Weekend Update

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday  January 10, 2011

Catch up time!  We rode out the storm in Royal Island with no troubles, but woe to some of the others in that anchorage!  Several boats had trouble with their anchors holding and had middle of the night worries doing the re-set.  Knock on wood for Endurance.

We left Royal Island Saturday morning on a lazy-day schedule planning to go only as far as Spanish Wells, all of about 6 nautical miles.  The wind was still blowing, but it would be blowing behind us, so we pulled the anchor and motored through the cut.  And THEN, we had a sail that makes sailors keep their boats.  I wanted to capture the feel of the wind, the sound of the gentle slapping of the water on the hull, the perfect heel of the boat.  It’s not often I complain about not wanting to stop this db (damn boat) but that sail was near perfection.  15-20 knots behind us; sails trimmed to a set even Charlie would have approved; Disney-esque colors, scenery, and comfort.

We arrived at the Spanish Wells Yacht Haven docks to be received by other anchorage mates from Royal Island, with a grand welcoming at tie up.  Messenger and Painkiller had arrived an hour before us. 

The island here looks as if Nova Scotia and Bermuda got together to have a baby.  The island is tiny – half mile wide, three miles long.  The houses are mostly one story, concrete construction, with rainbow color paint…aqua marine, seafoam green, peach, turquoise, emerald blue, raspberry, tangerine….and Bermuda white rooftops.  Each house has a carefully manicured lawn, most with cactus near blooming, bougainvillea, orange trees heavily laden, coconut trees and so many more.  There seems to be a 50/50 split between golf carts and small cars as island transport, with a healthy mix of cyclists and walkers.  Spanish Wells is the fishing capital of the Bahamas.  We’re told all the Red Lobster lobster is supplied from here.  The fishing fleets are remarkable – sparkling clean, no rust, no worn areas where nets or cables have worked away at the vessel, absolutely no mud or dirt or grime.  There aren’t even flies at the fishing docks. 

The local folk sound much like the Newfoundlanders, with a distinct accent so thick it’s difficult to understand at first.  Most of them are cradle to grave Spanish Wells residents and the economy is alive.  The last two fishing years ‘have been rough’ but ‘it’s getting better this year and we’re hoping it stays’.  They are a friendly, kind, proud and proper bunch. 

Sunday morning’s first adventure was of a personal nature.  Tony’s first try-on of his new stocking stuffer:  an electric Remington hair clipper set!  We compromised with the “Number 4” setting (Tess found number 3 from Charleston quite Unacceptable) and let her rip.  All went well until Tony insisted Tess NOT use the earguards provided and “just use the clipper with no attachment” to do around the ears.  I was ¾ of the way around the first ear when I realized I was doing it on the wrong angle.  SO, if Tony needs a permanent blue-tooth implant, the space is all prepared!

After our grooming excitement  I packed a picnic and we headed off first to the local Methodist Church for the morning service (options: Methodist, People’s Church, or Gospel Church).  Although we were distinctly under-dressed, we’re from St. Matt’s and proud of it so we asked permission before entering and tried to stay on the sidelines so as not to offend with our shorts and best shirts.  They didn’t bat an eye.  We toured the island by bicycle after church and had our picnic at the town park at the northern end, continuing our bike exploration.  It’s a hilly place!  The story of the naming of the town is that old Spanish boats came in to port here to re-fill their water tanks with the sweet water from wells they had found here.  The hills would suggest there were certainly better chances for fresh water detainment and filtration than on most of the low-lying cays nearby.

After our biking, we took books to the beach and wandered out on the sand bars in crystal clear ocean water.  We ended our day with an evening’s stroll after dinner to watch a fishing boat come in.  They go out for 4 days to lay lobster “Condo”s – open crates lobster can walk in and out of – they will go back to pull the condos and cull the catch for the right size in a month.  This boat pulled in at 9:30 pm, so clean we thought it was a private charter boat.  The crew disembarked and would return on Monday at 8:00 to leave for another 4 days of setting condos.  With the little time they had in their home port, they were each eager to talk to us about their work, their boat, their family, their island. 

