Grassy Bay, Cat Cay

There is some sort of low pressure system stalled over Lake Okeechobee that has been wreaking havoc with the weather as well as the models that forecast it.  We are supposed to expect all kinds of thunderstorms, but tomorrow is expected to not be as bad.  I'm hoping for this last crossing to be just as uneventful as all others (crossing fingers).

This morning, determined to get a head start on the crossing and a better angle on the gulfstream, we headed over to North Cat Cay.  We anchored in a little cove on the west side of the island called "Grassy Bay", obviously named for being so grassy.  For those that don't know, anchoring in seagrass is not great, but the winds are so light, and it offers so much protection that we decided to anchor here anyway.  The bay is only exposed to the northwest, and since there is no forecast announcing northwest winds or waves, we decided that this would be fine.

Sailing over from Bimini we could see thunderstorms to our west, it looked pretty bad.  The radio was going crazy with multiple severe weather warnings in Dade and Broward.  Looking at the doppler radar, I could infer that we would be seeing some of those later.  About an hour after having anchored, it started raining and blowing from the northwest (yes, the only direction from which we had no protection).  The winds picked up and Seas the Moment swong on her anchor to face the wind, we must have been 50 feet from shore!  I turned on the engine a little above idle to take some of the pressure from the anchor which may (or may not) be holding.  The wind probably didn't reach 20 kts, but it was kind of sketchy to be being blown onto a beach just off our stern.  Mike and Jennifer decided to reanchor further off the beach while all this wind and rain was going on... it looked kind of difficult, plus, I didn't seem like I was dragging, so I simply kept "motoring" until the winds let down.  I hope I don't have to deal with that again later tonight!

We are thinking about leaving shortly after midnight.  I'm somewhat nervous about storms, yet so eager to raise Miami's skyline out of the horizon!

Wish me luck!

Bimini revisited... I can almost smell Miami from here

I've had an awesome time hanging out with Mike and Jennifer here in Bimini.  We've been hanging out at a few spots that are thriving with locals, which is refreshing compared to other places where the local to cruiser ratio was really low.

As I get closer to Florida, I'm noticing more and more spanish being spoken around me... specifically the shouting exercised by Miami Cubans in their superfast powerboats makes me reminisce about the sandbar in the lee of Key Biscayne.

I'm eager to make this last passage in safety and comfort, but that will also mean the end to this incredible adventure, so I have mixed feelings... in the meantime, while I wait for weather here in Bimini, I'll be taking it easy and enjoying the last days of my trip...

Chub Cay to Bimini - the Grand Bahama Bank from hell, revisited

I woke up on Tuesday morning to troubleshoot an issue with the running lights.  As usual, when you need something to work, it stops working.  I tested it the night before precisely for that reason and discovered it wasn't turning on.  It only took me a few minutes to figure out the problem and fix it.  Afterwards I made breakfast, raised the dinghy, and left around 9 AM.  Undaunted followed closely behind.

The winds were a bit stronger than forecasted, I got to the nortwest channel during an ebb and the current was ripping, it was bumpy and steep but not difficult or scary...  On my way to the channel, I observed what looked like an exposed reef just a few feet from my boat.  I rushed to check my GPS location while at the same time keeping an eye on the reef.  The GPS confirmed that I was in good water, then I realized the "reef" was actually the dark topsides of some type of whale, and that there were a few of them swimming around!  Obviously this only happens when there is no one around to confirm your story when you are telling it at the bar. 

Once on the banks, I set my course for the Cat Cay waypoint... ETA 2am... I figured I might end up anchoring somewhere in the banks.  The wind fell and so did my speed, so I shaked out the reef in my main. The wind shifted direction a few times, sometimes it would be just behind the beam, other times it would be directly on my stern.  For a while, I even rigged a sort of whisker pole  by putting a block at the end of the boom, and running a line from the cockpit, through the block, and into the jib clew.  Undaunted chose the northern route through the banks. I wanted to check the cat cay route, so we slowly parted ways.  They reported having caught a 12 pound Mutton Snapper while trolling on the banks, so i threw a line out to test my luck... We chatted on the VHF until we could tell our distance was making our comunication difficult, so we said goodbye, like I've had to do with so many awesome people during this trip.  I caught a chunk of seaweed on my lure, the ocean sure owes me a large amount of fish by now, the odds have to be stacking up in my favor.  I have a feeling that the ocean is like "the house" at a casino, the odds are stacked in it's favor, but if you spend enough credits, it gives you a couple back to make you think you will win in the end, but sailors, fishermen, and other gamblers should know that in the end, "the house" always wins... but I digress.

