Finally – a weather window to leave Eleuthera.

Finally, 3 days after we had planned (actually a long time after we first planned) we got a weather window to move to the Exumas. It wasn’t easy and it was only on the Tuesday morning when I got up that we finalised our planned destination – Waderwick Wells Cut and then as far south as we could get in the day. Now I say planned destination, as the forecast large swells were only just receding, so we were unsure what it was going to be like once we got out of the shadow of Eleuthera, so we had entrances planned as far north as Ship’s Channel. The winds however, should just be strong enough for us to sail at 10-15 knots and we may even get a beam reach...

Now to execute a first light departure, we do as much preparation the night before, but we still have to get up before the sunrise to get this to happen. Now this always makes me nervous, not because I’m scared of the dark, but because I have to wake Karen. On these occasions she never really has a problem with getting up early, but I am nervous that one day I will wake the beast and it won’t be pretty. Luckily, not this time.

Well when we got out, the 6 foot seas were still there but receding and not on the nose and the wind was more than expected, running 18 – 20 gusting to 23 but unfortunately they were at about 45 degrees and were supposed to go further south (on the nose) as we headed down. Nevertheless, we managed to keep pointed towards Waderwick, making speeds up to 8knots.

A couple of hours into it, we started to see lots-a-yachts on the horizon. Given the poor weather in the Exuma Sound, it seemed like today was the day that everyone was moving and we must have passed at least 25 sailboats heading to Eleuthera on their way north. You would think that would put a hole in the yacht population in Georgetown where we were headed to pick up our friends from Melbourne, but we had heard that there were close to 400 or more boats there, so we weren’t that enthusiastic.

We struck up a conversation with Blue Planet on the way and they had a later tide prediction for the Cut at Waderwick Wells, so we chucked in a reef and tried to slow Where II down. In the meantime, the wind came round on the nose and we then had to start an engine and motor sail the last hour or so to the cut. We hit the cut as close to slack as we have got and glided through, but decided to spend the night at Emerald Rock and followed Blue Planet in. We took the first mooring in for an early start the next morning. Unfortunately our method for picking up the mooring needed a bit of polishing and Karen got her hand caught in the mooring line and skinned her finger so it was not a comfortable carefree night as planned. It did however mean she had to take the helm and for me to do the heavy work up front, which I was hoping would become our new modus operandi. 

Next morning up early again, but with no wind, it was a 4 hour motor down to Little Bay, Great Guana Cay to hide for the next front. We were planning on trying Black Point and most of the blow was coming from the North with very little west, but it was a bit crowded where Little Bay just to the south had better protection and only 4 boats in there when we got there. However by the end of the day, 14 more boats had arrived but decided to stay clear of our fat cat. Yeah!


Little Bay – Where II on the right 

Little Bay is a pretty little bay with two houses on it and once the blow had subsided a bit, a lot of the boats departed. We took the opportunity to walking into Black Point (about an hour away) for some shopping and lunch (I was hanging for a beer out of glass) and we were glad we chose Little Bay as Black Point was still very choppy and uncomfortable and more crowded. After a second unsuccessful shopping trip into town at about lunchtime Sunday (of course everyone was at church) we organised to catch up with John and Jeri (Ahyoka) at Little Farmers Cay.
The sail down on Monday was pretty good, the seas were flat and the wind light (about 13 true) but on the nose (30Deg apparent) but ended up getting about 7knots over the ground, sails up from anchor to the entrance to the anchorage at Little Farmers. A quick motor over the sand bar (that was on the charts but not on the bank) and we dropped anchor a couple of minutes ahead of Ahyoka. Our friends from Brunswick Landing Marina, John and Jeri, are one season veterans, and unlike us are not adverse to inches under the keel, had anchored a bit closer to the point which looked a bit more protected, so we thought we would be more “go hung” and head in next to them, but after an exploratory trip paste their boat we turned Where II around and headed back to where we were, not that they were in dangerously shallow water, it was just shallower water.

We re-anchored, had our (my) “We’re here beer” and made up a batch of my world famous rum punch with a twist of coconut rum and headed into town, unsuccessfully shopped again but did pick up a couple of nice conch shells from the scrap heap to add to the collection.