Monday morning we cast off lines for Painkiller and Messenger.  Fairwinds, I hope we meet up again.  Tony set out to try to conquer telecommunications with BahamaTelCo and Tess did the usual household chores – laundry, a grocery store sweep, re-sort and stow.  We might have a data plan set?!?  We have picked up some frozen lobster and grouper to add to the on-board provisions, and we’re ready to make our way through the weather news to set our next course!

Three and a half hours at BTC and I have a new Blackberry with a data-only plan (unlimited).  I now have on board every conceivable telecommunications device known to man.  Let’s see if it works.

Based on Tess’ narrative above, we may stay in the Ba

hamas forever.

Thursday, January 6. 2011

Magnificent Weather!  The front comes through….

We left Nassau on predictions of a Thursday/Friday frontal system coming through.  Thursday morning weather (via Charlie in New Orleans), predicted winds of 40 and 45 overnight.  Richard and Virginia had warned us to pick a spot to wait out the fronts.  We picked Norman’s Cay Pond for the Christmas front and are here in Royal Island for this one.

While the day was blowing in the high teens and gusting to 24, at 10:00 P.M. we were treated to a magnificent spectacle.  Winds of 30 gusting to 40 with lightening far off to the North.  By 11:00 we had winds of 40 gusting to 45 with a pelting rain and our own lightening.  Subsided at a 30 knot rainstorm, but back with a vengeance at 3:00 A.M.  So the front passes through.

Learned that Messenger dragged anchor at 9:00 P.M. just as it really started to pick up.  Managed to move and re-secure for the worst of the storm. 

This was one CRAZY storm – the most intense I can recall aboard Endurance…loud, howling wind, driving rain, crashing thunder and blinding lightening.  We were tucked up closer toward the end of the pond, but we were dancing on that anchor!

Welcome to the Bahamas….

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Wednesday, January 05, 2011 leaving Nassau on a hot, sunny and windless day.  Filled water tank and fuel tank before leaving Nassau Harbour Club Marina.  $4.299 for diesel.  A premium price which is 25 cents more than when we left on Christmas and 25 cents more than the Marina next door (deeper into the harbor by about 100 yards).  When I was there yesterday filling a gasoline jerry can ($4.14 per gallon), the local guy pumping said that you should expect the price of fuel to rise the further you go East.  But, Nassau Harbour Club is only a stone’s throw away, I says.  It’s still East of here he says.  Yes; an extra 25 cents East.  We only took 24 gallons to fill up (a $6.00 premium).  As we left, a boat pulled up asking for 800 gallons (a $200 premium over the place next door!!).  Good to be a sailor!

An uneventful motor to Royal Island, just West of the town of Spanish Wells and the island of Eleuthera, about five miles distant.  We did see a green turtle just before we went from a 5,800 foot depth to a 54 foot depth at SW Reef.  Anchored now in the “pond” at Royal Island, we are in 9 feet of water and again surrounded by a protective set of cliffs.  This time, unlike Norman’s Pond, we don’t have a treacherous cut and channel.  A nice 14 feet of depth and well marked 35 foot cut (knock on wood).

Expecting a front to move in on Thursday, so we may be here for a couple of days.  Good cell phone coverage to talk and good Sat Phone reception for e-mail.  A steak in the frying pan.  Johnnie Walker in a clinking glass.  We may be here for weeks.  No need to move until one of you says “Meet me in Georgetown!

Potters Cay Conch Shack

New front end...

Nice work.

Potters Cay

They have everything here!!!

Leaving Nassau (again)

Wednesday was a big work day aboard Endurance.  In addition to re-provisioning, we added port and starboard sailboards to the forward stanchions.  This allows us to tie down the bikes and two 5 gallon jerry cans of gas on deck.  Also makes us look like real cruisers.

The big event of the day was dinner prepared by Mary Clare Davis’s nephew Kevin.  A former sous chef for Eric Ripare, Kevin is now executive chef at Mahogany House on (ou-la-la) Lyford Cay.  (If I hear one more time that Sean Connery lives there I’ll scream!).  Kevin did let us know that we would be “outside the gates”.