A lonely dolphin swam along my boat for a while in the middle of this featureless dessert of sand and sea called the Great Bahama Bank.  Night fell and although the wind was not strong enough to warrant putting a reef in the main, I did so anyway just so I might not have to do it at night.  To my surprise, my speed did not drop, and the jib filled up with better wind than before.  By this time, the stars had started to shine and everything was perfect.  There were no boats around and it felt kind of spooky to be sailing alone in the middle of nowhere, headed towards even shallower banks which I would have to navigate by moonlight (and GPS).  I took a couple of short naps.  My speed rarely dropped under 5.5 knots and the wind was building at the rate of a third world construction site (slowly).  I got to the east side of  North Cat Cay at around 11:45 PM and started to look for an anchorage.  I couldn't find any calm water so I ended up sailing all the way to South Bimini through some really shallow spots, in strange waters, super tired, and at night... basically begging for something to go wrong... somehow, Murphy spared my last night and I made it to Nixon's Harbour in South Bimini around 2:00AM... not bad for 90 nautical miles.  By the way, the wind increased throughout the night while I was sailing, at the end, I was doing 5.5 knots with a deeply reefed main and deeply reefed jib! What ever happened to the promised night lee that Bruce Van Sant claims occurs in the banks after a sunny day and a forecast of under 15 knots????

Anyway, this morning I woke up and was pleased to find that the nameless Catalina 27 was anchored a few yards away, they made it around 5:00 AM!  We waited for slack high tide and motored over to Browns Marina.  Southern Blue and Wandrian are still somewhere on the banks...

Today I will experience the elusive activity called a proper shower, which, if I remember correctly, aids one in getting to that mythical state of being called "clean".

Chub Cay, an idyllic anchorage... maybe

Last night was awesome.  The wind was calm and the anchorage was dead flat.  The skies cleared and the moon was casting our shadow on the sandy bottom below.  The water was so clear that I could see the individual strands of seagrass and starfish in the boat's moonshadow, now imagine how clear it was in the moonlight.  As opposed to Andros, I've seen no bugs besides the ones that managed to catch a free ride on the boat... it cost them dearly though when they tried to bite me at night!

Dawn brought to my eyes one of the most idyllic scenes so far during this trip.  The clear glassy water lay interrupted only by the nearby islands and by Undaunted.  The morning was also very silent except for some seagulls scavenging on the beach under the high tide line, in the distance I could also faintly hear the rumbles of the generators that power the failed project also known as Chub Cay Marina.  I made myself some breakfast and once I finished, I could not tolerate the tower of dirty dishes so I went to work on cleaning them up.  I am philosophically opposed to any kind of activity that can be labeled as work, but I suppose it is the price one pays to enjoy yet another day in paradise.

I went for a swim around noon to manually reset my anchor into a safer direction in anticipation of the late afternoon northeasterlies being predicted by the different weather sources.  I also swam over to Undaunted and chatted with them for a while.  Then I spent some time cleaning the hull from all the nasty spilt fuel that inevitavely flows by your boat at the Nassau harbour.  I then grabbed the spear and went for yet another unsuccessful hunt.  I did see lots of fish and an easy lobster (but they are out of season).  As I swam on the edge of the abyss leading to the depths of the Tongue of the Ocean during flood tide, I could feel the rich cold water flooding the banks.  I managed to partially spear a good sized grunt but the barbs didn't go in deep enough and it managed to swim away.  Shortly thereafter, and at the same time, a 6-foot nurseshark and a barracuda swam over and paid me a visit... this spooked me enough to call it a day.

I swam back to the boat and started to prepare food for tomorrow's passage.  I had some lunch and now have a new pile of dirty dishes!