It was then off to the Yacht Club for their rum punch (for later comparative purposes only) then it was back to Where II to introduce our friends to my rum punch. Tuesday was bocce day - a game new to John and Jeri, so we were pretty sure we had that won. The first game we won convincingly, but Jeri (apparently always the most improved) picked it up quickly and we only narrowly grabbed victory. Our planned victory barbeque had to be cancelled unfortunately as the swell was pretty bad as we were heading back to the boat, so next time we get to see our friends will be back in Brunswick where they will be preparing to sell their Lagoon 37 Ahyoka and buy a land yacht to continue their adventure. (anyone interested in a good example of these fast cruising cats, I can put you in touch).

We took off early (again and no beast yet) and headed down towards Cave Cut, but as we got to Galliot, the tide seemed right so we ducked out and started motor sailing south to Georgetown. As we passed each cut, the flotilla got larger – it reminded me a bit of the start to the Texas Ranger series on TV when I was a kid. Now Karen had bought me a new fishing rod for my birthday last year and I thought this would be a good time to start fishing (particularly since I had finally put a lure on it) so out she went, bottle of scotch at the ready (to kill the fish or sedate Karen, which ever was more necessary).



Unfortunately, after almost 21years of marriage, Karen is really rubbing off on me and all I could think of as the lure skipped through the water was killing the fish, so I reeled it in without a strike. Man does this hunter need a good bloody dose of testosterone!

The seas were calm and with only one donk on we averaged about 6.5knots and made it into Georgetown on slack high tide at the northwest cut. Thankfully none of our cut entries were like our entry here last year at the southeastern cut where we rolled through with breakers on either side and the admiral downstairs “doing admin tasks”.

Georgetown is Georgetown, so we have picked up the real estate brochure again, gone shopping at the market, dropped off rubbish and recycling etc etc. More importantly, we caught up with Jim and Dinah on Evergreen and they were on our boat the first night for an impromptu barbeque and yesterday it was bocce day on the beaches of Stocking Island. Unfortunately despite our practice, they had the home ball advantage and beat us 2 nothing.
We also celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary at St Francis Resort on Thursday night with the best calamari we have had in ages a nice bottle of South African Wine.



The long romantic dinner (we had to order over the radio, show up at 6pm and were back on the boat by sundown) was completed with a couple of episodes of Dexter!



Georgetown will be home for the next week or so as we wait for Adrian and Jenny from Melbourne who will be joining us for a sail back up to Staniel Cay over a couple of weeks in April – the start of our trek back to Georgia. Of course, there will be more bocce, Mexican train dominos, sundowners and wet trips to town before then.

Eleuthera – Stay for a day, maybe a week, maybe a month...

Eleuthera, the large island south of the Abacos and east of the Exumas seemed like an easy stop over on our way south to the Exumas. But if the Sahara is the land of shifting sands, Eleuthera is the isle of shifting wind or so it seems. Don’t get me wrong, we have enjoyed our mostly tranquil times here, alone in tranquil bays surrounded by nothing but beautiful turquoise water and until the other day in Rock Sound, we hardly have seen another boat, having at most only two other boats in our bay. And of note, we have only seen 2 motor yachts which is very unusual in our experience in the Bahamas and the States.

So we left the Berry Islands at 0815 on Wednesday 13th February and had a ripping close hauled sail east to North Beach on Eleuthera dropping anchor at about 1615. Seas were a bit rough but not uncomfortable and we had no engine noise – a free trip - a bit unusual of late but much more enjoyable and not as boring. As the winds were blowing from the south this seemed like a nice place to wait for the winds to shift to head through Current Cut and find somewhere to hide for the next front.



We had a day to wait for the wind to change so we hopped in Muriel (the new dinghy) and headed to shore trying to find a spot on the beach with no rocks so we didn’t scratch her virgin bottom and about 20 minutes later we landed and looked for somewhere to lock her up – no such luck. Now my Caribbean experience left me nervous about wandering off and leaving Muriel to fend for herself but here in the Bahamas, no one seems to lock their dinghy.
We wandered through the settlement and the southern beach hoping to find a bar where we could quench my thirst for Kalik, but to no avail.



