The Berry Islands is a convenient start to a Bahaman cruise, particularly from Lake Worth. It is around 24 hours and you are greeted by a large, easy entry anchorage in Bullock Harbour on Great Harbour Cay. The trip was an uneventful one thank god as I am not sure we could have handled anymore surprises.
We started off motor sailing across the Gulf Stream in light winds and light seas gradually moving to a more direct path to our destination. By midnight, out of the stream, both motors were off and we were sailing like we are supposed to and sailed right up to the bank. Given it was our first shallow water passage in 12 months we decided to drop the sails and motor the last 2 hours on the wavy line recommended route. Sorta glad we did, because at one point we had the depth alarm going off with less than 3 ft under the keels. This is something that apparently you get use to – we’ll see. We dropped the hook in a big sandy bottomed bay with no other boats and decided to rest for the afternoon before checking in with customs on Saturday morning.
Bright and early on Saturday morning (we are talking Karen time bright and early so it was about 9am when we left the boat) we jump into Muriel and head into Great Harbour Marina to clear only to find that we have to bring the big boat (that’s Where II - even though there are bigger boats, she is our big boat) into the marina to clear customs. They don’t mind you tying up to clear and leaving and they didn’t mention a marina fee, but I have had enough of docks for one year so was disappointed to find out we had to do this, particularly as there was a very narrow cut in the cliff we had to use to get in. We hauled anchor after considering heading off to clear in somewhere else and headed for the cut. At this stage, my fearless crew decided that it was too narrow to get through and headed below to hide leaving me to get through it alone, only to re-emerge once we were through!
Once tied up, the dock master rang customs and was told they would be right down in a few minutes, so we tidied up the boat and waited a few island minutes. About an hour later, the customs officer boarded the boat (something that hasn’t happened since Morocco) and set about clearing us in after accepting our offer of a cold beverage only after enquiring what type they were. Well, here we think our hospitality got us stung as the officer not only charged us the $300 cruising permit fee but also a $50 transport fee for which he was unable to give us a receipt as head office had yet to issue a receipt book... But how do you argue? So Karen has sent an email to the head office telling them the officer’s number and to please issue him with a receipt book...
After we were cleared we decided not to waste a docking experience and wait out the next blow on the dock and explore the island particularly when the dock master said that the town dock wasn’t really secure enough to leave a dinghy (which we later found out wasn’t strictly true).
You can just make out the nice new grey boot stripe on Where II here- going grey gracefully just like the rest of us.
So over the next two days we walked around the island, into town, down to the beach and of course to the beach bar. It was nice to be in shorts, a t-shirt and thongs (flip flops) again with the sand between the toes.
We also had our first Pot Luck of the season and met a fellow cruiser, Adrian on SV Dolphin from Brunswick. But the highlight of the marina stay was a visit by manatee and its calf.
For those in Aus, this is a manatee calf – head to the right and tail to the left. One thing you find out quickly with these mammals around your boat if you have a watermaker running – they like fresh water. Adrian turn on the dock tap and directed it to the calf. After a quick drink it was nudged out of the way by its mum who had a long cool drink.
Monday with the blow over we headed out to anchor trying to decide where to go next. Based on what a few of the guys leaving the marina had said Hoffman’s Cay provided a good anchorage on the way to Nassau or Eleuthera so we decided to be one of the gang. But as we got closer and still had time to go in daylight we decided to go a bit further and be solo and we made for High Cay, a private island on the south east of the Berries. Being private we could not go ashore so it was a pleasant evening before heading off to North Beach Eleuthera and put off the decision of where we are really going a bit more.
Sounds like an easy thing to do... unless you own a boat, particularly one with a mast greater than 65 feet, which by the way ours is. So anyway, after watching almost all our new friends depart via the inter-coastal waterway and day hop down the coast. It was our turn to go. Lines slipped at mid-day by Bob and Cindy - Eventyr (one of the few boats left in Brunswick) we left a day ahead of plan as the weather window looked like it was closing ahead of forecast.
All morning we were getting snatches of a Securite announcement from the coast guard about a hazard to navigation in St Simon’s Sound but could not hear the details. So we motored out of the harbour and under the Lanier Bridge (at 165ft we still think this is a bit tight) calling both marinas, Coast Guard and Seatow to see if we could find out what was going on. With no answer we started to question whether the VHF was working when Golden Isles Marina answered but could shed no light on what was happening. We then switched on the AIS and found out that the channel into St Simon’s was being dredged so I call up the Captain to ask if we could pass and if so, did he have any special instructions for us in passing. He politely explained his dredging course and then in special instructions told me just to “stay well away from him”. Thankfully our departure plans were not thwarted and we were away!
Two days later after a long and expensive motor we were coming up to entrance to Port Canaveral with a chart plotter that had given up the ghost at the helm and a “US War Ship” on the AIS! True that is the description given. So out come the new binoculars (another purchase at a reduced price under warranty in Brunswick) and Karen spots it – it is either sinking, the smallest War Ship in the world or we are being tailed into Canaveral by a submarine. Now I know there are rules about sailing around the US Navy so I get my rules of the road book (yes that is what they call it) and find out we cannot go within 500 yards of it, so we decide to stand off the entrance to the channel and wait for it to enter.