The wind picked up around 5:30PM and the anchorage doesn't seem as idyllic anymore.  I am a bit concerned about how my friends at Morgan's Bluff are dealing with this, hopefully the wind will turn sufficiently east such that the anchorage remains tennable.

Tomorrow, if everything stays as planned, I will be heading out across the banks for an overnight run down to Bimini.  I may end up anchoring somewhere in the middle of the featureless banks if conditions permit.

Morgan's Bluff and Chub Cay

Last night, Southern Blue and Wandrian had to make a night entry through the unmarked break in the reef which serves as a channel into the harbor.  It was tense, and we tried as much as possible to aid them from the relative comfort of Undaunted's cockpit.  We stressed as we heard their conversations on the VHF, there were a few lights from cars driving along the seawall, and from our boats at anchor, which must have been totally confusing to the boats coming in.  Add to that, an unlit mooring ball intended for really big ships, and the crazy horsefly looking insects locally called "Doctor Flies" which were attacking all boats near the harbour and you can begin to imagine how unnerving it must have been for them.  Fortunately though, the wind and seas were fair so they mostly only needed to focus on not ending up on the reef.

The anchorage was pleasant but the holding was bad, it seemed like there was a miniscule layer of sand over a flat sheet of rock, the boats were holding simply from the weight of their ground tackle and not much else.  One of the boats in the harbor (the only one that was there when we arrived) had found an old mooring and had tied up to it.  He was lucky to have found it because early that morning he had a squall pass by dumping about 40 kts of wind from the north (precisely the direction that the harbor is exposed to), had he not been tied up, he might have dragged onto the beach with such poor holding.

Anyway, it was a pleasant, albeit buggy night, and I got some good sleep.  I woke up to gray skies and a slightly different weather forecast than what I thought we had when we left Nassau.  It now seems that we might have some wind from the north-northeast which might make the harbor untennable, so I opted for making a quick run over to Chub Cay about 14 nautical miles away.  I discussed this with the captains of the other boats we sailed with while we strolled through town and Undaunted liked the proposition, so we decided to sail over to Chub Cay around 2PM.

We had some squalls all around us most of the way, but luckily we did not run into any of them.  One of the squalls even appeared to have a small funnel that never seemed to reach the ocean so that it could reach waterspout status, it was an amazing sight but only from a distance.  We reached the anchorage at Chub Cay shortly after 5PM and dropped the hooks in calm water.  Clark from Undaunted managed to find a spot with equally poor holding as Morgan's Bluff so he had to reanchor, I found a spot that was reportedly good deep sand (Clark dove on my anchor to check it) and set to work on getting the dinghy off the foredeck.

There isn't much to do here at Chub Cay and the marina has become prohibitively expensive since we last visited (north of $4/foot!!) So we will be waiting on the weather out here. 

I'm really dreading the next leg of the trip, it is really long and there are no anchorages on the way... but I suppose that I have no choice but to get it over with (on a good weather forecast).

Hopefully we'll catch up with Southern Blue, Wandrian, and the nameless Catalina in Bimini soon.

Seas the Moment crosses the Tongue of the Ocean

We organized a mini fleet of boats interested in going down to Morgan's Bluff from Nassau.  The fleet loosely consisted of Seas the Moment, Southern Blue, Wandrian, Undaunted, Catalina (a nameless sister ship that we simply call Catalina), and Southern Belle (who did not end up sailing today).

Undaunted left a little before everyone else and routinely relayed the wind and sea conditions.  The sea was confused and had at least two directions from which swells were coming in... this made for an uncomfortable ride, but it was bearable.

I left a little later than I was hoping for, and since I wanted to get to Morgan's Bluff in daylight, I started motorsailing in light winds from (you guessed it) the west! The odd west wind was likely caused by some small low pressure system to our north because eventually the wind direction shifted to south-southeast as was  forecasted and I was able to kill the engine and simply sail...

The channel markers on the entrance to the harbour were characteristically absent, so I had to follow the Garmin GPS electronic charts which seemed to be spot-on (as has been the case for every single cut or channel in the Bahamas).  The actual anchorage is littered with Casuarinas and loosely resembles the Marine Stadium anchorage in Miami.