Nevertheless, we had a fantastic dinner among the rich and probably famous (how would we know?).  Everyone looks like they are from Hollywood (Nantucket).  We were among the dozen folks over 50 in the place.  At one point, the woman at the table next to Tess leaned over and asked if she knew us, since we looked so familiar.  Tess responded that we were just visiting, to which I added “We are famous, but not around here”.  I guess we even looked like we belonged.  The restaurant has the ambiance of a high end neighborhood joint for that Larry David crowd on HBO.  Maybe I’ll dig out my screenplays and make a pitch.  (Mr. Sarcasm himself doesn’t do justice to this place.  It is beautiful; cool music, casual yet elegant interior with rich wood tones and open spaces; quiet enough for a good conversation at our table not to be heard at the next.  Tables on a veranda outside under trees, great bar, wine cellar which will soon host a special dining service…this is the “It” place.  The menu is comfortable and creative at the same time – and the food was out of the world…sauces that were light and layered with flavors…omg!)

But, most importantly, Kevin looks great.  Works seven days a week from six p.m. to midnight, has nothing to do thereafter since everything closes up early on his side of the Island, so suffers more from exhaustion and boredom than anything else.  We really saw the Lyford Cay – Cable Beach area for the first time on the drive in (by the Marina Manager, Peter, who lives on Lyford Cay - did I mention, that’s where Sean Connery lives!?).  As a result, plenty of hotels near by, but away from the exclusive Lyford Cay gates.  Come out and visit Kevin.  We’d be happy to join you for dinner there anytime!

 Hopefully, Kevin will get a little work respite time while we’re here and will track us on the blog and come join us for a sail and some time away.  He does look great, loves what he’s doing and what he’s done, and was a gracious host to us, running our first two plates out himself before the house filled.  I had a birds eye view of watching him work.  Pretty cool – MC and family deserves to brag!!!

George Wins First Contest!!

Claiming that our picture is of a Sea Robin, George Marts may have won the fiirst Identification Contest.  A bit of research shows that it may likely be a Bandtail Sea Robin, but his entry is close enough.

George's prize, a week's cruise in the Bahamas aboard s/v Endurance.  You pick the time, we'll pick the place (and suggest a close airport). 

Consolation prizes will be awarded to those who dispute the Judges' decision with appropriate documentary evidence.

In Nassau till Wednesday.  Then, we head South....

What's this?

Our first Identification Contest.  What's this?  A fish laying on the bottom, when startled, spreads it's wing-like side fins and "swims" away.  Prizes awarded!!

Pictures!! This kind of says it all...

Christmas Week in the Exumas!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Had a wonderful Christmas Week in the Bahamas with Charlie, Tabby and Katie arriving on Christmas Eve.  We celebrated Christmas officially with a roast and Yorkshire pudding and opening of stockings on Christmas Eve in order to accommodate the sailing schedule – leave on Christmas or be stuck in Nassau for three days of weather.  We missed Alison sorely all week.

Set off from Nassau on Christmas day for Norman’s Cay in the Exumas. It was a beautiful sail, an easy reach, flat seas with good wind and everyone enjoying the cockpit and decks.  Norman’s Cay is infamous having been a drug lord’s den in the 1980’s, but all that’s left of that history are a few beaten up buildings and stories.   Spent a night at anchor off the West side of Norman’s, but in the morning we expected a cold front to move in, so we moved to Norman’s Pond.  The Pond is a great big anchorage, about 200 acres, fully enclosed with only one narrow (and shallow) entrance.  We arrived at high tide and saw no depths less than 6 feet (we need 5).  We “walked” into the Pond, slowly, carefully, with inch by inch course corrections – it was a moment to be so proud of father-son tag-teaming.  It was a daring move in; only one chart gave a sense of possibility, but once through the cut we saw a dozen other boats peacefully anchored.   As the front arrived we had winds gusting to 40 and 50 knots, but barely a ripple in the water.  The result was a comfortable night and a cozy second day and night as the front passed and the weather subsided.  The Pond was beautiful, if the weather was not.  Katie and Tony did our first swim off the deck; Charlie began the first of his week of sea-water bathing after a swim.  The snorkels came out, board and word games were played, we ate well, enjoying being together, and waiting for Alison’s evening call.