Now this is not a fast process apparently. Firstly 2 Florida State Police boats come and standby the entrance of the channel, a tender is launched from Papa 2(the sub) and it dances around with the State Police Boats and they all go to channel 12 for a pow wow. Papa 2 then makes its way to the channel entrance and I think we will be able to
start moving soon. Wrong. It stops for some reason so I decide we will try and go ahead of it. Just as we are getting close to the channel I notice it start up again (AIS is wonderful) and start heading in so we stop turn around to let it go again. According to the chat on Channel 12, the State Police alerted Papa 2 of our presence and that they were monitoring us to ensure we weren’t going to be any trouble.... “Just hurry up will you guys” I think to myself, what threat is a Lagoon 420 to a nuclear powered (my guess) submarine??? Really???
Anyway, Papa 2 gets met by Mike and Elizabeth (two tug boats) at the turn of the channel and the manoeuvring begins all of it broadcast on Ch 12 and viewed on the AIS. Gradually it moves into the sub basin and we eventually tie up at Scorpion Marine at 9:25am and await the haul to work on the thru hulls and more. Did I mention at this is the third time we have hauled in 14 months in three different countries about 1400nm apart– St Lucia for a bottom job, Freeport Bahamas for the sail drive and now only 5 sailing days later Cape Canaveral for the thru hulls. Cruising – fixing your boat in exotic places.
Just before lunch we are on the hard and blocked so we decide to treat ourselves to lunch out (although we probably should have has a shower after 2 days at sea before heading to the pub but what the heck). We ended up down the road at Millikan’s reef and enjoyed a nice meal and a welcome cold beverage or two.
Then it was a call to Duy’s Electronic Services to see getting the faulty Chart Plotter looked at. He said he was very busy at the moment but would call back the next day.
I had asked the Yard Manager, Eric, to come and see me about the thru hull repairs but he seemed to be avoiding me, so I started dismantling the current thru hull fittings. I had decided to replace both port and starboard fittings with bronze as I could see the original set up had a design flaw in that each time you open and close the sea cock you are torquing the thru hull bedding and ultimately this will fail as the port one had (original set up below with the water weeping in).
Yeah I know you want to see pictures of sandy beaches, bikini clad girls, guys in budgie smugglers but if I have to spend days looking at toilet valves, I can at least share the experience. By the way the cable tie is to try and meet US regulations that the holding tank seacock be locked.
Anyway, it took a while to figure out how to get this out as it appeared that the valve had be glued (not with a mastic but with something hard like an epoxy) so I ended up cutting the valve off and then knocking the thru hull fitting out of the hull. Still no work from Eric so I chased him up when I saw him walking past, he said he would be over at the boat soon.
Day 3 and I’d dropped the chart plotter off with Duys because he hadn't rang back or made it to the boat and still no Eric at the boat. So I corner him. He had been under the impression from an email I sent asking if owners could work on the boat that I was doing all the work myself and was just looking for free advice, because if it leaks on splashing the boat I’m up for another $500 to rehaul. By this stage, I had just about decided to do it myself, but after talking to him about his approach to the job which was different from my plan and I thought a little less permanent, I decided that I would do it myself anyway.
So I set about shaping the backing plates and epoxying them into the hull. This was a little difficult as the nuts were already embedded in them, I had to align them with the hull to minimise the gaps between the hull and the fitting, but after two days (we are up to day 5) in the bilge I was pretty happy with it as a dry run – it even fitted together with the existing metric pipe so it was time to assemble with 4200 sealant. This is a messy process with Karen on the outside and me on the inside yelling at each other to co-ordinate the twisting, moving and tightening of the fittings. Fortunately after 5years of anchoring, we are now very proficient in the skill of “yelling at the spouse”.
So this might sound like a long time to take to do this, but you have to let the epoxy dry, the 4200 dry etc etc. So in the meantime Karen got to polishing the hulls and preparing for the new grey boot stripe and I started pulling the props off to replace the anodes with split units I could replace in the water. Unfortunately the port prop was not cooperating and after trying all my tricks I relented and asked the service manager to send over a mechanic to get the prop off for me. Well when he turned up, he finally resorted to the butane torch, burning off half the coating from the prop, breaking the conical nut and butchering the retaining thread. When I saw what he had done I couldn’t believe that I would have to pay for something that I could easily have stuffed up myself. The service manager tried to convince me the nut was an anode (not even close buddy) and I should replace it annually (not even maybe buddy), so $100 in service fee and $200 in new parts that he broke, I had the new anodes on. Yeah!
The next couple of days we polished, applied the boot stripe and got ready to go. Then Sunday, 10 days after we arrived we stood nervously as the travel lift operator told us stories of new thru hulls leaking on splashing. Karen was very confident that I had done a very good job and they weren’t going leak (or at least that’s what she said to me). The boat went in and I madly raced from port to starboard to make sure all was good and it was. So here is another picture of a toilet valve for y’all!