As I'm writing this stuff, Undaunted, Seas the Moment, and Catalina lay peacefully at anchor, Wondrian and Southern Blue are still sailing and may have to make a night entry... which is kind of sketchy, but given the current conditions, it will be fine (crossing fingers).

Where did my day go?

Where did my day go? I used to wonder what people without jobs did all day, now I think I can answer that myself...

I wake up usually around 8:00AM and check my phone, this means that I check my various email accounts and ongoing text message conversations.  After that, I'll invest some time playing a video game on my phone as well.  Soon thereafter, hunger or thirst will strike, at which point I'll clumsily manage to crawl out of this coffin of a bed called a V-berth.  Depending on my energy level, I will either cook some sort of breakfast, or prepare some cereal.  After I'm done, I'll observe the growing pile of dirty dishes and cringe.  However, I'll usually determine that I'll wash dishes later at a "better time" (as if there was such a thing).  I may spend a few minutes organizing the boat, then I'll gather up all the necessary items for taking a shower and brushing my teeth.  As soon as I'm ready to take a shower, the familiar tingling in my lower abdomen comes knocking to inform me of a late appointment with the restroom.  I'll then put my toothbrush, towel, etc back on the boat and head over to the gas station to use their "head".  I patiently get in line at the gas station until I get to the attendant which I politely ask to open the restroom for me.  Sometimes the restroom will be occupied and I'll have to wait in a light panic for it to be vacated.  I use the restroom while playing video games on my phone and then come back to the boat to get my stuff so I can take my shower.

My showers here consist of standing on the dock in my boardshorts while using a hose to pour water over myself... I like to check out the expression in people's faces while they see me taking a shower on the dock in plain view.

At some point between the restroom and the shower, friends from nearby boats show up to use the internet at the gas station, so after my shower I'll walk up there to determine what to do for the rest of the day.  We chat for a bit and we realize that it is about noon! We usually start to slowly walk towards downtown which is about two good miles west.  On the way there, I'll figure that it must be 5:00PM somewhere, so it might as well be right here! So I'll purchase a cold refreshing Kalik to make the long walk bearable. 

Once we get to downtown, we'll find a public space with some shade and spend some time discussing upcoming passages, cruising plans, the weather, travel, boats, etc.  Hunger will creep in and the conversation will start to focus on hunting down our next meal.  We will walk to different places until we find something suitable, then have lunch.  Later we might end up going to the public library and chill on its fresh and shaded wraparound balcony overlooking downtown Nassau and the harbor.  After a while there, the sun will have dropped significantly, and walking around town becomes more pleasurable.  So we might check out some sights and slowly make our way back to our boats while discussing dinner plans...

$630 later

I started the day with 3 tasks to do.

Fix/replace phone
I walked the steamy streets looking for cell phone stores, after multiple stores, haggling prices, and losing about 10 pounds worth of sweat, I ended up buying a Samsung Galaxy III mini for $479!

Spare GPS
After checking out the units available, I determined that this would be prohibitively expensive... so I'll keep the ones I have.

Handheld VHF
I ended up buying a Uniden unit for $149, it will be stored in my ditch bag when not in use...

Hopefully the rest of my stay here will turn out cheaper...

Self healing engine... Mmmmh

Today, the engine appears to have woken up feeling better... I found a sweet spot in the throttle range where the engine would crank up instantly like it used to... With the help of a fellow cruiser, we adjusted the idle jet and throttle cable a bit, and it looks like I'm back in business... Surely the engine will work properly until I really need it, at which point it will probably fail.

I had dinner last night with a few friends that I had met back in Georgetown, the boat where we had dinner belonged to a couple of 17/18 year old sisters, they are just out there cruising on their own, their engine is overheating, their mainsail is blown, and they don't seem to be particularly stressed about it! How humbling is that?  They have been buddy-boating with some guys in a Southern Cross 28 and are headed towards Miami as well, so I may tag along as a third boat on the fleet.

We will be heading to Bimini soon, but we will probably stop at Morgan's Bluff before crossing the banks.  We will probably load up on free water while there, and maybe even some local produce...