So to get a bit of exercise and see what we were up for the next day we headed out to Current Cut. This is an interesting waterway, with people reporting up to 10 knots of current when the tide is running, which is about 2 knots faster than I can motor at full throttle, so it is important to time your passage for slack tide. We arrived about an hour before slack and you can still see the tide rips as the water exits the cut (the darker rougher water).



Now most reports say that slack tide is 2 ½ hours after Nassau at the cut, although in one of our guides it says 1 – 1 ½ hours but strength of numbers we were looking at the 2 1/2hrs. We had just got back on the boat by then and sure enough 2 boats arrive and start heading through the cut. You could see them slow down sharply as they entered and I didn’t know if that was deliberate or if it was the current. Next day we hang around until 13:30 (slack high tide supposedly at 13:45) and we head in. As we approach you could still see the current ripples as we entered but we were committed so off we went. Well I think the 1 ½ hour prediction was correct as the tide had definitely turned and we had 3.2knot against us. It made the passage a bit slow but controlled and after a tense half hour we had made the turn and were clear to head to what Active Captain calls the Cove anchorage (which we later found out was Gaulding Bay) which we felt would provide us with some NW protection for the upcoming blow.

We anchored in about 3meters of water, which meant at low tide we had about 0.9m under the keels. Karen wanted deeper water, and I wanted protection so this was our compromise.



As it turns out, the compromise was not so good, as it would have been nice to have more water under us as we bucked in the swell and more protection would have stopped the bucking, but not through the worst of it – the western fetch was just too big and the westerly winds lasted too long. But we were safe, didn’t hit bottom and didn’t spill a drink so in the end we were just a bit uncomfortable.

While hanging in the bay, we heard our friends, Terry and Julie and their son Owen from Melvin (Lagoon 37) on the radio hailing another boat in Hatchet. They were waiting out the blow and in search of the elusive Bahaman surf and after watching the weather a bit they decided to head up to Gaulding for a visit and my famous rum punch was to be broken out for the first time. In the meantime we started our hitch hiking adventures in Eleuthera by striking out for Gregory Town – about 3 miles away by sea and about 4 by road. An hour and a bit later we finally walked into town – not one ride! But just then someone pulls up and asks us if we needed a lift and I stifled my “bit late now buddy!” comment and instead responded with a “Thanks but we are just heading into town”. After a look around and the coldest beer I have had in a long time at Rachel’s Place, we decided to have lunch at the Laughing Lizard – a bit back out of town. Just as we were just about there, a lady pulls up and asks if we needed a lift and again we politely turned it down, mumbling to ourselves as she drives off. Now the lunch here was fantastic and gave us the energy for the rest of the walk back – again with no offers of a lift!

After and enjoyable night catching up with the “Melvinites” we all decided to try our luck with the hitch hiking again and headed into Harbour Island. This time, although there were 5 of us we were much more successful, being picked up twice by pickups (utes to us Aussies)– ladies in the front and blokes in the back. We caught the ferry (really a water taxi) that takes everything across from the main island and wandered all over town and down to the long pink beach before enjoying lunch back at the dock.


  
We caught a lift back with one of the girls on the ferry and finished the day up with a game of Mexican train dominos.

Melvin took off the next morning for current cut and Spanish Wells and we decided to spend the day sightseeing around Gaulding Bay. We jumped in the dinghy and headed to the Glass Window Bridge which has the raging Atlantic on one side and the serene banks on the other. An interesting view but hard to photograph the effect unless you are in a plane.



Then it was past the local houses (one with a fantastic pool house and an array of water toys although why you need a pool here unless it is heated I don’t know)...



...and off to the beach to play boules.



I was playing pretty well but Karen was on fire and we lamented it was a shame Jim & Dinah or Jim & Wendy weren’t here as we would have whipped their butts.



