Bimini Valentine

We were among the lucky people who stayed in Miami for free over SuperBowl weekend, as we happily anchored in Biscayne Bay. We left Fort Lauderdale last Saturday, alongside Felix the Cat. Bill and Chris (11) sailed aboard Act III, while Heidi crewed for Lorie on Felix. Lorie's husband, John, was in Boston on business and we wanted to move the boats to Miami to position ourselves better for crossing to the Bahamas.

The speedy sail down from Fort Lauderdale was most excellent in west winds to 20 kts.and without serious incident (Lorie learned Felix was more maneuverable leaving a slip with both keel boards down). We spent almost as much time seeking a mooring or anchorage (or even marina) in Miami as we did on the passage. Bill poked into the popular Miami anchorage of No Name Harbor at the southern tip of Key Biscayne, and came out reporting it looked like a WalMart parking lot the day after Thanksgiving, with lots of bad seamanship. Both boats finally anchored west of Virginia Key near the Causeway bridge in a fairly stiff wind that bounced Felix quite a bit. Heidi slept aboard Felix that night in case any problems occurred, but we had an uneventful sleep.

On Sunday Felix moved to nearby Crandon Park Marina, with Bill coaching Lorie from the dinghy. Lorie made 2 excellent landings at the marina, at the fuel dock and into a slip. Chris also had "driving" lessons from Bill, on both Act III and Felix, and he's a natural at the helm.

Monday Act III moved to No Name Harbor, for easier access to our route across the Gulf Stream. For the first time, we awoke early enough to listen to weather on our SSB radio (0630 hrs!), and discovered that Chris Parker is indeed a Bahama weather god. We later signed up to be a "sponsoring" vessel, which means we can call in to ask questions about weather in our specific location. It's a bit like sponsoring public radio: he provides an excellent service to cruisers who can listen in anytime. The wind had no north in it--critical for crossing the north-running Gulf Stream--and was predicted to be under 25 kts, so we left at 0800. We motor-sailed southeast for a few hours to compensate for being carried north when we hit the stream, then had a very fast sail into Bimini Harbor. The ride was a little bumpy, but nothing we haven't seen before, and Act III showed off her ability to crush through chop and waves while sailing close-hauled.

Bimini waters are clear and insanely turquoise blue. We cleared customs and immigration neatly, receiving an 8-month stay, which can be extended if necessary, and a fishing license, all for $300 cash. We unlocked our cell phones and bought a Bahama SIM card, got our Skype program active again, and can easily contact all you friends and family as long as we have internet access.

We're charmed by Bimini. Blue Water Marina is across the street from where Hemingway hung out at the Compleat Angler Hotel which, sadly, burned down in January 2006. The local museum is mostly pictures of Hemingway with his friends and family catching big fish. Last night we went to a local church school fundraiser supper and ate our fill of delicious conch fritters and lobster tail. I was disappointed and Bill was thrilled that I didn't win a large (gaudy) clock or a blender (hey, margaritas!) by picking the right numbered slip of paper from a heart-shaped board. Bill also failed to win his gal a prize at hoop throw, but I strongly suspect he wasn't really trying.

The local shop windows are full of random items, including a 2002 Bimini calendar and children's games and toys from the 1950's, alongside new cell phones. I'm still thinking about picking up some Valentine lingerie from the shop pictured above.

Bill's plumbing the watermaker to our second water tank and I'm prepping something to take to a marina BBQ tonight, where a delightful group is waiting for the current front to pass and wind return to manageable. We're planning to leave late tomorrow afternoon (2-14-2010) and sail through the night to Frazers Hog Cay. (Do you know the difference between an island and a cay?) We'll move on to Nassau the next day, where we'll meet several of the boats we left behind in Miami.

Miami-Bound 2/6/10

We leave Fort Lauderdale in an hour after a 2-week stay, the longest stop so far. But we got much accomplished:

9.8 Outboard motor fixed after 4 trips to the shop. This is the first time Bill has ever had anyone else work on a motor...or anything else for that matter...but the carburetor needed proper cleaning with a compressor, one of the few tools we did not have aboard. The initial problem with the carburetor came from ethanol in the gasoline, and we now understand more about "phase separation" in gas than anyone should have to know.