A couple of nights ago there was a quick rainshower over the harbor and my cell phone got soaked... It was working well yesterday but it doesn't seem to be taking a proper charge today!  My phone is the single most used tool on board! I hope it has a quick chat with my engine so it can learn how to heal!

Nassau - revisited

After a successful (uneventful) trip up the Exumas, I got to Nassau Harbour (AKA civilization)... So the first order of business was to take care of some boat projects.

Battery issues
This was actually a non-issue, but still took a few hours to figure out.  It turns out that when I rewired my banks last time I switched some stuff around and I forgot about it... That caused me to be using the small bank that I have as backup instead of the house bank, which is designed to power the boat most of the time... Since the backup bank doesn't have as much solar charging it, I was draining it faster than it could recharge, so I was observing low voltage readings... The other problem was related to the way the voltmeter was wired... On the small bank it would read accurately, but it would read something way lower on my main bank... After I rewired it it started giving correct readings and I realized the main bank was perfectly fine, it was simply not being used.

Battery Charger
My two battery chargers seem to have broken (my generator being the main suspect), and I think it is almost a matter of safety to be able to recharge batteries through more than one mean, so I've been shopping around and I've seen all kinds of chargers, from $115 - $400!
So I haven't bought any yet...

While shopping for battery chargers, I found a shop where some tinkerer is building an amphibious vehicle, check the pics.

VHF
My Icom handheld VHF radio stopped working in the Exumas, I meant to go get a new battery or radio today, but I ended up just hanging out and learning from a friend who is fixing his engine.

GPS
My main GPS is a Garmin handheld that has worked very well throughout the trip, and it has been perfectly accurate everywhere in the Bahamas when displaying the charts... However, lately it has been turning off unexpectedly, especially when you need it most! It will sometimes turn off when it feels mild vibrations such as me placing it gently on the cockpit cushions! So I think it is time to get another unit, and hopefully it will be a Garmin, I'm willing to buy a third one (both of the current ones have the same issue) just to enjoy the accuracy of the digital Explorer Charts which Garmin reputedly bought.  I meant to purchase this today as well, but like with the VHF, I ended up doing something else.

Engine service
This is so far the most expensive and troublesome project.  Early summer last year, my impeller stopped working, so I had it replaced, along with the engine oil and lower unit oil... When I arrived in Nassau I went to a "Honda Dealer" called Lightbourne Marine where I found the staff to be super nice, they kindly directed me to go talk to Billy from the service department.  I walked across the street to the service department where I met with Billy to get a quote on the work.  I indicated that I had a sailboat, needed to have someone come by my boat, take the engine off, do a lower unit and motor oil change, replace a hose, and review the throttle issue for a more permanent solution than the one we rigged at Long Island.  Among the first few words that came out of this individual's mouth were "it is nothing against you, but I hate sailboats..." On and on he rambled about irrelevant things such as how Nassau was not a good place for sailboats, and why did I need an engine if I had sails... Obviously I was not about to answer/challenge any of his questions/comments, so after hearing his ridiculous monologue about sailboats, I reminded him that I did not come here for any sailboat-related assistance, only to get an outboard motor serviced.  I had to steer the conversation numerous times back on track until I got his commitment to come and pick up the engine the next morning at 9:00AM. 

Billy and his crew showed up in a powerboat the next morning at 9:00AM sharp and they helped me rig a crude cradle with which they lifted the engine out of my boat, and into theirs.  Obviously this did not occur without some close calls where the engine almost fell into the drink!

I went later that day over to the service department and checked up on the work progress, I was pleased to see that they were almost done, and had discovered the root cause of the throttle issue.  I paid, and arranged to come by the next morning to arrange a delivery back to my boat.  Again, they were right on time and we managed to put the engine back on (again, there were a few tense moments when I was sure the Honda was going to go swimming!).