With the weather starting to build towards the next front which we did not want to ride out here after the last one we decided to defy common wisdom and go to Hatchet Bay and instead hop down to Alabaster Bay where we were planning a night out at the Italian Restaurant at Coco Di Mamas which is reportedly very good.  We started off anchoring just of Coco Di Mamas giving us good protection from the upcoming southerlies and relaxed after the 5 hour motor.

Next day we were up and into the resort to check out the restaurant menu and then head into Governor’s Harbour for shopping. Unfortunately everything was locked, so we thought maybe, possibly they opened later. As soon as we got down the steps of the resort a car pulled up and offered us a lift towards Governor’s Harbour. The couple were German and had owned their property on Eleuthera for 33 years. They said that it took their German sensibility a very long time to get use to Bahaman “Island Time”. I wonder how they would cope in the Caribbean as I think the Bahamans are punctual compared to some islands down south.

Despite not having to go to town, our kind friends went the extra miles and dropped us at the supermarket. We wandered around town taking in the sights and sounds and were amazed to see the raft that we saw come into St Marteen after following the course of the “Contiki” (I think) across the Atlantic.



We completed our shopping and Karen was surprised to find a small cafe offering spinach and fetta quiche but as her salivations dripped onto the counter she was informed that they had sold out and it was back to the boat for cheese sandwiches. We were lucky enough to get 2 rides back to Alabaster Bay – both by the same driver in a little Daihatsu van. The passenger next to us was eating chicken wings – boy did they smell good particularly when we had missed out on lunch in town!

The next couple of days we played bocce and sanded and re-varnished the cockpit table enjoying being – for the most part anyway – the only boat in the bay. It is hard to believe that only 60 odd miles away is Georgetown with over 300 boats in it and we are alone for almost 2 weeks!

We also ventured out hitch-hiking again to see the south of the island – we had read that Tarpun Bay was a quaint little settlement with an artistic community and a couple of restaurants. Four rides later (Gov Harbour, Palmetto Point, somewhere past Savannah Sound and then on to Tarpun) we arrived in town and quickly looked around to find .... well not much. So we decided we would try to get to Rock Sound for lunch but the rides seemed to have vaporised and with the threat of rain we decided to head back to Governors Harbour and see about that spinach quiche. Two informative rides later we hit the cafe and Karen got her wish while I had the Lasagna.

With the winds starting to clock to the west we moved up to the north of the Bay behind Pelican Cay and rode out the front. All in all, we spent about 5 days on the boat due to the weather and despite the pretty sunsets and the green flashes (yes I have finally seen the Green Flash!), we were keen to move on to Rock Sound and get off the boat.



Rock Sound is a big settlement with a large supermarket, a couple of hardware stores, bank, couple of gas stations and restaurants, the day after an uneventful motor south we headed across the harbour to visit town and check out the food. Karen took over navigating and displayed her unparalleled ability to read arrows back to front and took us out of town away from Sammy’s Place! After realising there was no more to be had to the south we turned around and eventually asked a local, John, sitting on the side of the road where it was and he guided us to the spot and he joined us for a drink before we decided to head back to the boat for lunch.

Next day it was shopping at the market which is pretty impressive, although fresh was a bit wanting in variety and the wettest dinghy ride back to the boat since Mayaguana last year – yes the winds had shifted west as predicted and the chop was testing Muriel out. With the strong winds and sunshine accompanying the passage of the front, we have abundant energy on board, so the bar fridge is on and the polisher is out as we work through the time where getting into the dinghy and going ashore is not that appealing.

The weather however is not being cooperative and we now think that we would have to wait over a week for the seas to abate in the passage to Cat Island which, with guests arriving at the end of the month is too long to stay here. So this afternoon we are heading into 4 Points Bar  and having a late lunch then tomorrow it is off to the Exumas and do some exploring there – maybe even the Jumentos Islands before heading to Georgetown... but then again none of our plans to date have really worked out.

STOP PRESS

As we go to press, the plans have changed (this is tomorrow morning from above) – we did wander around Rock Sound yesterday and checked out the Ocean Hole – a 600 odd meter deep hole with connections to the ocean. Interesting but still to cool for a Queenslander to swim here.



We did also go to 4 points and have a late lunch – very pleasant surrounds with a good view over the harbour.