Rollerfurler bearing fixed after 1.5 weeks and 5 trips to the rigger.  A comedy of errors where the little balls that had leaked out of the furler—we’d been finding them on deck for weeks—were not delivered as promised 2 times, then the balls we got were the wrong size, so our attempt to repair the furler was thwarted.  Finally the rigger reassembled it and, again, Bill fretted over someone else doing the work.

Our new wifi antenna/booster leaked and burned out in the torrential rain we had the other day. This is the only unit to fail in that way, and is now repaired after only one visit from the installer/seller/manufacturer/inventer, Al Francone.

We bought a new dingy light at West Marine (aka Worst Marine or Wasteful Marine) after being cautioned by the Marine police that we need red/green navigation lights on our dinghy.  NO ONE runs a dinghy with those nav lights, but we're legal now, after only one trip back to WM after the light clamp broke the second time we attached it to the transom.

After much calculation and testing of our batteries, Bill remembered they were at least 5 years old and were due for replacement. Fortunately, the internet source for best battery prices is right here in Fort Lauderdale, so swapping them out was an easy matter.

Boatcards, mosquito net, small compressor, new credit card that Bank of America insists on replacing,

New SCUBA tanks are neatly lashed to the new boards installed on deck and our equipment has been inspected and repaired.

Social bonuses include several visits with Bill's sister Edie and Frank, who even dared a dinghy ride and big ladder climb to the famous sailor's hangout Southport Raw Bar.  My Aunt Jacqui and Uncle Bill live around the corner from our marina, and they invited us for lovely dinners, where we got to meet my handsome young first-cousin-once-removed, Tristan. Dave and Bicki from Nellie D, who we passed many moons ago, caught up with us here and we enjoyed another fine dinner at the Raw Bar. The fish feeding frenzy at the 15^th Street Fisheries, where a beefy jack fish bit Chris on the finger, was anther high point.

Today’s destination is an anchorage in Miami, where we’ll wait for favorable weather to cross the Gulf Stream to Gun Cay or Nassau.  We’ll travel with Felix and Tamrick. John from Felix had to go home for work for a few days, so Lorie and Heidi will sail Felix to Miami, while Chris (11) will crew for Bill aboard Act III.  You know we’ll be racing!

Fort Lauderdale

We’re at a mooring 2 blocks from Fort Lauderdale Beach and the swimming is fabulous. It was well worth suffering all those cold days to get here.

We’ll wait here for the rest of this week until our friends John, Lorie and their son, Christopher from catamaran “Felix” arrive, then we’ll move to No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne, Miami, before “buddy-boating” with them across to the Bahamas.

Act III and Felix had been crossing paths down the ICW until we met again in Cocoa, FL last week. Since we’re both crossing for the first time, we’ll watch out for each other as we cross the Gulf Stream. I hope it’s more of a psychological crossing than a physical adventure; we’ll make sure to have a good weather window before departing.

While in Cocoa, Christopher climbed our 62.5’ mast, wearing a harness and supported by 2 halyards. He can be our mast boy any day: you’ll see in the video how easy it is!

Dophins became frequent and bold over the past week of cruising down the Intracoastal; they love to play in the bow wake as we motor. We stopped in North Palm Beach for our first visit with Bill’s sister Edie, and her husband Frank, then had a glorious sail outside, from Port of Palm Beach into Port Everglade, the entrance to Fort Lauderdale. It was a warm, sunny day, the wind started at 5-10 kts, then increased to 15 kts, and we flew down the coast at 7.5 kts. along the beautiful Florida beaches.

Here in Fort Lauderdale we visited Heidi’s aunt Jacqui and her husband Bill, and some cruising friends of theirs, and they’ve all traveled to the Bahamas many times. I’m advised to provision heavily here as it’s expensive to get staples in the Islands, so we’ll fire up the freezer and lay in a good stock of meats. We used the freezer to store gallons of drinking water, but now the water-maker makes that unnecessary. And the wind generator will help keep the freezer running. Life is good.

We’re learning more than I even knew possible about gasoline “phase separation” which has clogged our outboard motor. The carburetor is currently being sonic cleaned and the motor will soon be purring. We also discovered that the little steel balls we were finding on deck were coming out of the jib roller-furler, but fortunately Fort Lauderdale has a rigger shop that can help (and every other imaginable boat service.) Bill is eager for his new balls to arrive tomorrow (heehee) so he can repair our old but trusty Hood Pro-Furl 5 system. The last(?) big project is to get a booster that will amplify wi-fi signals so we can better keep in touch.