I turned on the engine with the starter cord (I hadn't connected it to the batteries yet) and, as usual, it started on the first pull.  I let it idle for about a minute, and I started to notice something different about it, then it stalled.  I figured that since it had been disconnected from the fuel line, and I hadn't pumped the bulb on the fuel line, it was a fuel issue.  I got tired of pulling the starter cord, so I connected the cables to the battery, and started using the electric starter after pumping the fuel line bulb.  The engine turned on and started working fine, I throttled it up and down a few times and it felt smooth, I figured all my engine troubles were behind me.  Obviously that was not to be the case, this morning, I was going to move the boat to a better slip, when I noticed my engine was very difficult to start... I managed to start it a few times, but if left at idle speed, it would stall.  This fell much like a kick in the balls must feel.  I went to do preventive maintenance, and what I got is an engine with new issues!  Tomorrow is a new day and I'll spend some time troubleshooting this stuff with Dennis, a guy from a catamaran that is also having engine problems...

Hopefully I'll resolve these issues shortly so I can move on...

All this calls for a few drinks at Crazy Johnny's!

Norman's Cay to Nassau

I had dinner on Moonshadow last night, then I went to my rocky boat on the Sandy Point anchorage at Norman's... For those who may not know, Norman's Cay (or at least part of it) used to belong to Carlos Lehder, and it's airstrip was used to bring in tons of you-know-what...
You can read about it here: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Lehder

Anyway, I woke up before sunrise, cooked some scrambled eggs with onions, tomatoes, spam, etc, pulled the dinghy engine onboard, and weighed anchor under sail... Again, as a purist might... I was ready to do the run to Nassau under sail only.  At some point halfway, the wind dropped, and so did my speed, so I had to start motorsailing at four knots...

After some time, the buildings in Paradise Island started breaching the hazy horizon and I was finally able to see my destination.  I had to swerve around a few coral heads along the Yellow Bank and Middle Ground area, but otherwise, I had the loyal autopilot engaged while I cooked, ate, and read.

I've been reading this book about Colombian drug dealers turned informant and it depicts Colombia's violence so graphically that it almost makes me wonder whether it is a good idea to move back, but I won't ever know unless I try.

I will be in Nassau a few days, and probably won't be updating this blog much until I leave...

Staniel Cay to Normans Cay

I decided to do a longish run today so I can get to Nassau tomorrow... If I don't make it to Nassau tomorrow, I may have to wait till Friday (mind you, in paradise!).

I motored out of the Big Majors Spot anchorage at around 8:45 AM, raised sail, and started flying northwest over to Norman's Cay, about 35 nautical miles away.

The conditions were pretty good and I was able to sail AND pass some bigger boats that shall not be mentioned here.

I arrived at Norman's Cay at 4:00PM, and I'm looking forward to a run to Nassau tomorrow.

Black Point to Staniel Cay

Last night brought some nasty surge into the Black Point anchorage but not much else... It turns out that the nasty front that came through lost much of it's strength on this part of the Bahamas... Other places further north weren't as lucky.

I woke up after a rocky night feeling tired but encouraged after having dodged the storm.  The water was clear and placid, plus the wind was about 10 knots, so I decided to weigh anchor and head towards Staniel Cay under sail only, as a purist might do.  The wind remained good as I sailed past the other boats in the harbor, but as soon as I was out of the half-moon shaped anchorage, the wind dropped to under 5 knots... So I bobbed around not doing any progress for about 30 minutes, after which the wind came back, albeit a little odd and inconsistent.  As I am vainly enjoying my self-righteous sailing state, Dan from Spice pointed out to me on the radio about a small vessel headed my way.  As I got closer I managed to observe that it was a custom little boat, most likely not greater than 12 feet, patiently sailing downwind headed southeast through the Exumas.  I suspect it may have been the person from the www.microcruisers.com website.  I tacked over to head into a collission course to see the boat from up close, it seemed like a pretty spartan vessel.  We waved to each other as boaters do, and I yelled "you put us all to shame!".  This guy unknowingly managed to erase any kind of sense of accomplishment that I may have had!

I continued sailing over to Big Majors Spot (just north of Staniel Cay) and as I got close, I realized I was finally going to be able to hang out with people in my tax bracket!  There was a super-megayacht, rafted up to a megayacht, which was rafted up to three large yachts in decreasing size, which were rafted up to a 40 foot center console powerboat which I suppose is one of their tenders.  I can only imagine the crazy parties that go on in these vessels...