On Tuesday, we intended to leave Norman’s Pond on the rising tide and figured we were at mid-tide for our 10:00 A.M. start.  This time, as we skirted the channel close to shore, with one more left hand turn to put us in the cut, our depth sounder read 4.6 (did I say we needed 5?).  We stopped.  Or, more appropriately, we were stopped.  Rising tide.  No worries.  We let out the staysail to push us off.  No movement.  We let out the big headsail to grab that forward breeze.  No movement.  Finally, we put up the mainsail and caught a big gust which lifted us up and over the shallow bank.  But, our turn to the cut was immediate, so we need to quickly drop the sail and stay off the rocks.  Flawlessly done.  Only an hour’s delay.  And where were Katie and Tabby during these tense moments.  Recognizing danger, they retreated below to chit-chat and ignore the drama in the cockpit.  Did he say ‘drama’?  Let’s picture this:  we have run aground between rocky piles looking more like a mogul run at Sunday River than a passable cut.  We have Tony, Tess and Charlie above deck with lines going out and coming in and eyes peeled watching for both positive movement (to port and forward), negative movement (to starboard and aft to the 2’ stake), and inertia with just sand kicking up beneath and around us.  Getting us off the spit was certain, but the technical requirements were intense.  Charlie loaded the main and the jib and immediately upon getting the load needed to dump it to execute the turn through the pass…it was Awesome when it worked; a little tense in the lead in, especially when Tess mistook the word “No” for “Go” and began to release a sheet early which I’d been clearly asked to leave alone.  Oops, my bad.

But, rewarded we were.  A great sail South in Exuma Sound (back to the 1000s of feet of depth) to Warderick Cay and the Exuma National Maritime Park.  We had been granted a mooring so we were tucked in close to Park Headquarters.  This gave us an opportunity to take a long hike which ended at Boo Boo Hill; the highest point on the Cay.  The next morning we did it all.  Hiked.  Snorkeled.  Kayaked (Tess’ Christmas gift from the kids).  Lazed on the beach.  Dove on a wreck.  A really amazing place.

Off we were on Thursday for Highborne Cay.  A great anchorage on the western beach.  The high pressure system which arrived after the cold front past has been paying off.  Great weather.  Warm water.  Great beach.  And snorkeling at a reef called Octopus’ Garden.  Great chance to practice with my new dive mask camera (another Christmas gift from the kids).  Check out the pictures that follow.

What we’re not telling you is  that we get to each of these places, and see perhaps 10 people, maybe a dozen…and they’re not really near us, we simply see them, or walk past them, or wave.  We’re alone in paradise with most of our kids.  Pretty cool.  Alison was taking pictures of the snow in Brooklyn while we were rinsing the sand off our feet before going aboard……

But alas, knowing we had flights to catch on New Year’s Day, we sailed the next morning to Nassau.  I caught a fish en route, thanks to my schooling from George earlier this month (used that green grass skirty thing, you suggested). (he looked so CUTE in it)  It was about 14 inches, smooth and silvery.  I think it was some kind of Jack, a Bonito or a Great White Shark.  I dropped it on the deck and it escaped before Charlie could get the camera set up for the big picture.  I’ll get another, I’m sure.

New Year’s Eve, we took a cab to Atlantis and saw all the things the tourists see.  The “Dig” which is an amazing and huge aquarium.  The Predator Aquarium filled with sharks.  And all of the grounds.  It seems we went in the wrong door and all of a sudden had access to everything the paying guests get to see.  Not bad.  Like a free trip to Disney World. 

Dinner at the Poop Deck, back toward home was followed by Sailor’s Midnight (9:00 P.M.) at which time we all said good night.  But in Nassau, we were awoken by the Midnight fireworks.  An amazing spectacle, though we each merely glanced out our respective portholes and then covered our ears with pillows until the explosions stopped.  Too much of a good thing, I guess.

The only downside of the trip was sharing a family flu/cold.  We each took a turn going to bed before dinner one night, using up a box or two of tissues a piece, discussing the merits of Nyquil v Sudafed v Mucinex and drinking hot tea with honey to ease our throat and chills.  For this one thing, Alison joined us.  I’m sorry honey; I wish I could have made you some tea and listened to you cough and try to breathe with the rest of us!  I hope you’re feeling better, too.

Sadness on the departure of the family.  Now we feel that we are here.  Left to explore the rest of the Bahamas.  After the clean up and re-provisioning, we sail South….