We did not however head off to the Exumas – the weather forecast has the 1-2m waves curling around the bottom of Eleuthera and may make it to the cut we were planning on using so we have decided to wait it out here for a while and see how it shakes out.

QUIZ
Here’s one to see if you were paying attention. Look at the photo below showing the sign to the restroom and leave a comment on which way Karen went to the restroom – Left or Right?

Berry Islands – Berry Nice

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.

Leaving America

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...

Back on the Water

Due to popular demand (ok 1 complaint on the blog) and after 9 weeks on the road through the Eastern US and Canada we are finally back on the boat and on the blog. It was a great trip, but being on the go just about every day, meant we got back here knackered (for those with limited Australian that means tired). It took about 3 days but then we started compiling “The List”. 

Now the boaters will know what the list is – it’s the things we have to do before we can move, and those things we should do before we move and those things we would like to do before we move and those things we are unlikely to do before we leave and those things Karen wants me to do before we leave (and I am unlikely to get round to and will never be forgiven for not doing...). Anyway this is a perpetually growing list and no matter how many things you cross off in a day, there seems to be more on the list at the end of the day!

To give you an example, on our list was replacement of our watermaker membranes which meant finding a local supplier (Karen’s job) of the membranes. While Karen was doing this I decided to pull the membranes out from under the guest head (bathroom) floor to make sure there was nothing else I needed – an easy but uncomfortable job requiring 7ft arms. Well to cut it short, yes the end caps were totally corroded and unserviceable. So, on the list simply:

• replace the membranes

became: 

• discuss problem with manufacturer of water maker (as this shouldn’t happen)
• argue with manufacturer that there agents installed the membranes under warranty and as this caused the failure repairs should be at their cost
• research possible local replacements for the membranes and pressure vessels as the French ones were very expensive
• research the possibility of replacing the whole unit with a new one
• negotiate an agreeable outcome with manufacturer
• order parts
• rebuild pressure vessels 
• replace membranes

We had a similar issue with our last warranty claim with Lagoon – I thought would just be a trip to St Augustine with the boat on our way south to repairs some small cracks in the narcelle (small middle pointy bow of the boat) has become a dismantle of the trampoline and rebuild of the fibreglass work and some stainless reinforcing which will be done here – with me doing a lot of the dismantling and reassembly work. I also noticed that the tramps were starting to fray so Karen got a job of sourcing new tramps for next year while I stitched up the old ones!

Needless to say, with the other items on the list (maintenance on the engines, replacement of mixing elbows, building new cabinets in the owner’s hull, maintenance on the sailing gear and rigging checks, cleaning and polishing etc etc) it is unlikely we will be leaving Georgia until late November, and then it will be back to the Bahamas for winter.
Meanwhile we are trying to make the most of our time here partaking in the First Friday night entertainment and learning new ways to drink rum aboard John & Jeri’s boat SV Ahyoka. Also, the wayward traveller who went further north this year are on their way south, so we may have visitors.

The first of them came through this week in their land yacht. Guy, Christine and Princess dropped in and spent 3 days with us with their friends Marcel and Joanne. Guy and Marcel were one of the first people we met when arriving in the Caribbean almost 4 years ago in Martinique. At first I thought they were a gay couple (well there were no girls on the boat at this stage and Guy is a really good cook). But Christine put that thought to rest on Guy and now that I’ve finally met Joanne, Marcel is now in the clear. We spent the weekend touring St Simon’s and Jekyll Island, having a few quiet drinks, lunch at Fins and of course playing Dominos.



So over the next month I will update the blog for the time between when we left The USVIs. I might do this in a random order as the mood takes me so check the blog out occasionally.

Nashville – I could spend forever here (or at least a week or two)

It’s been a long road trek and by now we are getting tired of living out of the van and tired in general, so we have decided to leave Graceland and Memphis until next year and concentrate on Nashville before heading home. Karen spends most of the night on the internet in the hotel room searching for a hotel room in or near the centre of Nashville, for a couple of nights, cheap of course but cannot find anything suitable, meanwhile I help out by watching HBO (which I have now decided I am pretty good at).