Since my dinghy engine had stubbornly refused to start that morning, I started working on it right after I anchored.  I don't know much (anything really) about internal combustion engines (or for that matter, any kind of engine), so all I figured I could do was to follow a friend's advice on two-stroke engine repair.

Step 1) drain the water that might be caught up in the carburetor bowl.
Step 2) remove the spark plug and spray some wd-40 in the hole where the spark plug goes
Step 3) with the spark plug out, pull the starting cord 20-30 times.
Step 4) replace the spark plug or clean the old one and screw it back in
Step 5) pull the starting cord and hear the engine purr while tasting the sweet taste of victory in the battle of man vs machine (or at least that is what step 5 was for me!)

Dan and Linda from Spice were waiting for me to deal with the engine so we could go to Staniel Cay (in case I was going to need a ride), but once I cried victory they left, only to have their engine die on them shortly thereafter.  I towed them back to their boat with my resuscitated engine and since they now didn't want to go to Staniel Cay, I left on my own.

At Staniel, I immediately met up with Bill from Meant2B, everyone else on his boat was napping due to an exhausting previous night (when we were all sitting ducks at Black Point).  Anyway, his crew eventually did wake up and joined us at the bar.  Later on, we met up with Wesley and Renee from Moonshadow, we played pool, had some drinks, and said goodbyes as I left to finally have some good night's rest.

Note: the pic with the rafted yachts was taken BEFORE the super-megayacht joined the raftup!

Sitting ducks at Black Point

Tomorrow night we are going to get winds clocking from the south all the way through to north (going through west).  Our anchorage is very protected from most wind directions, except southwest through northwest! So guess who's life is going to suck tomorrow night?

Did I mention that this front is likely to send us very strong thunderstorms?

Oh well, I guess the cruising life is not all potlucks and happy hours!

PS: this post is being written while having a Happy Hour at Scorpio's at Black Point, Exumas.

Cave Cay to Black Point

The weather was predicted to be light, around 13 knots... And it was at first... I was able to have a nice sail with a full rig up for a while, but then the wind picked up a bit and the boat was flying!  For a while there, I was doing sustained 6.4 knots, even going up to 6.7 a few times!  My boat, however, is not really designed to do more than 6.3 kts, so I decided to reduce sail and still was able to stay between 5.5 - 6.2 knots! This was more comfortable and still fast enough for me... It was a sweet sail and now I am peacefully anchored at Black Point, one of my favorite spots in the Exumas.

Georgetown to Cave Cay - singlehanded

Today was my first truly singlehanded passage.  It was not very long, only about 35 nautical miles, but it was good!

I raised anchor at Georgetown at about 7:00AM, and started making my way northwest through the Elizabeth Harbor.  This time I chose to deviate from the recommended Explorer Charts' tracks, instead, I simply cut through wherever I felt was deep enough.  I might not have done this before, with Lorena onboard, but now I am the only person onboard to suffer from my mistakes so I have a bit more leeway to explore.

I made it out of the harbor around 8:00AM and started heading northwest towards the Cave Cay cut.  The winds were supposed to be coming from the north in the morning and gradually clocking to the northeast through the day.  My observation was that the wind was from the north-northwest, preventing me from sailing straight to my destination.  Instead, I was forced to sail (motorsail to be honest) west-northwest, then motor straight north, then go back to sailing west-northwest, you get the picture...  At around 2PM the winds did finally clock around enough for me to just sail straight!

The ocean (Exuma Sound) was calm with an odd swell coming from the east-southeast which graciously propelled my towarda my destination.  Occasionally I noticed some sets in the swella which were disproportionately bigger than the rest.  The thought of getting one of of these sets while going through the cut concerned me.  When waves hit opposing currents such as in this cut, they become steep, and sometimes break.  However, I managed to slowly make my way through the cut and did not observe any breakers.  My engine was throttled about halfway and the sails were full, but the ebbing current in the cut was so strong that I speculate I was only doing about one knot of speed over the ground!

Once inside, the motion of my boat eagerly welcomed the nice, clear, calm waters of the Exuma Bank.  Soon thereafter, I anchored in calm water on the lee of Cave Cay.

