7 boxes of chocolates, and 4 bags of number two favorite potato chips, but no Lays. Then we walked all the way back up Miami Beach looking for a shoe store so that I could buy new sandals, as mine were dying a quick death. We didn't find any sandals, because everyone in Miami wears flip flops, but we did find some really nice running shorts and 100% polyester shirts that were on supper clearance. A good day but long.

We got back to the boat and finished up the last minute things for sea. We were planning to leave at midnight, so we really wanted to get a nap in before departure. Load the dinghy, put everything away, text, email, facebook, blog, where does the time go. I got about an hour sleep, Serena just got more frustrated.

At 11:00 we got up and readied the boat, made coffee, hauled up the anchor, and by midnight we were motoring out of the anchorage for Government Cut and the Atlantic Ocean. All went well, but we had heard over the radio that Government Cut had been closed because there were 2 cruise ships transiting the cut. So we took our time, expecting to be turned back, but there was no one around, the cut was empty, so we cranked up the engine and headed out into the darkness.

The trip across the Gulf Stream was fairly uneventful, I had compensated for the flow of the stream by going 10 degrees further south, and I should have compensated as much as 25 degrees south. So we ended up fighting the current near the end in order to make the south of Bimini. We still made it in 10 hours motor sailing, so it wasn't that bad. Miami disappeared about half way across, and Bimini showed up for about the last 12 miles. We met our friends on Serenada in the anchorage south of the island to wait for slack tide, but we were already at slack tide, so they weighed anchor and followed us in to Brown's Marina. As we were making for the cut to go into the harbor, we noticed flying fishing coming out of the water, hundreds of them. We always assumed that flying fish jumped out of the water high into the air and then landed back in the water, with a flight pattern like and arch. What we found out yesterday, is that they come out of the top of a wavelet, and fly, (yep, fly), about a foot above the water for as long as a couple hundred yards, and then they reenter the water. It was so neat to watch. Like little flocks of humming birds skimming over the ocean. Too cool.

12 noon, we were here. Tied up to a very nice marina, $.90 per foot per day, for our 28 foot boat. Almost free. A lot cheaper than we expected, so a very nice surprise. Showers, lounge chairs, a bar, and a volleyball court. Yep, were in paradise.

Making a Break for the Bahamas

I have a whole bunch of stuff to blog about from our last few days in Miami, but it is going to have to wait until we are in the Bahamas, cause its late, we're leaving at 11:00 tonight, and I need a nap. So, sorry about the quickie, but we'll try to post an entry by tomorrow night.

Cheers everyone, and see you in the Bahamas.

Rob and Serena

SV Vita

December 2013 Recap

Dates: Dec 1-31, 2013

Saint Mary's, GA - The Florida ICW to Lake Worth - The Atlantic Ocean to Miami Beach

Sailing: 7 hrs

Motoring: 71.5 hrs (includes motor-sailing)

Mileage: 324 Nm (Nautical Miles)

Budget Amount:      $1590.00 US (All budgeting is in US funds)

Charts/Books:          $      32.00     

Boat Parts:               $    829.00     

Marinas:                   $     21.00

Diesel:                      $   166.00

Beer:                        $   241.00

Grocery:                   $ 1073.00

Restaurant:               $   173.00

Fees/Services:          $      93.00    (pump-outs, laundry, wifi, taxis, etc...)

Clothing/Shopping    $    732.00   

Misc:                       $   608.00     (Propane, hobbies, etc...)

Total:                      $  1590.00

Debit/Credit:            $ -2378.00

Anyone choking.... I know we were, and we knew it was coming. We'll go in order for lack of better method, so first up is:

Boat Parts - I couldn't believe it when we totaled this up, and had to go back to check. Mostly bits and pieces to finish jobs, a few engine parts, some new jugs, a light, some storage totes, and some small plumbing pieces. You know it, nothing is cheap on a boat. There are still a few more items to pick up before we leave the US. 

Beer - Ha, and you were probably thinking this should be much higher, after all there are 200 cans on the boat as part of the replenishment. And yes, we were just as surprised to see the number this low. Gotta love US beer prices. 

Grocery - Holy crudeous, (new word), but there is a lot of food on this boat right now. We probably have 15 lbs of cheese alone, in the fridge. And every nook and cranny has been stuffed with something. And there is still more to go.