We fuelled up to make up for all the fuel we used on our way down and headed out of Canaveral, a few days short of the next rocket launch but we were on a mission to Leave America. On exiting the channel, I made the mistake of saying “It’s a pond” to Karen as there was no wind and no sea.
A mistake I say because it certainly picked up by night fall and we were motor sailing in 6ft 6 second chop. Although it was light, we knew it was going to pick up so we already had a reef in the main at night fall as is our standard practice. Then at midnight we decided to put in a second and we started to see 28 knots. Not scary but bloody uncomfortable with the short period waves.
Then at 0200 we heard a bang and looked around to see our new second hand dinghy that we had spent close to a week in Brunswick repairing hanging by only 2 of the 3 new harness straps and dragging (and banging) in the water! Now Karen will be the first to tell you that she told me not to use the steel lifeline wire for the harness but I did it anyway. So just as we had started to sail we now had to drop the speed to about 3 knots, and we could only do that by dropping the sails and motoring – even more uncomfortable!
I spent hours looking at the dinghy and the emergency ropes I had put around her before we left Brunswick, trying to figure out how to get her up and out of the water, and just before dawn I had finally got her out of the water so we picked up a bit of speed. We arrived in Fort Worth at about 11:00am but by then it became obvious that Debbie 2 was severely damaged and on inspection, I felt she was beyond salvage. This was when we questioned what the hell we were doing this for – almost $20,000 spent in the last 6 months and still things keep going wrong and the sailing wasn’t even enjoyable.
After we calmed down, out came the computer and internet research was on – find a new dinghy cheaply, quickly and cheaply (did I say that twice?). After having the Caribe for only one 5 minute run we were keen to try and replace it with new, but with a couple of calls, it appeared the local agent was not keen on selling them and offered me different brands. Then we kept coming back to the Mercury 10ft Hyperlon dinghy which at 100lb seemed attractively light (just the way I like my girls). We found a local dealer and set off Tuesday morning to see them, dropping our floppy Debbie off at the marina we stayed in on our way up to Brunswick. We found the dealer, and with absolutely no haggling on our part, he offered to sell it to us at cost just to get their sales numbers up (and they were a Beneteau dealer so the mark up on a dinghy probably would not hit the P&L. In the end, after a call to Mercury, we ended up with a 2012 Hyperlon 310 at just under $2000. To put that in perspective that is about what we paid for our 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan that we did over 6000 miles in over the summer – does that sound right?
So, with a 2 day delivery time, we thought it was about the best deal we would get, so we took it and then decided to relax a bit and wait. Unfortunately, where we had anchored was subject to some eddy currents from the inlet, so it was a bit hard to relax with nearby boats swinging in strange directions, so being the last to anchor, we did the right thing and moved further down the anchorage. Here we hooked well and relaxed... until during a tide change, the wind shifted and just about every boat in the anchorage dragged, so we moved.
This time we headed down towards the golf club and went past the Rybinov marina where we were neighbours to the Megayacht “Venus” that Steve Jobs had commissioned prior to depart to the next cyber life. Unfortunately he never got to take delivery and now this interesting piece of naval architecture is caught up in an estate battle from what I hear. Luckily, I retired early and was able to take delivery of my yacht before I kicked it. Ok so it is a little bit smaller, not as flash, but I own it and it has got me 1/3 way around the world so far!
From here the relaxing got a bit easier, but we were a bit limited as to how far we could go from the boat as Debbie 2’s port pontoon was gradually filling with water. We did manage to get down to the Town Docks in West Palm Beach and wander through the markets, explore the town on the trolley and watch the belly dancers – yes belly dancers.
There girls in bikinis!
We also visited Peanut Island. This is a manmade island just near the entrance of Lake Worth from the dredging that made the entrance and cleared the intercoastal waterway and the port of Palm Beach. Sounds nice huh, but believe it or not it was very nice. The Park has been done really well with nice beaches and facilities and we were even able to observe a manatee lumbering through the channels under the bridges.
There you go – a beach
Sorry – no budgie smugglers on me....
On Monday we got a message that our new dinghy – the Mercurial Muriel – was stuck on a truck in Atlanta Georgia and we saw our next weather window closing to move to the Bahamas and get out of the States before our cruising permit expired. Matthew, the sales guy said he would keep on the freight company and the next morning he called back and said it was in the local warehouse and if we wanted he would get a truck and take us out to pick it up. Which he did and then delivered it to the dinghy dock at the marina. He and colleague helped us dispose of Debby 2 (who hopefully with some solid repairs will have another life) which was no mean feat as by this stage she was half full of water and nowhere near her svelte 156lb which she started out life at.
So by Wednesday lunchtime we had our new dinghy on the davits with a new ROPE harness and no real plan except to leave America on the next window. We had been in touch with friends in the Abocos, on Grand Bahamas and in the Exumas to let them know we were coming to somewhere.... Then it struck me that we had not been to the Berry Islands so Thursday lunchtime we haul anchor and head out into the Gulf Stream and to a place where none of the friends we notified of our pending arrival were...