Going through this cut brought to my mind the engineless sailors out there.  In a case like today, an engineless boat would have to wait until slack tide at 8:00PM or so, and then make it through the cut.  These people are my heroes, I wouldn't have the patience to do that unless in the case of an emergency, and then I would be breaking the classic rule "don't enter strange harbors at night".

It looks like tomorrow and thursday are going to be good days to sail, but probably not so on friday and saturday... So I'll have to plan to be anchored somewhere protected on thursday.  According to Dan from Spice, who listened to Chris Parker on the SSB this morning, this coming front may bring some nasty squalls with heavy winds, so that makes the need for a good anchorage even greater.

Things that make Seas the Moment easy to singlehand

Anchor locker with a bow roller
A bow roller leading to an anchor locker makes for easy anchor deployment and retrieval, we have several anchors on the boat but rarely use any other than our primary anchor which is a Fortress with 30 of chain.

Harken roller furling
This makes the job of unfurling and furling a breeze, and to a certain extent, allows me to reef the jib while sailing.
Note:  I wrote "to a certain extent" because headsails on furlers are allegedly not really designed to be reefed much... But I'm not an expert on that subject to elaborate much... I believe the sail stops acting as a foil after being furled in to a certain extent...

Main halyard led back to the cockpit
One of the previous owners added a couple of blocks, a winch, and a cam cleat which makes raising the mainsail possible from the cockpit.  I generally prefer to raise it by hand right by the mast, then I tighten it up from the cockpit.

Lazyjacks
Lazyjacks act as a kind of cradle that prevents the mainsail from spilling all over the place when being dropped.

Autopilot
Boats with fin keels such as Seas the Moment generally don't track as well as boats with full keels.  When her sails are well balanced she will hold a course upwind, but when going downwind, this is almost impossible due to the waves lifting the stern at an angle... However, our tillerpilot (autopilot) takes care of that for us, when engaged, it will hold a course based on an internal magnetic compass that allows it to keep the right heading.  We named our Autopilot "Andres" in honor of a third crewmember that could not make the trip.

Amazon Kindle
This is not necessary for operating the boat singlehanded, but it will entertain you during long hours of boring sailing. I love it and it broke recently, I will most likely go crazy as a result of this event!

One thing I would love to add to her would be an Aries Windvane or something like it... This would enable her to hold a course (relative to wind direction) without using any electricity!

Farewell Georgetown

I first arrived in Georgetown about 1.5 months ago, it is a nice harbor with a strong cruiser support network, and most of the basic supplies anyone might need.  Anyone interested in extended cruising could learn the ropes during a short cruise down to Georgetown...

During the last few days I've spent a lot of time with the people from Kokoi and from Meant2B.  We've gone surfing, wakesurfing, barhopping, and we've also had some awesome dinners at both boats.  When not doing any of those activities, I've spent much time reading on my Kindle which I appear to have broken a couple of days ago (the screen has a segment that doesn't work anymore, not sure how or why this happened).  Having a broken kindle is going to take a toll on my lifestyle, ever since I don't have a TV I've been going to sleep by reading for a while...

Tomorrow, a number of boats are planning to leave the harbor, the weather looks like we may have to motorsail a lot due to lack of wind, and the little bit of wind there will be, will be coming from (you guessed it!) the nose.  This will be my first solo passage, it should be easy in tomorrow's conditions... I've spent most of the day getting the boat ready for sea again, fortunately it is a small boat and it doesn't take very long to put everything in order.

Yesterday I was offered one of the most tempting opportunities ever, to crew on a friend's boat down to Cuba, and travel the country by train for a few weeks.  Not only is the plan ridiculously cool, it would be while doing it with two of the most awesome people I've ever met! Last night I was leaning towards going with them, but this morning I decided that I've already spent too much time and money around here, I'm ready to head back and get the boat sold in Miami so that I can finally make it home.  It's been fun, but I'm ready to become a land person once again.

Today, both Kokoi and Meant2B were leaving the harbor, it sucks to say goodbye but it is likely that our paths will cross again in the future.