Next morning, we pack, have breakfast and while Karen has her shower, I take up the task of finding a hotel room for tonight and within 10 minutes I have found the answer, close to town, reasonably priced, and it is “where the stars stay” – the Drake Motel. So I book it for 2 nights – I am not missing Friday night in Nashville...


Not a bad job eh? Historic site etc etc.

Anyway after a short drive from Bowling Green we arrive early afternoon and check in next to Dolly Parton (well a life-size signed cut-out of her dedicated to the staff of the Drake anyway) and the girl behind the counter is very friendly and helpful and tells us how to get into the city, and since it is a Jim Beam party weekend, we should wait until a bit later and catch a cab in to see some of it. So we decide to chill in the room and catch up on internet time, some laundry etc before heading into town.

The room is unique – Room 107 – “Thing Called Love” Room...




So we decide to find out a bit about this place, what movies where filmed here etc. The first site we hit on was the Trip advisor review site (apparently Sheryl Crow stayed here) http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g55229-d98141-Reviews-Drake_Motel-Nashville_Tennessee.html and we were a bit worried about what we had paid for – particularly after reading the one titled “Creepy”, but we payed our money and we thought we would give it one night at least, particularly since we had the room where Sandra Bullock had shot “Thing Called Love” in what I believe was River Pheonix’s last movie. (Later we watched the movie and I can’t say I recognise the room and I thought she stayed in 108, but we had the sign).

After getting over the reviews, we caught a cab into town and stopped to check out the prices for the Jim Beam festival – about $80 a day we decided to see what was in town first before committing the cash. We wandered up 2nd street and started our introduction to Nashville in the most appropriate place I could think of – a pub with live music @ 5:30 in the afternoon – The silver Dollar Saloon.





Now the band was okay, the bar wasn’t packed so we thought it had to get better, so we kept wandering past other likely named bars such as The Wild Horse Saloon (where Air Supply with be playing in early October??), Wild Beaver Bar, Doc Hollidays, Coyote Ugly, Buffalo Billiards and BB King’s Blues Club.

On the way we hit Rosie’s Bootery to do the necessary boot review and hat try on. I almost cried when I saw the price of boots (3 for the price of 1 or 2/3 off if you didn’t want 3) and thought of how much I paid for my vintage boots back in Prahran that I had just got rid of due to mold, rust on the point and the fact that after 5 years of not wearing shoes they didn’t fit any more.


I could have had both these snakes skin and alligator boots for less than I paid for my ones back home – but Karen talked me out of buying things that are going to rust and mould on the boat whilst never being worn. A hat now, that’s a different story...


Well try as I might, I couldn’t find just the right hat – people always told me I have a big head (my wife in particular), but it is only when you try on 20 hats, that you start to realise what they mean.

We skipped BB’s Blues Club as we were in “Country” country after all but did have a look at Coyote Ugly but there was nothing happening there, so we stopped in at Hooters to rest our feet and quench our thirst (mind you my eyes got a fair work out). They must teach the bar maids to lean over every time they talk to you or give you a drink. Fortunately their uniforms are well engineered and nothing falls out.

The next bar we saw going past us (yes that’s right – going past us) is, I would have to say quite unique – but seriously seems like just too much work to get a drink. In fact I would expect to get the drinks for free doing this much work!


The music coming out of the Benchmark Sports Bar behind us as this was going by sounded quite good so we settled in at the bar to have a listen. I was keen to try the local drink, but thought I had better leave that til later at night.


Well, the music was so good we moved from the bar, to a table and then eventually a booth. We even grabbed a meal while we listened.


Now I swore I would remember these guys were, but it ended up being a long night, so all I can tell you is the two on the left hand end were a couple of song writers, the bass player sorta looked like Bruce Willis and the guy on the cut out acoustic had a name starting with something like R maybe. Anyway, they did have Tex come in and jam for a bit on his sax and his voice would have made Johnny Cash proud.