Pre-Christmas Doings

I think that our last post was December 18.  I broke off saying that I would update all on our week in Ft. Lauderdale.  Forget it!  Nothing but work.  You’ve seen the pictures of the Ft. Lauderdale Boat parade.  The biggest in the world.  Dick and Lorraine Lavalliere came down from West Palm for dinner and to see the parade.  The only highlight of our week. (Okay, there were a few highlights, like seeing the newest Marts grandchildren who are simply adorable, as well as their big sister and brother/cousins.. and sadly missing seeing two of those new kids on the block, next time Dio and Alex…and seeing our family in a more relaxed way – casual family dinners and an evening or two of revelry…and lastly, learning that wind can blow like crazy for 3 days solid, then just stop!  That was an interesting lesson we’d need to know, and best to learn it while otherwise preoccupied with groceries, laundry, electronics and charting) Let’s stick to the Bahamas!!

Crossing from Miami on Friday, December 17, we left at 0447 in order to get a good jump on the day. (I was told we’d leave at 6:00; motor on at 4:30?!?  These guys are freaking nuts to go – pitch black out, beautiful city lights of Miami behind us, a line of cruise ships inching their way to port, one carrying our dear friends the Schoonmakers.  We waved – I don’t think they saw us)  Had a calm and fast crossing of the Gulf Stream under power as what little wind there was, was on our nose.  We steered a course 20º off our mark in order to counter the effect of the northward flowing Gulf Stream.  Entering the harbor at Bimini was much more tense.  This is where you learn quickly how to read the water.  Dark is good.  Light is bad.  Like so many others before us, we back-tracked and started a second time, coming in via the channel running within a few yards of the sandy beach on South Bimini island.   Arrived in Bimini proper at 1230 waived off the first Marina we called since they expected us to dock next to the garbage ramp.  “Don’t worry.  That garbage scow is almost done and will be leaving.”  Went to Brown’s Marina instead.  

At Brown’s we docked the boat amid a school of squid.  Beneath the dock proper were schooling needle fish and sergeant majors.  George pointed out the head of a moray eel peeking out amid the rocks at the waters edge just waiting for someone to swim in.  The water is literally more shallow than Sylvia’s pool, just as warm, and just as clear.  You’ll see photos later that you’ll think are in a pool – pretty amazing to look down through 10, 20, 60 feet of water and see sand and rocks on the bottom.  It ain’t Maine, and it sure as hell isn’t the Chesapeake!

Running into a British couple outside the Customs Office, they were all keen to compare “how much time” we received.  The big Cruiser complaint this year is apparently the fact that Canadians are being given only 90 day Cruising Permits.  I understood them to be saying that some folks were only getting thirty days.  I went in and asked for 120 days (till April 1, essentially) and was told no, I was good until June 1.  I thought it paid off to shave and put on a clean shirt.  At immigration next door, though, I asked for a 120 day visa for me and Tess (only two weeks for our crew, George), but “new rules”, we only received 30 days each.  Renewable at any immigration office in the islands.  On that basis, I was content, but other Cruisers apparently find this to be a great imposition.  The Immigration lady explained that they tended to have some Cruisers “go missing” in the past and were trying to keep closer track of them.

Our day in Bimini had us chase (literally) the annual Candy Cane Parade of school children making their way from Alice Town several towns over to the Bimini school.  We literally ran after them through back roads and “short cuts”, catching up several miles from our starting point and very close to the school.  We all received candy canes for our efforts, but on the walk home (along the beach side facing Miami), we stopped at CJ’s for cracked conch and conch fritters.  Absolutely great and a must find sort of place.  Both C and J were there as well as the Immigration lady (still in uniform), drinking beer with a Hennessey chaser at the ready.  We got to know these folks well since there was only room for the six of us, the cook and the beer cooler.   