In between, we’re swimming in the warm ocean and loving life. Dear friends: it’s time to start packing your bathing suits to come visit in de Islands!

Palm Coast

St. Augustine deserved a longer stay, but we're eager to move to warmth so we moved on this morning, just 25 miles south to Palm Coast FL, where tonight's forecast is still for low 20's. You'd better stock up on citrus juice before the prices skyrocket.

We'll try local Southern restaurant Barbara Jeans tonight for crab cakes and she-crab soup, but it will be tough to beat last night's Cuban food with live Cuban jazz. Have we mentioned that we hope to visit that island before it becomes overrun with cruisers?

Dave from Nellie D took this nice photo of us in Fernandina Beach. Someday when we're sweltering around the equator, we'll look at this fondly and remind ourselves we once needed so many clothes.

Sunshine State?

St. Augustine, FL still has no warmth. It’s not heartening that NPR reports the world has never had this experience of frigid weather everywhere in the world: North America, Europe, Asia are all freezing.

I woke pre-dawn at Golden Isles Marina in St. Simons, packed my bag to go up to shower, and poked my head out the hatch in the dark. You can imagine my heart-pounding start when I met a man in a ski mask stepping on Act III and reaching into the cockpit.  “Uh…good morning,” I stuttered. “Good morning,” he replied, calmly, “I’m just going to leave this here,” and he started to put a plain bag down on the cockpit cushion. “What is it?” I worried. “Muffins.”  Who would expect?

We met Dave and Bicki from Nellie D again in Fernandina Beach. We sailed outside from St. Simons to Fernandina, while they came down the ICW, and we arrived at the same place within an hour or so of each other. We enjoyed a fine meal out at The Crab Trap, and wondered over “Trailer Park Treasures” across the street. Bill and I enjoyed a little jazz saxaphone at Smithwick’s, a classy all white (the decor, that is) after-dinner bar, with some fine wine tasting to boot.

The cold weather and long passages are keeping us on the ICW. We stopped overnight at Jacksonville Beach, where we admired someone's winter boat building project (see photo), then here to St. Augustine, a great funky town with lots of live music. We love the Sailor’s Exchange and kept our purchases reasonable, and Bill scored a great new toy at the local music pawn shop: a laptop snare drum. He had stowed sticks and brushes, so now we can join any jam.

We’ll likely stay an extra day here before heading toward Daytona Beach, as it’s extremely pleasant and expected to warm up day after tomorrow.

Georgia Sounds

Tuesday, January 05, 2010: ACT III, Golden Isles Marina, 31 10 N 081 24.5 W (St Simon’s Sound, GA)

If all goes well, this will be our last stop before Florida. Since Hilton Head, we have awoken to temperatures in the lower twenties. Afternoons have felt almost balmy when they sometimes reach the lower forties. However, we know not to expect any sympathy from our friends in the north.

When we hoisted the mains’l in Hilton Head on Sunday morning, chunks of ice fell to the deck. After a fast sail down the coast, Sunday afternoon found us in a beautiful anchorage in Ossabaw Sound, GA. Dolphins accompanied us down the coast and in the sound. Heidi found this unmarked and unmentioned anchorage on the chart. Our only company was a shrimp boat that appeared to have gone aground on an uncharted bar that almost caught us, and a very bold pelican. Heidi was startled when she looked up in our cabin and saw a large oval shape on our hatch. She knew she had stowed the fenders, so it was a mystery until we noticed the webbed feet and butt crack.
The pelican must have been enjoying the warm hatch on her feet and butt because she didn’t even fly when Heidi went on deck to take her picture. The crabber stayed anchored for the night and left by sunrise. We followed about 0800.

After reluctantly leaving our cozy cabin Monday morning--we start the engine early for heat--we set sail for Sapelo Sound. It was very satisfying to sail along the beautiful GA coast, listening to the waves, an occasional blow from a playful dolphin, and the hum of our water maker filling our port tank with delicious pure water (Salinity<300ppm). It was another easy downwind sail, and we entered the sound about 1330. Having gained confidence in our ability to select deserted anchorages not mentioned in the cruising guides, we picked a perfect one with protection from the NW. With warm sun and frolicking dolphins everywhere, we completed a couple of easy projects. I admit we felt rather superior to the sailboats we saw chugging along the ICW: offshore is so much nicer.