After their session was finished, it was about 10, that’s right already after cruiser’s midnight, so we decided we had better venture down Broadway and visit the honky tonks down there. We queued for a while and made it into one honky tonk just in time to see the band pack up and wait for another to arrive, the second was pretty much the same, but in the queue we did hook up with a bachelorette party from Alabama. A bit disheartened we headed across the road to the Wheel to maybe have one last drink and here we were not disappointed – the band was great and the singer was a very talented and looked a lot like a girl I had a crush on in high school (heck maybe it was her grand-daughter), so we stayed there until they were packing up.


But now that I look at the picture in the light – she looks nothing like her....

Now you are probably think old folk like us would be ready to head off to bed by now , but when we left the Benchmark, we were told that the best drummer in Nashville was playing in the next band Chris Somebody or other. Now being an ex-drummer from the Toogoolawah State Primary School Recorder Band, I thought it was a must we went back and saw him perform. So well after normal mid-night we trekked back to 2nd Street.

Here the band was more metal than country, so it wasn’t what we came for but the drummer did give a 10min solo in the song or two that we caught which was pretty amazing. I tried to video it but the pocket camera didn’t really capture it well. When he played just the bass it was  pretty unbelievable.

Anyway then it was time to stroll back down Broadway and catch a cab home. Needless to say, I slept well, never felt like people were looking over me nor did I hear the hookers next door – if there were any.

Saturday, after a gradual rise from the comfy bed, we decided today was the day for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and Studio B, maybe the Ryman. Before we left we checked out what was on at the Grand Ole Opry and found Loretta Lynn playing so I spent some time trying to get tickets but lucked out. So it was onto a bus and into the city again.

We hit the museum and was told that the Studio B tour was full so we booked for Sunday and took off through the Museum, which believe it or not was full of country music memorabilia, guitars pianos, costumes and of course boots. There was even the Man in Black’s black stuff. Luckily, to keep Karen interested there was also Elvis’ Solid Gold Cadillac.


And Webb Pierce’s customized convertible – check the silver guns out!


After the museum we decided to just check out a couple of bars and get a bite to eat before having a quiet night in at the Drake so we headed to Hooters for a drink (don’t know why Karen wanted to go there again), then a couple of sets at BB King's Blues Club and had some Mexican on 2nd Street after trying to find just the right hat for me. No luck with the hat unfortunately.

Sunday it was up early and into town for the Studio B tour – there was some sort of football game on so parking was a bit hard but we managed and arrived with plenty of time for the tour bus walking past bars that were already open, full and with live music. Now Studio B is nothing to look at, but it has a pretty amazing history having seen Elvis, Dolly, Waylon, Willie, Charlie and the Everly Brothers record here. Over 35,000 songs recorded and over 10,000 of those Top 10. Elvis alone recorded over 100 hits in this little space.  A lot of the equipment is still in place and it is still being used today.  In fact I got to sit at (and pretend to play) the same piano that Elvis used in all his recordings!


Nashville was great, could have spent a lot more time here, but it was time to move on to get to Chattanooga by sunset. We tried a couple of camp sites on the way as it was getting warmer again but  we didn’t do so good and ended up in a hotel room just north west of Chattanooga near Ruby Falls.

Ruby Fall is an underground water fall, about 1000 feet below the surface. We took a lift down to the falls in a small group of about 12 people and trekked underground to the falls. You can tell people that cave obviously are very special when you look at the named formations like “Donkey”.



Apart from that Ruby Falls was pretty spectacular – particularly with the lighting in the chamber.


From there it was onto Chattanooga to check out the Choo Choo (apparently a significant part of the Civil War). We arrived at the transit station to get the electric shuttle into town and it was then I realised I truly was in America.


$345 for a basic divorce and it is done – just dial 1-800-DIVORCE!

Chattanooga was a pretty little river town, but after lunch there was not a lot to keep us there with the boat calling out to us, so we hopped the shuttle back to the van and started the last leg of the trip to Brunswick – of course there was one more hotel room and just one little margarita on the way
 
COMMENT:

 AUTHOR: paula 

DATE: 11/19/2012 10:11:22 AM 

Thanks Guys for the blog makes me want to go to nashville. hey Matt r u still listening to 3RRFM as you have been mentioned on Brian Wise's show recently
take care Pxxx