Fees - Included a year subscription to DAN (Divers Assistance Network). They provide $100,000 evacuation insurance for members. And, apparently, they are very very good at what they do. Get hurt in a remote area, these guys will bring in the Navy Seals to extract you and get you to a hospital. Okay, not the Seals, but close. 

Clothing and shopping - Mostly Xmas presents for our lovely children, and our awesome grandbaby, but we did buy a few items for ourselves. Its not illegal to own something nice once in awhile. Problem is, when you live outdoors, the companies that make good clothes for the outdoors, don't give them away free; right Columbia and North Face! And lastly:

Misc - This has been pounded by a shopping spree at the dive shop, and a new Go Pro underwater camera. The camera wasn't cheap, or essential, but hopefully some nice underwater Bahamas video will make it worth while. The dive equipment included skins, (thin body suits), to protect us from the sun and coral while we dive. A new pole spear for hunting wabbit, or lobster and fish maybe.

Either way, we expected to be way over this month, and we expect to be way under for the next three months. We still have a bit of provisioning to do, and there is the $150 entrance fee to the Bahamas, so January might be tight, but Feb and Mar should be okay, baring any unfortunate circumstances. The good news is that because our budget is based solely on my pension, any monies that our investments bring in are superfluous, and we made more money on our investments than we gave up on our budget overages. Unfortunately, because we spent so much money in the spring during the refit, that our net worth is actually down slightly, but an amount that is rather insignificant. At this rate we should be able to cruise indefinitely. Or at least until we get sick of it.

I got rid of the "Lessons Learned", of previous month ends, and am opting for more of a general feeling of the month. This months focus was to get to somewhere where we could stage for the Bahamas, provision, and wait for a weather window. That's pretty much what has been happening, but at a much slower pace than we could have anticipated. When we left home we knew there would be times when we would have to sit still for awhile to recuperate from some physical ailment. Serena tends to really get layed up when she is broken, where as I still manage, just at reduced capability. No problem. What we didn't see coming was a common cold zapping two weeks out of our plans. Just goes to show that anything can happen, and all anyone can really do is just go with the flow.

We originally had this great idea that we would complete the ICW, from end to end, just once, to say we did it. We ended up giving up, right at the end, knowing that putting up with all those bridges would drive us insane. We'll not likely ever do that stretch in Vita, but we may stop in Fort Lauderdale next year, as we hear its a great place to provision. But more importantly, we are learning to go with the flow instead of making schedules or rules, for ourselves. 

A few words about provisioning. First of all, and I know that some people already know this, but there is a lot of people that believe that we boaters provision because of the lack of availability over in the Bahamas, and that's not entirely true. Its true, that some of the things that are available in the US, are not available in the Islands. But, the main reason is price. Its a lot more expensive to buy most things in the Bahamas than it is here. Certain items are really expensive, $17 for 24 beer here, $54 for 24 beer there. Doesn't take a genius to figure out that you should take as much beer as you expect to drink, if you have the space. But more importantly, if you find something you really like, at a price that is good, you should stock up with as much as you can reasonably carry. When we got to Miami, we couldn't get Serena's beer, so she is stuck drinking Bud Light. We can't find our kraft peanut butter, Serena's favorite chocolate shells, or Mr. Big chocolate bars. Also, any parts that you have to have flown in are subject to big delays, cost overages, and a rather hefty import fee, so if there is a chance you might need it, take it with you, if you have the space around all that beer.

That's it for this month. Next month I will try and do this again. The may change a little as I go. If anyone reading the blog would like to see anything in particular, let me know, I may be able to squeeze it in, especially if it seems like good info to pass on.

Now back to your regular blogging........

Happy New Year Campers

Aboard the "sick ship Vita".

We missed yet another New Year's party, this one because we weren't feeling good, the others because we didn't have any where to go that interested us; we aren't really the partying types. Here we could have walked around in shorts and T-shirts, all the previous years it would have been in a parka. We used to have great New Years parties at our house when our kids were young, and our friends were still all married to one another.Oh well, there is always next year, or usually next year anyway.

Yep, still ill. The anchorage has been really lumpy because of all the ignorant power boaters. No offence intended to the non-ignorant power boaters, as most we have had the chance to encounter have been very courteous. However, here in Miami, there are a lot of bad ones. And, a lot of them are obviously professional captains, that should know better. When a bad wake comes, we try to make sure that there is nothing that is not nailed down that could do damage when it flies across the cabin. And, of course we brace ourselves. But the movement does not help Serena's back. We have discussed moving to a quieter anchorage, but it has its downfalls too, and Serena is thinking that if she gets comfortable with the rolly anchorage, that when we go to sea she may not get sea sick for the crossing to the Bahamas. So, we put up with the inconvenience, which last night was not easy. Usually it gets quiet at night, all the power boaters go home, but not on New Years Eve, they stay out until morning. Maybe they'll be tired tonight.