Damn it was cold this morning! To add to the chill we had steady 20 to 25 kt NW winds instead of the predicted 15 to 20. We had no trouble averaging over 7 kts. Sitting in the lee of our dodger, we kept a sharp eye out for right whales, which had been reported in the area. No luck, just lots of white caps and a couple of dolphins. It was a long slug up the ship channel against 25 kts of apparent wind and an opposing current of well over 2 kts. Nevertheless, we arrived at the dock by our projected ETA of 1600. The route in here is a little tricky, and we passed a sailboat hard aground the wrong side of a can. We couldn’t see any way to offer assistance, but we hope that if the towboat we saw going to help her is not able to free her she is shallow draft so she won’t heel too much at low tide. Tonight we’ll treat ourselves to hot showers, clean laundry, and our electric cabin heater.

Happy sailing, literally and metaphorically, friends.

Bill and Heidi aboard ACT III

New Year 2010

Have been frustrated with iffy wireless connections, and I’m tired of lurking outside marina offices in the cold and dark, so haven’t posted lately. After Murrell’s Inlet, we anchored in beautiful Price Creek, right off the Intracoastal and figured we’d be alone there until Nellie D. came in right behind us. They launched their dinghy and Bill, Bicki and Dave took a 1.5 mile jaunt down the creek to the ocean. We then went aboard Nellie D for cocktails, supper and great conversation.

Next day we tied up at the Megadock of the Charleston City Marina. Yeah, we could have anchored and saved a few bucks, but we had several free marina nights due to the holiday, we needed provisions (free shuttle to Harris Teeter) and we appreciated electricity to run the heater at night. Act III was at the end of the 1,000’ floating concrete dock and it took 7 minutes to walk to the restrooms. Planning ahead was necessary. Bicki and Dave anchored out on Nellie D, but brought their dinghy over to our spot and we spent more quality time together.

We were all set to leave on Tuesday morning, excited to finally go outside the Intracoastal, when Bill discovered the problem with the generator was not simply a faulty wire connection. Fortunately Carolina Auto Electric shop was a short taxi ride away; they did a fast, high-quality rebuild for a fair price while Bill waited, so we were back in business by Tuesday evening, with the generator working better than ever.

We left Charleston at 0430 hrs, in order to arrive at Hilton Head in daylight. 20-25 kt wind from the NE at our back, we averaged close to 8 kts over 6-8’ seas. (A far cry from the predicted 10-15 kt, 2-3’ seas they continued to predict while we were sailing.) Act III loved stretching her canvas and rolled with the water beautifully. We came in Port Royal Sound, hooked up with the Intracoastal again and stopped at Skull Creek Marina, the first we came to. It was getting dark and our planned destination of Harbour Town Marina was still 9 miles away.

Thursday morning we motored the short hop to Harbour Town, a cutesy tourist destination, but the main attraction was visiting Heidi’s long-time family friend, Elizabeth Lewis. Elizabeth took us to lunch at Yummy Chinese buffet (yes, it was!), and gave us a short tour of this famous island. It is indeed gorgeous here.

New Year’s Day, Elizabeth arranged for Bill to play tennis with her neighbor Glenn. As she pulled into the driveway to drop Bill off, she casually mentioned that Glenn’s son was here on Hilton Head to attend the Van der Meer Tennis Academy. The 13-year-old son is one of the top 20 players in the country of his age group. Needless to say, Bill was whupped (6-1, 6-1, 6-1), although most of the games went to deuce. Glenn is also active military and has daily physical paces he must go through to stay fit. While Bill played, Elizabeth ferried me to some shopping for a whistling tea-kettle so I won’t put water on the stove and forget about it, wasting propane (just thinking ahead, of course. I would NEVER actually do that.)

We just returned from a divine dinner with Elizabeth and will hop into bed to be ready to leave early tomorrow for another outside run, planning to anchor in Bradley River, at Ossabaw Sound, about a 50-mile day. Weather is still unseasonably cool, but the wind should be in our favor (we'll give NOAA another chance to get it right.)