Off the dock with an assist from Darrell in a 20 knot wind at 0920 on Saturday, we headed South toward Gun Cay and Turtle Rocks sailing in a breeze from the SSE.  At the Triangle Rocks/Barnett Harbour Cut, we turn left and are out of the Straits of Florida and on to the Grand Bahama Bank..  Water depth drops from 600 feet to and average of 12 feet for the next 90 nautical miles.  An amazing sight to see water in all directions and be in water no deeper than a swimming pool.  While we had on and off drizzle all day, it was a warm and easy motorsail till we neared sunset.  We anchored on the Bank (careful to pull out of the “channel”) at 1713.  While the channel was no more than 12 feet (often only 8 or 9), we anchored in 16 feet about 2 nm between the convergence of two “magenta lines” (the lines on the chart followed from point-to-point by most boats – in this case from Gun Cay just South of Bimini and North Rock just North of Bimini, running in each instance to the light at Northwest Shoal. 

In the morning we were on our way to Northwest Shoal, were the Grand Bahama Bank ends and the water drops off to over 9,000 feet in the Tongue of the Ocean.  Yes, 9,000 feet.  And a stretch of ocean that runs between the various Bahamian “Banks”.  Down and up again at the Chub Cay anchorage, where it was clear we would spend a miserable and rolling night, we headed further East to the Berry island Club moorings at Frazier’s Hog Cay.  By 1430 we were drinking $3 Kalik’s and watching Fox Red Zone Football on the big screen TV.  Frazier’s Hog Cay is a picture perfect Bahamian sight.  Mangroves, beach and a single dock and building.  We knew we had arrived. 

But, having a schedule to keep (as per usual), we were gone again at 0802 on Monday and off to Nassau.  The great news was we had 20 to 30 knot wind abeam for the whole trip and had our first full day of sailing since….!?  We also had a large and following sea and were cranking out 7.5 to 8.0 knots for as long as I could hold the wheel.  George hooked two sailfish as we trolled, but could only hope to drown them at these speeds.  They broke off and will be on our list to find again someday.

Nassau.  Now that’s an incredibly busy looking place.  After obtaining clearance from Nassau Harbour Control to enter the harbour and proceed to our selected marina, we passed huge Cruise Ships, the Disney-esque tourist city of Atlantis, we had to figure out how to navigate under the two fixed bridges.  You apparently do that by near-scraping along a line of local fishing boats, then taking a 90º turn to the right in front of the Looming MailBoat freighter, then 90º again to pass the proper portion of the bridge.  The sailboat in front of us was kind enough to slow down so that we could find the way for them. 

Four days at Nassau Harbour Club Marina, with the first two monopolized by attempts to get the phone and communications systems organized, began to look like Ft. Lauderdale.  It seems that as soon as a boat hits a dock, there is nothing but work to be done.  Better to stay off the dock.  But, everything did get fixed (thanks, George), and cocktail hour begins here at 1330 (except when it begins sooner).  A liquor seminar for three was conducted at the Green Parrot bar one afternoon, where the otherwise bored bartender insisted that we taste every liquor we happened to mention, many he suggested and some concoctions which he no doubt spent years developing.  He charged us for four Kalik’s and a single shot of run ($32) despite the fact that we likely had a dozen additional drinks between us.  That is an Island education.  Another was lunch at Double D’s where we had the local favorites, a Conch Souse and a Fish Head Stew.  No one ordered the Sheep’s Tongue.  (no worries Gil, I had the “chicken snack” which apparently means, “with fries”.  Good to know) 

We also made a daily trek to Potter’s Cay (pronounced key, don’t ask me why it’s spelled that way) to walk among the very “rustic” (read, you’re kidding, right? You’re not going to eat anything from there…) “shops” (read, country fair kissing booth that’s been up for 10 years straight and never particularly improved) to eat a Styrofoam bowl of conch salad, de-shelled and prepared in front of us, from pulling that puppy out, stripping him down, cutting, slicing, dicing with tomatoes, peppers, scotch bonnets, cucumber and then doused in juices from a lime or two, and orange or two, and perhaps a lemon.  Tony and George couldn’t get enough.  Tess had enough just watching!

Tony and George did Manly Work daily while I did the ubiquitous laundry, cleaning, groceries…but each day we paused for a little adventure.  Snorkels were out for Tony & George to dive on a reef in the harbor while I stood guard in the dinghy…cute seeing the two of them off for fishing gear, or snorkel gear, or new tools…brothers and friends.  It’s a nice thing.

Friday, December 24 we made a crew change losing George, but gaining Charlie, Tabby and Katie for their respective Christmas Week breaks.