As a bonus, this anchorage put us right in the middle of the most incredible fireworks show we have ever seen. There were 6 different locations letting off an amazing amount of fireworks, for about 25 minutes or so after midnight. Pretty cool. People were lining the rooftops of the buildings around us watching the show, and the party continued until the wee wee hours of the morning. I think I might need a nap this afternoon.

I mentioned on the last entry that we were having issues making power, and that I intended to install the high output alternator that we bought in Canada and brought along just for this purpose. It started out well, I ran all the wires, planned the installation to cut down on the amount of time that the battery switch would be off. As we would have no power on the boat while I was doing the installation, and dug in. Because of the heat I was dripping with sweat the whole time, twisted in every way possible, upside down, pretzel-ed, and hanging by my toe nails. I know the rest of the boaters are not impressed, because everything on a boat takes that kind of effort, but I am sick too. And, just as I am about to mount the new alternator, I find out that the saddle bolt that holds it to the engine, is the wrong freakin' size. In the dinghy, run to shore, try to find something that will work, (metric bolt in a standard country), purchase hoping something might work. Where is MacGyver when you need him. Dinghy back to the boat. Now of course it is dark out, there is no power on the boat, no lights, fumble around with flashlights, get it up and running, make it pretty tomorrow. Okay, slow down a second, make sure that everything is hooked up the way it should, and fire it up. I had no idea how it worked, so I just payed attention to what was going on, watched the readouts, and prayed that the smoke stayed inside the alternator where it belonged. Because, I know from experience, that after the smoke comes out, nothing ever works the same way. Run the engine for an hour, top up the batteries a bit, and have a very badly needed beer.

Yesterday morning I finished tidying up the wiring. Wrapping what needed to be wrapped, and tie-strapping everything so that it won't move around.

It fit perfectly. Except for the saddle bolt. The original mount used a M8 bolt, and the new alternator came with a 3\8" bolt. I ended up using a 5/16" bolt from the hardware store.

I also decided to leave the original wiring harness intact, just in case we need to revert to the old alternator, and installed new wires for the new alternator. The only thing I left out were a couple of indicator lights that we never looked at anyway. Nice and simple, it even uses the same belt.

I ran the engine with the new alternator after everything was cleaned up, read the manuals, and monitored the charging, just so I could figure out how the new setup works. I read somewhere a couple of days ago that when you live off the grid in a house or RV, that your favorite pastime becomes monitoring your batteries; on a boat, its the same. The new alternator uses a "smart" external regulator, and this one actually seems to be smart. It monitors the batteries, and determines when they are charged, then sets the conditions that tells the battery monitor that they are in fact charged, then it resets itself. And, it reduces the output of the alternator to a low float charge that will not hurt the batteries. It takes all the guessing out of figuring out what is going on with the batteries. What I did discover, surprisingly, is that the old alternator was actually overcharging the batteries on those days that we were motoring for long periods. It wasn't smart enough to know that the batteries were full, so it just kept putting it to them. Luckily it wasn't a lot of charge, and not for really long times, so no damage was done to the battery bank.

The new alternator is a 70 amp Balmar, and the old one was a 35 amp Hitachi. The old one would give about 24 amps on startup, and quickly go down to 7 or 8 amps where it would stay. The new one starts out at about 65 amps, slowly goes down to 50 amps, then after 18 minutes, if battery conditions are right, it goes down to 25 amps, where it stays until the battery is charged and goes down to 3 amps. Then it checks itself every 18 minutes to find out whether it should charge more, or stay where it is. See, smart. The real difference, the old alternator would take 3 - 4 hours to charge the batteries from 50 amps down, and the new one takes about an hour and 15 minutes. Mind you, the sun is shining quite brightly today, so the new alternator won't be needed. Murphy's law, work to solve a problem of nature, and nature will take away the problem just after you have finished your labour.

Looks like we may have a good weather window on Sun/Mon, so the next couple of days will be shopping, filling up with water, fuel, and trying to squeeze in a little Miami Beach. Hope everyone out there in internet land has a great New Year.